Justice in the Shadows (2 page)

“Do I have to say right now?” She hadn’t wanted to come, had only done it because she’d been forced to.
Now…

Catherine’s eyes were gentle. “Come back any time, Dell.”

———

Across town, Rebecca walked into the squad room on the third floor of the eighteenth precinct and threaded her way through the maze of crowded metal desks and haphazardly placed chair toward her desk in the far left corner. She slowed as she approached, an eyebrow cocked in surprise. “What’s with the new suit?”

He looked down, then met her gaze. “I got two.”

“Uh-huh.” She picked up a stack of folders, glanced at them, and tossed them aside. She wasn’t interested in cold cases, or new ones for that matter. She was interested in two unsolved ones—Jeff Cruz’s murder and the attempted murder of J.T. Sloan. They had to be related, because both of them had the smell of an inside job. “Let’s take a ride.”

Without a word he followed her into the hall, down the stairwell, and out into the rear parking lot. A few minutes later they were rocketing south on I-95.

“Who’d you tell about the plans for the raid?” she asked without preamble.

“What? Fuck, nobody.” His voice was indignant.

“That leaves Catherine, Mitchell, Sloan, McBride, or Clark.” She looked at him, her expression remote. “Which one do you figure for the snitch?”

“It wasn’t anybody on the team,” he replied adamantly.

“I agree.” Rebecca’s voice was low, flat, the way it got when she was simmering with rage. “There’s something you don’t know,” she said at length. “Trish Marks over in Homicide told me that Captain Henry got with
her
Captain behind close doors, and then she and her partner were pulled off the investigation into Jeff and Jimmy’s murders.”

“That smells bad.”

“Yeah.” Rebecca eased up on the gas. “I don’t
want
to think it’s him, but…”

“You’d be a puss…ah, a chump to trust him right now.” He fingered his cigarettes fitfully, wondering if she’d ever let him smoke in her ride. “But it could be someone higher up in the Department.”

“Maybe. Or someone with access to department records.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but someone pulled all of Dee Flanagan’s evidence reports on Jeff and Jimmy.”

“Stole ‘em?”

Rebecca slowed, made a U-turn across the median, and headed back north. “They hacked them out of her computer, it seems.”

“And we have our very own computer whiz kids, and one of ‘ems got an ax to grind.” Watts turned on the seat and studied Rebecca’s sharply hewn profile. “You’re thinking about running a shadow investigation of your own, aren’t you? Going after the leak in the department?”

“It all ties together, Watts. The porn ring, the Justice inquiry, the sex videos, Jimmy Hogan’s intel—all of it.” She gripped the wheel hard, although her face revealed nothing. “Who knows, this case might even shake loose Zamora and the rest of the organized crime family.”

“We could get hung out to dry, too.”

“Who said anything about
we?
“

He huffed. “We’re partners, Sarge. Right?”

Rebecca eyed the shabby cop in the clean blue suit and sighed. Almost too quietly for him to hear, she grunted, “Right.”

———

“The haldol should be fine for the agitation,” Catherine remarked as she signed off on the resident’s progress notes and checked her watch. She had an hour before clinic.

Just outside the intensive care unit, Catherine saw a red-headed woman walking in her direction. Slowing at the woman’s nod, Catherine said, “Hello. I’m Catherine Rawlings. We were never properly introduced last night when Michael was brought it.”

“Sarah Martin.” The red-head extended her hand.

Catherine noticed that there were faint circles beneath her eyes. The smile was soft and genuine, but her cornflower blue eyes were troubled. “How’s Michael? I was about to go check on her.”

“Not awake yet.” Sarah glanced briefly at the double steel doors leading in to the intensive care unit. “If you could talk to Sloan…I can’t get her to leave, and she’s about to collapse.”

“Of course.”

The two women parted and a moment later, Catherine entered the small cubicle where Michael Lassiter lay. “Sloan?”

“Catherine.” Sloan’s voice was hoarse, her eyes dark hollows, the normally vibrant violet brushed black with pain.

Crouching down, Catherine placed both hands on Sloan’s face, cupping her strong jaw. “You have to get some sleep. When she wakes up, she can’t see you like this. Worrying about
you
will not help her get well.”

“I’m afraid to leave. What if…” She looked away, trembling.

