Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 86

It turned out that Halstead was the last to arrive at the crime scene, arriving seconds after Gonzalez, who was getting out of her car when he pulled up behind it, inside an established police cordon. He was only last because he had taken a few minutes to make sure Clementine was okay with him dashing off before he did it. Staying with Granddad Hank and his PlayStation 5 had seemed to be perfectly fine with her.

"Jesus Christ," he grumbled to himself as soon as he got out of the car into the freezing cold night. The weather was the worst part of living in Chicago. He didn't have any cold weather gear on other than his coat, since he had expected to barely be out of the car while he and Clem were out.

Gonzalez was much more prepared, in an even thicker coat, a beanie hat and leather gloves, a similar outfit to what both Purrazzo and Erin were wearing, he saw. In fact it looked like it was virtually standard issue for Intelligence's women, he thought with a hint of amusement.

"I bet you miss Texas when the weather's like this?" Halstead ventured as he joined Gonzalez on the sidewalk, outside of the address that they had been called to. The rest of the unit's currently smaller team were assembled on the front lawn. He could see a body lying on the grass, being worked on by a coroner. It was not a good start.

"Sure do. This is ridiculous to me, and it's not even that bad for Chicago," Gonzalez grumbled. "Dragged me away from my cochinita pibil too."

"Say what?" he asked. In addition never having heard of it before, her Mexican accent was much stronger when she spoke Spanish words, making it harder for him to understand.

"It's food, Jay," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Right. I knew that," he lied, aware that he was not fooling her for a second.

It was time to focus on the case at hand, which he already knew involved at least one dead person. The body was a man, lying face down on the grass. He also noticed that the house had a smashed window. On the other side of it was a living room. There was hardly any glass outside. The window had been smashed, or blown, inwards. So far, the scene didn't make a lot of sense.

"Okay, listen up," Lindsay said to the group, now that they were assembled. Halstead had instinctively fallen in beside Purrazzo. "We've got two victims here. The guy just over there, witnesses say, is Phillip Steel, known as Phil."

Halstead looked at the body again. It had now been turned over by the coroner so that he could get a better look at the victim's injuries. Halstead then glanced over at a group of several people about a hundred yards away, being interviewed by uniformed officers. They would be the people who lived in the neighbouring houses.

"Inside the house, in the living room, we have his girlfriend, Karin Hemmings. Both of them were killed with a shotgun. Witnesses report hearing multiple shots fired. One of them is a retired cop; says it was definitely a shotgun he heard. Halstead, Purrazzo, work the scene. See what you can find in the house that might speak to persons of interest, or possible motives for someone who might want to murder these people."

Halstead nodded his understanding.

"Gonzalez, Atwater, look into their backgrounds. I want family, friends, associates, former lovers, you know the deal. Report on anyone you find that might be worth looking into."

"Sarge," Gonzalez acknowledged.

"I'll go talk to the witnesses. Want to hear for myself what they have to say while their memories are fresh. And I'm going to try and find out how long our vics have been in a relationship. Alright, let's get to it. There's a double murderer out there somewhere, who may still be armed and dangerous."