⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS TROUBLE
chapter nine. monster.

Sam sits on the couch in Brayden's apartment, having a beer and watching the Blackhawks game, while Wyatt and Denise are playing video games in the next room and Gracie is on the carpet playing with some toys, when there's a knock at the door.

Brayden stands up to answer the door and says, "Colton, hey"

"Hey man" the brunette says, walking in.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just wanted to stop by, since I was in the neighborhood."

"Oh. Sam, this is my brother, Colton, not the one you heard me arguing with over the phone. Colton, this is my partner, Sam" Brayden says, as Sam stands up to go shake hands with Colton.

"Hi, nice to meet you" Sam smiles.

"You too" Colton says, before Sam walks into the bedroom to see how Denise and Wyatt are doing, "so, your new partner, huh? She's pretty"

"And married" Brayden says.

"Then why is she here instead of being with her husband?"

Brayden shrugs and says, "What are you really doing here?"

"It's mom. She's not doing to good"

"How bad is it this time?"

"The doctor gave her 6 months"

Sam stands behind the wall, listening to their conversation and leans her head on the wall and sighs.

🌙🌙🌙

The next day, Hank and Sam walk onto the crime scene at a house in a nice neighborhood where Hailey and Jay are standing in the yard.

"She stole our money to buy her fix. Looks like she was trying to get high before her kids got home" Hailey explains.

"We found a straight razor and a white powder substance. Field tested for oxy. She probably snorted it. We tried like hell, we couldn't revive her" Jay says.

"We'll crack off of a vice report on your attempt to buy. Dump her phone. She must have reached out to her supplier"

"Okay" Jay says, before making eye contact with his wife, who walks away.

🌙🌙🌙

"Do what you need to do" Hank tells Brayden who then goes to his desk to grab his coat and leaves the unit.

"Where's Porter going?" Antonio asks.

"He's taking some furlough to go see his family"

"Alright, guys. Julianna Hudson. Divorced, mother of two. Been in and out of rehab for the past two years" Hailey says, standing at the whiteboard next to Atwater.

"And you had no idea she was Judge Wells' daughter?"

"She's going by Hudson. It's her married name" Jay states.

"We did know she's a small time dealer. Two ODs said she hooked them up with Oxy. We were flipping her to get her supplier" Hailey says.

"Yeah, look, I talked to my CIs. This move into Lincoln park is not the cartels. It's a new player. Nobody on our radar or Narcotics' pushing legit oxy pills" Dawson says.

"Well, we dumped, Julianna's phone records and the last call she made before she OD'd was to a Vance Williams for 32 seconds" Kevin says.

"We ran muds and tolls on the 17 OD's in Lincoln park" Adam says, "Six of them called this guy Vance, too. Got his, uh, social security records. Been working at the Wolcott Grill the last nine months"

"Alright, so why don't Antonio and Kim go talk to him" Hank says, "Listen, it's new turf, but it's the same game. Bust the dealers, flip the minnows into sharks"

"Copy that"

