Tolerance Book III

Chapter Ten: Debriefing

Debriefing

The official debriefing had been going on for over two hours. Jays' head was pulsating and he longed to lie down in a dark room but he didn't give voice to his discomfort, it just wasn't in his nature. Across from him Voight could see the physical toll the repetitive questioning was having on his injured Detective and decided to give it another ten minutes before calling for a break. The older man listened as Marks once again honed in on what had transpired in the blackened lift prior to the lethal shot being fired.

"You had no reason at all to believe he was armed?" the Canadian checked, yet again.
"I couldn't see anything that gave me reason to think he had a weapon," Jay repeated his prior response to the same question trying to keep the weariness at bay, "but, as I've stated, I knew that did not rule out the possibility."
"Yet he was still able to shoot himself," Gibbs noted evenly.
"Yes."
"When did you first suspect he had a weapon?"
"When the power went. It made sense he would need time to access a gun if he had one."
"Yes but why jump to that conclusion?" Marks probed, pen poised.
"I'd been trying to get a read on what his intentions were," the young Detective explained, this was new ground, "upon entering the elevator his demeanour changed."
"So you tried to put yourself in his shoes?" Gibbs suggested.
"Yeah ..... the only option I could see him going for was going out with a bang," Jay offered with a grimace at his unintentional choice of words.
"Surely you must have considered the possibility he was going to shoot you," Gibbs looked at the Detective seeing the squinting behind the dark sunglasses, concussions were hell he knew that from personal experience.
"Briefly but he's had the opportunity before to kill me and didn't. It seemed to me he would consider shooting himself causing more hassle for me ..... amongst other things."
"You say the two of you wrestled for possession of the pistol," Marks double checked the notes before him, "how could you try to gain possession of it when you had no visual aid?"
"He was close to me when the lift stopped," Jay remembered back to that heart stopping moment, "his arm brushed against me as he was bringing it up and I knew he was doing something."
"Having the weapon held in place by surgical tape under his armpit explains why he looked unarmed," Gibbs stated, "those weapons are so small they look like toy guns rather than the real deal."
"He could have shot you and then taken himself out. Why do you think he didn't?" Voight posed a question for the first time, he was gladly deferring to the Canadian Officers now King was no longer a threat.
"Sarge if I knew that I'd be a Profiler," Jay replied vaguely, he was not willing to share his thoughts on that just yet even though he had an idea.
"Well I believe any other questions can be dealt with tomorrow," Voight purposefully got to his feet and motioned for Jay to do likewise, "Detective Halstead needs some proper rest."
"Of course,"Marks said graciously as he stood up, relieved they had finished most of the debriefing.
"I can be here first thing tomorrow," Jay offered.
"Just be here by 1400."
"Thanks," Jay offered a firm hand to the two Canadians before Voight led him out of the room.

The two Canadians eyed the closed door thoughtfully.

"You buying all of that?" Marks enquired.
"Yes. Think he was telling the truth."
"Yeah," Marks sighed, "I think King's really done a number on him. By him taking the easy way out Halstead isn't going to get all the answers he's been searching for."
"Hopefully that apartment will yield up something worthwhile," Gibbs referred to the note from King.
"We'll find out in the morning."

As Voight accompanied the slow moving younger man to the car park for their departure for the day he contemplated pushing him about his response to the last question. The Sergeant had known the enquiry would be made so stepped in and asked it himself hoping his Subordinate would be more inclined to give a full answer to him. Clearly that had not happened though and the older man now had to consider what was being withheld.