⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS US
chapter fourteen. the cases that need to be solved.

"Mr Lancaster? I didn't know you were back in Chicago" Sam says, as she hugs her moms old partner -Emma's father, Sam's best friend who had passed away-.

"I heard your father was back in town"

"Unfortunately."

"What happened to your shoulder?" Nathan asks, looking at the girls sling.

"I, uh, kinda got shot by a serial killer"

"Perks of the job right" Nathan says, jokingly.

"Yeah. So you're the one that sent me the note?"

Nathan nods his head and says, "I did"

"What do you know?" Sam asks, anxious and putting her hand in her coat pocket.

"More than I want too. Let's sit in the car, where it's warmer"

"Yeah" Sam says, as the two get into Sam's Jeep, "Please, tell me the truth"

"The truth is, me and another detective, Rod Pierson were undercover with the vice lords. Working this big drug bust. Pierson and I had told your mother earlier that day about when and where it was gonna go down. After Pierson left the meeting spot, he said he saw your father talking with another vice lord member, Vinny Cortez in an alleyway. I tried to warn her, she was surprised but she didn't care. She said she needed this big bust to become Sergeant"

"Oh my god"

"Later that night, when the bust was supposed to go down, when Narcotics busted down the door and raided the place. Grace took off into the building separately to search and clear the place. But what she found was your father doing a trade with Vinny and Pierson"

"My father is in the drug business? I should've known. What happened next?"

"What happened next was horrible. Cortez shot Pierson, then your mother"

Tears gather in the brunette's and she asks, "How do you know this?"

"I saw it on your mom's body cam. Cortez is at statesville. When I went to go confront him about it after your mother's funeral, he told me he killed your mother because your father paid him too and that Pierson was just collateral damage. Then I paid the guards to tell me who else visited him and besides me only two other people have. That's the other reason why I'm here"

Sam looks at the man confused and sad and asks, "who?"

Nathan sighed and said, "Your father...and Hank Voight"

"What? No, no, no. Hank would've told me if he found anything out about what happened to my mother. Why didn't you do or say anything about it?!"

"I tried, I swear I did but there is something you don't know"

"What?"

🌙🌙🌙

Sam walks into her house, Gracie in her car seat and Denise who runs up the stairs and heads to her room.

Sam sets the car seat down on the bench and unbuckled the seatbelt and takes out her sleeping 4 month old and goes upstairs to put her in her crib and just watches her.

"I'm never going to leave you my beautiful baby girl. I promise" Sam whispers, "I love you with all my heart"

Sam then feels a vibration in her pocket and takes out her phone to see a picture message from Justin of Him and Wyatt posing in the mirror with their 'muscles' out. The brunette smiles and texts back, 'we made that 😩😯'

'Hell yeah we did 😍' Justin texts back.

🌙🌙🌙

Later that week, the intelligence unit respond to a crime scene where a young child was executed.

"Tender age black male. Executed" Hank tells Antonio as he arrives on the scene, "one shot to the head. Other to the chest. Third was in his back"

Antonio lifts back the sheet to see the boy as Hank continues, "nine millimeter."

"Uh, there's no signs of a struggle. And no signs that he was restrained." Lindsay says.

"Maybe he knew the assailant. And they led him back here." Jay says.

"I'm gonna go help Adam question people" Sam says, walking away, not wanting to look at this scene anymore.

Sam walks over to Adam who is questioning a woman who says, "I saw this white SUV drive around the playground. Slow. Kinda big. It had a roof rack on it. Then I glanced over and see four guys get out. That's all I saw"

"Were they white? Black?.." Adam asks. The woman gives Adam a look and says, "only white people who roll through here are buying drugs. And they don't get out the car"

"Okay. Did you recognize any of 'em?" Sam asks. The lady shakes her head and said, "no"

"What about a license plate number?" Adam asks.

"No. I told you what I saw." The woman says then she starts tearing up, "I can't believe this" then she walks away.

"Hey, thanks again for watching the kids the other day"

"Yeah, anytime. So, you wanna tell me what was so important that you suddenly dropped them off?"

