Chapter 6

Sam ponders over her case file. Searching the missing person’s reports with the face of the murdered underage girl. Thankfully it’s all the machine doing the job, which is just as well as Sam knows she’s not as focused as she should be. Yesterday she’d managed to forget about it, which wasn’t too hard as she had a long list of household chores to complete. But now at work, it’s a total nightmare. All she can think about is what his next move is. What hers should be. Where this is going to go? If it even goes anywhere. Maybe she should just throw in the towel, before it’s too late? No, no. She reprimands herself. If Mr. I-never-give-up is going to stick to their deal then she sure as hell is too.

The machine flashes with a match. Pleasantly surprised, Sam makes herself focus on the task, as she reviews the hit.

It seems their Jane Doe is (or rather was) Grace Brown, a 17 year old runaway. She had been running since the age of 15 where she reportedly decided to leave the foster care system and her town cops didn’t seem to have wasted too much of their resources to find her. There was no other indication of any of her activities after that which is not too surprising, since after all her activities were illegal. It means only one thing-field work. But this field work will have to be at night obviously, so in the mean time she better try shifting through the various amount of crimes to find any that may match with Santiago. Finding a recently large radius of drug dealings in a shady area of the city, Sam figures it must be Santiago; after all he is top dog and has probably deluded himself into thinking that too. But she can leave that to one of her other team leaders to find out. She in the meantime needs to formulate a plan to try in going undercover to find out what exactly happened to Grace Brown.

“Come on Briggs. Don’t make me order you,” pleads Sam.

“I’m sorry Ma’am but I just can’t. No offence but every time I get roped into one of your missions, something ends up going wrong. And usually, I’m the one getting the blame,” sighs Gale in frustration. It’s not that he doesn’t like working with Sam and it’s not that she’s not a good cop, it’s just that...he’s had more than his fair share of ‘hilarious’ stories with her.

“Okay, first that’s kinda offensive but whatever. And secondly, it won’t be that bad, don’t be so melodramatic-”

“Ma’am I really don’t-”

“Oh fucking hell, Briggs. Grow a pair,” Sam remarks rolling her eyes.

“Fine. Fine, Sam. What am I doing?” groans Gale watching with terror as his boss’s face lights up.

Sam hoists her gun into her thigh holster, hitching the short skirt back down and adjusting her crazily backcombed hair. Then locking up she set off to meet her partner in crime-or rather enforcement.

“Ma’am, are you sure we should do this?” questions Briggs, gazing down from head to toe at his commander. She looked...well, trashy, which is perfect, for her crazy scheme. But surprisingly Gale feels his eyes shine at her with new light. She’s actually...hot. Dear God, he gasps to himself. She’s fucking hot. And maybe not so much in the tiny, tight black skirt with the tacky leopard print crop top and red hot stripper heels but her body sure is something else.

“No...not really. But unless you can magic us up some more leads then we’re going in,” huffs out Sam feeling her face hurt from too much expression, because that’s how much make-up she’d forced herself to cake on.

“Alright. So I’m your pimp, huh?” grins Gale with a smidge of excitement. This is by far one of the top 10 craziest roles she’s ever had him playing, but it sure will be fun.

“It’s only undercover work, got it? That’s it, and this is strictly confidential so no gossiping,” reprimands Sam immediately.

“Sure, whatever you say...whore,” teases Gale, sticking up his collar.

“Hey, baby, you want a good time?”

“Sure sweetheart, but first I need to know if you lovely ladies have seen the...procurer of this woman?” asks Gale playing his role perfectly as he shows the women the picture of Grace Brown.

Sam watches as their old eyes light up with recognition and they briefly glance at each other, right before glaring back at Gale with hostility.

“We may have. What’s it to you?” they bite.

“A simple trade. I hear she’s quite...popular,” he grins easily.

“Oh,” remarks the woman and seemingly asses Gale, “that’s Glitter by the way. Her pimp’s Danny. He’ll be at the club just ‘round the corner.”

“Thank you, sweetheart, much obliged,” winks Gale, clutching Sam by the forearm and seemingly dragging her over to this supposed club.

A shady building appears in their view. Half of the laminated letters were falling off or not even lit up. Big buff guys stood around, smoking and discussing God knows what in hushed whispers. As Gale and Sam walk up to them-well, Sam stumbling along in her skyscraper heels-their eyes flicker to them with mild interest.

The biggest of them, a dark skinned male with sleeves of tattoos and all along his neck, stonily gazes at Gale.

