Chapter fourteen

IN THE HOURS after midnight, the streets in Catherine's sedate neighborhood were eerily quiet, but as Rebecca approached the Tenderloin in the heart of the downtown area, foot and vehicular activity picked up. Here on the neon-lit sidewalks and in innumerable rundown bars, strip joints, and cheap hotels, life teemed with restless energy. She pulled to the curb not far from an all night diner that was a local hangout for the area's denizens—mostly prostitutes taking a break between johns, panhandlers who had been lucky enough to scrounge the price of a cup of coffee, and bar goers who hadn't been lucky enough to find company for the late lonely hours. Stepping from the Vette into the night for the first time in nearly two months, Rebecca felt another piece of her life slip back into place. On these streets, she knew exactly who she was, and exactly what was expected of her. A strange comfort, but a familiar one. Her blood hummed with the faint stirring of anticipation that being out here, hunting, always produced. She wasn't hunting a person, not tonight, but the information she gathered--the odd comment, the offhand observation, the bit of gossip bandied about—might someday lead her to her prey. She'd almost reached the brightly lit spot on the sidewalk in front of the diner when she caught sight of a familiar figure push through the revolving door on the way out. Quickly, she stepped into the darkened overhang of a boarded up video store and waited for the person to pass. She only had a fleeting glimpse of the leather jacketed, blue-jeaned form as the woman strode quickly by, but the sharp, clear features beneath midnight black hair were impossible to mistake. Dellon Mitchell was out very late in a very dicey part of town.

Rebecca decided to wait a few minutes before checking out the diner. The minute she walked in, she'd be obvious to everyone. Those who didn't know her would still be able to tell she was a cop. Even in jeans and a tee-shirt, a light windbreaker covering her holster, her eyes screamed cop. Usually, she didn't mind. Visibility could be a form of power, especially if it intimidated informants into to telling her what she needed to know quickly with a minimum of pressure. But she didn't know who might be inside, and Mitchell's presence here, for no reason that Rebecca could imagine, worried her. Maybe it was coincidence, but any cop could tell you that there was no such thing. Ignoring the smell of urine and rotting wood, she leaned against the moldy wall of the tiny dank alcove and watched the diner.

She didn't have to wait long. Less than five minutes later, three young women came out and headed her way, walking close together as they laughed and talked. It didn't require a detective's skills to determine their occupation. Their too-short skirts and body-hugging, scooped neck tops, along with too much make-up and cheap accessories, spelled hooker. Rebecca fell into step next to a thin blond with spiked hair who might have been anywhere from twelve to twenty.

"Hiya, Sandy," she said quietly.

"Christ!" the young woman exclaimed. Glancing quickly at her companions, who were staring at her curiously, she grabbed Rebecca's arm and pulled her into the shadows under an awning. "Go ahead, you guys. I'll catch up." When they'd moved away, she hissed, "Goddamn it, Frye. When are you going to leave me alone?"

"I did. Two whole months."

"Well, it seems like yesterday. What do you want?"

"Let's go somewhere we can talk," Rebecca offered. She knew that being seen with her could be a problem for the young prostitute, although she didn't care if she ruined her business for the night. She did care if she put her in physical danger. Anyone in that part of town appearing too friendly with the police could make enemies quickly. "I want to catch up on old times. Have you eaten? I'll buy you breakfast."

"It's four a.m."

"Okay—dinner then."

Sandy snorted in disgust. "Fine. Chen's. Come on."

They moved quickly through back streets that were so narrow they might have been alleys except for the historic townhouses lining them. The residents of Society Hill, as the area was called, issued constant complaints to City Hall regarding the Tenderloin and its undesirable activity. Unfortunately, the seedy par of town bordered some of the most expensive real estate in Center City. Every six months the police swept the area nightly for a week or two trying to reduce the nightlife, but it always returned.

Rebecca kept a careful eye out for anyone following them or lurking in the shadows as they hurriedly along. Ten minutes later they emerged on South Street, another pocket of late night activity, although here the crowd was younger and the excitement centered more on alcohol and drugs than sex. Chen's House of Jade was a hole in the wall restaurant that looked like a Board of Health citation waiting to be served, but the food was good and the proprietor discreet.

