Into The Crucible

CHAPTER IX: Windfall from Fire

HAEL

SHATTERED glass littered the pavement.

A web of cracks ran through was left of the apartment's windows. From what, I didn't know. With the police scattered both outside and inside and the arrival of squad cars, I didn't have to guess.

A draining cold threatened to freeze my body in place.

This couldn't be happening. It can't be.

A pair of ambulances were parked close together on the road. Seated inside, bloodied and bandaged, was a familiar figure. I rushed over to him.

The big guy had a sullen countenance carved into his face. His hat was missing, his jacket torn, his holsters empty. A length of bandage was wound around his neck and head, with a bloody stain seeping from his temple. His left forearm was similarly dressed. A medic was tending to the wound on his forehead, and she left when she saw me coming.

"What happened here?" I demanded. "Where's Dylan?"

With his good arm, he pointed to the neighboring ambulance. Its doors were shut tight, but a pair of paramedics were standing outside, and on their lowered faces I could see that they looked crestfallen.

"How?" I asked. "Forget that. Who?"

"It was just one man."

"One man?" I tilted my head, eyebrows knitted. "One man dead or one man behind it?"

"Both." He looked down, struggling to speak. "Our guards were lowered. There was a scuffle inside. I had one of them check it out. They didn't come back until I went in and met a knife in the dark. Efficient. Came out of the shadows and knocked me out when I tried to fire."

I glanced back, staring at everything and nothing in particular. Just last night, everything seemes fine. As fine as it could get.

His fingers brushed the side of his head. "When I came to, he'd vanished." His expression darkened. "The landlord was dead. I thought it was just him at first. But so was the officer interviewing him."

"There were police here. What happened to them?"

"I don't know. They said that they chased him out. There was a gunfight. But they couldn't find him anywhere, so they stopped looking."

"Stopped looking?" I questioned. "Why?"

"Heard some babble from the beat cops there," he whispered to me, gesturing to the men by their cars. Now that he mentioned it, I noticed how they didn't look serious about all this. They seemed idle, annoyed even. "One of them went off 'bout how they should thank the guy for taking out the landlord. Said he had deserved it. If anything, they're here more for the dead officer that anyone else."

My blood seethed throughout my veins. My hands balled up into fists.

"Easy, kid," he cautioned. "You don't want to face down an officer no matter what he says. You'd be cuffed in seconds."

"They'll try."

"Your mother's got too much on her mind with all this business. Bailing you out is the least of her problems."
"She won't have to deal with it."

"She will, and dealing with it wouldn't help."

I gritted my teeth, but let my hands relax. I cast a furtive glance to the other ambulance. I felt responsible somehow for the people that were in there. It may not have been my fault, but it sure felt like it.

"I made him talk," I mumbled. "When he didn't want to."

"You made him do the right thing. They'll make progress. They have to." He grimaced. "I almost lost my men here."