⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter forty nine. knocked the family right out.
Hank walks over to Antonio at a crime scene, getting off the phone with his old cell mate from stateville, Eddie. "Family's Bill and Maureen Clifford. 14 year old daughter, Carolyn. Offenders came in last night and ransacked the place. All three reported splitting headaches and dizziness." Antonio explains.
"and they were home the whole time?"
"Wait till you see what they woke up to" Antonio says, before bringing Voight into the house, "somehow the family slept through the entire robbery"
"Father had a security camera system. Could be something" Jay says, as he sees Antonio and Voight walk over to them. Jay, Maxine, Erin, Al, Antonio and Hank stand around the computer tech guy, who pulls up the footage.
"What's with the gas masks?" Max asks.
"Get CFD down here" Hank says.
~~~
"19.8% oxygen levels are lower than usual" Honey Amaro explains to Hank and Antonio as she and Jimmy Borelli examine the house for any kind of fumes in the air, "it means that there's another type of gas in here"
"Right. Offenders pumped gas in, knocked the family right out" Hank says.
Meanwhile, Al and Jay are outside walking around the back of the house. "Check this out" Al says, as they walk over to the air duct that had pieces of duck tape stuck to it.
"Duct tape?" Jay asks.
"Yeah. They, Uh, ran tubing through here, and circulated the gas through the ventilation system"
Back inside the house, Erin and Maxine walk into the daughters room to take a look around.
Erin shows her friend the doll on Carolyn's bed that was smashed in and she sighs. Maxine checks the bed and sees blood on the sheets, "Erin" then she lifts the covers up to see a pool of blood, "son of a bitch"
Max walks outside to the ambulance where the family is and says, "Mr and Mrs Clifford, would you mind if I spoke to your daughter for just a minute?"
"Of course" Mr clifford says.
"Carolyn, would you mind coming with me?" Max asks and Carolyn nods her head and follows the detective to the side of the ambulance, "Listen, I have to ask you this. Uh..did something happen to you last night?...it's okay. It's just me and you here"
"I woke up with this pain I never felt before. I didn't know what to do, so I changed my pajamas" Carolyn confessed.
"Okay. We're gonna get you to Chicago med just so they can run a couple of tests. Make sure you're okay. I'm gonna be with you every step of the way, alright?" Maxine says, putting her hand on the young girl's shoulder.
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"The rape kit will give us more imformation, but there are clear signs of vaginal tearing and abrasion" Penelope explains to Maxine and Jay as they wait outside carolyns hospital room.
"What about the gas they used?" Jay asks.
"Tests show high levels of nitrous oxide in the family's bloodstream"
"Laughing gas"
"Same thing dentists and doctors use during surgery. Puts people to sleep, or in your case, keep sleeping people sleeping"
"Noz has gotten huge on the rave scene and in clubs. Kids inhaling it to get high. Might be where this came from" Max explains, then they turn around to see a nurse coming out of Carolyn's room, "give me a sec?" Then she walks into her room, "hey"
"Did the doctor say I can shower yet?" Carolyn asks.
"I can't imagine how hard this is. But we need you to hold on just a little bit longer. Carolyn, I just wanna make sure you know that none of this is your fault, okay?" Maxine says and Carolyn nods her head, "you guys have a brave little girl here"
"Yes, we do" Mrs Clifford says, tears in her eyes.
"We're going to get through this as a family" Mr Clifford says. Maxine nods her head and says, "I'll check in on you later, okay?" then she leaves the room to see Jay leaning against the nurses station.
"How is she?"
"Scared. And she has every right to be" Max says, then takes out her buzzing phone to see a text from Lindsay, "It's Erin. Says she might have a lead and she's gonna chase it down"
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"Fourteen. Same age as my daughter" Antonio says, taping a picture of Carolyn onto the board.
"Alright, so where we at, Ruzek?" Hank asks, leaning against Erin's desk.
"Three males. Tech lab is triangulating height and weight based on objects in the residence" Adam says.
