*House Near South Wells*
Adam and Kim had tried to return a young girl they found wandering out in the street to her rightful home. Upon doing so, they found something that required the presence of their two Sergeants on scene.
"Burgess took the girl to Med. They're checking her out." Jay informed, ducking underneath a stip of yellow tape with Hank and Ana walking on either side of him.
"Witnesses?" The older man inquired.
"Not yet. We're working the block." The Detective replied as he led them towards the house.
"Have you ID'd the victims yet?" The brunette wondered, adjusting her mask when it fell a bit.
"So they're all members of the same family, the Wards. They all live in the house and the little girl, Makayla?" Jay paused, waiting for Hank to grunt in response before continuing in a grim tone. "She's the only family member that survived. "
"All right, let's keep a cap on the media as long as we can. Means no one but the techs and us step foot on this property." The male Sergeant commanded, ducking under the red tape and bounding up the front steps.
Ana followed him inside while Jay ran off to carry out his orders. The couple peered around the corner to find some bloodstained glass and the body of a woman in a pink robe lying on the floor underneath it. Standing next to said corpse, was Adam writing in his notepad.
"Hey." The Officer greeted once he looked up and caught sight of the two Sergeants. "It is absolute overkill in here. Had to be personal. This is Claudia Ward. She's the matriarch of the family. House is in her name. One GSW to the back of the head. Looks like she was running to the front door. Her kill is the cleanest out of all of them." He explained, leading them into a small hallway where Kevin was crouched next to a second body, upright and slumped over against the wall. "This is her son, Benny Ward, he's got bruising, defense wounds. Looks like he was pistol whipped. His sister's here in the kitchen."
Hank and Ana paused to look at a picture of the little girl before following Adam into the next room. Kevin wasn't too far either as they caught sight of a third body, lying on its stomach, and it was accompied by even more blood spatters on the wall.
"Gabrielle Ward, Makayla's mother. One GSW to the stomach, two to the back. She. . .bled out slow." Adam muttered.
"No sign of robbery yet. Cash was left on the table in the front. Purses and wallets in plain view." Kevin listed.
Hank grunted and moved towards the back door, Ana following him every step of the way.
"No forced entry?" He observed.
"No, doesn't look like it. Front and the back door were unlocked." Kevin confirmed.
The brunette suddenly glanced at the table next her, finding a half eaten bowl of cereal. Her gaze fell to the floor, where several small bloody footprints painted a clear path from the body to the door.
"Was this from the little girl?" Ana swallowed.
"Yeah. Prints match Makayla's shoes. We think she was inside. She was probably hiding, maybe here in the pantry. Shooter makes his way to the front. She finds her mom bleeding, takes off out the back." Adam speculated.
"Mom told her to run." Hank sighed, crouching down to examine the footprints.
"Yeah." Adam nodded, quietly.
The brunette wanted to bring a hand up to her mouth but her mask was in the way so she settled for leaning against her husband when he stood back up. The older man just silently wrapped a comforting arm around his wife in response.
*District 21: Bullpen*
"Med cleared the girl. No injuries." Hank informed, coming out of his Office.
He stopped next to Ana's desk just as she let out a small breath of relief. The older man caught it and his lips twitched up in the tiniest of smiles aimed solely in her direction.
"Yeah, Burgess is with her. We're waiting on DCFS." Jay added.
"All right, talk to us. What do we got?" The male Sergeant demanded as all traces of emotion left his face once again.
"Ward family, no priors except for Benny, who has a year-old possession charge." Hailey replied from the whiteboard with crossed arms.
"Thinking the shooter might've used a suppressor. No one heard or saw anything, and zero cams." Jay shrugged.
"I connected with Forensics. It's gonna take them some time. Three bodies, that's a lot of DNA." Adam shook his head as he appeared next to the male Detective.
"Four people living in one house, that's a lot of foot traffic." The blonde agreed.
"Well, we have to work the why first." Ana decided.
"Home invasion gone wrong? A hit? Family disagreement? Murder turned triple homicide?" Hank listed in agreement. "There can be plenty of possibilities, but it's gonna be the why that gets us to who."
"I got a possible why." Kevin spoke up, rushing over from the Interrogation Area with a file in one hand and his notepad in the other. "Benny Ward's yearlong possession charge is not the full story. Kid's got a couple gang dispersal cards, quite the social media presence. According to the Gang Unit and CPIC, he's been the enforcer for the Gangster Prophets for the past two years." The dark skinned Officer read aloud.
"Okay, so he had enemies." Jay observed.
"He's got a lot of enemies." Kevin nodded. "CPIC sent over a whole list. Over a dozen death threats online."
Hank just grunted in reply.
"So wait. We think this is gang retribution? They'd do a whole family like that?" Adam asked in disbelief.
"No reason will ever feel like it's enough, Adam." Ana pointed out, gently.
Hailey lunged for the nearest desk phone when it started ringing and hung up a second later.
