⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter forty six. forget my name.

Maverick walks up behind his girlfriend, who was in a daze, and wraps his arms around her waist and kisses her neck. "Babbyy..."

"Mhmm" she hums.

"Where's your head at right now?"

"When is your friend Steve coming?" Maxine asked, turning around to face him and touching his tie.

"Should be here sometime tonight"

"Okay" she said, leaning in for a kiss, pulling at his tie, "I should get going. Voight wants me there early today" then she walks to her safe to grab her gun and leaves.

🪩🪩🪩

"How well do you know this guy?" Jay asks, as he and Antonio walk over to a guy Antonio knew from Vice about a tip.

"He's a solid dude. You'll see" Antonio says, "Dominic. Meet detective Jay Halstead. He works with me in Intelligence"

"How's it going?" Jay says, holding out his hand for a handshake which Dominic takes.

"How you doing? I thought you said this was going to be just me and you, but, uh, I guess that's okay. So, uh, how's intelligence work this?" Dominic says.

"You bring us a tip. We sign you up as a reliable confidential informant." Antonio says, "and you only work for intelligence."

"Yeah, I can't be on paper"

"Well, if your names not on paper, then we can't get you paid as a CI" Jay states.

"I'm not doing it for the money. I'm doing it for the greater good"

"And I'm not in Vice anymore. We make you a John Doe informant." Antonio says.

"No, I can't do that either. I've been promoted, okay. Look, we gotta play by the NSA rules here, okay. This tip doesn't exist. This conversation never happened."

"Alright, well what's the tip?" Jay asks. Dominic hands him a folded up piece of paper and says, "Narcotics. I overheard a flagged call, said they were moving 'heavy weight'"

"So, a phone number and a license plate. So, how do you know the phones dirty?"

"NSA listens to everything. They record everything" Antonio explains.

"Yeah, but come on. Narcotics chatter"

"Everything" Dominic interrupts, "Certain phrases on the phone raise red flags. I analyze that data. If it's not terrorism, it's not federal. Special ops can drop it down to you guys. That phone raised a red flag. I overheard the license plate. Follow that number. You'll be pulling down multiple kilos."

"Appreciate this, Dom" Antonio says.

"You own me one" Dominic says, walking away.

🪩🪩🪩

"We got eyes on this guy yet?" Voight asks, through his walkie as he and the team do an undercover sting.

"Not yet, Sarg. But his cellphone is within 20 meters, so he's gotta be on this block" Atwater says, as he and Mouse are in the van across the street looking at surveillance.

"I got him" Antonio says, walking down the sidewalk, "Brown jacket. White sneakers. I don't got a lot of room to work."

"Alright, we got our drug runner. Now, where's our target vehicle?" Hank asks.

"Nothing yet" Antonio says, crossing the street, passing by a taxi, driven by Adam and Al gets out of the back to now follow after the suspect.

"Do you see it?" Mouse hears over the monitored phone calls.

"Yeah I see it"

"Black sedan"

"Keys in the wheel well"

"Where am I going then?"

"I'll text you the address when you're moving"

As the suspect grabs the keys from on top of the wheel and drives off. Al walks out to the middle of the street to try and get the license plate. "Yeah, it's a negative match on the license plate. The target is moving. South on Pulaski"

"Yeah, looks like they're gonna do a car switch" Mouse says. Kevin gets out of the van and follows after the black sedan.

"Got a positive ID on that plate we got a tip to. It's on a tan pick up" Kevin says into his walkie, "he's in motion. He's making a right on 2nd street"

"I got the eye" Voight says, "offender is eastbound in the target vehicle. Get set up for takeaways"

Maxine and Jay are dressed in patrolman uniforms and in a patrol car and Max puts on the red and blue lights to pull over the tan truck.

As the two partners get out, Max on the drivers side and Jay on the passenger side, the suspect rolls down the window and the detective says, "Morning. license and registration"

"What's the problem, Officer?"

