by Kunego, Chad
He looked at her with a confused look.
She yanked at his sleeve harder as she tried to lead him up the stairs.
“Come on! They’ll be here any minute!”
After opening the door to her apartment, she motioned him in before poking her head back out, looking both ways before closing the door.
“I’m sorry I scar—”
“That was freaking amazing!”
“Wha?”
“It’s like you’re straight out of a comic book or something,” she said, leaping into his arms.
Before he could react, she leaned in and gave him a kiss. As their lips broke apart, she studied his face.
“That was for rescuing me. My very own knight in shining armor…” she said, trailing off as she stared into his eyes.
“You’re, uh, welcome,” he said, returning the gaze, “for a moment there, I thought you were scared of me…”
“No silly,” she said, playfully swatting his check, “I was afraid of what the cops would do when they arrived. They kinda have a ‘lock ‘em up, then ask questions later’ mindset for this part of town. I doubt you’ve noticed, being Mr. Badass an all, but it’s a pretty dangerous area. My neighbor got mugged a week ago just around the corner from here.”
“So, uh, is it safe to assume that tool I just dealt with was the ex you were talking about before?”
“Yeah,” she said, looking at the ceiling, “he one of the reasons I’m still living in this rat-hole.”
Samuel raised an eyebrow as she continued.
“I had saved up a little nest egg I was planning to use as first and last month’s rent at another apartment that was closer to school and work. I’d written a check for the apartment only to find out a few days later that it’d bounced. When I went down to the bank to figure out what’d happened, I’d learned he’d forged my signature and had cleared the account out. He probably came back today to try and get more money out of me. I didn’t have any proof of what he’d done, or I would have tried to press charges, but since the money was probably already gone, it wouldn’t have accomplished much.”
“As long as I’m around, you’ll never have to go through that again. I promise.”
Before she had a chance to say anything else, they heard a knock at the door.
“Hello? Miss Townsend? This is the police, can you open the door for a minute? We’d like to ask you some questions about a disturbance that just happened. We have some witnesses stating you were involved.”
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“Just a minute!”
She looked at Samuel, a look of terror spreading across her face. Samuel looked at her with a calm expression, holding his finger up to his lips. Glancing around, he quickly headed toward the kitchen window, grabbing a bottle of vegetable oil as he passed through the kitchenette. Squirting some of it on the slides, he softly opened it. Poking his head out, he quickly looked around before climbing out onto the fire escape.
“I’ll try to be back later. If I can’t, I’ll meet up with everyone at the warehouse. Just tell the police that a good samaritan helped you. That should be enough to satisfy them.”
“Okay,” she said hesitantly, glancing back toward the door as the knock came again, “oh, I almost forgot. John got back to me. Said he found something. He should be at their store, The Shining Path bookstore.”
She started to lean toward him, but the cops started knocking on the door more insistently, causing her to look back over her shoulder before looking back at him. Samuel climbed up on the edge of the railing, before looking down.
I dropped five stories without an issue, this should be nothing. At the least, it should be nothing. On the bright side, if I do break my legs, I’ll just heal right back up.
He turned back to look at her one more time before he jumped off the edge, rapidly dropping down three floors before hitting the pavement silently. He looked back up and saw her leaning out the window, staring at him with her mouth open. He shooed her back in before turning around, jogging to the edge of the alleyway.
Peeking around the corner, he was surprised to see several cop cars lined up in front of the complex. Based of how Blythe described the neighborhood, it seemed to be an excessive show of force. He ducked back when several cops turned and started heading in his direction.
“We need to cover the alley and fire escape in case he tries to make a run for it.”
He couldn’t be positive, but Samuel suspected they were looking for him specifically, especially with the close call he had with the couple in black earlier. Glancing around one more time, he spun around and sprinted off in the opposite direction, disappearing into the shadows.
Chapter 24
Frank banged forcefully on the door, drawing his gun out at the same time with his opposite hand.
“Ma’am, I need you to open the door right now or we’ll be forced to break it down.”
Cora drew her gun as well, preparing to follow her partner in. As Frank started to step back to kick the door, they heard the deadbolt slide back. The door opened a couple inches before stopping when the chain went taut. A young girl peered out from around the corner of the door.
“Yes, how can I help you officers?” she asked, glancing back and forth between them.
“Miss, you need to open the door right now. Otherwise, we’re going to have to break it down.”
The girl sighed, closing the door slightly to unhook the chain before opening the door the rest of the way. As the door started to open, Frank forcefully shouldered it open the rest of the way and strode in.
“Hey!”
Cora followed smoothly behind him, her eyes glancing at the surprised look on the woman’s face before sliding past. Her partner moved right as she went left, each covering their quadrant of the room with their firearm as they split up, rapidly clearing the apartment before they holstered their weapons.
“What the hell are you doing! You can’t just barge in here like that without a warrant!”
