Aftermath

Chapter Forty Eight

Erin took a slow deep breath, raised her gun in front of her, then nodded at Jay. He nodded back then kicked in the rusted front door.

"Chicago PD!" She boomed as she moved with precision through the door and down the narrow hall. The stench of urine and cigarettes filled her nose but she shut them out, focusing on assessing the hallway for threats. The floor was littered with garbage, dirty clothes, and half empty food containers. A movement caught her eye on the floor and Erin pointed her gun in the direction it came from. A scraggly rat leapt out from its hiding place and scurried past her. She refocused on the doorway ahead.

She felt Jay fall in behind her as they stepped carefully through the debris. They moved in sync towards the dimly lit doorway. They could here whimpering.

"Chicago PD!" Jay called.

"Don't come in here or I'll kill her," a man's voice called out.

Erin moved to one side of the door frame and tried to peak around it while keeping her body tucked out of sight. She caught sight of a man, mid thirties, long dark hair, five ten, about two hundred pounds. He was definitely their suspect. The man had his back pressed to the wall and held a petite woman dressed in a frayed bathrobe against him, her hair was dirty, she looked like she hadn't slept in days and she had bruising up the inside of both arms. She was crying and whimpering. Erin suspected she was coming down off some kind of high. The man held a gun to the woman's head.

"Christopher James," Erin called.

"Get out of here or I kill her," James shouted.

Erin glanced at Jay to see if he was on the same train of thought as her and he nodded his agreement, moving back in behind her. In the six months they'd been living together they'd only become more in tune with each other. Erin took a step into the room.

"Put the gun down James," Erin commanded.

"I'll kill her," he shouted.

"Then I'll kill you. Let her go and everyone walks out of here," she countered.

"Yeah with me in cuffs," James scoffed.

"Well what do you expect after what you've done," Erin said, trying to keep her voice even.

"You don't know shit. You got shit on me," he spit at her.

"We have security footage of you dumping the body James," Jay said, almost sounding bored. They didn't want to rile him up further.

A movement out the side window caught the suspects eye. Jay and Erin saw it too and Jay moved to get a better view.

"Uniforms," he said quietly to Erin but James had seen them as well and became more antsy.

"Tell them to back off or I kill her," James threatened, tightening his hold on the woman.

"No please," the woman whimpered. James pushed his gun harder into her head.

"Shut up Stacey," he threatened her. She only whimpered more.

"Easy James," Erin soothed. "Don't make things worse for yourself."

A flash of metal sent a burst of light though the room. Erin glanced at the window, the uniforms were now up on the back deck approaching them and looking for sight lines. The sunlight was reflecting off them and into the room.

James freaked out, screamed at them to stop. Erin tried to calm him while Jay radioed for the uniforms to stop their approach. James' adrenalin escalated further. Erin focused her gun on James head and watched his body language. She felt Jay shift to gain a better position on James. They continued to try and negotiate with him. They needed him alive to help their case. The woman screamed, sending James over the edge and he pulled the trigger. A loud crack filled the room followed immediately by a second one from Jay's gun. James body recoiled back from the force of the bullet cutting through his shoulder. His hostage fell to the ground. The uniformed officers burst into the room, firing at James, despite Jay shouting for them to hold their fire. James fell to the ground. Jay approached James while Erin covered him. Jay kicked James gun away and checked for a pulse. He shook his head no at Erin before waving the uniforms in.