⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter forty five. a dead kid, a notebook and a lot of maybes.

"And you know, I really don't know what he thinks of me. I mean, I got bumped up a year ago" Kevin said, eating a piece of his toast where he and Maxine are eating their breakfast at a diner near the district. "I still don't know where I'm at. I mean, you know Voight a little better than me. You think he thinks I'm good police?"

"I think Voight thinks everyone's got room for improvement. You know what I'm saying?" Max said, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Yeah, I feel you" Kevin says then looks over to see someone walking over to his seat, "is that James Whitaker?"

Maxine looks over her shoulder to see an older man sit in a booth and says, "oh, he's captain of the 31st right?"

"Like the black pope of chicago. Does a big card game. All the powerful brothers in the city are there. If you're in that game, you made it"

"Hmm. You know, the way you've got to handle Voight, is you.."

"Hold on" Kevin said, sliding out of the booth.

"Good talk" Maxine says, then looks down at her phone to see Jay calling and she ignores it. Kevin walks back over and sits down, depressed.

"So, how'd it go?"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine and Hank walk into Webster Country Day school where the students are clearing out on the word that one of the students has a gun.

Kim and Sean walk over to them and Burgess shows 'em a picture of a boy and says, "Colin Blake. Went missing yesterday with a loaded pistol taken from his house"

"We checked with the headmaster" Roman says, "Colin was marked absent, but his mom recognized his bike outside the school, so we think he's here"

"Well, get every uniform a picture of this kid and start sweeping the campus" Voight orders.

"Got it" Kim says, as she and Sean walk away.

Max and Hank continue down the hall, when Antonio approaches them, "Sarg, Bishop. Just got word. Patrol found a body behind the school"

Now walking towards the back of the school, the intelligence unit finds the body of Colin Blake with a gunshot wound to his temple.

Ruzek -who now has his police powers back- kneels down next to the body and touches the boy's face for a couple seconds and says, "Well, body's cool. He's been here awhile"

"He's still holding onto the gun and there's a muzzle flash on the entry wound. It looks like a suicide" Jay says.

"It's a .22 caliber. No wonder nobody heard the shot" Dawson says.

"Alright, Burgess, I want you to hand deliver that pistol to forensics" Voight orders, "tell them I need a rush order to confirm ballistics"

"Got it"

"And keep sweeping the school. We don't know if this kid was operating alone"

Maxine bends down to unzip the kids backpack when she finds a bomb, "Guys. Nobody move. Don't key your radios and just back up slow. We got a bomb"

About ten minutes or so later, the bomb squad arrives to destroy the bomb, while the team watches.

"It's a crude pipe bomb" Sully -from the bomb squad- says. Hank shakes his hand and says, "Thanks Sully"

"Crude bomb in the right place will do a lot of damage" Jay states.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine, Jay and Alvin are at the home of Linda Blake -Colin's mother-. Max is sitting at the kitchen table with Linda with Jay behind her looking at all the things that are magnetized to the fridge and Al leaning against the wall, looking through Colin's notebook.

"It just doesn't make any sense. I don't know what happened to him, he was always such a happy kid"

"I can't imagine how difficult this is, but I have to ask these questions" Max says, "Colin went missing yesterday, but you didn't report it until this morning. Is that right?"

"Oh, I-I got home late. I fell asleep. I just assumed he was here" Ms. Blake says, staring off into her water glass.

"How was he able to get his hands on a gun?" Jay asks.

"My ex left it for my protection"

"Did your son have any activities outside of the swim team?" Max asks.

"Um, video games. Lots and lots of video games"

"So, he was basically unsupervised?"

"It's hard when you work two jobs. It's not like I can afford a nanny"

"That wasn't an accusation, Ms. Blake. Promise"

"Who was Colin's friend..EJ?" Al asks.

"I'm not really sure. He, uh, was an only child. He was used to being alone"

"So, he didn't have one close companion?"

"I wish I could tell you"

Jay grabs the book from Al and looks it over.

