Help Me Heal

Chapter 6

"What a bloody mess," Kalinda said.

Burgess was slowing their car down as they approached an intersection that had been closed down by the CFD, and now by CPD uniforms also. There had been a nasty traffic accident. One car sat in the middle of the intersection with its front end caved in, leaking some kind fluid onto the road. The driver's side had been cut away by CFD in order to extract an injured driver, who was now nowhere to be seen.

The car that had obviously been impacted by the one with the mangled front end had been spun out across the intersection and gone sideways into the light poles at the opposite corner to where Burgess now parked. The car was smashed up, and a couple of light poles were down. One of them had fallen onto another car, adding to the overall destruction at the scene.

"Someone ran a red light," Burgess commented. "But I can't see why that would have anything to do with us. Let's see what Severide has got for us."

"He's the firefighter who called you? I take it you know him?"

"Yeah," Burgess said as they both got out of the car. "He's out of Firehouse 51, local to us at the 21st. They're a good bunch of people over there."

"Good to know," Kalinda said, following Kim towards one of the fire trucks. She noted that Kim had a thicker coat on than her own, and warmer-looking boots – not bad ideas as Chicago's weather was starting to turn colder. Kalinda decided a shopping trip would be in order soon.

"Severide. What have you got?" Burgess asked.

Kalinda approached the handsome firefighter Burgess had called out to, who was standing with a couple of his colleagues. They all looked at her, wondering who Intelligence's new face was. Burgess picked up on it and remembered to make introductions.

"Oh, Kelly this is Kalinda Rai. She started with us today. Kalinda, meet Kelly Severide, Joe Cruz and Blake Gallo. Get used to seeing them, we all go to the same bar – Molly's."

"Nice to meet you. I'll look forward to scoping out the bar. They'd better have good tequila," Kalinda said with a grin.

"They do," Cruz said. "That accent by the way. Wow."

Kalinda was used to that kind of reaction. As one of her former colleagues had put it, she could charm the birds out of the trees with it. In all seriousness, having a well-spoken English accent had made her life in America easier, she knew that for a fact. People's attitudes often changed as soon as they heard it.

"Okay, let me show you why I called you," Severide said. Kim and Kalinda walked with him across the intersection, past the wrecked car in the middle of it and over to the one that had taken out the light poles.

"Which one caused the accident?" Burgess asked out of interest.

"That one," Severide said, nodding back towards the one in the middle of the intersection. "An old woman was driving. According to Brett, she was having a heart attack when she blew the red light and T-boned this car. It's what's in the trunk that you're going to want to see. Capp, pop that trunk again," he ordered a firefighter who was standing at the back of the wrecked car with a uniformed officer.

When the trunk was opened, Kalinda saw that inside were three AK-47 assault rifles and several boxes of ammunition. "Bloody hell, someone was tooled up. Where's the driver?" she asked the uniform.

"Fled the scene, ma'am, according to witnesses. They described a white man, blonde hair, wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans."

"I'll call it in to Voight," Burgess said, obviously thinking that there might be something worth looking into here.