⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter three. chin check.
Maxine sits behind the wheel of her car in the parking lot next to the district. She rests her head on the steering wheel when there is a knock on the window and she jumps.
"Sorry" he says, holding up two coffee cups, "I got us coffee"
Maxine gets out of her car and grabs the cup and says, "thanks Jay" then she grabs her bag from the back seat and they head inside the building.
"Hey, listen, I got this thing Friday night. But I can blow it off if you think . . ." Adam says as he catches up with Al down the hall by the locker room.
"What kind of thing?" The older detective asks.
"It's Uh, my engagement party"
"Wheres my invite?"
"Yeah" he playfully scoffs, "seriously? Yeah, that's all I need. 'Hey sweetie, this is my partner, the married one who lives in his garage. Don't worry, that's not gonna happen to us' No offense, though, I don't want you anywhere near her"
"Does that mean you finally set a date?" Maxine questions, as she and Jay walk towards Adam from the back staircase and they head for the bullpen.
"Uh, today's the 21st, so six months from today. And what do you mean finally?"
"What I mean, is that you can't commit to anything"
"Well, I've committed to you for the last 31 years, so that must mean something right?"
Maxine rolls her eyes, punching her best friends arm as Jay says, "Oh, man. Today's the 21st"
"Yeah, it usually follows the 20th. What's up?" Maxine asks, walking to her desk. Jay shakes his head and says, "Nothing"
"Alright, there are two unrelated wire investigations. Surveillance followed three of Area Central's top ranking gang targets, to this house on Carpenter" Hank says, pointing to the blueprint on the whiteboard, "Narcotics hasn't gotten anywhere with it. So command staff wants Intelligence on it. Roll out in five"
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"We got the main eye" Al says, through his hidden walkie, as he and Adam are undercover as construction workers.
"We're set up in the north" Antonio says, as he and Hank are parked on the street.
"10-4. We got the south and a partial of the alley" Jay says, as Maxine takes pictures.
"Copy. We got the west side. Partial on the other end of the alley" Erin says, as she and Mickey are parked on the other side of the street.
"If anyone goes mobile from the house, we're in position for a take away" Antonio states.
"O, Ruzek, move closer, see if there's any movement in the house" Voight says.
"10-4" Olinsky says.
Maxine lowers her camera, seeing someone in a yellow hoodie walk towards the house, making her take out her walkie and says, "Hold up. We got company"
"Who's this joker?" Antonio asks.
After a minute of seeing what this guy is doing, he takes out a gun and Jay yells, "Gun!"
After gun fire starts pouring out of the house, Jay and Maxine quickly get out of the car and race towards the house, following after Alvin and Adam.
"Police!" Maxine shouts, as she, Jay and Al clear out rooms. Hank, Erin and Mickey walk inside the house and Voight says, "Hoodie's dead"
"This one's alive" Jay says, indicating to the guy on the ground that Adam just shot.
"Charlie 50-21, emergency" Al says, into the radio.
"What?" Adam says as Jay hands him a pair of latex gloves.
"He's gonna bleed out. We gotta put pressure on the wound" Jay says, as he and Adam kneel next to the man.
"Gunshot fired by police, offender down. Plain clothes officers on scene" Al continues into the radio.
"In here" Erin yells, as she and Maxine stumbleupon boxes of bullets. Bishop takes a bullet out to show Hank and says, "Cop killers"
"Hey, look at this" Erin says, looking through a garbage bag. Antonio walks over to her and says, "What do you got?" Erin then hands him the box, "Insulin. Someone here was a diabetic?" then the brunette dumps the garbage bag out, that was filled with nothing but empty insulin boxes, "Or not"
"Is there a black market for this stuff?" Maxine asks.
"None that I've heard of. You know what?" Antonio says, holding up the bullet next to the empty box, "It's a good place to hide a bullet, though"
"Nice work" Hank says.
