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“They give Percocet for twisted ankles?” Michael asked incredulously.
“They do if you tear ligaments,” Hilary replied.
“Okay, torn ligaments is a little more serious than a twisted ankle.”
“Well, she tore them twisting her ankle.”
“Not important, fellas,” Faith interrupted. “That’s the only verifiable connection with Cassidy Holt?”
“Yes. It’s worth mentioning that the hospital is only a mile away from the Botanic Gardens.”
“That gives him access to Cassidy,” Michael said. “And if he was stalking Samantha, then odds are, he knew where she lived.”
“I think we have enough to go talk to him,” Faith said before cautioning, “let’s not try to shove him into a box until we have a conversation.”
Hilary lifted a finger. “I hate to be a pessimist, but right now, we don’t have enough to make him talk.”
“Seriously? You don’t think he’s a suspect at this point?”
“I don’t think we canmakehim talk,” Hilary clarified, “but I might be able to convince a judge to get me a search warrant on his property. If we can find evidence of him taking pictures of women without their consent, then we can bring him up on menacing charges and make him talk to us whether he wants to or not.”
Faith frowned. “I’m not trying to be judgmental, Detective, but I don’t want to be involved in a handshake deal with a judge. If we do this, we do this aboveboard.”
“It will be aboveboard,” Hilary insisted. “We know this guy’s a creep. Even if he’s not the killer, he needs to have it made clear to him that stalking women and taking pictures of them withouttheir permission isn’t okay. As far as the judge, I’ve solved over one hundred cases with this department, and some of them I solved because I got a hunch, and the hunch led me the right direction. Some of the others I solved because I got a hunch and it led me the wrong direction but I was able to figure that out quickly and stop wasting time.”
Faith could understand Hilary’s argument, but she still wasn’t convinced. “I still think we should go talk to him first, and then if he acts fishy, we can look into a warrant.”
“What if we split the difference?” Hilary suggested. “I go get that warrant while you two go talk to him at the hospital.”
Fait’s eyes narrowed. “Why is this so important to you?”
Hilary’s lips thinned, and when he replied, there was more emotion in his voice than Faith had heard from him before. “I want this guy,” he said. “After thirty years with Chicago P.D., I’ll admit that I’ve become desensitized to a lot of things, but some coward sneaking up behind women to break their necks over some pagan ritual is something I haven’t become desensitized to. I don’t like the women of Chicago feeling like they have to look over their shoulder to feel safe in their own homes. I don’t like the idea of a Franklin West copycat terrorizing my neighbors.”
“He’s not a Franklin West copycat,” Faith snapped. “He’s nothing like Franklin West.”
The vehemence in her voice surprised her. Evidently it surprised Hilary and Michael too. Hilary blinked, and Michael shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Hilary looked like he wanted to argue the point or explain himself further, but he chose to let the debate drop. "All right. Be that as it may, I want this creep brought in. I've seen too many people slither out of an arrest because they fell back on the 'no warrant, no talky' line. Maybe that's not something you've run into before, but I have. I've seen people die because we didn’t take the steps needed to back asuspect into a corner. You don’t have to agree with my methods, Special Agent, but you’re in my city, and I am urging you to trust that I know what I’m doing.”
Faith didn’t think that Hilary’s experience led to the conclusions he had derived from it, but she didn’t want to argue anymore. As long as he didn’t do anything that would cause trouble for them later, she would swallow her pride and play nice.
“All right. As long as you get me a clean warrant, then that’s fine with me.”
“Oliver’s dirty,” he replied. “So any warrant we get on him will be clean.”
“Sounds good to me,” Michael said quickly. “I have the hospital plugged into the GPS already. Let’s go, Faith. Thank you, Detective.”
He led Faith and Turk out of the precinct. Faith could tell he was upset, but she didn’t press him until they were in the car. “You’re mad at me.”
“Not mad,” he insisted. “Concerned. That little snafu over West. What was that?”
Faith was a little taken aback by that. She knew he felt awkward about that, but she expected him to scold her over her resistance to the warrant. “I just… I really hate people acting like West is the reason everyone kills. When have we met any killers who mimic West?”
“I know of at least one,” Michael said.
This is your fault, Bold.
Faith looked away. “Do you think this killer is like West?”
“I don’t think Hilary was arguing that he was.”