Sam sighed and said, "it's a secret. You can't tell a soul. Not Voight, Jay, no one. Understand"

"Yeah. Promise"

"I'm serious, Adam. I'm really trusting you right now"

"I promise, I won't tell a soul"

After telling Adam what she learned about her mother, they head back to the crime scene where they see a tall black male who ended up being the father walking away in tears as the mother is crying in Lindsays arms when Voight starts to say, "My first partner, 25 years ago, told me something I'll never forget and it'll always be true. We solve the cases that need to be solved. This case needs to be solved"

🌙🌙🌙

Back at district 21, the intelligence team is in the bullpen surrounding the whiteboard talking about their new case.

"Victim, Noah Johnson. His father, Brian Johnson. According to the gang database, he's part of the west side posse. He does have priors. Possession, attempt to distribute, and UUW." Adam says.

"Any other rival gangs the west side posse are currently beefing with?" Antonio asks.

"We're looking into it, just waiting for more intel from CPIC."

"Might've been a retaliation hit" Olinsky suggests.

"On a six year old kid?" Adam says, walking back to his desk, "is that what we're talking about?"

"We're entertaining every possible scenario, Adam." Voight says, walking over to the board

"So, the dads a suspect?" Kevin asks.

"Everybody is. Look into all family members, all relatives, everybody. Start turning the screws on every known gang member in the immediate zone. Shut down their drug spots, lock 'em up for jaywalking, if you have to. Start flipping these guys one at a time. Someone is gonna talk. Especially if they're looking at time."

Commander Crowley and a reverend walk onto the unit and Dawson says, "commander"

"Reverend" Hank says, shaking his hand.

"I don't have to say that this is the highest priority right now"

Sam gets up from her seat and walks into the break room and pours herself a cup of coffee. Erin walks in and leans against the counter and says, "hey you okay? You seem extra quite today"

"I'm fine" Sam says, putting sugar into her coffee. Lindsay raises an eyebrow and says, "Sammy...you hate sugar in your coffee, what's going on?"

"Jesus, Erin I said I was fine. Is there something you want or are you just here to bother me?"

Erin clears her throat and says, "I was headed to the morgue to talk to the M.E about Noah Johnson. Wanted to see if you wanted to go"

"No thanks" Sam says, grabbing her coffee and heads back to her desk.

~~~

Sam is sat at her desk, on her desk phone when Hank walks back onto the bullpen and says, "alright thanks. So, the bar that Brian was busted at is a known hangout for the west side posse. Nobody goes in there without being affiliated"

Jay gets up from his desk and says, "one of my CIs just told me that uh, they're planning some sort of payback against G park, like, big time"

Mouse tapes a picture up onto the whiteboard of Noah Johnson and Dawson says, "most people I've stood over put themselves in that situation. This kid never had a choice."

Trudy walks onto the unit and says, "drive by shooting. G park territory."

"Let's go" Voight says.

🌙🌙🌙

The intelligence unit arrive at the crime scene of the drive by shooting. As they walk underneath the crime scene tape a patrolman explains what happened.

"Drive by. Black four door sedan. Target was Jesse Kemp. 18 years old. Got shot in the leg, twice in the arm but he'll make it. It's a miracle no one walking by got shot. Shooter dropped 20 rounds at least."

"Is this your beat?" Jay asks, as the group stops walking.

"Yeah" the officer says.

"Is Kemp hooked up with the G park lords?"

"Very much so"

"where's Kemp now?" Dawson asks. The patrolman points to the ambulance and says, "over there with the paramedics. I've got my partner over there babysitting him"

Dawson heads over to the ambulance while the other follow the patrolman to the house where Kemp got shot, "this is where he got shot"

"You got anymore information on the offenders vehicle" Sam asks.

"No, not yet. Typical OEMC call. Heard shots. Found body.

"Any witnesses?" Adam asks.

"Sure. Any willing to come forward? No"

🌙🌙🌙

Back at the unit, Antonio hangs up his desk phone and says, "Jesse Kemp just had his lawyer visit him at Chicago Med"

"Alright thanks" Erin says, hanging up her desk phone as well, "that was vikan from the gang unit. He said Brian is affiliated with the gang, but he's not a trigger man. He does just enough to not have fellow gang members question his allegiance. He can't imagine any scenario in which the G park lords would put a hit on Brian, let alone on his six year old son"

"Good news" the reverend says walking into the unit.

"We could use some" Hank says.

"I was able to contact Maurice Owens. Know of him?"

"I do"

"He's willing to meet you and me and help arrange a truce on the streets. My hope is, he might even point us in the direction of the killers. He's at stateville penitentiary"

"Yeah I know. I put him there"

"We'll need to leave right now"

"Look, that's a wasted trip, reverend. I'm sorry"

The reverend scoffs and says, "He's the leader of the G park lords"

"Was. Reverend, the gangs now, they're splinter units. They don't kick it upstairs anymore. Maurice has no pull. None. If he was out on the streets tomorrow telling people what to do, he'd be laughed at. Or shot. This city had changed. Maurice doesn't want to believe it, you may not want to believe it, but that's the reality"

"What can I do?"

"Just keep doing what you've been doing the last 25 years. Reverend, you've kept at least 10 crimes off my desk every day doing what you do. So, please just keep doin' it"

"And if you can, get the word out. Any retaliation is gonna increase the tragedy of what happened." Jay says.

"I know that sermon." The reverend says as he shakes Voights hand.

"Appreciate you."

As Antonio walks the reverend out Hank asks, "alright. Anything new on the white SUV?"

"No. And Jesse Kemp doesn't nor has he ever owned or rented one. Of any color" mouse says.

"Oh, hold up" Jay says, clicking the mouse on his computer, as Sam takes a sip from her water, "we've been checking all contact cards, traffic citations issued, arrests, right?"

"Yeah" Hank says.

"Last week, a 22 year old male was pulled over by a beat car on a stop and frisk in G park lord territory. He's from a different gang, the two-threes, which are way south. His names Bryan Johnson. Spelled B-R-Y-A-N. Is there any chance G park went after the wrong Brian Johnson?"

