CHAPTER FOUR,
album covers
ARIELLA WAS IN THE middle of making a snack when her phone rang. She reached for it and answered it, "Rivera." She answered, wiping her hands with a towel.
"Ooh, so formal." Erin joked, "I'm sending you an address. We got something."
"Can I ask what this case is about?"
"You can, but I can't say I'd be able to give you all the answers. Just get moving."
"Eye aye captain."
"And can I assume that you are with Detective Dawson?"
"Your assumption would be correct, Detective Lindsay."
She could see the eye roll Erin had just done from the other end of the phone, "Whatever. Just get over here." Erin hung up, and Ariella slid her phone into her pocket, taking a second to breathe.
"Antonio, let's go!" She hollered down the hallway, already making her way out to the car.
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Ariella and Antonio beat Erin and Voight to the scene by minutes. Voight parked his car haphazardly in the middle of the street as both he and Erin jumped out. When they spotted their boss, Antonio, Ariella, and Jay made their way over to him.
"House belongs to a Dean Masters." Antonio began, showing Voight the photo of the tablet, "His file was red-flagged to notify intelligence, but he must have been before my time."
"Oh, yeah, him. That robbery at the art institute last year. We liked him as the fence." Voight nodded as he examined the photo.
"The neighbors heard a woman scream. We knocked, he yelled out that he had a gun and to leave him alone." Ariella continued.
After Voight and Erin got vests on, they all crowded around the door, "Masters, this is Sergeant Voight with the Chicago Police. Open up, make this easy on all of us." He shouted through the door as he banged on it a few times.
"He's gonna kill me!" A women's terrified voice shouted from inside the house.
"Take it," Voight nodded to Jay, who shot the door handles then kicked in the French doors. They all followed him as he ran into the house. They saw Masters holding a half-nacked woman in a chokehold against his chest, a gun to her head, "Drop it." Voight shouted at him.
"I told 'em I would kill her!" Masters shouted, shoving her face into a bowl of cocaine.
"Drop it, Masters!" Voight shouted.
"We're here to help," Ariella told him in a much softer tone, but still had an edge that would send the message that she just wanted the problem to be solved without violence.
"Let her go," Antonio shouted.
"All we're trying to do is have a good time. Isn't that right, huh?" Masters asked, his grip on the girl tightening.
"Drop your weapon! Hands in the air! Do it now!" Jay shouted.
"Easy, easy. Everybody take a breath." Erin, ever the mediator, lowered her gun.
"She set me up. She's trying to get me killed." Masters shouted.
"Fine, you're right. We can handle that." Erin reassured him.
"I got the info. I got info on a deal that's going down, and that's why she's setting me up." Masters spoke through gritted teeth.
"I don't know what he what he's talking about. I swear to God." The girl pleaded.
"All right, we will help you. We will help you, but you've gotta let her go first. You don't need her. Come on, give her to me. Come on. Give her to me." Erin begged. Masters finally listened, and shoved the girl at Erin, who fell into Erin's open arms.
"I'm dead anyway." He stated.
"No!" Voight shouted. All of them watched in horror as Master's took the gun and shot himself in the head
"It's okay, it's okay," Erin reassured the girl, shielding her from the ugly scene in front of them.
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"Dean Masters was a hotshot artist in his 20s." Voight announced, putting a photo of Masters on the board, "Work dried up, picked up a drug habit. He's suspected of not only being a fence but also forging paintings."
"What was that thing intelligence had him on?" Antonio asked.
"Stolen Klimt. Never resurfaced." Erin answered.
"What the hell is a Klimt?" Adam asked.
"An artist," Ariella answered.
"Named Klimt?" He asked.
"Yeah." Ariella nodded.
"That's a funny name, right? Or am I alone on this? Klimt. Say it out loud." He looked over at Jay.
"It's kinda funny, yeah." Jay agreed.
"So this whole "they're gonna kill me" thing that Masters was going on about was either about the stolen painting or something else," Voight said.
"Or he was just tripping and talking nonsense. I mean, did you see his pupils? He was gakked out of his mind." Jay pointed out.
"We got a known suspect, took his own life rather than face something heavy-duty. We pursue the case." Voight told them.
"She'll take care of you," Al comforted the woman from the day before as he walked her up the stairs. She was covered in bruises.
"Lindsay, will you take this?" Voight asked, and Erin walked up to her.
"How are you feeling?" She asked.
"Like hell." The girl answered.
"Yeah. Let's get a cup of coffee." Erin led her into the breakroom.