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Maxine sits at her desk when Hank walks out of his office with a couple pictures in his hand and tapes one onto the board and says, "Alright, this is Edward Jelko, the deceased, a street level dealer" then he tapes the second picture right next to the first, "This is Peter Thomas Banfill, the offender, currently baking in a coma over at county. Jelko probably thought, like we did, that Banfill was sitting on something big, went over there to rip him off"
Antonio gets up from his desk, holding one of the bullets in his hands and says, "These are M995s. Teflon tipped, Kevlar penetrating round" as Ruzek grabs the bullet from him, "Ballistics has 'em linked to several recent homicides"
"And we found 100 of these at the scene" Erin says, holding up one of the insulin boxes, "It's for type R insulin, which is a canadian designation"
"Now, with any luck, our little surprise visit got the gunrunners scrambling, which means they're gonna make mistakes. Okay. Eyes open. Erin, Maxine give me a sec" Hank says, and nods towards his office.
The girls follow Hank into his office, as he puts on his coat and Erin says, "You want the door closed?"
"Assume I always want it closed"
"Okay, tough guy" Erin jokes, closing the door behind her and Maxine, who yawns.
"Justin's getting an early release. It's moved up to Friday night" Hank says, making the detectives smile from ear to ear.
"That's great" Erin exclaims. Maxine nods her head and says, "Really great"
"He's asking if you two can be there. It's no big deal if you can't"
"Are you crazy? Of course it's a big deal. He's getting out" Erin says.
"He wants me there too?" Max asks. Erin nudges her shoulder and says, "of course he does"
Hank nods his head and says, "Yeah"
"What?" Erin asks, as Hank pushes himself off his desk, "Why do you look like somebody just pissed in your coffee?"
"Getting out is always harder than getting in"
"Hank, come on" Maxine says, as the Sergeant heads towards the door.
"Justin's gonna need you around, okay?" Erin says, "The tough love thing, it...it didn't work"
"Do me a favor. Tell Antonio I'll be back in an hour, okay?" Hank says, opening the door and leaving the unit.
Maxine leaves hanks office and goes over to her best friend and pulls him aside, "you see the counselor yet?"
"What's with you and Olinsky? Why do I need to see a counselor for?"
"Because you just shot someone. And this is your first shoot. That can take a toll. Please, just humor me"
"Alright, alright"
"Thank you" she smiles, then puts her hand through his short Sandy brown locks and messes it up.
"Hey!"
~~~
"Hey, found the source of the insulin" Maxine says, walking over to Antonio who just walked onto the unit and hands him a piece of paper, "Company near Toronto named Markham Medical supply. Their sales rep makes a run here every other thursday. He left at 5 o'clock this morning"
"And I'm guessing they have tracking numbers on all their product?"
Maxine takes back the paper and says, "Yup"
"Get those tracking numbers, locate 'em on GPS and...you already did that"
Maxine smiles, nodding her head and says, "Yup. Atwater and Burgess are en route, tracking the signal"
"Nice" Antonio says, going in for a fist bump.
"Do me one favor. Do not give me one of those open fingered explosion hands that people do. I hate that. If it's your thing, I'd rather high five"
Antonio keeps his fist raised and Maxine hesitantly fist bumps the detective who does the open fingered explosion.
Maxine smiles and says, "Never again" walking away when she bumps into Jay, "Hey" and then she walks into the locker room, after taking another glance at the man.
As she walks in, she notices Mickey at his locker and she clears her throat, going over to hers and putting in the combination.
"Hey" he says, going to lean on the surrounding lockers next to hers.
"Hey"
"So, the other night..."
"Didn't happen"
"What?"
"It was a one time thing"
"Sure. Whatever you say, Maxine." Mickey says through gritted teeth, "It's your world. We just live in it" then he walks away, making Maxine scoff.
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"This is definitely our sales rep" Maxine says, looking at the dead body behind the wheel at a warehouse with Jay next to her and Al on the other side of the car, "George Wilenko, 41, he's been with Markham Medical for 17 years. No record, fully bonded, has border clearance. This guys not your typical smuggler"
"You notice the cup?" Al asks. Maxine grabs the coffee cup from the cup holder and says, "There's lipstick on the lid"
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Maxine walks down the hall near interrogation, when Hank walks around the corner from the unit and says, "Hey. You're working that Kelly Severide thing with Erin over at Firehouse 51?"
