AN: here I am, posting this only one day after the previous chapter, without my critique having read it. There are three reasons for this: 1) My copy of Heat Rises arrived yesterday, 2) My copy of Deadly Storm also arrived yesterday, and 3) I have school work that needs doing (after I read aforementioned books) so you might not get much out of this story for a while…. Sorry :(

These aforementioned reasons are also the reason I haven't had the chance to reply to reviews, so here goes nothing. Massive shout out to PsychoticSax who only just started reading, and let me know just how much they loved every chapter! And many thanks to all those who reviewed, again I'm sorry I didn't get back to you personally :(

-Enjoy :D

Disclaimer the characters that you recognise are not mine, I just like to have fun with them.

Chapter 11

When Esposito and Ryan arrived at the apartment of Danielle Smith, one of Barlow's assault victims, they heard arguing coming from inside. Two voices, one female, the other male, and the voices seemed to increase in volume.

Esposito nodded at Ryan and they both pulled their guns from their holsters. Esposito knocked on the door.

"NYPD." He announced and the arguing stopped but there was a scuffling sound from the other side of the door. "NYPD," Esposito shouted again. "Open the door." Still nothing but scuffling from the other side of the door, then they heard a strangled cry.

Esposito nodded at Ryan and then kicked the door in. Ryan followed him in yelling, "NYPD, hands in the air."

Esposito had his gun pointed at Barlow, who in turn had his gun trained on Danielle's head where she was lying on the floor, bleeding from her leg.

When Barlow realised that he had two guns trained on him, he turned his towards Ryan, pointing it straight at his head.

"Put down the gun, Barlow." Esposito said tentatively. "You've got nowhere to go." And Ryan starts to move his foot forward.

"Don't move." Barlow says. "You move and I'll shoot." He's starting coming out with psychobabble, his eyes locked on Ryan. Barlow was so intent on Ryan's figure that he didn't notice Esposito inching towards him until he knocked the gun out of his hands and pulled his hands behind his back.

Within minutes the place was a whirlwind of activity with other police officers and ambulance officers. After giving their statements Ryan and Esposito took their suspect back to the 12th.

-!-!-!-

Later that day Kate and Rick watched as Esposito and Ryan entered interrogation room one, where Barlow was waiting. Ryan leant against the window as Esposito walked towards the table, opening the file in his hand.

"This," He said, placing a picture on the table. "Is the gun we found you in possession of this morning. And this," He continued, placing another picture on the table. "Is the gun that we found in your apartment, which is the same calibre as the one used to kill Hannah Davidson. So tell me why'd you do it?"

He didn't answer, so Ryan started talking from his place leaning on the window. "So here's what I think. Somehow when you were with Hannah, mysteriously any and all charges against you were dropped, so it had something to do with her. But then she dumped you, she couldn't handle it anymore, so you were kicked to the curb."

"Then," Esposito says, picking up the narration. "You get charged with assault again, but this time it doesn't go away, and the prosecution has Hannah on their side. You need her to keep quite, and those other girls, needed to keep them quite as well."

"I didn't mean to kill her." Barlow yelled. "I only meant to scare her into not testifying, but she wouldn't back down, she kept telling me that her brother could get people onto me, and I knew he could." He was babbling, letting everything out. "He'd done it for me in the past. But I couldn't have her testifying at my case, any of them. I meant to fire the gun just to get her attention that I was serious, but she moved as fired it and I wasn't really looking what I was doing, and I shot her. I didn't mean to, I loved her."

"Good," Esposito said. "But backtrack, who are these 'people' that her brother could get onto you if you hurt her?"

"The Mob."

-!-!-!-

Kate stood, motionless as the officer led Barlow out of interrogation room one. She barely noticed when Rick wrapped his arms around her from behind or when the boys walked in, she just started thinking out loud.

"The Mob?" She said in a daze. "Josh has Mob connections?" Kate felt disgusted with herself. "I want to talk to him!" she exclaimed, trying to extract herself from Rick's arms to head towards the door. She didn't get anywhere though, as Rick wouldn't let her go and Ryan and Esposito were blocking the door.

"No can do Boss," Ryan said. "Montgomery is dealing with Josh, and we've already notified him."

"Fine." Kate said, dejectedly and stopped resisting Rick's hold.

Kate resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't to be questioning him and returned to her desk to fill in the paperwork on Barlow's case.

-!-!-!-

Meanwhile…

Montgomery stalked down to lockup and stopped outside Josh's cell.

"So you got Mob ties." He said.

"How?" Asked Josh. "and, why, would I have Mob ties?"

"Don't even try denying it." Montgomery told him. "Barlow told us that you hooked him up with someone from the Mob more than once."

"Fine," He said, not even trying to fight it anymore. "I got Mob ties, lots of them."

"How?" Is all Montgomery wanted to know.

Josh sighed. "I was working one day when one of the big guys came in, cardiac arrest. I operated on him and they paid me large amounts of money to keep quite, and I mean quite. No reports, no nothing. I was to let him out of the hospital as soon as I could and check in on him three times a day. I also became their general doctor. In return I had their loyalty for as long as I needed it, and their help."

Montgomery didn't say anymore, the boys would be able to get the rest out of him now. He gave one last disgusted look at Josh and walked away.

-!-!-!-

Ten minutes later the shady figure watching the 12th received a phone call and answered. Only three words were spoken.

"It is over."

The shady figure got into the dark coloured car and faded into the New York traffic.

AN: to all those who asked about the shady figure, does this satisfy your curiosity? And for those who said Josh was up to something, does it now make sense?

Also, next up, Christmas is coming soon….. just one little problem…. While Rick has a gift for Kate, the same cannot be said vice versa…. Suggestions would be welcome… as would reviews… :D