Dirty Cops Next Door

by Summer Cooper

  I pushed down my own worries for the moment and focused on the task at hand. The coordinates came through and I programmed my phone to give me directions.

  “Eric, I have to go out, honey. Duty calls. I’ll be back when I can. Stay here, do you understand?” I knocked before I opened his door and he looked at me with tired eyes, and I knew he’d be asleep soon.

  “Yeah, cool. I’ll see you in the morning then. I’m done with my homework. Be careful.” He closed his laptop and put it down on his bedside table. “I’m going to get some sleep.”

  “Love you! I’ll be quiet when I come in.” I gave him a smile and he turned off his light, settling under his covers.

  Sometimes he was still as predictable as the little boy he used to be.

  I headed out to the car and carefully followed the directions of the British voice the app used. I wanted to throw it out of the window after he told me for the fifth time to make a u-turn and head in the other direction. That wasn’t the way I needed to go! I’d been steadily ignoring his directions for the last fifteen minutes, since he’d sent me in the wrong direction the first time and I’d realized I was heading into the wrong part of town.

  “When it is convenient, please turn around and head back to Woodlawn Drive.”

  I glared at it and pulled onto the grass at the side of the state highway.

  “Let me see these directions. You’re not taking me anywhere near there if I go down that road!” I expanded the map and saw I needed to go another mile and then I’d be directly in the group of buildings that had been in the picture Barbara had sent to me with the directions. “You can just go back to sleep, Nigel.”

  I turned the app off, got back onto the road, and headed for the site Barbara wanted me to investigate. I inhaled sharply when I drove around a steep bend only to find several tall old brick buildings and enough flashing lights to send even a non-sensitive brain into an epileptic fit.

  “Oh my God. What’s happened?” Barbara hadn’t shared any details with me over the phone or in her messages since.

  The blue lights told me the police were here, the red that the fire department was here, and the orange that the ambulances had arrived. I couldn’t see any smoke but the air was filled with the scent of wet, burned wood. There’d been a fire, at least.

  I pulled into a parking spot in front of one of the furthest buildings and got out of my car.

  “Hey, Toni?” I heard a voice call out my name and turned.

  A tall gangly man in his early twenties walked up to me, a camera around his neck and a press pass pinned to his shirt.

  “Take this, you’ll need it to get through the barriers, if they let us through. I’m Jack, I’ve been taking footage of all of this mess.”

  “Hi, Jack, nice to meet you. What’s going on here?” I looked around, brushing my hair back from my face, searching for two familiar faces as I scanned the people gathered around an ambulance in the middle of the road ahead of me.

  “Two cops were shot at, one was hit. I haven’t heard about the other. Seems they got more than they bargained for today.”

  I felt like someone poured ice water over me just as my stomach knotted up into a shriveled ball the size of a walnut. “Which cops?”

  I knew the blood must have drained from my face, I felt it go, but Jack’s look of horror as he turned to me showed just how bad I was reacting.

  “Are you alright? I know you’re new to this, but you have to take it easy. Learn to deal, okay? Take a deep breath.”

  “Which…” A knot closed my throat and I had to work hard to get it to let go. “Which cops were involved?”

  “Let me see.” He pulled out his phone and scrolled until he found something. “Grant Reed and David Marshall.”

  Why did he look like the world wasn’t collapsing around us? Why did he look like everything was fine? I reached out a steadying hand as the world tilted to one side, but still stumbled.

  “Damn, girl, do you know those two or something? What’s wrong with you?” Jack reached out to hold me up, his hand going around my waist as he guided me to the hood of my car. “Sit down for a minute.”

  “Yeah, I know them.” I finally managed to get my throat to work. “What’s their, ahem, what’s their status?”

  I watched his face, waiting for bad news. I knew something was up, I knew it!

  “Grant’s status is unknown, apparently the ceiling collapsed on him and from what I understand, he was shot a few times. Then there was the fire.” He was going on about how the fire department had come to the rescue and saved the day, while I still didn’t know anything about David!

