More Than a Hotline Fling

-10-

Damian's POV

Three hours after the roadside run-in across the street, I splashed my face in a bathroom sink. We called another EMS for the street worker because she sweated buckets through her molly letdown.

Per protocol, I recorded Reese's and a few other sidewalk witnesses' accounts of the car accident. He helped me collect evidence until Sergeant Mattias on my team showed up. Pissed I ruined his New Year's Eve plans, he shot me a dirty look and took lead on the case.

Even though I wore my gloves the entire time, I scrubbed my grimy hands under the stream of lukewarm water. When my ass sank back in the chair behind my desk, I grounded my elbows in between the current piles of open Vice cases. For once, I was thankful that I didn't work in Homicide or SVU because the two cases someone higher than my pay grade decided overlapped with our division were enough.

Sixteen-year-old-female, shot down in Queens apartment.

Fentanyl operation bust -

"Here." Mattias tossed a manilla folder onto my desk. "Medically-related accident report."

"Thanks," I mumbled and skimmed through the details I already knew.

EMS determined that the man suffered a seizure and rushed him to nearby Mount Sinai Doctors. The alcohol I smelled was from the case of hard liquor he transported and broke against the dashboard upon impact. FDNY showed up at the same time as the ambulance. By then, smoke damage to the family-owned dry cleaners amounted to as much as the car smashed through the front door.

My eyes shifted up to the tiredness in Mattias' gaze. "Have the owner's across the street been contacted?"

"Yes." His salt-and-pepper haired head nodded. "They were outta town but understandably upset."

"Understandably," I echoed. "Did you let them know -"

Irritation slipped into Mattias' gruff voice, "It's taped off and Patrol will be on watch for the next twelve hours."

"All I can offer." My hand closed the folder and I nodded tightly. "Thanks, Mattias. Good night."

My eyes blinked down at the two open cases in front of me. Neither appeared to be under Vice's jurisdiction and more, 'You're in tonight... congrats' category.

Vice was responsible for human trafficking, which included sex trafficking, prostitution, and internet crimes against children. Ironically, despite victim-focus being in the Division's mission, along with the rest of NYPD, the Vice Division wasn't without its problems. During my first permanent year here, I worked hard to remove the arrest criteria from officer's and detective's annual performance evaluations. Overtime incentivized that, which led to overly aggressive arrests.

In an unpopular move, I also removed an undercover officer who posed as a sex solicitor because his idea of persuasion bordered harassment, in my opinion. With officer shortages and turnover rates, my ass was roasted by the higher ups for transferring out a twelve-year vet. But I witnessed more than enough during my first evaluation ride-along, held my ground, and rebuilt the team.

Old habits required retraining and a new way of thinking brought me a shit ton of resistance when I was appointed to the Lieutenant's, then assigned acting Captain. I fought the resistance head-on, both from the staff and my commanders, and shifted the focus away from arresting the sex workers onto those that trafficked them and the clients that fueled this corner of the billion-dollar underground economy.

Unfortunately, arrests only went so far, and the DA's office rarely gave two shits about sex trafficking unless a life was in danger or the scope was large. Most cases were small, localized, and resulted in minor fines or imprisonment unless we uncovered the existing larger operations but the undercover process finding them was slower.