"I never knew he was in so much pain" Linda says, starting to cry and Maxine tries to comfort her.

🪩🪩🪩

Platt walks over to her desk from the back vending machine and scoffs, "what are you doing detective?"

Maxine turns around from searching the desk and says, "trying to find where you put the twizzlers. I'm in dying need for them"

"Dying need, huh?"

"Yes" Max said, standing up. Trudy walks over to her and takes out a bunch of books that were hiding them and gives her a package.

Maxine smiles and hugs the sergeant, "thanks Sarg" then walks away.

~~~

Now back on the intelligence unit, the team is gathered at their desks, around the whiteboard as Jay tapes up a picture of Colin Blake.

"Colin Blake. Apparant suicide outside of his school. We're waiting on the ballistics, but the gun that was recovered at the scene is registered to Colin's father" Jay says.

"I questioned the headmaster. He said Colin was a loner. Scholarship student, swim team" Dawson says, sitting at his desk, "He was the kind of kid who you saw around, but never noticed"

"I checked Colin's phone. There's a few texts and calls, but nothing jumps out" Mouse states, "You know, he didn't post much on social media. No manifestos"

"Except that in Colin's journal, he always draws his revenge fantasies with a partner, he talks a lot about a kid named EJ." Maxine says, standing in front of the board, "'talked to EJ at practice. He's the only one who gets it', 'I have to do this no matter what. I hope EJ is with me'."

"So, maybe EJ wasn't with Colin. Something happened. He didn't show up. Colin got cold feet and decided he couldn't go through with it alone and took himself out instead of his classmates" Jay says.

"If EJ is in fact a real person and they were in this together, he could still be planning to carry out the attack on the school" Erin says.

Adam, who is standing at the printer, picking up a piece of paper that had just printed out says, "Well, there's no EJ at Webster, but there are four boys with those initials and one of 'em is on the swim team" then he tapes a picture onto the whiteboard, "Ethan Jones"

"Find him. Get expedited search warrants. Talk to teachers, students, anybody who knew Colin" Hank orders, "I need to know if there's an ongoing threat at Webster country day"

~~~

"Loner, bunch of fights at school, arguments with teachers, violent video games on his computer" Jay tells Hank, as they watch the kid that Kim and Sean just brought in from Webster Country Day, who had just gotten beat up, in the viewing room.

"Guys" maxine says, walking into the viewing room of interrogation with an older male, "this is detective McCabe from the youth division. Since Ethan's a minor, he has to be in there with us"

"As an observer" Hank states.

"Well, he's a minor who hasn't been charged with a crime. Let's play nice" McCabe says.

"You and me" Hank says to his daughter.

"Sarg, let me do this. I used to be this kid" Jay says. Hank nods his head and says, "Hit it"

Maxine opens the door to interrogation followed by her partner and McCabe.

"Hey Ethan. I'm detective Maxine Bishop" Max says sitting across from the boy. Jay sits next to his partner and says, "I'm detective Jay Halstead"

"And I'm detective McCabe. I'm with the youth division" McCabe says, sitting down next to Ethan, "I'm here on your behalf"

Ethan scoffs softly and asks, "Why am I here? I'm the one who got beat up"

"Ethan, I think the kids at school were just scared" Jay says, "Not just about Colin. They're scared about you"

"Did you know that Colin kept a notebook? It's pretty interesting" max says, opening it up, "'talk to EJ at practice today. He's the only one who gets it'. EJ is you, right?" Ethan shrugs, "'I want revenge. I want to kill'" Maxine continues, sliding the notebook in front of the boy.

Ethan takes the black notebook and reads it over and chuckles.

"Is there something funny to you in there?" Jay asks.

"If you knew what it was like, you wouldn't be too happy about it either"

"You're at school with a lot of rich kids and you didn't fit in, like Colin" Jay says, "The rich kids, they look down on you, bully you. You and Colin, you decide to take your revenge"

"You really don't get it. I wasn't planning to kill bullies"

"Then what were you planning?" Jay asks, "What am I not seeing?"

