The Devil that you know EP 27: Domino Effect (3)

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♙Kai Hamilton♙

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Work over the next few days was… awkward to say the very least. Kai was sure that most people probably didn’t notice that awkward space between Kai and Rafeeqa. However, he could feel Arthur’s eyes on his every so often so it was obvious he could tell at least. It didn’t also help that Kai was letting his nerves show a bit as he had been trying to keep an eye on Garvin’s team as a whole. It had already been 2 days since Ameer’s death but there has been no backlash as of yet from Sarah which was hopeful but also a bit concerning.

Hopeful in the sense that she wasn’t immediately spiraling but also concerned as to what she could possibly be cooking up.

He has decided to take another look at the previous murders and try to look at this case from a different angle. From the start, they had been trying to find some kind of connection to each victim, where there was overlap or even some small kind of tie. That leads them to the bar, and finding about Sarah. And from Sarah that then led to Ameer.

And this process doesn’t even include the additional clues that Sarah left behind at each scene.

The papers spoke very briefly about the Truth drug. It was just general articles that were released around the time of the announcement of the development of the drug. Mostly just a lot of speculations about the drug, its trials, and what effect it would have on the population if successful. Then again, in Honda’s case, this came up once again, with the same information with only a few more details.

That eventually led to Restore Pharmaceuticals. That was effectively a dead end which didn’t surprise Kai. But something about it still bothers him to this day. It was the way the whole Truth drug was brushed off and basically never talked about again. Kai logically can gather that given how the company is and who they are partners with, that kind of attitude makes sense. The publicity and all the talk about it, before everything went crashing down only further, cemented that. The drug was supposed to be this revolutionary thing and quote “change the world of medicine”.

Pretentious sure but Restore Pharmaceuticals is a leading drug company.

Sure they’ve had drugs fail in testing before but not one that they ranted and raved about so heavily. So again, logically it makes sense to distance themselves from it.

But something about it didn’t feel right. And then there was the matter of Sarah Denver and the missing kids’ case. Given that it was at least a few years after the drug had been shelved it was odd timing and just didn’t fit at all. The case might have had nothing to do with it, but that was a slim chance.

Why the hell would she have any issue with Honda and Price? Or even know of them? Honda didn’t really get big until 5 years ago in the real estate business, and Kai was pretty sure Price had never set foot in the lower district a day in his life.

So what was the connection?

He lets out a frustrated sigh for what feels like the 100th time. And that doesn’t even factor in the situation with Ameer. Kai doesn’t have any kind of ideal concept as to why Ameer is being watched. Maybe it had to do with Sarah? But from the way he described it, it didn’t seem like it was connected.

“Like they had been watching him even before…”

Suddenly something clicked in his brain. Kai sat up straight in his chair, he was thankful that he was making this discovery now and not at the office. From the information of the missing kids case, all of them lived in one localized area. He searched the land records around the area and wasn’t surprised to find a few buildings in the area both bought and sold by Honda’s real estate agency. But there was only one that was bought about 4 months before the case occurred.

It was a stretch, he knew this logically. He could already see the look on Jonas’s face at what he was even thinking of suggesting.

He and his team were so focused on trying to bridge the gap between the two victims since they were so different. And if not for discovering Sarah, and the missing kid’s case and Ameer, Kai wouldn’t have been making this connection even. And even then, it still sounds kind of crazy even to his own mind.

He looks into the truth drug again. Several sponsors gave donations for the development of this drug, and Price’s bank was among those. Which again wouldn’t be weird normally but now that his mind has been open to the idea brewing.

“But why now? Why take kids after almost 2 years after?” Kai murmurs.

And that is the wall he’s hitting. Taking the kids was already a stretch for him logically, especially two years after the fact. And then returning most of them? That was risky, there was no telling what could happen. But then again seeing how almost each one of them had refused to tell what happened? Maybe it wasn’t that much of a risk after all. Kai knows almost immediately that he’s going to have to come clean about Ameer. While he knows this could be very departmental, this isn’t something he could just follow without the force finding out.

He needed to tell Jonas.

Going into the precinct the next day was a bit nerve-wracking, kind of reminded him of the day he had to tell Jonas about what he found out about the Garner case. It was early in the morning, he could only see a few officers outside of his team at their desks. He chose to go immediately to Jonas as this was something he just wanted to get out of the way. He purposely ignores the gaze of Rafeeqa on him.

“Jonas, can we talk?” Kai asks as he enters the office.

Jonas’s gaze drags up from some paperwork he was looking at with a frown. More than likely less than pleased to have Kai in his office first thing in the morning obviously. He closes the folder he was looking through and pushes it to the side with a sigh.

“What do you want Hamilton?” He says lean a bit forward.

“It’s regarding the case, the latest victim in fact.”

Jonas gives him a ‘go on’ look and Kai gears himself before starting.

“I know you don’t actually think Sarah killed Ameer.”

Jonas lets off a scoff almost instantly. More than likely expecting that to be something to come out of Kai’s mouth.

“What fucking difference does that make at this point Kai. I got a dead body with her mo all over it. There isn’t any evidence that doesn’t point straight to her!”

“The difference is that Ameer did give us something. He told me before he died someone was watching him. Someone from our precinct.” Kai finishes with a small wince.

To see Jonas’s face journey would have been amusing if under different circumstances. When he finally settled on one emotion, it was one of aggravation.

“..Why the fuck am I just hearing about this now?!”

