A City Of Heroes, ONE Chicago #3 (Chicago Fire)

Chapter 26 "Put Lipstick On A Pig, Call It A Cow"

Casey walks out and goes over to his Officers Quarters.
He picks up a folder from his desk, turns around and walks back over to Severide's Quarters.
Casey hands the folder to Severide. He opens it, locating the information to the place where the tanning bed was purchased.
Severide picks up his phone and calls the number.
"Sunco Tanning Beds, Lisa speaking. How may I help you?"
"My name is Lieutenant Kelly Severide. I'm the Squad Lieutenant at Firehouse 51. I would like to speak to the manager or owner, who ever might be available" he tells the lady.
"I'm the owner" she tells him, "What can I help you with, Lieutenant?"
"I'm calling about a tanning bed that was installed at 217 West Huron Street" he tells her.
Severide can hear typing over the phone.
"I sold a tanning bed to the owner at that address, but my installers didn't install it!" she tells him.
"Are you sure?" Severide asks her.
"Positive! I'm reading the work order right now. When the tanning bed was delivered, my installer went to install it, but refused to because of the wiring. He told a Janice that the wiring would have to be brought up to code before he or my other installer would install it. Why? Is the salon owner saying one of my installers installed it?" the lady asks.
"According to the owner, one of your installers installed the tanning bed and then took off. It blew up when it was started up and shorted out ALL the wiring causing a massive fire on the same day it was installed" Severide tells her.
He can hear a gasp over the phone, "Is everyone alright?" the lady asks.
Severide bites his tongue, "Yes!" he tells her.
"What day was this?" the lady asks.
He tells her the date. More typing can be heard.
"I only have two installers and both of them were at other jobs on the north end of Chicago that day. Also my installers ALWAYS start up the tanning bed before they leave to make sure everything is working properly" she tells Severide, "I can fax you the work orders of the places they were at on that day."
"That would be great! Do your installers have work ID's?" he asks the lady.
"Of course! Once they return I can fax those to you also" she tells Severide.
"Thanks! I really appreciate your cooperation! Here's the number you can fax everything to" Severide tells the lady.
"You're welcome, Lieutenant! Have a great day!" the lady says hanging up.
Severide lays his phone on his desk, "Well?" Casey asks him.
"The lady said her installers didn't install the tanning bed. When it was delivered, one of them went to install it and saw the wiring. She said he told a Janice that the wiring needed to be brought up to code before the tanning bed could be installed" Severide tells Casey.
"Nicole said the tanning bed was installed by one of the installers from the tanning bed store" Casey tells him confused.
"The lady said her installers didn't install it on that day, that they were at other places. She's faxing over the work orders and when her installers return, she'll fax over their ID's. When we get those ID's, we need to show them to Nicole" Severide says, "Did Nicole mention a Janice working at the salon?" he asks Casey looking at the page with the names of the ladies that were in the salon at the time of the fire.
"I don't remember a Janice" Casey tells Severide.
"You're right! There's no Janice on here. When we show Nicole the ID's, we need to ask her about this Janice" Severide tells Casey.
"I'm going to finish up some paperwork. Hopefully when I'm done those faxes will be in and we can go talk to Nicole" Casey says to Severide as he walks out of his Quarters.
Twenty minutes later, Connie is knocking on Severide's door.
He gets up, walks over to the door and opens it, "Three faxes for you" she tells him.
Severide smiles at her, "Thank you, Connie!"
Connie walks away, back to the main office. Severide walks over to Casey's Quarters, the door is open, but he still knocks.
"Yeah!" Casey says.
"The faxes came in! Want to take a ride?" Severide asks Casey.
Casey turns around and looks at Severide, "Let's go!" as he stands up.
They walk out of the bunk room and head toward Boden's office to tell him what they're going to do.
"We'll take my car" Severide tells Casey as they walk through the stalls.
As they walk out, Severide in the lead, Casey watches Severide walk toward a car.
"YOUR car?" Casey questions Severide and laughs.
Severide opens the Camaros door, "When Shaylynn isn't here, it's my car!" he tells Casey with a smile.
Casey starts laughing more, "I like your way of thinking!" he tells Severide as he opens the passenger side door.
Once inside the car, Severide starts it up.
"Do you think Nicole's at the salon?" Severide asks Casey.
"Probably so. She and some others have been cleaning it up. Once it's cleaned up, she's hired me to renovate it" Casey tells him.
Severide puts the Camaro into gear, "Smart choice! At least she'll know the job will be done and done right! Even though it should have been right the first time! Someone comes in and takes advantage of a single mother trying to better her life is nothing but a low life!"
"When I did my walk through, whoever it was who did the job, all they did was fix a few places in the drywall, painted, and hung the mirrors, etc on the walls. The only real work they did was refinishing the floor. The two major things that needed fixing, the wiring and plumbing, weren't touched!" Casey tells Severide.

