A hundred-dollar bill was still enough cash to make most people look twice, especially when three of them appeared at once.
Alvin Olinsky’s expression stiffened when Adrian Knight casually pulled out the crisp bills and handed them over as though three hundred dollars meant nothing.
Adrian simply patted Alvin on the shoulder afterward and stepped aside, pretending to study the clouds in the sky as if nothing unusual had happened.
Alvin looked down at the money in his hand before turning toward Michelle.
Michelle clearly didn’t care where the cash had come from at that point; her attention went straight to the three bills.
Whatever awkward father-daughter emotions had been hanging between them were temporarily pushed aside by a much simpler problem.
“All right,” Alvin muttered as he handed her the money.
Michelle accepted it without making a show of refusing, but before she could say much more, an older Chevrolet sedan slowly pulled up along the curb.
A young man sat behind the wheel and tapped the horn before leaning toward the open window.
“Michelle!” Michelle immediately recognized him.
She had no intention of introducing her friend to Alvin, however, and simply adjusted the backpack over her shoulder before looking back at her father.
“Hey…
thanks for getting me out.” She hesitated for a moment.
“I gotta go now.
See you around?” Alvin clearly had no idea how he was supposed to respond to a daughter he barely knew.
After a short pause, he gave an awkward nod and said, “Yeah.
Okay.” Michelle climbed into the Chevrolet, and the car soon pulled away from the detention center.
Alvin remained beside his Sonata and watched silently as it disappeared down the street.
For all the years he had spent dealing with criminals, informants, and dangerous investigations, this situation seemed to leave him completely helpless.
After a while, Alvin finally turned toward Adrian.
“Hey, thanks.” He rubbed the back of his neck and added, “I’ll pay you back when I can, all right?” Adrian looked at him casually.
“Alvin, it’s fine.
Pay me whenever you want.” Three hundred dollars genuinely wasn’t enough money for Adrian to worry about, especially after the Punisher System had already dropped hundreds of thousands more into his storage space.
Alvin didn’t argue over it.
He let out a tired sigh, got into the driver’s seat, and Adrian climbed into the passenger side.
The Hyundai Sonata pulled away from the curb and headed back toward the Chicago Police Department’s 21st District.
When Adrian stepped back into the Intelligence Unit, Adam Ruzek was the first person to notice him.
“Look who’s back,” Adam called out before walking over and pulling him into a quick hug.
“Man, we were worried about you.” Adrian smiled and returned the greeting.
“Thanks.” Antonio Dawson came over next and extended his hand.
“How are you feeling?” Adrian shook it firmly and gave him an easy grin.
“Strong as a bull.” Jesse bumped Adrian lightly on the shoulder.
“Glad you’re back.” Adrian nodded and replied, “Glad to be back.” Then a blonde woman Adrian hadn’t met before stepped forward and offered her hand.
“Erin Lindsay.
I’ve been away for a little while, but I heard what happened to you.” Adrian shook her hand.
“Adrian Knight.
Nice to meet you.” “Likewise,” Erin replied.
Adrian already knew enough about the unit to understand that Erin Lindsay was especially close to Hank Voight and had been part of his life long before she became a detective.
After the introductions, Erin tilted her chin toward Hank’s office as if silently reminding Adrian that the boss would probably want to see him.
Adrian understood immediately and headed toward the door.
He knocked once before entering.
“Boss, I’m back.” Hank looked up from his desk and studied Adrian from head to toe.
“How’s the body?” “If you need more time off, take it,” Hank continued.
“Nobody’s forcing you back early.” Adrian smiled and shook his head.
“I’m good.
Mostly recovered.” Hank didn’t argue.
He opened a folder on his desk, removed a document, and slid it across toward Adrian.
“Then sign this.” Adrian looked down at the report.
“Your field statement from Hyde Park,” Hank explained.
“Self-defense.
That’s what happened, right?” Adrian quickly reviewed the important sections before picking up the pen.
“Right.” “Self-defense.” The Hyde Park shooting had already generated the expected paperwork and review because Adrian was a police officer involved in multiple deaths.
