Perfect Storm

Chapter 28 - What's Going On?

"Kate?"

Kate flicked her eyes from her computer screen to meet Jay's cool blue orbs and he raised an empty mug of coffee at her questioning look.

"You want coffee?"

Her stomach churned at the thought and she shook her head, thanking him anyway as he strode past her and into the kitchen. Kate wasn't sure if it was the hot weather or she'd picked up a bug but even the smell of coffee made her feel like she was going to hurl. As a kid, whenever she was sick she would randomly go off her favourite foods and drinks, like the time when she had stomach flu in her senior year of high school and couldn't tolerate even the thought of chicken for a good six months afterwards.

She'd felt a bit off-colour since the convenience store incident but Kate passed it off as a combination of stress and the unseasonably warm weather, hoping that as September rolled in, she would start feeling a bit more like herself. Turning her attention back to the screen, she continued scrolling through the reports, eyes scanning the lines at a rapid pace. She was running financials on Jeyvon Carter, a known member of the South Side Hustlers, to try and figure out why he was currently in their interrogation room being hung out to dry by the rest of his crew for three homicides in Garfield Park.

"We got anything on Carter's cell phone or financials?"

Hank had moved into the bullpen from his office and stopped next to their whiteboard, swiftly absorbing the information displayed before turning to face the team.

"Only thing we know is that Carter exchanged at least three dozen texts with a burner phone in the last few days, all of them in some kind of code." Hailey began tacking some sheets of paper with some of the more pertinent texts onto the board. "We're working with the OCD Lab and the Gang Unit to and crack it but, other than that, we haven't got much."

"What about financials?"

Hank turned to Kate who pushed to her feet, scooping up the papers at her elbow before she too moved towards the whiteboard.

"Jeyvon's affiliated with one of the most prominent gangs in the city. I wasn't expecting to find much when it came to financials given he probably stores most of his cash in his underwear drawer." Kate ignored Adam's snort of amusement and pushed on. "But I did find a slight red flag in his mother's financials."

Kate tacked a photograph of Jeyvon's Mom to the board and, next to it, stuck a sheet of paper that had four, thick yellow lines at various points, drawing attention to the transactions that Kate had spotted.

"Crystelle Carter has received four separate deposits of £8k over the last month. Each deposit it just below the threshold to flag as suspicious but, prior to that, this woman didn't have two dimes to rub together."

"So we think the mom's involved?" Jay asked, his brow furrowing.

"Personally? I think Jeyvon's been paid to take the fall." Kate hiked her shoulders, eyes drifting around the room to see if anyone had any other ideas. When the room remained silent for a few seconds, Hank started moving towards the interrogation rooms.

"Well, why don't we ask him."

Just before Hank could deposit his gun in the safe, Trudy appeared at the top of the stairs with an unfamiliar face in tow. It wasn't unusual for Trudy to escort visitors upstairs but, from the stony expression on her face, this guest didn't appear to be a welcome one.

"Hank, this is Special Agent Walker North of the FBI."

She met Hank's gaze steadily and a silent conversation passed between the two friends and colleagues before Hank re-holstered his weapon and returned to the bullpen.