Severide pulls up in front of the salon twenty minutes later.
Casey and Severide get out and walk inside.
Quite a few people are inside cleaning up. Nicole turns around and sees Casey.
She walks over to him, removing her mask, "Hello, Matt! What can I do for you?" she asks him.
"Nicole, this is Kelly Severide, Shaylynn's husband" he tells her.
She removes her glove and extends her hand to him, "It's a pleasure to meet you!" she tells Severide, "Kim told me that Shaylynn's doing better! I'm so happy and relieved to hear that!"
"Thanks!" Severide tells her.
"Nicole, Kelly talked to the owner of the tanning bed store. She said that her installers didn't install the bed" Casey tells her.
"The guy who showed up had a shirt on that had the logo of the store on it" Nicole tells Casey.
"Are one of these the guy who showed up?" Severide asks her, handing her the piece of paper that has the pictures of the installers IDs on it.
Nicole takes it from him and studies the pictures, "No! Neither of these guys were the one who was here installing it" she tells Severide.
Severide looks at Casey, then looks at Nicole, "These are the only two installers that work for the store" he tells her, "What about Janice? Do you have a Janice that works here, but wasn't in on the day of the fire?"
"Janice? I've never had an employee by the name of Janice. The contractors wife, her name was Janice" Nicole tells him.
"Thanks for your time, Nicole! We'll let you get back to work!" Casey tells her.
"Okay, I hope I was able to help" she tells the guys, "I'm hoping in another week to have this place cleaned up enough to get you in here" she tells Casey.
"Sounds good! Just give me a call" he tells her.
The guys walk out of the salon, back to the Camaro and get in.
"No wonder the wiring still wasn't updated after the installer said he wouldn't install the tanning bed. What do you think is going on? Put lipstick on a pig and call it a cow to rip off Nicole's money? Or do you think something else is going on?" Severide asks Casey.
"I'm not sure! The question now is, who was the guy who installed the tanning bed and why was he wearing a shirt with the stores logo on it? Why was it so important to someone to have that tanning bed installed?" Casey says, "With our concerns, maybe we should go to Hank with them. Since no one died, the cops won't look into it, but maybe Intelligence will with the information we have and since Shaylynn, Sam, and Kim were involved."
"After shift I'll stop by the District and see Hank" Severide tells Casey as he pulls away from the salon.

Severide parks in front of the Firehouse.
The guys get out and walk up the driveway, to Severide's surprise the Squad truck is missing.
Boden and the rest of Truck come walking out into the stalls, "We heard the Camaro" Boden tells Severide.
"Did I miss a call?" Severide asks.
"No, the guys had to make a run!" Boden tells him.
"Here they come!" Herrmann says.
Severide and Casey turn around to see the Squad truck coming down the street.
Instead of pulling into the stall, Tony stops and parks the truck in the driveway. Severide starts walking out to them.
"Where did you guys go?" Severide yells at Capp after he's gotten down out of his seat.
"We had to run an errand!" Capp yells back.
Severide sees Cruz get out of the back, stop, then move to the side.
Then he sees Shaylynn. She walks around the door, sees Severide, and smiles at him.
Severide runs out to her and scoops her up into an embrace.
He sits her down, "That was a quick trip!"
"I shouldn't have went!" she tells him, "Can we go inside?"
"Sure!" Severide tells her.
Shaylynn starts walking quickly into the Firehouse.
"Where did you pick her up at?" Severide asks Tony.
"At the Marine Safety Station" Tony tells him.
"What?" Severide says.
"Yeah! You know that section off to the South of the Helicopter pad, that's between DuSable Harbor and Chicago Harbor..." Cruz says.
"The breaker?" Severide questions him.
"Yeah! The pilot landed on that!" Cruz says all excited.
Severide let's out a little laugh, "Peter's a retired Air Force fighter pilot, so that doesn't surprise me any! Shaylynn says he's an Ace. The Organization only goes after the best! But why did he land there for? Why not O'Hare? Something's up because Shaylynn was in a big hurry to get inside!" he says while they walk into the Firehouse.