Mac walked into the interrogation room where Patrick King was waiting. He glared at Mac. "What am I doing here again?" King asked.

"Your sister," Mac replied.

King frowned. "My sister? What about her? She doesn't have anything to do with this. As a matter of fact, she works for you."

"Yes, I realize that, but she is missing."

King stared at Mac. "Are you trying to threaten me, Detective?" he asked.

Mac leaned on the table. "Not at all. The file about your case mysteriously disappeared from this lab along with several other documents about that case, and your sister has disappeared too."

King was silent for a moment. "You're lying. Patricia would never do that." He pointed his finger at Mac. "Don't you even try to accuse me of hurting my sister! We are on opposite sides of the law, but she's still my sister."

Mac stared at King a moment. "I think someone has forced your sister to do their bidding," Mac said. "Her child was gone too. We're checking with her friends and family now."

Mac thought King's face went two shades whiter and then redder. "Are you telling me that somebody has kidnapped my sister?" he asked.

"I'm not sure of anything right now," Mac said. "But you need to tell me who has something against you enough to kidnap her and force her to misplace files in this lab."

King stood up. "You have to let me out of here!" he said. "They'll kill her!"

"Tell me who 'they' are," Mac demanded. "Sit down! We'll do everything we can to find her if you will help us!"

King stared at Mac a moment but then he sat down. "I owed some guys," he said. "They were my suppliers. They probably did this to get my case thrown out so I can repay them."

"Who are they?" Mac asked.

King looked at Mac. "They're the kind of people you don't mess with," he said.

"I've dealt with all kinds," Mac said. "Now tell me who they are."

"They'll kill her if they think you're on to them. They may have already killed her anyway."

Mac stared at King. He supposed no matter how bad a person was, they could care about their family. "Look, we will help her out of this if you will help us," he said. "I mean that."

King considered that. He knew Mac meant what he said. "Okay, I'll help you but you better help my sister and her baby. That baby is only four months old."

"Who is the baby's father?" Mac asked.

"Her husband is in Afghanistan."

"So I guess he knows nothing about this." Mac rubbed his face. He wondered if this could get any more difficult. He looked at King. "Tell me who is involved in this."

"You are not going to believe me when I tell you. You think you know everybody in this city but you don't know anything. You would be shocked to know who all comes into my club."

Mac stared at him. "I don't care who they are," he said. "If they are doing something illegal, they will pay the price when I catch up with them."

"You can't always win, Detective Taylor. They know you and they have your number. It's just a matter of time before they get you out of their way."

"Just tell me who is involved in this."

"Who all is listening on the other side of that glass?" King asked. "You know even if I am in jail, they can get to me."

Mac frowned. "Are you suggesting that someone in the police department is involved in this?"

"Hey, you don't have any idea what I know."

"So, why don't you tell me?"

King leaned on the table. "I figure I'm a dead man anyway, so I might as well tell you," he said. "You know when you send those drugs from drug busts to be destroyed? Well, they don't always get destroyed."

Mac frowned. "What are you saying?"

"Man, I see it all."

"They come to me to sell them. They don't incinerate them like they're supposed to every time."

"And just who are 'they'?"

King leaned back and folded his arms. "Hey, what do I get out of this deal?" he asked.

"Maybe you won't get the death penalty and maybe your sister won't die."

King frowned. "I can give you some names," he said.

Mac pushed a notepad toward him and an ink pen. "Start writing," he said.

King picked up the pen. "This is for Patricia."

Mac looked toward the two-sided mirror where Flack and Jo were watching. "This is hard to believe," Jo said.

Don frowned. "Just because he says something doesn't mean it's true," he replied.

Jo looked at Don. "Why would he lie about something like that? He would know we would find out it was a lie eventually."