"As of right now, we have no matches of known offenders, even with the urine sample they so kindly left behind, so DNA test is in rush order" Jay explains, sitting on the edge of his partners desk.
"I checked the NCIC, leads, CRIS system, there's no local crews with that MO" Atwater says.
"Anything from the neighbors?" Voight asks. Antonio shakes his head and says. "Detectives knocked on every door. Nobody saw anything. Still got some in service calls to go through. Might be something there"
"I got word out to a bunch of pawn shops, some fences, just in case any of the Cliffords stuff shows up" Adam says.
"Start tracking anything with a serial number. And I wanna know if they cased this place beforehand. Mouse" Hank says.
"Pod footage. Yeah. I'm on it" mouse says.
"Alright, the rest of you. I want to know everything there is to know about this family. Did the girl have an ex boyfriend? Anybody who had access to that property"
"The dad did tell me that they just got renovations done two weeks ago" Kevin says.
"Then get the name of every painter, construction worker, that ever set foot on that property"
"I got a name" Erin says, walking onto the unit with a photo, "Pete Damian" then she tapes it onto the board, "Mid level dealer. Made his bones selling rare party drugs. Stuff like knockoff quaaludes. Word is he just came into a major shipment of nitrous"
"It would take like 6 or 7 tanks to knock out the entire family" Jay says.
"What, nitrous like whippets? I did a bunch in college" Mouse says.
"Explains why you only did one semester" Jay says and Mouse holds up two fingers.
"Pete's got a reputation for throwing massive house parties. It's how he moves his product" Erin says. Maxine leans back in her seat, twirling her pen around her fingers and says, "wouldn't be the first time a dealer started a robbery crew"
"Alright, Antonio get an address. Bring him in" Hank says then walks over to Max, "how's the little girl?"
"She's hanging in there"
~~~
Maxine walks down the stairs to the lobby of the district and looks at Platt who had called her down and she nods towards the man on the bench, who Max recognized as Mr Clifford.
"Mr Clifford"
"Yes. Uh..." he says, standing up with a piece of paper in his hand, "one of your detectives called about a list of all the people who had access to our house. This is everyone I could think of"
Maxine takes the paper and says, "this is very helpful"
"There was also a water delivery guy we had up until about six months ago or so. I couldn't get the number, but I'll find it"
"Thank you. Uh, we'll go through this and we'll call you as soon as.." Mr Clifford cuts Maxine off and says. "I'm not going anywhere" and sits back down on the bench.
"Sir, we got this now. It's okay to go home and be with your family"
"No, I'm staying right here until you arrest the monster who did this to my daughter"
Max looks back at Platt who nods her head then she looks back at Mr Clifford and says, "okay" before going back to the unit.
~~~
"Hey, thanks for the ride" Eddie says, as he is escorted onto the intelligence unit by Kim and Sean.
"Yeah, don't sweat it" Roman says. Eddie looks at Kim and says, "so, who's the one dragging his feet with the nuptials?"
"Oh, my.." Burgess says, looking over at Adam.
"Hey" Eddie says walking over to the officer who was caught off guard, "are you out of your mind? Look at her. She's a peach"
"Yes, absolutely" Adam stutters.
"You and me are gonna have a talk later"
Adam looks at his fiancé with his eyes bulging out and Kim shrugs her shoulders and says, "it was a long ride"
"Hey, you two must be Erin and Maxine" Eddie says, as the partner duo walk out of the break room, "I always knew when you two came to visit because Hank would come back with a big grin on his face"
"It's nice to finally meet you, Eddie" Erin smiles, shaking the older man's hand. Max smiles, giving the man a handshake as well.
"Lot of people don't show up, you know"
"Eddie" Hank smiles, waking back onto the bullpen with open arms.
"There he is. Great to see you" Eddie says before they hug, "come on in" then they walk into the sergeants office. Kevin looks at the two patrolmen and asks, "hey. Who is that?"
"That's Voights cellmate from stateville. Great guy" Roman says. Maxine rolls her chair over to her best friend and says, "Hey, can we talk later?"
