Free Shield of Justice by Radclyffe Page A

worried. Jeff didn’t go AWOL. “I was in court this morning and doing some follow-up on the rape cases after that. He said that he had a meet with Jimmy Hogan about some intel. Jimmy thinks Zamora’s crew might have a piece of the kiddie porn business in the Tenderloin, but we’ve never been able to link any of them to it.”
    “Yeah, yeah, I read the file. Where was the meet?”
    “I don’t know. Jimmy and Jeff set it up.”
    “And you didn’t ask?”
    Rebecca shook her head. “It sounded pretty routine, Captain.”
    Captain Henry didn’t comment. Cruz and Frye were his best team, and he gave them a lot of slack to run their own cases. It wasn’t unusual for them to be involved with other divisions, particularly Narcotics, on cooperative investigations. They weren’t careless. If Cruz was in trouble, he had walked into something he hadn’t expected. “It doesn’t seem routine any longer.”
    “Agreed. I don’t like it either, Captain. Something’s off. We need to find him—fast.”
    “We’ve got an all points out on him and his car. We’ll get a fix on him soon.”
    “What about Hogan?” Rebecca asked, her stomach roiling. “Can we reach him without endangering his cover?”
    “That’s harder. He’s been under deep for months. Even his contacts in Narco don’t know how to reach him. He calls them on his own schedule.” The captain fanned his hands out over his desk, his eyes troubled. “I can tell you that no one’s heard from him, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. We have to assume that they’re both out there loose somewhere.”
    Rebecca turned abruptly and headed toward the door. She had to find Jeff, and she knew him better than anyone. It could take all night for a cruiser to spot his car. She wasn’t going to leave him out there alone.
    “Frye!” Henry barked, his commanding voice stopping her in her tracks. “I want you here coordinating the search until we have something definite.”
    “Let Rogers do it,” she said, whirling to face him, her jaw set stubbornly. “He’s
my
partner. I can find him.”
    “I want
you
coordinating, Frye.” He stared back at her. His expression changed slightly, and he lowered his voice. “We’ve got two missing cops already. I don’t want you out there alone.”
    “But Jeff—”
    “That’s an order, Sergeant.”
    She gritted her teeth and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

    *

    Catherine glanced at the clock. It was close to eight p.m. It wasn’t late by cop standards, or by doctor standards either. She knew from experience how often an unexpected phone call or a last-minute meeting could disrupt even the most important plans. She had a feeling that she was on the verge of being stood up and knew better than to take it personally. But she couldn’t help the sharp, stark pang of disappointment.

Chapter Ten

    When Rebecca entered the squad room, the noise level suddenly dropped. Feet shuffled, someone cleared his throat, a few people looked away. Everyone knew what she was feeling—her anger, her helplessness, her fear—and no one quite knew what to say. So they handled it the way they always did, by doing the job, by carrying on. Someone put a lukewarm cup of coffee in her hand and mumbled a halfhearted, “Don’t worry. He’s probably off with the old lady getting his pipes cleaned.”
    She nodded back, sat at her desk, and began making calls. A half hour later she had ascertained that no one had seen or heard from Jeff Cruz after he left the squad room at 1:30 p.m. She tried his pager and cell phone and contemplated calling his house. But she knew he wasn’t there, and so did everyone else. He wouldn’t have gone home for the night without checking in with her first. Yeah, maybe now and then a cop disappeared for an hour in the middle of a slow day, and nobody commented on it. But not at end of shift. Everyone checked back in, cleared the day’s work, touched base with their partner, and
then
checked out.
    Finally she just