CHAPTER ELEVEN,
eight million different reasons.
ARIELLA WAS PUSHING A cart through a liquor store, looking at all the different products lining the shelves. Once she had everything, she walked toward the cashier. When she turned the corner, she saw Nadia standing at the end of the aisle.
She sighed and set all her items on the counter and pulled her money out of her wallet, "$16.23." The cashier told her. She nodded, handing him her money.
"Hey. I wanted to come talk to you, like, a million times." Nadia told her.
"Uh-huh." She nodded.
"I'm clean. 30 days." Nadia held up her sobriety coin and Ariella sighed, turning her whole body to her.
"Congratulations, Nadia. Sincerely." Ariella nodded.
"Thank you. For trying with me." Nadia smiled, "Look, I know it took a few times, but what you did for me, it really stuck." Ariella grabbed her bags that the cashier had packed for her.
"Take care of yourself," Ariella told her, and walked out of the store, taking a sip of the water bottle as she walked back to her car.
━━━
"So, she's clean? Like, clean-clean?" Erin asked Ariella.
"That's what she said. Had the sobriety coin and all." Ariella shrugged as they walked down the stairs towards their cars, on their way to the crime scene, "But, then again, you and I both know how easy it is to get hooked back on it again."
"Well, onto happier news, when are you due?" She asked.
"A month? A month and a half?" She estimated.
"Oh, this is so fun." Erin hugged her.
━━━
Voight, Antonio, Sumner, Al, and Adam walked down the stairs towards the vault. Looking at the two guards that were dead, pools of blood surrounded them, "All right, where are we at so far?" He asked, meeting up with Jay, Erin, and Ariella who were already standing in the vault.
"The four guards are dead, and one guy's wounded," Jay told them.
"What'd they get?" Voight asked.
"Eight million in cash." Erin answered, and Voight whistled, "International currency shipment from Nagano, Japan, headed down to the federal reserve on Lasalle. They cleared customs fine, and then the money came here to be loaded onto an armored car."
"Can the survivor tell us anything?" Sumner asked.
"Yeah. The one guy that's stable is Lukas Perko. He's the warehouse manager and Eric Gonzalez, head of security." Ariella told them.
"All right, you grab him. We'll talk to Perko." Voight instructed.
"Okay." They all nodded.
"How are you doing?" Antonio asked, walking up the Perko who was sitting in a chair, getting his wound checked out by a paramedic.
"I don't know. They say it's a through and through." He shrugged.
"Hey, can you give us a minute?" Voight asked the paramedic.
"Yes, sir." The women nodded and stood up.
"Thank you." He nodded.
"So, what'd you see?" Ariella asked.
"Four of 'em. Black hoodie, masks, dark shades, bandanas. They lit the place up, man. It all happened just like..." He snapped his fingers, "that."
"And where were you when they came in?"
"I was in the john, and I come runnin' out. And I saw a gun swing my way. I heard sounds like firecrackers. I got hit. I dropped." He explained.
"I guess they thought you were dead," Antonio suggested.
"Yeah, I guess." He nodded.
"Did you get anything else? Height? Weight?" Ariella asked.
"I caught a glimpse of their foreheads and necks. Black guys, for sure." He nodded.
Erin, Jay, and Sumner walked out from talking with the security guy, "What did you get from the security guy?" Voight asked.
"He seemed in genuine shock. What about your guy?" Sumner asked.
"Eight million reasons I can think of why one of 'em is lying," Voight stated.
━━━
Jay stuck the last photo on the board, which was a photo of Perko, "All right, Perko's been with the company for two years. He's got no criminal record."
"He did have a juvey one, though. Perko and his brother Dominik got pinched at 15 on a drug conspiracy for selling meth. He had a mandatory release at 18 and stayed on the straight and narrow, but the brother kept dealing for a Croatian gang, the Two-Threes. Brother's currently serving eight years at Stateville." Erin said.
"Okay. So they had six video cameras, which you'd think would be aces, right? But, as you can see, in cameras one and two, the crew stays too far out of frame to be of any useful identification. Three and four, they stay out of frame altogether. And on five, they keep their backs to the camera. And six, the one camera that they can't avoid, well, it's conveniently obscured by the gate." Jin explained, showing them the footage.
"There's no way this isn't an inside job." Ariella pointed out.
"I talked to the dicks over at Area South. One of the canvassing detectives interviewed a trucker who said that he saw a panel van fleeing the scene." Al told them.
"Tags?" Voight asked.