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Ariella walked into the interrogation where Nadia Decotis was waiting, "So what can you tell me about Dean Masters?"
"Didn't really know him. I went on one date with the guy." Nadia told her, avoiding eye contact at all cost.
"You sure about that? I heard you were his favorite." Ariella crossed her arms and raised a brow..
"Yeah, I get that a lot." She nodded.
"I bet." Ariella nodded with a smile, "All right, so where'd you grow up? What neighborhood?" She asked, trying to start up a conversation.
"Lake Forest. I was homecoming queen, and Michael Jordan was our neighbor." She said sarcastically.
"Really? You know, I grew up there too. I was the head cheerleader." Ariella went along with it, "Seriously, how old are you? You know I can find out in two minutes."
"18 in a month. But I used a fake ID, so don't hassle 'em. I need the work." Nadia answered.
"So Dean mention having any problems with anybody?" Ariella asked.
"Nope," Nadia cleared her throat, her tell.
Ariella looked at her for another second, "What were you trying to score, heroin?" When she didn't respond, Ariella took that as her sign to continue, "Look I can get you a fix. You have my word on that. But I need some information first." Nadia sort of nodded, "Why would Dean eat a bullet? He had enemies?"
"No. The opposite. Dean was the sharing type." Nadia told her.
"Give me a name," Ariella demanded.
"Santa."
"Guy named Santa?" Ariella asked.
"No, no. That's how I remembered it. "No-El." She sounded it out, then the lightbulb clicked, "Noel. Noel Harris. Yeah, he brought the skag. He owns some sort of card shop or some deal over on Polk. I don't know. He was rambling."
"Okay. Let's go." Ariella walked behind her down to the basement and into lockup. Once they were inside the cage, Ariella slpaped one of the cuffs on Nadia's wrist, and the other to the leg of the table.
"Hey, what're you doing?" Nadia asked.
"Just for a little while," Ariella told her, grabbing the door and shutting the cage.
"You better come back here, bitch! I mean it!" Nadia shouted after her, but Ariella paid her no mind and kept walking.
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"See, I mean, that is some serious talent, man." Adam marveled, looking at the stamp to make fake money, "This guy's a failed artist?" He asked.
"Yep." Ariella nodded.
"It's funny the things people end up doing when they can't do what they really want, huh?"
"This is Agent Joe Hill. Secret Service, Chicago field office. We go back ways." Voight announced as he walked up the stairs with a guy, a badge hanging from his neck, and a very official look on his face.
"Where's your earpiece and your sunglasses?" Adam joked, shaking his hand.
"That's only when Obama's in town." Joe answered.
"Does this mean we're handing over the case?" Erin asked.
"No. Technically I can't get involved unless there's actual counterfeit currency found, but Hank just thought I could help." Joe explained.
"Oh," Erin nodded, shaking his hand. Joe turned to Ariella, who smiled and shook his hand as well.
"I thought counterfeiters were using high-end printers nowadays," Jay brought up, looking at the stamp.
"There's digital tech that'll print a pretty good 5 or 10, then you pass it off at Walgreens buying dollar items. That's what we call "baby laundering." Using plates is old-school. Takes some real work." Joe explained.
"There's three steps. The plates, the paper, and the printer. Guess who we're looking for now." Voight looked around the room.
"The hooker that kicked Ruzek in the nuts," Jin announced his presence. At the mention of his earlier embarrassment, Adam rolled his eyes, "How'd she characterize her interaction with Dean Masters?" He looked over at Ariella.
"She said she went to his place once," Ariella shrugged.
"45 text messages between him and her over the last two weeks," Before Jin could finish his sentence, Ariella was storming off.
A few minutes later, Ariella was holding back Nadia's hair as she threw up in the sink of the locker room, "You said you'd hook me up," Nadia whined as Ariella wiped her forehead with a damp towel.
"And I will," Ariella nodded, helping Nadia sit down on the bench.
"You gotta help me. You gotta." Nadia begged.
"Okay, come on. Come on. Nadia. Hey. Focus." Ariella snapped her fingers, grabbing Nadia's chin softly, "Why'd you lie to me?"
"I gave you Noel! Isn't that enough?" She asked, desperation in her voice.
"I'll tell you when it's enough." Ariella snapped, "Do you want to get well? Huh? I can get you the fix that you need, but I need you to tell me what's going on."
"They said they'd kill me," Nadia spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Who?" Ariella asked.
"I was at Dean's a few nights ago. It was the last time I saw him. He went out to score for us. I went out front to have a smoke 'cause he didn't like it in the house. A group of guys with guns walked up. One of 'em took out his cell phone and took a picture of me, said if I said anything he'd find me and kill me." She explained.
