⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter twenty five. called in dead.

Five masked offenders rush into a nightclub, long guns drawn. One of them shoots at a mirror and another yells, "everyone get down!"

"Everyone get down now!"

The manager, Trenton Bostaph, puts his hands up as one of the masked offenders points their gun at him who says, "I got 10 grand in the safe. Just take it and don't kill anyone, okay?"

"Down stairs!" one of the offenders takes the key from around the owner's neck. "I don't know what you think you've heard. There's nothing down there"

"Go, move!" One of the offenders pushes the owner to guide them towards the basement. One of the offenders blasts open the basement door with their shotgun and they storm in.

"Open it!" One of them says, pointing the shotgun at the man.

"You know this is suicide"

The masked offender takes the key and opens the door, where there were girls standing at tables, packaging the drugs.

"On the floor!"

"Get down!"

"There's no way you're getting out of here alive" Trenton says, as one of the offenders points their gun at him, while two others grab the packaged drugs to put in the duffles and the other two slamming their sledge hammers into the concrete walls.

The masked offenders escape through the whole in the wall just in time for the bodyguards to storm into the room. They run down the street and jump into the back of a blue pick up.

Maxine takes her mask off and smiles looking over at Jay. "That was awesome"

Erin looks behind her from the driver's seat, "did you get it?"

Jay grabs a package and slams it on the back window.

🪩🪩🪩

Erin backs the Chevy truck up into the roll up, where Hank, Mickey and Kevin were.

"Everybody in one piece?" Hank questions, opening the tailgate, so the guys can get out.

"Twenty kilos of pure passion" Dawson says, getting out of the truck followed by Al, Adam, Jay then Maxine.

"Oh yeah. It's been awhile since we pulled a rip. Forgot how much fun it was" Al says, patting Hank on the back.

"I've done some pretty crazy recon missions. That got my heart pumping" Jay smiles, helping Maxine off the truck. Commander Fischer walks down the backstairs and points at Voight and Lindsay, "you two"

Mickey watched as Jay and Maxine were clearly flirting with each other, Whether they wanted to admit it or not. Mickey wanted to be jealous, that Jay was now getting all her attention, but he couldn't be mad, she wasn't his anymore.

Jay walks over to Hank and Erin and says, "the club manager. He's talking"

The group walks into the tech room where Kevin and Maxine were and the officer says, "Yo Sarg. Got a wire up on Trenton's phone and we got eyes right there on the club" he says typing on the keyboard, "through the mini cam that we planted across the street"

"Blue. Hey man. We got hit!" Trenton said, freaked out.

"The police?"

"No. A crew. Dudes were all blacked out! They had on masks! They got the twenty keys!"

"Alright, put out a street reward. Ten grand to any hype crew who coughs up this crew. You don't come up with a name by morning, it's on you"

"Alright, keep listening. Get your overtime" Hank tells Kevin before they all leave the room.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine takes out her keys as she approaches her apartment. She looks up to see him, holding a bag of groceries in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other and she rolls her eyes, "what do you want?"

"Just wanted to see if you wanted to have dinner with me"

Maxine scoffs, "no thanks" then she slides the key into the lock and walks into her apartment. Mavericks stops the door from closing with his foot and says, "Maxine, please. I'm sorry for betraying your trust. I just felt like we were getting to know each other and then I see you with some guy and it just—" he sighs, "look, I'm sorry, okay? Can we start over?"

Maxine sighs, "you were gonna cook?"

Maverick nods his head, "yeah, my mom taught me"

"And you brought me daisies?"

Maverick smiles, holding out the bouquet towards the detective, "I remember you saying they were your favorite"

Maxine accepts the flowers and opens the door more to let the man in, "alright, come in"

"So you forgive me?" He asks, walking into the apartment, putting the grocery bag on the island.

"I gotta test out your cooking first before I make any big decisions" Maxine sasses, closing the door and following the man into the kitchen.

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"Trenton Bostaph, club manager. No priors, not even a parking ticket" Maxine says, standing in front of the whiteboard, while Adam writes on it.

"So, aside from operating a heroin lab, he's also a boy scout" Jay comments, sitting back in his chair.

"Yeah, that's cause Trenton's low level. He answers to this guy, Blue, which is an adorable nickname I put through the known offenders database. Most popular nickname is Shorty...second most popular is..." Adam snaps his fingers as him and Max say, "Blue" in unison. "So, it's gonna take a little while to narrow it down"

"Okay, what do we got on the wire?" Hank questions and right before anyone could say anything, Al walks in with a bouquet of roses and everyone stares at him as he talks with Nadia, who then a few seconds later, walks into the break room.

Hank clears his throat, "So, like I was saying..." then said male, stares at Al, who sits on his desk, "What do we got on the wire?"