  “Jack, shut up. Now tell me about David. Is he alright?” Grant was at the hospital at least. He was in good hands. Where did that leave David?

  “Oh, he’s fine. Left under his own cognizance. I think he went to the hospital. Look, I know you know these two, but we have a job to do. Let’s get to it.” Jack moved then, heading in the direction of the Chief of Police. “Chief, hey, Chief! You want to fill us in on what is going on? Do the local paper a favor?”

  He wandered off as I caught my breath. I was soon standing on my own two feet, my phone in hand and the voice recorder on. I had a job to do. I could fall apart later. David was fine, Grant was at the hospital. There was nothing I could do but the job I’d been sent on.

  I moved up beside Jack and the chief acknowledged me. “Good to see you, Toni. I guess I can tell you what I know so far. Let’s go over here, we have a station set up where we’re coordinating everything. It’ll probably be on the news before you can print anything, and the local grapevine will have clowns and a posse of bikers out here by the time morning comes so you can set the record straight.”

  “Chief, before I ask you anything else, how is Grant?” Every part of me was crying out to get back into my car and head straight for the hospital, but I knew, logically, that there was nothing I could do and the doctors wouldn’t tell me a thing. I wasn’t his wife or family, after all.

  The last few years of suppressing every instinct in me so I could take care of Eric the way he deserved served me well now. I would do my job, then I would camp out at the hospital and wait to overhear news if that’s what it took.

  “David’s heading over there now. I’ll know something as soon as he does.” He couldn’t hide the weight of worry from his features and I felt my heart warm to him. “I know things have been kind of difficult between us, Toni, but I appreciate you asking about him.”

  “He’s my, uh, my neighbor, you know? Of course I want him to be alright.”

  What could I really say? Hey, Chief, of course I care. Grant’s my fuck buddy? Or perhaps, he’s one of the men I’ve allowed to tag team me? Ugh, that was terrible!

  No, I decided to keep it neutral until I knew where this was all heading. If it was heading anywhere after tonight. The chief had just told me Grant was alright so far, but things could change in an instant, as I was well aware.

  “So, what happened here today?” I let him tell me the details, every sentence making my heart ache a little more. They’d both been so close to death, my two men, so very close.

  “That’s all you can tell us for now then?” I prompted him for more, but I knew he wasn’t going to tell me anything else. He’d only tell me what he absolutely had to.

  “Yep, that’s all I can tell you, Toni. We just don’t know anything else yet.” He sat back in a camp chair, similar to one he’d led me to, and closed his eyes. I could see the strain of worry on his face and glanced at my personal phone sitting in my lap. Still no word about Grant.

  “Thanks, Chief. I’ll get this all sent in to Barbara then. I appreciate it.” I stood then and turned to leave.

  “I know we’ve been hard on your brother, Toni, but I think he’d make a fine candidate for the force, once he’s had some training. That’s why I’ve been so hard on him. I’m sorry about that. I was hoping to keep him on the straight and narrow.”

  It occurred to me to tell the pol
ice chief to shove it, what the hell kind of approach is that? But I let it go. Grant was far more important than an argument. I patted his shoulder before I left.

  I made it to the hospital after spending a few minutes typing up a report on my tablet. I had to keep Barbara happy and this would be tomorrow’s headline, I just knew it. I sent the draft in, and that was when I realized two things.

  First, my name was going to be on the byline of the front page story! That was my number one bucket list achievement! At any other time excitement would have had me dancing around like a toddler, high on sugar. That’s when the second realization dawned and a feeling like nausea mixed with pain swept over me.

  Grant had been shot and I was sitting in my car writing a report. I turned the key in the ignition with trembling fingers, breathing in through my nose and out through my tightly pressed lips. Anxiety was not my friend. Panic right now would not be a good idea, Toni, I told myself, waiting for the sensation to pass. You can do this.

