CHAPTER EIGHT
true or false

Sam places a mason jar on the counter in front of Wyatt and Denise who are sitting at the island, opposite of Sam and Jay. The teenagers look at eachother confused then back at their parents and Wyatt asks, "What's this for?"

"This, my only son, is going to be the family's swear jar. So everytime one of us swears, we put 50 cents or a dollar, depending on the swear, into it" Sam says, "And every month once it's filled up, we'll all decide together what to do with the money"

"More" Gracie says. Sam grabs the cheerios from the counter and walks over to Gracie who is in her high chair and pours some in front of her and says, "Okay?"

"Is this really necessary?" Wyatt asks. Sam lifts an eyebrow and says, "The swear jar is because of you"

"Me? What did I do?"

"Remember what happened yesterday when you stubbed your toe?"

Flashback...
Last night

Wyatt walks down the stairs to the living room and when he turns the corner he stubs his toe on the corner of the banister and groans, "Son of a bitch"

Gracie tilts her head to the side and says, "son of a bitch?"

Sam and Jay look at each other in shock.

Flashback over..

"Oh yeah" Wyatt says, then turns to look at his sister.

"Yeah. And it starts today"

🌙🌙🌙

"Victim's name is Alison Collier" Hailey tells Voight who is walking towards her on the sidewalk, "Her husband is..."

"Jason Collier. Yeah, he's the alderman for the 43rd ward" Voight says, as he and Hailey walk towards Sam, Jay, Brayden and Kevin, "We crossed paths way back when he was a prosecutor."

"Sarg, looks like this was a burglary. The back door was pried open with a crowbar" Kevin says.

"It was on the floor near Alison's body. I had forensics send it to the crime lab, requested a rush order. Hopefully, we can pull a print" Hailey says.

"Hey, man" Hank says, as Adam walks over to them, "You okay?"

"I guess. The, uh, plates on the blue Honda came back to a Lincoln town car" Adam says.

"How nice. So the offender steals the plate off a random Lincoln, and he puts it on his Honda." Brayden says.

"I'll figure out where the town car was parked, see if I can get some surveillance photos out of the deal"

"Okay, good. Meantime, run every blue Honda in Chicago. Let's see if one of the owners has a sheet to match the MO. And start canvassing the neighborhood for witnesses, PODs, surveillance cameras" Hank says, as he walks past his team, seeing deputy superintendent Brennan, then turns back to his team, "Hey. The press is gonna be all over this. Not a word to anyone"

When Hank walks away. Sam goes over to Hailey and asks, "Hals, you okay?

"Huh, yeah. I'm good"

"You sure? Cause if you need to talk-" Hailey cuts Sam off and says, "Thanks. But I'm fine" then she walks away.

Sam sighed and walks over to Kevin who is talking to a witness, who says, "I was coming home from Pilates, checking my texts, and I heard a woman screaming"

"Did you happen to see anyone near the house?" Sam asks, "anyone who looked suspicious?"

"Yeah. Early this morning there was this guy near the gangway. He was just walking around. He seemed out of place. I'm not saying he killed her. I'm just saying I noticed him"

"Okay, can you describe the guy?" Kevin asks.

"He was black...I mean, African American" The witness says, and Kevin raises an eyebrow, "Average height. Thin and young, early 20s"

"Did you see what he was wearing?" Sam asks, writing in her small notepad, "He had a white hat on his head. That's all I remember. But again, I'm not saying this man is involved. And it has nothing to do with the fact that he's african american"

"Right, he just looked suspicious" Kevin says, "Like he was casing a house that he was about to rob, right?"

"Yeah, he looked suspicious. Very suspicious. And he was holding something in his right hand, too, under his jacket"

"Crowbar?"

"Maybe. I couldn't tell"

🌙🌙🌙

After getting some information leading to a suspect named, Devin Williams. Antonio, Kim, Hailey and Adam go to arrest him. Sam and Antonio are now in interrogation with him.

"Best thing you can do is tell us what really happened at that house. If you do that, we can talk to the state's attorney's office and try to work out a good deal" Antonio says. Devin nods his head and says, "Like I said, I didn't kill her. I haven't been to the north side in weeks"

"Okay, the problem, is Devin, you keep talking about a murder on the north side, right?" Sam says. Devin nods his head again and hums, "Mhmm"

"We never told you about that"

"What do you mean?"

"You keep denying something you shouldn't know about. Means your guilty" Dawson says.

"But I'm not"

"Then how do you know someone on the north side was murdered?"

"I...just know, I guess."

Sam looks at Antonio in disbelief, who says, "Where were you this morning between 9 and 10?"

"Humboldt park. I was smoking weed near the chess tables"

"Hey, look at me" Antonio says, "You still high?"

"Yeah, but only a little"

"Yeah. Were you alone, with someone else?" Sam asks.

"I was with someone else"

"Who?"

"God"

Sam looks up at Devin and asks, "God?"

