Detective Ln; An Adam Ruzek Love Story

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Yn's POV

"What do we got" Voight asked. "Victim's a white male, mid 30s. Streets and San worker came across the body on his morning rounds. Called it in just before eight" Kenny said. "We got uniforms canvassing the area right now" Kevin said. "Who's the lead for forensics" Al asked. "Emilio. I already gave him our Bell and Pax number. Crime scene photos will be hand delivered in an hour. And I put a request into missing in case someone makes a call" Kim said as we lead them over to the body. "Why is it a potential hate crime" Voight asked. "Because of this" I say and lift the sheet to show them the body. "What's with the gauze and plastic wrap" Al asked. "His penis was severed" I say.

 "We've printed the DOA at the ME's office. The name's Sandford Greg" Kenny said and put a picture on the board. "Registered sex offender. Five arrests for possession. Three drunk and disorderly. Two counts strong arm robbery. And, uh, four different restraining orders. Including one from his mother" Kim said. "In and out of prison since he was 16" Al said. "According to the ME, estimated time of death was midnight. Initial tox screens showed a cocktail of different narcotics in his blood" I say. 

"Okay, so, this guy either OD'd or bled out from the severed... you know" Kevin said. "Well, given his rap sheet, I'm sure there's no shortage of people who'd want to do this to him. And we find out who, and whether or not it's a hate crime, sex assault, or self mutilation" Voight said. "Uh, Erin and I started canvassing all the pharmacies and the urgent care in the area. No walk-ins, no drive-ins, no ambulance runs" Jay said. "But we checked every place that sells gauze and plastic wrap, and we found a retail theft report. Basically says a man covered in blood stole bandages and medicine from a corner store" Erin said. "Good. You and Burgess" Voight said to Al.  

About half an hour later, Kim called and asked me to go to the OEMC and check out all of the recent 911 calls in the area around where Sandford was killed. So I headed out with Kevin and Kenny, who Voight asked me to bring along. "Call came in at 9:51 pm. Report of a suspicious person, suspected sexual assault near Pulaski Park. Dispatch put it over the zone one minute later, two cars rode on the job. Uh, it was coded out as 11 Adam, not a bona fide incident" the woman said. "Okay. You think you can pull up the recording for us? Along with all service calls of the Park for the last couple of months, anything that can be related" I ask. "Gotta get the watch commander's approval on that. Come back in a couple of hours?" 

"Who knows, Saturday I'm doing special security detail at the double door for a band called Duran. Are you familiar" Kevin asked. "Do you mean, Duran Duran" Kenny asked. "It's two Durans? I thought that was a misprint" Kevin said. "No, it's Duran Duran" I say. "Great, good. I figured you might like them. Not just because you're a white woman of a certain age. But I can get you backstage. You'd have a great time" Kevin said. "Who do I ask for" the woman asked. "I think if you ask for the big, good looking, black dude, you'll be okay." "Caller's name was George Higgins. Lives at 1856 South Grand" the woman said. "Copy that. See you Saturday" Kevin said. On our way back to the morgue, I sent the address to Jay so that he and Erin could go check it out.

"Understand your boy covered a lot of ground last night" the examiner said. "Yeah. How's that possible? You'd think an injury like that would be a night-ender" Kenny said. "There's only one principle artery in the pen1s. An incidence like this, there's a 60% chance it retracts. Clamps itself off to prevent a hemodynamic event" the woman said. "Re... retracts? Like... Oh" Kevin said. "So, if he didn't bleed out, was it an OD" I ask. "No. You see the broken blood vessels around the peri-orbital area? They're called petechiae. They're indicators that the actual cause of death was strangulation. Didn't notice them at first, but once we got him cleaned up, I saw the engorgement on his trachea. See the blue-ish discoloration" the woman asked. "Yeah" Kenny replied. "This guy was choked to death."

"Emily Vega is claiming she was attacked around 9:45 pm at Pulaski Park. After she cut Sandford Greg, he wandered over to the corner store, arrived at 9:57, left again two minutes later. The, uh... The meta-data from the clerk's cell phone corroborates the time-line. Blood work from both locations confirms his movements. Okay, so, according to the me, the time of death is around midnight. But... At around 7:45 am, the body is discovered here. That's eight miles from where the incident took place. So, if Emily didn't do it, who killed him, dumped his body, and why" Kim asked. "Why are we ruling out Emily" I ask. "She's 105 pounds, soaking wet, and this guy's 6'2", 220. I don't buy that she choked him" Erin said. "Sure, but she could have had a friend finish him off. People lie through their teeth all the time, don't they" Jay asked. "She's not ruled out. We're looking at everything. Let's take another run at her" Voight said.

Minutes later, Jay walked over and sat on my desk. "Is there a reason you're putting your butt on my things" I ask him. "Rixton. I need to borrow him. Erin is going out to deal with some personal stuff and I thought I could see how Rixton rolls. Voight said that I had to ask you first though since you're watching over him" Jay said. "Rixton" I call out. "Yes" Kenny said and looked up from his desk. "You're going out with Jay. Have fun." "Thank you" Jay said and hopped off my desk. A while later, they came back and talked to Voight who then talked to the rest of us.

"The special police are trained and sanctioned by Chicago PD, but they operate independently. On private property, they have full police powers. Carry firearms. Make arrests. But they're not subject to our rules and regs" Voight said. "How is that legal" Kim asked. "There's 2,000 of them in the city. And more coming if Alderman Mac Kenzie has his way. Pretty soon, they'll be patrolling Lincoln Park" Al said. "I think it's complete BS. With that said, if I ever get fired 'cause somebody gets me on video for one of the million things they come after us for, now, I'll be the first one in line to get an implication" Kenny said. "That was ASA Kot" Kevin said as he got off the phone. "He said we don't have enough probable cause for a subpoena on the rent-a-cops." "So, that means we go ahead and get some" Voight said.

So about an hour later, Voight came back with some information. "I talked to a former officer for the Special Police, who's now in CPD with us. He spent a couple of months at Linden Homes. Claims Lowdell has a bounty system. Says cash bonuses are paid out when problem tenants are evicted" Kenny said. "Can you prove it" Voight asked. "No. He said it was an open secret, though." "Doesn't do us much good" Al said. "I mean, we ran backgrounds on them. Everybody who works under Lowdell seem like pretty good cops to me" Kevin said. "Cops run in packs like wolves" Jay said. "So, I checked the residence rolls for the past 12 months at Linden. The woman who made the original complaint against Sandford Greg, she's still there. Just in a different apartment, apparently, never reported the address change. Charmain Stewart, 966" Kim said. "Kevin, you and Kenny" Voight said.

"James Moony. He's 22 years old. He grew up in Garfield Park. All-city wrestler, and he studied criminal justice at City College. He's currently number six in the hiring list for Chicago PD" Jay said. "He's been with the Special Police how long" I ask. "Three months and change." "All right. Grab him up. But don't go in hard. He's practically one of ours" Voight said.

So James was brought in, and interviewed. Everything was going well until I heard Jay shouting, "He hung himself!" I ran over to the one side of the interview room and saw that James had hung himself using his jacket. Jay was already in the room holding James up. I vaulted over the wall where a window used to be before running over to Jay and helped him hold James up. Voight was then able to get the door unlocked and came over to us. He cut the jacket holding James up as Platt called an ambulance.

So the case was solved because we got James to admit later that he did kill Sandford. I was then able to go home where I laid in bed with Rookie. Adam's side of the bed was empty, and I didn't know how long it would be that way. I just hoped he would be back soon because I missed him a lot. And him not being here made my life completely different. But not different in a good way.