Agent with a History

Sal shrugged. "They said they were told it was a film set for a cop show and they were paid enough not to be too interested, if you know what I mean."

"Dig a little deeper and see if you can find anything." I said. Glancing back to Rafferty I asked, "Any witnesses?"

Both detectives glanced at each other with a look that said they knew I wouldn't like what I heard. Sal spoke, "Just one so far, a homeless man. He shacks up sometimes in the warehouse across the street. He said he saw five unmarked black vans pull up outside yesterday morning. From his description about forty people piled out of the vans dressed mostly as cops. Later, he said a black sedan pulled up and a man got out. He watched the man go to the trunk and pull a body out, sling it over his shoulder and disappear into the warehouse with it."

"Was he able to give you descriptions of anyone?" I asked.

Raferty grimaced slightly. "Not really. He said they looked like cops. I've got him with a sketch artist right now, should he be able to remember anything, but there's something you should know about him. We found a lot of drug paraphernalia on him and he's still slightly high."

Darkly, I realized this was what they hadn't wanted to tell me. A high profile case and the only eye witness that we had was a homeless man that was most likely high on drugs at the time. That wouldn't go over well with the DA.

I sighed and then noticed them both share that look again. "What else?" I asked expectantly.

Sal hesitated and then blurted out, "Our eye witness said he was too afraid to leave so he stayed. He said that at about 2:00 in the afternoon two more vans pulled up. A bunch of women got out. He said they were strippers."

"Strippers? What would they need with that many strippers in a replica of the precinct?"

Sal turned to Rafferty, "You didn't show her everything yet, did you?"

"Show me what?" I asked impatiently.

Rafferty turned around and gestured for me to follow. He gestured to the left and right as we walked. "They pretty much copied home base down to a T. The space comes complete with holding cell and interrogation rooms. There is some evidence of one cell having been used and we're having a full run up done on it."

He stopped in front of the elevator doors, "This part here, well it's different than the office."

"That would be putting it mildly." Sal added, as Rafferty punched the button for the elevators.