“Ma’am,” Frank said, glancing around the room again, “we had reason to believe that a dangerous fugitive was hiding in this apartment, so we couldn’t take any chances with our safety, or yours.”
Cora gave the other woman a closer look, recognition dawning on her face.
“Hey, you work down at the shelter, don’t you?”
“Yes…” she said hesitantly.
Cora vaguely tilted her head to the side as her brows narrowed slightly.
“I didn’t get a chance to speak with you then, but you seemed awfully familiar when I saw you there. Don’t I know you from somewhere else as well?” Cora asked.
The other woman stared at her for a moment before a light of recognition lit up her face.
“Officer Blanchett?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yes, that’s me. Where do I know you from?”
“It’s me, Blythe. You came out last year when one of my ex’s tried beating me up. You found him and put him away for awhile. I haven’t heard from him since.”
Cora squinted at her slightly before her eyes lit up.
“It IS you, isn’t it. How’ve you been holding up?”
“I’ve been better. Are you here about the run-in I had with my latest ex?” she asked.
“Yes, actually. Can you tell me what happened? Witnesses are telling us that a guy intervened in your fight with your ex. Reports are kinda sketchy, but from what we can collaborate is, the guy who helped you slammed your ex into the wall, then someone fired a gun. They also stated that you grabbed the guy who helped you and ran back up the stairs while the other man ran out the door like he was being chased by demons. What we need to know is, where did that guy go after you two ran up the stairs.”
As Cora interviewed Blythe, she watched her partner wander around the apartment. He paused at the window leading out to the fire escape, running his finger across it.
Looking back over at them, he asked, ”Is there a reason why there’s a puddle of oil on the windowsill?”
He held the bottle of vegetable oil up for emphasis.
Blythe looked over at Frank, a slight look of fear passing across her face.
“Even though I know that guy scared off my ex for now, I wanted to make sure I could get out of here fast if he came back. He’s tried to break the door down in the past, so I wanted to make sure that window didn’t get jammed again if I needed to get out of here quickly.”
Frank nodded as he went back to the window. He slid it open and glanced out into the alleyway. Nodding again to himself, he closed it and came back over to stand next to them.
“As I was saying, where did this man go after you two ran up the stairs.”
“He followed me up to my door and asked if I was okay. I told him I was. He waited until I’d closed the door before leaving. I’m not sure where he went after that.”
Cora pulled out a photo and showed it to her.
“Is this the man that helped you?”
Blythe squinted slightly at the photo before shaking her head.
“It all happened so fast, I’m not really sure. I don’t think so though. I think the guy that helped me had lighter hair.”
“Are you sure?” Cora asked, “this man is dangerous and we need to find him quickly. He’s wanted for questioning in a slaughter that happened several days ago…”
Cora trailed off, trying to let the silence pressure the other woman into speaking.
“Slaughter…?”
“Yeah, he was found unconscious, surrounded by a pile of bodies. He escaped from the hospital before we had a chance to question him.”
“Sorry detective Blanchett, I wish I could help you, but I haven’t seen him. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get something to eat. I’ve had a long day.”
Cora glanced at her partner before starting toward the door. Turning back, she handed Blythe her card.
“If you happen to remember anything else, or if you see this man, give me a call, day or night. okay?”
Blythe nodded as she ushered them out the door.
“Have a good day detectives,” she said as she closed the door.
As they started to walk down the hall, Frank looked over at her.
“I’d bet my silver star with clusters that she not only knows the guy, but helped him escape out that window.”
Cora nodded.
“I won’t take you up on that bet… Wait… you’ve got a silver star…?”
Frank looked down at his feet, looking slightly embarrassed.
“Yeah, it was nothing, really. Anyway, I think we need to leave a couple plainclothes guys here to keep an eye out, and maybe even follow her if they can.”
“I agree. Since it looks like our boy is long gone, let’s head back to the precinct.”
“Right behind you…”
Chapter 25
“Did you get a chance to read this lab report from the hospital yet?”
Cora rested her face in her hands before scrubbing them roughly across the skin, looking up at her partner.
“Yeah, and if I had read this a week ago, I would have asked the captain to have all of them checked for drug use. Now it’s just an interesting footnote, hardly worthy of notice.”
Frank chuckled, “an’ by hardly worthy of notice you mean those broomsticks pinning Russo to the wall had to be traveling over a hundred miles an hour to do that… Or that the footprints in the sidewalk indicate someone weighing at least twice the normal weight of the average person needed to skydive out of a plane to make those impressions… Yeah… didn’t even bat a eye or anything.”
“Shut up, you prick…” she chuckled.
Frank started to open his mouth when she noticed he was staring over her shoulder at something. Glancing back, she noticed a beat cop gesturing toward them before he rapidly headed in their direction.
“Are you detectives Blanchett and Giani?”
“We are, officer…?” Cora replied.
“Officer Francis,” he replied.
“What can we do for you?” Frank asked.
“Well, I heard you were looking for reports of strange things happening around abandoned building and warehouses. I think I found something that matches that description.”
