Folie a Deux (TinCan) - Completed

Chapter 5.2

The crowd stood in horror and curiosity by the side of the road. There were the lights from the arrival of ambulances and police cars and their sirens. The atmosphere was chaotic and panic, as well as several cellphone cameras, tried to record the incident. Whether for memory or trying to be a fake journalist. Or might be there were journalists who accidentally passed by and left the camera at their house. Smoke was still billowing even though the fire-fighting water tank had been empty to extinguish the first and second crashed cars, a minivan, and a wheat flour truck.

Tin couldn't understand what had caused them to rush into meeting at the wrong moment. Tin wanted to know, really.

Might be so was the crowd that was holding back Tin's steps from getting into the middle of the crime scene. Accidents were quite long. There were about seven cars and a motorbike involved. Tin was at the busiest end, closed to the first accident.

When he managed to penetrate the mass and return his mind to something positive and that might be Can wasn't at there.

Might be Can was still in the theater and talking to some of Tin's old friends who recognized him as his boyfriend.

Might be Can was still at the other end of the street, in a taxi, and caught in a traffic jam.

Might be Can then got out of the taxi and chose to use the commuter and now might be at the station near their hotel.

And Tin's hunch might just be the usual 'false alarm'?

Tin didn't know. He was clutching his coat pocket tightly in another corner of his mind as he was worried about pickpockets hanging around. Paris was not the safest city in the world, the bomb earlier last year proved it. And the crowded city somehow attracted criminals.

So Tin tried to fill his brain with positive possibilities that might be Can wasn't trapped in one of the cars there, wrecked cars that he wasn't sure could be fixed or not. He tried to think about Can now had arrived at the hotel and Sammy scolded him for not giving the news and Can just threw his signature 'goofy smile'. Tin tried to think of Can's smile as much detail as possible when he reached the forefront of the crowd and was rewarded with the sight of a little girl squeezed in a broken glass car, crying and still alive. Her nose was bleeding and Tin saw that half of her face was damaged by the broken glass. And she couldn't get out of there. Firefighters were trying to find a way to pull out the lower half of her body caught in the dashboard of the car.

Tin quickly turned around, the detail of Can's smile was replaced with Can's bloodied face. Tin tried to shift and approach the officer while looking for a good excuse to get further and make sure Can wasn't there.

When the blonde-haired female officer he was approaching, with her French police uniform tight against her, turned towards him, Tin paused for a moment as he looked at the other end of the accident. The last car, a taxi, and the back of the passenger being carried to the nearest ambulance. Tin recognized the long coat and the black scarf the young man was wearing.

And he was not too tall. And also the young man had dark hair.

"Je suis une partie de la famille de victime!" he said insistently and half maniacally to the blonde officer in front of him. The woman said back about something like a ban or something. Anyway, he held Tin's chest and pushed hard enough to make Tin stagger back a few steps.

"Pardonnez moi, monsieur!" The tall woman said a few more words, explaining that they had not identified the victim, and Tin was asked to wait, but Tin didn't listen to her, because the next second he charged again. This time the female officer didn't see that Tin would get up so fast, then bumped her and ran as fast as he could to the other end of the police line. To the other end where ambulances filled the road and a government television car that had just arrived was preparing equipment to broadcast breaking news.