"Always"
"Hey. You know, you were right. She is a peach" Adam says as Hank walks Eddie out, "you got me there"
As Maxine goes to pat Adam on the back, Jay walks onto the bullpen and says, "Alright, Damians got everything set up for this blowout tonight. Words out online"
"Alright, the plans simple. Keep eyes on Damian. He located the target. Soon as he gives the signal, tail him. See if it leads to the other guys" Hank says, "Kevin, you heard back from that contractor?"
"Yes, sir. I have an electrician with a few priors, and a plumber who did time for assault and battery" Atwater says, looking up from his file.
"Alright, see if either of them has got a history in Wisconsin or Iowa. Let's get suited up"
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As the team is at the house party hosted by Damian. Maxine and Jay are at the bar with Erin and Jay leans in closer to his partner so that she could hear him over the loud music and says, "you look amazing"
"What?" Maxine shouts. Jay gets closer to his partner and whispers in her ear, "you look amazing"
Shivers ran up her spine, but she didn't know why. She absolutely loves Maverick with all of her heart. She was in love with him, that much she knew but the way that Jay said she looked amazing made her smile, "thank you. You too"
"Hey. Yo, Jay. I got Damian coming your way" Kevin says over the phone. Damian makes his way over to the group and says, "mind if I borrow this dime piece for a second?" As he throws his arm around Erin and they walk away.
"He just got here" Damian tells Erin as they move around and nod their heads to make it look like they were dancing and having fun. Damian nods his head towards the suspect and says, "that's him right there. You see him?"
Erin nods her head and walks back over to Max and Jay and nods towards the suspect. The three then follow after the suspect then they see Kim and Erin says, "guy that just walked by, black button down, brown hair"
"I'll cover the back" Kim says before walking away. As the group continues to follow after the suspect they lose him through the crowd then they hear someone say, "someone get some help over here!"
"Out of the way. Out of the way" Jay says, as they shove through the crowd of people surrounding someone passed out on the stairs, "hey, back up. Give her some room"
"Hey. Hey. What's going on?" Erin asks, going to see if there's a pulse. The guy grabs her arm, and Erin pulls away, "hey. She's my girlfriend"
"I'm calling an ambulance" Jay says, taking his phone out to call 911.
"Relax, man. I'm a cop" Erin says, "what did she take?"
"I-I don't..."
"What did she take?! Come on" Erin shouts as Max looks around the crowd of people for the suspect as everyone starts racing out of there once word got around that the cops were there.
"Some H. She's been drinking"
"Kevin, we gotta get her out of here" Erin says, turning around to face her partner.
"The ambulance is on its way" Jay informs them. Kevin grabs a hold of the girl and carries her bridal style outside.
Maxine walks over to Damian and asks, "Where'd he go?"
"Not sure"
Max and Jay look through the crowd of people and when they spot him, the suspect looks over at them and starts running
"CPD, stop!" Maxine yells as she and Jay chase him through the house. As they race down some stairs and outside, the suspect stops in front of the pool and Max runs towards him and pushes him into the pool.
"Keep fighting, see what happens" Maxine threatens as she fights with the suspect in the pool, putting him into a choke hold. Jay and Adam help get him out of the pool and Adam asks, "you good, Maxie?" Max brushes her wet hair from her face and gives Adam the thumbs up, "good job, buddy"
As Kim comes rushing out, she helps Adam drag the suspect away and Jay helps his partner out of the pool and laughs. Maxine sighs and says, "what?"
"You're just amazing...that's all" Jay says, throwing his arm around the wet girl, "come on, let's get you dried off"
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"Cameron Spence" Jay says, lifting his feet off the table and folding the paper back up and setting it down on the table before going to stand next to his sergeant.
"Let me lay this out for you. Somebody gassed a family and raped a young girl, and I think you had something to do with it" Hank says, walking over to the cage where Cameron Spence was sitting.
"Based on what?" He asks.
