Justice in the Shadows Read Free Page A

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