Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 44

"Boss! I've got Raquel Gonzalez on line one!" Ruzek called through to Lindsay's office.

"Thank you!" Lindsay called back. Halstead was with her in the office, along with FBI agents Upton and Castagnoli. They had spent nearly an hour waiting impatiently for this call to come in.

"I doubt you'll have much trouble selling this deal to Martinez. I'd imagine she's going to laugh her ass off when she gets the details," Upton said, her displeasure perfectly obvious.

"You wouldn't have done the deal?" Lindsay said as her phone started ringing, the call having been transferred by Ruzek.

Lindsay put her finger on the speaker button, but didn't press it yet. "You wouldn't have made the deal?"

"I'd have made a deal. Wouldn't have made this one. Kelton has rolled over for her big time."

"Martinez knows people higher up the food chain, on both sides of the border. That's how this works, Hailey, you know that. I agree it's not pleasant though." With that, Lindsay pressed the speaker button to answer the call. "Raquel, this is Sergeant Lindsay."

"Hello. I assume you've done what you needed to do your end?" Gonzalez said, precious little respect in her voice.

Sitting there in silence, Halstead wasn't sure how he felt about the whole thing. He could see both Lindsay and Upton's points of view.

"You're on speaker, Raquel," Lindsay said. "With me are Detective Jay Halstead, who you knew as Jesse, and FBI agents Upton and Castagnoli. We have in front us the terms of a non-negotiable deal that has been signed off by my superior, Superintendent Kelton. You said you'd come in to review it. Can you be here within the hour?"

"Has everything Ms Martinez demanded been agreed to?"

Demanded, Halstead thought. These people really did have a nerve.

"Most of it has. There's no point in us talking about it over the phone when you asked to see it in writing. It's here in writing on my desk. Come to the station as arranged."

"I'll be there," Gonzalez said, and ended the call.

"I dislike her already," Castagnoli said.

"Wait until you meet Martinez," Halstead quipped.

"We had better be able to get some damn good info out of her, that's all I can say," Upton said.

"That'll be up to you," Lindsay said evenly. "Once Martinez comes in, she'll be in your custody. Intelligence's role in it will be over."

"Lucky us," Upton said dryly. Her manner seemed to suggest that she wasn't a fan of the assignment she had been given.

Nearly an hour later, Lindsay's phone rang again. The group of four had spent the time making small talk about various past cases, and about the Martinez one. Halstead was just glad that his past fling with Hailey Upton hadn't even been hinted at. It was in the past, and it could stay there as far as he was concerned. He was very much happy with Lindsay, confident that this time it was going to last.

Lindsay pressed the speaker button to answer the call. "Lindsay."

"Erin, it's Trudy. I have a Raquel Gonzalez at the front desk, saying you're expecting her."

"I am. Thanks, Trudy." The call ended, and Lindsay looked across the desk at the other three. "We're in business. I'll do the talking with Gonzalez. Hailey, you and Claudio can take over when Martinez comes in."

"Apparently we have to make her feel important," Halstead grumbled. Good information or not, it went against the grain to pander to a criminal's ego. From that angle, he could understand Upton's lack of enthusiasm.

"Yes, we do," Castagnoli said. "Then, in time, we have some much bigger fish in our keep net who we don't have to pander to. For a start, Martinez was selling guns. She wasn't manufacturing them, so she was buying them from somebody. That somebody was probably supplying other people too. We can take down the entire network if the cards fall right. That's why we pander to Martinez."

I didn't actually need the explanation, Halstead thought as the four of them got up and left Lindsay's office. His comment had been about having a bad taste in his mouth, not about a lack of understanding of the situation.

The main Intelligence room was empty apart from Zelina Vega, who was sitting at Kevin Atwater's desk, working on his computer. The rest of the team were out working the hot and run case.

"Problem?" Lindsay asked the tech expert.

"Kevin told me his email software keeps crashing and he can't figure out why. I've just started looking into it for him. Haven't been able to replicate the problem yet."

"Okay," Lindsay said. She led the group down the stairs and out of Intelligence.

Following at the back, Halstead saw Raquel Gonzalez standing in the main entrance area, near the front desk. Tall, mean-looking, smartly dressed in a suit, she was exactly how he remembered her.

"Raquel. Join us in here," Lindsay said, heading for the side office off the main entrance hall. There was barely a look between them, let alone a greeting.

The tension in the air was palpable, Halstead noticed. In other circumstances, Gonzalez would no doubt have liked to have tried to shoot both Lindsay and himself in revenge for what they had done to the Martinez crew. He would have liked to see her try, since she would have come up short.

With five of them standing in there, the small office was full. Halstead closed the door and stood in front of it. From there, he watched Lindsay hand over the sheet of paper containing the details of Kelton's non-negotiable offer to Bayley Martinez.

Gonzalez kept a good poker face while she read through the document. It took her a minute or so before she looked up at Lindsay. "This falls some way short of what Ms Martinez told you she wanted."

"Come on, Raquel," Lindsay said tiredly. "Nobody in this room is stupid. We all know Martinez didn't expect to get everything she asked for. We also know she's lucky to have gotten what's on that list, and she will know that too. So how about we cut the shit and you get her on the phone?"

Halstead had to try hard not to smile. He loved it when she took charge of situations like that. In fact it was quite a turn on.

"Alright, you've made your point," Gonzalez conceded. She took out her phone and made a call, avoiding using speaker. Halstead listened to her side of the conversation.

"Hello, boss."

"Yes, I'm here at the police station, with Lindsay, Halstead and two goons from the FBI."

Halstead exchanged a wry look with Upton.

"Yes, I've got their deal in writing, signed off by a Superintendent Brian Kelton. Here are the details: Immunity for you, me, and Manu. Witness protection including new identities for all three of us, somewhere to live, and help to find work. This is in exchange for information that leads to the conviction of the person or persons who supplied you with weapons, as well as other high value targets on both sides of the border, as per your verbal commitment to Sergeant Erin Lindsay. Failure to provide such information will void the agreement, and so on."

There was a pause. Apparently Martinez was considering how to respond, which seemed borderline ridiculous to Halstead. She should have snapped the deal up the moment she heard it.

"Okay, understood," Gonzalez said eventually. She ended the call and addressed Lindsay. "Ms Martinez says although what you've come up with didn't meet her demands, she will accept the deal. She will be here in half an hour."

"She's got some front, your boss," Lindsay said, almost as if she admired it a little.

"What she'd better have is some damn good information," Upton said, sounding increasingly annoyed by the whole charade.

Halstead decided to take satisfaction in the fact that he was only half an hour away from seeing Bayley Martinez come in and hand herself over to the custody of the FBI. No matter what front she put on it, a dangerous criminal whose activities had done a lot of damage to a lot of lives was going to be off the streets. That was a good result. Wasn't it?

A/N: Bayley Martinez is going for the deal. Do you think it is a win for Intelligence? Or is it a win for Martinez?