"Trenton's been making a lot of calls to this blue cat, trying to buy himself some time" Kevin answers.

"Those twenty kilos are almost two million street value" Dawson adds in, "Trenton's got two choices. Either hop a bus and disappear or get dead, he knows it. I say we bring him in now, flip him, have him reel in blue"

"Bring him in" Hank says, as Max follows after Antonio.

~~~

"Drugs? All I deal is fantasy. I'll give you guys coupons. You can come check it out some time" Trenton says, sitting at a table in the roll up where Maxine and Antonio are questioning him.

"Oh yeah?" Max said, walking around the table towards Trenton.

"Maybe even get you up on stage. You'd win amateur night, hands down" he smirked. Maxine sat on the edge of the table and grabs the cup of water that was on the table and pours it on Trenton's lap.

"Hey!"

"We heard you got robbed last night" Antonio says, leaning his hands on the table.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't report any robbery"

"Think you're gonna find the crew who ripped you off?" Antonio asked, holding up the blacked out face mask, going to sit on the edge of the table, "those 20 kilos of passion. They're on ice in our evidence locker"

"You feel like talking now?" Maxine asked.

"Man, I—I just mange the joint upstairs. I make sure the stuff gets cut downstairs and blue breaks me off a salary for both" Trenton stutters.

"Who's blue? He running the show?" Antonio questions.

"I don't know his real name. All I know, blues their street captain. Muscle. I got problems, I call him"

Antonio looks over at Maxine then back at the club manager and says, "you're gonna set up a meet, tell him you were robbed by some outlaws"

"Bikers?"

"Sounds like a great cover story to me. He'll buy it. The outlaws are the only ones crazy enough to rip you off. Besides us"

Maxine stands up and goes back around the table and says, "we cut you loose, nobody's gonna believe your story anyways. You got robbed by a bunch of cops? And then you owe some very bad men two million." Then she slides Trenton's phone out from the evidence bag and slides it over to him, "make the call, bring us blue, and we'll talk to the states attorney for you"

~~~

Max and Adam are in the cage with 'Blue', who the team just brought in, trying to get him to talk. "So, Blue..." Max says, crossing her arms over her chest, "You got a real name?"

"Barack Obama" Blue says, making Max and Adam both chuckle.

"Oh, I wasn't prepared for this. It's an honor" Adam says, sarcastically, "Mr. President, we know that your part of a heroin ring, runs out of Angels strip club"

"What heroin?" Blue asks, unconvincingly.

"Come on, man. We got you on a wire" Maxine says, "Trenton was the front man, he got ripped off. He was on the hook, and you had orders to either get back the dope or you were gonna kill him...what we wanna know is, who gives you the orders"

"-or, that twenty kilos we ripped from the, uh, club, what do you think, Maxie, we say we found it in his trunk, send you up for thirty years?"

"Mhmm" Max hums and blue scoffs.

"I'm not some corner boy, that's just gonna flip. What I am...is hungry. So, why don't your lady here, fetch me a sandwich"

"Wrong answer, buddy" Adam says, as he watches his best friend ball her hand into a fist and punches blue straight in the jaw.