"Yeah. We were hanging out. Talking to each other. And it was really nice"

Antonio and Sam look at each other.

~~~

After the witness ID'd Devin as the suspicious guy she saw, and both Kevin and Hank, at separate times, tried to talk to him, he still hasn't given up anything.

"That kid is a trip" Jay says, as he, Hank and Sam all walk onto the bullpen from interrogation.

"Yup" Hank says.

"Can't figure out where he's coming from"

"Well, whatever he's doing, it's working. It's been seven hours. He hasn't given up a damn thing"

"Yeah, he hasn't lawyered up yet, though, which is good, but it's odd. I mean, I don't know why he's still talking to us"

"He doesn't know any better" Hank says, standing in front of the white board.

"So, maybe there's something wrong with him mentally, or, he really didn't do it" Sam says, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Lab says there's still no forensics tying Devin to the crowbar, the body, the crime scene, nothing" Adam says.

"Sarg, let me take a run at him" Hailey says, "I've been going over his file. I think I have an angle to play"

"Give it a shot" Hank says, as Hailey stands up from her desk, "Oh. Kid wants a pop"

~~~

After Hailey got a confession from Devin. Sam walks up to Hank's office where he and Hailey are talking with a tablet in her hand and says, "Hey, we finally got a DNA hit inside he Collier house. Strand of hair in the living room"

"Good. More evidence the better" Hank says.

"Yeah, um, so there's the problem. It's uh, not a match to Devin" Sam says, as Hank and Hailey's faces drop, "Belongs to a guy named Nate Stevenson. In and out of the joint since he was 18"

"He connected to Devin?" Hank asks.

"Not sure. All we know is that they live in the same neighborhood"

"Okay. Get a search warrant"

Sam nods her head and walks to her desk.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam and Brayden get out of their covert car, guns drawn and walk down the steps of the side of the house. Quietly and quickly making their way to the back door, meeting up with Antonio and Jay, who has the ram.

Antonio slams his fist on the door and says, "Nate Stevenson. Chicago PD. Open up"

After a moment of silence, Jay uses the ram to slam the door open and they walk in, clearing the house out.

"Clear" Antonio calls out, as Sam watches the front door.

"Clear" Brayden says. Jay walks out from the living room and says, "Yeah, we're all clear"

Antonio takes out his latex gloves and says, "Well, we have a search warrant, so let's search. Pick a room, start tossing the place"

As they put on their gloves and start searching the house, Jay says, "yo, check this out" then the group walk over to him, "This is a cartier"

Sam smirks and says, "Wow babe. I'm impressed"

Jay rolls his eyes and says, "It's on the list of items stolen from the Colliers"

"Sure was" Antonio says.

"Alright" Jay breathes out, taking a picture of the watch.

🌙🌙🌙

Alderman Collier leaves the unit, followed by Hank who leaves the break room and says, "Hey, put a BOLO on Nate Stevenson. Get some boots on the ground, too. Let's find this prick"

After finding video evidence that Devin Williams was indeed at Humblodt park during the time of the murder. Hailey and Trudy went down to the cells to go talk to him, where they see that he hung himself from the bunk bed.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam sits on the bed, putting lotion on her legs when Jay leaves the bathroom and says, "Have I told you how much I love you lately?"

"Everyday"

"Well I do" Jay says, sitting on the bed next to his wife and leans in for a kiss, which she accepts, "More than I love myself and nothing, I mean, nothing will take that away"

Sam looks away from Jay's hazel eyes and says, "I know"

"Hey" He says, lifting her chin up so he could see her beautiful chocolate brown eyes, "I'm serious. I know, I've done some seriously messed up stuff, but you always stuck by me. And nothing can change the fact that we belong together"

"This is your last chance, Jay. I'm serious. I can't keep going through this"

"I know, I know. I won't ever hurt you again"

Sam swings her leg around to straddle her husband's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and whispers, "Promise?"

Jay smiles, wrapping his arms protectively around Sam's waist and says, "Promise"

🌙🌙🌙

"Anything on Nate Stevenson yet?" Hank asks, walking onto the unit after having a meeting with Brennan.

"Trying but he's still in the wind" Antonio says.

"I ran Devin's phone. He got a series of threatening texts yesterday" Kim says.

"Saying what?" Voight questions.

"'Snitches die. Grandmas die, too'"

"Sounds likes Nate and Devin are connected" Jay says, sitting on the edge of his desk.

"Yeah. So, Devin loans Nate the blue Honda. Nate puts the stolen Lincoln plates on the car, drives over to the Colliers', robs the joint, kills Alison. Gives the car back to Devin. Alright. Ping the phone sending those texts, get a location" Hank says.

"I just did. The address is 2244 Adam's street" Kim says.

"Tact up, hit it now"

🌙🌙🌙

The team slowly walk into the warehouse where the phone was pinged too with their long guns drawn in front of them and the red laser beams on.

"We got something" Antonio says, pointing the red light to the dead body laying on a bunch of mannequins.

🌙🌙🌙

"Our DOA is Nate Stevenson" Jay says, taping his picture onto the whiteboard, "the guy we think really killed Alison Collier"

"I've been going through Nate's phone." Brayden says, standing next to Jay at the board, "He's been getting a lot of texts from an unknown number. The most recent one says, 'We need to meet, bro. Have cash and passport'"

"Somebody's trying to help Nate get out of the country" Kevin says.

