Chapter 1

She sighed deeply and leaned against the light pole, lifting her foot to relieve the ache that four inch spike heels put on her arch and toes. Something caught her eye and she glanced up to catch just the tail end of a flash of lightening between the tall buildings. Thunder rolled ominously across the sky a few seconds later.

"Great, just fucking great," she grouched.

There was a burst of static in her ear. "You know, leather shrinks when it gets wet." Her partner, cozy, comfortable and cool in the surveillance van, laughed over the electronic piece in her ear.

She stood, balancing unsteadily, yanking down on the short, leather skirt that barely covered what was legal and left a long expanse of tanned stomach bare. "Next time, you get to wear these heels and come out here and shake your ass, Justin," she hissed, knowing that her words would be picked up by the tiny receiver hidden in the pitiful excuse for a vest she wore over her breasts.

Detective Justin Swope, her partner for the four years she had worked homicide, laughed again. "But you do it so well, Jenna."

She turned and surreptitiously flipped off the surveillance van, hearing the chuckles of the morons inside.

"Hey, we could have gotten a uniform to do it. You volunteered."

Jenna ignored the truth of his words and walked the sidewalk, trying to pretend that her feet weren't killing her and her head wasn't buzzing from exhaustion. She had to close this case or it was going to kill her.

She caught the evil glares of the others that were walking this stretch of sidewalk. The people, both male and female, that were out here trying to turn a trick, to earn rent or money for food, or for that next fix. She tried to ignore the kids that were out here also, selling their bodies because it was better than the alternative of what they had at home. A life that they considered much worse than life on the streets. And no matter how the city tried, there just wasn't enough money, enough time or enough man power to completely fix a situation so overwhelming.

It was enough to break hearts, seeing how skinny they were, or the dazed drugged look in their eyes.

Jenna heard the loud blast of a defective muffler before she saw the car. Loud, raucous music blared out the open windows. The bass was up so loud that it vibrated against the earpiece. She heard the whine of feedback and swore loudly.

One of the three boys in the car had his head out the window. "Hey babe," he yelled as they passed Jenna. "How about a freebie? It's my birthday."

"I don't do ten year olds," she yelled back. "Go home to your momma."

"Bitch!" he yelled back at her as they roared off.

"Why wasn't that kid in bed?" she muttered, mostly to herself.

"I think that was the point," Justin chuckled.

Jenna ignored him and glanced down the street. Her eyes caught and then focused on an aging hooker bent over talking to an ancient man in a BMW. She was old enough to be grandmother to Jesus, with skin like a prune and about the same color. She had on a skirt in bright red that made Jenna's look positively prim in comparison. A fake gold lame halter barely contained breasts that hung to her waist and swung with every movement. She had a full head of impossibly curly, impossibly red hair that hung almost to her waist. She laughed, a cackle that reminded Jenna of the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz.

Jenna turned her purse so that the tiny camera concealed in it's straps caught the old woman's image.

"Justin, I thought you told your girlfriend to stay off the streets." She heard the hoots of laughter from the two other cops in the surveillance van down the street over her earpiece.

"Hey," Justin replied without hesitation. "Take out her teeth and she gives the best head around."

"Pervert."

"Yep, and proud of it."

Jenna turned to walk back to her light pole when she felt the first drop of rain splash on her bare shoulder. The sky flashed and rumbled.

"We should pack this up Jenna," Justin told her. "Come on, I'll buy you a beer and rub your feet for you."

She considered it and was starting to walk down the street to the motel where they had set up part of this sting when a long, black sedan pulled up next to the curb. It kept pace with her for a minute until she looked over. Adrenaline pumped through her system, fast and furious as she recognized the make and model as being the same as what their one and only witness had given them.

The owner of the black sedan was wanted in connection to several murders that had been plaguing the less affluent neighborhoods. Seven girls, all street hookers, had been picked up off the streets. The last girl's body had been found just last week. The damage done to her had been severe. She had literally been torn to pieces. Cause of death, as far as the medical examiner had been able to deduce, had been blunt force trauma. Her skull had been caved in with something like a steel bat.

Prior to death, though, she had been raped, assaulted and tortured.

But they had caught a break. Her friend and roommate had been with her when she had been picked up and had identified the car.

This car.

The passenger window slowly rolled down as Jenna turned to the car. There was a burst of static in her ear.

"It looks like the right car. Same procedure, Jen. Get him to go to the motel room. We'll take him there."

Jenna smiled and snapped her gum as she strolled over to the window. She bent at the waist to look in, giving the driver a long view of very nice cleavage.

"Hey, how are you tonight?" She drawled the words, making them sound like sex in her throat.

"How much?"

So much for verbal foreplay.

"Depends on what you want, sugar." She snapped her gum provocatively.

"I want to fuck. How much?"

Boy he was a charmer. She sized him up. Tall, bulky big. Running to fat, but still big enough to do major damage, especially to the body type of the women he picked. Dark straight hair under a dingy ball cap, dark glasses, even at one in the morning. A bulky black overcoat covered his clothing with the collar turned up so that she couldn't get a real good look at his face.

"Fifty for a half hour, anything more, we renegotiate. Sound okay to you, sweet buns?"

He grunted and tapped a button on the steering wheel. The door she was leaning on unlocked and unlatched.

"Don't get in that car, Jenna." She almost rolled her eyes at the unneeded order. She wasn't that stupid.

"Nope, baby. I'll meet you around the corner." She named the motel and started to back away.

"Get in." He turned and looked at her through those dark lenses.

"That's not the way I work, sugar. Meet me at my motel and I'll give you..."

"No."

Shit. Damn. She stood indecisive. He tapped a button and the door closed and latched, the window started to roll up.

Fuck it. "Wait, baby." She reached for the door handle and sent a mental apology to Justin.

"Jenna, God dammit. Don't you get in that car."

The door swung open and she slid onto the leather seat, barely getting her feet in before he was closing it on her. She heard the ominous sound of the lock being engaged. She turned and ran a hand along the leather, using the move to put her closer to the door and away from him.

"Nice. Where we going? I can't be away from my corner long or some bitch will take it over." She slid her purse on her lap and felt inside for her nine millimeter. With it's familiar grip in hand, she felt a little steadier.

The man stared straight ahead, ignoring Jenna now that she was in his car. He drove with one hand, the other tapping out a rhythm that only he could hear.

"We're behind you Jenna. And I am personally going to kick your ass when I get you out of this."

Yeah, yeah. Like she hadn't heard that before.

She looked around, noting the changing landscape. The street they were on would take her to the city limits in a couple of miles, becoming less populated more deserted. Right now, he still had traffic to contend with. They were away from hotels and motels, quickly leaving fast food places behind and starting toward the warehouse district on the outside of the city.

She turned to look at him and saw he was now grinning, a huge scary twist of his thick lips. He reached out with one massive hand and grabbed the blonde curls on her head yanking hard.

Jenna had the momentary satisfaction of seeing the look of surprise on his face when the wig came off her head and stuck in his grip. He stared at it and then back at her, noting the short black hair that wisped around her face. He threw the wig in the back seat of the car and reached for her again.

Jenna pulled her nine millimeter out of her purse and aimed it at him. "Police, you son of a bitch. Pull it over."