~~~

"So, the new Bryan Johnson does some shady stuff against G park. G park gets 'em mixed up and goes after the wrong Brian Johnson?" Kevin questions.

"No, I don't know what the hell happened, Kevin, I'm just putting it out there" Jay says, standing next to the white board, file in hand, "gang unit says this Brian Johnson isn't a hitter. This Bryan Johnson is, and Jesse in G park lord territory the day before Noah gets killed in what's looking more and more like a retaliation hit by G park"

"Alright, same work up that we did on the first Brian Johnson, let's do it for this one. Start building a whole new timeline"

Adam hangs up his desk phone and says, "hey, uh, the 34th district just reported an SUV torched off Cicero. There's a cargo rack attached to the roof."

"Let's go"

🌙🌙🌙

The intelligence unit heads to the crime scene of the torched car where they find the fire department finishing up.

"It's torched down to the rims." Antonio says, as the group walks over to the car.

"Mouse ran the plate you sent." Erin says, "cars registered to a Lydia Bernstein out of Springfield, Illinois."

"Original color listed as white?" Adam asks.

"Yeah"

"And I'm bettin' it came back hot right?" Jay says.

"Not reported. So, he's checking to see if she's related to any of our suspects."

"Bernstein?" Kevin says, using his flashlight to look into the vehicle, "probably not"

"Fair. Connected."

"Alright. Get Springfield PD to pound on her door. We need the names of everyone who had access to this vehicle." Voight says.

"Got it" Ruzek says, taking out his phone and walking away.

"Dash is melted. Columns got pulled out." Atwater says.

"Forensics isn't gonna be able to pull a print off this thing." Al says.

"The GPS system?" Voight asks.

"Yeah, it's still in there. Can't pull the guts out without my tools" Kevin says, turning his flashlight off.

"Alright, have it towed back to the roll up. We know where this cars been, our life gets a little easier."

"Alright" Kevin says.

As the group starts to head back to their vehicles, Voight catches up to Sam and says, "is there something you want to tell me?"

"No. Is there something you want to tell me?" Sam questions, stuffing her hand in her coats pocket. Voight shakes his head and says, "No. Erin told me about what happened in the break room. Says you went off on her"

Sam rolls her eyes and says, "Is there a point to this conversation?"

"What do you think?"

Sam turns on her heels and walks past Jay, who had been listening to the whole conversation and looks at Hank as Sam heads back to the car.

🌙🌙🌙

As Kevin tried to extract the gps from the car, Sam leans against the wall watching him when mouse walks over to her and says, "hey"

Sam doesn't say anything and goes back to looking at Kevin, "so, uh, how are you doing?"

Sam rolls her eyes and says, "I don't know what Jay or Erin or Voight told you but I'm fine so leave me alone, alright?"