"You got a brake light that's flickering. License and registration"

"Right. It's gotta be in here somewhere" he says, going to grab it while Roman and Burgess drive down the street in front of the truck.

As Bishop grabs the license and registration from the suspect, she backs away to the patrol car when he gets out and Jay says, "Sir. Sir, get back in your car"

The guy goes to grab his gun from behind his back and Jay yells, "gun!" Then shoots the suspect several times.

Roman, Burgess, Halstead and Bishop walk over to the suspect who was now laying on the ground with their guns drawn and Max picks up the suspects gun.

Roman goes to check the tailgate of the truck that was covered up and lifts up the cover and says, "Holy..."

"We got Kilos?" Max asks.

"Nope, we got a body"

Maxine walks over to Roman to see the body and says, "what?"

"They took his hand off"

Burgess looks through the phone she found in the front seat of the truck and says, "Drivers phone. Couple of numbers saved."

"Well, it's a start, I guess" Maxine states.

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"The driver of our target vehicle. Ignacio Perez." Jay says, taping his picture onto the whiteboard, "organized crime snatched him up last year on drug conspiracy charges. They found four bricks of Sinaloa heroin on him, but he was never charged."

"So, he cut a deal" Antonio says, "get the case file from narcotics, see who Perez was flipping on. Maybe they connect to the body in the truck."

"Yeah, the real issue is, not even trace amounts of heroin were found in the truck or on the body."

"And whose identity is still unknown" Al adds.

"Yeah. We're still trying to figure that out. Minimal blood found in the truck bed." Kevin says, taping a picture of the victims missing hand onto the board, "but we did find this lying around"

"Alright, so cause of death is the double tap to the chest." Adam explains, "M.E estimates time of death based on lividity as about eight hours ago. Forensics says Perez's gun is not a match and so far, none of his DNA has been found"

"Whatever was attached to his wrist, they wanted it bad enough and it wasn't heroin" Jay says.

"Strangest dope tip I ever worked" Hank states.

"Tony, What does your source say about this?" Al asks.

"I don't know. I left word" Antonio says, leaning his hands on his desk.

"ASA kot needs to meet" Hank tells Antonio, then says to the team, "okay, somebody saw something. The vehicle Perez used, that garage. Who paid for that stuff?" Then he leaves, followed by Antonio.

~~~

While Hank and Antonio go talk with ASA Kot about the case. Maxine walks into the locker room to see her partner and says, "Hey"

Jay smiles, closing his locker and says, "Hey"

"Thanks for this morning. Perez could've shot me, if you weren't there"

"Anytime"

Maxine looks down, "yeah" then she starts to walk away.

"Max, wait"

Maxine sighs and turns towards her partner, not making any eye contact.

"look, I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have put that on you the other night. It was driving me crazy, not being able to tell you"

"And now you're just figuring it out? You couldn't have figured it out last year? I'm happy now, Jay. I found someone who loves me for me"

"I'm sorry. I know I'm too late"

"You never had good timing, when it came to us, Jay" she said before walking away.

~~~

"Hey, we ID'd our one armed man" Jay says, leaning on his desk as Voight and Dawson walk onto the unit, "his name is Roger Harrington. His prints were in a defense department database. Yeah, because he worked at Gnomic systems."

"They make encryption devices for the Pentagon. Really sensitive stuff." Maxine explains, handing Hank a file, "his wife, Nora, happens to also work there."

"We find a connection between Perez and our victim yet?" Hank asks.

"No, we got nothing. Zero DNA, no fiber matches." Kevin says, standing up from his desk, "at this point, we don't even believe that Perez killed Roger Harrington."

"Mouse, you get anything off that phone yet?" Jay asks.