"DCFS is downstairs." She reported.
"All right, so run it down. Talk to your CIs." Hank ordered. "If this was a gang hit, the streets will know."
The older man gave his wife a quick peck on the lips before heading towards the Interrogation Area.
*A Little While Later*
After asking around, Hailey's CI, with a bit of persuasion on her and Jay's part, coughed up a name. Well, more like an alias really. The guy was currently in custody and not saying a single word.
"Look, I don't care if Tru's not talking.
He's still looking good for it." Hank reasoned, coming out of his Office and shrugging his jacket on.
"And ballistics came back. The bullets match an unsolved Southside Hustler shooting." Kevin reported.
The older man stopped next to Ana's desk and let out a thoughful grunt in reply.
"Would make sense if it was a gang pass-down piece." Adam pointed out.
"All right, so we hold Tru for the 48 and, in the meantime, let's see if we can place him at the scene." Ana shrugged.
Hank went to nod in agreement but paused as something else popped into his mind.
"Hey, Kim make any progress with the kid?" He wondered.
"Not yet. Family Services are gonna have to relocate her tonight. Kim's out trying something right now." Adam replied.
"All right, let's hit it." The older man commanded, heading towards the stairs with Adam and Kevin hot on his heels.
Ana turned to look at a file but her ears perked up in intrest when Jay rounded his desk to speak with his partner.
"What did the feds want?" He inquired.
"It's a job offer." Hailey revealed, leaning back her in chair.
"Well, that's good." Jay nodded. "Where at?"
"New York?" She winced, as if expecting him to hate her for it.
"Cool." He smirked, heading back to his desk and shooting Ana a look on the way by.
The brunette rolled her eyes and let out a small breath.
"Hey, Hailey?" The Sergeant called.
"Yeah?" She replied.
"I'll support you no matter what you choose. But, in the event that you tell them to back the Hell off and they don't listen. . ." Ana trailed off in a slightly darker tone of voice and gave a small shrug instead.
Hailey just let out a small chuckle.
"Thanks, Sarge." The blonde smiled.
"Of course." The brunette nodded, shooting Jay a slight glare before returning to her file.
The male Detective just typed away on his computer, smirk never once leaving his face.
*Later That Night*
Hank, Ana, and the rest of Intelligence rushed on scene after the house Kim had taken Makayla to was broken into. Luckily, no one was harmed.
"So patrol arrived after three minutes, spotted an SUV fleeing the scene: Black Nissan Pathfinder, no plates. " Adam reported as he led his two Sergeants down a police infested street.
"They lost the vehicle?" The older man guessed.
"Yeah. They followed it all the way to Wacker for a mile, and then they lost it." The Officer replied.
"Hey, are you okay?" The brunette inquired, spotting Kim walking over from the house.
She also shifted slightly behind her husband when a tall African American man joined them as well. From what Hank had said, he was a Lieutenant that specialized in juvenile cases and was helping them with theirs for the time being.
"Yeah, I saw two different offenders, both masked and gloved up. I wasn't able to discern race, height. Things happened very fast, but they were here for Makayla." The female Officer recalled.
"What makes you think that?" The Lieutenant wondered.
"They crashed this location ten minutes after we arrived. They hit her window first." Kim listed in reply. "They must've followed us here."
"Opens more questions than answers." He pointed out.
"You think it was a hit?" Hank prodded, gently.
"I don't know what it was." Kim shook her head. "But Makayla had finally started talking. She said she saw a woman in her house at the time of the murder and the woman was calling out her name." She explained.
"Okay, either way, we do need to protect the child until we have answers." The Lieutenant reasoned.
"Yeah." The female Officer nodded in agreement.
"I'll call WITSEC and get her into protection." He offered and Hank grunted in reply.
The Lieutenant moved to walk off but Kim turned to face him again just as he passed by her.
"She's staying with me." The female Officer argued.
"No, she can't. That's not protocol." He retorted.
"Well, let's go against protocol." She shot back.
"Right now, your job is-"
"My job is to protect the kid." Kim corrected before he could even finish.
"Is she always like this?" The Lieutenant glanced at Hank.
"Yeah, she always is." The female Officer answered instead.
Ana smirked behind her husband's back, not that anyone would have seen it behind her mask anyway.
"Well, she's not wrong, and if it was about Makayla, it's probably best we keep it in-house." Hank agreed. "Someone ID'd her location."
"Lieutenant, with all due respect, you can play it by protocol or not. You can take me off the case. You can detail me to WITSEC. I don't care how it happens. . .but that kid stays with me." Kim insisted, firmly.
"Okay, we'll get a safe house approved." The Lieutenant conceded, heading back towards the house.
"Thank you." She sighed in relief and followed after him.
Adam joined them as well, leaving the two Sergeants alone together.
"Henry." Ana called, making him turn to face her. "Are you sure you don't want me to talk to Makayla?"
