37. Code 23

"You know we'll kill you for this."

The man was on his knees in front of the safe, digging out the passports. Once we had those, we could hit every brothel the Syndicate owned. Their niche was staffing brothels with hot young foreign things. Without their passports, the girls were trapped. Now we'd have names, faces, and governments willing to take them back. Mike was right; this would hurt the Syndicate real bad.

"I'll give them one more reason, then." I booted him into the safe door, knocking him out cold. Reneca loaded the last documents into the case. We walked back out.

Kim, and Ron watched the Syndicate goons. They had never seen it coming. Ron literally blew the steel door off its hinges, and Kim flattened the two guys unlucky enough to be there. Reneca and I came in and got the drop on the next set, these guys were used to breaking legs for loan sharks or slapping little girls around. We weren't either of those.

One of them had the nerve to look into my eyes. "Okay, you've got a pair. Now get this to your bosses: I'm looking to kill somebody. Until I get this out of my system, I'm gonna be hard to live with. So the sooner somebody tells me who threatened my little girl, the better off you'll all be."

"I don't know what you're talking about. We never threatened the little s…"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" I grabbed him so fast it didn't even occur to him to try to defend himself. He smashed into the wall. "You watch what you say about my family!" My fist spun him around. Next I put my knee into his back. That was fun, so I did it again. Guy was too stunned to move when I turned him to face me and drew my fist back. Somebody caught my arm: Kim.

"He's had enough, Sasha. So have you."

I tried to pull away. "I'm not finished with my message."

"Yes you are. They can't hide from us. They can't stop us. Now, we've got more important things to do than this." She was pleading with her eyes. None of the brothers could've stopped me; maybe I'm glad I don't have a little sister of my own.

"Damn, you're right." He hit the floor when I let go of him. The other goons cringed when I walked by. "You guys heard the message, and what she said. I just need a name."

We made it back to the car. That was three hits. My mind was running over the next target when Ron spoke up.

"I think everyone could use a break. How about Smolensk?"

We'd been going hard for several hours now. Some big fights. The kids must be starving. I didn't want to, but you don't drive your people into the ground when you've got a lot more to do.

"Think you're right, kid."

The chess club glared at us when we came in. The apprentice muttered in Russian as we walked past.

"Wanbho."

I stopped and put my hand of the rook he had just moved. "I hope you're talking about this move." I purred in Russian, my face just over his, I let my hair spill onto his shoulder, and leaned forward enough so he could see my holster. The older man shook his head at his apprentice. Guess someone forgot the crazy girl can speak Rus.

We took a booth against a wall, with a good view of the door. Most likely everybody was still reeling. They hadn't bothered to warn each other, but the word was plainly getting out, at least Baba's boys knew.

Dimitri grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the booth while the waitress took our orders to the kitchen. "Sasha, what do you think you're doing?"

"Besides ordering? Making a fuss, raising a stink, getting my jollies…"

"You're going to get a lot of people killed!" He nearly looked scared. "Things were bad enough with Avar dead, and now a dozen places are hit tonight! Look at this place! Not a single cop here. And why? They're been called in. Trouble is coming!"

He turned to Kim. "Kimka, please be careful. I have your last check ready. I hope you and Ron get back to Middleton safely."

"We'll be fine." She smiled at him. "If I don't see you again, thanks, Dimitri, thanks for everything."

The big guy smiled. "Take care of her, Ronald. She's a treasure beyond price."

"Yes, sir." The boy put his arm around her and squeezed. "I'll take good care of my Kimila."

"Good boy, I'll go get her check."

After he left I turned to face the kids. "A dozen places? Anybody here know anything?"

They looked at each other. "I had Wade hack into the system to read Mike's file." Kim admitted a little sheepishly.

"Then I got some help." Ron put in quietly.

"Some help? Who?" Shihan? "What did you do, call Shihan and ask to borrow a cup of ninjas?"

