Yn's POV
"Morning guys" I say as I walked into the bullpen. "Morning Yn" Adam said to me. "You caught up on the new case" Erin asked me. "Yep. I read the file this morning. Who's presenting" I ask. "I will" Jay said. "All right then. Let the case begin" I say. "Richard Dowd, he went by Richie. He was a senior at Lakeside, captain of the lacrosse team, and winner of the dean's award for academic excellence" Jay said. "Priors" I ask. "Not unless getting early admission to Yale is a crime these days" Jay said.
"According to the ME, there were no signs of a struggle.No abrasions, no contusions, no defensive wounds. The only injuries were consistent with a dead man fall, and on top of that, his hoodie was zipped and his jewelry was intact" Erin said. "Any other physical evidence at the scene" Al asked. "Richie's iPhone was found in his pocket, but it needs a thumbprint to unlock it" Jay said. "We can subpoena the provider, but it's going to take a while to get the call logs, texts, AND emails. No exigent circumstances, that's what the phone guy's going to say. There's no imminent threat, no flight risk, that sort of thing" Adam said. "Can I see that" Al asked. Adam nodded and handed him the file.
"Hey, where's Voight? Is he still at Ballistics" Kevin asked. "I haven't heard from him" Erin said. "That three digit code on his account number, that's a family plan. So if it's in his father's name, he could give us access to it" Al said. "Al, you still got it. Everyone, Al's still got it. Did you hear that? Erin, tweet that out. Al's still got it. The world should know" Adam said. I laughed softly and nudged Adam with my shoulder. "You're a dork. Did you know that" I ask. "Yeah, and yet you love me anyways" Adam said. "Yeah, for some unknown reason" I say. "You think Frank Dowd's ready to talk" Jay asked. "Let's find out" Al said.
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"Our DOA Richie Dowd's got quite the photo collection on his phone. Most of them are this girl, right here" Adam said and put a picture on the white board. "In very few of the photos does she have any clothes on." "Her face is partially obscured in all these" Al said. "Yeah, that's about the only thing you can't see" Adam said. "Yeah, so me and Ruz haven't ID'd the girl yet, but we did a reverse Google Image search, found out that somebody's been posting the exact same pics on a revenge porn website" Kevin said. "Looks like our golden boy's not so perfect after all" Jay said. "Well, so now we have a motive. All we need to do is find out who she is, where she's at, who she runs with" Al said. "I'm wondering if we can take the partial shots of her face, put them together, make a composite image, and run it through facial recognition" Adam said. "That's definitely worth a shot" I say. "I got a buddy at OCD Tech. I bet they'd help out" Jay said.
"Guys, I've got something" Erin said and pulled another white board into the bullpen. "Seventeen years ago, Voight worked a murder case in the neighborhood he grew up in. The victim was a friend of his, owned a corner store in Bridgeport. Nick Ruffalo. At the time, they thought the shooter was this guy, Terrance Valentine. Ballistics just confirmed that they had the murder weapon wrong. The gun that shot Ruffalo is the same gun that we recovered from the Dowd crime scene last night." "Where's Valentine now" Jay asked. "He's in prison. Voight helped put him there" Al said. "We've got to figure out who killed Richie Dowd so that Voight can figure out how that gun was used in the Ruffalo murder, which is starting to look like a real wobbly conviction right now" Erin said.
A bit later, we had some more information. "All right, my connect at OCD ID'd the girl from Richie Dowd's phone. This is Jo Jo McKinnon. She goes to Kennedy Park East. She's 18, no criminal history, parents are divorced. Her dad has primary custody. His name's Raymond McKinnon. He lives at 4044 North Saber" Jay said. "All right, the sooner we move on this the better. A CI just texted me. Apparently Frank Dowd's put out a reward on the street for information on his son's killer" Al said. "How much" I ask. "15 grand" Al replied. "All right, Adam, Kev, you guys go see if Jo Jo's willing to talk" Erin said.
Adam and Kevin sent back word that Ray McKinnon, Jo Jo's father, did not want us talking to Jo Jo, so we did a bit of digging on our own. "All right, I ran Jo Jo McKinnon's phone records. She made three calls to Richie Dowd the week of the murder, all ten seconds in duration" Jay said. "Yeah, about the time it takes to tell someone to go to hell" Al said. "Yeah, I also dumped her GPS data for the last month, just looking for any shared way-points with Richie. The only breadcrumb we got is that she met with Richie at 2200 hours the day before he was killed" Jay said. "We still can't put her at the crime scene night of" I say. "Jo Jo doesn't leave the house much, except to go to a private tutoring center. She attended class as recently as yesterday, and I got the address and her schedule right here" Jay said. "Let's get that to Adam and Kev" Erin said.
Just then, Chief Lugo walked into the bullpen. "Who's the case officer on the Richie Dowd murder" he asked. "I am" Erin replied. "Well, Area Central Homicide's taking over the case" Lugo said. "What? This has been Intelligence from the jump off. We worked the crime scene" Erin said. "Yeah, well, Frank Dowd doesn't want you working it anymore. Apparently, he's got enough juice with the brass above me to have it transferred out" Lugo said. "If this case goes over to Area Central Homicide, it won't be a trial, it'll be a funeral" Al said. "You're saying what, Detective" Lugo asked. "Well, plenty of Dowd's clients are into him so for some big cake, and more than one will be willing to settle it on the street. All they need is a name" Al said. "We got word that Dowd's throwing money around" Jay said. "Okay. I'll delay the paperwork until end of shift, but then Area Central's taking it. It's the best I can do" Chief Lugo said.
