Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 73

The whole Intelligence team had been instructed to gather in the bullpen first thing Monday morning, apart from the unavoidable absence of Gonzalez. They were all there when Halstead walked in, with Vega sitting on the edge of Purrazzo's desk. Lindsay had hung back to talk to Trudy Platt at the front desk, mainly so that she could come in last, he suspected.

The first thing Halstead noticed was that Burgess looked a lot better than the last time he had seen her. Physically looking better didn't mean she was mentally in a good place though, he knew.

"Morning all," he said in a sombre tone, picking up on the mood in the room. The mass shooting was still raw for everyone.

Muted greetings came his way from everybody.

"Kim, how are you?"

"Okay," she said after a moment of consideration. "But tired. My sleep is all screwed up."

Night terrors, Halstead suspected, but he wasn't going to question his friend on it in front of the whole team. He made a mental note to get a few minutes with her one on one when he could. Aside from their friendship, he was going to have his first shot of being the boss for the next two weeks, and that made her wellbeing his responsibility. Giving her a compassionate smile, he sat down at his desk.

"You okay?" Purrazzo asked him.

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah."

In this case, yeah was relative for both of them. No cop could be okay after what had been done in their city, much less when it had affected one of the members of their team in such a big way.

Lindsay came up the stairs then, ready to hold the team meeting. "Morning, everyone," she said as she walked to her usual place at the top end of the room, by the big white board.

Greetings of 'morning' or 'sarge' came from everyone.

"Right, I'm sure you don't need me to go into the basics of what happened Friday night. I'm also sure everyone here joins me in gratitude to Kim for what she did, and in admiration of her incredible bravery."

"Absolutely," Atwater said, while everyone else's faces showed agreement. They kept their reactions muted because they all knew that was what Burgess would want.

"Kim, I'll speak to you in my office when we're done here."

"Sarge," Burgess acknowledged.

Halstead knew that conversation was going to be about getting Burgess fixed up with counselling and any other help she might need.

"Now, the investigation into the mass shooting has been given to the FBI, so unfortunately we're not going to have a part in it. But I can tell you that they have found a video message recorded by both of the perpetrators. Apparently they were a couple of incels with no friends, apart from each other, who were mad at the world and everyone in it. What made them think that shooting innocent people in the mall was something they needed to do is beyond me."

"Pieces of shit," Purrazzo snarled.

"Quite. But here in Intelligence, we have to go on with our jobs. Friday's events will change things in that regard for a time. Firstly, Kim, I'm assigning you to desk duty for at least two weeks. I hope you can understand why I don't want to put you out there right now, potentially..."

"I understand," Burgess cut in.

And so did Halstead. The nature of Intelligence's work was such that on any given day they could find themselves under fire, even potentially having to shoot people. It was too soon to know how Burgess would react to that kind of situation after what she had gone through.