Adam then pulls her out and locks the cage behind him, "Get comfy"

~~~

Maxine walks onto the unit from the back staircase as Hank says, "tell me"

"He's not gonna flip. I'm gonna call the states attorney, get an ID. and charge blue with attempted homicide"

"No, not yet. You charge him, word will get out on the street. Just keep him chained to the cage and make sure his cell phones charge. We'll wire tape it, see what we get"

"He might also have a bruise forming on his jaw. I have no idea where it came from" Max said, walking over to her desk. Hank smirks and walks back into his office.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine giggles as Maverick flips them over, so he was on top, kissing her all over her neck and she moans, wrapping her legs around his waist and playing with his hair.

Maverick thrusts himself into her and hearing her moan was like music to his ears. He never wanted it to end. This girl was everything to him and he never wanted to let her go.

"Fuckk, Mav. You feel so good inside me" Maxine moans, feeling Mavericks hot breath on her neck.

Maverick connects his lips to Maxine's and they just molded together, like they were one in the same. Like it was supposed to be. "You fit so perfect around my cock, Maxine. Like you were made for me"

And then Maxine's phone rang...and rang...and rang. "Come on" she groans, then she goes to pick up her phone to see jay calling, "it's my partner"

"Answer it if you want. I'm not stopping"

"But—" she says, as Maverick pulls out and starts kissing down her chest and her stomach. Maxine answered the phone, hesitantly, "Hey Jay"

"Where are you?"

"At home, Um.." Maxine says, biting her lip so hard that it started bleeding, so she didn't moan into the phone, "watching a movie"

"You gotta get back to the district. Something happened with Al and his wife"

"What? Are they okay?"

"They're fine. Just get down here"

"Okay, yeah. I'll be there" Maxine says then hangs up the phone, "Mav, stop for a second"

Maverick lifts his head up, his baby blues looking so innocently, "what?" and she sighs.

"I gotta get back to work. It's important"

Maverick kisses up her stomach and her neck and kisses her bloody lip, "okay"

🪩🪩🪩

"Okay, these guys got protection" Voight says, standing at the white board with Mickey, "The question is, how high up?"

"I think I got a pretty good idea" Mickey says, "Prints came back on our offenders. Blue's real name is Carl Johnson. Guys that showed up at Al's house, they're actually brothers, aka the Gary brothers, Jamal and Jesse Seeley. Originally from Gary, Indiana. Known psychopaths, all three of these guys. Rap sheets a mile long. Manslaughter, assault, possession of narcotics with the intent to distribute. They should've been put away a long time ago"

"Who defended them?" Dawson asks.

"Now, that's just it. They all had public defenders. One thing that they did have in common is a judge. Judge Darran Lachlan. He presided over all their cases" Adam says, standing next to the detective.

"Lachlan?" Antonio says and everyone looks at him, "He was named in an FBI sting a few years back. Taken bribes to fix cases. Two judges went down, but he skated"

"Alright, taken bribes is one thing, but are we saying we think a judge is the silent partner in a heroin ring?" Maxine questions.

"I mean, I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory, so I called the states attorney's office, guess who requested to review our wiretap just yesterday?" Adam says.

"You know, my name was on that paperwork for that seizure. So, he'd have access to that and my home address" Al comments.

"Wait, hold on. If we're going after a judge, I'm gonna need a hell of a lot more than speculation" Hank says.

"I looked into his financials. Actually, I didn't, uh, a graffiti artist I busted works at kinkos, total hacker, he did, and it looks like our judge has a, uh, stash house, boss" Adam states.

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Hank, Al, Maxine, Adam and Jay walk into the brownstone owned by Judge Lachlan. They see wine glasses on the table and noises coming from upstairs.

They head upstairs into the master bedroom to see the judge in bed with someone who wasn't his wife. The girl screams and the judge turns towards them with an awful expression. "What are you doing here?"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine and Erin wait in the hall with the Commander, to talk with Hank and Al, who were interviewing the judge. "I just got off the phone with the superintendent. You realize the mess you're making?"

"Judge Lachlan is our main suspect" Hank answers.

"Judge? Suspect? Only the feds use those two words in the same sentence"

"If you buy us some time, we will hang him"

"Not only are you out of time but you're out of an investigation. I want Judge Lachlan released immediately"

"Excuse me, commander" Kevin says, as he and Jay walk around the corner, "I've been running the call histories on the Gary brothers cell phones. One of them made a call to a hard line at the superior court on 26th and Cal yesterday"

"Were they calling Judge Lachlan?" The commander questions. 

"No, sir. The branch clerk, Evan Lormer"

The commander takes the file from Atwater and heads back into the interrogation room.

"We roll in five" Voight says, walking away with Kevin, Erin and Al. As Max was about to walk off, Jay grabs her attention, "Hey Max?"

"What's up?"

"You wanna grab a drink later?"

"Jay, I don't—"

"Come on, just as partners. Live a little, Max"

"Me, live a little? Oh, my sweet sweet jay halstead. You have so much to learn" Maxine smiles, walking away.

~~~

After arresting Lormer, Maxine and Jay bring him into interrogation. Max sits back in her chair, across from the suspect while Jay sat behind him on the bench and says, "Blue? The Gary brothers?Judge Lachlan sentenced them to prison but you forged the order of incarceration papers, and gave them probation instead"

"That's how you were able to get the paperwork on our wiretap" Jay states. Maxine leans forward, "you see what we're up against in this every day and you see the victims firsthand in court. So tell me how a lifelong civil servant decides to work for the other team, and gets into the heroin game?"

"You know what else I see first hand?" Lormer says, "corruption. For years, I've seen officials on the take. The Gary brothers, they came to me, made an offer. I keep them and blue out of prison, they'd give me a cut. So I forged court documents for the three of them"

"The felons you let off, their dope killed kids" Jay states.

"If it wasn't me, it would've been someone else"

~~~

Mickey walks over to Maxine who was shutting off the lamp at her desk and standing up and asks, "hey, max. Um, can we talk?"

"Sure, what's up?" She asks, putting on her leather jacket. And right as he was about to say something, Erin walks out of Voight's office. "Hey guys. I, uh, need to tell you something. A lot of you know that I, I-I've had an offer to take a spot on a federal task force and I've thought long and hard about this...and I've decided to take it"

No one says anything for a moment, so Maxine walks over to her friend and pulls her into a hug, "Congrats, Erin. You deserve it"

"Thanks, Max"

to be continued . . .