“This is Lieutenant Holland. I need to speak to the officer in charge of patrol at the moment.”

“Just a moment please, Lieutenant.”

She waited on hold for a long time, listening to weird instrumental music that made her long for her earbuds. Finally, the call went through.

“Stahl.”

If she hadn’t been driving, she would’ve rolled her eyes to high heaven. “I asked for patrol, not the rat squad.”

“What do you want, Holland?”

“I want to speak to the officer in charge of patrol.”

“You got him.”

“What’re you doing there?”

“Covering for the lieutenant who worked all night on crowd control, not that it’s any of your business.”

“Oh that’s right, you Internal Affairs types don’t get the recall messages that the rest of us get. I hope you had a good night’s sleep while our city was being torn apart.”

“Is there a purpose for this call? If not, I’ve got better—”

“Be quiet and listen to me.” Was it possible to hear a person’s face turn purple? Sam smiled at the images that danced through her mind. “I need a thorough sweep of the entire Southwestern quadrant of the city, from Potomac Avenue to Independence. We’re looking for a large quantity of blood. It would be hard to miss.”

“And you expect me to devote our currently limited resources to a witch hunt for you?”

“We’re looking for a murder scene, you stupid ass. Get patrol on it, or I’ll get Farnsworth on you.”

“That’s right, all you have to do is snap your fingers, and he jumps. Are you sleeping with him, Holland? Because that would explain a lot—”

Before he could say anything else that would make her understand how someone could commit murder, Sam ended the call. “Fucking bastard.” For insurance purposes, she placed a call to her superior officer and mentor, Detective Captain Malone.

“Holland? I heard you caught a homicide.”

“What in the name of hell is Rat Face Stahl doing in charge of patrol?”

“Good morning to you too. He’s filling in. We’re extremely short-handed today after everyone worked all night.”

“Why can’t they work all day too? We are.”

“Not everyone has your squad’s dedication to duty, Lieutenant.”

“Are you patronizing me, Captain?”

“Would I be foolish enough to patronize you? What can I do for you?”

She told him what she knew so far about the Vasquez murder, which wasn’t much, and what she needed from patrol officers.

“I’ll see to it. We’re going to need to put our heads together about how to go public with this.”