"It's okay, baby," Sandy said immediately. "You've only been out a couple of minutes. And you've only been home about fteen."

"Jeez, I didn't mean to climb all over you like that when you were still asleep."

"Didn't you?" Sandy stroked her face. "I've been wondering when you were gonna do something with all that action in your pants."

Mitch.e.l.l grinned. "Did you like?"

Sandy lifted a shoulder. "Not bad, rookie. Not bad at all."

"Did you like it better than when I-"

Sandy stopped Mitch.e.l.l's words with her mouth, sliding her * 234 *

Justice Served tongue inside, kissing her deeply. Then she drew back and sc.r.a.ped her ngernails lightly down the center of Mitch.e.l.l's stomach until she reached the c.o.c.k, still in the harness inside Mitch.e.l.l's jeans, which were halfway down her hips. She gave it a gentle shake.

"I like it. I liked feeling you inside me that way when I came." She slipped her hand beneath the leather, against Mitch.e.l.l's still-swollen esh, and squeezed. "But this, I love. "

Mitch.e.l.l thought her eyes were going to roll back into her skull.

Her c.l.i.toris sprang to attention, and every nerve ending from her toes to the top of her head vibrated. "You gotta stop. I'm so wasted already, and we have to get to Sloan's."

"What's happening?" Sandy asked as she carefully withdrew her hand and worked the straps free of the buckles holding the harness.

"I think I might have gured something out," Mitch.e.l.l answered as she lifted her hips and helped Sandy remove her pants and gear. "We should shower and get dressed."

"Why do you need me?"

"We have to go through the videos, and you know the regular girls."

"Hours of looking at fat guys getting b.l.o.w. .j.o.bs?" Sandy gave a look of distaste. "Great."

Mitch.e.l.l shook her head. "I don't think it will take that long. If I'm right, we'll only need to look at a dozen or so."

"You picked up on something at Ziggie's, didn't you?"

"Maybe. I hope so, because that's what I told the lieutenant. That's why she called the meeting."

"Let's get ready, then, and get this meeting over with." Sandy swung a leg over Dell's body and shifted on top of her. "Because I think I want to spend the rest of the day right here."

Mitch.e.l.l sat up and wrapped her arms around Sandy's body, answering her with a kiss. Even as she held her, she had the feeling they wouldn't be coming back for a lot longer than either of them would like.

v "This better be good, kid," Watts grunted, cradling a coffee mug in his huge hands. "I've been up all night, sitting in a bucket seat too * 235 *

RADCLY fFE small for a midget, freezing my b.a.l.l.s off. And the Loo wouldn't let me smoke."

"Leave her alone," Sandy said sharply on her way to the small refrigerator tucked under the counter. She pulled out a Black & Tan when she noticed Mitch.e.l.l's look of surprise. "What? This is dinnertime for me."

"What's got your panties in a twist?" Watts asked.

"Maybe I'd like to be doing something else right now too," Sandy grumped and put the beer back, exchanging it for a soda.

Watts looked from Sandy to Mitch.e.l.l, who blushed furiously, and slowly grinned. "Well ain't you the lucky one."

Mitch.e.l.l shoved her hands into her jeans. "Yeah."

Watts clapped Mitch.e.l.l on a shoulder. "You break this case, kid, and that gold shield of yours is really gonna shine."

Before Mitch.e.l.l could protest that she didn't expect to break the case, Rebecca walked in with Sloan and Jason. Immediately, everyone sobered up and hurriedly took their usual places at the conference table.

"Okay, Mitch.e.l.l," Rebecca said. "Let's hear it."

"I think Jason and Sandy should go through the p.o.r.n downloads and chart the dates when the girls that Sandy knows were doing the shoots."

Rebecca frowned. "That's on the agenda. We'll be doing that over the next couple of days. We've got months' worth of videos to screen."

Mitch.e.l.l shook her head. "No. I think we can narrow it down to a couple of days."

Everyone's attention was riveted on her, and Mitch.e.l.l felt a trickle of sweat between her shoulder blades. If she was wrong, she'd look like an idiot. Worse, she'd disappoint Rebecca Frye, which was the last thing she ever wanted to do. After Sandy, there was no one whose opinion of her mattered more. She kept her hands on her thighs under the table so that n.o.body could see them shaking. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Sandy's smile. And more important than her smile was the encouragement and faith in her eyes.

"I think we should look at the videos that were shot right around the time those ships came in-the ones that Jimmy Hogan was checking out with Port Authority."

* 236 *

Justice Served There was a moment of silence, and then everyone began to speak at once.

* 237 *

* 238 *

Justice Served

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

Sunday, Midmorning Wait a minute-"

"Why do you think-"

"Who would've-"

"How do-"

"All right-keep it down." Rebecca's voice rang out. As the din subsided, she motioned to Mitch.e.l.l. "Go ahead. Lay it out for us, Detective."

Mitch.e.l.l cleared her throat. "Okay, I need to start at the beginning- at least I think it's the beginning."

"Take your time, kid," Watts said in a surprisingly quiet tone. "We ain't in a hurry. My buns are just getting warm anyhow."

"I think it all starts with Clark," Mitch.e.l.l said.

Sloan snarled an oath.