"Nothing. Except he saw two of the guys remove their masks. Now, he didn't get a good look at their faces, but he said they were both Caucasian males." Al repsonded.
"So Perko lied. The old "black guys did it" defense." Voight shook his head.
"He's in the E.R. at Chicago Med," Antonio reminded them.
"Yeah, I'd like first crack at this one, boss," Sumner volunteered.
"You lookin' to prove yourself, Sumner?" Voight asked
"I'm ready to grill him till he rolls."
"Good. Take Antonio with you." Antonio looked at Voight, who only smiled.
━━━
"Dennis Novak from East Pilsen?" Voight asked, "Look, his crew sells kush, x, whatever they're calling junk these days. He's a low-level jab slinger. It's way out of his league." He said.
"He's telling the truth," Sumner spoke with conviction, and Voight looked over to Antonio, who nodded.
"Okay. Reach out to your CI's, the Hypes, the Lot Lizards. Find out where in my city this guy thinks he can hide." He instructed.
━━━
They found the place where Novak was holed up, and busted down the door, only to find dead bodies. Perko caught on fire in the middle of the street, "The Colombians are going scorched earth on this." Voight told them.
"Literally," Adam spoke as he walked up the stairs with Al.
"I think they were hoping to torch this guy in his car along with everything with him. But I managed to put out the flames before his cell phone was destroyed." Al held up the phone in an evidence bag.
"I'll take that," Jin took the bag.
"I thought you said you believed Perko." Voight looked at Sumner.
"About the Croatian gang, yeah. But this Colombian thing, I don't know how it adds up." She shook her head.
"I got a theory." Antonio spoke up, "Perko knows about the $8 million comings in, decides it's time to set up his retirement fund. Hires his old Croatian friends to come and take it. The only problem is, the Colombians found out and decided to rob the robbers."
"Okay, but how did the Colombians find out?" Voight asked.
"Perko's cell had the same number call it the last 11 times," Jin announced as he went through the phone.
"Call the state, line up a judge. You start writing up a warrant for that phone." Voight told him.
"Don't need to. The calls all came from inside Stateville prison." He informed them.
━━━
"Score one for the home team. Miguel Ortega's been visited nine times and made four phone calls to his main man in the Latin Kings, Rolo Ramirez. And these are his active lieutenants." Jin stuck the photos on the board.
"Whoa. Whoa. That's the homeless guy. The torcher." Adam said, recognizing one of the guys.
"This guy? You sure?" Voight asked.
"I'm certain, boss." Adam nodded.
"You're the Latin Kings. You rob the robbers, get away with 8 mill. Why waste Perko?" Antonio asked.
"Well, you wouldn't do it unless he knew something he wasn't supposed to," Erin said.
"But he was tied to the Croatians, not the Colombians," Antonio said.
"What's the nationality of the name Gonzalez? It's not Croatian." Sumner pointed out.
━━━
"Rolo just ordered two hookers. They get picked up and dropped off at a location, so we're going to put a cop in with one of their whores. That means..."
"I'll do it." Kim cut him off and they all turned to her, surprised by it.
"Okay." Voight nodded, "Go get dressed. The rest of us suit up and get ready for the meet. Let's go." He said. Ariella walked up to him as everyone dispersed, "She beat you to the punch, huh?" He joked.
"If she wants to step up, let her step up." Ariella shrugged.
"You just didn't want anybody seeing you in a skirt." Voight smiled.
"Well, I'm not sure anyone would enjoy that now." She said, rubbing her stomach.
"Oh, no, well, that's not really true." Jin joined in on the conversation, and they both looked at him, "You know, I mean, 'cause you're just always so self-deprecating." He tried to play it off.
"Don't you have things to do?" Ariella asked.
"Yeah, you're right." He nodded, rushing in the other direction.
"Look, she's green. I don't think we should just put her in with a random skank. You said Zen Dolls, right?" She asked.
"That's right." He nodded.
"I know somebody who works there. Or did." Ariella said.
"All right, set it up." He nodded.
"Can I come? Please." She begged.
"Ariella..."
"I promise I'll suit up and wait for everything to be cleared before entering the house." She made her case.
"Suit up." He told her and she smiled.
"Thank you." She smiled brightly.
━━━
"What time's the pickup?" Ariella asked Voight as she paced
"15 minutes." He answered.
"All right." She sighed.
The door opened, and Jay held it open for Nadia, "Hey," Nadia responded.
"Hey. You sure you're up for this?" Ariella asked.
"Yeah." Nadia nodded.
