Partners in Crime; A Jay Halstead Fanfic

Don't Read the News

Yn's POV

"Kim, hey! Congrats on making it into Intelligence. I'm sorry I couldn't be here for your first case. I had some things to deal with" I say. "It's no problem" Kim said as we walked up the stairs together. Once in the bullpen, I saw Voight talking with someone in his office. "Hey. Who's that" I ask. "Ruzek's replacement" Jay replied. "What" I ask. "That's all I heard. Voight said he'll explain" Jay said. "Yeah. He better" I say and set my things down.

Just then, Voight exited his office with the mysterious man. "Okay, this is Kenny Rixton. He's assigned over from the gang unit. He and I used to work together over there" Voight said. "Sarge, where's Adam" I ask. "Ruzek's been detailed to an undercover assignment at his request. I don't know what the case is. I don't know for how long. Kevin, you and Kenny are going to partner up. He's up to speed on the case" Voight said. "Okay, so what about me" I ask. "Just sit tight, Ln. I'll figure something out" Voight said. "Hey, welcome aboard" Jay said to Kenny. "I'm looking forward to working with you all" Kenny said. "All right, hit it" Voight said to Kevin.

"Okay, so, Grace Johnson, 22 years old. She was found dead last night based on an anonymous 911 call. The caller did not want to be ID'd. His phone was a dead end, and as of right now, we haven't been able to turn up any witnesses" Kevin said. "It was 28 degrees out last night. Hard to determine time of death. We're trying to locate a vehicle that would've dropped her off where she was found" Jay said. "Well, the ME noted vaginal tearing, signs of asphyxiation, and three gunshot wounds" Al said. "And no arterial bleeding, meaning she was raped postmortem" Erin added. 

"Who was she" Voight asked. "Grace was a hard worker, receptionist at a doctor's office in the South Loop, raising two younger sisters. Mom's MIA. Dad got knifed in the day room at Stateville last year. Sisters are with DCFS now" Kim said. "Atwater, Rixton, those sisters need to be interviewed. I want to understand the last day of Grace's life. Every minute. Check all sex offenders in the area. Comb her social media. Dump her phone. Let's go" Voight said.

Kenny and Kevin talked to Grace's younger sisters, and one of them said Grace went out with this guy named Vincent who owned a dance club. We talked to Vincent, and he admitted that he saw Grace the night she died, but didn't kill her. Vincent then mention someone named Ricky Barnes, who Grace was seeing in the past. The last he heard, Grace was going to visit Ricky to clear the air.

"Ricky Barnes, 27. He's been arrested, but no charges as an adult. He was a violent kid, in and out of the juvenile system. No current address. Accurint puts his last two arrests at his parents' house" Kim said. "Mom and dad live two blocks from where Grace was dumped. Dad's a machinist, and mom works in an office. You and Jay hit it" Voight said to me. "One thing. There have also been two recent murders on the south side. Victims choked, shot, then raped. It's a pattern. A woman at the tape line put me onto it, Deanna Lewis. Her niece is one of the girls" Kim said and handed Voight some file folders. "If it was, Homicide would've known" Al said. "The cases could've fallen through the cracks. They are overloaded, as we all know" Erin said. "I can vouch for that statement. We had so many cases per week that I was always exhausted" I say. "All right Kim, chase it down" Voight said.

......................................

"Look at you, putting your badge around your neck. That's cute" I say to Jay as we climbed out of the car. "Where do you put it on house calls" Jay asked me. I pulled my shirt up a bit so that he could see me badge, which was clipped onto my pants. "This way, if we end up having to chase a suspect, it won't get in the way when I run" I say. "That's actually pretty smart" Jay said and reached up to grab his badge. However, I stopped him. "No, it's okay. Keep it there. It suits you" I tell him.

Once inside the Barnes' household, we began talking to Mr. and Mrs. Barnes. "You want to arrest our son off of some text messages" Franklin asked. "He made threats, and we can't find him. We just want to get him off the street before anything else happens" Jay said. "Jeanette, does he have a gun" I ask. "Franklin, does he" Jeanette asked her husband. "I don't know. Have you tried his friends? Those young men are always strapped" Franklin said. "Officers are looking for his friends now" Jay said. "Well, I'll reach out, but Ricky didn't make it home. He's pretty upset about Grace" Franklin said.

