"Where's Jimmy?!"

"No, hello, Adia. That was awesome, Adia." Adia changed gears. "You're looking good Adia."

"Adia?" Windy looked at the young woman and spoke slowly, under control but with intensity. "Where is Jimmy?"

"He said not to tell you he saw Lana ~ again." Adia avoided eye contact with the woman next to her. "He said you wouldn't believe him anyway."

Windy looked at the speedometer. "Slow down." She sat back into the seat. "It can't be Lana." Quietly she added. "Take me to the motel."

"But..." Adia was interrupted.

"Adia, just take me back there." Windy cleared her throat. "They found more than one body at the abandoned house."

"Ya." Adia slowed for the red light. "And?"

Windy's tone softened. "At least one victim was of native origin."

Aida's eye twitched. "Big surprise there. We are, after all, disposable."

"I wish I could say that's not true, Adia." Windy looked at her driver to see tears flooding her eyes. "Adia, we will find whoever's responsible." She opened the glove box and pulled out a pack facial tissues.

"You're joking, right?" Adia pulled several tissues from the box, pressed them hard into her eyes then stuffed them into her hoodie.

"I don't joke about things like this." Windy watched Adia's body language shift from victim to predator as she sat up and scanned the empty street.

Adia gathered herself before responding to the woman next to her. "You sound sincere Windy and who knows? You may even believe what you just said but history says no one will find who is responsible."

"So...why do it?" Windy used the same logic. "Why go to university, get a degree in criminal justice if you didn't believe you could use it to bring an end to this? If you couldn't make a difference?" She reached out to the troubled young woman. "We gain nothing by stopping now, Adia."

Adia drew in a deep breath and forced it out. She didn't respond to Windy's questions that were rhetorical in nature.

Windy sat back into the seat again. I need my other laptop." She face palmed herself. "Gib!"

"I am sure Gib is fine." Adia chortled. "At least well fed."

"He loved the attention he was getting." Windy shook her head and laughed. "He doesn't get along with Jimmy."

"I think Gib may be jealous?"

Windy nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he is."

It didn't take long to arrive at the motel where Windy had been staying. She didn't go into her room. Instead she opened the trunk of her car then unlocked a second, hidden compartment.

The chunky laptop looked archaic compared to the wafer thin new laptops. But it was far more than a simple laptop.

Adia scoffed at the sight of the laptop. "Frankenstein called! He's looking for his laptop from 1990."

Windy seemed to take offense. "I built this myself. It has multiple mother boards stacked atop each other providing more power and memory to compute complex algorithms."

"Exactly what will you be computing, Windy?" Adia's smugness seemed to vanish.

"I will be taping into social media platforms."

"Twitter, Instagram ~ those platforms?" Adia enquired.

Windy smiled as she held her heavy laptop up for Adia to see. "This baby will search dozens of platforms across all the internet for anything I suggest."

"Impressive." Adia chortled.

"I see you don't understand the power of information." Windy looked to Adia. "What are they teaching you?"

"How to use information." Adia raised an eyebrow.

"Good, then you can help me decipher what we find." Windy raised an eyebrow in return.

"What will you be searching for, Windy?"

"A serial killer."

"Wait a minute!" Adia pulled back. "I thought we were searching for missing women not dead women."

"It just makes sense ~to me, anyway." Windy began to explain. "People who traffic women don't bury women ~ naked ~ all killed the same way."

Adia didn't look so good. "I would rather they be trafficked. That way at least I'd still have a chance to find them."

"I understand, Adia."

"Do you? Do you really?"

"Yeah, we can't rescue dead women." Windy tilted her head.

"Yeah. Yeah."

The Warehouse

Jimmy continued to elude the cameras as he tried every exterior door. I haven't seen this many guards since...since New Orleans. This has to be the building. I should have learned to pick locks like Win.

Jimmy backed away to the next building to watched the guards from the shadows. I need to know what's going on inside. He looked up to a second storey window. Not a chance in hell I get up there. Just call Win with the warehouse number you idiot.

Windy pulled the screaming cellphone from a pocket."Jimmy!"

"Win, keep it down." Jimmy lowered his voice even lower. "The guards are as thick as weeds."

Windy laughed. "That's thick as thieves."

"Hey Win, I think we have a hit on a warehouse." Jimmy brought the conversation back into focus.

"Wait a second." Windy frowned. "Why did you send Adia back to the Starbucks?"

Jimmy was caught. "Win, she has a future."

"Jimmy!" Windy reminded him of his future obligations. "And what about us? Is that not a future?"

"Win. Win!" Jimmy turned his volume off then spoke into the cellphone. "Building three-zero-one on Haliburton." He turned the volume back up. "Win?"

With anger in her voice she agreed. "Yeah, I'll check it out. We'll talk about this later."

"Great!"

"What was that?" Windy asked.

"Great, means we'll talk about this later." Jimmy softened his stand. "I didn't mean I didn't have a future...."

"Jimmy?"

"Babe?"

"I love you." Windy waited.

"Babe?"

"Yeah?"

"The sun doesn't come up without you." Jimmy ended the call.

Windy looked visibly concerned.

"What is it, Windy?"

"Nothing." Windy opened the laptop and punched in the address and lost herself in the search.

"I'm bursting here, Windy. I need to use the washroom." Adia squirmed in the driver's seat.

Windy pulled the motel key from her jacket. "Be quick, we should get back to the warehouses."

"Got it. Thanks!" Adia ran to the suite, turned the lights on and made a Beeline to the washroom.

Windy looked up and noticed a person come out of the shadows. "Damn." She continued to watch as she lifted one leg then the other leg over the shifter. "Okay Tiger, not too loud." She started the Dodge Challenger.