Cora spun in her chair to face the officer as she pulled out her notebook.
“Let’s hear what you got.”
The patrol officer pulled out his notebook, reviewing his notes before be spoke.
“We’d gotten several reports of a bunch of people going in and out of an abandoned warehouse over on the east side. I did some digging and found out it was foreclosed on a couple years back and the bank advised me that they hadn’t found any renters or buyer for it yet.”
“Well, that’s not really all that suspicious. Do you have anything else we might be able to work with…?”
Officer Francis cleared his throat nervously before continuing.
“Well, the witnesses mentioned that there was probably somewhere north of fifty people hauling stuff in with multiple moving trucks including a really weird globe of some sort, one that everyone I talked to agreed made them feel uneasy. If the eyewitnesses were accurate, there were several people who were nearly as tall as the moving truck itself.”
Cora glanced over at Frank, who gave her a slight nod. Looking back at the patrol officer, she clarified.
“You mean they could reach the top of the moving truck, like a U-haul or something.”
“Well, like a U-haul yes, but the witnesses stated their heads were slightly higher than the top of the vehicle. I’m pretty sure they were exaggerating, or maybe from the angle they saw them it looked that way. I mean, come on, those trucks are what…? Over seven feet tall or something like that. You mean to tell me a bunch of people who could play for the NBA are setting up shop in an abandoned warehouse…?”
Cora flipped to a blank page in her notebook before glancing back at the officer.
“Where is this warehouse, exactly?”
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“We need to check it out…” Cora said again.
“And I’m telling you, we need more to go on before a judge is going to sign off on a warrant.”
“What more do you need Chief? Based off what we’ve been able to learn, there’s a high probability that there’s going to be another ritualistic massacre taking place soon if it hasn’t already happened!”
“Listen, I know you want to find whoever’s responsible for this mess, but you need more evidence. Especially since a case can be made that you’re being reckless, what with your accident and everything.”
Cora bit her tongue. She’d only told Frank about Sybil being in the car at the time of the crash. It wasn’t something she could risk telling anyone about. People might accuse her of losing touch with reality, especially since the only evidence was circumstantial, like the hand print in the dashboard.
“Can we at least post a patrol officer to keep an eye on the place until we can get the proof we need, Chief?” Frank asked.
“That I can probably do. But not for long. Get out there and find more to go on and then we’ll talk. Dismissed.”
“But Chie—”
“I said dismissed. By all rights I should put you behind a desk at this point… Don’t force my hand.”
Cora got up and stalked out of the office. If this was the next site for a brutal sacrifice, they didn’t have days to gather evidence, they might only have hours. Minutes even… She stalked over to her desk, angrily throwing herself into her chair.
“You know, you’d get much further with the Chief if you’d stop antagonizing him with stuff like that. Now that he’s aware of how badly you want it, we’re going to have to find another way to check the place out.
“Damn it, why do you always have to be so smug about things like this…?”
“Because I can get away with it while still looking good…”
“Bite me.”
“Can I pick the spot?”
She stared at him for a moment before she broke out
laughing.
“No, you can’t pick the spot… Anyway,” she said as she pulled out her map, “here’s where that warehouse is located.” She put a dot on the map, “and here’s where the other one was,” she said, pointing at a dot that was already there. What does this tell us…?”
“That you drew two dots on a map…?” he replied snidely.
“Damn it Frank, you heard the Chief… We need to find something, but all we have, as you so eloquently put it, is two dots on a map…”
Frank circled over to her side of the desk, looking the map over.
“What’s this dot right here?”
“That’s that library I was telling you about, where I saw that guy dressed like Sybil…”
“Right, right…” he said as he stared at the map some more.
“You got a ruler in that mess you call a desk,” he asked.
“Right here Columbo… Why?”
“Wanna check something…” he drifted off as he put the ruler down on the paper. After a few seconds, he looked up at her.
“Call it coincidental or what have you, but those two warehouses are nearly the same distance from that library, give a half a block or so.”
Cora came up next to him and stared at the map.
“Sonofa… you’re right. Hang on…” she said, digging in her desk again.
“Always wondered if I’d have to use one of these things after leaving high school,” she said, holding up a compass, “let’s see what we get if we do this…”
She put the point of the compass down, centered on the library. Then she adjusted the arm until the pencil point was centered over the location of the first warehouse. Spinning it around full circle, the line intersected the center of the other warehouse perfectly.
“Damn, I think we just figured out where we need to do some extra searching.”
“Your car or mine, Miss Blanchett…?”
“Why, I believe the gentlemanly thing to do is provide the lady with a chauffeur…”
Frank dramatically waved her toward the door.
“After you, madam…”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Cora and Frank had been driving around for several hours, investigating likely locations. They had already checked out a couple gas stations, four office buildings, and seven warehouses before they found what they were looking for. As they pulled into the parking lot of another abandoned warehouse, Cora looked over at Frank.
