I covered her eyes as the sun shined through the window. I poked at the stranger's shoulder, who laid next to me. He groaned, stirring; opening his eyes, he smiled.
"Good morning sexy."
"Morning." I put on a big shirt, getting out of bed.
"Last night was awesome, we should do it again." He smirked, walking around the bed to stand behind me.
"I have a better idea. Why don't you..get your things.." I picked up his clothes and shoes, shoving them into his arms.
"And leave."
"But babe, what about the connection we had?"
"Only connection you're gonna have is the one where your hands are in cuffs. Out you go."
"But-" I opened the door.
"Well, this is quite the surprise."
"Tony, hey.."
"Tony? This is the guy you're kicking me out for? I've totally got more muscle than him, come on, feel."
"I could knock your ass out with one punch."
"Come at me, bro. You wanna go?" He stepped to Toni.
"Eric, get out."
"My name's Jason."
"Whatever." He sized Antonio up before leaving.
"What is this, the fifth dude this week?"
"Haha, very funny. What are you doing here anyway?"
"Wanted to give you a ride, save you some gas. But if you really want the truth, I want to know why you declined Laura's offer. Even though we're going through a divorce, you've never said no to have a couple drinks."
"Well, things change."
"What's going on with you?"
"Antonio Dawson, if you ask me one more question, I will tie you to that bed and leave you to rot."
"Ooh, I'm scared. You got 10 minutes, if you aren't ready, I'm dragging you out of here."
"I will call the cops."
"You'd be calling me, sweetheart."
-
"We got the main eye."
"We're set up to the north."
"10-4. We got the south and a partial of the alley."
"If anyone goes mobile from the house, we're in position for a take-away."
"O and Ruzek, move closer. See if there's any movement in the house.
"10-4."
"Hold up. We got company."
"Who's this joker?" A man walked up the stairs, knocking on the door. He pulled a gun from his pocket, looking around.
"Gun!"
Multiple shots rang out from inside the house. Nolan and I quickly exited the car, running to the house.
"Stay down! Clear!" Ruzek shouted.
"Police! Clear!" Erin shouted.
"Hoodie's dead."
"This one's alive."
"Charlie 50-21, emergency."
"What?" Ruzek gave a stupid look while the offender bled out.
"He's gonna bleed out. We gotta put pressure on the wound."
"Gunshot fired by the police. Offender down. Plainclothes officers on scene."
"In here! Cop killers."
"Hey, look at this." I held up a box of insulin.
"What do you got? Insulin. Somebody was a diabetic?" I dumped the bag as a lot of the same boxes fell on the floor.
"Or not."
"Is there a black market for this stuff?" I asked.
"None that I've heard of. But you know what? It's a good place to hide a bullet, though."
"Nice work."
"Why didn't you want to come in?"
"Dawson. Let it go."
I went to my car, going back to the district. Half the time, Nolan stared at me and quickly looked away."
"What?"
"What was that about?"
"Nothing."
"Come on, Anastasia. I'm your partner, you can talk to me." I hesitated.
"You have to promise not to say anything."
"On my life."
"I..aminlovewithantonio." I quickly said.
"You're what? Are you serious?" I chuckled at the fact that he understood what I said.
"Yes. I've always had these feelings but now that he's single, I think they want to make it know that they're there." Nolan laughed.
He didn't say another word the rest of the way, which I was glad. I did not want to continue that conversation.
"This is Edward Jelko, the deceased street-level dealer. 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."
"These are M995s, teflon-tipped, kevlar-penetrating rounds. Ballistics has 'em linked to several recent homicides." Antonio held up the bullet.
"And we found 100 of these at the scene. It's for type R insulin, which is a Canadian designation."
"And with any luck, our little surprise visit got the gun runners scrambling, which means they're gonna make mistakes, okay? Eyes open. Erin, come here a second, will you?" Voight called her.
"Hey, I gotta run out for a sec."
"And I needed to know that, why?"
"It's nice to let someone know where you're going so if you end up in some trouble, they can have your back."
"Antonio Dawson, ladies and gentlemen. The wise man."
"You're funny." He smirked, going down the steps.
"I think he wants you to have more than his back. He wants you to have his-"
"Nolan!"
"I was gonna say-"
"I know what you were gonna say, and it wasn't pretty." I rolled my eyes.
"Hey!" I called out to Antonio as he walked up the stairs.
"I found the source of the Insulin. A company near Toronto named "Markham Medical Supply." Their sales rep makes a run here every other Thursday. He left at 5:00 this morning."
"I'm guessing they have tracking numbers on all their products?"
"Yep."
"All right, get those tracking numbers, locate him on GP, and...you already did that."
"Yep. Don't tell me how to cop, Antonio. Atwater and Burgess are en route tracking the signal."
"Nice." He held up his fist.
"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." He shook his head.
Hesitantly, I fist bumped him. He made an explosion sound, smirking.
"Never again."
"So, uh, what was that whole Eric thing this morning?"
"His name is Jason."
"Oh, so you do remember his name?"
"What does it matter?"
"What were you doing with a guy like that anyway? I thought you went home last night."
"Antonio, if you haven't realized, thinking isn't something that you're good at."
"It's like that?"
"It's like that."
"Hey, we got a dead guy in a van. Voight wants us to meet him there."
"Nice, Jay. Great way of saying it."
"What was I supposed to say? We have a deceased human being, who was killed and rudely left in a van to rot."
"That is so much better, jackass." I grabbed my jacket, going to my car with Nolan.
"All right. What do we got?" I asked.
