Chapter 1

"Joey," Brian yelled down the hallway. "Could you keep the music down to a dull roar? I'm trying to talk to the boss here."

"Sorry," she called back.

Brian shook his head and sighed, going back to the phone call with Captain Roger Shields. Chances were good that he would be called into the precinct; it was a common thing with Major Case detectives.

It was hard to believe it had been almost a year since Brian had been exiled to The Tombs, met and worked with Detective Marie Davenport, gotten Paul cleared on a murder rap that had been pinned on him, promoted to Major Case, and of course, became a father when he adopted Joey.

She was no longer Joey Gray, street kid who had dropped out of school in ninth grade and ran away from home, turned tricks to earn money and lived in an abandoned warehouse. Now barely sixteen, she was now Joey Kendrick, living in a real home with a now well-respected detective for an adoptive father who adored her, and a junior in high school.

The classes Joey had taken while she'd stood at Morgan House had helped her catch up to her peers, and now in some subjects, she was actually ahead of them. To look at the girl now, no one would have guessed Joey as a former child prostitute. For the first time in her life, Joey finally knew what it was to be a normal teenager, and for the most part, she loved it.

She now stood in the doorway of the living room and smiled, Brian's back to her as he talked to his captain on the phone while taking notes. Looking back at her short life, Joey couldn't help but wonder where she would be now if the man she lovingly gazed at hadn't come into her life over a year ago.

It had started out the usual way; picked up often by Vice in several areas around the location of The Tombs, Joey would eventually know all the vice cops by name and face posing as "johns", but she had thought nothing of it when a new face had come along that fateful afternoon.

He had appeared to be a short, blond, surfer-looking guy with an accent that seemed to be a cross between an Italian mobster on crack and West Coast. When he had expressed interest in her services, she'd thought nothing of it. Hell, given his clean appearance and those blue-green eyes, he was definitely a step up from the junkie guys and gangsta boys that hung out in the Tombs neighborhood.

But that had been a mistake, at least Joey had thought so at the time. When she had agreed to a twenty dollar blow job in one of the back alleys, it was then Brian had arrested her for soliciting.

Joey had yelled and cursed at him all the way back to the station, calling Brian everything but a white man. But unlike the vice cops that had booked her, he had remained calm.

"You may not think it now, sweetheart, but this is for your own good," he had told her.

"Fuck you, vice pig!" she'd spat.

"You have some mouth on you, little girl," Brian had grinned.

"I'm not a little girl. I'm eighteen. I can do what the fuck I want."

"Whatever you say, kid, but tonight you're a ward of the County."

He hadn't been from Vice; Brian had been put out on duty by Captain Darrel Grant, his superior at The Tombs, since they were short on vice detectives and Brian's own case load had been low. Given what was to come in the future, it would turn out to be the best thing to happen to both him and Joey.

Each time, Joey would be cut loose, only to return to the streets, and each time, she would toss Brian dirty looks when she spotted him, with her all-familiar "I didn't do nothing!" She would also warn new girls about which person was a real john and which were cops, "especially that little pig Kendrick."

Even with the abuse she'd thrown at him, Brian found himself caring about the savvy little teenager, especially when it came to light she had been a material witness in the murder that had been hung on Paul. He had recruited everyone from Davenport to Morgan House founder Maxine Morgan to protect her at all costs.

Joey too began to feel comfortable around the firebrand yet compassionate detective, eventually confessing she was really fifteen, not eighteen. The revelation only made Brian want to protect her more.

Brian had even killed for the girl—literally. When the wife of the actual murder suspect had abducted Joey and was about to slit her throat, Brian had pulled his service revolver, firing a perfect shot and killed the woman instantly.

Several months later, when Max had informed Joey she was going to be adopted, she had been both apprehensive and quizzical as to whom would want her. The streets had all she had known since she was thirteen and run from that sex pervert of a stepfather and a junkie mother, whose rights to Joey were eventually relinquished.

But when she had walked into Family Court with Max and a Child Services social worker and met the adoptive parent the for the first time, Joey's face lit up. It had been Brian, who she had intially thought would be out of her life forever when he was transferred to Major Case.

Now he had hung up the phone and turned to her. "What's the matter, kiddo?"

"You're not going to work again, are you? You just came home this morning before I went to school!"

"Can't eat if I don't work, baby."

"Don't you worry about getting shot or something?" Joey asked. "I hate when you go out so much. I don't know if you're coming home or not until you get in the door."

