“Both Bogart and Mueller were Denver PD,” Mitch said. “Mueller moved to Englewood first. Bogart, his partner at DPD, moved a few months later. And when they were gone, there was a sigh of relief.”

“Why?” Hawk asked.

Mitch looked to Hawk. “Mueller’s a racist and a misogynist. He hides it behind good-ole-boy, it’s-just-a-joke bullshit, but there are very few who buy that and not many who can stomach it.”

“Word,” Malik, a Black man, grunted.

“The misogyny, though, was overt. Straight-up treated any female with a badge like shit. Notched it up for those without a badge who work for the department. Dispatch hates him,” Mitch went on. “He left, they put a picture of him on the back of the door. Last time I saw it, there were about fifty spitballs attached to it.”

“Let me guess, Bogart is worse,” Boone remarked.

Mitch looked to him.

“Not sure worse is the word. Worse at hiding he’s a dickhead though, yeah,” he replied. “Not the primary reason, those two are joined at the hip, but impetus behind him leaving…if Bogart had one more official complaint lodged due to harassment, he would have been out on his ass.”

“Sexual harassment?” Mag asked.

“In a big way,” Malik put in. “When the MeToo movement started, Bogart acted like it was a call to arms. He, in particular of those two, made it clear he wasn’t going to accept anyone telling him how to behave. Even if what they wanted was for him not to behave like a fuckwad.”

“This explains why they’re assholes,” Hawk pointed out. “But can the leap be made they’re dirty? And we’ll pinpoint this, do any of you know if Crowley was investigating them?”

All the cops at the table shook their heads.

But Brock also spoke.

“May be ways we can dig around, ask a few questions, find out if that was official. But Crowley had a reputation too, and personally, I liked the guy. He was solid. But generally, in the department, that reputation wasn’t a good one.”

“How’s that?” Boone asked.

Brock turned to him. “If he was undercover IA, this would come as no surprise. That said, if he was, they should have rethought the undercover part of that. This guy was such a straight shooter, you’d show him a circle, and he wouldn’t comprehend the concept. By the book. Ironclad. I knew the man, but not very well. Though I knew his reputation a lot better.”

“Heard word, he did so many write-ups on other officers,” Mitch added, “he came in one day to see his desk covered in thousands of pens. Not a man or woman looked at him. No one helped him clear that shit out. Not a joke, if there was a rule on a way of sneezing that wasn’t regulation, and you did it, he’d write you up for it.”

“What you’re saying is,” Ally entered the conversation, “he could have taken this on himself without it being official?”

“If I thought a cop was dirty, and I had no evidence,” Brock began, “I’d get evidence.”

“Shit,” Mag whispered.

“We need to know if there was an investigation,” Hawk declared.

“And we’ll find out,” Brock said.

“You explained why Bogart left,” Rush remarked. “Is there a reason why Mueller moved to Englewood?”

“Honest to Christ, I was just glad he was gone,” Brock answered.

“Same,” Mitch said.

“I think I opened a bottle of champagne that night,” Malik added.

“Hank? Eddie?” Ally called.

“He don’t like Black, he don’t like Brown,” Eddie declared. “I had run-ins with both of them. You smell a bigot, you got my skin, that might mask a deeper stench.”

“Eddie had run-ins with them, so I did too,” Hank stated. “Though I would not be surprised even a little bit if they’ve turned to the dark side.”

“But no whispers of that shit?” Rush asked.

All the cops did head shakes.

“Right, so how does Cisco know this Crowley guy was investigating them?” Joker asked. “If he’s not lyin’, they didn’t show, ask for his gun and share why they wanted to use it.”

“We need to talk to Cisco,” Rush said.

Everyone looked to Boone.

“No fucking way,” Boone decreed.

In other words, no way in hell they were using Ryn to get them to Cisco.

Eyes shifted to Mag.

“Not on your goddamn life,” Mag growled.

And they weren’t going to use Evie.

“It’s not like the women got his phone number,” Mo pointed out.

“If we could manage to get word to him, he might feel safe with one of them,” Ally said.

“It’s not gonna happen,” Boone stated.

“We’d have them covered,” Ally noted impatiently.

“I’m not repeating myself,” Boone told her.

“Has it occurred to you that the permission we’d need would come from one of the women, not you?” Ally asked.

“Boone, Mag, keep tight,” Hawk ordered when the atmosphere in the room chilled.

“Ally,” Hank murmured.

“For God’s sake, you don’t have to have a penis to talk to an informant,” Ally clipped.

“Then you talk to him,” Mag invited.

“I will, I can get to him,” Ally retorted. “My guess, I can’t. But this guy kidnapped four women, dropped them off at Lee’s offices, made sure he returned their purses, and arranged a chat with one at a friend’s house. Never met the man. Only things I know about the guy are he’s a thug and a lunatic. Oh, and the small fact that Darius and Shirleen got out of the game, Marcus got out of the game, Benito was taken down, and there was a power vacuum of crime in Denver. And this man who gives the impression he’s got three functioning brain cells, and all of them are telling him to draw blood, usurped all that action. Just not the girls.”

Fuck, she was making sense.

Boone shifted in his seat.

“Not the girls,” Ally repeated. “He doesn’t run women. He runs guns. He sells drugs. He dips into other shit. But he doesn’t peddle flesh. In a short time, he’s well on his way to building an empire. Some dumbfuck is not gonna be able to do that and then be stupid enough to kill a cop with his own gun and let that weapon float. He was framed, and I personally don’t wanna see this guy back in business, but if he goes down, he should go down for what he does do. Not what he didn’t.”

Goddamn fuck.

She was totally making sense.

“And just to say, we found out when Evie’s situation outed this sitch, there was a working girl killed in this mess,” Ally went on to remind them. “She came into possession of that gun and got herself dead. And I’m just gonna point out, that is not Cisco’s MO.”

“Rhash?” Hawk called.

Everyone looked to Rhash, who worked for Knight, who, as a side business to his nightclub, provided vetting and security for call girls.

“Doesn’t even dabble,” Rhash confirmed. “Not even to buy some action. And as far as I know, he doesn’t use pimps to move product. He could sell to them, they use, or they use what they buy to keep their girls in line. But that’s on his sales force.”