Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 41

"Martinez. Where do you think she is right now?"

Halstead looked at Purrazzo while he considered her question. She was driving them to see Alexa Bliss, who was going to receive an offer that would likely not appeal to her, until the ten grand entered the equation.

"Well," he said after a few seconds, "Burgess says she's pretty sure she shot Gonzalez in the arm. If she's right, the first thing they would have had to do is seek medical attention. I'm sure Martinez had someone she could go to for that kind of thing. By now, that will be taken care of. Now they'll likely be heading for the Mexican border. Down there, I'm sure she'll have plenty of money and false identities lined up. There's not been a single sighting since they slipped the net, so who knows for sure?"

"Likely they're heading for Mexico," Purrazzo said thoughtfully, keeping her eyes on the road. "But they might not be."

"No, they might not be. Which is why Sergeant Lindsay and myself have been watching our sixes. Some kind of reprisal is possible. Unlikely, but possible."

"If I were her I'd get far away from Chicago, and stay away."

"Hmmm," Halstead said quietly. There was something in the back of his mind that told him Bayley Martinez wouldn't see it that way. There was something else on his mind, too. He and Purrazzo had talked about her screw up that had blown the operation. But there was something they hadn't talked about.

"So, you shot someone yesterday," he ventured. "You've not mentioned it apart from during the debrief. It was the first time you've killed someone since you left the Marines, right?" It wasn't really a question; he knew that what he had said was true.

"Yeah, that's right," was all Purrazzo said in response.

"Are you okay? Killing someone is never easy to deal with, or at least it shouldn't be."

"Can't say I slept much last night," she admitted. "I had Sergeant Lindsay's words on my mind, plus the guy I shot. Like I told you before, I'm good at killing people when it needs to be done, but I take no pleasure in it. The guy I shot opened fire in the direction of Detective Olinsky and myself. When I fired, it was in defence, and it was no question a justified shoot. Even so, it has been on my mind."

"I can absolutely relate to that. It'll stay with you for a while. Was it clean?"

"Yes it was. One shot fired, hit him in the forehead," she said without boasting.

A woman not to get into a gunfight with, Halstead thought, not that he hadn't known that before. Her proficiency in that area was one of the main things that had gotten her the position in Intelligence.

"Well, if you need to talk about it you only have to say so. Remember we're partners."

Purrazzo glanced at him and smiled. "Thanks, Jay. I'll be fine though, honest. We should talk about what I need to know before I take on a CI."

"Yes. Yes, we should," he agreed.

By the time Purrazzo parked the car just up the street from the apartment block where Alexa Bliss lived, Halstead had familiarised her with the dos and don'ts of running a CI. As with anything in life, however, knowing the theory was one thing. Putting it into practice was another.

"What's she like, this Alexa Bliss?" he asked as they got out of the car.

"Really attractive, which I think is quite rare for a hooker. They're usually rough around the edges to say the least in my experience. I guess that's why her clients seem to be people who have some money to throw around. She's also got quite an attitude towards police, but that's hardly unusual with hookers, is it?"