⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter twenty seven. we don't work together anymore.
Maxine unloads her gun into the target that she and Jay went to for target practice. Jay takes off his ear covers and looks around the corner at his partner, "that's like what, your forth mag?"
"So?" She said, taking her ear covers off.
"You miss Mickey yet?"
"I'm fine. He wanted to get out, go back to the rangers. That was his decision"
"He was your first love, Max. It's okay"
Maxine turns towards her partner, "how do you know that?"
"Because when you sent him letters, he'd share some of them with me. So it's kinda like I've known you forever" Jay smiled. Maxine raises an eyebrow, "Hmm" then she goes to put her ear covers back on and reloads her gun.
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Jay and Maxine walk into the lobby of the district and over to the front desk. "Hey Burgess, how you doing?" Max asked.
The officer nods her head, "good"
"Where's Platt?"
"She went out of patrol on with Roman. Wants me on light duty today" Kim says, grabbing a package of twizzlers to hand to the detective, "Platt wanted me to give you these"
Maxine smiles, "Thanks" then she and Jay walk away towards the caged door, "welcome back, Kim"
"can I get one?" Jay asks, as they walk onto the unit. Maxine shakes her head, "the day I share my twizzlers with you, Halstead is the day I tell you I love you"
Jay puts his hand over his heart, "you don't love me?" And Maxine rolls her eyes and nudges him.
Voight leaves his office with Al and says, "Let's roll"
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"Our CI Kylie was supposed to alert us if anything went sideways. Best we got is that she tipped off Mendoza before we raided" Lang explains to the intelligence team, as they get caught up on the case, "We think they're still in Chicago, most likely liking for alternative means to move their cartel cash to Mexico"
"And that's where our unit..." Erin says then stops herself, "your unit, sorry, comes in. You guys know chicago. We need your help tracking down the key players in Mendoza's operation"
"Sounds good" Voight says.
"We need Intelligence to focus on Mendoza's three Lieutenants, Emilio Quentin, Eduardo Fuentos and Franco Gamboa" Erin says, pulling their pictures up behind her on the big screen, "we find them, they'll lead us to Mendoza and the money and hopefully Kylie"
"Lieutenants it is"
"You know, there are other guys in the cartel. You look into any of them?" Olinsky questions.
"Mendozas the only zeta member we were able to get eyes on" Lang says, "but if you find a name, follow it down"
"We got a problem" Agent Castillo says, walking into the room, "Kylie's brother just filed a missing persons report"
"Her brother?" Antonio asks, "what's his story?"
"He's a nobody. Call OEMC and have them redact that bulletin and bring the brother in. We don't want any other agency touching his case" Lang says then looks over at the intelligence team, "one of our techs can get you set up in a conference room. Analysts are at your disposal"
"Yeah, we know what we got to do" Hank says, "I prefer to run this out of our own shop, if it's all the same"
Lang stares blankly at Voight then says, "stay in contact"
"Of course" Voight says as they start to leave. Maxine gives Erin a fist pump, following after her sergeant.
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"I wouldn't mind a federal paycheck. It'd be a lot more than I'm making now" Jay says, leaning back in his chair.
"I wouldn't mind some of those flat screens. You'd take this place out of the 70s if you put them in here" Kevin says.
"Yeah they got nice offices and all but I don't totally understand Lindsay going there" Adam says. Max looks at her best friend and raises an eyebrow and asks, "Why not?"
"I don't know, it's too uptight. She's all rough and tumble. I mean, I don't know, maybe she's more of a ladder climber than we thought"
"Oh, ambition ain't a crime, kid" al says.
"Fair enough. Also, is Mickey really back in the rangers?" Adam asks and Maxine looks at him and he immediately shuts up.
Jay looks at his phone then says, "Hey, hey. The task force put trackers on three of Mendoza's work cars. They call come back registered to a Cassie Thomas"
"Cassie Thomas" Atwater repeats as he looks over the file on his desk, "Yeah, Cassie Thomas. Girlfriend to Emilio Quentin. Isn't that one of the lieutenants?"
"Yup, that's him"
"Here" Antonio says, grabbing the file from Kevin, "Max you read, I'll drive"
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Maxine and Antonio knock at the apartment door of Cassie Thomas. A couple minutes later the door opens to reveal Cassie, holding some sort of small hairless dog.
"I thought you were the delivery guy" Cassie says. Max holds up her badge as she and Dawson walk in. "Nice cat"
"Wow" Antonio says.
"Emilio Quentin. Works for a guy named Damian Mendoza" Dawson says as he and Max look at the view of the city.
"I haven't seen Emilio in years" Cassie states.
"That right?" Dawson says, not believing her story at all.
"So, Cassie, how's the nail salon doing?" Maxine asks, "You work part time right?"