"I've worried about getting shot since I was in Traffic. It's part of the job, Joey. How many times have we talked about this? You knew I was a cop from the time I busted you that first day up at The Tombs."

"Yeah, I meant to apologize for that, you know, cussing you out and stuff." She hugged him from behind. "You saved my life and then gave me this real nice one. But you know what we need around here?"

"Sweetheart, for the love of God, are we going to have that conversation again too?"

"Well, why not? I never had a real mom; just that crack whore who gave birth to me and then pimped me off on her boyfriends when I got boobs. Besides, look at you; you're cute, you're nice to people, you're really funny. A girl would have to be NUTS not to like you."

"Yeah, Joey, short guy here has a ton of prospects; some chick should really snatch me up."

"Damn right," Joey nodded.

"I meant that to be sarcastic. Now," he said, kissing her cheek, "the alarm's set for the night, don't let anyone in you don't know, and make sure that homework is done."

"Yeah, yeah, we go through this all the time. And I know there's stuff in the fridge for dinner if I get hungry."

"And no going out after dark unless you call me first, young lady," Brian warned. "I have to go to a scene now where a girl your age was killed last night and they just found her body. The hardest thing is going to be telling her parents that their child had been murdered. To be honest, if I had a choice between doing that and being shot, being shot looks like the better option."

Joey nodded. "I won't go out. Nothing to do tonight anyway."

"Good girl. I should be back at midnight; if not, I'll call and leave a message."

Joey let out a small sigh as he walked out, not taking her eyes off the window until she saw Brian's car disappear completely out of view.

Later:

Brian had arrived at the scene, flashing his badge at a uniformed officer, who lifted the POLICE LINE-DO NOT CROSS tape.

"Ahh, Detective," Lieutenant Theresa Hempler said, spying him. "Glad you could join us."

"And good evening to you too," Brian responded. "What exactly do we have here and what does it have to do with Major Case?"

"Victim is Nicole Galloway. The couple over there Davenport is getting a statement from found the body while out walking their dog. Her parents reported her missing last night."

"Wait. Nicole Galloway, Judge Reginald Galloway's daughter?" Galloway had presided over Joey's adoption hearing the year before.

"That's her,: Hempler nodded.

"Oh God. That girl is my kid's age. Listen, has anyone informed him and his wife yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Let me and Davenport go. I know the judge and I'm sure they would be more at ease hearing it from me. Any report from the ME yet?"

"Well, it's clearly obvious that the girl died from blunt force trauma to the head. The interesting thing is how she was dressed, though."

"How?" Brian was shocked at this news; Nikki Galloway was known as a conservative girl for her age.

"Take a look for yourself." Hempler lifted the cover from the girl's body.

"Jesus, that looks like a child hooker," he sighed. "Who would leave her like that?"

"Outside of the ripped skirt, chances are good she was dressed that way, especially since we found other clothes crumpled up not far from the body. It's a teenage thing, Detective; girls either change in a car or put clothes Mom and Dad approve of over not so charming outfits to hide their real intentions. I'd say one Miss Galloway was going clubbing or came from a club when she crossed paths with her killer."

Brian drew in a breath. "Sexual assault?"

Hempler shook her head. "The ME won't be sure until she gets the girl on the table. Same with drugs; they'll need a tox screen to make sure one way or the other. Anyway, given the victim, we were instructed to inform Major Case and got word you and Davenport would be taking it over from here."

"Yeah," Brian nodded. "Our captain gave me the news, and now I have the tough task of informing Judge Galloway that the apple of his eye had been murdered and found dressed like a slut. Jesus, Hempler, just kill me now."

A half hour later, Marie and Brian had delivered the news of Nikki's murder to the Galloways. Shirlee Galloway had taken it badly, crumbling immediately into a chair before the housekeeper escorted her into the bedroom. Reginald Galloway, barely holding his own emotions, thanked the detectives quietly.

As they went to leave, Judge Galloway stopped Brian. "How is Josephine?" he asked.

Brian was touched by the judge's concern, given he'd just lost his own child. "She's doing very well," he replied.

"Detective, I won't be able to do things with my Nikki anymore, so I want you to go home tonight and hug Josephine as tight as you can and for each day after that. What happened to Nikki is a case in point that one never knows whether one can lose the other at any given moment, and what I remember from that hearing, you are the light of Josephine's world. You just take care of that girl. Promise me that."

Brian nodded, managing a half smile. "Thank you, Your Honor. I shall do that."