The Other Way Round

6

Severide lead them through the apartment and into the back room, where the fire had started. The firefighter points down at the burnt dent in the floor as Hailey, Antonio and Voight followed in behind him. "It originated here."

Voight hums and Kelly walks around the spot to the opposite side so he could face the detectives.

"Normal fire doesn't do that, fire moves up, not down," Kelly squats down and gestures at it again. "Something heated this to over two thousand degrees."

"There was an accelerant?" Voight questions.

Severide looks back down to the floor. "Yeah, but it wasn't with hydrocarbons, it had to be chemical," the firefighter explains as he stands back up again. "Fuel oxidizer mixed with household cleaners. Someone bought this fire for about a buck fifty at a 7/11."

Hailey and Voight both look around the room, Hailey taking notes as Voight speaks. "This apartment is not centrally located, there's no guarantee it'd burn the whole building down, right?" He asks in Kelly's direction.

Severide shakes his head. "No. If a firebug wanted to watch a big burn this would be a weird place to set it."

"It would burn hot and quick, quick enough to destroy whatever was in this room." Antonio cuts in, making Severide nod in agreement. The older detective then jerks his chin upwards. "What about bodies?"

As the firefighter tells them about the victims found in the apartment, Hailey and Antonio jot down things on the notepad. Then a figure appearing in the doorway makes Hailey look over before anyone else and she drops the notepad and pen in her hand down to her side.

"Jay, I thought you'd be with Will." She says, making everyone else in the room turn in the direction of the door.

Jay avoids talking to her, instead just looks to Voight. "Can I talk to you?" He asks and Voight nods, taking a quick glance over his shoulder as he leads Jay back out of the apartment.

Hailey's face drops sadly and she glances to the floor when she watches her partner leave. She doesn't have that much time to think about it though as when Antonio's phone ringing in his pocket it brings her gaze back up.

Antonio answers the phone and puts it to his ear, keeping it there for a beat before thanking Kim on the other end and hanging up. As he puts his phone back, Dawson looks over to Hailey. "That was Burgess, we need to head over to Med, it's something about the Jane Doe found outside the apartment."

Hailey nods, already on the move out of the apartment. "I'll go tell Voight." She says, thanking Severide quickly on her way out.

xxx

He knew deep down he'd get reprimanded for this but he couldn't let it go and despite the fact that Voight had benched him for the end of the case he still managed to get the whereabouts of the suspect after a quick call to Severide.

It was wrong, referring to all this as a case and the man the suspect, it didn't sit right with him because this wasn't just a case they'd close and never look back on. This was one that would sit on his shoulders or follow him around like a shadow for the rest of his life. The man he was chasing was responsible for everything, the man had killed his father as well as five other people. So hell to the reprimanding to come, he needed this, he needed to be the one to bring the offender in to aid in some sort of closure, Voight would have done the same thing - he had done the same thing - and Jay was prepared to argue with him about it when he brought the guy into custody.

Jay had never loved the foot chases, the adrenaline only lasted a fair minute and on some occasions he'd end up doubled-over unable to catch his breath again. But this one, he was determined not to stop, not to let him get away.