"I do nail art" Cassie says, holding up her left hand showing off her work.
"You must have really scrimped and saved to afford this place" Dawson says.
"Excuse you? You can't come up in here and judge me. Having nice things isn't a crime, last I checked"
"No, but buying things with drug money is" Max says and Cassie looks away.
"Second time now. Where's Emilio?" Dawson asks.
"No clue"
"One of the cars Mendoza used in his operation is registered in your name" Maxine tells the brunette.
"Emillio bought me a car after our first date. It was that good"
"Hmm. Too bad that same car matches a partial plate rip from a homicide last month. Which makes you an accessory to murder" Dawson says, getting his cuffs out and starts to cuff Cassie, "Turn around. Let's go"
"Wait, wait, wait. Okay. Okay. I swear on my life I don't know where Emilio is" Cassie says and Antonio and Maxine give the girl a look, "But I did, I...I did let him buy some cars in my name and some of my co workers, too"
"How many cars?" Max questions.
"Like, thirty-four?" Max and Antonio's eyes widen for a second, "I don't know what he uses them for, and I don't ask"
"Look, Cassie" Dawson says, "What car is Emilio driving now?"
Maxine and Antonio leave the apartment and head to their car, while Dawson calls Kevin. "Atwater, grab a pen. We're looking for a dark green SUV, belonging to Emilio Quentin"
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"Calculated criminal drug conspiracy, aggravated assault" Maxine says, reading from a file, "Just the tip of the iceberg"
"We can go round and round like this all you want. I don't talk till I get my deal" Emilio says and Voight back hands him, then Max looks behind her into the two way mirror, knowing Erin and Lang are watching.
"You didn't see that" Erin tells Lang in the viewing room.
"Where's Mendoza?" Voight questions.
"I ain't giving up my boys until I know I got an agreement" Emilio says and Voight gives Maxine a look of disbelief, "Seven years max, in protective custody"
"You pull a gun on cops, there is no agreement" Voight says.
"I know how you guys work"
"I don't think you do" Voight says, when Lang walks in. "You two"
Hank and Maxine follow Agent Lang into the hall, meeting with him and Erin.
"You make a deal, you put that piece of trash back on my streets in no time flat" Voight says.
"He's a minnow and we need to move" Lang states.
"Look, the guys dead to rights. They'll get him to talk" Erin says, trying to defuse the situation.
"Anybody has a problem with my decision making, take it up with the A-USA" Lang says and Maxine rolls her eyes, "I'm making the deal"
Voight takes a step closer to Lang and Maxine catches his shoulder, "Hey, come on" then they both leave back to the bullpen.
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Hank, Maxine and Antonio follow Lindsay and Lang to a scrap metal yard, where Mendoza is supposed to be, but instead they find empty gas tanks and two of Mendoza's Lieutenants...dead, inside a crushed car.
"No wonder why Quentin wanted out. Mendoza is burning it to the ground" Erin states, "Who knows what he'll do to Kylie if he finds out she's working with us"
"We gave Quentin a reduced sentence for this?" Voight questions.
"So, you're one of those 'I told you so' guys" Lang states.
"Am I?"
"Hey, everybody chill out, alright?" Antonio says, then looks at Lang, "I'm talking to you too"
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Maxine, Hank, Erin and Lang go to the roll up of the district and see Kevin and Agent Castillo counting loads of money with Platt and Roman across from them.
"So, a CI of mine saw a kid making runs to Mendoza's counting house. Turns out he works for a cartel player names Urbina" Platt informs the four.
"She broke this kid down like a cardboard box" Sean says, complimenting Trudy and everyone except Lang and Castillo smile. "Stop it"
"Urbina's a mid level Zeta's guy" Lang states, "Works with Mendoza. We never got eyes on him"
"Also got a watering hole for you" Roman says, handing Voight a small piece of paper, who then reads it.
"Green Mill. That's nice work...alright, we did it your way. I mean...now let us do it ours"
"What do you say, Erin?" Lang asks, "What's the call?"
Lindsay looks at Hank and Max hesitantly and looks back at her new boss. "I say, we let Sergeant Voight and his team do their thing and we keep looking for Kylie on our end"
"Fine. Do it. Castillo we're out of here" Lang says, before the three agents leave.
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After the team and the task force found Mendoza, Kylie and the missing money. Maxine and Jay leave Molly's arm and arm, tipsy and laughing.
"I need to talk to you about something, Angel"
As Maxine was about to say something, she looked to her right to see her face, on someone else. Was she that drunk or was it her twin sister she didn't know she had.
Honey Amaro looked to her right, as she shared a laugh with Sylvie Brett and shock grew on her face. Maxine and Honey just stood there staring at each other.
authors note;
AHHHHHH they finally saw each other 😭