Hank had helped make sure the circumstances were properly documented: Adrian had been kidnapped, tortured, restrained, and attacked by armed criminals before fighting his way out.
That didn’t eliminate formal review, but it made the reason for his actions straightforward.
Adrian signed the report and handed it back.
Hank took it without further comment.
“Good.” With that handled, Adrian returned to the main office and headed toward his desk.
Mouse was sitting nearby, and the moment Adrian sat down, the technician pushed off with his feet and rolled his chair across the floor toward him.
He raised one fist.
“Welcome back, tough guy.” Adrian fist-bumped him.
Mouse grinned.
“I heard you took down seven guys by yourself.
Didn’t know the rich rookie had that kind of fight in him.” Adrian smiled.
“You’re not so bad yourself, Mouse.” Mouse was about to reply when something flashed across his monitor.
His eyebrows immediately rose, and he rolled back toward the computer.
“Oh, that’s not good.” He leaned closer to the screen and quickly opened the incoming report.
“Hey, guys.
We got a body.” At first, nobody in Intelligence reacted very strongly.
Homicides were an unfortunate part of the work, and everyone in the room had seen more dead bodies than they cared to remember.
Mouse stared at the screen for another moment before his expression changed.
“It’s a kid.” The entire room went quiet.
Every head turned toward him.
Not long afterward, the Intelligence Unit arrived at the crime scene.
Patrol officers had already stretched yellow police tape around the area and blocked civilians from getting closer.
Adrian stepped out of the vehicle and immediately saw two uniformed officers waiting near the perimeter.
A dark-haired patrol officer walked toward him first and extended her hand.
“Kim Burgess.” The man beside her did the same.
“Sean Roman.” Adrian shook hands with both of them.
“Adrian Knight.
Nice to meet you.” His attention briefly returned to Kim.
After Adam’s comments about Burgess and their engagement, Adrian had already guessed who she was before she introduced herself.
A moment later, Adam came over from behind him and went directly toward her.
“Honey, you okay?” Adam asked, unable to hide the concern in his voice.
Kim nodded, though her expression remained strained.
“I’m fine.” She glanced toward the taped-off area.
“Let’s just work.” The group moved deeper into the scene.
The location appeared to be an informal dumping area where broken furniture, discarded appliances, construction debris, and other trash had accumulated.
Near one side sat an abandoned refrigerator.
The freezer compartment was open.
Inside was a little boy.
He wore only a pair of shorts and sat completely motionless inside the cramped space.
His wrists and ankles had been bound, while dark red bruises covered large areas of his body.
There was no question that he was already dead.
Adrian’s expression hardened instantly.
Roman stood nearby and explained what had happened.
“We were chasing an armed suspect through the area.
He cut through here, so we followed.” Kim looked toward the refrigerator.
“I saw blood on the ground.” She swallowed before continuing.
“So I opened it.” Her eyes stayed fixed on the freezer.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Nobody blamed her reaction.
Finding a dead child inside a discarded refrigerator would shake even experienced officers, and Kim had been the one who opened the door without any warning about what she would find.
Adam stayed close but didn’t crowd her.
Hank and the others began checking what little information they had.
The dumping site didn’t offer many immediate witnesses, and there was no obvious indication of who had left the refrigerator there.
Somebody looked through recent missing-person reports while the crime-scene personnel began documenting the area.
“We got a missing-child call this morning,” one of the officers said.
“Rogers Park.” He glanced toward the boy.
“Age and description could match.” Adrian and Hank slowly approached the refrigerator.
Adrian looked at the child’s bruised body for only a few seconds before raising one hand to his forehead and turning his face away.
He had already seen more violence in his first weeks with Intelligence than most people would encounter in a lifetime, but this felt different.
Hank crouched beside the refrigerator and silently studied the scene.
His face remained controlled, but everyone who knew him could see the anger building behind his eyes.
Whatever had happened to this boy had been deliberate and cruel.
After several seconds, Hank stood.
He looked around at the entire team.
“No matter what happened here,” Hank said in his gravelly voice, “we are going to solve this case.” [Reader Support Milestones]