⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter thirty six. there's my girl.

Maxine goes to put her gun in its holster as she walks into her kitchen to pour some coffee into her mug. She looks over to see a picture of her, Erin and Nadia at Mollys and she wants to cry but all she can feel is anger.

She grabs her phone from her back pocket to see Maverick calling and she declines it, setting it on the counter. She grabs a glass that was sitting in the sink and throws it against the wall.

"Damn it!"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine walks into the district when she hears, "hey" she looks over to see Platt calling her over, "so the memorial stones in motion and the etchings gonna go right on the side of the building. I'm just waiting on the go ahead from the ivory tower"

"Okay. Thanks for taking the lead on this one, Sarg. I'll tell Lindsay" Maxine said before walking away.

~~~

Maxine walks onto the unit to see the boys putting Nadia's stuff into a box and she stops and just stares.

"Hey, go grab some coffee. We got this" Jay tells his partner, who he knows is an emotional wreck.

"It's just a desk, right? Besides I brought coffee from home" Max says, walking over to her desk and she looks over at Erin who looks completely miserable. Adam walks over to his best friend and asks, "where is your coffee...that you brought from home?"

Maxine looks around and shrugs, "left it at home I guess"

"Anybody we should we sending her stuff to?" Antonio asks.

"Uh, her dad's in Indianapolis. I'll make sure we get it to him" erin says.

"Alright, Fischer just called. He needs us at Tri Taylor" Voight says, leaving his office.

🪩🪩🪩

The Intelligence team walks onto a crime scene and are met with Joe Cruz and Honey Amaro from firehouse 51.

"Hey Antonio" Cruz says, "Bishop, Sergeant"

"Hi, Cruz. Hey Honey" Maxine says, her hands stuffed in her jacket pockets.

"Hey guys" she said.

"What the hell happened?" Dawson questions.

"Bomb went off at 8:42 a.m. We've cleared for radiation. At least four injured, two in pretty bad shape. Two fatalities. One female. One looks like a male" Cruz answered.

"How's that?" Voight asks.

"Still putting him back together" honey states.

"Any idea what caused this?" Max asks.

"IED of some sort. We found screws in buildings all the way down the street"

"Thanks" Voight tells Cruz, giving him a handshake, "nice to meet you, honey"

"I'm gonna go help Jay question any witnesses" Maxine says, walking away and over to her partner.

"So, where were you standing when it went off?" Jay asks a man who just points across the street.

"You're the police?" A young girl asks.

"Yeah, that's right"

Max continues to question the man, as Jay talks to the girl.

"Do you live around here?" Jay asks but the girl stays silent, "Did you see something?"

"Come on, Isabella" an older woman says, putting her arm around the girl, "She's twelve. Got a vivid imagination. Let this man do his job"

Maxine walks over to Jay as the girl and the woman leave and asks, "What was that about?"

"I don't know yet"

Maxine and Jay walk back over to their team, as a man runs to an ambulance.

"Nobody saw anything. It's an explosion, a lot of glass" Al says.

"Same inside" Lindsay adds.

"Alright, well keep knocking on doors. Hey Al, you and Ruzek go question the husband once he calms down"

Jay taps Maxine's on her shoulder and she looks up to see the little girl Jay was talking to, staring at them.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine and Jay walk up to the apartment of the little girl and her mom and Jay knocks.

"Police" Jay says and the door opens, "Detectives Halstead and Bishop, Chicago PD"

"Yeah, we met"

"If you wouldn't mind, we just wanna talk to your daughter for a quick second"

"She didn't see anything" The woman says, closing the door but Jay puts his hand there to stop it.

"Two people died in that bombing" Max says.

"Mom?"

"Get back in your room and finish getting ready, now!... last year a kid in Isabella's school testified in a gang shooting and a week later he was found with a bullet in his head"

"I get it. We're gonna put her down as a confidential source" Jay says.

"Oh yeah? Are you gonna give her a lollipop too? And the next thing you know, she's compelled to testify and when word gets around, how am I gonna keep her safe? I can't afford to move out of my place, let alone put her in a new school and start over"

"We understand your concern, but how is your daughter gonna feel knowing that her mother didn't let her help get the people who did this?" Max asks.

"I know she saw something and I know she wants..." Jay starts to say, when the woman closes the door in the detective's faces.

🪩🪩🪩

back on the unit, the team is gathered around the whiteboard, as Antonio tapes a picture onto it. "K-Trick, otherwise known as Kenny T. Reevis. He's a gangster Disciple, not top of the pyramid, but he's got some corners"

"Been brought up on racketeering charges twice, but the cases fell through when the witnesses dropped the charges" Lindsay says, leaning on Dawson's desk.

"Finally got the analysis on the IED back from the bomb unit" Mouse says, taping a paper onto the whiteboard, "Now whoever built it used a pressure cooker. They filled it with nails, screws, glass, some small grade explosive"

"I think that's the same kind those guys used for the boston marathon bombing" Kevin says.

"Yeah, see you hook it up to a cell phone and ka-blammo, the shrapnel projects out, shreds everything in its path. It's uh, nasty stuff" Mouse says.

"Jay and I are working on a witness. A little girl who lives across the street. Her mom shut us down, but we're gonna go at her again" Max tells the group.

"No other witnesses?" Voight questions.

"None willing to talk. No security cameras in the cafe" Olinsky answers.

"Alright, Mouse, run the victims for domestic disputes, orders of protection. Make sure none of them was the intended target" Voight orders, "Rest of you, get a beat on Reevis"