“And where do you think you’re going bud?” he asks, his voice deep and menacing. Sam prays that Gale can actually man-up and hold his own on this one but it sure will ruin everything if she has to step up.

“I have some business with Danny,” simply shrugs Gale as Sam mentally sighs in relief. Good. He didn’t reveal too much but just enough to make sure they know he doesn’t mean trouble.

“Oh yeah? And what business would that be?” growls the man.

“A simple trade between our...assets,” replies Gale tilting his head slightly to Sam to show what he means. Sam suppresses the shiver of disgust she feels as the man’s dark eyes fill with cold lust as he gazes her up and down.

“...Alright. Come on, I’ll take you to him,” says the man after a short pause. He flicks his cigarette to the floor and stamps it out before leading them through a throng of similarly shady guys and through the dark entrance of the building. Inside it’s just so hazy and dark, Sam can only allow Gale to lead her down the cold corridors towards this ‘Danny’ person.

“In here,” grunts the man, opening the thin wooden door for them. Sam stumbles in after Gale and steps into the dimly lit room. A light bulb hangs low, flickering over the rickety wooden desk. A light haired male sits back in the tatty office chair and smirks at them.

“Lock the door,” he instructs stretching out.

He’s a scrawny guy with his sandy brown hair slightly too long and his clothes a little too big. Stereotypically, he wears thick gold chains and faux diamond studs in one ear. A smirk curls at his lips and his eyebrows cocks in amusement.

“So what’s it that you want, new face?”

“Ryan and I suppose you are Danny?” introduces Gale striding towards him and sitting down into the only wooden chair. Sam acting as his perfect little pet stands beside him.

“I am so what do you want from me, Ryan?”

“I hear you got this girl-Glitter?”

Danny subtly nods.

“I want her.”

Danny bursts out into hoarse chuckles that ring around the room.

“Oh yeah? And what are you going to give me in return, Ryan?” he grins.

“Her,” replies Gale with a tilt of his head towards Sam. Sam tries to keep her face neutral-which even with her mask-is hard as he slowly assesses her head to toe, gauging at her monetary value.

“Not enough. Glitter, she’s real special, worth a little more than this one,” explains Danny.

“I know but Tiger here is a real money maker too,” argues back Gale causing anger to rise in Sam. ‘Tiger’?! Is he fucking serious?

“I’m sure she is but it’s still a no deal,” resoundingly states Danny.

“Okay, fair enough. But can I see her first before I go?” requests Gale with his lips curling at the ends in a small smile.

Sam can see that Danny is struggling to keep his face straight but his eyes betray them as they glaze with panic and worry.

“No, she’s not working tonight,” he hastily replies.

“Right. Well, thank you for your time, anyway,” claps Gale ending their short conversation. But that’s fine because they’ve got what they need-him.

Danny gives a short nod in goodbye.

Gale stands, about to leave just as Danny’s focus swings to something else. Sam gives a subtle nod at Gale and hastily they both flip their guns from their holsters into their hands. Pointing them at Danny, they can tell they’ve caught him by surprise. In instinct he raises his hands in a surrender position.

“Woah! Woah! What’s the big deal?! What’s-”

“Shut up and keep your hands above your head,” cries Sam.

“Danny, you are under arrest for the questionable accompaniment in the murder of Grace Brown and for prostitution of underage girls,” explains Gale as Danny’s eyes widen in disbelief.

“Who the fuck is Grace Brown?” he asks, but Sam’s already made her way to him whilst reading him his rights.

“Who the fuck is Grace Brown?!” he repeats more forcefully as Sam locks his hands behind his back and places the handcuffs that Gale has handed her.

“Glitter, Danny. Glitter is Grace Brown,” quietly answers Gale. There’s a moment of sheer shock in Danny’s eyes before they snap into rage.

“NO! No! You bloody pigs are liars! Liars! Glitter’s not dead! She’s not fu-”

“Sir. I need you to calm down and come with us to the police station for questioning,” cuts off Sam in her no-nonsense, you-better-listen-to-me, tone. As he starts to cry out and struggle in her hold, Sam has to use all her training in keeping him from escaping or hurting her. With Gale guarding in front with his gun loaded and ready, Sam is escorts (or rather forces) Danny out of the door. She realises with terror she has no idea which direction is out, but thankfully, Gale is there to guide them out. They get a lot of surprised and shocked looks, however no one seems to say or do anything to deter them which is just as well because Sam dreads to think of the mess they’d be in if someone had tried to be the ‘hero’.

