Tolerance Book III

Chapter Eleven: Closure Denied

Inside the suddenly claustrophobic apartment Voight waged an inner war as he struggled to refrain from intervening to protect his injured Detective from whatever new nightmare was about to be unleashed.  He knew however the younger man needed to be made aware of whatever King had left behind so stood still.  Beside him Al grappled with a similar need to protect his fellow ex-Sniper from any fresh torment.  His friend had already endured more pain and anguish than most people ever do in a lifetime. Antonio, Kevin and Mouse stood to the side as their friend advanced on Adam.  Parker stood beside Marks just inside the apartment entrance watching the scene unfold.  He braced himself as Jay finally stopped in front of the stacked boxes and took a peek into the open one.

"That's nothing new," Jay eyed the photos of his fathers' funeral dispassionately and headed off to the sole bedroom, "let's see what else he left behind."
"Uh .... yeah," Adam stumbled over his words, surprised by the unexpected response, "sure Jay."
"What's in there?" Kevin checked as soon as the concussed man was out of earshot.
"Photos of his old mans' funeral."
"Hell!" Mouse cursed vehemently.
"Let's take our lead from Halstead," Voight quietly instructed, "he clearly doesn't want to talk about it now."
"But this means King was watching Jay for .......," Adam began.
"We know what it means," Al cut in succinctly, "let's just get this done and then we can get him out of here."

In the spacious peach bedroom Jay wrestled with his emotions. The surveillance photos of the funeral had caught him off guard which rankled him.  He knew from experience King was unpredictable so he shouldn't have been surprised by the discovery yet he was.   Forcing himself to do his job rather than dwell on his personal emotions the weary man ran a hand tiredly down his face in a vain attempt to wipe away the exhaustion gnawing away at him.  Steeling himself for the task in hand, his composure regained, he took in his environs with a frown.  Whereas the rest of the apartment was full of boxes and other hoarders' delights this room remained untouched by the chaos and he had to wonder why.  Over the years through his work he'd been in the homes of a number of Hoarders and he recalled no space had been left uncluttered yet this bedroom was well kept.  The layers of dust which coated the surfaces of the remainder of the domicile were absent here.  The king size bed atop the plush brown carpet was dressed in deep orange Egyptian bed clothes and was immaculately made.  The dark brown bedside tables were each adorned with a brass lamp with an orange and yellow ornate glass lampshade that befitted what the high end address should have embodied.  Looking around for anything untoward Jays' eye caught a glint of something sticking out from under the storage box in the guise of a Pirates' treasure chest located at the end of the large bed.  With a frown he approached the chest and crouched down slowly, in deference to his aching head, to look more closely at the item. Upon closer inspection he could identify it as a small key. Taking out an evidence bag he picked the silver item up after placing it momentarily beside the lock of the treasure chest, it was obviously too small to belong to it.

Outside the others had taken it upon themselves to take a precursory look into all the boxes, a more thorough examination of the contents would take place once the evidence had been taken into custody.  For now the goal was to gain a brief look at what King had left behind.  Each man, including Parker, had taken a few boxes to check.  They all had reported finding more surveillance photos of Jay, some including him with Will.  Voight declared he would speak to the injured man about same when they were back at the Bureau and no one disagreed with his course of action.  Each man had been overcome with the same sense of foreboding as they worked through the boxes.  Evil could be so powerful at times it became almost tangible, their jobs had taught them that. That lesson meant each one recognised that evil resided in this apartment even though King was dead.  It was almost like he had left an indelible mark on the place.

Two hours later Kevin was going through his final box when a curse of fury emanated from him that caused all eyes to turn his way in concern.

"What is it?" Adam demanded in dread as he closed the last box in his stack, glad Jay was going through the cluttered kitchen.
"There's scores of drawings of Jay ....," Kevin finally spoke, clearly trying to contain his emotions.
"We know he's obsessed with Jay," Antonio reminded unnecessarily.
"Not like this," the bearded man insisted grimly as he held up one drawing for scrutinywhich showed a very good likeness of their friend lying in an open coffin, a knife through his heart.
"Guy died too soon!" Mouse fumed in disgust.
"For now let's head back to the office," Marks suggested, uneasy about being privy to the Units' personal feelings.
"We can let Forensics do their stuff," Voight concurred as he eyed his team, "for now let's leave this between us."
"He has a right to know ....," Mouse hastily put in.
"And he will, just want him to get a break today.  He still has to finish his debriefing," the Sergeant explained not unkindly, he appreciated the IT Specialists' loyalty to his fellow ex-Ranger.
"I'll take Jay with me," Al dictated as he headed for the kitchen while the others began getting ready to leave as they disgarded their latex gloves.
"Sure," Voight agreed easily, hiding his curiosity.