~~~

Adam walks into the break room to see his best friend standing at the counter holding the coffee pot and just staring off into space. "Maxie?"

"Huh?" Maxine says, shaking her head and she puts the coffee pot back on the burner, "what's up?"

"What's going on? Talk to me"

"What's there to talk about?"

"About Nadia's death"

"Mhmm" Maxine shakes her head, "No" then she walks away.

Maxine walks down the hall when someone grabs her attention, "Max" and she turns around to see Voight, "how you holding up?"

"I'm fine. Just wish everyone stopped asking me"

"I'm not everyone"

Maxine shrugs, "I miss her. Like everyone else" then she walks away.

🪩🪩🪩

"Jay! Good to see you"

"Father McClosky. Thanks for meeting me" Jay says, shaking the priest's hand.

"And whos this?" Father McClosky asks, looking at Maxine.

"This is my partner, Maxine Bishop"

"Nice to meet you father" Max says, shaking the man's hand.

"I saw something on the news the other night, about the young woman that worked in your district"

"Yeah" Jay says and Maxine looks down at the ground.

"I'm so sorry for your loss. I'll say a mass for her"

"Thanks. I appreciate that. We really do" Jay says.

"Is that what you wanted to see me?"

"Actually, uh, I was hoping you could pull a few strings for me"

"Let's take a walk"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine and Jay go back to Isabella and her mother's apartment and Jay knocks.

"Leave"

"Not until you hear us out" Maxine says and the mom closes the door again and Jay knocks...again.

"I'm gonna call the cops"

"You'd be calling us, essentially" Jay says and holds up an envelope, which the mother takes, "King of cross academy. Full scholarship for Isabella...Just want to ask her a couple questions. Show her a photo"

"She doesn't testify"

"Absolutely not"

Maxine and Jay walk inside the apartment and sit in the living room to ask Isabella a few questions.

"I was waiting outside while my mom got coffee and this guy came in with a blue backpack. I remember cause my friends got the same one. But when he came out, it was gone"

"Okay. Was this the man you saw?" Jay asks, showing her a picture of Reevis.

"That's not him. The guy I saw was white with a beard"

Maxine and Jay look at each other.

"Do you remember anything else about him?" Max asks.

"His right hand, he had scars all over it"

"That's it" the mom says, "That's enough"

"Okay" Jay says, "Thank you so much Isabella"

"You're welcome"

🪩🪩🪩

"Let's keep an eye out for Carden" Kevin says, through his walkie.

"Copy that. We got eyes on the front entrance" Maxine says and she and Jay sit in their vehicle, looking out for Carden.

"I can't believe you let me drive" Jay states.

"It's my gift. Well, it's...from nadia. I told her how you said you feel like a house husband riding shotgun all the time." Max chuckles, "and she got all righteous and she goes, 'Max, you need to let him drive a little'" making them both smile.

"You know what we need? A Kuma's night. Black Sabbath burgers. That was Nadia's spot, right?"

"Yeah" Maxine said, trying to keep her tears in.

"That's Carden" Jay says and he and Maxine get out of the car, but when Carden notices them he runs.

As Jay chases after him, Max takes the car and follows after them down an alley. Jay gets into the vehicle and Max follows after the red pick up truck Carden just stole.

"Halstead. Location" Dawson asks over the walkie.

"On Lake. We'll cut him off on ashland"

"We're approaching ashland now"

After a long chase of running lights, stop signs and Carden hitting cars, said male drives through a bus stop, gets out of the truck and starts running as Antonio and Jay get out of their cars and chase after him.

🪩🪩🪩

Max is waiting in interrogation with Carden when Kevin walks in and hands him a coke.

"You got my jack, too?"

"That ETD machine is good. Only takes seconds to detect explosive material, like the trace amount of potassium nitrate on your jacket" Maxine says, leaning against the wall. 

"Now we already got you for the bombing. Just tell us who hired you" Atwater says.

