If You'll Believe In Me

"Nothing, and we cross referenced that six ways to Sunday," I say.

"Do we have any evidence the rifle got smuggled out?" Chief asks. We look at each other, agree without speaking, and say no. "Get a warrant to start breaking the drywall."

"Yes sir," I say.

"Lieutenant, I want progress reports every six hours or significant discovery," Chief says, and she replies it will be done. "Get to work."

I am exhausted from looking at a screen all day with so little progress. Where the hell is that rifle? To feel like I'm doing something productive, I announce I'll work the warrant to start breaking down walls. Within the hour I have it submitted and start to watch tape again.

"Holy shit," that douche bag officer says from his desk. "Detective."

I shuffle over to his desk and look at what he found. At one in the morning the camera caught a figure entering the alley. The quality isn't great, but I can clearly see someone enter with a bag slung over their shoulder who starts climbing the fire escape until they exit frame. Got her.

"Back track. find out how she got there," I say, and he nods. Suddenly he's not a dismissive asshole anymore.

--

After a long day, the only lead we have is that Alice entered the building by crossing the roofs to avoid cameras. We're going into the building tomorrow with the warrant to start busting down walls for that rifle. For now, I go home and build a puzzle with my kids while Gianna is working late.

Wendy is too cool to help with a one-thousand-piece puzzle, but Wesley and Preston are up to the task. We made the rule she must at least be in the living room for family time. No going to your bedroom. You can be on your phone, but you must be here. Wendy spends the entire time texting on her phone, but at least she is present.

Preston's method of puzzle building is segregating colors into neat piles on the table. This frustrates Wesley who is working the frame with me, constantly having to push his piles out of the way. The frame is complete, and Wesley starts looking for key features on the picture and trying to build it. I work from one corner and try to work away from it. The space above the table is a fun tangle of our arms trying to have our method dominate the activity. Within the hour, it is clear Preston is winning.

"It looks like it fits," Wesley says, trying to force a piece down. It does look right, but the shape does not conform to the surrounding pieces. I stop him from slamming his hand on the table in anger.

"Calm down, set the piece aside, and look around," I say, then start explaining that the color transition doesn't align. "See that?"

"Yeah," Wesley says, and starts scanning again. He finds the correct piece in Preston's pile and connects it. "Got it."

"Hey!" Preston says. "That's my piece."

"No one owns the pieces," I declare.

The boys keep working, and I say I need to go to the bathroom. I kiss their heads and walk toward the hall, playfully moving my hand over Wendy's head. She slouches into the chair so I can't touch her.

After I pee, I start washing my hands and feel the baby kick when I'm hunched over the sink.

"Motherfucker," I say, holding my stomach. "Keep it down in there."

It looks like it fits. I think about Chase saying the cameras were a giant puzzle. Put the pieces in the right order and they can tell a story. It looks like it fits.

I have a thought, and call Chase's desk phone. It is late, but I have a feeling he's there.

"Kramner," he says.

"It's Midge."

"What's up? You still here too?" he asks.

"No. Weird favor. Could you pull up the videos from the shooting, align the clocks and show them on a single screen? Then tell me if anything looks out of place?" I ask.

"Uhhh, sure," Chase says, and I hear his mouse click. "You guys put the videos in the share drive?"

"Yeah. We haven't migrated the folders over yet, still just under homicide," I explain, and I hear a lot of clicking. I give him to the passcode to the file when he asks. I'll be burning those to a hard media tomorrow.

"Case number?" he asks, and I provide it. "Surveillance...which ones?"

"Do the kitchen, the dining area, and the south courthouse camera facing the restaurant," I say. I hear clicking again.

"Give me a sec to align them," Chase says. "Back up this video five seconds, this one three seconds, and play." Chase is likely making sure the time stamps are the same by pausing them seconds apart, letting one play, then playing the next when the time reaches the same position.

"Gunshot goes off and the cooks duck down. I duck down," he says.

"Anything out of place?" I ask. "A piece that doesn't fit?"

"Nothing jumps out," Chase says, and I sigh.

"Thanks anyway," I say and nearly hang up.

"Wait," Chase says, and I hold my breath. "The waiter vanishes before the shots are fired. Just as the defense team arrives across the street. You said the basement door is just off camera, right?"

"Yes," I say. I already know this.

