Chapter 45

Kim unlocked the cage and threw the guy inside. Her face was fuming red with anger.

"Don't think by locking me in here that that's going to scare answers out of me. It won't."

"I don't care what you think. You are going to tell me why you did it and who helped you."

"I don't rat people out like that." He sat down on the bench.

"I will kill you with my bare hands. Right here right now."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Don't think he'll stop me either."

"Like that threat would actually work." He rolled his eyes.

She grabbed him by the shirt and threw him against the cage wall. "Tell us what we want to know! NOW!"

"I don't think so." He said.

She threw him to the floor and placed a foot on his chest. "I'm giving you one last chance. Tell us what we want to know." She said through gritted teeth.

"I don't think I will."

"Adam, you deal with this prick because I'm about to lose it."

"Oh I will."

She headed back up the stairs and bumped into someone when she got to the desk.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't see you."

"No worries, it's okay." The girl smiled.

"What's your name?"

"Amber Alvarez."

Kim noticed a police badge on the girl's belt.

"Are you an officer?"

"I was a few years ago, I'm a detective now."

"Oh, that's awesome."

"Thanks. You got a sec?"

"Sure."

"Would you be able to tell me where I could find a Hank Voight?"

"He's upstairs in the Intelligence office, I can take you there right now."

Trudy gave them the evil eye, but Kim gave her the "it's all good" look and buzzed the door open.

"Hank, this is-" He cut her off.

"Amber Alvarez." He shook her hand.

Kim looked confused. "What's uh...going on here?"

"This is Detective Alvarez. She'll be the new addition to our unit starting next week."

"Don't you think it's a bit soon? I mean, Julie only died a few days ago."

"It is a bit soon, but we can't be short staffed forever."

"I'm still grieving, can't this wait longer?"

"I'm sorry, this wasn't my idea. It was Commander Fischer's idea. I just do what he tells me."

"I'm just going to have to accept what is, even if I disagree with it."

"It'll take time to adjust, but it will come together eventually."

She sat down at her desk with a look of disappointment on her face.

"I'm not trying to hurt you guys, you have my word. I was just told to come here."

Antonio came walking up the stairs. When he saw Amber sitting at Julie's old desk, he was less than pleased. "Who's this?"

Kim put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.

"Antonio, this is Detective Alvarez. She starts here next Monday."

"Is this a joke?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Let me guess, she's my partner?"

"You guessed correctly."

"I won't have it." He walked into the break room, Kim followed.

"I'm not happy about this either. We're pretty much being told to suck it up and move on. I hate this."

"This is too soon and for one, I'm not ready to have a new partner. I'm not ready to just drop the past seven years. It would hurt too much."

"It was her encouragement that lead me to loving camp. She told me it would be fun and it was. If it wasn't for that girl, I would've gone home, regretting not trying all those fun things. If it wasn't for her, I never would've met Adam."

"If it wasn't for her, I never would've met Laura."

"I can't just drop a twenty two year long friendship and start over. I won't."

They jumped when they heard Sean come in. He laughed. "Sorry to scare you guys."

"Don't do it ever again." Kim warned.

"Who's the new girl?" He asked, motioning behind him.

"In the way the commander puts it, Julie's replacement." Kim said.

"Are you serious?"

"Yep."

"It's kinda soon, don't you think?" He said, taking a sip of coffee.

"That's what we said." Antonio said while walking out to his desk.

Leslie was coming up the stairs with a delivery for Hank, from the sergeant in Manhattan. As she was walking back out of Hank's office, she noticed Amber.

"This woman is hot." She whispered to herself.

"I heard that." Jay said.

"You heard nothing." She squinted her eyes at him before going over to Amber's desk.

"You must be Leslie. I'm Amber." She shook her hand.

"Yeah, I'm officer Shay. You're the new detective?"

"I don't start until Monday though."

"Who brought you up here?"

"Commander Fischer did."

"I hate that guy." She rolled her eyes.

"Does the man ever smile?" Amber asked, setting pictures up on the desk.

"Ha. I've never seen that man smile, not once. He always seems like there's something up his ass."

"I like a person with a good sense of humor."

Leslie couldn't help but smirk to herself. "Thanks. Would you want to hang out sometime?"

"I'd like that." Amber smiled at her.

"Are you into like, the movies or something?"

"I love going to the movies."

"Are you free on Friday?"

"I am. Did you want to plan for then?"

"Yeah, that'd be great."

***

Erin was coming back from a late lunch to find the new girl in the office, all alone.

"Who are you?" Erin asked, shoving her wallet into her back jeans pocket.

"I'm the new detective."

"Since when?"

"Not until Monday."

"Oh. Well, I'm Erin. Welcome to the twenty first."

"Thanks."

They both took the back stairwell to the basement. As they were walking, they heard a loud racket.

"What is going on down here?!" Erin said when she opened the door.

"I found the guy responsible for the school bombing." Adam said in reply.

"I'm sure Voight would just love hearing about this."

"All he did was grin and then go back to what he was doing on his computer."

"Typical Voight." Erin shook her head.

"I got him to give up the names. I had to rough him up a bit, but it still worked."

"You gotta do what you gotta do." She shrugged.

"You remember someone named Charlie?"

"I used to run with him when I was a teenager. Why the sudden curiosity?"

"Because his named was mentioned."