Ghosts

Intermission

South-East Chicago, 21st District Police Station

The bullpen was quiet as daylight filtered in, the Intelligence members trickling into the room from an early morning call they had attended. As they settled into their desks, the sergeant strode up the stairs and addressed the room,

"Anything yet?"

His gruff voice is met with shakes of heads and murmurs of no.

"Right. Keep digging. We need to dig into every aspect of this case we can possibly think of. Five deaths in two weeks from this bad dope on the streets is just too many. Start with the basics. Burgess, Atwater, I want you two to go and speak to the victims' families. Anything they tell us about movements, possible connections to dealers, anything, we can use,"

The two officers nod, and rise out of their chairs, disappearing down the stairs.

"Ruzek, dig into financials. See if you can find something there. Dawson, Al, look into the victims, their associates, where they've been and who they've talked to in the last six months. And get onto their cell providers. Halstead, look over any camera footage you can find. With any luck, we've caught the bastards responsible on camera."

With his unit getting to work, Voight turns and enters his office, settling at his own desk to do his own investigation.

Two hours later, the brunette bounds up the stairs, calling out to her sergeant as she moves over to the case board,

"I think we got something, Sarge."

The sergeant emerges from his office as her partner appears up the stairs, before she continues,

"We found a nexus. We asked the families about movements, things like that, and they all said the same thing. They'd been drifting away, not making as much contact and hanging out with a new crowd. What's interesting is that all the victims started hanging out more and more on the north side of Chicago, once, twice a week, sometimes more. I think that's gotta be where their dealer is based, Sarge."

"Good work. Chase it. The sooner we pinpoint the dealers hiding spot the sooner we can identify who it is,' Voight's gruff voice echoes in the quiet room and he nods in approval, before he turns and re-enters his office.

______________________________________________

"Sarge, we've got it. I found something looking over the movements of the victims, chasing that north theory. I triangulated cell tower hits for all the victims and noticed that they had all visited the same area in West Ridge a half dozen times in the last month,"

This time it is Dawson who speaks, raising from his chair to pin up a map with a circled location on the case board. He continues,

"So, Jay went through pod footage in the area and clocked all five victims in and out of one particular address. It's been marked as a possible stash house by Narcotics, linked to a meth ring that seemed to go dormant a couple of years ago. It stayed that way until about a year ago when movement increased in and out, becoming even more active in the last couple months. This matches as the origin, where the victims got the meth they overdosed on."

"Ok, good. Any info on who owns it?". Voight interrupts, nodding towards the photo of the property pinned on the board.

Olinsky answers,

"Not really. I ran ownership, seems to be owned through a LLC, that's owned by another LLC, owned by another LLC and so on. There are no names of anyone tied to any shell company in connection to the property. It's going to be pretty hard to find a name."

Voight pauses.

"Anything else?"

Jay holds up a photo of a car in the air, and approaches the board,

"I got something else. This black SUV was clocked on traffic cams in nearby blocks to that property. Whilst we don't actually see the vehicle enter or exit the property, and we don't get a clear picture of the driver, I ran the plates, which came back to one of the LLCs linked to the building the victims had been to. Only identifying features of the driver seem to be a white male, can't get a clear enough shot."

The sergeant nods,

"Ok. There's gotta be a name somewhere. If this property is ground zero, then we need to figure out who's behind it. So, we camp it. Photograph anyone going in and out, run vehicles, see if anyone in the area is linked to the drug world. See if this driver comes back to play."

___________________________________

The street was quiet. Movement in the surrounding area had been slow, with nothing of significance around the property. The intelligence unit lined the street, paired in surveillance vehicles.

Voight's radio crackled to life, Ruzek's voice sounding through the device,

"We might have something. Black SUV approaching from the south, same plates Jay clocked on the surveillance footage. Heading your way."

Voight nods to Halstead in the passenger seat, muttering a reply into his radio. Halstead brings the camera in his lap up as the car comes closer, snapping shots as it approaches and turns into the property. The driver gets out of the vehicle, hovering off to the side out of direct view.

"Male, white, about six feet, wearing jeans and a red jacket. Can't get a clear shot." Halstead notes the features of the driver over the radio.

He snaps pictures as the driver moves around the other side of the car, opening the back passenger door and pulling out a duffle bag before slamming it shut. The driver looks around warily, darting his head towards the street when a car backfires nearby, before hurriedly retreating away from the car and entering the building.

"Got one. Running it through facial rec now. – Halstead pauses as the system brings up a name, glancing over at his sergeant, and turning the screen towards him – And we have a winner. Meet Ronald Booth."

_______________________________

Back at the district, Halstead pins Booth's picture up on the board.

"This is Ronald Booth. Long time meth dealer, major leagues, been in the game for a long time. He was busted about five years ago for drug distribution, got released just over a year ago for good behaviour. – He pauses, looking around at his colleagues – There's not much info on his arrest, much of it was redacted, but what we do know was that two officers out of Robbery-Homicide were under for about a year and only one came back. Missing in action, presumed dead. They tried to make a case but didn't have enough evidence."

Ruzek takes over,

"Ever since he was put away, he's been extremely slippery, paranoid, hiding real low. We don't have much info on him. His LKA matches what was on file when he was arrested, his associates haven't popped up again yet, but it seems like he's back in business. This is our guy." He takes a breath.

"He does have a registered cell which he barely uses, it's only been turned on twice in the last two months – He pins a picture of a red brick warehouse, with a tall stone wall on its perimeter to the board – Once was at this warehouse, registered to one of the LLC's we tied to the property the victims had been two, and once actually at that building in West Ridge,"

Kim speaks,

"Our working theory is that he cooks the dope in this warehouse, then for whatever reason, drives out to West Ridge and sells it from that property, distributing it around Chicago. Regardless, he's definitely involved."

Voight nods and stays silent, his face stone, giving away nothing.

"Ok. That may be so, but we have no evidence tying him directly to the OD victims, no evidence that directly links him to any drugs being distributed on the streets. Hell, we have no evidence that even suggests that he even knows the victims we found. What we do have is circumstantial at best. The only angle we can play is the long game. First, we need to figure out a direct link to him and the victims. Then we need to find a way in and catch him for both; drug trafficking and the death of these five students – He pauses, pointing towards the victim's faces on the board. – So, we sit on it. We have someone sitting and watching every property linked to Booth and the property in West Ridge, watching for Booth or anyone else involved. See if we can get someone on the inside so we can bust his ass,".

"Let's go."