Don had to admit that was true. He did not think Patrick King was that stupid. He hated the thought of having to take down some of his own. He knew plenty of cops who had taken drugs to be incinerated. He had even done it himself. He could not believe anyone he knew would take drugs and sell them like that. He had been shocked before though. He supposed he would have to get over the shock and do what he had to do. He just hoped it did not turn out like last time and cause some maniac to get out of prison.

When Mac had his list, he left the interrogation room. "You save my sister, Detective!" King yelled as Mac went out the door.

Mac went out where Don and Jo were. "We've got big trouble," Mac said.

"You really believe this guy?" Don asked.

Mac looked at him. "Why would he lie? What benefit would he have for lying?"

"I don't know, Mac." Don looked at the notepad Mac had in his hand. "Just how many names are on that list?"

"Five," Mac replied. "If they're stealing drugs and selling them, they don't need to be cops."

"I agree. But are we going to take the word of some womanizing drug dealer?"

Mac sighed. "Don, let's not argue about this. Let's just get to the bottom of it and find out what happened to this woman and her child."

"That's the important thing," Jo declared.

Mac looked at the list. "Let's go up to the lab to talk about this," he suggested. "I don't want this to get out before we want it to."

Don and Jo followed Mac to the elevator. They were all quiet on the way up to the lab. Mac knew what was going through Don's mind. He hated the thought of taking down cops but he would not think twice about it if they were dirty and he would not lose a wink of sleep over it. He had even found that his old partner had committed murder and would have arrested him but Raymond Price had killed him first. That had been a hard situation to get through.

They came out of the elevator at the lab. Danny and Lindsey were in the lab along with Sheldon. "I want everyone in the conference room," Mac said.

Soon, everyone was there, including Adam. Mac sat down in his usual place at the table and laid the notepad down. "We have a serious situation here," Mac began. "We believe that Patricia Stanford and her child have been kidnapped because of drugs and money that her brother owes to others. I have also found out that certain police officers have allegedly been taking drugs that were supposed to be incinerated and selling them to Patrick King."

Everyone was silent for a moment. "That's not a definite thing though," Don declared to break the silence. "Patrick King is saying all this and claiming that he is helping us so that we will help his sister."

"But he has no reason to lie about something like this," Jo pointed out. "He would not get any benefit from lying about it. And if Patricia and her child have been kidnapped, we need to find them before something happens to them…if it hasn't already."

Don folded his arms. "So, what do we do?" Lindsey asked. "How do we find them?"

"We start with this list," Mac said giving Don a stern look. "We have to investigate this to the fullest because if it's true, there's no excuse for it and we need to get this under control now."

"So, who all is on the list?" Danny asked.

"There are five names on this list," Mac said. "I'm going to make a copy of it and Danny, I want you to find out what dates these officers took drugs to the incinerator and how big the quantity was. I also want to know if any drug money has gone missing. We're going to do a thorough investigation into this. I want no stone left unturned and I want everything documented to the fullest on paper. Let's try to keep this out of this system for the time being. Save everything to a flash drive and print it out. Don't save it to the system until we figure this out. Is that understood?"

Everyone nodded. Mac sighed. "I know this is not going to be a pleasant operation but it has to be done," he said.

They all left the conference room, each one with their own thoughts about the situation. Mac went to his office and made another copy of the list of names. He went into the lab where Danny and Lindsey were along with Don and Sheldon. Don folded his arms but Mac just ignored that gesture as he gave a copy of the list to Danny. "You, Lindsey and Sheldon get to work on this and find out everything you can about these officers," Mac said.

Jo came into the lab just then. "Jo, you and I will start our investigation at the incinerator," Mac said. "Someone has to know whether those drugs were actually put in there or not."

"What about me?" Don asked.

Mac looked at him. "You keep your eyes and ears open," he said. "And don't let your heart get in the way."

Don frowned. "I don't like dirty cops any more than you do, Mac," he said. "But it doesn't make it any easier."

"I understand that. You're coming with us for now."

Mac looked at the others. "Everyone get busy," he said. He, Jo and Don headed for the elevator.