"He returns into frame, two minutes later. I can partially see him the rest of the time because he hides near that door. I was flash banged a few seconds before, so it's a little fuzzy, but remember him. I came in and his back was to that door. He was the one who directed me upstairs. We then lose him again after I run upstairs, but he is still present when back up arrives. Did we interview the waiter?"

"Of course. Don't ask me to pronounce his name," I say. I interviewed the pub's staff with Jeff, and the stories more or less added up. Even Saul's inconsistency isn't too egregious. Not like the FBI will let us talk to him again.

"I'm not sure what I'm looking for," Chase says. "Did you guys search the basement?"

"Yeah. Thanks for looking," I say, and he says he might look at it for a little bit longer tonight. "Go home and fuck your girlfriend," I say and hang up.

--

Thursday- October 15, 2026

-Jennifer Ito --

Judge Selene Rook rejected our warrant to strip Alice to photograph her tattoos. Nowhere in the warrant could we claim we were searching for additional physical evidence for the crime of which she was accused, and she didn't buy our argument to see if she could be connected to another crime. She called back and said, "Tell me you believe this woman who you couldn't identify by any other means, is going to be found because she once committed a crime while topless." I said she could have had her tattoos photographed by a different jurisdiction. They would have also needed to fail at fingerprinting her. Rook held her ground and refused to sign off.

Right after that, I receive a worse call; Alice was released on bond. In the unlikeliest of events this happened, we had plans to surveil her. The officers on that detail let me know a car picked her up and drove her to an apartment. Her bond was posted anonymously.

"Alice is out!" I shout over the commotion of the office.

"What?" Midge asks.

"You heard me. We got eyes, but exercise a little more caution than usual," I explain, and the office resumes their work. "Midge, anything on the videos?"

"Nothing that we didn't know yesterday," Midge explains.

"Warrant to search the building again?" I ask.

"Waiting on Judge Rook," Midge says. Judge, please do not fuck me twice in a single day.

"Keep me informed, I'm updating the Chief in two hours," I say, and my phone rings. I lean over my desk and pick it up off the cradle. "Ito."

"You guys had a BOLO out for Henry Silverlake?" the dispatch Sergeant asks, and I confirm we do. "A patrol car is saying they found him."

"Where?"

"Sleeping in a vehicle behind a bar. Want them to knock on his window?" he asks.

"Field test him. If he's drunk, bring him in for DUI. If he's not drunk, bring him in for DUI," I say, and then hang up. "They found Silverlake. He'll come in for a DUI in a few hours."

"Warrant just came back, we're good. I'll be busting down walls with uniforms," Midge says as she removes the warrant from the printer.

"Don't have too much fun."

--

Thursday -- October 15, 2026

-Chase Kramner-

I am back to the beginning. Silverlake was likely found, passed out, in his car behind the same bar Amanda Hopkins worked at. Sergeant Donner gave me a call a short time ago, letting me know her team found him. I asked her to give me first dibs.

My car is parked across the only exit of the parking lot. The first place my eyes go to is where Amanda's body was found. A few employee vehicles are parked around Silverlake, who is taking up two spaces. The owner called the police and asked to get him removed. Patrol sat on him for me and are still parked next to his car.

Looking down into the car, I see it is in fact Henry Silverlake asleep in the driver's seat. His chair is leaned back all the way, and he looks completely disheveled.

I knock on his window, and Silverlake does not even squirm in his sleep. After knocking two more times, I am fed up. The patrol officer leaves his vehicle after I gesture for him to join me.

"Unresponsive. Smash it," I say, and he is hesitant. "Anyone asks, say I did it."

"Alright," he says. The officer draws his baton, moves his face away, and shatters his window in one swing.

"What the fuck!" Silverlake shouts as he jumps up so fast, he hits his head on his ceiling. Before he can gather his bearings, I reach through the window and open his door from the inside. "What the fu..." I pull him out of his car by his shirt and throw him to the ground. "I get the point!"

"Get up," I say, and he grunts so hard he coughs. Silverlake staggers to his feet, falling backward to his car. I pick him up straight and push him back into his car. "Where you been?"

"Go fuck yourself Kramner," he says, pushing back against me. I grip his jacket tighter. "Tough guy. Hit me or back off."

"Why are you running?" I ask.

"Just taking a few days off."

"Behind a bar? In your car?" I accidently rhyme.

"I will hang out in a box with a fox if I want to," he says sarcastically.

