The Fear I've known

Chapter 4

Nearly a week passed before any of the forensics evidence came back, and when it did, it made my life all the worse.

I arrived at the station at my usual time. Frank was sitting behind his little desk shooting paper into the waste basket across the room. He tossed another paper ball and I jumped, caught it and slammed it in. “Show off.” I just grinned and made my way into my office. There was a package sitting on top with my name on it. I opened it and read the file sheet on the DNA readout.

The lab hadn’t been able to decipher the name but the DNA matched that of a man named Henry J Davidson. I quickly pulled up his name on my computer and noticed that he was loosely connected to some of the druggies. Maybe this really was a hit. I began to search a little deeper but was stopped by my phone ringing. I checked the caller ID and saw it was Dick. I answered.

“Hey Darius, I hope you got the file on the explosion. It’s pretty interesting.”

“Yeah, I did. I was just looking up our guy and noticed he was pretty loosely connected to some dealers. Makes me wonder if he was maybe a hit and not a leak after all.”

“I had the same thought. Thing is, I just had it confirmed by an anonymous caller who said that they saw a person enter the building late that night. Whoever it was went inside, stayed there for a while, and then came back out and supposedly fell asleep in their car. They took down the plates and we got a major hit on the guy. The name is Alexander Throndson. We’ve been after him for god knows how long. He’s created so many aliases, it’s almost like he’s several different people at once. “

“So what’s this got to do with me?” I was pulling up the name on my screen. Once it had loaded, I took a look at his rap sheet; wanted for burglary, murder, drug dealing and several other things.

“I’ve decided to give this case to you. You’re one of our best cops and this is a challenge for even me. We need to get this guy, and fast.”

“All right. Consider it done.” I hung up and continued to look at the face on the page. An uneasy feeling of déjà vu washed over me. Why do I know this face? I sat back in my chair, pondering the question. I gave up, knowing that the more I thought about it, the more annoyed I would get. I took a look at my inbox and began filling out the some of the leftover paperwork from the explosion site. I was finishing up the last sheet when my radio squawked.

“Darius, are you there?’

“Roger that, dispatch. What’s the situation?”

“We have a caller here reporting gun shots, we’d like you to take a look.”

“Ten-four. I’m on my way.” I grabbed my coat and gun, left the building and took my squad car out to the site. I exited the car and made my way to the door and knocked on it. No one answered so I knocked again. Still nothing. I looked in the window and noticed an odd shape on the floor.  Fearing the worst, I pulled out my gun and kicked the door in. The shape on the floor moved slightly and said in a voice that was barely there, “He’s still here.”

“Who is?” I asked, looking around quickly to make sure that they weren’t behind me. The person on the floor could only continue to gasp, and I noticed a darkish fluid pooling around their chest. I radioed for paramedics and began to search the house. I heard a noise coming from above my head and I headed for the stairs, gun out and safety off. I heard the same noise again; a very faint thudding noise. I listened carefully as I went down the hall, listening at all the doorways. I finally came to the one with the noise and I entered, gun in front of me.  There wasn’t anything visible, but the sound was the loudest here. I quickly searched the room and still couldn’t find the source of the noise. I turned around and was met with the sight of a man right in my face holding a large object. I reacted before he could do anything, blocking the down swinging object with my arm and bringing up my gun at the same time.

The man ducked before I could pull a shot and knocked my legs out in a tackle. He struggled to get my gun away from me before I could get him. He rolled away, picked up his object and swung at me again. This time the object glanced my jaw line and I heard a crack as my jaw broke. I fell on the floor in pain and the man ran out of the room. I attempted to follow him, but was unable to keep up with the pain. I went back to the victim in the living room to check on them, but they were already dead. I turned away, not able to stand the sight of the blood from the wound.

When the paramedics finally made it, I had already searched most of the house and found what I needed to find. It was pretty obvious that the killer was only there to steal, but the woman was an unexpected surprise that he dealt with before going on. The fact that the killer was still there after he shot the woman was evidence to the fact that he was a) either very calm and organized or b) he had done this before. I was thinking it was probably the latter because he knew to expect a cop to come around. The paramedics took me and the body to the nearest hospital. They took me in, put the sleeping gas mask on, and out went the lights.

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When I woke up again, there was a dull throbbing in the lower right side of my cheek. I raised my hand slowly, still loopy from the gas they had given me. I touched my cheek and noticed that there were stitches there. “Wha happen ta mee?” I asked, still trying to get control of my mouth.

“We had to go in and place the bone surgically. We had to set it with some pins in order for it to stay. Fortunately you won’t need any wires.”

“Yeah, fortunately,” I mumbled to myself as I tried to sit up. I sat up too fast, and my eyesight began to swim, my head filling with helium. I laid down quickly to avoid falling off the bed. “How long will it be before this is all healed up?”

“It will be at least 2 weeks before you will regain full mobility of your jaw and 4-5 months before we can even think about pulling out the pins.”

I attempted to sit up once again and succeeded. I got to my feet and walked about the room for a bit, shaking out the stiffness my joints.

“We’re going to keep you here for a couple of days, just to make sure that everything stays where it’s supposed to.”

“Oh, goody.”