"I found the porn file. I found it in four different places, but I don't know who controls the files. The files themselves have four different names. The thing is, I don't want to be connected to this one."

"Because then the cops will know you're inside," Lucas said.

"That's right."

"So how'd you do it?" Lucas asked.

Kidd explained, briefly, Lucas thought about it for a moment, then said, "How about this? I get a warrant, or a subpoena, or just an okay, whichever works. I show the file to ICE, and she finds that number. That byte number. We go over to Minneapolis and jack up their systems manager and ICE finds the files, like you did, using that number, all on the up-and-up."

"That would be perfect," Kidd said. "Let me give you the number you're looking for."

"You're not in the BCA system, are you?" Lucas asked.

"Of course not," Kidd said.

"Then how'd you get this phone number?" Lucas asked. "You're calling on my work phone."

"You called me on this phone-so your number was on my phone," Kidd said. "Jesus, don't you trust anyone?"

Lucas said, "Oh ... maybe."

Kidd gave Lucas the number he'd be looking for, and hung up. Lauren said, "He suspects you're in the BCA system, huh?"

"Naw, he was just kicking the anthill, to see if anything ran out," Kidd said. "He's got no clue."

"I'd stay out of there for a while, anyway," Lauren said. "Just in case."

"KIDD IS INTO EVERYTHING," Lucas told Weather, as they got in bed. "He's all over Minneapolis and I know damn well he's in the BCA computers, too. He says he's not, but he's lying."

"Don't you trust anyone?" she asked.

"You and Letty," Lucas said. "Most of the time. Of course, I always check back and verify."

THE NEXT MORNING, he called ICE, described the file to her, and asked, "How do I find out how many bytes are in it?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because when I was working at the company, the guys there could find specific files by the number of bytes they had in them. I'd like to know how many are in this one, then I can take it over to the Minneapolis cops' system and look for it there."

"That'll work," she said. "Okay, you got the file up? I'll walk you through it."

She did, and eventually had Lucas write down the same number that Kidd had come up with, although he didn't tell her that. When he had the number, she said, "Do you trust the Minneapolis cops?"

"If somebody puts a gun in my ear," he said. "Why?"

"Because what if their systems guy plugs the number into his machine, says, 'Nope, not here.' You're far too ignorant to argue. Then what?"

"I've got that figured out-that was easy," he said.

"Yeah? What're you going to do?"

"I'm gonna take you with me."

THERE WAS BUREAUCRACY to be worked through. When Lucas talked to Rose Marie, she was unhappy about the necessity of jacking up the Minneapolis cops, even though she'd known it was coming. "We're doing everything right out in front of the media now, and I'm not going to have you serve a search warrant on Minneapolis," she said. "Talk to Robin and get him straight, we'll bring in their own Internal Affairs unit, and we'll talk about all the cooperation we're getting."

Robin Connolly was the Minneapolis chief of police.

"What if Connolly says no?" Lucas asked.

"He won't. He'll want to be out front on this, he'll want to be informed. If he does say no, I'll call him. I'll tell him that I'll personally stick the search warrant up his ass and then cut him out of the loop on the return."

"You're so grandmotherly sometimes," Lucas said.

Which didn't mean that Connolly didn't throw a fit when Lucas called him and told him what he wanted to do.

"What the hell are you talking about? You think we planted the porn file on Smalls? You're nuts, Davenport. I'm not going to ..." blah blah blah.

Lucas said, "Rose Marie will be calling you in a minute or so. Maybe she can explain things more clearly than I have."

"Fuck a bunch of Rose Marie," Connolly shouted. "I'll put wheels on that bitch and roll her right into the Mississippi."

Lucas called Rose Marie, who said she'd call Connolly. Connolly called back five minutes later and said, "It might be possible that we can work something out."

"Is Rose Marie in the Mississippi?" Lucas asked.

"Fuck you."

LUCAS CALLED ICE and asked her to gently and with great diplomacy set up an appointment with the Minneapolis systems manager. While he was waiting for ICE to get back to him, he called the duty officer and asked him to get him a good phone number for Taryn Grant. He was sitting in his office, with his feet up on his desk, waiting for callbacks and thinking about how he'd sequence his various visits, when Del stopped in, took a chair, and said, "I bought a Harley."

"Oh, Jesus ..."

"What? I had one before."

"You were in your twenties," Lucas said. "If you had to lay one down now, they'd be picking you up with a sponge."

"I'm not going on any big rides... . It's gonna be a warm-weather bike, just rolling around town on the local streets," Del said. "Besides, most Harley guys are my age. Or older."

"And you know what? They're getting picked up with sponges."

Jenkins came in and when Del told him about the Harley, they slapped hands and Jenkins said, "I'd have one myself, if they weren't such pieces of shit."