Ethan looks down and says, "Nothing"

"Hey, Ethan, I'm here, alright? Tell me"

And right when Ethan was about to talk, there's a knock at the door and in walks Ethan's mother, Sarah. "Oh, baby, look at you"

"I'm alright" Ethan says, looking away from his mother.

"Alright, Ethan stay with me. Stay with me. What were you and Colin planning?" Jay says.

"You don't have any idea what you're talking about" Ethan says, "All that stuff about Colin, that was his thing"

~~~

"Hey, what's up?" Maxine says, walking into the break room, holding her phone to her ear.

"Sorry to bother you at work, princess. You busy right now?"

"I got a couple minutes. We caught a bad one"

"I'll make it quick, promise. My friend Steve is coming into town and I want you to meet him. I've known him since high school"

"Okay, yeah. Can't wait to meet him" Maxine said, as Hank waves at her to hurt up, "I gotta go. I love you" then she hangs up the phone and walks after Voight.

~~~

After getting a ping on Ethans phone which was at Darren Sanders home, his swim coach. Kim and Sean bring him into the district when they see that the side of his car was spray painted saying 'pedophile'.

"Pedophile. Pretty nasty allegation" Hank says, leaning against the light blue walls in interrogation, while Maxine sits across from the swim coach. Sanders sighs, putting the picture down of his car and says. "You can write anything on a car. It doesn't make it true."

"You know...we thought Ethan was planning on going after the bullies at his school. Turns out his coach was the bully. Or worse"

"The only thing I'm guilty of is looking after a troubled kid."

"Took him under your wing. Spent extra time with him"

"I did. Made sure he got rides. His mom worked late. Sometimes, he'd come for dinner after practice. My wife.." Sanders chuckles, "Well, she's a more the merrier type."

Hank leans his hands on the silver table and asks, "Let me ask you something. You do the same favors for Colin Blake?"

"As a coach, you do what you can. But, Colin, he was definitely under Ethan's influence. He may have turned him against me."

"You did something to him" Hank states, now going over to sit next to Max.

