Night Shield Read Free

been out and clean for five years. Frannie worked the stroll, and it’s her business why. Now she tends bar instead of johns. Don’t you believe in rehabilitation, Detective Fletcher?”
    “I believe your club is being used as a pool to hook fish, and I intend to check all the lines. Logic indicates someone on the inside’s baiting the hook.”
    “I know the people who work for me.” He shot Boyd a furious look. “Damn it, Fletch.”
    “Jonah, hear us out.”
    “I don’t want my people hassled because they tripped over the law at some point in their lives.”
    “No one’s going to hassle your people. Or you,” Ally added. Though you did plenty of tripping of your own, she thought. “If we’d wanted to interview them, we would have. We don’t need your permission or your cooperation to question potential suspects.”
    “You move them from my people to suspects very smoothly.”
    “If you believe they’re innocent, why worry?”
    “Okay, simmer down.” Boyd stayed behind the desk, rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re in an awkward and difficult position, Jonah. We appreciate that,” he said pointedly with a subtle lift of his eyebrows for his daughter. “The goal is to root out whoever’s in charge of this organization and put an end to it. They’re using you.”
    “I don’t want Will and Frannie yanked down into interrogation.”
    “That’s not our intention.” So he had a hot button, Ally mused. Friendship? Loyalty? Or maybe he had a thing going with the ex-hooker. It would be part of the job to find out. “We don’t want to alert anyone on the inside to the investigation. We need to find out who’s targeting the marks, and how. We want you to put a cop on the inside.”
    “I’m on the inside,” he reminded her.
    “Then you should be able to make room for another waitress. I can start tonight.”
    Jonah let out a short laugh, turned to Boyd. “You want your daughter working tables in my club?”
    Ally got to her feet, slowly. “The commissioner wants one of his detectives undercover at your club. And this is my case.”
    Jonah rose, as well. “Let’s clear this up. I don’t give a damn whose case it is. Your father asked me to cooperate, so I will. Is this what you want me to do?” he asked Boyd.
    “It is, for now.”
    “Fine. She can start tonight. Five o’clock, my office at Blackhawk’s. We’ll go over what you need to know.”
    “I owe you for this, Jonah.”
    “You’ll never owe me for anything.” He walked to the door, stopped, shot a glance over his shoulder. “Oh, Detective? Waitresses at Blackhawk’s wear black. Black shirt or sweater, black skirt. Short black skirt,” he added, then let himself out.
    Ally pursed her lips and, for the first time since she’d come into the room, relaxed enough to slip her hands casually into her pockets. “I don’t think I like your friend, Dad.”
    “He’ll grow on you.”
    “What, like mold? No,” she corrected. “He’s too cool for that. I might end up with a little skin of ice, though. You’re sure of him?”
    “As sure as I am of you.”
    And that, she thought, said it all. “Whoever’s set up these B and E’s has brains, connections and guts. I’d say your pal there has all three.” She lifted her shoulders. “Still, if I can’t trust your judgment, whose can I trust?”
    Boyd grinned. “Your mother always liked him.”
    “Well then, I’m half in love already.” That wiped the grin off his face, she noted with amusement. “I’m still going to have a couple of men under as customers.”
    “That’s your call.”
    “It’s been five days since the last hit. They’re working too well not to want to move again soon.”
    She strode toward the coffeepot, changed her mind and strode away again. “They might not use his club next time, it’s not a given. We can’t cover every damn club in the city.”
    “So, you focus your energy on Blackhawk’s. That’s smart, and it’s logical. One step at a