"Or make Nate think he was trying to help him get out of the country, so he could just track him down and shoot him" Jay says.

"I pinged the unknown number. All the texts were made downtown, corner of Superior and Michigan" Brayden states.

"Well, unless the killer's name is Neiman Marcus, that doesn't really help us" Kim says. Antonio walks onto the unit and says, "Found a surveillance camera across the street from the warehouse" then sits down at his desk to pull up the video, when the team surrounds him, "We got a man wearing a hoodie entering the warehouse at 3:12 p.m. and leaving at 3:21."

"Okay, that makes sense. The M.E put the time of death between 2:30 and 4" Sam says.

"You got a visual?" Hank asks.

"Of him, no. His car, yes. I'll pull up the plates now" Anotnio says, taking a screenshot of the license plate on the video and after a minute when the picture of the owner of the car pops up he says, "Oh my god. It's Alderman Collier"

~~~

"So, I've been digging into Collier's finances. For starters, he bought a cartier watch from Landsberg Jewelers for 14 grand." Jay says, sat at his desk, "That's the same make that we found at Nate's house"

"Alright, so he did know it was his wife's watch. That means he was lying to us" Hank says.

"Right. He also made two 9,000 dollar withdrawals, while his bro, Nate, made two 9,000 dollar deposits last week" Jay says, as Sam walks onto the bullpen with a file in hand.

"Alright, so Collier paid Nate 18 grand to whack his wife, and he whacked Nate to tie things off. The question is, why?"

"I think I have the answer to that" Sam says, opening the file, "Found an email Alison wrote to one of her friends. 'Need to talk to you about finding a good lawyer. Lots to discuss. None of it good'"

🌙🌙🌙

Sam and Brayden are at Teptcon Incorporated talking with the friend that Alison had sent the email to, who says, "She seemed pretty desperate to begin the process, so I gave her the name of a few divorce lawyers that I know"

"Okay, did she mention why she wanted to split up?" Brayden asks.

"Yes. But given what's happened, there's probably no point in talking about it"

"Well, there's definitely a point" Sam says.

"What do you mean?"

"We think her husband's involved"

"Oh, my god. It was Jason. It all makes perfect sense"

"How?"

"He was physically abusing her" Alexandra says, making the two detectives look at each other.

🌙🌙🌙

While waiting for Collier to meet up with Brennan, Sam looks over at Hailey as they sit in the covert car and says, "I know you don't wanna talk about it"

"That's a terrible way to start a sentence" Hailey says, leaning her head on her hand.

"I wanna make sure you're okay. Cause I've been through some shit and let me tell you, keeping it bottled up is not good"

Hailey sighs and says, "I can't believe he killed himself"

"I know. I get it"

"Internal Affairs wants to look into it now. Apparently, they have concerns about my interrogation tactics"

"Screw that. You did it right"

"Maybe"

"No, you did. I would've done the same thing"

Hailey nods her head at the sight of Colliers car driving towards them and says, "There he is"

Sam gets on her walkie and says, "Collier's on site. He's heading east on Randolph, toward his house"

When Collier gets out of his car, Brennan says, "Take him" through the walkie.

Collier takes off running, and Sam and Hailey chase after him on foot, while Kevin and Adam race down the street with their car.

"Go to the next block. I got the alley" Hailey says, over the walkie, then seconds later, "He's going through the yards"

🌙🌙🌙

After finally arresting Jason Collier for the murder of his wife. Jay and Sam head home at the exact moment Wyatt puts a dollar into the swear jar.

"Wyatt.." Sam says, taking her coat off and hanging it on the hook, followed by Jay. Wyatt sighs, then walks up the stairs to his room.

"Denise?" Sam shouts. Wyatt stops mid stair and says, "She's not here"

"Where is she?" Sam asks, as Jay picks Gracie up from the floor and walks into the kitchen.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but she's at a boys house"

"She's what?" Jay says, stopping at the door frame of the kitchen, then he turns around to walk back to his wife and step son, "Who and where?"

~~~

"That was completely humiliating" Denise says, getting out of Jay's jeep, slamming the door, "Max is gonna think I'm a complete freak now"

"Well, you should have thought about that the next time you sneak away to a boys house without telling us" Jay says, following his adoptive daughter into the house. Denise stops at the staircase and turns around saying, "I had a chance with him and you ruined it. You slammed on the door shouting 'Chicago PD' to freak him out!"

Jay folds his arms over his chest and says, "He's 18 and has his own apartment. You're 16. There is no way that's happening"

Denise looks over at Sam who is sitting on the couch reading a magazine and says, "Sammy?"

"Sorry, Dee. You should've told us where you were going"

Denise scoffs and says, "This is so unfair!" then she stomps up the stairs to her bedroom.

Jay sits on the couch next to his wife and sighs, resting his head on the back of the couch. Sam chuckles, resting her hand on his thigh and says, "It only gets worse from here"

"Great"