Denise stood terrified at Shin Lu’s suicide, but she was fearful of a lot more than her former partner’s well-being. Detective Sanchez came in with the two uniformed officers who’d accompanied him to his interview with Tia weeks earlier.

“New York Police Department,” he said flashing his badge. Tia and Marcus stepped back and the three officers walked past them, directly toward Denise. But their attentions were distracted by Shin Lu’s body lying ear the desk.

The detective demanded, “What the hell happened here?”

Tia said, “She killed herself, just moments ago, rather than go to prison.”

“Don’t blame her,” Dt. Sanchez said, turning to Denise. “You Denise DuBois?”

Denise bowed her head, eyes on the floor. “Yes, sir.”

The detective glanced at the officers and cocked his head, a wordless instruction to do what they came to do. “You have the right to remain silent,” Dt. Sanchez recited from memory with a tired sigh, the two uniformed officers closing in on Denise to crane her arms behind her back. “You have the right to an attorney—”

But Denise acted in a flash, eyes wide and filled with panic. Her hand grabbed one of the officer’s guns from his holster and jumped back, pistol aimed at the officers, Dt. Sanchez, Tia and Marcus both.

“Stop,” Denise shouted, “everybody just stop! Take a step back or I will shoot, I swear it! I’ll shoot as many of you as I can, the white whore first. Now back the fuck up!”

Tia and her team did step back, the officers’ eyes locked on the gun in Denise’s hands. It quivered a bit with her fear and adrenalin, but that only made it all the more lethal.

“All right, I’m in charge here now.”

Marcus said, “Denise, take it easy. There’s no way out of this building for you.”

“No? How about if I just blast my way out? Once I hit the stairwell I’ll be vanished, back in Europe in no time, Canada, wherever.” She glanced at Shin Lu on the floor. “I’m not a quitter like that little loser.”

Tia said, “Denise, I know how you feel. We’re both women, fighting to survive in a man’s world—”

“You’re a whore and a pimp and so am I,” Denise said. “At least I’ve got the balls to admit it.”

“You’ve got balls all right,” Tia said.

“Yeah, and I’m taking them out of here in one piece.” Denise said to the other officer and detective, “Your guns, let’s go.”

“No chance,” Dt. Sanchez said, “we don’t relinquish our weapons.”

Marcus said, “Why don’t you just leave without killing anybody? We won’t stand in your way.”

Tia said, “Marcus?”

But Marcus went on to Denise, “Just go, disappear. You’ve got us at gunpoint, Denise. I don’t know about the others, I can only speak for myself, but I don’t wish to die for no reason. We’ve got our companies; there’s nothing you can do to us there. Shin Lu is dead; she’ll take the blame for what happened as far as I am concerned. I’m sure the police can be made to understand.”

Detective Sanchez shook his head. “I’m sorry, but we can’t. We have our jobs to do, after all. But…if nobody will testify to the contrary, or even make any statements to that effect, we won’t have much of a case.”

Marcus turned to Denise with a smile. “You see? It’s easy, Denise.”

Denise looked at him, at Tia, at the detective and his officers. “Okay, fine, fine. But everybody get on the floor, face down.” After a pause, she hollered, “Do it!”

But Tia’s imagination was flooded by terrible visions, the five of them helpless on the floor and receiving their death shots in the back of the head, one after another. Bam-bam-bam-bam-bam!

Marcus glanced at Tia and she could read in his eyes that he was thinking the same thing.

Detective Sanchez said, “We’ll step back and give you plenty of room, but we’re not getting on the floor.”

“You do what I say,” Denise shouted, turning the gun on the detective, “or I’ll blow your damn head off!”

One of the uniformed officers rushed Denise, but he wasn’t fast enough and she pulled off a shot, the blast filling the office and ringing in Tia’s ears. Detective Sanchez fell back, a neat black hole in his belly as he toppled to the floor. The two officers overtook Denise and grabbed the gun out of her hand, the woman nearly disappearing beneath that pile of black leather and city-trained power.

“Ten-double-zero. We’ve got an officer down at the Longshadows offices on Fifth, five-forty-two, sixth floor,” one of the officers spat into his radio transmitter. “We need an ambulance and backup.”

“No,” Denise screamed, a maniacal rattle in her screech, “let me go, let me go! You sons of bitches, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you all!”

Denise was cuffed and one officer dragged her out of the office, her eyes fixed on Tia and Marcus. “You think you seen the last of me? I know people too, you fucking assholes! You’re both dead; you’re as good as dead!” But the officers dragged her out of the office, Marcus and Tia crossing to the fallen detective.

Tia asked, “Are you all right?”

Detective Sanchez nodded, pushing himself up off the office floor and pulling back his shirt to reveal a blue teflon bulletproof vest. “To think, I almost went with the cardigan,” he said, Tia and Marcus joining him in a relieved chuckle.