Justice in the Shadows Read Online Free PDF

time, slowly taking in the wild dark hair, the amazing eyes, the muscular physique. She looked a bit like an older Dell, except Dell’s body was sexier, all wiry and tight and… Oh man, what is that about!
    “Maybe flashing those pictures around’s not so cool,” Mitchell said, moving closer to Sandy. She almost reached for her hand, and then stuffed her fists into the pockets of her jeans instead. “You start asking about those girls and somebody might take notice. Somebody who you don’t want to take notice.”
    “Mitchell,” Rebecca warned. I’m going to rein her in before she crosses a line.
    Sensing that Rebecca was about to ream out Dell for interfering, Sandy lifted her chin and snapped, “I can take of myself. Why don’t you just worry about the cop stuff.”
    While the others worked out the schedule for the next day, Mitchell and Sandy slowly drifted toward the elevator.
    “Come on, I’ll walk you home,” Mitchell murmured to Sandy. She rested her fingers lightly against Sandy’s bare elbow.
    “Sandy,” Rebecca called, catching up to them at the elevators. “Let’s take a ride.”
    “Sure,” the young woman replied with a sigh, moving her arm away from Mitchell’s hand. “It’s your dime, Frye.”
    Outside, Sandy and Rebecca walked in the other direction to the Corvette. Mitchell stood on the sidewalk, shoulders hunched in the chill night air, watching them go.
    ———
    “You did well up there,” Rebecca said as she drove south on Front street, the lights of the Ben Franklin Bridge glowing blue as it towered into the dark night sky just above them. Rebecca studied Sandy’s face in the light of the passing headlights. Not for the first time she realized how pretty she was. “You know that guy, don’t you?”
    Sandy sighed. “I’m not sure, but I think he used to be a bouncer at Ziggies.”
    Rebecca drew a sharp breath, and her pulse rate jumped. Ziggies was a sex club at 11th and Arch that featured nude dancers, and it was mob connected. A guy reputed to be one of Zamora’s front men owned it. Finally, a connection. “Did you ever dance there?”
    “Who me?” Sandy snorted. “Not hardly. You need tits out to Arizona to shag in there. And you have to blow every bartender in the place.” She hesitated, unused to sharing information with the police, even Frye. But that afternoon, the detective had shown up at her apartment unexpectedly and made her an offer with a formal price tag attached. More information, more help, for more money. “But I know someone who did work there.”
    “Can you put me with her?”
    “I’ll see if I can find her.” Sandy pointed to a bar up the block. “You can let me out there.”
    “Uh-uh. I’m taking you home.”
    “It’s not even midnight!”
    “When I stopped by earlier and you agreed to go official with me, you turned in your streetwalking creds.”
    “I’m not gonna trick.” Sandy sounded affronted. “But I need to be out and seen, otherwise people will get suspicious. And suspicious people don’t talk. You know that.”
    Rebecca had the inexplicable desire to tell her no, but she knew Sandy had to maintain her street contacts or she’d be useless as an informant. Rebecca pulled to the curb and extracted five twenties, almost all that she had, from her wallet. “Here. Your first paycheck.”
    Sandy looked at the bills and smiled wryly. “Five hand jobs. Won’t pay the rent.”
    “I’ll see that there’s more. And your hands are clean.”
    “Yeah. Ain’t that a thrill.”
    “One more thing.”
    “Frye, you’re hurting me sitting out here.”
    Rebecca had already checked and knew that no one was watching them. “A police officer can be suspended, even fired, for fraternizing with a prostitute.”
    Dell. Sandy grew still. “Fraternizing—you mean, even if they’re just…like friends?”
    “Sometimes ‘friends’ looks like something else.” Rebecca’s voice was soft, almost gentle. “Hard to prove