Salvi smiled at the name he called her; the name of a movie character from years gone by that he swore she was the spitting image of.
“I told you not to call me that,” she said, moving toward him. Her smile faded, though, when she took a closer look at Beggs. Half his body was cradled in casts, and the bandaged head wound looked particularly troubling, as did the tube down his throat.
“He’s a fighter,” Stan told her.
Salvi nodded. “I think you mean a stubborn son of a bitch.”
Stan gave a husky chuckle, then his smile faded too. He turned to look at Salvi. “A cop killer is a bad thing to have on the streets, Mia.”
She nodded. “Yeah, it is.”
“You better catch him before he takes out anymore,” he said. “’Cause I ain’t coming out of retirement for you.”
Salvi smiled and squeezed the man’s shoulder.
Stan sighed. “I don’t know what the world’s coming to. The violence, the drugs, the tech.” He shook his head.
“The corruption…” Salvi said. “It’s the rich and powerful buying and bribing their way out of things. What we’re seeing on the streets is just the trickle-down effect. The source of all our trouble is coming from those in power who are corrupt. They’re the ones we need to stop. We need to take their power away.”
Stan studied her with a gleam in his eye. “You’re learning.”
She squeezed his shoulder again. “You taught me the foundations I needed.”
“Ah,” he waved her away. Stan was not a sentimental kind of guy. “You found your own way. Just like I knew you would.”
They both looked back at Beggs again.
“He’s going to pull through, right?” Salvi asked.
Stan nodded. “Yeah, he’ll pull through… I’m just not sure he’ll return to the job, though. And that’s what’ll kill him.”
Salvi stared at Beggs’ closed eyes, the monitors on his scalp, the tube down his throat.
“He was heading for retirement anyway,” Stan said, “but this is not the way he’d want to go.”
Salvi nodded as a realization washed over her. “That’s why he was so angry over Caine’s death… He didn’t want to go out having lost his partner. He didn’t want to quit without having found the one who did it.”
Stan nodded back, staring at Beggs. “Loose ends can torment a person… And when you make the call to leave, you want to leave knowing the next generation are capable to carry on the fight. ‘Cause if they fail… it means our jobs ain’t done and the fight ain’t over. Loose ends, Mia.”
Salvi studied the two again, then gave Stan a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Thanks for being here with him.” She took a deep breath then exhaled. “I have to go,” she said, “and carry on the fight.”
Stan gave the briefest of nods, and she headed for the door again.
“Watch your back,” he said as she reached the door. “And trust your gut.”
She threw him a glance. “I will,” she said, then stepped out into the corridor.
The Trident taskforce gathered in the empty office tenancy for a final brief. Salvi, Bronte and Kara were dressed club-ready, sparkling and shining, and the entire room was filled with a nervous energy. But it wasn’t a good energy. It hung heavy with fear.
“Checking the tracking devices,” Noble said, looking at his portable console. They’d given her three tonight. He glanced up at Salvi. “Digital nails registering. Dress insertion registering. Powder compact registering.”
Salvi gave a nod, glancing at her chunky silver mirror ball nail polish, as Noble moved on confirming the same for Kara’s and Bronte’s tracking devices, noting that each of them had different devices in different locations to ensure that even if one was found, finding the others across the three cops would be as tricky as possible.
“Kara, we got your shoe registering, your bra registering, your nose piercing registering. Bronte, we got your ring registering, your belt registering, your back tooth registering.” Noble looked at Ford. “They’re good to go.”
“So you find these guys,” Ford said to them, “get cozy, see what you can find out. We’ll be on standby surrounding the club, ready to track you if you go anywhere. You watch out for each other, understand? And the second you think things might be turning to shit, you call us in there. We’re too far into things now and I’m not losing any more of our cops. If I have to blow our covers and raid the club then so be it. Got it?”
“Understood,” Bronte nodded.
“Loud and clear,” Kara said.
“Let’s do it,” Salvi said.
“Stay safe, guys,” Hernandez said. “Eyes in the back of your heads.”
Salvi nodded and locked eyes with a silent Mitch.
“We’re going in together and we’ll come out together,” she said, holding his gaze a moment, before turning and heading for the exit.
14: DEEPER UNDERGROUND
Salvi, Kara and Bronte walked along the street toward the club.
“Chaney’s lawyer definitely cleared us for entry, right?” Bronte asked.
“Yeah,” Salvi said. “He’s pissed and blames us for Chaney getting killed, but he wants to know just as much as we do who did it.”
“So long as we’re allies right now,” Bronte said.
“For now,” Salvi said. “But we still don’t know who we can trust. It could’ve been any of Chaney’s clientele, anyone on his staff, anyone period.”
“I don’t think any of this staff would be the ghost,” Kara asked. “This ghost has money and power. His bar staff won’t have that.”
“Not at first, no, but Chaney started as a barman once too. He moved up the chain pretty quickly. All you need is smarts. There’s nothing to say that one of his staff hasn’t built an empire on the things they might’ve seen at his clubs. Blackmail can be profitable. They’d have dirt on Chaney and all his clientele. If they have that, it can make them rich and powerful. Especially if all the while they’re lying low as a mere bar worker and protecting their identity.”
“And we