The classic sports car rumbled but she gently released the clutch and babied it across the parking lot stopping parallel to the door off her unit. Windy quietly slipped out of Jimmy's car and peaked into her unit.

Armed only with a powerful flashlight in her right hand and her intuition she entered her own unit. Windy turned the lights off. A sliver of light escaped from the slightly opened washroom door.

Scuffling noises came from within the washroom before a figure bolted from within. Windy lit the military grade flashlight stunning the intruder. She flew at the person with intent to injure.

Windy straddled and pinned the person to the floor with her forearm. She leaned heavily onto the person's throat.

"Why are you in my room?!"

The man forced a little breathing room. "Police."

Windy repeated the question. "Why are you in my room?" She lessened the pressure on the man's throat so he could speak.

"Someone broke in."

"Bull shit. She used a key!" Windy pressed harder. "I gave her my key!"

A voice yelled from the door. "Let him up! Now!"

"Jacobs?" Windy elbowed the man under her, knocking him out.

"Miss South."

"A little out of your juris-dick-shun." She stood about ten feet from the dirty cop.

"We were on our way through." Jacobs chortled.

Windy lit her military grade flashlight at Jacobs who threw his hands up shielding his eyes, causing him to stumble backwards out of the motel unit. She bolted at the older cop.

Frank's foot lodged between the curb and the tire as Windy met him with the force of a running back breaking through the defensive line. Both heard a snap as she tumbled over the hood of the classic sports car.

"Fuck me! You broke my fucking hip!" Frank screamed. "Where are you? You whore!" He reached for his gun but it wasn't there making him curse.

Windy picked up Frank's gun from the asphalt, tucked it into the back of her jeans, and walked around the car to face the dirty cop who was out of his jurisdiction. "Why the hell are you here?"

"Just passing through. Saw a break in, stopped and investigated." Frank winced in pain.

"Just passing through at three thirty in the morning?"

"Yeah!"

"With your baby-faced partner who just pissed himself?"

"How'd you know that?" Frank spat.

"That he's your partner or he pissed himself?" Windy mirrored his disdain for the other person. "Where are your handcuffs?"

"Fuck you! You are in so deep now!"

Windy squatted down to look him in his eyes. "You know what they say? In for a penny in for a pound."

"You don't know who you're dealing with."

"I know you are still a bottom feeder and the Fortunes are acting like they run the show but they are merely cogs on the same wheel." Windy heard the young man groan. "And you recruited another young cop. It wasn't enough to corrupt Benny you lured another poor bastard with dreams of making a big score."

Frank groaned but had nothing to rebuke Windy.

"Your silence is your guilt."

"That fucking Carrick is spewing lies again. I should have killed him when I had the chance." Frank huffed.

"I find my own information you dirty bastard." Windy offered more. "You used that kid to transport three native women to a warehouse earlier this week."

Frank's eyes widened.

"Say warehouse three-zero-one on Haliburton."

"Who the fuck are you?" Frank spit to his left before shaking his head. "Doesn't matter, they will kill anyone and everyone. And they will just make you disappear, never to be seen again."

"So they have more than money. They have power and influence." Windy waved her hands to reject her own thoughts. "No no no. They are in positions of power and influence."

"You're still dead. You know that?" Frank shook his head again.

"How's your pain?" Windy asked.

"It has eased."

Windy grabbed his left leg. "Trust me, this will hurt you so much more unless you give me a name."

"You wouldn't dare?"

"You said I'm dead already." Windy tilted her head. "A name or more damage?"

"Fuckkkkkkk...." Frank screamed and a light came on in the next unit.

The neighbor popped his head out and Windy smiled. "Just setting a broken leg. I called for an ambulance, we'll be good."

"Uh, okay!" The man nodded and retreated to his bed.

Windy's eyes returned to Frank. "A name?" She licked her dry lips. "Connected with the warehouse on Haliburton."

Adia finally made an appearance. "What's this about?"

"Babyface and this guy know where your friends were taken." Windy twitched Frank's foot. "And this one was about to give us a name."

Frank but his lower lip then nodded to the woman who seemed to piece things together. "Babylon."

"That is a name." Windy acknowledged. "Now give the name a little context."

"Babylon is the parent company." Frank shrugged. "You're all going to die anyway. The company has four equal owners. I am sure you can find the four with a little imagination. Now call that ambulance."

Windy pulled her phone out but Adia grabbed it from her. "They are mine, Windy." The young woman quickly tapped a phone number in. "Two at the CD Motel." She handed the cellphone back to the woman of the sun.

Windy stood and pulled Adia aside. "Want to let me in on what you just did?"

"I called my people." Adia looked at Frank. "They'll be here in a bit."

Adia tried to get to Frank but Windy stopped her. "Are Your People going to kill them?"

Adia smiled. "We aren't killers, Windy."

A grey Dodge Promaster 3500 van pulled into the motel parking lot. Four young native men moved quickly and quietly. Adia spoke to the men before she pointed to Frank and to the unit where the baby-faced officer lay.

Windy watched the men help Frank into the van laying him on a pile of moving blankets. Almost as if they cared about the pain he was in. The lead man lit up a joint and handed it to the older cop.

The others went into Windy's unit and carried the young cop out laying him next to Frank.

"This is where we part ways, Windy." Adia embraced her friend. "Don't worry, they'll be fine!"

Windy nodded before she smiled.

Adia climbed into the passenger seat of the van and waved to Windy as they pulled away quietly into the dark.

Windy parked Jimmy's car, made her way to her car, and opened her laptop. "Babylon. Jacobs better not have lied."