"Detective Lindsay, you and Detective Halstead both work under Hank Voight in Intelligence, correct?"
"Yes," Erin said, hands folded tightly in her lap as Brian Atwood asked her questions. She had been moved to a separate interview room following the conversations with Danielle Marcus. Atwood scrawled a few notes down on his legal pad before glancing up at the nervous detective.
"And I take it you and Voight are very close? I see in your file that you lived with him when you were a teenager."
"Yeah, um, he and his wife took me in when I was fifteen. I uh, had it rough growing up. He looked out for me." Erin glanced down, trying to discern what the man continued to scribble on the paper.
"Was this before or after your citation for solicitation and drug possession?" Atwood asked pointedly, "Were you living with the Voights then?"
Erin widened her eyes in surprise, "No, that, that was before."
"Mm, and your mother, Barbara Fletcher? Are you still in contact with her?"
"No," Erin said quickly, "I have spent much of my adult life trying to distance myself from her. We do not speak."
"Well, you certainly come from a family of trouble. She's been in and out of jail, rehab, the whole nine yards. Do you do use drugs, Ms Lindsay?"
"No!" Erin exclaimed, "No, I do not."
"Smoke?"
"No?"
"Drink?"
"Uh, I drink beer and I have whiskey on occasion, but I don't go out and get hammered, if that's what you're asking."
"Does Detective Halstead use drugs?"
"No!" Erin shook her head adamantly, "And he doesn't smoke, nor do we go out very often. Mr. Atwood, we have a four year old and we work in an elite unit. We would rather spend time with our daughter than do any of the things you are mentioning."
"Hm," Atwood raised his eyebrows, "You were on medical leave a few weeks back, due to a concussion. How was that concussion sustained?"
"A man broke into our house," Erin said through gritted teeth, "And whacked me over the head with the butt of his gun."
"And where Kate Halstead at the time of this incident?"
"With my partner," Erin informed him, "I had gone to the grocery store to get some more fruit and cereal, and Jay brought Kate home ten minutes later."
"What if she had come home with you?" Atwood asked, "What would have happened to her?"
Erin was quiet. She hated thinking about the moment when Jackson broke into their apartment and bashed her over the head, but hated even more to think about what could have happened if Kate hadn't gone home with Jay that evening. "I-I don't like to think about that," she said finally, "I don't want to know what could have happened."
"This was the same man who was just convicted for a number of crimes, one of which was abuse of a tender-aged child?" Atwood set his pen down and looked less menacing.
Erin swallowed, "Yes, uh, he was just convicted. He...was abusing her. Beating her. Raping her." She swallowed again, "We found her in his stash house in July. Bloody, bruised, malnourished. He did that to her. He and those other bastards." Erin gripped her hands tighter together, "So I hope he rots."
"As do I," Atwood affirmed. "Now Detective, I recognize that Kate has faced a very turbulent upbringing, and have read through her file repeatedly. Many of the injuries she sustained do match up with what our physician found. Can you tell me about what happened when she was taken from you back in October?"