"Alright Dr. Seuss explain why an assassin took a shot at you. You ran like you know why she was trying," I say, and he looks around, then back to me. "Who is Alice?"

"Never heard of her," he says. In my frustration I push him into his car again. "You're a cop. I know what you can do, and what you can't do. Believe me, I'm more scared of the alternative than I am of you."

"What's the alternative?" I ask.

"Arrest me, or fuck off," he says. I lean over and directly observe an open container in his car. "For that weak ass shit?"

"You smell alcohol on his breath officer?" I ask, and the officer sniffs loudly, and then nods. "I smell it too. Under arrest for suspicion of DUI."

"In a parked car?" he asks.

"Intent is a prosecutor's problem, not mine," I say, and pull out my handcuffs. Silverlake curses to himself as I squeeze the handcuffs closed. "Officer, bring him to HQ. Drop him off to Detectives Appletree or McCants."

"You got it," he says and escorts Silverlake to the cruiser.

--

After arresting Silverlake I return to my office and start watching the videos again. Last I knew they were going to let him stew until Midge got back from researching the building with a warrant to start breaking walls. I am an hour into my work when I hear my door slam shut. Jenn is leaning against the door with her arms crossed over her chest. Something tells me she is not here for a romantic rendezvous.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" Jenn asks. I pause the video. "Did you think I wouldn't know you went to Silverlake yourself?"

"Jenn..."

"...you're not talking to Jenn. You're talking to Lieutenant Ito," she says with the tone of slap. "How are we supposed to get him to talk when the person who picks him up smashes his car window and strongarms him?"

"I'm the bad cop. Send in a good one," I recommend.

"Chase..."

"...Sergeant," I say reflexively. I hate my own pettiness on that one, but she started it.

"Sergeant," she says, realizing how she began the conversation. "This is a homicide case. The Chief has made it clear he wants you nowhere near it. If you won't listen to him, please listen to me. We can't have a witness being arrested by the boyfriend of the Lieutenant overseeing it, who is also the ex-boyfriend of the victim."

All good points.

"That bullet could have taken off my head. She was a moment away from killing me. Pardon me if I take that personally," I say.

"I understand. But this is Jenn asking you, to let me do my job," Jenn pleads, and I exhale, then nod. "Please just back off a little."

"I will," I say. Jenn then walks around my desk to kiss me before returning to her office.

I tap my spacebar to play the video again. What am I missing? There is no way that weapon got smuggled out. Rubbing my hands downs my face in exhaustion, I playback the tape one more time. What am I missing?

Sometimes narrating footage helps, so I mumble the script as I watch.

"Bang bang bang, shit, duck and cover. Police arrive, and I run across the street, Donner follows. We run to the intersection..." I say aloud, watching the seating area of the pub. I do not see shadows run across the windows. "...wait." I run it back again. "Where am I?"

I can see the shadowed silhouette of the cars outside, so I should be able to see my own shadow dart across. However, I don't. Looking at the time stamp I see they are aligned properly.

Did they give us a doctored video?

I type McGee's into Google maps and see three pins land on the map. It is a franchised pub. I click on the one next to the courthouse and scan it over once. When I look at another one on the other side of the city, I notice the interiors are nearly identical. They gave us the footage from a different pub, spliced together to hide the activity in the dining area. Like Saul walking through it with a rifle bag. I also notice the silhouettes of two cars instead of one, then it jumps cuts back to one.

"You motherfuckers," I say, and start to call Midge, but stop dead when I remember something. I tripped over a bag in the kitchen next to the stairs. I kicked that bag out of the way. I kicked the fucking murder weapon!

"Motherfucker!" I shout and punch my monitor off my desk. It flies across the room, the cords pulling my laptop down with it.

"Jesus Christ, what the hell was that?" Doll says from the down the hall.

I finish calling Midge, still seething, and hear the walls being broken down over the line.

"What!?" Midge screams over the thudding.

"I found what we were missing!" I scream back.

"What!?"

--

Midge continued to bust down walls, just in case, and returned to the station within an hour. By then I had compiled the information into something actionable. Using Doll's computer because I'm paying for a new one.

"I know Chief told me to cease and desist, but consider this my statement," I say to Midge and Jeff McCants while Jenn watches from her officer door. I told her I would back off as well, so her eyes are stabbing me right now.

"What's wrong with the video?" Jeff asks.

"I'm not in it," I say, and Midge laughs. "No, seriously."

"Should you be?" Jenn asks.