“There’s an on call room my residents use on the next floor. Rebecca’s slept there more than once. You can shower and get some sleep, and you’ll be five minutes away.” Catherine pulled Sloan to her feet and slid her arm around the muscular woman’s waist when she swayed. “I’ll speak to Michael’s nurse and give her the number there. I’ll be sure that you’re called the second there’s any change.”

Sloan wanted to protest, but she kept hearing Catherine’s words.
Worrying about you will not help her get well.
Carefully she lowered the steel rail that ran along the side of the bed and leaned down to kiss Michael. “I’ll be right back, baby. I love you so much.”

Catherine spoke to the staff, found scrubs for Sloan in the locker room next to the ICU, and walked Sloan up to the resident’s room. “No one will bother you here.”

“Okay, sure. Thanks.” The minute she was alone, Sloan pulled off the clothes she’d been in for over a day, stepped into a cold shower for two minutes, and then collapsed naked onto the bed. She was instantly asleep.

It seemed like only a minute when the phone rang.

“Yeah,” Sloan croaked groggily.

“This is Dr. Torveau, Ms. Slo—”

“Is she all right?” Sloan pushed herself upright, fumbling on the end of the narrow bed for the clothes Catherine had left her. “Is she—”

“She’s stable. She’s not awake, but she’s starting to show some purposeful movement. It could be any time.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Three minutes later she was waiting by Michael’s bedside once again. “Baby, it’s me,” Sloan whispered, brushing her fingers over Michael’s pale cheek. “I love you.” She’d said it a thousand times in the last forty hours. It was all she could think to say. It was the only thing that mattered in her life. “I…”

Michael’s lids fluttered. Sloan held her breath.

“Michael? Baby?”

Sloan blinked, because she thought she might be dreaming. Blue eyes, the crystal blue of clear ocean water, met hers. Sloan sucked in a sharp breath, then reached trembling fingers for the hand that moved weakly across the crisp white sheets toward hers.

“Sloan?”

“Right here.” Sloan looked around, wondering if she should call someone. But nothing in the world would get her to move from Michael’s side. “You’re going to be okay. You’re in the hospital, but you’re gong to be okay.”

“You?”

“What, love?” Sloan leaned closer. She was shaking so much she thought her legs might go. “I can’t…”

“Are you…all…” Michael swallowed painfully. “…all right?”

“Oh God.” Sloan laughed, an edge of wild tears in her voice. “You’re here…that’s all I need.”

Michael sighed and closed her eyes. Sloan’s heart tripped with sudden apprehension. “Michael?”

“She’s just asleep,” Ali Torveau, the trauma surgeon, said quietly from the doorway. “She’ll be in and out like that for a while. She was lucky.”

“Lucky.” Sloan glanced back at her lover, so fragile, so precious. Rage burned like acid in her gut. “Yeah.”

———

When Rebecca’s pager sounded for the third time in less than half and hour, she looked at the readout grimaced. “I think our time is up. That’s the captain’s number again. I’ll come back out later tonight—see if I can shake down some of my sources.”

“How ’bout that hooker you mentioned the other day?”

Rebecca stiffened and said nothing. Although the description was true, she rarely thought of Sandy as one of the marginal, beaten-down women who sold their bodies with seemingly careless disregard for their own ultimate fate. Sandy wasn’t like that, not yet. She was still clear-eyed and spirited, still fighting the forces that colluded to drag her down.

 “I’ll let her look at some pictures.” Rebecca’s tone was clipped and short. “Maybe she can ID them for us.”

Watts cleared his throat. “We’ve got some better pictures she could look at, maybe.
Recent
pictures.”

“What?” Rebecca pulled in to the lot behind the one-eight and turned in her seat to regard him with just the faintest hint of suspicion.

“Didn’t Sloan say she was recording that little fuck fest last night? There’s two girls right there that we know are involved for sure.”

“And a guy,” Rebecca said softly. “Jesus, Watts.”

She unclipped the cell phone from her belt. She doubted that anyone would be around, but she tried the main number at Sloan Security first. A male voice answered on the fourth ring.

“Jason, it’s Frye.”

“Hey.” His voice was flat, tired.

“Any news on Michael?”

“Not yet.”

Rebecca pushed her sympathy for Michael’s friend and her anger at the assault aside. The best thing she could do was find whoever was behind it. “Do you have Sloan’s computer there? The one she used last night to monitor the live feed of the sex video?”

