Badge of Honor (The Town of Pearl 9)

Lauren didn’t reply as Hercules and four of his team approached.

“Detective Michaels. Nice to see you.” He reached his hand out for her to shake. She did, and she gave a firm squeeze. He winked.

“You remember the guys.” He waved a hand toward his crew, and the four men looked her over and didn’t even look at Frankie. She felt on display. Like a piece of meat which was so unlike these guys. They respected her, or so she thought.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and eyed them back. Felix, Roach, Mangle, Turk. All four nodded their heads.

“What’s going on? Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked them.

“Let’s go into the meeting room. Everyone, follow Agent Burk,” her commander said.

Lauren looked at Frankie, who was giving the agents the evil eyes. They’d gotten two men from the department killed. What were they looking to do now?

They all took positions around the room, and Lauren stood by Hercules and Frankie even though the men offered her a seat.

There was a projector set up on the table and an area cleared so the film could be projected onto the wall.

“Okay, so we’ve gathered all of you here today to give an update on the Tenth Street gang case. We have reason to believe a new shipment of product is coming in this week. There’s some buzz about a meeting tonight at Club Phaze,” Agent Burk told them.

“Our sources on the inside, which is down to one agent, cannot get close enough to Aces, Rafael, or Orlando to confirm a date, time, and location. Aces has been distancing himself from most people except his brothers Miklos, Rafael, and Orlando. Detective Sargento, could you get the lights please?” Agent Burk asked Frankie.

The lights went out the room fell into darkness and the slide show began. Agent Burk showed pictures of Aces, talked about their hangout locations, the factory they were trying to pinpoint where they believed a drug manufacturing operation was, and Burk showed where the two undercover agents had slipped up. When the pictures of the dead agents came up one at a time as Agent Burk described what was done to them and how they were left for dead, then she felt angry and sick. These bastards had to be stopped. There had to be a way to stop these monsters from doing more harm and to put them behind bars.

As the agents talked more about the main men, who they were and what they were into, he described possible ways of infiltrating the small group of men in order to find out information to capture them.

Another detective turned the lights back on.

Lauren looked around the room and could see how uneasy, upset, and angry all the investigators were. They wanted to seek justice for those agents. So did she.

“So where are we at? I mean do you have any ideas as to how we can get someone in there and close enough to Aces and his crew to get information?” Frankie asked.

“We’re running some ideas. I’ve got a few female undercover officers willing to go in undercover and try to flirt their way into the private balcony area where Aces and his crew meet and discuss things. Our inside guy says Aces always has a woman at his side, and never the same one,” Burk told them.

“Don’t tell me those women have disappeared,” Hercules said.

“No, he’s j

ust real careful and particular about who he has by his side repeatedly. He has a certain type he likes,” Burk added and looked at Lauren.

“What type is that? Do any of the female undercover officers have the look?” Frankie asked.

Agent Burk continued looking at Lauren. He then looked down at a file on the table, opened it, and looked at her again.

“Detective Michaels does. You’ve got an outstanding record in the department, detective. Seven years and you’re already a top ranking homicide detective.”

“You’re not thinking about sending Lauren in there. She doesn’t have the training for that,” Frankie spoke up.

“Detective Sargento, you saw the slides. You know the case and the capabilities of the Tenth Street gang. We need to stop them. We need to know when that large shipment is coming in so we can arrest these men and stop more drugs from coming into the city.”

“What’s his type? How is it that I fit what Aces likes in a woman?” she asked.

Frankie raised his voice. “No, Lauren, you’re not doing this. This fucking guy showed these slides because he knew you would want to seek justice for the agents killed. He knows that we knew those men.”

“What is his type?” she repeated.

“As far as we could tell from surveillance, he likes a woman who is well endowed, easy on the eyes, and somewhat petite.”

“That’s every guy’s fantasy woman,” Hercules stated with his arms crossed in front of his chest.