Suddenly, it hit Kisa, and she remembered seeing the woman the night of the shooting talking to a detective at the hospital. Kisa folded the paper back and slipped it into her purse.

“How are Sin and Shawn?” Santangelo questioned, with a cunning smile.

“As if you care.” Kisa rolled her eyes as she slipped on her whiskey-colored hooded swing mink.

“I do care.”

“Yeah, about the money you can make off of them,” she snapped. “Anyway, good looking out on this. I know you had to go through a lot to get it.”

“Before you go,” Santangelo paused while the waitress placed their drinks on the table. Kisa handed her thirty dollars.

“I’ll be back with your change.”

“I don’t need any.”

“Thanks,” the waitress said. She walked away smiling, happy for the ten-dollar tip on such a slow day.

Once she was out of earshot, Santangelo resumed talking, “A lot of bodies are popping up—bodies that can be linked directly or indirectly to you or your people.”

“And you’re saying that to say what?”

“Bodies bring heat, and the last thing you need right now is Homicide sniffing around your door. A word to the wise: Be careful.”

Kisa stood up, threw the oversized hood onto her head, and smiled at him. “Detective, I’m a big girl. I got this.”

TaTa’s short French-manicured nails tapped nervously against the table inside the cramped interrogation room. At times, she had to plant her feet firmly on the floor in order to keep her legs from shaking. TaTa could barely contain herself as she waited for the assistant district attorney to arrive. She had been anticipating this day for the last seven months. The day that her deal would be finalized and her obligation to New York’s finest would finally be over. With the stroke of a pen, TaTa’s career as a confidential informant would be over. Her sentence was reduced to probation. A sweet deal after setting up at least a dozen people. Today she would be able to move on with her life. She would receive probation for a hand-to-hand sale of fifteen ounces of coke to an undercover officer and move on with her life. Never mind the dozen or so people whom she set up to get such a sweet deal.