“Sure. I was just about to call you. I’ve got a good print of the guy.” Jason’s tone was animated for the first time. “I had to extract the images from several partial views and do a computer simulation to get the composite, but it’s good enough to through the databases—NCIP, Armed Forces, DMV—for starters.”

 “Okay.” Rebecca blew out a breath. “Do it.”

Rebecca jumped from the car, keyed the alarm, and headed toward the back entrance to the station house at a fast clip.

“Where’s the fire,”Watts puffed as he hurried to her side.

“Look—we probably took whoever’s running the kiddie porn show by surprise last night. They’re going to be tightening up their internet security now, especially if they know that Justice has one of their mid-level guys.” She shouldered through the rear fire door on the first floor and headed toward the elevators. “They could be reorganizing the whole operation, too—changing personnel, switching out the kids, relocating the studio right now. We’ve got to get as much as we can as fast as we can.”

———

“You want to tell me how you managed to come away empty from an operation that you were supposed to be coordinating, Sergeant?” Captain John Henry’s voice was level, but his mahogany face was a shade darker than usual with barely suppressed irritation.

“I was hoping you could tell me, sir.” Rebecca’s eyes were winter grey and her voice colder still.

“Sit down, Sergeant.”

“I’m fine, sir.”

“That wasn’t a request.” He hadn’t raised his voice, but his formidable shoulders bunched with tension. “Your paperwork is still incomplete. No psych eval. I could pull you put of the field and sit you behind a desk until you grew roots.”

“Whitaker must have forgotten to send the report,” Rebecca replied.

“Nice try, Frye. Whitaker says you have a final meeting before he signs off.”

She gritted her teeth. “I guess there was a miscommunication.”

“I’m sure.” Henry tipped his chin toward the chair. “Now sit your ass down.”

Rebecca sat. Despite her concern that Henry might be behind the leak that had led to the attack on Sloan’s life, he was her commanding officer, and he held all the cards.

Henry sighed. “Did you come away with anything from the operation at all?”

“Other than a civilian in the hospital?” Rebecca rarely disclosed all the details of her investigations to anyone, even her captain.. “Not much. We know there’s an Internet porn ring broadcasting live sex videos in the area. The guy the feds snatched from us last night is a part of it.”

“Connected to organized crime?” Henry asked almost eagerly. “It would be big if we could tie Zamora and his crew to this.”

“Nothing solid.” Rebecca watched him for some sign that his interest was more than just that of a cop wanting to clean up the city and advance his own career at the same time. If he were the mob’s inside man, his questions might give him away.

“Have you got anything working on the streets that might pay off?”

“Soft stuff. Nothing hot.” She leaned forward almost imperceptibly. “Look, Captain. If you give me a little room to work this, I know I can break something open. I still have the whole team. We know almost as much as the Feds, and they don’t have the contacts I do.”

He leaned back in his leather chair, the only concession to comfort in the room, and steepled his surprisingly elegant hands in front of his chest. His heavy lids appeared nearly closed. “I have no authority to approve that kind of operation.”

Rebecca said nothing.

“I think it might take Whitaker another week or so to finish his report,” Henry mused. “Until he does that, you can’t go into the regular rotation.”

Rebecca knew that he was giving her the unofficial green light to keep hunting for the leaders of the porn ring, and anything else that she might turn up. Unofficial meant unprotected, too. He was out of the loop and unaccountable. She’d be alone, without department sanction. If he were dirty, it was a perfect way to set her up. Much the way Jimmy Hogan had been set up. A cop working outside was easier to dispose of.

“I’m sure he’ll want to see me another time or two, yes sir.” She needed the freedom to pursue the case, and this was the only way she’d get it.

 “Sergeant,” the captain added before Rebecca turned away, “you can have a man or two to assist.”

“Watts,” Rebecca said immediately, ignoring the faint look of surprise on Henry’s face. Firmly, she said, “And the uniform—Mitchell.”

“I’ll see to it.”

Rebecca had almost reached the door when she heard the quiet words, “Good luck, Sergeant.”

She didn’t answer as she stepped through and closed the door.

Watts waited just outside. “What’s he say?”

“Not here.” She glanced at her watch. Five-thirty. Six months ago she would have immediately headed back to the Tenderloin in the hopes of finding some of her confidential informants who were just crawling out of bed and hitting the streets for the start of their night. She’d stay out—dropping into the bars, talking with her CIs, watching, listening, taking the pulse of the city—until the night dwindled into dawn. Night after night. That had been her life.