"Okay. What did he look like?" Ariella asked.
"Young. Black. Jeans, hoodies. I was so scared I just left. But I saw them get into this delivery van with a Jesus fish painted on it." Nadia told her.
"What? Hey!" Ariella grabbed her chin again, "Are you tripping?"
"No. I swear to God. There was a big Jesus fish painted on the back of the truck." Nadia told her.
"Okay." Ariella nodded, "Come on. You cold?" She wrapped her jacket around her shoulders, "You did good. Here."
"Now can we go score?" Nadia asked.
"Soon," Ariella answered.
"I swear to God, if you're lying to me, I'm gonna-"
"You're gonna what? Do you have any idea how many charges I could drop on you right now?" Nadia shrunk down, "I told you I would take care of you and I will. So I need you to take it down a notch and wait." She told her, "Come on." Ariella led her out of the locker room.
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"Okay, pods found a match to the delivery van with the Jesus fish on the back." Jin told them, showing them the footage, "You know, the symbol's actually called an ichthys-"
"Jin?" Ariella cut him off.
"Fine. If you wanna keep calling it a "Jesus fish," knock yourself out." He shrugged, "Also found something else." He zoomed in on the footage of the truck.
"Tabernacle?" Jay read off the truck.
"Yeah. This van's registered to the Tabernacle of Divinity. It's a storefront church on 63rd and Cal. They use it to deliver meals to the elderly." Jin explained.
"Yeah, that's Pastor Mike's place." Antonio spoke up, "An ex-GD. Supposedly underwent a jailhouse conversion a few years back. Guess it didn't take."
"All right, then. I'll show Nadia a lineup of this guy and his associates. If she picks anybody out, I'll get a warrant." Ariella grabbed the photo and walked back down to the cage.
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Antonio was drilling off the locks on the gate of the "church". When he did finally get it open, Jay was first in, and the rest of the team followed quickly behind him. Once they were inside the building, the room where everyone was in was quickly found due to the loud music playing and the sound of the money counting machine.
They all stood around the door and waited for Antonio, who kicked down the door, "Police! Everybody get on the ground!"
"Get on the ground! Put your hands behind your head!"
"On the wall! Down on your knees!"
"Gun! Gun!" Ariella shouted as they started arresting everyone in the room. She grabbed the gun, and slid it into her holster, arresting a different guy.
"Get down! Don't look at me, man. Keep your hands up! Put 'em up higher!" Erin shouted.
"God's soldier, huh, Mike? He bless you with all this cash?" Antonio asked.
"Man, those are just donations for our meals on wheels. Hey, keep y'all mouths shut! Don't say nothing!" Mike shouted to all the kids.
Voght watched as everyone was arrested and placed in cars, "No paper. No sign of any printing operation." Jay told him.
"We really think Pastor Mike has the skills for counterfeiting?" Erin asked, looking over at Voight for a reaction, who slowly nodded.
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"All right. Pastor Mike was contracted by this man Glen Ward." Antonio announced, putting the picture of the guy on the board, "Now, Ward has done federal time in Leavenworth for counterfeiting. But how Ward and his printing crew hooked up with Dean Masters and Noel Harris is anybody's guess, and why the two of them are both dead now, who knows?"
"Pastor Mike didn't say why Ward wanted them dead?" Jay asked.
"He didn't ask," Antonio shrugged.
"It could be any reason," Ariella stated.
"She's right. Somebody wanted a bigger cut, threatened to snitch, banged somebody's girlfriend." Erin listed.
"Any one of those scenarios," Antonio nodded.
"One of Ward's aliases is Denis Diderot," Joe told them.
"A counterfeiter and a fan of French literature. Can't wait to meet him." Al joked.
"Hey, Sarge. Jin just did a name check against new leases on commercial property rentals. He got a hit. Foreclosed chemical building on Cicero." Adam handed Voight the file.
"All right, unless anyone's opposed to overtime, let's go find our printer," Voight told them.
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"It's quiet out front," Jay announced as he and Erin went around one side of the building, guns raised. Ariella and Antonio were going around the other side.
"Looks like Ward's ready to roll," Antonio added as he and Ariella spotted a truck. Ariella opened the door and saw a duffle bag that was probably full of money.
"We got eyes in there yet?" Voight asked.
"No. Almost there. Stand by." Al answered. A few seconds later, his voice came back on the radio, "All right, we're up. Counterfeit central." He announced as he looked at the little iPad in Adam's hands which gave them a full view of what was going on inside of the building. "There's two, three, and four." He counted off.