"You know, before Tommy Wells was a judge, he was a cop. We were in the academy together. Good police. Let's do him right"

~~~

Sam walks into the break room to see her husband getting a cup of coffee and asks, "Where were you last night?"

"With, uh, Will. We went to Molly's then his place" Jay says, putting the pot back on the burner.

"You've either been home late or you haven't come home at all the last two weeks. What's going on with you?"

Jay shrugs his shoulders and says, "nothing" before walking back to his desk.

Sam takes out her phone to look at the text message from Will that reads, "'Sorry Sam, I've been so busy at work, I haven't had time to see anyone or go home'"

🌙🌙🌙

"Forced entry to the rear. House wasn't tossed. M.E. puts time of death at 11:30. Single gunshot" Sam explains to Hank, as they walk through the backyard of Vances' house, where he was found dead, "talking to the neighbors. Nothing so far"

"Any intel on Vance's supplier?" Voight asks, as they walk over to Jay.

"No. Just what he told us. Frank Barrett. We're looking into it."

"So, all the crime techs found was one shoe print. It's a size 11. Victim was a size nine, so it could be the killer, but it could also be the fedex guy" Jay says.

"Alright. Get a cast. Put it into evidence." Hank says, walking away to inside the house.

🌙🌙🌙

"Doctor Lewis Macy" Burgess says, taping his picture onto the board. "Two kids in high school. Divorced, no priors. And no apparent connection to our DOA Vance Williams. No phone calls. No emails. These two never crossed paths electronically"

"And I talked to robbery. Dr Macy did file a burglary report." Dawson says.

"And his alibi for the night of Vance's murder checks out. It was parent night at Webster prep. And he's a size nine. Not a match for the shoe print we found at the crime scene" Jay says.

"Still, I wanna get a sneak and peek in the doctor's finances. What about this Frank Barrett guy?" Hank says.

"There's eight Frank Barrett's in Chicago, Sarg. But my money is on the one who runs this bar called Blazes. That's where Vance Williams used to work" Kevin says.

"And two of the names we found on the prescription bottles have one thing in common, they both used to work at Blazes" Sam says.

"Alright, so let's go get some dirt on him, then scoop him up" Hank says.

🌙🌙🌙

"Frank Barrett?" Sam asks, as she and Upton walk up to a guy leaving an apartment building.

"Do I know you?" Barrett asks.

"Chicago PD" Hailey says, showing her badge, "we wanted to talk to you about one of your employees, Vance Williams"

"Oh yeah. He's a former employee. My manager told me what happened to him last night. This freaking city, huh?"

"Yeah, do you have any idea who killed him?" Sam asks. Barrett shrugs and says, "no idea, he's just some guy who used to work for me"

"So, Vance was pushing illegal opioids. We also know some other people in the ring, and the one thing they have in common, they've all worked for you" Hailey says.

"Oh, you think I got something to do with this?"

"You are the boss, right?" Sam asks.

"It's not a church, lady. It's a bar"

"Yeah, first off its detective and second, Where were you last night?"

"I was at my bar. Till close. Look, it's tragic what happened to Vance, but I had nothing to do with it. So if you guys are done fishing here, you'll excuse me. I have to get to work" Barrett says, walking to his car.

"That's a nice ride for a bartender" Upton states.

"Bar owner. A man can make a good living selling booze in Chicago" Barrett says, getting into his car and driving off.

Sam looks at Hailey and says, "why don't we take a ride to the bar? Check out his alibi"

"Mmm" Hailey hums.

🌙🌙🌙

"So, Barrett got prescriptions from Dr Macy. Then he gave them to Vance" Dawson says, pointing to the pictures on the board, "Vance got the runners, distributed the pills. Barrett sealed himself off. Now, without Vance, the only way to Barrett is through Macy"

"And he's not talking" Al says.

"Alright, what about Andrea?" Hank asks.

"Well, we dumped Andrea's phone and right now, there's no obvious connection to her or Barrett" Sam states.

"What we do know is that she has a serious habit. She's gonna be sweating it out in lock up, looking for a fix." Hailey adds.

"That explains the Oxy we found in Macy's apartment." Dawson says.

"Yeah, and you know what else we found? Love notes from the doctor. Post it notes." Kim says, then reads from the file, "'Andrea, you're every pleasure I've ever imagined. No matter how much we're together, I can never get enough of you'"

"Then that's it. We got him. The doctors in love. And we use her to make him flip" Al says.

"This is where he's vulnerable. We squeeze as tight as we can. Cut Andrea loose. Keep eyes on her. Find something actionable" Voight says, walking to his office.

~~~

"We arrested your girlfriend" Sam says, slamming pictures down in front of the doctor in interrogation, "she was buying heroin on the west side"

"She's been trying to wean herself off. She just needs to go back to rehab" Macy says.

"Well, you can make that happen if you start cooperating" Voight says.

"I know what you're trying to do"

"Your cousin is a drug pusher. He killed one man we know of, and he is extorting you. Now, you can save him, or you can save her"

"When I met Andrea, that's when I came back to life. For the first time I was finally doing something for me. And then on top of everything else, I had a divorce to pay for"

"Okay, so you reached out to your cousin Frank, yeah?"

Lewis scoffs lightly and says, "Frank always told me if I ever needed anything...I couldn't pay the loan back. That is when he asked for the prescriptions. Then I didn't know how to get out. So, what about Andrea?"

"Listen, you give us Frank, Andrea walks. You have my word"

"One day, I'm gonna have this darn monkey off my back, and Andrea and I are gonna be together"

🌙🌙🌙

After arresting Frank Barrett for drug induced homicide of Julianna Hudson and attempted murder of his cousin, Lewis Macy, Hank heads over to Judge Wells place to question him about the murder of Vance Williams.

Sam heads to the cemetery to visit Justin and her mom with Gracie on her hip and Wyatt by her side, while Denise spends the night with Gabby and Matt.

After visiting Justin's gave, they walk over to Grace's and Sam sits down with Gracie on her lap and Wyatt next to her and says, "Wyatt, Gracie. This is your grandmother. Mom, these are your grandkids"

Gracie waves as Wyatt says, "hi grandma" then he looks at his mom who has tears in her eyes and says, "it's okay, mom" leaning his head on her shoulder.

Sam wipes her tears and says, "I know, it's just tough sometimes"

"Where's Jay?"

"I, um, have no idea"

a/n:

I'm so sad right now, it's not even funny 🥺
The next chapter is gonna be hard to write 💔🤭😔