It was only months later that the IRS and the FBI determined that Spitzer wasn't hiding bribes but payments to a company called QAT, what prosecutors say is a prostitution operation operating under the name of the Emperors Club.
The broad outlines of the shooting never changed: Detectives were at the end of a fruitless drug and prostitution operation at Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens.
One official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because no charges have been filed, said the portion of the inquiry related to pandering refers to allegations that the soldier was involved in managing a prostitution operation, perhaps involving a subordinate.
He pointed, for example, to what he said had been the reluctance of state Republican leaders to call for Eliot Spitzer's resignation as governor immediately after federal authorities identified him as a client of an expensive prostitution operation.
While in theory Mr. Spitzer could face charges of violating the Mann Act, a 1910 law, Mr. Stillman said it had almost never been used in modern times against customers, only those involved in managing a prostitution operation.
Relying heavily on financial records and court approved wiretaps, investigators found that Mr. Spitzer was a customer of an expensive prostitution operation, which used a Web site to attract customers who paid thousands of dollars an hour for the services of its young women.
Officer Carey, the youngest officer at the scene outside the Club Kalua that night in November 2006, was riding with Detective Oliver in a van that was to be used in case there were arrests during the undercover drug and prostitution operation in the club.