  After a moment, my hands were steady and my heart wasn’t racing anymore. I put the car in reverse and drove without incident to the hospital. I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled into the parking lot. So far, so good.

  When I opened the door of the car and slid my legs out to stand up, my knees went weak. Luckily, David was somehow there to save me from falling to the ground.

  “It’s okay, princess, it’s going to be okay,” he whispered against my forehead, his lips brushing softly against my hair. His arms held me tightly to his chest, his hands stroking my back. It all felt so good, so right.

  I inhaled the scent of him, strong on the coat he wore. His cologne and his own scent. I felt grounded again, safe. I pulled away to ask how Grant was, but he kissed me before I could ask.

  It wasn’t overly intimate, just a, ‘hello, I need comfort as much as you’. An ‘I’m still alive and glad for that, but I need to feel something to know it’s not a dream’ kind of kiss. I pressed my lips back to his and leaned into him more when his hands gripped the lapels of my long wool coat.

  “He’s alright. Shot, definitely injured, but alright. I’ve been waiting for you. I knew you’d come.” He’d pulled away at last, but only his hands still gripped my lapels.

  I put my hands over his and squeezed. “What exactly is wrong?”

  “Come and see him, I’ll explain on the way. It’s too cold to keep standing out here.” He took my hand and pulled me into the hospital, the automatic doors sucking in the frigid night air as we moved into the building. I heard the sound of dry leaves skating on the asphalt as the doors rushed closed.

  “He was shot high in the right shoulder. It’s going to need surgery. They think they might have to do surgery on his back too but aren’t sure yet. They have to wait for some of the swelling to go down to be certain. He has some burns too, but nothing that won’t heal. Overall, he’s fairly lucky.” A growl at the end of his words let me know the person that had done this to Grant wasn’t going to be so lucky.

  “There’s nothing life-threatening then?” I asked as we loaded into an elevator, the door closing quietly before we began to move. In any other situation I would have made a move on him, just to giggle about making out in an elevator, but this wasn’t the time for it. Maybe when we brought Grant home.

  “No, but there’s always the threat of infection or a blood clot. I can’t say he won’t have a heart attack either, but he’s in the best place possible right now. Overall, he’s good, Toni. I promise.” He took my hand again and I was trying to blink away tears as the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open.

  He gave me a wobbly smile and we walked to a doorway with two cops on each side.

  “She’s with me, boys. Anytime she wants in here, you let her in, you understand?” And just like that, I knew we all really were a unit. David trusted me and he wanted people to know. I beamed a grateful smile to him and followed him in.

  The room was lit by a soft white light in a corner, and nothing more. I could hear Grant snoring softly and went to stand over him, moving to the side where I could see him. His face was covered in scratches, his chest was bare except for some bandages wrapped around his left upper quadrant, his right hand was swathed in bandages too, and there were little round things stuck all over his body.

  “Are those some kind of metal nipples? What the hell are those?” I looked closely at his chest and saw there was still blood smeared across his skin. I wanted to clean it away but didn’t want to wake him.

  “They’re electrodes, for the equipment to check his heart and all of that sort of stuff. It’s okay, Toni, it really is.” David stood across from me, his eyes glued to Grant’s face.

  “Alright.” I glanced at the bags and bottles hanging from a stand that fed into his IV line. I saw pain medicines, antibiotics, and a few other things I didn’t recognize.

  “He’s on anti-inflammatories, to try to get the swelling around his spine to go down. He woke up long enough to tell the doctors he couldn’t feel his legs. He took a pretty nasty hit to the back of his head when that beam came down on him, and the beam did some damage to his spine, but they can’t tell how bad it will be until the swelling goes away.”

  “You said he was going to be alright!” I looked at him, my heart breaking for Grant. “Are you saying he might not be able to walk?”

  “Maybe not for a while, no. We just have to wait and see.” I could see his own heart break and took Grant’s hand.