Rebecca and Sandy took a booth in the back beneath flickering fluorescents, and a smiling waitress materialized with a pot of steaming tea and a bowl of crisp noodles before their butts had hit the cracked vinyl seats. She began to hand them menus, but Rebecca shook her head and Sandy said, "Moo shu pork with extra pancakes. And a Tsing Tao."

Then they were alone, staring at each other across the stained Formica surface. Automatically, Rebecca took inventory, her eyes flickering over the blond's face and then down to her bare arms. The pretty young woman's eyes were clear and her arms bore no track marks. The detective was glad. She liked the spunky kid.

"What happened to your head?" Rebecca asked.

Sandy shrugged and lightly traced the fresh red scar on her forehead. The suture marks still showed along the edges of the cut. "I fell."

"Did someone help you fall?" Rebecca asked casually, plucking a twisted, crispy fried noodle from the bowl. There were a dozen reasons why a woman in Sandy's position could end up dead—turf issues from veteran prostitutes who didn't want her moving in on their corners; angry pimps who didn't think the nightly returns were high enough; a trick gone bad. But Sandy was Rebecca's informant, and the cop protected her own. It was one reason why Sandy helped her, although unwillingly sometimes, with street Intel.

"I already said. Accident." She studied the cop, noting the shadows under her eyes. Her normal leanness bordered on gaunt. "I didn't think you'd be back."

Rebecca was silent.

"I heard—well, everyone heard, about what happened to you the day after Anna Marie got—killed." The last time Sandy and the tall cop had seen one another, Sandy'd been crying on Frye's shoulder and her best friend had been lying upstairs in a rat-hole hotel dead. She could still feel the safe, solid feel of the cop's arms around her. Shaking her head to dispel the memory, she added, "I'm glad you blew that fucker away."

"So am I."

Sandy looked at her in surprise, her skin prickling at the cold hard flatness of the cop's voice. She was starting to wonder if she hadn't been wrong about a lot of things about cops. Frye wasn't like those prick bastards who hassled her and her friends for sex in exchange for not running them in on prostitution charges that they all knew wouldn't stick past night court. Frye was different; she cared, just like— The waitress interrupted her musings as she deposited an enormous platter of steaming moo shu on the table between them along with pancakes and sauce.

"More beer?" the waitress asked Sandy, who shook her head no. Looking at Rebecca, she asked, "How about you?" The word detective hung in the air.

"No—I'm good."

As Rebecca watched her companion pile food on her plate, she remarked, "I'm looking for somebody selling young stuff."

"Everybody sells young stuff. That's what sells. Or haven't you noticed?"

"I'm talking about the real thing, not the eighteen year olds pretending to be thirteen."

"Don't know anything about it." Sandy rolled another pancake and sipped her beer, keeping her eyes on her plate.

"This is probably a big, well-run operation, not some pimp selling chickens out of an apartment in the slums," Rebecca continued unperturbed. "Maybe a well- organized operation ."

Sandy raised her gaze to Rebecca's. Their blue eyes met, but try as she might, she knew that she couldn't match the hard stillness of the cop's cold stare. Sandy blinked, then said softly, "Are you fucking nuts? I don't know anything about that, and I don't want to know anything about it. If this is organized, then asking about it gets you dead. Look at what happened to your cop friends last spring."

Rebecca's expression became granite. "What did you hear?"

"Just that they were poking around where they shouldn't have been poking--in somebody important's business. And that somebody shut them up."

"You get this important person's name?"

Sandy shook her head. "Uh uh."

"Who did you hear this from?"

"Can't recall."

"Try."

"Are you looking to get offed, too?" Sandy hissed, leaning forward across the small tabletop. "What is it with you?"

For some reason, Rebecca answered. "One of them was my partner."

"Well, now he's dead. End of story."

"No," Rebecca said quietly as she pulled her wallet from her back pocket. "Not yet." She laid four twenties on the table. "Ask around. Be careful, though."

"Yeah, right. Thanks." Her tone was not grateful. "Listen," she said quickly as Rebecca slid across the seat and stood up.

"What?"

"A friend of mine is in a jam. An undercover guy busted her tonight—not before she finished the hand job I might add, although of course he denies that--and I know she doesn't have the bail. She's been picked up before. She could go away for this."

"What's her name?" Rebecca asked, glancing at her watch. "If the paperwork's not processed yet, I'll see what I can do."

