Night Thunder

Chapter 1 When Josy Warner answered the phone that warm April day she thought it was going to be her lying ex-boyfriend begging her for a second chance. Instead it was Ricky Sabatini--her childhood ally and protector, and the closest thing to a big brother she'd ever had. "Jo-Jo, it's me. Listen, I'm in a jam and I don't have much time. Sorry to ask this, but I need a favor. A big one." "Ricky!" Josy sat up with a jerk, sloshing coffee over the rim of her cup and onto the sketches scattered across her desk. She grabbed a handful of Kleenex and blotted frantically at the drawings, her pale blonde hair falling into her eyes as she tried to rescue them. But as the summer sun glittered through her one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side that Saturday afternoon, high above the roar of Manhattan traffic, she saw it was too late. The sketches were smeared, soggy--ruined. She tried to keep the dismay from her voice and to focus on Ricky instead. "What do you need, Ricky? I'll help any way I can," she told him, clutching the soggy wadded Kleenex and trying not to moan at what was left of her carefully drawn images of lean pants and tailored blazers. "It's a big favor, kid. Think about it for a second. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, but no guarantees." The warning note in his voice struck her then. Her stomach knotted. She hadn't heard from him in several months, but she knew Ricky's life was a mess--possibly even more so than her own. She'd left messages for him when she'd read the accusations against him in the newspaper, when she'd learned of his suspension from the NYPD and the subsequent internal investigation. But he hadn't called her back, and she'd become distracted by her own problems. Her own carefully built, hard-won life had been falling apart, piece by precious piece, and lately it was all she could do to keep going, trying to salvage what she could. First there'd been her breakup with Doug, now her job was on the line . . . it had been one thing after another, and Josy felt like she was frantically trying to stay afloat and sinking a little more each day. But if Ricky needed her, no matter what, she couldn't say no. Not to him . . . not ever. "You still there, Jo-Jo? I don't have a lot of time here." "Sorry, Ricky. I'm really sorry--about the investigation, everything. I tried to call you . . ." "Forget about it, kid. It'll work out." His voice sounded the same as it always had--rough, hard, hurried. "Do you want to meet for a drink . . . to talk?" "Hey, you worried about me? That's nice. But I don't need a drink. What I need is this favor." She took a deep breath. "Name it, Ricky," she said quietly. "As long as it's not illegal, it's yours." "You don't believe that bunk they wrote about me in the papers, do you? That I was on the take? That I colluded with Caventini?" There was a sudden edge to his voice and she immediately felt guilty about adding that "illegal" part to her condition. Ricky had been far more than her foster brother when they'd both lived in the Hammond home for two years. He'd been her rock, her shield against the Callahan boys who'd ruled their Jersey neighborhood, and against Karl Hammond and his unpredictable temper. If not for Ricky . . . She shuddered, unwilling to imagine what might have been if not for him. "Of course I don't believe it," she said quickly. Then she added in a low tone, "Not if you tell me it isn't true." "That's exactly what I'm telling you. I'm a clean cop, Josy, always have been, since day one on the force. I never took a dime from the mob, or from anyone else. Not a dime. I went undercover like I was told, and I nailed some big-time asses, and then I got set up--set up by someone inGregory, Jill is the author of 'Night Thunder', published 2004 under ISBN 9780440237358 and ISBN 0440237351.