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"So where we at with the Dowd case" Voight asked. "There was a 911 call from Frank Dowd's house the day after the sexting pictures hit the Internet, but the day before Richie was killed. The housekeeper said she saw an adult white male trying the front door handle. Patrolmen responded to the scene. They couldn't find anybody, but the housekeeper ID'd Raymond McKinnon from a photo array. That's Jo Jo's dad" I say and put his photo up on the white board. "It's enough for a warrant" Erin said.
Once we had obtained the warrant, Kevin and Adam brought Ray down to the district and interviewed him. Platt then called up and said there was someone here for us waiting in the lobby, and when I went downstairs, I saw Jo Jo. "My dad's here" she asked. "Yeah" I say. "Why" Jo Jo asked. "Because he wasn't completely honest with us the first time we spoke" I say. "Well, he didn't kill Richie" Jo Jo said. "How do you know that" I ask. "Because we were watching 'The Voice' together at the time Richie was killed. Can you tell that to whoever he's talking to" Jo Jo asked me. "You can tell them yourself" I say.
I led Jo Jo up to the interview room where Kevin was sitting with Ray. "Guys, we know somebody's lying to us, and we're done being jerked around. So whoever wants to step up to the plate, I suggest you do so now" I say. "It was me. I killed Richie" Ray said. "Okay. We'll call down to the State's Attorney's office and have you do a videotaped confession" Kevin said. "No, he didn't do it. I didn't do it either, but I know who did" Jo Jo said.
I took Jo Jo to a separate interview room so that she could talk to me without her dad. "I didn't wanna say anything because we've been best friends since we were kids and this whole thing is because of me" Jo Jo said. "Okay. Slow down. Who's we" I ask. "My friend Eric. He said he was going to tell Richie to stop with the photos. Then he came back with this look. Like something went wrong" Jo Jo said. "So you're saying that Eric went and confronted Richie and killed him" I say. "I mean, I wasn't there, and I didn't ask Eric that question. But I mean, I have a feeling that's what happened" Jo Jo said. "Jo Jo, I'm going to need a last name" I say.
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"What do we got" Voight asked. "Nothing iron clad yet, but Jo Jo gave us the name of a boy we want to talk to. Eric Scalise. He turned 18 two weeks ago. No priors" I say. "Is his father Mark Scalise" Voight asked. "Yeah" Jay said. "Mark Scalise was Woods' CI who helped put away Valentine" Voight said. "Scalise killed Ruffalo, and then he kept the murder weapon. Seventeen years later, his son uses it to kill Richie Dowd. Eric Scalise either knew where his dad kept the gun or it was given to him. He panics after he pulls the trigger and he tosses it" Jay suggested. "We need to get this kid off the street before he winds up dead. That bounty's still out" Al said. "All right, notify the ASA. Get a search warrant. Hey, and keep it under wraps" Voight said. "Where does Eric hang his hat" Kevin asked. "4032 South Lafayette Street. Same place he grew up. Hey, boss, his father still lives there" Adam said.
At the address, we didn't find Eric, but Mark was there, so we brought him in. However, in the middle of the interview, Chief Lugo and Denny Woods appeared and asked to see Voight. "Let's go, Sergeant. We're headed to the Review Board" Woods said. "Regarding what" Voight asked. "Insubordination, and failure to respond to a direct order of a superior officer. "Chief, I'm just working the Richie Dowd murder, wherever that takes me" Voight said. "Whoa, whoa, you're talking to me, Sergeant, and there's no more tap dancing. Move. Now" Woods said. As Woods followed Voight downstairs, Chief Lugo turned to us. "Pull everything you have on the Dowd case and get it over to Area Central Homicide. Intelligence is done here" he said.
A few minutes later, we were beginning to pack everything up. "Hey, so kick Scalise" Adam asked. "Yeah" Erin said. "Wait, wait. This text message just came through Scalise's phone. There's no name attached" Kevin said. "Saying what" I ask. "'What's going on? What's the plan'" Kevin read. "That's got to be Eric. His dad probably bought him a burner phone" Jay said. "Well, we can triangulate the signal. See if we can pinpoint his location" Al said. "Do it" Erin said.
We got Eric, and he confessed that he killed Richie. However, we still needed to pin Mark for the Ruffalo murder, so we made him a deal. If he came forward and confessed, Eric would only get charged with manslaughter, not murder, and Mark quickly accepted the deal. Mark also told us that Denny Woods made him blame Valentine, and when we told the Review Board that news, Woods was stripped of his police powers.
"Hey. Anyone want to go to Molly's? I'm in the mood for a drink" I say. "I'm in" Adam said. "Cool. Anyone else? First round's on me" I say. "Well now that you say that, I'm on board" Kevin said. "Great. I'll meet you guys there. The rest of you, have a good night" I say. "You too Yn" Jay said.