Pavacic had come to have a talk with Duez.  Duez was involved in
almost everything illegal in Green Hill, Pavacic was sure, but the
GHPD could never make anything stick to him.  In the rare case that he
wasn't involved, Duez had proved more than helpful to the police.
Duez helped the police clean up petty thieves and hooligans, and the
police never came around to cracking down on Duez's organization.

Garay looked up at the camera and touched his nose to notify his boss
of Pavacic's arrival.  In his earphone he heard the acknowledgement.

"I got it, give me a minute." Upstairs Duez ushered Conroy into his
front room. "I'm guessing you don't want to sit in when that flatfoot
comes up and starts looking for answers."

"A cop?  The last thing I need to do today is talk to the police." She
sat down and started reading GQ.  Duez closed the door and returned to
his desk.

"OK, any time," he told Garay over the intercom.

Pavacic wasn't going to make it upstairs, though.  He walked up to the
bar and greeted Garay. "Hi Garay, I'm going to have to talk to your
boss." As he said it, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his
wallet.  He showed his badge, as was his routine when visiting Duez.
Unfortunately for Pavacic, the three characters at the bar had been
watching him suspiciously ever since he stepped in the door.  They all
hated detectives, and they were all carrying guns.

Horatio didn't know what was happening until Meidan had his gun out.
Hofstee knew half a second before, but, being on the side of the law,
had been trained to respond, not to start the shooting.  So it was
that Meidan got off a shot, sending one of Pavacic's ears over the bar
and the rest of him to the floor in a heap.

Garay took cover behind the bar, Fingas under the piano.  Horatio
fumbled for his gun.  He had never actually used it, but he was good
and ready.  

Hofstee had meant to take Meidan alive for questioning,
but she knew there wasn't much time before Meidan turned on her,
Horatio pulled out some kind of piece and the owner and his army came
storming down the stairs with machine guns.  As she drew her gun,
Meidan turned.  She caught his right hand with her left and put a
bullet through his temple.  As he tumbled off his barstool, she
stepped around him to deal with Horatio.  Horatio was having trouble
holding onto his gun, and before he could get a grip on it, Hofstee
had knocked it away.  She threw him to the floor and held him by the
hair. "Put your hands on your head!" she screamed.

Horatio quickly obliged.  Hofstee glanced at Fingas, who wasn't doing
anything, and looked over the bar, gun first. "Get up!" she yelled at
Garay. "Put your head on the bar and your hands on your head and leave
them there!" Garay put his head on the bar and his hands on his head
and left them there.  Hofstee noticed his earpiece and looked up at
the camera.  "Can your boss hear this?" she asked Garay.  Garay
nodded as well as he could with his head on the bar. "OK, nice and
easy I want you to give me that."

"Go ahead," Duez told Garay.

Hofstee took the earphone. "I don't want anyone coming down those
stairs," she yelled, "Or this is going to get uglier than it already
is, understand?"

"Of course," said Duez in a calm, soothing tone.

She hauled Meidan in front of the camera. "What is this man doing in
your bar?" she demanded.

"I haven't seen him before," said Duez, "But perhaps you should ask
the private investigator lying on the floor, he seemed to take an
unusual interest in him." Might as well kill two birds with one stone,
he thought. "Anyway, I have notified the police, and they will be here
shortly to sort things out." He knew she wouldn't stick around, but he
didn't care.  The busier the GHPD were with serious crimes, the less
they bothered him about his `business.'

Hofstee had to act fast, she knew that waiting for the police would
mean serious trouble.  She quickly searched Meidan.  She took his
wallet, a piece of paper and a key that he was carrying and dumped his
4 knives and other 2 guns on the floor.  She then turned to Horatio
who was trying to lie still but shaking nervously.  She found his
wallet and verified that he was, in fact, a PI. "Get up, you're coming
with me," she yelled.

Horatio was afraid of what going along would mean, but her tone of
voice and the look in her eyes made him more frightened of what
resisting might mean.  He got up slowly and Hofstee handcuffed him
behind his back.

Never taking her eye off the bartender, Hofstee led Horatio out the
door.  They both squinted as they stepped into the sun.  The street
was still quiet, but Hofstee had no doubt that it would be crawling
with cops in a few minutes.  She shoved Horatio over to the Nissan
Sentra that the agency had sent when she and Kima had requested a
second car.  `Tomorrow I get the Acura,' she thought to herself.

She put Horatio face down in the back seat and checked her watch.  She
looked through his wallet again and noticed that his driver's license
identified him as Horatio, whereas his business card identified him as
Hunter, P.I.  She started back to the hotel.

"Where are we going?" asked Horatio.

"Never Never Land," joked Hofstee, uncharacteristically. "Maybe you
can tell me why you were following Meidan, and if I like your answer,
then I can just take you home instead."

"Meidan?  I don't know what you're talking about." Horatio really
didn't know what she was talking about, and he was in no state of mind
to make an educated guess.

"Excellent," said Hofstee. "I was hoping you wouldn't cooperate."