"The fact that you're sitting there in front of me"
"I didn't touch any girl"
"Come on, Spence. Then who did?" Jay asks, "you wanna lay it off on one of your idiot friends, now's the time to do it"
"I don't know what you're talking about"
Voight looks at halstead and says, "give me the keys" and Jay does as told, "see that ain't gonna cut it, kitten"
"Hey, Sarg?" Ruzek says, as he walks into the roll up.
"Yeah?" He says, before he and Jay walk over to the officer.
"We got a second home invasion. Same MO. And uh, there's a second girl"
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"Her name is Tawny Darrens. She was staying at an Airbnb in Lincoln park" the patrolmen explains to Maxine and Antonio at Chicago med, "when we got there this morning, she was pretty out of it, but she said she was..."
"Right" max says, cutting him off, "thanks" then she and Antonio walk into the woman's room.
"Tawny? I'm detective Dawson. This is Detective Bishop." Antonio says. Maxine closes the doors behind them and then asks, "can you tell us what happened?"
"Um..." she takes a deep breath, "I got dinner with a friend I'm visiting. Then I went to bed around 930, maybe 945. Then around 11, I wake up to see these guys standing in my room"
The two detectives look at each other and Antonio asks, "you saw them?"
"I don't think they meant for that to happen because they pulled their masks down and I heard one of them say he needed more gas"
"You saw their faces?" Max asks. Tawny nods her head then says, "the lights were on but my covers were up enough that they didn't see me, so I pretended to be asleep, and eventually I passed out again. I didn't wake up until this morning"
"Were you awake when they..."
"No, thank god" Tawny says then she starts to get tears in her eyes, "but when I woke up, there was this pain. I knew what they did to me. Thought I picked a safe neighborhood. I just came to look at grad schools"
"You, Uh, sure it was 1130 when you saw them?" Antonio asks. Tawny nods her head, a lump stuck in her throat then says, "I remember because the clock on my bedside table was so bright when I first opened my eyes"
"And you got a good look at their faces?" Maxine asks.
"Hard as I try, I'll never forget them"
"Can you tell me if this is one of the men you saw?" Max asks, taking her phone out and showing Tawny a picture of Cameron Spence.
"No. I'm sorry. He's definitely not one of them"
Maxine puts her phone away and looks at Antonio in shock.
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"I want badge numbers from all of you" Spence says, as Maxine hands him off to a patrol officer and his belongings, "You're lucky if I don't sue everyone of your asses for false accusation"
"Yeah, not sure if that's a crime, but we'll be sure to lawyer up" Dawson says, leaning back in his chair. Hank walks over to the white board and flips it over then says, "we got two home invasions and two rapes in Chicago alone, and we just kicked our only suspect"
"Based on Tawny's description, we're looking for two Latino males and a white guy with a beard" Jay says, sitting forward at his desk.
"I cross referenced the description to everybody who worked on the condo, so I should have a name soon" Kevin says. Maxine sits on the edge of Erin's desk next to her friend and says, "we're still waiting on the results from Tawnys rape kit, but her blood test did come back positive for nitrous oxide."
"You know what I don't get?" Al says, backing away from Adams desk after he had showed him something, "Tawny was a postgrad staying in an Airbnb. She didn't have anything valuable, you know, so why target her?"
"Hey guys" Ruzek calls out, looking through pod footage on his computer, "so, I'm going through pod footage of the cliffords neighborhood leading up to the robbery. Nothing suspicious, not until I had a second incident to compare it to. There's a 2003 black suburban parked outside of both condos day before the robbery" Adam then gets up and heads over to the printer to take the picture of a new suspect to post on the whiteboard, "ran the plates, came back with one Ty Henley out of Des Moines. Five years ago, he was a person of interest in two sexual assault cases out of Wisconsin."
"Mouse, track his phone, credit cards, anything that'll lead to him" Hank orders, "Ruzek, get a bead on that Suburban"
"On it"
"We need to get a photo set in front of Tawny so she can ID him for us" Antonio says. Max hangs up her desk phone then says, "guys that was chicago med. they said Tawny just left"
"You told her to stay in town?" Hank asks.
