The interrogation room in homicide is empty. "Damnit." I walk into the desk area and find Detective Young, a twenty year homicide veteran who is always cranky. Guess two decades of murders can do that to a guy.

I head to his desk. It's even more cluttered than mine. "Hey, Young, I need some info."

"What do I look like, Maddox? A fucking telephone book?"

"Telephone book? Is that one of those big paper weight things you old timers use to look up names and addresses?" I grab an empty chair from the next desk. It scrapes the gritty floor as I position it in front of his desk and sit down.

"Why are you sitting in front of my desk when I haven't invited you to sit there?"

"Told you, I need some information. Who is on the murder case for the dumpster body?"

Young finally looks up from his work. He has permanent angry creases across his forehead, and his nose is sharp like a bird's beak. "I am. There's your information. Now run along, kid. I'm busy."

"So the boyfriend confessed?" I ask. Persistence is both my strong suit and the habit most likely to get me in trouble.

Young makes a show of tossing his pen into a somersault. It rolls across his paper pile. He leans back. "You are a fucking pest, you know that? No wonder your partner left town. Where's Ten at, anyhow?"

I shrug. "Not too sure."

His brow has some long gray hairs in it that wiggle as the brow rounds over his eye. "Is she undercover?"

"Not too sure," I say again.

He reaches for his pen.

"Look, I assume you got a solid motive for the murder. Did the jerk say anything about why he slit the girl's throat?"

Young squints at me, trying to figure out why I'm interested. "This has something to do with Ten?" It's a question.

"Just need to know if there was any mention of where the girl had been. I know she had disappeared from the streets before she ended up dead."

Young sighs in resignation. "He says she told him it was top secret and that she'd been sworn to secrecy. But he managed to smack it out of her with his fist. He's a real nice guy all around. Can't wait to put him in front of a jury. Anyhow, she said that she was part of a secret club, a sort of high end prostitution ring from the sound of it. But she didn't work out so they dropped her back onto the streets."

"She didn't work out?" I ask. "How so?"

"How the fuck should I know, Maddox? Maybe she wasn't putting out for the clients. Anyhow, it was enough to make this kid jealous with rage. So he slit her throat and tossed her like garbage. Now go away." Young returned to his work.

I stand up and push the chair back into place. A high end prostitution ring. Fuck. The only light of hope was that they dropped the last girl back on the streets when she didn't work out. If that was the case, I was sure Ten would know exactly what to do to get herself out. I just needed to teach myself patience and wait it out. Right.

My laugh echoes through the hallway as I head back to my desk.