Another Life

16

First thing Monday morning Jay got a text from Voight saying they had been given a case from the Ivory Tower and how it was high-profile so we quickly got up and dressed and dropped Macie off at the sitter's, apologising for the late notice and early start.

The district was lower in numbers than usual, either everyone had already been given their beats for the day or it was still too early for everyone to be there yet. However we shrugged it off, greeted the night shift desk sergeant on our way past, and headed up to the bullpen.

The board was all set up in the corner of the room, with stuff already pinned to the front but nobody was around it; Voight was talking to someone over the phone in his office and Kevin was the only one here before us.

He jumps up when he sees Jay and I come up the stairs but sinks back into his chair again after a second, mumbling loudly. "I thought you were Adam."

As if on cue, Adam came jogging up the stairs energetically, followed by Kim who didn't seem as impressed as her boyfriend for the early start.

"Oi, I want my fifty bucks now." Adam says as he climbs the stairs, making Jay and I turn to face him with quick shakes of our heads.

"We said we weren't paying you if you got it right, we said we were paying Trudy just to get an answer out of her." Jay responds quickly.

Adam knits his eyebrows in our direction and waves his hand to dismiss it. "Not you, Kevin."

I look over to the side slightly to see Kevin groaning in his seat, grudgingly pulling out the bills from his pocket and handing them over to Adam, who took them smugly.

My eyes fall in disbelief. "You made a bet out of it?"

Adam shrugs. "Yeah, you weren't going to and might as well make some money out of it."

Jay and I look to each other, me still staring in disbelief and Jay shakes his head again, as if him telling me to just let it go without actually saying the words. I sigh, taking a seat at my desk and proceeding to look across from me and read through the information I could see.

I immediately notice the three pictures stuck on, three pictures of cops. I recongize one of the faces, it was someone I had met in a passing by at a charity event. She's nice. I then read the top of the board: "Targeted Triple Homicide" Was nice, I guess.

Before I can go further, Voight comes out of his office and looks around, talking on his way over to the board. "Officer Ernest Redfern, officer Hugo Salas and detective Nicola Magana, were all shot last night whilst off-duty. Intelligence has been roped in because there's been threats about another attack and we're gonna be working point with the FBI. This case is the only one we think about, it's top priority, you got that?"

Everyone in the room nods with understanding and I cut in, leaning back in my chair. "Sarge, should I dig into their personal lives, find out why they were targeted?"

Voight starts shaking his head before I could finish my sentence. "No need, we already know. They were targeted because they wear blue. No other reason."

If the room wasn't silent before it certainly was now. You would be able to hear a pin drop in the locker room as everyone just stares to our sergeant with wide eyes.

"Damn." A mumbled sigh comes from Kevin.

The room then goes quiet again, none of us knowing what to say. What do you say in that moment? We all look around at each other, waiting to see if one of us was brave enough to add a comment to where the conversation had dropped off, but no one does. Voight quietly assigns us all stuff to do and everyone sits at their desks, getting on with it and nothing is said about it or the previous discussion we were having.