"This thing?" Mouse says, getting up from his desk, "no, see, this thing is not a phone." Then he throws it back on his desk, "it's a paper weight. Look, how many times do I have to tell you guys, when you bring in an offender, you turn off their phones. Somebody was monitoring that thing. Alright? They tracked it back to the district and then they wiped it. Remotely."

"I can get the phone data. No warrant" Antonio states.

"Great, from your source. Who, by the way, have you heard from?" Jay says.

"No, he'll turn up"

"Meanwhile, we got police work to do. Come on" Hank says.

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"How long did you work with Roger?" Jay asks, as he and Maxine walk with Mark Ellsmere and Ms Goldsmith down the hall at a gnomic systems.

"Six years" Ellsmere says as they walk down the hall, "I've spent more time with him than my wife"

"Did you notice any change in his attitude lately?" Max asks.

"Was he ever coming into work late? Or agitated?" Jay asks.

"Uh, no. Nothing like that" Ellsmere says.

"We'd like to take a look at your workspace." Max asks. Mark takes a hold of his key chain holder and says, "Sure, it's over here."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. All research past this door is classified" Ms Goldsmith, the lawyer says.

"Uh, Ms Goldsmith, I'm no lawyer, but just try to see how this looks from my end. One of your engineers gets killed and your company brings in legal counsel to talk to us. And you start locking doors" Jay says.

"My office will furnish and provide unclassified information you request. But this facility is not yours to search."

"You probably get this all the time but you have a really winning disposition."

"We're finished here" she says, then walks away with Ellsmere following behind her.

"We'll be in touch" Bishop says.

"That's great" Jay says. Max starts to walk away then looks behind her, "Jay"

"You gotta call Voight" Maxine says, as she and Jay walk outside, "We gotta get a warrant to get in there"

"Especially since that lawyers the type that'll read it."

"Uh, excuse me, detectives" Ellsemere says, chasing after Max and Jay, "what do you know so far?"

"About Roger?" Maxine asks.

"About Gnomic systems. We got a problem. Sat phone encryption chips walking off campus."

"When was this?" Jay asks.

"Tuesday. The company's investigating. Look, I wouldn't have thought about Roger, except...you know, now with him getting killed."

"Who would want these chips?" Max asks.

"Bad, bad people. Terror cells. They'd kill for anything that keeps their operations secret."

"Why not call the police when this happened?"

"Because these chips go straight to the pentagon" Jay says, "and they don't want to admit that their gear went missing"

"Uh, kind of, sorta yeah" Ellsmere says back away.

"Hang on, wait." Max says, "can you track these things?"

"Look, I gotta get back. I'm sorry" he says before walking away. Maxine sighs and Jay says, "wow"

🪩🪩🪩

Maverick walks into the bathroom to see his girlfriend fixing her hair and he smiled. Maxine looks over at him and said, "what?"

"You look really good, baby" he said, walking over to the detective and cups her cheeks with his warm hands and leans in for a kiss, "I'm about ready to tell Steve to leave and spend the rest of the time in bed with you"

Maxine laughs and slaps his chest, "stop. Come on, dinners gonna get cold" then she grabs his hand, so they could leave the bathroom.

"You mean the take out you ordered"