"All right. You just need to get our officer inside. And as soon as she IDs Rolo Ramirez, she'll signal us in. Get in a corner and make yourself small, all right?" Ariella told her.
"Okay." Nadia nodded, and Ariella turned to walk in the other direction, "Hey. I'm really sorry I let you down before."
"Fresh start, right here, right now. Okay?" Ariella nodded.
"Yeah." Nadia nodded back.
"Come on." Ariella walked her towards the "tech room", "Guys, this is Nadia." She told Jin, Kim, and Voight.
"Hey."
"That's Kim," Ariella told Nadia.
"Hi. Thanks for coming." Voight nodded in her direction.
"Nice to meet you." Nadia walked around the table and in front of Kim. She looked her up and down and pulled out a tube of lipstick and applied some onto Kim's lips.
"Your daddy ever touch you when you were a kid?" Nadia asked.
"What?" Kim asked alarmed.
"Turn the light off in your eyes," Nadia instructed. They watched as Kim shut her eyes before opening them, darker than they were before.
"Yeah. We're ready." Nadia nodded.
"Wait a second." Jin sighed, "The wire's glitching. I'm gonna need an hour." He responded, taking his headphones off.
"We don't have an hour, Jin," Voight reminded him.
"No, it's fine." Kim shook it off, taking off the wire and putting it on the table, "We don't need it. I get eyes on Ramirez, I'll call you."
"All right, let's do it," Nadia looked ready.
"You heard the lady," Voight nodded.
━━━
They all sat in their cars, waiting for Kim to give them the signal, "You shouldn't be here." Antonio told her.
"Thank you for reiterating the message." Ariella sighed, "I'm not gonna go in, guns a-blazing. I'll wait for the signal." She told him.
"That makes me feel so much better. Thanks." He smiled sarcastically.
"I'll be fine. I promise." She told him, looking him straight in the eye.
"Rolo's here. Five others in the front, one in the back. Hurry." At those words, all of them got out of their cars.
"Give me five." Voight told them then looked over at Ariella, "You, wait for everything to be clear." She nodded and stood in the back. Voight and Antonio walked down to the back of the house and Adam busted the door down.
"Police!" Jay shouted, going in first, "Let me see your hands!" He shouted.
"Do it now! Do it now!" Everyone else rushed in behind him, guns pointed at all the men.
"Let me see your hands!"
"On the ground! On the ground! On the ground! On the ground! Get down!" Sumner and Al pushed the other guys to the ground.
"Drop the gun!" Ariella caustically walked into the house, her gun raised. She walked towards the back where a guy was holding a gun on Nadia.
"Help me." She whispered.
"Drop the gun, man!" Erin shouted, but he kept his hold on her and kicked a door open, only for Voight to put a gun to his head.
"Put it down!" Voight shouted, keeping the gun on his head. Nadia ran over to Ariella, who hugged her tightly and pulled her into another room.
"Hey, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay." Ariella shushed her, hugging her tight.
"I had to," Nadia told her.
"I know." Ariella nodded.
"But I was clean." Nadia cried, "Sorry. I'm sorry."
"Shh." Ariella pulled her into a hug again, "You have nothing to be sorry for." Ariella continued to console her. One of the guys got away, so Jay and Antonio went after him.
━━━
While the others got the money from the warehouse, Ariella was working on something else. Ariella and Nadia were sitting in her car, looking at the rehab building. Nadia looked over to Ariella, who nodded.
"You ready?" Ariella asked, "Let's do it together."
"Yeah?" Nadia asked and Ariella nodded. They got out of the car and Nadia hugged Ariella, who hugged her back.
"Erin and I will check on you every day," Ariella reassured.
"Okay," Nadia nodded.
"Come on." Ariella smiled, wrapping an arm around Nadia and the two of them walked toward the building.
━━━
"I'm home," Ariella called as she walked into the house. She set her keys in the dish and hung her jacket on the coat rack.
"Hey." Antonio popped his head in the door with a smile.
"Hey." She smiled taking off her shoes, "What's up? You never greet me at the door." She told him, confused.
"I just don't want you working. I don't want you in the field." Antonio told her.
"If it makes you feel better, I will work behind a desk." She told him.
"It does. It gives me comfort knowing you're safe." He told her.
"I'll be safe." She promised, "We'll both be safe." She told him, kissing him.
"Okay." He sighed, rubbing circles on her stomach.
━━━
note.
hey! here's another chapter! I hope you enjoyed and I will see you soon my loves 💕💕
SHOW: chicago pd:
season one, episode eleven
"turn the lights off"
* * *