“The secretary?” asked Jack.

“Wasn’t her. She was gone on her lunch break when it happened. Elvis said only two of their suspects were working day shift and one was in court. They’ve finally figured it out.”

“Who?” asked Laura. “I used to work in that section.”

“Me, too,” echoed Jack.

“Constable Mark Cabot,” replied Connie.

“I know him,” replied Laura. “Very annoying type. Would start to drool any time a woman came close to him.”

“His dad is a Member of Parliament,” said Jack.

“I know, Elvis told me,” said Connie. “His application to join had been rejected, but someone pulled some strings.”

“Typical,” replied Jack. “I’d better give Elvis a call. Make sure he knows they still can’t bust him because it would identify our informant.”

“Elvis is on top of the situation. Their plan is to have him transferred to a small detachment up north where he can’t do as much harm.”

“Too bad our pretend war on drugs didn’t allow us to execute spies,” replied Jack.

“I agree with you there,” replied Connie.

“Speaking of spies,” said the monitor, “Listen to this.”

After the two conversations were played, Connie looked at Jack and asked, “Who is she?”

Jack furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head.

“She said you came on to her?” noted Connie. “At the party at Roach and Bagger’s house. You’ve got to know who she is.”

“Her name is on the tip of my tongue,” said Jack. “After what happened this morning, I’m too rattled to remember. The house was packed with people that night. I do remember some kid of about sixteen making a pass at me.”

“How about you, Laura?” asked Connie.

Laura shrugged and gestured with her hands to indicate she was at a loss.

“Sweet sixteen sure doesn’t apply to this little darling,” said Connie. “I thought this would be a piece of cake for you. How many people could have known about this morning?”

“We asked Sy the same question. Turns out he was at a party last night with a bunch of his people. Celebrating their short stay in jail over the incident at Weasel’s house. These guys aren’t the brightest. They talk a lot.”

“You can tell by her voice that she’s young,” said Connie. “Sy is bound to figure out who it is.”

“Possible,” admitted Jack.

“Which means we’ve got a girl out there that we need to identify and protect,” replied Connie.

“This isn’t the type of girl who will listen to you,” said Jack. “She will tell you to fuck off and all you will have accomplished is to heat everyone up.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but we still have to follow policy. It would look bad if we knew and didn’t at least try to help her.”

“We are so close,” said Jack. “A couple of days is all we need and we’ll find out who Cocktail is. Once that happens, Laura and I will fade away and you can warn the girl.”

“Fade away! If this kid stays on the scene you could both disappear for good.” Connie paused as she thought about the situation further and said, “Matter of fact, it’s too dangerous. I’m going to talk to my boss. I think we should pull the plug. If we keep tabs on Sy, sooner or later he’ll take us to Cocktail. I don’t want to risk your lives any further.”

“I appreciate your concern,” replied Jack, “but you can’t count on Sy leading you to Cocktail.”

“Why? He could have today.”

“Could have … but didn’t. Something stinks. Maybe the war is causing Satans Wrath to pull back a bit. Cocktail is a valuable commodity. They may decide to keep him back for protection.”

“It’s you, Laura, and Sammy who need protection.”

“We’re too close to back off.”

“We are close and I owe that to you two, but after this morning — things have gotten way out of hand. I’m sure if we put round-the-clock surveillance on Sy he’ll lead us to him.”

“Unless your surveillance is burned and they kill Sy to sever the connection. They did it last time. Not to mention the fact that I’ve bailed Sy out a couple of times. He may not survive. If he ends up dead, where do you go from there?”

“That’s just it. You talk like you’re only worried about Sy getting whacked. With someone in Sy’s gang feeding information to his enemies, other gangs shooting each other … things are too dangerous. A dead priest is one thing. Don’t put me in the spot of having to investigate the murder of you and Laura, too.”

“So how would you try and find her?” asked Laura.

“Don’t think we have a lot of choice. If you two can’t come up with her name, I’ll go over the list of names we collected from the people who went to the party at Roach and Bagger’s place. Start hammering on doors and shaking people until we figure out who she is. Her voice is distinctive enough. I’ll recognize her if I talk to her.”

“That will heat everyone up,” said Jack. “Satans Wrath will sever Cocktail’s relationship with Sy and anyone else in his gang. Even if they don’t, contacting her will make it extremely dangerous for Laura and me. Satans Wrath will suspect us no matter how you do it. I know Damien. The man isn’t stupid.”

“Which is why you can’t continue the UC,” said Connie. “It will be too dangerous.”

Jack looked at Laura, who shrugged her shoulders in response.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t really have a choice,” said Connie. “We have to find this kid and talk to her parents.”

“Okay,” replied Jack, “but don’t go hammering on doors yet. Give Laura and me a chance to review our undercover notes. As I said, her name is on the tip of my tongue.”

“I really would have thought that between the two of you, one of you would know something to help identify her,” said Connie suspiciously. She looked at Laura and asked, “Laura? Is there anything?”

Laura eyed Jack a little longer before turning to Connie and saying, “I can’t think of anything at the moment. Let us review our notes. Maybe something will twig.”

Connie stared a Laura without speaking.

Laura did her best to appear innocent, but saw the harsh look on Connie’s face. She knows I’m lying …

“I may have even written her name down,” said Jack. He glanced at his watch and said, “It’s six o’clock. Give us half-an-hour and I’ll call you.”

Connie waited until she was alone with Dallas and returning to their office, before saying, “Don’t count on Jack or Laura finding something in their notes to identify the girl. I think they wanted time out to talk in private.”

“Can you blame them?” asked Dallas. “You’re asking them to save some kid who’s trying to kill them. Christ, they were almost killed for the second time since starting this investigation. I wouldn’t blame them if they do decide to pull out altogether.”

“Is that how you read it?” asked Connie.

“What do you mean?”

Connie sighed and said, “Jack once told me that as an undercover operator you need to see the big picture. He said the scales of justice are different in that line of work.”

“How so?”

“He says he includes the moral issues as a counterbalance to the legal issues.”

“I don’t get what you’re saying,” replied Dallas.

“I’d say Jack and Laura are weighing whether to terminate the operation or let a teenaged girl be murdered so they can find some guy who smashed the brains out of a priest with a cement block. I think they already know who she is and are stalling.”

“Jesus … I mean … she’s evil, but she’s still just a kid.”

“Yeah,” sighed Connie, “a kid who likes to kill people.”

“And who knows what else she has done.”

Connie nodded.

“So what do we do about it?”

Connie shook her head and said, “We have to give them time to peruse their notes, it only makes sense. My guess is they will try to stall us for a day or two and continue the UC.”

“A day or two isn’t long.”

“It is if the kid gets murdered. We can’t afford to take that chance. We’ll start pounding on doors tonight and talking to as many young women as we can. She better hope that we find her before its too late.”