"Wish I had put it that way." The boy gave a goofy grin. "But yeah, I asked him for help in getting your family back home. He thought it would be great training for his students. From what Dimitri said, it went well."

"But that has them in town! What happens when he finally sees the intel guy in Washington?"

"According to Shihan, that should be a few more days. The guy was most rude." Ron was so calm now that he knew they would come to kill them. It's always harder to not know. "Shihan was in a good mood."

"Glad to hear it." Our orders came up. Kids ate a lot. Reneca had the big salad. I nibbled at my sausage. Food just wasn't that interesting. "So," I turned to Ron, "what places are still on the list?"

My pager buzzed. "The office. I'll be back."

I went out to the car and picked up the radio. "L816249 here."

L816249, we have a Code 23 CPS at 1389 Willard. Fenwick Apartments, #45. Please acknowledge.

"Acknowledged." I put the set down and walked back in. Reneca could read my face.

"Code 23?" She asked. Since we'd been on special assignment, we'd gotten no calls except for Avar's hit.

I nodded. "CPS. Kids, here's some taxi money. Go get some rest."

Reneca sighed. "All right, let's go."

Kim looked at me as Reneca got up. "What's a Code 23 CPS?"

"Code 23 is whenever another department of the city has a call that they feel could need police backup. The initials tell you which department it is."

"And CPS?" she asked.

I just went to the door, so Reneca answered.

"Child Protective Services."

Nbc

Reneca pulled up the computer while I drove. Willard wasn't that far away, on the edge of the precinct. Like I said, whenever something happened to a kid.

"This is a first call, Sasha. Citizen lodged a complaint regarding possible neglect and potentially dangerous living conditions." She shook her head. "Never been anything here before, it's…oh, God."

"What is it?"

"Remember January? Woman sitting at the bus stop when the driver jumped the curb, all gorked out on sniff."

"Yeah, city paid out a bundle. Is…"

"Her address? Yeah, it is."

Fenwick Apartments are nice, and Willard's in a good neighborhood. Most people don't think about nice places when they think about child abuse. Too bad they're wrong. A young woman opened the doors for us. She had a bright yellow shirt with a name: Party Time Grocery.

"We make deliveries here a lot, and in the nicer places we run twenty-four hours a day. But this is the first time I ever saw a kid. If the guy wants to live like that, that's his business, but a kid shouldn't have to."

In a few minutes we got out of the elevator and made it to the door of Apartment 45. I knocked. "Police. Open up, please."

One of the nasty things about Code 23s is the smell. The 23ACs are the worst, but at least the Animal Control people provide you with scented masks and plastic shoe covers. The 23CPSs tend to either reek of squalor or have the clinical aroma of a control freak. This one was squalor.

The garbage was ankle deep in the best places. Stacks of pizza boxes and mounds of delivery bags were everywhere. And bottles, bottles by the dozen. Roaches walked around without a care. Evidently they were welcome.

The guy was just as bad. Maybe he'd taken a shower last week. Hair was greasy and he had several days' growth on his face. I knew the cologne, eau d' alke, it's unisex, you know. He was maybe in his middle thirties, but I'd seen corpses with more life in their eyes. His were red, with only about another three downs until he reached a thousand yards.

"May we come in?" I asked.

He opened the door as far as he could and stepped aside. I thought I saw movement at the beginning of the hallway. Reneca followed my eyes.

"You go check, Sasha. I'll start getting statements from these two." She flipped open her pad. "Sir, can you state your name?"

A door shut to at the end of the hall. It was pink. The trash was pushed away from it, and the door just to the left. I stepped over junk to reach it. I knocked.

"May I come in, please?" I thought I heard a sound so I pushed on the door.

You could move on the floor. The toys were put away, any clothes out were folded and stacked. They had paper bands on them. Apparently the apartment had a laundry service. Picture Perfect Princess posters shared space with photographs of the family. A Mom, a Daddy, and a smiling Little Girl.

She was four, four-and-a-half. She sat on her bed with the covers pulled up. Light complexion, hazel eyes and blond hair. The hair was a rat's nest. In places you could see the scalp, it was red. Her eyes darted at me, looked away, and looked back.

