Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 45

Halstead had just spent possibly the most awkward half hour of his life. Raquel Gonzalez had been taken through to a different office further inside the police station, where Lindsay and Upton had left him and Castagnoli to sit with her. Barely a word had been said the whole time. Gonzalez had seemed happy to sit there with a glare on her face and say nothing.

"You ever play poker?" Castagnoli asked her idly.

"I don't gamble."

"Oh, but you do," Halstead said. He just couldn't help himself. "You just walked into a police station on nothing more than Sergeant Lindsay's word that there was a deal waiting for you. We could have arrested you. You'd have been looking at fifteen to twenty years behind bars."

"Please," Gonzalez scoffed. "As if you'd arrest me. You want your dirty hands on Ms Martinez. It's your fault, you and that bitch Lindsay, that she's in this position. Things were going well until you two showed up."

"I've got a tiny violin somewhere," Castagnoli said sarcastically.

The office door opened before an argument could really flare up. Hailey Upton held it open. "We're in here, Bayley," she said.

Oh, here we go, Halstead thought, turning so that he could look at the doorway. Part of him had still been wondering if Martinez was going to show up, or if there was some other kind of trick up her sleeve. It seemed that he now had his answer. She really was taking the deal. It wasn't exactly a great surprise, given the terms she was getting.

"You're most kind," Martinez said dryly.

When she breezed into the office, Halstead got his first sight of her since the last day on the undercover job. She didn't look any different – hair and makeup on point, expensive black suit, smug expression that showed how much better than everyone else she thought she was. It made him angry. Criminals were not supposed to come into the station with that kind of attitude.

"Hello, Raquel. Have they been treating you well?" Martinez enquired cheerfully.

"Yes, boss," Gonzalez said deferentially, getting up to vacate her seat for Martinez, even though there was a free one next to her. It seemed that she didn't find it appropriate to sit as an apparent equal with her 'boss'. That kind of influence probably wouldn't last, Halstead thought with some satisfaction.

Behind Martinez, Manu Diaz came into the office. Halstead recognised him from his time at the Martinez house, but he didn't think they had ever spoken. That didn't change, for Diaz said nothing as he moved to stand behind Martinez, who sat at the table. Gonzalez also stood behind her. Two underlings and bodyguards until the very end, Halstead thought. In a way, inspiring that kind of loyalty was impressive on Martinez's part.

It was time for the FBI to take over the dealings with Martinez. Halstead got up, making way for Upton to take his place.

"Leaving us, Detective Halstead?" Martinez asked. "That's a shame. I'd have liked to deal with you."

Halstead couldn't stop himself taking the bait, but he was determined to have a good comeback. "Why is that, Bayley? So I could outsmart you again? Or are you going to tell yourself it wasn't me who tricked you into thinking we weren't cops?"

Martinez make a dismissive grunting sound. "You really think you won, is that it? You think you've pulled off some kind of major success, you and your sergeant over there? No. You failed. That's what you did, and you both know it. I'll never spend a day in a prison, and I know that angers you. The best outcome you could get was this." She picked up the written copy of the deal with Kelton and brandished it at him.

"Shut your pie hole, Martinez," Lindsay said. "You talk about winning or losing. We're the ones who've won. You're off the streets of Chicago, and so are your guns. You're also going to help us take even more guns off the streets. You see, I don't do this job for the good of my ego, I do it for the good of this city. So while you're in your little house that witness protection gets you, or working some dead end job cleaning toilets, you think back to how you lived before I came along, and ask yourself if you feel like a winner."

Martinez didn't let on if any of that had cut into her. She just remained looking smug. "Whatever you have to tell yourself to get to sleep tonight, Lindsay. But everyone in this room knows that you, and this Kelton guy, have figuratively bent over and took it up the ass from me with this deal. She knows it. Look at her face." She was sneering at Upton.

"Yeah, I know it," Upton said frankly. "But you know what else I know? Nobody is going to have more say in what happens to you from here on than me, Martinez. And you're going to be made to work very hard to hold up your end of this deal. You wanted protection from some Mexican cartel boss putting your ass in the ground, you got it. But now? You're my bitch."

Gonzalez lurched forward to try and get over the table at Upton, but Martinez put a hand on her arm, enough of a signal to stop her.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Lindsay said to Upton with a grin, and promptly left the office.

Halstead followed her, deliberately not giving Martinez the satisfaction of looking back at her. He was more than happy to have Upton's verbal takedown as his last memory of Bayley Martinez.

"You really think we got the better of this thing?" he had to ask Lindsay as they headed back towards the front entrance area.

"Yes, just about. But, Jay? Go meet up with Purrazzo, help her work this hit and run case, and keep her the hell out of my sight for the rest of the day."

"You got it."

That evening, Halstead walked into Molly's on his own. Lindsay had decided to go and see Hank Voight instead, which further suggested that she wasn't happy with the Martinez outcome. Halstead had the impression that she was settling into the routine of using her foster father and former boss as a sounding board when things went sideways at work.

It definitely wasn't a celebratory night for Intelligence, he saw. Only Purrazzo was in the bar, sitting in a booth with Sylvie Brett. Burgess and Ruzek would have gone home to Alex, and Atwater and Olinsky had also apparently decided to pass on a drink.

Oh well, at least there's some company, he thought. Making his way towards his partner and her girlfriend, he held up a finger to Stella Kidd, who was working the bar, indicating that she could bring him a beer when she had a chance. A wave acknowledged him.

"Hey. Join us," Purrazzo said in greeting, moving along her seat to make room for him.

"Thanks," he smiled, sitting down. "Sylvie, how are you?"

"Hi, Jay. I'm good, thanks. It was a quiet day, which is always good in my job."

"I was just telling Sylv that it feels like we ended up holding an L on this Martinez thing, which is my fault," Purrazzo said after taking a bit hit from her bottle of beer. It seemed like she needed it.

Halstead looked at his partner and shrugged. "That's police work. It's not a TV show, where every case ends up with the bad guys in prison and commendations for the cops. Some cases you win, some you lose, some cases, like this one, you end up in a grey area. You learn from what went wrong, and you try to do better next time."

"I can drink to that," Sylvie said, lightening the mood with her infectious smile.

Halstead's beer arrived at the perfect moment for him to raise it to the toast and down half of it. It felt great as it went down.

"Think we'll ever see Martinez again?" Purrazzo asked him.

Halstead laughed. "Oh, I hope so. Because if we do, she'll have done something really stupid. And we'll bury her."

END OF BOOK THREE

A/N: Bayley Martinez is in the custody of the FBI. Who do you think got the best of the situation after the botched raid?

This story will likely return with another case if there is sufficient interest, so make yourself heard if you want it! For now, I'm marking the story as complete. Thank you to everyone for reading, and for the support.