"Yeah, I set boundaries. Because, Ethan...he started showing up out of the blue looking for favors. He wanted too much." Sanders sighs, "it's hard. He lost his father in Afghanistan. But finally, I told Ethan, 'I can't be your father'. He didn't like that"

~~~

After Jay talked with Ethan, he ended up confessing that Sanders had abused him, Colin and another boy named Jeff who contacted Colin and they were planning on bombing Sanders' car the day Colin died but both boys ended up backing out. Now the team is gathered around the whiteboard as Erin tapes up a mystery picture.

"Alright, Sanders did coach at a small prep school in Milwaukee, but he never had a jeff on any of his teams" Erin says, "there was one Jeffrey at the school, but he's black and lives in London"

"I spoke to the Milwaukee police. Never had any charges filed against Sanders, no victim reports" Adam states.

"M.E came back on Colin's death" Maxine says, walking onto the unit with a file in her hand, "Muzzle burn is consistent with suicide, but there wasn't enough gun powder residue on his hand and the angle of entry doesn't make sense"

"Colin was murdered" Jay says, as Voight grabs the file from his daughter.

"It's looking like it. Time of death between 10 a.m and 2 p.m."

"We know where Sanders was then?" Hank asks.

"He was at school with an airtight alibi for when Colin disappeared" Kevin says.

"Uh, guys" Mouse says, "Guys, I just pulled the surveillance footage from the cameras around the emerald city cafe on the afternoon that Colin died. There's one next door"

Mouse plays the video as everyone gathers around to watch.

"Alright, there's Colin" Mouse says, pointing at Colin's moving figure then to the other male, "and that's Jeff. I know, it's not much, but, you know he's 5'10", white, he's got a tattoo on his neck. They left around 1:15"

"So, this Jeff lured Colin out pretending to be another victim and then killed him" Voight says.

"Sanders has to be the one pulling the strings" Jay says.

"I accessed Coach Sanders bank records" Ruzek said, grabbing a file from his desk, "He, uh, liquidated a college fund a week ago for 32 hundred dollars"

"Where's he gonna hire a hitman for that?" Max questions.

"He volunteered at a juvenile detention center last year as a conditioning coach" Al says, "You throw a rock in there, you're gonna hit somebody willing to pull a trigger for that price"

"Find this guy" Voight says, pointing to the computer screen.

Max stops at the door of the break room while Jay walks in where Ethan is sitting and Jay says, "Ethan, um, I got to go, but your moms on her way in, okay?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure"

Ethan looks down and says, "Does my mom need to know?"

"Yeah, man. She does"

"Can you be the one who tells her?"

"If that's what you really want" Jay says, then puts his hand on the kids shoulder and leaves the break room, over to his desk to grab his jacket.

"You okay?" Max asks.

"Do me a favor and don't leave me alone with the swim coach, cause..."

"Hey, I got you"

🪩🪩🪩

After finding out the real identity of Jeff, who is really Jessie Madel. Jay and Antonio chased him at the 'L' station, who then jumped out of the moving train to his death while Maxine and Adam went to Darren Sanders' home to arrest him in front of his guests.

"What is this?" Sanders questions, walking from behind his grill.

"Darren Sanders, you're under arrest" Max says as Adam takes out his cuffs.

"For what?" Sanders says, walking closer to the brunette girl.

"Crimes against children"

Silence lurks between them, as Adam pushes back on Sanders chest, "Step away from her, now!"

"Look, I'm not going anywhere until I talk to my lawyer"

"Yeah? Turn around" Adam says, turning Sanders around, quickly patting him down and then cuffing him, "You know, I'll drag you out of here face first across the ground in front of your guests. Give me a reason, please"

Sanders stays quite again.

"No? Move" Adam says, pulling Darren away to walk back to the car with Max following behind who says to the guests. "Sorry to interrupt your afternoon"

🪩🪩🪩

Jay and Hank walk down the hall towards interrogation, when Maxine stops them at the door, getting off the phone.

"Thanks." Max says, getting off her phone, "Sanders's lawyer is on his way up"

"Well, hold him off. Just let me set the hook" Voight says.

"Sarg. I want to do this" Jay says. Hank looks at Max, who shakes her head no, then looks back at the brunette, "Maybe a little too much"

Hank walks into interrogation and Maxine grabs ahold of her partner's arm and says, "Hey, come on" leading him into the viewing room.

~~~

After Sanders admits to hiring Jessie Mandel. Maxine heads to her locker, where she's met with Sean Roman. "Hey"

"Hey. Hey, uh, listen, I don't like cases like this one, but I'm grateful when you guys do catch 'em. That's for sure"

"Yeah, I guess, huh?" Max says, opening her locker, "Hey, Sean, I'm really sorry to hear about your friend. You know, we all heard about what you were doing for that boy and I'm really sorry he passed"

"Thanks" Roman says, closing his locker.

"Hey, um, listen. If you need to talk to anybody, I'm here. We all care. When I found out I was bipolar I wasn't exactly in a hurry to talk to anyone about it. You're gonna go through what you go through. So seriously, if you need to talk"

"Yeah, I just haven't gotten my head around it yet, you know? Still pretty angry"

"Yeah"

"I appreciate you reaching out" Roman says, then walks away. Maxine sighs, closing her locker.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine feels someone sit next to her at the bar and she slides a beer over to him, "how'd the talk go with Ethan?"

"As good as it can be" Jay said, taking a sip of the cold substance.

"Yeah. It was really brave of him to come out and talk about it"

"So um, speaking of talking...."

"You finally wanna talk about what's going on with you"

Jay sighs, "I'm sorry, Max. Okay? It's just—it's hard knowing you have someone who makes you happy, knowing how I feel about you"

"And how is that?"

"I'm in love with you, angel"

Maxine looked over at her partner in shock, "Jay, I—you said what we had wasn't anything serious"

"I know, I know. But how can it not be serious? When you're you"

authors note;

oh jay jay jay 😭😭