"Do you mind if we search his room" I ask. "I do mind. If you want to talk to him, I'll try and make it work, but this is our home" Franklin said. "Sir, if I may, help us out here, okay? Grace was murdered. You knew her. She probably stood right there where you're standing at one point, and what happened to her is as bad as it gets" Jay said. "You don't think my baby killed that girl, do you" Jeanette asked. "No, but we think he might know who did, and the longer he stays out there, the more he does begin to look like a suspect" I say.

Kim went to visit Deanna, and apparently, there were like 10 other murders that had the same M.O. as Grace's from 2008. "So, we're trying to link this killer from the 2008 murders in green to the recent killings in red to include Grace Johnson" Jay said and gestured to a map we had set up. "We lost the ballistics from 2008 to compare to these fresh murders" Kenny said. "Right, but we do have physical DNA evidence in storage. The problem is our offender isn't in a DNA database. So, we spoke to Antonio. He had a great idea. You widen the DNA search to include familial matches, and then you search every felon in the state" I say. "So, you're thinking our guy is smart and never got pinched, but somebody in his family might have been" Voight asked. "That's the theory. The problem is, to do the sweep, you got to petition a judge; to get a judge, we need a prosecutor" Jay said.

...............................

"Uh, Yn, Ricky Barnes is in the interview room. Did you want to talk to him" Kevin asked me. "Actually, Voight and Al wanted to talk to him. Can you find them and tell them Ricky's here" I ask. "Of course" Kevin replied. "Great. Thanks, Kev. You're the best" I say. After Voight and Al interviewed Ricky, it was back to finding more information.

"This handgun was recovered from underneath the carpet lining of Ricky Barnes' trunk" Jay said and put a picture up on the white board. "Preliminary ballistics are a match. That .25 hit on all three recent murders" Kenny said. "The thing is, if we lost the ballistics from 2008, we still can't tie Ricky Barnes to those bodies" Erin said. "We've got the gun. We've got DNA" Jay said. "I'd just like it better if the DNA was 100%" Erin said. 

"No, see, I think we may have something. Now, Walter Volman, who was the suspect in '08, had some notes on a girl. A witness" Al said. "Did she actually see the murders" I ask. "No. She was raped and shot in the chest, but somehow she lived. So the story goes" Al said. "But all we have is her nickname, Cherry, and this was eight years ago" Kim said. "Well, if she's the only one who can tie Ricky Barnes to one of these crime scenes, find her" Voight said.

Jay managed to find Cherry's real name, which was Sienna Brody, and when we did a photo array, she picked out Franklin, Ricky's dad. "Got anything" Voight asked me. "Nope. His wife hasn't seen him. His phone hasn't moved in 12 hours. He's running" I say. "All right, call Kot. Get a search warrant for his house. We need a solid DNA sample. Do a garbage pull. Anything and everything" Voight said. "We also need to get Ricky Barnes out of 26th and Cal. He might know where his dad's hiding" I say. "Just make sure you do it quietly" Voight said.

Erin and Jay talked to Ricky, and he said that his dad might be hanging out at a friend's shop. Franklin had a key, so it was the perfect place for him to go. Now, we were all suited up and infiltrating the shop. As I rounded the corner with my gun up, I spotted Franklin, who was burning pictures of the girls he killed.

"Franklin Barnes. Turn around, nice and slow" I say. Franklin dropped the pictures he was holding and turned to face me. "Get down on your knees" I say. Again, Franklin followed my orders. I glanced at the photos, but because of my experience with rapists, I had to look away. "People like you make me sick, Franklin. You know, a while ago, I was kidnapped and raped, and it was the worst thing to ever happen to me. Being in that position is scary because you never know when you're going to be raped again, or worse, killed" I say. "And yet you're not dead" Franklin said. "I was the only one to escape from my rapist. He killed dozens of girls, and I was the only survivor. Now, the most important thing I want to do as a police officer is catch all of you sick bastards. Get him out of here" I tell Kenny.

That night, I was packing up my things when Kenny walked over to me. "You know, a lot of people who have been through what you've gone through don't like to talk about it. Why tell a stranger what happened" he asked me. "Keeping what happened to me all to myself made things way worse. When I finally started talking to people about it, it helped me come to terms with what had happened and get myself to go back to my normal life. I don't talk about it a lot because it's still a touchy subject for me, but sometimes, its good to get it out there" I say. "Well, to me, that makes you one brave woman. I'll see you tomorrow, Yn" Kenny said. "Yeah. See you tomorrow, Kenny" I say.