"Yeah. During the blackout he got mixed up with that knucklehead, Vince Keeler" Maxine answers. Voight stops the detective and says, "Yeah. I know Keeler. He's bad news"
"Which is exactly what i told Severide. And why he needs to stay away from that guy"
Voight nods his head and says, "Severide's sister Katie was reported missing"
Maxines face falls and says, "What? How long?"
"Sixteen hours. She's an adult. Really nothing we can do until it's 24, but she is a fireman's sister, basically one of our own, so Area central's already got a task force on it. They said they'd call if they need us. So in the meantime we got our own case to work, okay?"
Maxine sighs looking down at the ground.
~~~
"My mother always called it Murder City. But the first time we visited, I fell in love with Chicago. The lake, the riverwalk" George Welinko's wife says, as Maxine and Jay talk to her in the break room, "George and I went to the top of Willis Tower. Oh god, I just can't...I can't believe it. Why would someone kill my husband?"
"We think that he was smuggling guns into the country" Maxine says.
"George?"
"He wasn't killed over insulin" Jay says, "and on his last trip here we think his vehicle was filled with these" then he sets down a bullet onto the counter.
"I'm hallucinating. This isn't happening"
"Five people have already been killed by them"
"Look, you don't get it. George would never do that. Ever"
"How often do you make the trip down with him?" Maxine asks.
"Every couple of months. We always stay at the Sofitel, I shop. That's why he dropped me off. They don't have bloomingdale's in Canada" the wife says and Bishop looks at her partner.
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Voight walks into a motel room, putting on a pair of latex gloves, where Antonio had called him to come to. He sees a body on one of the beds that Antonio was looking over, at least 7 bullet holes in his chest.
Then he was into the bathroom to see another bloodbath, their cop killer bullets in the bathtub and another body hanging half way out the window.
Voight leaves the bathroom and sighs, holding up the bullets and Dawson says, "these are our bullets"
"Can you believe the velocity of these things?" Mickey says as he and Jay walk into the room, "forensics traced one round that went through the TV, through the wall, ended up halfway through the engine block of an ice cream truck parked across the street"
"Seven homicides and counting" Voight says.
"Our widow's lying." Maxine says as she and Erin walk into the room, "Her cell phone provider said she was never at Bloomingdale's. She spent the afternoon up in edgewater"
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Maxine and Jay walk into interrogation where the widow is and Bishop slams a file onto the table, leaning her hands on the silver table and says, "We're gonna get real honest, real quick" then she sits down, taking a couple pictures out of the file of the men who were just killed at the motel and shows her, "Do you recognize these two men?"
"Oh, god" the wife says, looking away.
"Yeah, neither can we. His face was shot off by the bullets you and your husband brought into Chicago"
"Why are you doing this?"
"You lied to us. You weren't browsing at Bloomingdale's, you were in edgewater" Jay says, making Clare's face turn pale, "You and your husband had a nice run, right? You started off with something simple, like X or Kush. Then you got greedy and you upgraded to gun running. You got George killed. Which makes you an accessory to his murder"
"So, we're gonna try this again. Only this time, the truth" Maxine says.
"I was visiting a friend. An ex boyfriend" Clare says.
"If you're gonna lie, put some effort into it for me" Jay says, leaning his head on the two way mirror.
"Call him, he'll tell you"
"Name and number" Jay says, pushing the notepad towards the widower, who takes the pen and writes it down, then gives it to Jay who leaves the room.
"I want you to take me through your entire day. Every stop you made, every person you talked to, everything you did" Maxine says.
"I already told you" Clare says. Bishop sits up and says, "Tell me again"
Clare sighs and says, "We were on the road by 4:30. Didn't stop till we crossed the border, just past Ann Arbor. Got some coffee, some gas, used the washroom. George got a phone call from our nephew"
"Who's the nephew?"
"He lives here. He likes to meet up with George..oh god, Mikey doesn't know"
"Does Mikey have a last name?"
~~~
"Michael Ganz, lives in East Garfield Park" Maxine says, taping his picture onto the board, "Has a record. Robbery, possession, runs with a small crew"
Jay hangs up his desk phone and says, "Clare's ex boyfriend checks out, right down to the 500 bucks"
"Got a ping to Ganz's phone" Jin says, walking onto the bullpen with a file in hand, "pulled all the numbers he's called in the last 24 hours."