I bent over and put my hands on my knees. "Hi, I'm Sasha. What's your name?"

"Cindy." She said it slowly, like she was out of practice talking to people.

"Cindy, that's a pretty name." I took a step forward, slowly; I didn't want to scare her. "Somebody told us you might want some company. May I sit with you?" When she nodded I went over and sat down on the bed beside her. The bed sheets needed changing. The girl looked clean enough herself. But the hair, she's bathing maybe, but little kids can't wash their own hair.

"Did Daddy call you?" She asked. "When he wants something, he just picks up the phone and talks. All he talks to is the phone, and some pictures."

"Pictures of you and your Mommy?" Hated to bring it up, but I needed to know as much as I could.

"He talks to Mommy, he doesn't talk to me anymore." Her face wrinkled. "I think it's cause I stink." Her hair did reek.

"Do you want me to wash your hair?" CPS won't like that; they want things just like they are until they can check it out. Well, it's 1am, who knows how long until someone can get here? If they have an issue with me doing it, they can just bring it up.

Her head bobbed up and down.

"Can you show me where your bathroom is?"

She took my hand and led me to the other unblocked door. It was a small bathroom, in need of a good cleaning. A little rest for her shoulders was in a corner. I took it and put it in the tub and got the water going while she got undressed. Like I said, this was a nice place. There was a spray attachment. I got her hair wet and found the shampoo. It was hard to work out the knots. She had clean patches from where she had tried to wash it, but her scalp was scaly from lack of attention. She'll need a medicated shampoo for a while.

"Did your Mommy wash your hair?"

"Yes. She did it every Saturday and Monday and Thursday." The little girl sighed. She was enjoying this. "You're doing very well."

"Thank you. I have a little girl of my own."

"What's her name?"

"Marsha. She'll be three this year. She's much smaller than you."

"Mommy always said I was tall, just like Daddy."

We talked a little more as I finished up. She put on some pajamas and I toweled her hair off. Gently, she grimaced a couple of times. The scalp was sensitive.

"Let's comb your hair." I pulled the brush down of the sink. "Picture Perfect Princess, my Marsha has a comb like this one. Do you like Picture Perfect Princess?"

"It's my favorite. We went to Picture Perfect Place last summer." She closed her eyes as I carefully untangled her hair. When I was done I found her little mirror and held it up to where she could see herself.

"All better."

She smiled at herself. I couldn't help but smile to. That's when she turned and hugged me tight. "I'm sorry!" she cried.

"Sorry? For what, honey?"

She couldn't stop. She apologized for everything but starting the Great Fire. I held onto her while she kept crying. "God forgives, right?"

"That's what my Mommy always told me."

"I, I just think, maybe if I say I'm sorry for the right thing, then God will give me my Daddy back. I know She's keeping Mommy."

Someone came down the hallway. A tired woman stood at the door. "Sergeant Barkin, I'm Charlotte Givens with Child Protective Services. And you must be Cindy." She smiled at the girl. "Did you just get your hair washed?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"What a polite little girl, just like a princess. Can we go talk?"

Cindy burrowed into me. Ms. Givens just nodded to me and I picked Cindy up and we went back to her bedroom. I had broken the ice with Cindy, so she told the new lady everything. Her Daddy bought plenty of food, though she was tired of pizza. He had people bring other things. Lots of bottles.

"I don't know why he gets those. They make him cry."

"Cindy," Ms. Givens put a hand on Cindy's knee. "your Daddy isn't feeling well. We need to look after him for a little while, until he gets better and can take care of you like he used to. Now, I'm going to take you…"

Tears bubbled up in the girl's eyes when the woman reached for her. She tightened her grip on me and shook her head. I just smiled at her. "I'll go with you."

Ms. Givens packed up some clean clothes and we went to her car. I knew where we were going. The lights were on in the old house. Grandma Veblen was the heart and soul of the Go City Foster System. She smiled at Cindy. In no time the little girl took her hand and stepped inside the house. She looked back at me.