"George Wilenko, 41. He's been with Markham Medical for 17 years. No record, fully bonded, has border clearance. This guy's not your typical smuggler."
"You notice the cup?" Al asked. I picked it up, looking at the top.
"Lipstick on the lid."
-
"These are what we're looking for. C7s, a variant used by the Canadian army. An armory up there was robbed. 3,000 rounds of ammo and 50 C7s were stolen."
"Bigger market for sprayers down here."
"Victim's wife drove down with him. Halstead and Lindsay are bringing her in."
"Good." Antonio nodded, glancing at me before he walked away.
"Anastasia." Hank called.
"Oh, this must be serious."
"It is. I talked to your father."
"No. I don't want to hear about that conversation."
"Ana.." Al whispered.
"No. I- no." I shrugged them off, quickly walking away.
"Hey. What's wrong?" Toni said, stepping in front of me.
"Nothing."
"You sure? You know you can talk to me."
"It's fine."
"Alright. Well, we got something. Another shooting, our bullets."
"I'll grab Nolan."
"These are our bullets." Toni said, holding one as Hank looked at the bodies.
"Can you believe the velocity of these things? 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." Jay stated, a little excited.
"Seven homicides and counting."
"Our widow's lying. Her cell phone provider said she was never at Bloomingdale's. She spent the afternoon up in Edgewater."
We headed back to the station. Erin and Jay went to question the wife.
"Michael Ganz, lives in East Garfield Park, has a record: robbery, possession. Runs with a small crew." She put his picture on the board.
"Claire's ex-boyfriend checks out right down to the 500 bucks."
"Got a ping on Ganz's phone, pulled all the numbers he's called in the last 24 hours." Jin said.
"Employee of the week, Jin, right here." Jay clapped. I chuckled.
"All the calls were to the same numbers, a cell phone registered to a Lucky M Pawn and Loan in Gage Park."
"Lucky M. I know that ding-dong. We'll go talk to him. Come on."
"He set up a buy with Ganz tomorrow, 2:00 P.M." Al alerted everyone.
"Alright, everybody go home, get some rest. Be ready."
"Ana, with me."
"Why?"
"Let's go for a ride."
"But my car is-"
"With me."
"I'll see you." Nolan said, leaving. I followed Hank, getting in the passenger seat.
"What's this about?"
"We're going to see your mother."
"Why?"
"You need to talk to her. She won't eat, she won't listen to anyone."
"You think she's gonna listen to me?"
"Yeah."
-
"Let's keep our heads down. Assume Mike is packing heavy stuff."
"Hey. Look at you all fresh like a daisy." Al complimented Ruzek.
"You're in the van?"
"Wait, why can't I do the buy?"
"Because Ana called shotgun before you did."
"You gotta be...Al, how long is this gonna go on for?"
"Christmas."
"What?"
"Christmas is the takedown word."
"Reservations all set at Carmine's for when he's out."
"When who's out?" I asked, confused.
"You didn't tell her?" Hank stayed silent.
"Justin's getting out early."
"He is? And..I had to hear it from you."
"Ana.."
"Considering you're one of the reasons he went to jail in the first place, I don't think he needs to be around you just yet."
"Voight."
"I'll be in the car." I scoffed, checking the wire and getting in the car.
Al and I drove to the meeting spot, waiting on Ganz. He finally pulled up, getting out.
"That's our boy, Ganz." Antonio said.
"Milner says you're huntin' for hardware?"
"If they're the quality Milner said they are, we'll take most of 'em off your hands."
"What's a lady like you doing in this business?"
"You don't know what type of lady I am. You got it or not?" He smirked.
"I'll take you to it. Get in."
"Aw, come on."
"Only one of you with the money."
"Forget it." Al said.
"Fine with me." Ganz turned to walk back to his car.
"Hey, hey..whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a sec. Wait..wait a sec. Okay." I agreed.
"No." Al shook his head.
"All right. He's a cupcake." I assured him.
"We're goin' mobile."
"What's your name?" I asked Ganz.
"What do you care?"
"We're heading north. Heard you had a...a crew."
"Well, you'll meet 'em soon enough."
"We're headin' into McCook."
"Why do you keep calling out directions?"
"I'm in a car with some guy I never met. You know, he's taking me to an undisclosed location. You know, I'm just thinkin' out loud."
"Pull over. Give me your phone."
"I'm not wired."
"Do it. Open the door, and you die."
"This is so, so dumb." He snatched my phone, throwing it out the window.
"Okay. I want you to look at the mile marker and make a note."
"Why's that?"
"Once the deal is done, you're gonna bring me back here so I can look for that phone." I said, angrily. We pulled into a warehouse, where a group of men stood by a van.
"Let's see the money."
"25 large." I said, pulled the wad out my pocket.
"I left the other half with my associate. You really think I'll come alone with all the cash? Well, let's see the damn guns." He opened the case.
"Ooh. Look at that. It's just like Christmas morning."
"Cops."
"Police!" I ran behind a car, ducking down.
"Move!" I turned to see Ganz, pointing a gun at my head.
"Put the gun down!" Al yelled.
"I will drop you, I swear to God. Put it down. Get on the ground. Put your palms in the air. Get down. Ana?" He tossed me the cuffs.
"Burgess, Atwater, you got two white male offenders moving southwest of the building towards you."
"You all right?"
"Yeah."
"Hey. The radio was in my belt buckle, slick. See? Just so when you're in gen pop telling your story, you get your details straight." I said as I put him in the back of the squad car.
"Hey. Well, that got crazy fast."
"Didn't I tell you he was a cupcake?"