Jay jokingly claps his hands and says, "employee of the week, Jin. Right here"
Sheldon smirks and says, "All the calls were to the same number. A cell phone registered to a Lucky M Pawn and Loan in Gage Park"
"Lucky M? I know that ding dong. I'll go talk to him" Al says, then nods at Antonio, "Come on"
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Maxine sits at the island at her apartment, reading through a magazine and eating her Chinese take out when there's a knock at the door. And when she goes to answer the door, she sees, "Severide. Hey"
"Hey, um.." Kelly says, walking inside the apartment with the pale white walls, and Maxine closes the door behind them, "I didn't know where else to go and, um, I don't..." then he sighs, "No one's heard anything. And I don't know what to do"
Maxine places her hand on the man's arm, that's covered by a leather jacket and says, "Hey, we're gonna find her, okay?"
"Yeah"
"I promise. We've got really good guys on this and I know it's scary and I know your sister's alone, but we're gonna find her"
Kelly then starts crying, and Maxine brings him into a tight hug.
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While Jay was helping Maxine put on her vest, Dawson loads up his long gun and says, "let's keep our heads down, assume Mikeys packing the heavy stuff" then he leaves the caged room.
"Thanks Halstead. I don't know what'd I'd do without you" she sasses.
"And there's that sarcasm that I love so much"
"Oh, I know you do" she smiles, then walks towards her long gun and grabs it before following after Dawson. Adam walks down to the roll up where Al was putting stacks of money into hidden pockets of his jacket, "hey"
"Look at you all fresh like a daisy"
Adam chuckles and says, "yeah, what a wank. Hey, listen, any word on the guy I dropped?"
"No, still in the ICU"
"Alright"
"Hey, what'd your counselor say?" Maxine asks, walking over to the two partners.
"Oh, that I'm coping well with the trauma. But I think she was talking about working with you two"
Al and Maxine look at each other then back at Adam and Olinsky says, "you're in the van"
"Wait. Why can't I do the bust?"
"Cause Dawson called shotgun before you did"
"You gotta be . . . Al, how long is this gonna go on for? I'm fine"
"Christmas" Voight says.
"What?"
"Christmas is the takedown word"
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The team is in an unmarked van, watching Al and Antonio do a deal when Antonio's voice comes through the walkie saying, "This is our boy, Ganz"
"Milner says you're hunting for hardware" Ganz says, walking over to the two detectives, unknowingly.
"If they're the quality Milner said they are, we'll take most of them off your hands" Antonio says.
"I'll take you to it. Get in" Ganz says, making the team look at each other.
"Aw, come on" Al says.
"And only one of you. With the money"
"Forget it" Antonio says, walking to the car.
"Fine with me" Ganz says.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, wait a second" Al says, "I'll do it"
"No" Antonio states, then gets into the car, "Al's going mobile"
As Al takes off with the offender, they suddenly stop hearing him talking.
"What happened?" Mickey asks.
"The audio went dead" Jin says.
After Al's audio comes back on, the team tracks him to a warehouse and they storm in with their long guns and Jay yells, "Police!"
After the shoot out, Jay gets on his walkie and says, "Burgess, Atwater, you got two white male offenders moving southwest of the building towards you" then he looks at his partner and says, "You good?"
Maxine nods her head and says, "Yeah, you?"
"Totally"
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The intelligence team is back at the roll up, talking and such when Hank gets a text and walks over to the group, grabbing his jacket and tells Erin, "I gotta take care of something"
"Don't say that" Erin says.
"Tell Justin something popped up"
"Are you kidding me?" Erin questions, anger racing in her veins and walks over to him.
"Just do this for me, okay? Thank you"
"No. You're telling me that whatever you have going on is more important than seeing your only son walk out of the gates?"
"Yes" Hank says, making the detective scoff, "Tell Justin I love him and I'll see him tomorrow" then he leaves. Mickey gets up from his chair and over to Maxine who was talking with Adam and says, "hey, can we talk?"
"Nope" Adam answers.