"You'll visit me, Sasha?"

"I will. I promise."

Nbc

Reneca had followed us to the house. I went straight to the passenger's side door; no way I could drive now. She gave me a run down on the case.

"It was just the three of them. No family on either side. He took her out of day care. If she was five, then she'd have been in compulsory kindergarten. The city was happy to get out of a lawsuit for a hundred thousand a year. Guy practically had a get-out-of-jail-free card.

"She had plenty of food. He bought everything she needed to keep clean, though she couldn't brush her teeth well enough, or wash her hair."

"He just couldn't give her any time. He'd crawled into a bottle, forgetting he'd left a little girl outside." I bit my lip.

" They're putting him into rehab. She'll be with Gandma Veblen for a while." Reneca made an unexpected turn. "We have a stop to make."

She pulled the car into the Party Time Grocery. Really just a liquor store with enough food to permit it twenty-four hour delivery. I followed Reneca. She went straight up to a chubby guy in a purple shirt.

"Are you the manager? I'm Sergeant Cramer, this is Sergeant Barkin."

"That's me. I'm glad Trudy was able to help you."

"Yes, she was great." Reneca nodded. "I took her statement. Funny, she got a call while she was giving a statement to CPS. Somebody told her to get off her ass and get back to her deliveries if she wanted to keep her job."

He sputtered a bit. "She'd given you a statement. Wasn't one enough? I needed her…"

"To get liquor to some other lost souls, I know. Noble work." Reneca lunged at him. Her forearm went across his throat. She sneered as she leaned into it.

"You listen to me, I'll be watching. If she gets so much as a poor performance review, I'll come back here and rip your mansickle out by the roots and horse whip you with it all the way to the Lake! You got that?"

He shook and looked at me. I didn't move. He finally looked at Reneca and nodded. She stepped back.

"Good. Nice place. I may make an order some night."

Nbc

CPS wants their reports that day. We didn't get out of the office until over an hour after the end of shift. Reneca mumbled something, and climbed into her car. I got into mine. I opened my phone. Four am, you know he'll be up at his Dad's place.

"Sasha?"

"Stevie, you gotta promise me something."

"Anything, you know that."

"Stevie, if anything happens to me…"

"We said we'd never have this conversation…"

"Guess I lied. Stevie, if anything happens to me, ever, promise me, you'll stay strong for Marsha. You'll keep it together for her."

"Sasha,"

"Promise me!"

"I promise, Sasha."

"I'll hold you to that. You know I'd be watching."

"No you wouldn't. But I'd act like you were in the room."

Can't admit you're wrong, can you? "How are you doing?"

"We're just fine. Dad told me he saw the late news. Somebody's raising Hell in Go City. Wonder who?"

"Too bad you aren't here. We could use a Marine."

"Nobody raises Hell better. Be careful, Sasha. We love you."

"Love you guys too."

"You need to get some rest. You sound worn out."

"Yeah, it's been a long day."

Nbc

A light was on when I got home. She was waiting in the kitchen.

"Are you okay, Sasha?"

"No."

Kim walked up to me. "Remember when I said there was something missing in Shego's eyes? Something I could see in yours? Well, there's something in her eyes that wasn't in yours. She's eaten up with anger, Sasha. It's almost all that's left. Almost anything sets her off. She's as fast as I am, stronger and more experienced. Why do I always beat her, aside for being the good guy, that is? I get her angry. There's a reason they teach you to control your anger. She can't anymore. Not really. One day it'll kill her."

She touched my shoulder. "Sis, you've got Steve. You've got Marsha. Don't let them go."

She didn't give me a chance to answer. She just turned and walked away. After all, was I gonna argue with her? Tell her 'no, I want to throw my life away'? I stopped in the den to look at the family portrait: a Mom, a Daddy, and a smiling Little Girl.

I'd be there, Stevie. I'm always there.