"They just want to make sure you're-" Sam interrupts mouse and says. "I just said leave me alone"

Kevin steps out of the car and says, "it's intact"

~~~

Mouse looks at the gps through a magnify glass and is currently on the phone saying, "okay. Yeah, fine" then slams the phone down, "so our expert tech lab doesn't even have the actual cable they need to extract the vehicles GPS information"

"Wait. Remember the D'Alio case? When I was researching tech, there was some forensic software company that can extract information from navigational systems. The whole process should take minutes" Kevin says.

"Then let's do that" Sam says.

"It's not gonna be cheap though. It's a private contractor."

"Alright, we'll pass the hat around upstairs."

"Copy that. I'll make a call" Kevin says, walking away.

~~~

Kevin and Sam walk into voights office as Atwater says, "hey Sarg, we got some 600 dollar information for you. Wanna whack it 9 ways?"

"No I'll cover it. What is it?" Voight asks.

Sam looks up from a file and says, "it looks like our vehicle was parked a block and a half away from the playground at 7:52 a.m., that's 15 minutes right before Noah's murder. Then we got three hits off the SUV parked at 4802 south Champlain on three separate occasions in the day prior to the murder."

"Alright, now, that house belongs to 65 year old Sandy Lowe, who lives there with her 18 year old grandson, Colin Lowe " Kevin says, handing Voight a file with Colins picture and information in it, "according to gang intelligence, he's highly active in the G park lords. Self admitted. He's a senior at west park lake high school with Jesse Kemp."

"Well, That was worth every penny." Voight says, standing up, "tell everyone to gear up. We're rolling out"

🌙🌙🌙

After getting Colin Lowe, Hank and Antonio interrogate him but after not giving them anything, Sam decided to head home to be with Grace and Denise.

"Sammy, can we go out to get some ice cream?" Denise asks, as she, Sam and Grace are on the couch watching tv.

"Sure, Dee. I'll have Jay meet us" Sam smiles as they get up and get their coats on then Denise helps Sam put Grace in her car seat when the doorbell rings.

"Who's that?" Denise asks.

"I don't know" Sam says, walking to the door and looked through the peephole to see Justin and Wyatt then she opens the door, "Hey guys. What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to see if you'd like to get some ice cream?" Justin says.

"We were just on our way out to do that" Sam smiles.

"Cool" Wyatt smiles, "hey Denise"

"Hey" the 14 year old girl smiles.

As the two walk outside to the car, Justin asks, "where's Jay?"

"At the district. We caught a bad one. Hopefully he can meet up with us" Sam says, grabbing onto Gracies car seat.

"Hey let me help" Justin says, grabbing the car seat from the brunette.

"Thanks" Sam smiles as the two head out and Sam locks the door behind them.

🌙🌙🌙

The next day, the squad in surrounding the whiteboard as Erin says, "the morning of the murder, Jordan Lockett tells Jesse and Colin that they're going after Brian Johnson's son. Now, according to Jesses' cousin, these two tried to back out, but Jordan is above them in the gang and he made threats. He also decided to bring his 12 year old brother Andre along for the ride. Jesse and Colin are the lookout, Jordan and Andre led Noah down the block. This is our trigger man"

"Alright, we got to get Jordan before Brian's gang does." Jay states.

"Alright, listen. We stay low out there. We don't want anyone on the streets to know we're out in front of this. And if you do get Jordan, you keep your head on. We all know what he did to that kid. We split up. Hit every known address." Hank states.

~~~

After catching Jordan Lockett. Antonio and Voight interrogate him and minutes in Dawson starts yelling at the kid. Sam and Erin both get tears in their eyes listening to this cold, heartless son of a bitch throw his 12 year old brother under the bus.

🌙🌙🌙

Later that night, the neighborhood where Noah Johnson's family lives planned a vigil for Noah. Everyone was there. The neighborhood. District 21. Firehouse 51. Some people from Chicago med.

Sam and Jay had brought Denise and Gracie and Justin brought Wyatt after explaining to them what was going on. And everyone stood around in silence for Noah Johnson.

a/n:

Whoa that was an intense chapter!
We now know what happened the day Grace Miller was murdered??? What do we think Sam is gonna do in retaliation??
Also, there's 7 more episodes left of the season so we're getting pretty close to the end of the 2nd book! But don't worry, I've already planned out a 3rd book!
And 1 more thing; if anyone remembers what happens on the season finale of this season, then you know how hard it's gonna be for me to write it. How difficult it's gonna be to see my precious baby Sam in so much pain, especially after finding out about her mother and such.
Also, face claim for Nathan Lancaster is David James Elliot!