'Jerkoff,' Ryan muttered, sneering at Blake's retreating back as he headed for the elevator. 'How'd that little prick get to be a cop?'

'Easy, IA's full of pricks like him. He's their bread-and-butter,' Esposito replied.

'Why don't we worry about more important things,' Montgomery suggested, motioning for them to sit down; he waited to speak until Adam was in the room with freshly printed papers in his hands.

'Sorry, had to reload the printer,' he said, plunked himself down beside Esposito at the end of the row of detectives. 'Did I miss anything?'

'Not at all, Adam,' Montgomery replied. 'Detective Esposito was just about to update us on what you've found.'

'First, I wouldn't mind getting a clearer picture on Mike,' Adam requested. 'He was before my time.'

'Mike Doran was a narco at the Seventy-Second but when he made captain, administration moved him into the Narc bureau at the Twenty-Third precinct, and Timo Ross was his protege, if you like,' Ryan explained. 'Timo started dating Angela, Mike's daughter and only child, and to avoid anything sticky, Timo transferred to the Seventy-Second and began to work with Captain Frank Cowlan in the Narc bureau. The two precincts worked together to get Julio Robinson incarcerated, as Cowlan and Doran were pals from their beat-days and pooled their resources when they had a big bust to look at, but the collar went to Cowlan and Ross since they initiated the investigation.'

'About five months after Robinson went up to Five-Points, Timo went to Mike on some matter and according to Angela's personal diary, Timo came home right pissed off. A week later, his body was found beaten and broken.' Esposito heaved a sigh of regret. 'After that, Cowlan retired and Mike took his spot at the Seventy-Second running the Narc bureau. Eight years later, Angela figured it out what Timo learned - her father was part of a drug ring that involved other cops bought by Robinson - confronted her father and she wound up dead. Same method, same location as Timo.'

'Damn that's cold.' Adam shuddered., thinking of the conversation between Mike and Raglan. 'His only child, a daughter no less and he treated her like a loose end to be snipped off.'

'He's got a couple other things that should have been snipped off,' Montgomery commented. 'What else did you find?'

'We talked to Fuqua and she agreed that convo gave us enough juice for the entire transcripts of all John Raglan's outgoing calls for both his phones-'

'Sorry, both phones?'

'The boy wonder here,' Esposito jerked his thumb at Adam, 'figured it out Raglan had a second pay-as-you-go burner phone that he topped up with his credit card and we got the transcripts for that phone too.'

'You've been busy,' Montgomery commented. 'All that before three pm in a single day?'

'Having Fuqua on our side is proving to be most expeditious,' Beckett pointed out, 'or we'd still be waiting with our thumbs up our asses.'

'We've examined the transcripts,' Esposito continued, 'and we found this. He called another burner thirty-seven seconds after he ended the call from Mike.'

He handed around copies of the transcript he and Adam had looked at, let them read what they found. He watched their faces as the stone weight settled into his belly once more.

Frank, it's John. Just talked to Mike, he's tweaking

Over what now? Not enough time in the exercise yard?

He told me you went to see Christine, started asking about money. What did you do Frank?

Nothing, just commented on how nice her apartment was, how it must be nice on her florist salary and wondered if she'd come into any other income recently.

Jesus Christ, how fucking dumb are you? Christine's smart she could go poking around Mike's email accounts, his internet banking statements.

She won't do that, she'll be too distraught

Distraught?

Mike's become a liability, just like Montrose and just like that fucking Boy Scout Ross did too, and just like what happened to Ross' bitch when she started nosing around where she shouldn't have. Liabilities in our line of work are unacceptable

What are you going to do?

Leave it to me. You always leave the dirty work to me if you want the results, right?

Right. Thanks Frank.

Don't go out tonight, hang at home. Order a pizza or cook for yourself, and I'll call you when I have it in place.

They all sat silently, letting this new information sink in. It was impossible to have believed it when Mike Doran went up-river for his multiple sins, but now seeing two other cops - everyone knew the Frank mentioned had to be Frank Cowlan - calmly discussing the murder of that cop was positively stomach-curdling.

Finally it was Montgomery who broke the silence. 'Adam, who knows you accessed the information?'

'Only Fuqua who gave me the warrant, the tech at the phone company who gave me the transcripts via private download.'

'You accessed no email no personal internet browsing while you did this?'

'Sir, I may not have the symbols anymore but I still think like a cop.' Adam pokered up, sat straight in his spot. 'This is a sensitive case and its probably links to the murder of my father and Beckett's mother, not to mention four other people have died and one had an attempt made on her life. I accessed the file via NYPD sealed software that is only accessible to-'

'Adam, easy,' Ryan murmured, noting how high the ex-officer's colour had gotten. 'It's the captain's job to be thorough.'

'So is mine,' he fired back, then clenched his jaw. 'No disrespect meant, Captain.'

'None taken.' As his own officers acted the same way when they had nothing to hide, Montgomery gave him a curt nod. 'Adam, you and Esposito traced the burner cell Raglan called?'

'Yes, but we'd need more to confirm it was Cowlan.'

'We need to divided and conquer sir,' Beckett said, drumming her fingers on the arm of her chair. 'We have two fresh homicides that are linked, and those are linked to four more murders that one of those freshly-dead bodies participated in, and all of those have an underpinning I know is some how linked to Jarrad Brennan and Johanna Beckett's murders.'

Hearing her refer to her mother with such distance had them all rocking back a little but, but Beckett kept going. 'I think if we dig deep enough into Mike and John working together at the Seventy-Second, which is the same time as when my mother was murdered we will find out the answers to a lot of questions

'Then we get some shovels and dig,' Montgomery said. 'Ryan, you're going to work with Adam digging out the old cases. Beckett, Esposito, I want you two on Raglan and Mike's homicide.'

'Question, sir.' Ryan lifted his hand like a schoolboy. 'How are we going to talk to Cowlan without tipping him off? Clearly, he's smart if he's been running something since Timo Ross died. And what we have on him is slim as it is.'

'What if we brought in Cowlan to talk to him about Christine?' Adam suggested, all eyes turning to him as he spoke. 'We know Mike and Cowlan were tight, it'd be weird if we didn't, right?'

'You're right,' Beckett agreed. 'Adam, why don't you tag-team him with me?'

'Me?'

'Yeah, why not you?' Esposito added, his brain following Beckett's line of thinking. 'If we have the civilian present it makes it seem like we're focusing on their deaths, not what we're really looking for.'

'You don't think he'll smell anything?'

'Not if we play it right. Adam, the civilian liaison bureau does newsletters, right? Why don't we make him think we're interviewing him for that?'

Adam nodded. 'I do a lot of those interviews myself, so it would look on the level.'

'Even better. Reach out to him this afternoon, schedule it for eight-am sharp tomorrow.' Montgomery looked at his troops. 'Right now, go back to the conference room and get me whatever more you can out of the phone and financial records. Kate, Javi, you two go back to the crime scene. Use the ballistics report to get into the building they say the shot came from. We are going to need concrete evidence before long if we want to keep the higher-ups from

'What about IAB, sir?' Ryan asked.

'Leave them to me. You all have jobs, go and do them. Don't give these sons of bitches anymore ammo to work with.'

They left the officer and Beckett followed Esposito to his desk for his winter gear. 'You think we'll find something?' he asked her.

'If we do, we'll have more than we do now. If we don't, it will make boxing them in harder but so much more satisfying when we beat them.'