"I wasn't talking to you" Mickey says then turns back towards the detective, "please"
"Oh really you weren't?" Adam mocks under his breath. Maxine sighs and says, "fine, whatever" then she follows after her ex boyfriend up the staircase.
Jay walks over to Adam and asks, "what's their story? I only know the basics"
"Trust me. You do not wanna know"
Mickey grabs onto Maxines hand to stop her and says, "hey, I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean what I said earlier. I've just been so angry with myself for how we left things"
"How we left things? You're kidding right?"
"No?"
"You left for the rangers and I made peace with that. We sent letters and it was great, but then you stopped. And then come to find out you're back in chicago and didn't tell me. Like I meant nothing to you"
"Yes, I stopped sending letters. And I'm sorry about that. And when I came back, I fucked up and didn't tell you. A lot happened in Afghanistan that messed me up and I'm sorry. And I did try and call you once I found my calm but Adam said you were done and didn't want to see me"
"And you believed him?" She scoffs, before walking up the stairs to the lobby of the district, slamming the door open.
Anger boiled up in Maxines veins. How could her best friend not tell her that he tried to call? She gets that Mickey has PTSD, she understands that now. But now to find out he did try and contact her, and she didn't even know is insane to her.
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Maxine walks through Adam and Wendy's apartment, as their engagement party is going on. She felt so much anger right now, that she didn't even want to mingle with anyone.
"Hey Max" Wendy smiles.
"Wendy. Where's Adam?"
"He's on the terrace. Is everything okay?"
"Mm" she hums, then walks through the crowd of people and opens the sliding glass door.
"Hey" Adam smiles, "you're finally here. I'm been going crazy" then he tried to pull his best friend into a hug, "what's wrong? Did Mickey do something to you?"
"Nope, not really. It's what you did"
"What are you talking about?"
"He did try and call when he got back. I mean, it took awhile, until he could get his shit together but he did try to contact me. And you know what he said . . . that you said I was done with him and didn't want to see him"
"Maxie—"
"Don't. I loved him Adam. I waited a year for him to come back to me, only for you to push him away. For what reason?"
"He wasn't right for you. He didn't treat you like you should be treated"
"And how's that, Adam? Huh? Because where I stood, he treated me pretty damn good. We had our life planned out together. I'm not some lost puppy that needs to be helped all the time. I can take care of myself!"
"Can you?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I've been taking care of you your whole life. I've picked up the pieces of your heart after every guy that hurt you, i always choose you over everyone! I do everything for you" Adam says, his voice getting angrier.
"Is that what you think?" She scoffs.
"Yeah. Maybe you are some sad lost puppy. You've always trailed behind me anyways"
"I've trailed behind you? IVE TRAILED BEHIND YOU?" Maxine shouts, then she pushes back on his chest, "screw you" then she goes to open the sliding glass door and storms out.
Wendy walks out into the terrace and asks, "what was that? What happened?"
Adam sighs, leaning his hands on the metal railing and says, "Nothing. It's—let's just go enjoy the party"
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Maxine sits on the hood of Erin's car, running her fingers through her hair.
"You okay, Max?"
"Yeah. I just got into this stupid fight with Adam"
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Nah. Thanks though"
The gates of the prison open and Justin walks out then screams, "Freedom!" making the detectives laugh, then he turns towards the guards saluting them, "Gentlemen, it's been nice"
Justin walks over to the two brunette detectives and says, "Damn, you two are looking good" going to hug both of them.
Erin rolls her eyes, nudging his arm and says, "A goat would look good to you right now"
"Yeah. Maybe. So, where's my old man?"
Erin sighs and says, "He had to take care of something"
"Why am I not surprised by that?"
"Come on, he's working"
"Yeah, he's always working. Whatever. I don't care. I just wanted to you two anyways" Justin smiles.
"Alright, let's get you a hot meal" Erin says, when he leans in to kiss her and she pushes him off, shock written on Maxines face, "Dude, what the hell?"
"Erin, I'm not that snot nosed kid anymore. I'll prove it to you" Justin says, putting his arm around Maxines shoulders and they all walk to the car.
authors note;
a big fight between Max and Adam,,, was it 31 years in the making???