"Just think of it as you being our secret weapon." Hank smiled, softly. "We'll use you when the time comes."
The brunette rolled her eyes but didn't complain when he wrapped an arm around her small figure, in fact she even leant into the touch a bit.
*Even Later That Night: Bullpen*
Hailey and Jay walked up to the whiteboard and flipped it around.
"All right. This is Tariq Morris. He is a notorious Southside Hustler. He's extremely violent. He's got priors. He's feared by his faction. According to Truman, Tariq is Makayla's father." The male Detective revealed, using a thumb tack to pin a photo of him up while his partner did the same with one of the girl.
"So Tariq and Gabrielle dated briefly years ago. Gabrielle got pregnant. Tariq ended up in Stateville on a six-year prison sentence. Before the baby was born, Gabrielle broke it off with him." The blonde explained, putting up one of her as well.
"And Tariq just got released?" Hank guessed.
"Three days ago." She nodded.
"Makayla said there was a woman in the house calling out her name, saying her father was there to pick her up." Adam recalled.
"They were looking for the girl." Kevin realized.
"It's been about Makayla this whole time." Ana sighed, leaning back in her chair. "They were there to kidnap her."
*Computer Room: The Next Morning*
Hank walked in with Ana right behind him. The brunette let out a yawn and scratched at one of her eyes.
"Okay." The older man spoke up.
"Hey." Jay greeted, walking over from a small whiteboard and grabbing a file off of a nearby desk before handing it to the two Sergeants. "Stateville sent over visitor logs for Tariq, so we firmed up a theory. Gabrielle went to visit him once at the beginning of his sentence. Didn't bring Makayla, and she never went back." He explained.
"I talked to a few guards. Apparently, that was the exact visit that Gabrielle broke up with him." Kevin added "Took the chance to get her and her daughter the Hell away from him. Stopped answering his messages and his letters, just completely shut him out."
"And he spent six years in prison ruminating on it." Hank muttered.
"Right, so he goes to that house. The entire family tries to protect Makayla, and they get killed for it." Jay speculated.
"Think we've ID'd our female accomplice: Nia Benson." Hailey chimed in, taping her photo to the board and Ana's head suddenly shot up at the familiar last name. "Girl from the neighborhood, half a dozen arrest priors, not a single charge on her. Started visiting Tariq in prison about a year ago."
"There's phone calls. There's emails. There's hundreds of visits between the two of them." The male Detective listed. "This is a full-on prison romance."
"She also has a black Nissan Pathfinder, which is the same SUV that we found at the foster home." The blonde informed. "Ruzek's running her LKAs right now."
As if on cue, Adam stuck his head through one of the entrances.
"Yo, I think I got her. Patrol just responded to our BOLO at Nia's sister's house. There's a black Nissan Pathfinder parked in the back alley." He reported, quickly.
"Go get her." Ana ordered, tiredly. "In the meantime, I think I'm gonna go take another nap."
That got chuckles from everyone and even Hank cracked a small smile.
*A Little While Later*
Nia was now in custody but refusing to talk. Hank had the idea of having Makayla pick her out of a line up but that backfired and little girl started panicking the second she heard the woman's voice.
The older man came out of his Office upon seeing Kim and Adam walking in from the Interrogation Area. Ana appeared behind him in the doorway, looking much more refreshed them before, and crossed her arms.
"Kid's all right. She's with Platt and a paramedic now." The male Officer informed.
"Okay, give her a few hours. Try again." Kevin shrugged.
"Or we resort to a photo lineup." Hailey added.
"No, I'm not putting her through that." Kim shook her head, firmly. "I'm not putting her through any of that. If there's a chance it's not good for her, we don't do it."
Hank glanced back at his wife.
"She's right. Case be damned." Ana agreed with zero hesistation. "The health and safety of the child always comes first."
"Okay, so what's the play?" Hank wondered, glancing between both women with crossed arms. "Cause we got zero leads on Tariq. Barely got a murder case on Nia, and she knows it."
"Well, Nia won't know if Makayla's behind the glass or not." Ana pointed out with a smirk.
"So you wanna do a lineup anyway." Jay realized, slightly surprised that the female Sergeant of all people just suggested something that involved lying to another human being.
"Yeah, I'll lie my ass off." Kim nodded before Ana could even respond.
Hank stared at the brunette for a second and glanced at the floor, biting his lip in thought.
"Okay." He conceded, turning to towards his Office. "Just. . .make it as airtight as you can."
Ana let him in before heading over to her desk.
*Later That Night*
Tariq was in custody and Makayla's cousin was on the way to pick her up. Ana had been making idle chatter with Trudy at the front desk when she noticed that the little girl was watching her from where she was sitting with Kim a few feet away. The brunette smiled, giving a little wave while Makayla grinned and sent one right back.
A/N I hope you all enjoyed! Till Thursday!
~Princess <3