"Yeah I did, and apparently, now she's not responding"
"Mouse. Ping that phone right now. I want a location"
"Yeah, I'm on it"
"We need that ID"
~~~
Maxine walks down to the lobby of the district where Mr Clifford was still sitting on the bench and Max sits next to him and says, "hi"
"Did you find them?"
"Not yet, but we will"
"When?"
"I can't give you an exact time. We made a lot of progress"
"Someone who worked at my house?
Maxine shakes her head then says, "no, it's not looking like that" mr Clifford then looks away still in pain of what his family went through, "mr Clifford do you trust me?"
"Yes"
"Okay. Then go home to your family."
"I was in the next room over. How could I let this happen to my daughter?" Mr Clifford says getting tears in his eyes. Max puts a hand on his back and says, "there is nothing that you could've done about this. Please, do not do this to yourself"
Mouse then runs down the stairs and says, "detective, I got a location on Tawny"
Maxine nods her head then looks back at Mr Clifford, "Bill, go home. Your family needs you"
Bill nods his head then grabs his coat and leaves.
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Maxine pulls up to the location Tawny was pinged at then she walks up to the house and knocks on the door. Tawny opens the door and looks surprised, "Detective Bishop"
"Hey. Is everything okay? Why did you leave the hospital?"
"Nurse said I could. Was I not supposed to?"
"It's alright. Whose house is this?"
"Crashing with a friend"
"Okay. Well, we have a lead, and I was hoping you could look at some photos for me"
"Of course. Come in" Tawny says, letting Max in then closes the door behind them.
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"I'm not getting anywhere with his suburban" Adam says, frustrated, sitting back in his seat, "I ran it through all the plate reading programs. I got nada"
Antonio looks intently at his computer screen then says, "Ty Henley did a semester at UW Madison. Isn't that where Spence is from?"
"Puts them in the same place" Al says.
"Whoa" Jay says, looking at his computer screen then points to it, "Spence's apartment listing in Madison. Look at the other name on the lease"
Erin and Kevin walk over to Jays desk and Erin says, "Tawny Darrens"
"Mouse pull up the security footage from the Cliffords" Jay says, then everyone goes over to Mouses' desk and gathers around him as he pulls up the footage from the night of the robbery at the Cliffords, "Freeze there. Zoom in"
"Is that Tawny?" Adam asks, as everyone sees the blonde hair sticking out from under one of the perps gas masks.
"Could be" Al says.
"Before we go down the rabbit hole, this girl had clear signs of sexual assault and nitrous oxide in her bloodstream. You're suggesting she did that to herself?" Antonio says.
"Tawny stages the whole thing." Adam says, as Al goes over to the board to takes Tawnys photo from under victim to offender, "you know, as soon as we arrest Spence, she calls in a fake timeline, and boyfriend walks"
"Bishop's with Tawny right now" Erin says, as they all rush to get vested up and head out.
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Maxine has out a paper of suspects to have Tawny look at to find the suspect(s) who did this to her and Carolyn. Tawny points to one of the mug shots and says, "I remember he had darker hair than that"
"Take your time"
"That could be him" Tawny says, then looks up to see Spence and Henley.
Max goes to check her phone to see Jay's name pop up but before she could answer Henley knocks her on the back of the head with a candle stick holder and Spence goes up behind her and holds up a cloth to her mouth to knock her out with the nitrous oxide.
~~~
Max slowly wakes up and groans as she feels her hands and legs tied to a bedpost and something around her mouth, gagging her so she can't make a noise.
"Let's just put a bullet through her head, get it over with" Spence says, as he, Tawny and Henley stand outside the bedroom.
"Killing a cop? That's suicide" Tawny says.
"So is kidnapping one" Henley says.
"Either way, we've got to get out of here" Spence says.
"Let's just leave her. If she chokes before somebody finds her, then c'est la vie"
"I'm gonna go pack up" Spence says before walks away.
"I just need a minute" Henley says.
"Are you serious?" Tawny asks.