“I didn’t believe him, at all why would we be watching someone from a case so long ago! Especially one that has been closed!”

Technically that wasn’t a lie, he didn’t believe it at first. Jonas’s eyes are trained on Kai, his expression giving absolutely nothing away. The silence stretched on for a few seconds.

“…You really think I don’t know you by now Hamilton?”

Kai lets out a curse in his head as he watches Jonas’s expression sour. His eyebrows pinch together and a deep frown tugs at his lips.

“Contrary to your fucking belief, I happen to be a decent cop. I know when someone’s lying to me.”

Kai frowns and doesn’t respond. After all, he knows for a fact it wasn’t to help the situation anyway.

“By my guess, you may not have believed it at first but you also don’t trust anyone here anyway. So the idea probably wasn’t that crazy for you.”

“Jonas-”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Kai immediately stopped talking as he could tell by the expression on Jonas’s face, that he was at the end of his thread. This was an expression that he’s only seen when on the verge of being fired.

“Do you know who it is?”

There is a pause for a second as Kai contemplates asking that question. But he quickly decides against it as Jonas’s expression grows colder.

“…He didn’t tell me a name..”

“I didn’t ask you that. I said, do you know who it is?”

Kai clenches his teeth with a frown. How Jonas got to that conclusion was beyond him, he knew the other man had a tendency to watch him but he would have never thought it would be to this extent. Kai was always cautious of how he acted or what he left on.

“Don’t make me ask again.”

“…I think it’s someone from Gravin’s team since they were the ones who handled the missing kid’s case.”

Jonas’s face shows confusion only for a brief moment before turning back to a neutral one. He then lets out a deep sigh before standing up from his chair.

“..When this case is over, you are done.”

A chill ran up Kai’s spine at those haunting words.

“Capt-”

Jonas raises a hand cutting Kai off, a seeing look in his eyes.

“..Be thankful I don’t sac your ass right now. Now come with me.”

And with that, Jonas walked out of his office, without even giving Kai another glance. Kai let a small sigh, he knew Jonas was going to be pissed. He couldn’t help feeling like this was the ‘I told you so’ Rafeeqa is surely going to say. Back in the main area of the precinct, Jonas and Kai walk over to where Garvin sits along with his team. Kai can feel the inquiring look that Rafeeqa is sending his way, no doubt she tagged the absolute stony expression on Jonas’s face.

“Hey, Garvin!”

Garvin turns and greets Jonas with a nod, not without giving a side glance to Kai before returning back to Jonas.

“Hey Boss, what’s up?”

“It has been …brought to my attention that the prep in the serial murder chase might be targeting your team. Where are the rest of them?”

Garvin looks both shocked and confused but answers.

“Well, Val is over there. The other two haven’t arrived yet however.” Garvin answers.

“Call them now.”

Garvin looks like he wants to question why but just shrugs after a moment.

“I’ll call Frank, Val you call Noah alright?”

“Yes sir.”

So both dial the numbers of their teammates. For Garvin it took a few rings until finally, someone answered. Garvin had it on speaker so Jonas and Kai could hear.

“..What?”

That was undoubtedly Frank’s voice and he sounded annoyed by the tone of his voice. Garvin frowns a bit before answering.

“Don’t ‘what’ me asshole, where the hell are you?”

There was some mumbling and shifting around before Frank answered.

“Stuck in a fuckin jam. Did the prink Noah tell you?”

Gravin throws a look at Jonas before turning back to the phone.

“Noah? He hasn’t come in yet. When did you talk to him?”

“Earlier this morning…” Frank answers with an annoyed huff.

Jonas looks over to Valerie just for her to shake her head with the phone against her ear.

“…He’s not picking up. And this is the 3rd time.”

“That’s not like him. He’s a fucking stickler for answers when getting phone calls.” Garvin added on.

Frank could be heard muttering the background, asking why they were calling him and what they were talking about but was ignored.

“Besides his home, is there anywhere Noah might be around this time?” Jonas asks Garvin.

It was almost about to be mid-day so it was possible that he could not be home.

“Uh, sometimes he heads by a restaurant at this breakfast place named, Glasshouse. He sometimes picks up breakfast there for us as well.” Garvin says.

Jonas nods to him before motioning to Kai and then his team who have eventually come over. The few other officers that were in at the moment were also checking any CCTV cameras.

“Jaivon, you and your team go by Noah’s house and check in there. Garvin, you and your team check out the diner. Once more people come in, we’ll expand the search. If you find anything, report back understood.”

“Yes sir!”

Jonas nods to them before turning to walk back to his office. It was unfortunate however that Kai was in his direction path. The look Jonas gives him is both chilling and feels like a nail in his coffin. Jonas stops short before him but doesn’t look at him.

“….For your sake, you better hope we find Noah alive..”

He then walks off, shouldering past Kai. Kai feels numb as the full weight of what’s happening seems to fall over him. He barely pays attention to what Jaivon is talking about but he does feel and vaguely see Rafeeqa in his peripheral. He’s fucked up, all his talk about trying to make this city better feels like ash now.

Whether he meant to or not, he took a risk on someone’s life. Someone he subconsciously didn’t mind risking since to him, the reward was worth it. As they drove, Kai was silent, watching the landscape pass by from the window. He could vaguely feel eyes on him but ignored it.

Currently, his mind is occupied by one realization. That at the end of the day, really deep down, he’s no better than the people who he is fighting against.