“Hey! Hey! Where do you think you’re taking Danny?!” cries the guy that lead them to Danny. Sam allows Gale to take care of that seeing as she has her hands full with the dirty pimp.

“Sir, I must ask you not to interfere in this. My partner and I are from the local Police Department and we need to take your friend in for now. Please return to your previous activity,” politely and forcefully requests Gale reciting standard procedure. He also flashes the man his credentials for extra measure. He can see the man’s eyes flicker with hesitance; clearly he’s had a few run-ins with their colleagues and probably doesn’t want another black mark on his record. At the same time, he’s probably assessing his value to Danny, gathers Sam, hoping he’d make the selfish choice. Her prayers go answered as he shoots Danny a slightly apologetic look and steps away. But Danny doesn’t seem too bothered. His struggles had stopped and in fact, Sam notes that he’s gone from one extreme to the other, in that he’s barely holding himself up. Whether it’s all an act or not, she’s not sure but it doesn’t matter anyway. He needs to be questioned and Sam has no plans of going easy on him, especially as he’s the only real lead she’s got so far.

Sam starts wiping her heavy make-up as soon as they’re in the police car. It takes her two make-up wipes to get the majority off and by then her skin could just about breathe again. Unfortunately there’s nothing she can do about her clothes and she’s forced to stay in the ridiculous outfit, barely large enough to fit a child never-mind her. She knows she’s probably pouring out of it, but nonetheless, Sam holds her head up high and confident as she marches a very quiet pimp into the police station.

All around her she can feel the silent stares and some smirks, yet Sam ignores them as she marches the man to the interviewing room. Once he’s in there, she can relax and head to her office to change into a spare uniform she keeps there.

As expected the Chief seems to be in a truly foul mood as he knocks and enters her office, just as she’s finished changing.

“What in the God’s name were you doing dressed as...as a common harlot?!” cries the Chief. Had it not been for the fury in his eyes, Sam would surely be smirking at his outdated term.

“I was undercover Chief. Just like you sanctioned,” she shrugs in reply. So maybe she caught him right at the end of the day, where he probably just flicked through her request and signed it mindlessly; but it’s not like Sam didn’t follow the damned procedure. Where it up to her, things would be running a lot quicker without some of the useless paper work to go through.

“I sanctioned?” repeats the Chief with confusion before he gives a small growl of realisation, “how many times have I told you not to trick me like that?!-”

“What? I didn’t do anything wrong!” cries back Sam in mock innocence which he sees right through and gives her a scolding look.

“Sama-”

“Alright, alright, sorry Chief,” mutters Sam in an unapologetic tone paired with a small devilish smile. Chief Daniels internally grins at that. For some reason his Deputy just feels like a daughter to him, with all her little tricks and pranks and blunders and angry outbursts. He’ll never tell her how much she means to him but he does and that’s enough. He’ll guard her and protect her, especially seeing as she has no family that he knows off. Of course, he won’t be showing his favouritism too much though because God knows where that could lead!

“Sure you are,” mutters back Chief, “anyway! Remind me what exactly had to go undercover for.”

Sam’s eyes light up in triumph, knowing that this one small step in redeeming herself for the Adrian mistake she made.

“Only the pimp of the underage girl we found murdered before the weekend. The one who had Santiago’s name in her pocket,” explains Sam.

The Chief looks thoughtful before an expression of concern and weariness crosses his wrinkled features.

“I see. And you think this has to do with Paolo Santiago?” he questions.

“Yeah, or well, I’m hoping.”

“That's a pretty big long-shot if you ask me, Torres. I mean Santiago’s not that unusual of a name and someone could have planted it there. It’s not a great deal of evidence to go by and as horrid as it sounds, I need you as Deputy to be working cases of greater importance than the murder of a prostitute.”

“I understand Chief. But..this is one of the best leads I’ve got and...I know it has something to do with Santiago- I can feel it!” expresses Sam. The Chief is silent for a minute before nodding.

“Alright, fine. I’ll let you carry this on but Torres, I’m warning you, don’t go wasting time. If we don’t nab Santiago in the next few months, the case will be closed. The state won’t be spending any more money on a dead-end,” warns the Chief.

And Sam knows it’s not to intimidated or scare her in any way however she still feels the shiver of fear of failure tingle through her.

She has to get Santiago, she can’t let the team down, she has to prove herself to them, she just has to.