"Rita. Rita Balducci."

"I'll see you soon."

"Can't wait," Sandy grumbled, watching the cop walk quickly through the narrow aisle between the rickety tables and out into the night. Some part of her felt better knowing Frye was back on the streets.

"Oh God, I need a shower. I need two showers." Jason McBride pushed away from the computer terminal and rubbed his face with both hands. "I always heard it, but I never really knew how many sickos there were out there."

Sloan swiveled in her chair and faced him from the console where she had been working. The clock on the far wall said 4:42 a.m. The last time she could remember seeing the time it had been eight-thirty the previous evening. Jason's hair was uncharacteristically disheveled, and his shirt actually appeared to have been untucked. Intentionally. That was highly unusual for her fastidious friend. It was the hollow-eyed expression on his face that caught her attention, though. It wasn't fatigue—they'd worked forty hours or more without stopping when they'd had major system failures to repair or massive viral infestations to cleanse. This was something else. "I guess you've been successful?"

He winced. "If you can call almost having sex with a dozen perverts successful, then yes—wildly so."

"Who are you tonight?"

"QtGrl13. She was a big hit."

"Where have you been trolling?"

"The Hot4U message boards. As soon as I showed up and announced that I was a new girl in town, I had three offers to move off to a private room to get acquainted. I was in an out of the chat rooms all night after that."

"Anything look promising?"

He shrugged, then sighed. "Too soon to tell. The patter is pretty sophisticated for the most part--except for the high school boys who are the same the world over whether it's cyber space or the junior prom. They just want to get laid and they're not too subtle about it. But I have a feeling that the real pedophiles are being very careful not to expose themselves. They're probably pretending to be kids until they feel safe enough in a relationship to cop to their real age. There were one or two who sounded like they might be angling for more than a quickie, but I'll have to go back on again a few more times to see. If I move too fast it will spook them."

"All right. As soon as you have a possible, let me know and we'll start a back door trace. And we need to narrow down geographic locations. There are literally thousands of people using these boards, and we have to search for a local hit."

"Got it."

"Try to bring the conversations around to pics, especially current ones or anything with videos."

"I'm doing that when I go on as BigMac10—that's where I've just been. Swimming with the scum who are looking to trade files. I'm posing as a guy who's interested in 12 or 13-year-old girls. But I haven't been real specific yet. These guys aren't stupid, and the people we're looking for are going to be very savvy. I can't just ask to see some guy's etchings." He sighed and stood. "I'm going home. Sarah got in from that alternative medicine conference in Sante Fe tonight. Last night—whatever. Somehow, being with her always makes me feel normal."

"Yeah, she has that effect on me, to."

"That's a stretch," he said good-naturedly.

Sloan just laughed. "Say hi for me—and tell her she owes me a workout."

"Will do. You should quit for the night, too. Michael home?"

"Yes."

"Then go."

She glanced at the screen, considering the credit card clearing houses she still needed to trace, then thought of the woman upstairs asleep. The case was already getting ugly, and it was likely to go on for a long time, and get even uglier. She stood and stretched. "Excellent advice. I'm gone."

She locked the office doors as Jason descended in the silent elevator, then walked the length of the dimly lit hall to the rear stairwell and climbed the one flight to her fourth floor loft apartment. As quietly as possible, she fitted her key into the lock and slid the large double doors apart, closing and bolting them behind her. Making her way through the darkened space by memory, she shed her clothes along the way and crossed to the bathroom on the far side of the partitioned sleeping area. She left the light off so as not to awaken Michael, but as she reached into the shower to turn the water on, she heard a soft sound behind her. Turning, she was startled as a warm body pressed into her arms.

Nuzzling Sloan's neck, Michael murmured sleepily, "Is it morning?"

"Not yet." She kissed her gently, then added, "Go back to bed. I'll be in as soon as I shower."

"Mmm. Want company?"

"Now that is by far the best offer I've had all night."

"Oh?" Michael asked, sounding much more awake. "And have you had many offers this evening?"

"None worth mentioning," Sloan said reassuringly. Unfortunately, she had a feeling that was a circumstance that was about to change, given their current undertaking. Pushing aside thoughts of predators and innocent victims, she drew her lover into the shower and let the warm water and Michael's embrace wash the unwelcome images from her mind.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16