"Get out or watch. Up to you"
Tawny rolls where eyes then walks away. Henley takes out his knife and walks into the room where Maxine groans and tries to move away from the tall man who puts the knife to her neck and says, "Relax" before getting back up and taking another hit of the nitrous oxide.
Max groans and tries to get out of the rope that was tying her hands to the bedpost. Then she pulls at the ropes that are tied around her ankles that are tied to the end of the bed.
Henley gets on the bed and pulls Maxine closer to him and puts the knife on the neck and sniffs her hair. "You smell so good"
Jay runs into the room with his gun drawn and shouts, "drop the knife!"
Henley pulls Max closer to him, wrapping his arm around her and the knife closer to her throat, "walk out now!"
"Drop it!"
"You wanna see her neck.." and before Henley could finish his sentence Jay fires his gun and kills Henley on impact.
Maxine moves away from the man, whose blood was splattered all over her face and Jay runs over to her, taking her mouth gag off and asks, "you alright, angel? You okay?"
"Spence and Tawny...are here" Max breathes out. Jay gets onto his radio and says, "Antonio, Lindsay, one offender down. Find the other two"
~~~
As Al, Kevin and Adam roll back up to the scene after chasing down Spence, Ruzek gets out of the car and says, "so Spence and Tawny met at rehab, Henley at UW. Started knocking over places for kicks. Extra drug money, that sort of thing" as Maxine tried to wipe off the blood from her face with the help of Erin, then he walks over to his best friend, "you okay?"
Maxine nods her head, "I'm fine"
"This your idea?" Antonio asks, leaning closer to Spence who was in the back of the car.
"Hers"
Max looks over to see Jay walking Tawny to a patrol car and she storms over to them, "Hey. hey! Do you know that little girl was 14?"
Tawny spits in her face and out of pure adrenaline, Maxine punches her square in the face. Erin and Kevin then pull her back while Jay puts Tawny in the back of the squad car.
"I'm alright. I'm alright" maxine says, putting her hands up.
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Jay puts his coat on the back of his chair then walks into the break room where his partner is making herself a cup of coffee.
"You alright?" He asks. Maxine nods her head and goes to lean against the counter and says, "Yeah"
"Promise me one thing. Never go in without back up again"
"Yeah"
"I mean it, like not even to give a parking ticket. That goes for all of us"
"I'm already kicking myself. Adam already gave me the talk. It's just that, that girl...I don't know why I bought it"
"We all did" Jay says and Maxine looks down at the ground, "Alright, lecture over. Wanna go get a beer?"
"You think that's a good idea?"
"Nothing changes between us just because I told you how I feel. I will forever protect you, no matter what. And it's just a beer, no harm"
"Okay then. I've just got to go deliver some good news first"
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"She's in the guest room. She won't even go back to hers" Mrs Clifford says, as Maxine follows her up the stairs to go see Carolyn.
Mrs Clifford then knocks on the door and opens it. Carolyn takes out her earbuds and Max walks in and says, "hey"
"Hey" she says and max takes a seat in front of her, "don't tell me they need to do another test cause I..."
Maxine shakes her head and says, "we got him. He's never going to hurt anybody again"
Carolyn looks at her parents with tears in her eyes then goes to give Max a hug.
As Maxine was leaving the Clifford's home, she walks over to the drivers side to see a knife sticking out of the tire. "What the hell?" Then she looks around the barley lit street.
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"What did you want to talk about?" Adam asks as he and Maxine walk down the sidewalk towards Mollys.
"It's about Maverick. I love him, Adam. And it hurts so much knowing I love him and finding out he's married. Am I moving too fast? Are we even meant to be together"
"Maxie, listen to me" the officer says, stopping the two, "I talked to him the day you told me he was married. And he explained everything to me and usually I would let him have it but he seems genuinely heartbroken. He didn't mean for any of this to happen. I truly believes he loves you"
"Yeah" she whispers then walks into Mollys. Adam sighs and follows after her.
authors note;
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Maxine is so much like Voight I stg