Maxine shrugs, "Same thing"

~~~

"Thank you for having me over to your home, Maxine. This place is coming together nicely" Steve said, taking a bite of an egg roll.

"Thank you. It's almost there. Finally feels like home"

"So, Maverick said you were a cop?"

"Detective. With the best unit in chicago"

"I wish my job was as exciting as yours. I'm just a club owner"

"You're a club owner too? The night life must excite you"

Steve shrugs, "yeah, most days"

"Well, I'm gonna use the bathroom" Maverick said standing up, putting his napkin on the table, "I'll be right back" then he walks away.

"So, has Michelle bothered you yet?"

Maxine raised an eyebrow, "who's Michelle?"

"You know, Mavericks crazy wife. Well, I mean they're separated, but she refuses to sign the divorce papers" Steve said then stopped talking when he saw Maxine with tears in her eyes, "oh, I—I I'm sorry. I thought you knew. If it makes you feel better, he hates her"

Maxine could feel her heart racing. She knew it was too good to be true.

"Steve, man you're telling Maxine embarrassing stories about me aren't you?" Maverick asked, walking into the dining room.

"I um..." he stammers. Maverick looked at his girlfriend, who had tears in her eyes, "Baby, what's wrong?"

Maxine gets up and storms past him, grabbing her coat and keys and leaves the house.

Maverick grabs Steve's collar and pushes him against the wall, "What did you do to her?"

"I thought she knew, man. I—I didn't know she didn't know about Michelle"

"You told her?!"

"Why didn't you?"

"Because she's my past, man. She was a mistake"

"Then you should've told her"

🪩🪩🪩

"Everybody this is Dominic Grillo" Jay says, walking back onto the bullpen with Antonio's source, "he's, uh..."

"I'm the reason you guys are all here" Dom says looking at his tablet, "so, I couldn't sleep last night, so I ran a Memex search on the flagged phone."

"Dominic. Memex? What's Memex" Antonio asks.

"It's a visual search tool developed by DARPA" Mouse explains, "It displays links within criminal enterprises. I've never actually seen it"

"Yeah, well, here it is" Dom says, raising an eyebrow, "In this case the links are between cell phones. We got about 12 cell phones in this cluster. Most of them are burners, no name. We don't know who they are. But the nexus is Nora Harrington. Every one of these phones called her at least once"

"Nora Harrington. The victims wife" Hank says.

"So, she set the whole thing up?" Adam says.

"Meaning she's got the stolen chips" Antonio says, "she works in sales. She's gonna sell them."

"Her husband had access to that gear. So, she used him as her inside man" Al adds.

"Yeah, but how does a woman who looks like that, runs in her circles, end up in bed with a career drug runner? And more important, who's she selling to?" Hank questions.

"Well, likely buyers are terrorists. Local guys with connections overseas."

"Alright, so I'm gonna state the obvious." Adam chuckles, standing up from his desk, "We're trying to solve a Homicide by looking for computer parts."

"Yeah, well we've got no weapon, no homicide scene. If we're gonna solve this, we gotta find those chips before they disappear"

~~~

After getting some hidden cameras set up in Nora Harrington's house. Erin and Jay watch the house from across the street in a van on surveillance equipment. Maxine leaves the district and passes by Al who says, "I just got sent an address. Let's take a ride, kid"

🪩🪩🪩

"Aaron Franceur" Olinsky says, as he and Maxine walk down the hall of the Gnomic systems building towards the red head male who was the head of security there.

"We're here to search your office. And then your home" Max says.

"For what?" Franceur asks.

"Stolen company property" Al says as Max hands him the warrant. Franceur scoffs and says, "you got yourself turned around like you wouldn't believe"

"Yeah? Well, we'll see"

🪩🪩🪩

"Talking to one of my employees without me?" Dana Goldsmith asks Jay, as she follows Maxine onto the unit.

"You know what, he came on his own violation. I meant volition." Jay says.

"Very cute, detective" Ms Goldsmith says, following Max to interrogation.

"Don't be the cliche. Be the nice lawyer"

"They just sat down" Bishop says, hurrying up his conversation.

🪩🪩🪩

After Mouse and Dominic work their magic to track Nora Harrington's most active geo tags on her phone going back six months. The team is now at a storage unit standing in front of her now empty storage unit.

Hank sighs then takes out his walkie and says, "We're too late. Any activity outside?"

"No one coming or going" Al says, as he sits passenger to Adam who is driving.

Then they hear a metal sound and Hank, Maxine, Erin, Antonio and Jay head towards the sound by the stairwell.

"Go. We'll take this floor. Jay, Erin you take the floor below us" Hank says. Max and Antonio open the door with their guns drawn and walk up the stairs to where the noise was.

