It was a horrible scene, what Beckett walked into - there was Adam on a high-backed wooden chair, arms forced through the spindle rungs behind him and handcuffed at the wrists. It was impossible to tell whether he was conscious or not, as his face was a swollen mess of bruises and blood. In front of him at an angle was Frank Cowlan, knuckles torn up and spatter on his face from beating the hell out of the younger man.

And in the shadows, moving forward as Beckett did was Sean Delancy with a Glock-17 in his hands that were folded in front of his body in a quasi-parade rest. 'Drop it, Sean,' she ordered him and wasn't surprised when he simply shook his head.

'I don't think so, Detective,' he replied in that cool, calm voice that she'd once respected. 'I do that, you're going to pump me full of lead and then you won't have everything you need to put away the real criminals. Unless of course, I can help you out there too.'

'Why, s...why?' The instinct to call him 'sir' was heavy' but Beckett fought it, as she tried to inch her way closer to Adam.

'It could be I like money, which I do. I really, really like it,' Delancy said with a vicious grin. 'Or it could be I'm simply a businessman streamlining my operations.'

'Ka...' Adam mumbled. 'No...lis...'

'That's right, Adam, she's not listening, is she? No, she's thinking about how she's going to make herself a big bad hero cop saving the day. Stupid bitch, just like your mother, you-'

Delancy and Cowlan both ducked when Beckett squeezed off a round into a innocent, nearby drum-trashcan. 'Couldn't pound on Attwood when he called her that in Interview, so I needed to get that out,' she said just as calmly, almost cheerfully, as Delancy had. 'Next time you call my mother a bitch, I promise you the next shot goes right between your eyes.'

'Fair enough. Frank, make a note, no calling the detective's mother bad names.'

'Noted, sir,' Frank said dully and as Adam went to mumble again, he used one of his dinner-plate sized hands to bitch-slap Adam across the mouth. 'You, on the other hand, shut up.'

Now Beckett aimed her weapon at Cowlan. 'Why don't you smack him around a little more, Cowlan?'

'Alright, alright, it's clear the detective isn't thinking straight. Cowlan, why don't you give the detective a little insight on what exactly is happening here, and why?' Delancy suggested, gesturing with his gun. 'After all, her and her Boy Scouts did get this far.'

'Why Timo, why Angela, why Mike,' Beckett demanded.

'Timo Ross was another Montrose, only this time, since Julio Robinson was becoming rather tedious, we let him get taken down, let Timo be the bright shiny star. Everyone knew he'd gotten where he was because he was fucking Angela and Mike wanted to keep his little girl happy, not question too much about what her daddy really did.'

Delancy walked forward, and though her instinct was to take cover, Beckett knew one slip of apparent weakness on her part and it was all over. She would be down, Adam would be dead and they would walk and that was unacceptable. 'So we made the bust with our people. Julio goes in but we had guards on our side. We're still making money and then that idiot pokes his nose in too far.'

'Like this one,' Cowlan chimed in and deliver a right cross to Adam's face. There was the sickening crunch of cartelige smashing and blood poured down Adam's face, dripped off his chin to his shirt.

'So after Timo went postal on Mike, saying he'd figured it out what we were up to, he came to Cowlan here and said Timo Ross had to be done like Montrose was. That's when we realized Mike was truly one of us.'

'How did Mike get involved in the first place?' Beckett asked, curling her fingers around her weapon so she wouldn't obey her maternal instinct to protect and soothe Adam. He was a big boy and tough, she knew he could take this and survive it.

'He was a working stiff with debts and a daughter he wanted to send to college. Soft, easy target. I told him I had an investment opportunity for him,' Cowlan said, going to retrieve a towel to wipe the blood from his hands. 'Then when he realized how I invested it for him, I told him he had two options, one admit to being on the take or two, make that take worthwhile.'

'Angela figured it out, what Mike had done to Timo, you know,' Beckett told him. 'That's why he ordered her death.'

'No, he didn't. I did, and Seanie made sure the money came out of Mike's account to make sure that's what the cops found when Angela died,' Cowlan corrected her with a nasty smirk. 'Your monster, isn't that what you call them?'

Hearing the bastardization of their pet name for Ryan and Esposito made Beckett's stomach curl up but she kept her face calm and steady. 'What about Adam's father.'

'Ka...' Adam slurred and Cowlan gripped his hair to pull his head back, and delivered a KO jab square between his eyes.

'Adam's father was just like your mother,' Cowlan sneered. 'Should have known better to just let some things go. Once we figured out he knew way too much, even more than Montrose or your mother did, Kate, I went to him and told him we could kill him or he could take the dignified route out and tell his boy he just wanted to see his mama again. Guess we know which one he picked.'

'Yes we do. And the way Maggie Cruz told Blake the way this one-' Delancy stepped over, gave Adam's foot a tap with his boot '-cried like a little girl when he found his father's body, well that was just cherry. And that's all the news that's fit to print.'

Without hesitating, Delancy aimed his Glock and pulled the trigger three times, sending bullets into Cowlan's head; he dropped like a stone at Adam's feet, landing in dirt and grime.

'He was good, he kept my name off the books quite nicely,' Delancy commented, stepping over Cowlan's lifeless body towards Beckett. 'But there comes a time when a drone outlives their usefulness. And the fact he wanted Spitzer dead since he'd seen you round up Elliott and Goddard, well, that was his problem not mine but I, as per usual, stepped in to be the muscle.'

Something clicked in the back of Beckett's brain, though why her mind put these pieces together all of a sudden, she shouldn't say. 'Did you know Mike's daughter was pregnant when you killed Timo?'

Delancy, who was wiping his hands once more on the bloody towel, looked up sharply and Beckett aw the scrambling panic in his eyes. 'What?'

'Angela Doran was nine weeks pregnant when you murdered her fiancee,' Beckett informed them, and when she saw the look on Delancy's face, one of barely controlled rage, she pressed on. 'Mike didn't know until after Angela was in the ground, when Christine told him. We got that from Raglan's phone records, a little conversation where John asked Christine why she was so hell-bent on punishing Mike every week with pictures of Angela. Because that's what all of you really love, seeing families torn apart isn't it?'

'Don't presume to know anything about me,' Delancy started but she was on a roll now and stepped away from Adam, luring Delancy toward the other side of the warehouse where he'd waited in the shadows.

'No? Then how about this? You were the married man Eva Spitzer had an affair with. Camilla was your daughter, and when you lost them both because of Julio Robinson, you told Cowlan to round up his friends and do a little street justice on his ass.' Beckett took a sideways step. 'That's the only reason I can think why you would have your old friends from your Academy days put the screws to Robinson. Job be damned this was blood for blood that you wanted, and when you saw it could turn you a profit, you had Julio cut you in too. How am I doing?'

Delancy sneered at her, clapped his hands. 'Clever girl. But here's the thing. You and I are coming out of this heroes. Adam's going out in a body bag, because you're going to shoot him.'

'You think so?'

'Yes. When Adam was alone with me in the car, he told me that Jarrad Brennan really hung himself out of guilt for being on the take in a ring of dirty cops and then grabbed my weapon from me, told me we had to make it look like

'And the bruises?'

'Self-defense wounds from Cowlan trying to fend off a crazed son on a revenge mission,' Delancy said so coolly that Beckett wanted to beat his ass for that alone. 'Oh, and of course, he shot you too, since you promised to deliver justice and broke it. Stupid bitch, just like your mother.'

Beckett didn't hesitate; she angled her weapon and fired.