  What if he couldn’t walk anymore?

  12

  Toni

  “Toni, why don’t you get some rest, sweetheart?” David pulled me from Grant’s bedside and guided me to a chair that didn’t look comfortable yet hospitals insisted on providing.

  “Why don’t they ever put proper couches in these places?” I heard myself grouse as I got in the chair and pulled the footrest up.

  “Sanitation, perhaps? A lot of bad things happen in hospitals, maybe these are easier to keep sterilized.” He found a blanket and put it over me.

  The total lack of smell on the thin cotton always unnerved me. Hospital bedding never has any kind of smell. I took his hand, intending to pull him down beside me, to find some comfort in his arms, just for a moment. It was my last thought before sleep took me.

  I dreamed of Christmas, with all the decorations, the food, the laughter and the wine. I dreamed of two men, Grant and David, watching me with love in their eyes as we opened presents, an infant in an antique cradle not far away. I sighed with contentment as they began to talk softly together, their eyes still on me.

  I reached into the cradle, taking the child. Her eyes were my eyes, her smile all mine. I felt a quiver in my chest, a swelling I’d never felt before. This was my child. I stared at her in wonder. I had a child of my very own.

  Tears of joy filled my eyes as I looked down at her. Sadness suddenly overwhelmed me, I would never leave her as my parents had left us, never!

  I felt the emotion so fiercely it woke me up. I looked around, unsure of where I was, but then I heard their voices. Grant was awake!

  I’d like to say I leaped from the chair to his side, but it was more a fall to the floor as I slid from the side of the awkward chair. I picked myself up from the floor and rushed to his side. I took his hand as he smiled at me, David on the other side, and kissed the knuckles of his long fingers.

  “You’re awake!” I said, brushing tears from my face. I wasn’t sure if they were leftovers from the dream or if they were because he was awake.

  “So are you, Sleeping Beauty. I’m so glad to see you!” His smile was tired but it lifted the corner of his eyes.

  “Not as glad as I am to see you.” I kissed his knuckles again, resting my cheek on his hand clasped in mine.

  “I think we could argue about that, but ha! I learned something today. Life is short, and it can be made a lot shorter.” His eyes went grim and sad for a moment. His grip loosened on mine and he pulled away. His face went dark and a wall came up that I didn’t know how
to knock down.

  “It can indeed. I know that well. My parents left us so suddenly…” My voice cut out and I had to swallow to be able to speak again. “I learned long ago to never take a day for granted.”

  I was hoping to distract him, to bring him back to me. He seemed to rally and his grip tightened on mine once again.

  “I guess you did, Toni.” Grant pulled his hand away from me so he could push himself into a higher position. “I can’t wait to get out of this place, but my legs don’t seem to want to leave it.”

  He was trying to make me laugh and I tried to give it to him, but none of us really knew what damage had been done to his spine, even with all of the expensive equipment and tests.

  “The doctor said we have to wait and see, Grant. You might be kicking my ass at basketball again by this time next week. Don’t lose hope, mate,” David said, filling in the blank space my silence left. The love for his friend was obvious in his voice. “I’m going to head to the house if you’re good?”

  David looked at both Grant and me so I nodded. “I’ll need to call Eric in the morning, but I can stay.”

  “Thanks. I need to find out what’s going on at the station and talk to the chief. I’ll come by later in the morning. Want me to bring you anything?” His eyes were distant, already on the hours ahead.

  “No, I’m fine. Thanks, David.” He came to me and took me in his arms. I wound mine around his waist and rested my head just beneath his shoulder.

  Just a few short days ago I would have died before I ever let him touch me. Now he was an integral part of my life, a comfort I didn’t want to ever have to learn to live without. He’d been in that building today too, he’d been in just as much danger as Grant. He’d just stayed out of the way of harm a little better. I hugged him tighter because I didn’t want to let him go.