"The time is aligned, right?" I ask, and everyone nods. I narrate up to the point where the video at the courthouse shows me run across the street. I then point to the right window on the pub's feed. "Sergeant Donner and I run across the windows, low, but not fully under the windows. We did that, less than ten seconds after we crossed the street." I let it play. "Ten seconds." And play. "Twenty seconds."

"You sure that's right?" Midge asks.

"Thirty seconds. How many cars were parked in front of McGee's?" I ask.

"One," Jeff says, and I point out the two cars parked, and the jump cut. "Holy shit."

"McGee's is franchised. They added footage from one of the other pubs," I say, and we can all hear Midge literally growling. "It gets worse. I tripped over the fucking bag getting to the stairs."

"How'd you forget that?" Jeff asks like I'm stupid.

"I got hit by a stun grenade fifteen seconds earlier. Pardon me if I don't have perfect recall," I say harshly.

"Knock it off, both of you," Jenn says to keep the peace. "Midge, I want someone in handcuffs for this tape, today."

"Obstruction?" Midge asks.

"Obstruction," Jenn replies, and Midge says she will get it done. "Jeff."

"LT?" Jeff asks.

"I'll make some calls to deal with the FBI. Grab a uniformed officer and find Saul," Jenn says and Jeff nods. "Chase, get out."

"While they're working, you want to grab some lunch?" I ask The Kaiser, who pops his head up from his desk. He gives me a nod after checking his watch.

--

The Kaiser and I have not been able to sit down together for months. I do not recall the last time we had lunch during a workday. Part of me thought I was sneaky by picking a place near Saul's, but The Kaiser saw right through that.

"You can't keep pushing your luck with keeping distance from this case," The Kaiser says after he orders a sandwich. I get a cobb salad. "She isn't dumb, and you seem determined to test her patience."

"Saul smuggled the rifle out. I kicked the fucking bag. Probably moved it the moment I went upstairs. Dropped it in his car and went back inside. Right under our noses," I say. And right under my fucking feet.

"Whoever gave us the footage is in cahoots with Alice," The Kaiser says, and I nod in agreement. "Why? And why Marlene? Or Silverlake?"

"I'm thinking it has something to do with Calvin," I say, and he ponders the suggestion. "She's mob lawyer. Have we interviewed her?"

"Just about what happened, nothing deep," he says. "Stop asking. Not your lane."

"She almost killed me," I say.

"Trust them to do their jobs," The Kaiser says, and I put my radio on the table. I brought the roamer in case something happens nearby. "Turn that off."

"Not with an assassin in the wild," I say. Some dispatch traffic comes in, and The Kaiser sighs while shaking his head. "When is Abigail due?"

"Two weeks," he says.

"Gender reveal?" I ask.

"The birth will be the reveal," he says with a smile. Kid number two for him. I need to catch up. A few years ago, I would have feared something like that. Six months cannot pass fast enough now. "Any plans with Jenn?"

"Not for a few months at least," I say, and he grins. "What?"

"Nothing," he says, and we both laugh a little. Then Victor-Charlie-2-1 calls up a 10-54 over dispatch. Possible fatality. "Victor Charlie. That's Jeff."

"Shit," I say, and we listen. Requesting medical to the scene, then calls a 10-33, closing the line for only emergencies. "Saul's dead."

--

Thursday - October 15, 2026

-Jennifer Ito-

When I arrive at the scene, Jill Whitaker is crouched over the body of Saul Grybauskaitė. Sergeant McCants went to talk to him with some uniformed officers, only to find his door left partially open and obstructed by his corpse. Shot twice in the head at close range, once while upright, then again when on the floor. Just to make sure.

The entryway of his apartment is a shallow pool of blood. Jill's crew has placed a small bridge over the blood so they can still move without contaminating it. I have never seen a CSI flex so much authority to keep a scene clean. Jeff is the only officer she has allowed in, and I understand, so I hang back in the hallway.

Jill tells us the killer likely entered the house because the right foot appears to scrape across the ground from the door pushing into it. It is then dragged again when the door was pulled back, but his foot blocked it from being fully closed. The killer didn't bother moving his foot out of the way, so it was left open.

"Talk to me," I say to Jeff. I see his shadow moving around before he steps into my view. Jill has him wearing a haircap and booties.

"Nothing appears stolen. No home security. No evidence of a struggle," Jeff says from inside. "I'm thinking ding dong, bang bang."