"Ready?" Maxine asks, holding onto the door handle.

"Ready" Antonio says, as Bishop opens the door so they can clear out that floor of the storage unit.

As they get closer to the banging noise, they see two males trying to get out.

"Don't move!" Antonio shouts.

"Put your hands on your head, now! Get down on the ground" Maxine shouts. While max still points her gun at the two men, Antonio picks up the silver case and keys his walkie, "we got two in custody with the gear. No sign of Nora Harrington"

"We did nothing wrong" one of the men says. Antonio opens the silver case to reveal all the chips.

"Anything?" Voight asks Jay as they meet up on the floor they were searching. Then they hear a car alarm and they race towards the window to see Nora Harrington getting into her car and Voight keys his walkie, "Al, Atwater, Ruzek. Get in that Alley. Targets coming to you"

🪩🪩🪩

After arresting who they thought was Nora at first which was really Aaron Franceur. They bring him back to the unit and into interrogation.

"So, you and Nora Harrington" Hank says, handcuffing Franceur to the pole on the bench.

"We met at work. We'd both spent time overseas. We had more in common than her and her husband. She convinced him to 'liberate' the bear from the lab."

"And your plan was what? Clip the husband? Just disappear?" Maxine asks, sitting on the silver table in front of the bench.

"No. Roger showed to give me the chips. He tried to get tough. Said he knew about me and Nora. Said he didn't need us. So, I did what you know I did."

"But now you gotta move a body. And show up at work. So, you called Ignacio Perez."

"My brother owns buildings on the west side. Perez collected rent. Didn't mind getting his hands dirty"

"Well, you shouldn't have done that" Voight says, taking a seat next to Franceur, "Perez's phone was on a list. If you'd just called your mommy, you and me never would have met."

"Me and Nora. Two days ago, we were, I don't know. We weren't this"

"You know where Noras at now?"

"Yeah, she's waiting on me"

🪩🪩🪩

After grabbing up Nora from a bar. Adam walks onto the unit with Dana Goldsmith and Jay says, "Ooh, a little late. Your boy really wanted to talk. Couldn't shut him up"

"Uh, it's this way. I'll show you back" Adam says.

"I know the way" she says, then she takes out her pen and writes something down on the notepad on Jay's desk and walks away following Ruzek. Jay takes a look and sits back on his seat, in shock.

Maxine looks up from her paperwork and Jay rips out the paper from his notepad and throws it away.

🪩🪩🪩

Maverick looks to see Maxine walking into the house and setting her keys on the table. He practically jumps off the couch and races over to her, "baby, I've been calling all night"

"Don't touch me" she says, walking up the stairs to their bedroom.

"This is not how I wanted you to find out. I swear, I was gonna tell you. I was just waiting for the right time"

Maxine turns around, fire in her eyes, "the right time? We've been together for 11 months, Maverick. You have had 11 months to tell me"

"Baby, please—" he says walking towards her. Maxine pushes back on his chest, "you're married, Maverick" tears blurring her vision, "you're married!"

"We're separated. She's crazy, Maxine. I can't even describe to you how bad that relationship was. She refuses to sign the papers"

"I knew we were moving too fast" she sniffles, going to grab her suitcase from the closet, "nothing ever stays good in my life"

"Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving" she said, throwing the suitcase on the bed and packs some clothes. Maverick gets on his knees, wrapping his arms around her waist, "baby, please. I'm begging you, please don't leave me. You're the only thing good going in my life right now"

"You lied to me, Mav. You said I was everything to you. You said you wouldn't do anything to hurt me"

"And I meant it" he said, looking up at his favorite brown eyes, "you're the love of my life, Maxine"

"I'm going to stay with Erin for a while" she said, getting out of mavericks grip and zips up her suitcase and leaves. Maverick stood up and watched the love of his life walk away from him, he could feel his heart break into a million pieces.

authors note;

uh oh 😦