"Any artillery?" Voight asked.
"I can't tell," Al answered.
"We're going in," Voight told them. They cranked the backdoor open by breaking off the lock on the door and waited for it to pop. Jay locked the door open, and they all ran in.
"Chicago PD!" Jay yelled.
"Watch out the police!" One of the guys shouted.
Bullets were flying everywhere and at everyone. Ariella fired off a few shots, before ducking behind a giant crate of something. She jumped back up when the guy ducked, and when she saw him pop up and make a run for it, she took her shot, literally, and shot him somewhere in the leg region.
She ran up to him, gun raised, "Don't move, stay down! Drop it!" She shouted. The man gripped his leg in pain, quickly dropping the gun, "We're gonna need an ambo!" She shouted.
After every man in the warehouse was rallied up and handcuffed, they were all seated on the ground while everyone else looked at the stock and all their fake money, "Roll an ambo to 1356 South 13th Street. Notify the dicks and crime lab. Plainclothes officers at the scene." Jay spoke into the walkie.
"Too bad it ain't real," Antonio commented.
"Lindsay, get a picture of me for my album cover," Adam joked, hopping onto the giant stack of fake money, laying down, and posing.
"You're an idiot." Erin laughed with a shake of her head but took the picture.
"Call Agent Hill, tell him we found the mother lode," Voight told them.
"Yeah, we do all the work, Secret Service comes in, takes the credit," Antonio joked.
"You want your face on the front page of the paper?" Voight asked when his phone started to buzz.
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Ariella was sitting at her desk, staring at Antonio's desk, which was in front of hers. Antonio was getting ready to leave but was waiting for her. He smiled, sitting on the edge of her desk, "You ready to go?" He asked.
"Yeah." She nodded, reached for her jacket, and stood up. As she was putting her jacket on, she remembered something, which caused her to halt her movements, "Actually, I'll meet you at home. I have to do something first." She kissed his cheek, then made her way down to the basement where the cage was.
She bent down next to Nadia, and looked at her for a moment, before softly shaking her, "Nadia. It's time."
"You telling the truth?" Nadia asked, looking around, discombobulated.
"Yeah, come on." Ariella nodded. Ariella led her over to the car, where she drove her to a rehab facility. Right across the street, they watched a drug deal go down.
"You really just gonna let me go score?" Nadia asked.
"I'm letting you make a choice." Ariella corrected, "That's why I wanted you to do it sober. Cause there is another way. That clinic across the street has everything you need to get started. So you're gonna get out, I'm gonna drive away, and then the choice is yours."
"Walk over to the clinic, or walk across the street and buy. This is a decision that you have to make for yourself, otherwise, we're just wasting our time here." She told her, and pulled out two cards from her pocket, "Take my card and take Erin's. If you want a life better than what you got, we'll both help you get to the other side. That is a promise." Ariella told her.
Nadia looked over at her, and she nodded. She turned and got out of the car. Ariella watched her cross the street, then drove away. She drove a couple of blocks, before stopping at a stop light. When the car stopped, Ariella closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
A couple of months after her parents passed was when things really hit her hard. She realized that she was never gonna see them again. Her mother was never gonna hug her, her father was never gonna kiss her forehead. Her children weren't gonna know their grandparents, and that's when she fell into the wrong crowd.
She turned to drugs and alcohol to mask her pain. She ran into the law and few times, and there was only one person who was there to help her. Yeah, her grandparents were there for her, obviously, but there was one other person who was there to help her get out of that situation.
Hank Voight.
He took care of her as he had done with Erin, which was why the two women were so close. They were almost raised in the same house. Hank helped her get out of sticky situations, got her into rehab, and got her clean.
She sighed and drove home. When she got home, she sat in the driveway, not getting out. She dropped her head on the top of the steering wheel, her whole body shaking with sobs.
Antonio walked out of the house to take out the trash, and saw her car in the driveway, then saw her crying on the driver's side. He dropped the bag, and ran over to her, opening the door and undoing her seatbelt, pulling her into a hug. She shook her head, not able to even say anything, not able to get out a word.
"I know, I know." He nodded, running his hand over her back.
"I want them back. I just want my mom and dad." She cried.
"It's gonna be okay." He whispered, kissing her head.
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note.
so, my baby is already breaking my heart. rawson (their ship name) is already so cute and i love them. okay, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will see you soon my loves 💕💕
SHOW: chicago pd:
season one, episode four
"now is always temporary"
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