Denby was seated in a chair, squinting against the light that flooded his dreary chamber. A fetid cloud smelling of human waste poured out, and the detectives stood back and gagged and coughed. As fresh air filled the box, Denby gasped and choked, sucking in as much as he could of the life-giving gases. His wrists were locked to the spindles of a metal chair behind his back, and his ankles were braced to its legs with police-issue shackles. Denby was slumped forward, his face buried in his shirt. His clothes were covered in purple ink and blood, as were Don�s. Harry�s face and neck had knife cuts that had bled profusely. His hair was matted with blood. His skin was pale and sweaty, and his eyes were red and bloodshot.

�Drug�speed�ball�OD,� Harry muttered.

Diane rushed in, choking and gasping at the stench, and helped free Harry and drag him out of the container. His left pinkie finger was twisted at an odd angle, which Danny discovered when he bumped it by accident when he was trying to remove the handcuffs. Denby screamed out in pain. On the floor of the loading bay, Diane wiped his face and held his head in her lap while they waited for the EMS to arrive. She gently stroked his hair, tears streaming down her cheeks, biting her lip and struggling to breath without sobbing. Danny and Andy looked over at Diane and knew she blamed herself for Denby�s current predicament. They had no way of knowing how much deeper her conflicted feelings ran.

Diane felt the rest of the afternoon was a blur of activity spinning around her, and she was grateful she had to do her job, since it gave her some relief from her emotional storm. Ambulances rushing Harry and Don to the hospital. Investigators probing every orifice of the warehouse, dusting, printing, interviewing. Dragging Hector, who was inexplicably still shackled to his chair in the manager�s office, into custody. Someone explaining that the containers had been used to smuggle people into this country, and how shocking the filthy conditions were, and no wonder diseases like TB keep making a comeback.

�Danny, will you stay with me today?� Diane said. �I need a friend right now.�

�Sure, Diane.�

When they finished at the scene, they returned to Danny�s apartment so he could get a fresh change of clothes, and then they went over to Diane�s place to decompress. As Danny took Diane�s keys to unlock the front door of her building, Diane looked up and down the street. She had a strange feeling, like she was being watched. She examined each of the cars, looking specifically for a cream-colored Lexus, or any car that had a pair of eyes focused in her direction.