"I've never been to the incinerator," Jo said as they were going into the elevator.

"Well, you're about to," Mac replied.

"It's a hot place," Don remarked. "Doesn't smell too good either."

They went out to the Avalanche and headed over to the incinerator. "I just hope we don't find anything going on over there," Don said. "I would imagine that someone could drop you in that thing and no one would ever know it."

Mac frowned. "Well, let's try not to prove that fact," he said. "We're going to be careful."

"How are we going to go about this?" Jo asked. "Are we just going to walk right in and ask them if someone took drugs out of there and didn't actually incinerate them?"

"They have a record of who brought what over there and who was supposed to put it into the incinerator," Mac said.

"Oh, this is just terrible," Jo said. "How could anyone do something like this?"

"Money," Don replied. "It's all about money."

"That's why we're going to see if any money has gone missing from the evidence warehouse," Mac said.

When they arrived at the incinerator, there was plenty of smoke rising from the smoke stack. Don got out of the Avalanche and stared at it a moment. "This is where old evidence goes to die," he remarked.

"Well, everything has to die sometime," Jo replied.

They went inside and it was very noisy. Mac wondered how much stuff usually went through here every day. It was not only for police use of course, it was just where they took stuff when it needed to be disposed of. "Can I help you?" someone asked trying to talk over the noise.

Mac looked at the man, who was dressed in white coveralls that looked like they had seen their share of soot and ash clouds. The man looked like he had seen his share too. His black hair had a slight gray sheen to it that Mac did not think was caused from aging and he had a big thick mustache and there was a nametag on his coveralls that said "Bret".

Mac showed the man his badge. "I'm Detective Mac Taylor," he said. "We need to see your records about drugs that have been incinerated here."

The man stared at Mac a moment. "Come with me," he said.

Mac, Jo and Don followed the man to an office that was cluttered with files and papers and there were several filing cabinets that looked surprisingly neat. "How long will it take you to find the files?" Mac asked.

"Not long," Bret replied. "I have them documented." He typed in the computer and went to one of the filing cabinets.

Mac was surprised that it was not going to take long, but Bret soon came out with a thick file that looked like it was well kept. "This is all that have been done in the last year," he said.

Mac stared at it and then looked at Bret. "Does this have the names of the officers who brought them and the one who incinerated them?" he asked.

"Sure," Bret replied. "I keep very good records."

"Are you always here?"

"Well, I have days off like anyone else and I am not here at night but there's not much going on at night."

"Who is here at night?"

"Ronald is here. Why? Is there some sort of problem?"

"We need to see his records too," Mac said.

"If you would tell me what the problem is, maybe I can help."

"We have a report that all the drugs that were brought here to be incinerated weren't."

Bret stared at Mac a moment. "Not on my watch," he said. "No one gets away with that while I'm here."

"What is Ronald's last name?" Don asked.

"Walters."

Don wrote that down. He turned and got his phone to call that name in to see if he could find anything about the guy. "How well do you know Ronald?" Mac asked.

"Not very well," Bret replied. "Like I said, I work days and he works nights."

Mac showed Bret the list he had. "You ever seen any of those officers here when you were here?" he asked.

Bret looked at the names. "There are so many people who come through here," he said. "I do recall this one though." He pointed to the name George Grimes. "That guy asked a lot of questions when he was here."

"What kind of questions?"

"Like, how long it took to incinerate the drugs and who all worked around here and was it busy all the time. Hey, he was a cop. I didn't know he was wanting to do anything illegal."

Mac stared at Bret a moment. He was beginning to think he was a little too cooperative. Bret seemed to get a little nervous under Mac's intense stare. "We'll be talking again," Mac said and took the file that Bret had given him. "Don't get hard to find."

Bret watched as Mac and the other two detectives turned to go back to the Avalanche. He thought someone was going to be in trouble but it was not going to be him…