"What I mean," Mitch.e.l.l clari ed, "is I think it starts with Justice and Jimmy Hogan. The feds were interested enough in something going on in this city to put a federal agent undercover." She looked toward Rebecca, who gave her a barely perceptible nod. "I don't think that an Internet p.o.r.nography ring or garden-variety prost.i.tution is really big enough to register on Justice's radar. Sure, they've got people working on those kinds of investigations, but usually they leave them to the locals. And they sure don't spare undercover agents. So I'm thinking something bigger than the usual Mob activity."

"The feds have run some pretty big p.o.r.nography stings," Sloan pointed out. "I hate to say it, but Clark's being here could have just been part of a broader interstate operation, especially considering the Internet angle. Just like he said."

"True," Rebecca interjected, "but it doesn't really explain why Jimmy Hogan was undercover. Clark was up-front with us-well, as * 239 *

RADCLY fFE up-front as the feds ever are-about his interest in the p.o.r.nography operation. He wouldn't have needed someone undercover if he were going to investigate it through channels." Rebecca turned her attention back to Mitch.e.l.l. "Keep talking-give us your theory."

"With Jimmy undercover as an undercover narco detective, Jimmy-and by extension Clark-had access to any les that came through the police department. He could keep an eye out for the kind of activity he was really interested in. At the same time, he was a.s.signed to do exactly what he came here to do, which was in ltrate the underworld organization. He was working all the angles and probably pa.s.sing everything right back to Clark."

The others at the table nodded and made sounds of agreement.

"Where does Jeff t in?" Rebecca asked solemnly.

"I think while Jimmy was investigating his real interest, occasionally he'd come across illegal activity that he didn't have time to do anything about, so he'd tip off you and Cruz." Mitch.e.l.l shrugged.

"He was a cop, after all."

"Like the kiddie prost.i.tution circuit he clued us into last year,"

Rebecca said. "Okay. So far, so good. And then, he got close to what he was really after, and someone found out." Her face went hard, her voice cold. "And took out him and Jeff, who probably just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Mitch.e.l.l nodded. "Yes, ma'am. That's what I think happened."

Watts shifted in his seat. "Okay. Time to end the suspense, kid.

What the h.e.l.l was Hogan interested in?"

"Smuggling."

Watts looked blank.

"That's usually a U.S. Customs gig," Jason observed neutrally.

"Not Justice."

"I know," Mitch.e.l.l said emphatically, "and that's why I didn't think of it at rst. Why none of us thought of it."

"You think Hogan got wind of something they were bringing in on those ships-the ones he had Carla looking into, right?" Watts leaned forward, drumming his ngers on the tabletop, his eyes narrowed and intent. "That's why he was trying to track the cargo."

"Yeah, I think he was trying to get a line on who picked up the cargo and where it was going."

"I've been over those cargo manifests, kid," Watts said, shaking * 240 *

Justice Served his head. "I didn't see any similarities between the stuff those ships were bringing in. Usually, if you're smuggling something, you use the same carrier vehicle each time. Bags of cocaine stuffed inside coffee barrels, diamonds packed inside fake objects of art, heroin sewn into the lining of clothes from Asia. There was nothing like that. I looked."

Mitch.e.l.l shook her head. "All the ships originated from ports in the same region of the world, right?"

"Yeah, but that could just be a coincidence."

"I don't think so. They came from the same region because they were carrying the same smuggled cargo."

"What? " Watts asked impatiently.

"The girls. The ships were bringing in the girls."

There were a few seconds of silence, and then Watts muttered, "s.h.i.t."

"What's the common denominator between the s.e.x videos, the clubs, the prost.i.tution...all of it," Rebecca said. "The girls. None of it works without them."

"And," Sloan mused, "if those girls are your business, think how good it would be to have an inside person at the DA's of ce. Someone who would hear about any local investigation that started getting close.

Beecher."

"Not to mention," Jason said, "using him to hack into law enforcement's entire computer network. All bases covered." He turned in his seat and looked at Sloan. "What do you want to bet that the Port Authority computer system is compromised too. This organization is sophisticated, and they're going to want to monitor everything they can. If they can nd an a.s.sistant district attorney to squeeze, they can nd somebody at the port."

Sloan nodded, her eyes shining. "We'll need to get at that system."

"The problem with that," Rebecca said, "is if we go for warrants now, we'll have to bring Clark into it."

"No f.u.c.king way," Watts snapped. "The last time we did that, he stole the case out from under us."

"Then let's nd some other way to break this open," Rebecca said, her voice like int. She looked at Mitch.e.l.l. "How did Jimmy trip to those ships? Watts couldn't nd a connection between them. Different captains, different crews, different cargos."

* 241 *

RADCLY fFE "The timing," Mitch.e.l.l said.

"No way," Watts objected. "I looked at that with Captain Reiser.

Different days of the week, different weeks of the month. There wasn't a pattern."

"But they were at about the same intervals, right?" Mitch.e.l.l knew that everything hung on this, and sweat broke out between her shoulder blades and trickled down her back. She didn't have a d.a.m.n bit of proof.

Only a feeling. I must be crazy. She took a breath. "Every two to three months."

"Yeah," Watts said warily, as if he expected a trap. Still, he eyed her with lively curiosity. "So?"

"Those are the same intervals when the regular girls weren't available to do the s.e.x videos. That's when Trudy and her friends lled in. Trudy knew those dates. The exact dates."

"And if we got those dates from her," Rebecca said pensively, "we'd eventually match them to those ships. That could have worried someone enough to eliminate Trudy, especially with her right in the middle of that bust last week on the lm set."