"Yeah, I'm really not seeing a good reason to talk" Carden says.

"Yeah, well, I can give you a couple good reasons to talk" Kevin says.

"I'm going away no matter what. I might as well go back not a snitch"

"We found three Gs in your room. Probably more you already spent. Money didn't put itself in there. Means you got paid" Max states.

"You got it all figured out, why bother me?"

"You could be looking at two life sentences" Max says, leaning her arms on the silver table, "Now we can think of a whole lot of ways to make that time easy or hard. It's up to you"

"Yeah, you know what? I really don't care. It doesn't make any difference"

"If he doesn't give up a name, take him down to the cage" Max says, leaving the room and heading to her desk.

"Carden didn't have a burner phone, didn't call anybody from that apartment except his parole officer. Never even wrote a letter" Jay states.

"We should have his call records from statesville any minute" Anotnio says.

"That was Chicago med" Adam says, hanging up the phone, "Elizabeth Brahmer just passed away"

"Did Carden give you anything?" Max asks Kevin, who just left interrogation.

"Giving him five minutes to weigh his options. I think he's gonna go"

"Sam Carden did a couple day's work with Melvins Electric which does all the wiring in Norcross's buildings" Al tells the team, walking over to his desk.

"A few months ago, Graham Norcross asked the county assesors for an updated property value estimate on the Brahmers cafe, it turns out the land was worth four times what it was when he bought it" Jay states.

"The Brahmers have a ten year lease, so if Norcross wanted them out, he'd either have to write 'em a check or make 'em leave" Lindsay says.

"So, you hire someone who says they can scare them out, but the device over delivers" Jay adds.

"Maybe Norcross had Carden do the electrical fire up the block, too" Max suggests.

"Let's ask him" Voight says, getting up and going to interrogation to talk with Carden, when suddenly the team hears Hank yell, "Call an ambo!"

~~~

"Ambulance is two minutes out" Adam says.

"Guys he's not gonna make it" Lindsay says, putting pressure on the wound where Carden used to cut himself with the soda can.

"Who the hell left the can in here?" Voight asks and Max looks at Kevin.

~~~

After finding out it was Mason Brahmer who planned out the bombing. Jay, Max, Erin, Kevin and Adam sit at their desks talking about Elizabeth Brahmer.

"Alright, I'll notify the wife's family. That's always a fun call" Lindsay says, sarcastically.

"I'll call Portland PD" Jay says.

"Gotta be a punch to the gut after all these years" Ruzek says.

"The family deserves to know what happened to their daughter" Maxine says, leaning against the filing cabinets.

"Atwater, in my office" Voight says.

~~~

The intelligence team, plus Trudy, Sean and Kim, stand around the stone Roman's cousin made for Nadia for the district building in her honor.

"Deputy Chief sent this over. I figured I'd share it" Lindsay says, opening up the piece of paper, "'Ms. Decotis. This letter is to commend you on being accepted as a recruit to the chicago police department', she would've made a hell of a cop. Certainly one of the bravest"

Jay grabs ahold of Maxine's hand as everyone takes a moment of silence for her. Maxine looks over at her partner, whose head was down in silence for Nadia.

~~~

Maxine leaves the locker room, fixing the strap of her duffle on her shoulder as she passes by Jay.

"Hey, we're all heading over to Mollys. Pour one out for Nadia. Think we could all use a drink right now. You in?"

"Uh, yeah. I'll try and make it" she said before walking away, causing jay to sigh.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine walks into some bar to meet up with her sister and mother. "Hey" she says, sitting down next to her twin.

"Hey"

"She here?"

"Grabbing drinks" Honey says, "I'm sorry about Nadia"

"Thanks" the detective says, sitting down next to her sister as their mother, Dylan walks over to them with three beers in hand.

"Hey sweetheart. You made it" the older woman smiles.

"I was supposed to meet up with my co workers but I can't be around them right now"

"Yeah, I understand that. In a time like this you need family. Right, Honey?"

"Sure, Dylan" the firefighter said, grabbing her beer from the older woman's hand.

"Hey, I brought some family photos. You girls wanna have a look?"

"Sure, i guess"

Dylan takes out a photo album to show her daughters, "this is me and my best friend Stephane in high school." Then she turns the page, and Maxine squints her eyes, stopping her.

"How do you know this person?" Maxine asks, pointing to the picture of her mother with a man. Dylan clears her throat, "that is um, your father"

"you're joking, right? How do you know him?"

"That's your father. He was my high school boyfriend"

"No fucking way"

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

Maxine stands up and grabs her coat, "I—I gotta go" then she walks away.

authors note;

now that maxine knows about hank, what's gonna happen???😳😳😳