by Matt Lincoln
“Wait!” I yelled as I stared hard into his eyes. They were glazed and empty, the way Howard’s had been after he’d trashed the office, and I knew he wasn’t all there. I tried desperately to remember how Naomi had talked him down.
“It’s okay,” I called stiffly. I just didn’t have Naomi’s patience or way with words.
“No, it’s not!” the man screamed so loud that his voice broke. “She lied to me! She said she was visiting her mother, and she’s right here, partying with a bunch of other guys!”
He pointed the gun at the broken glass of the pod again as he yelled. A small lip jutted out of the pod just beneath the doors, and the man was standing precariously on the edge.
“What are you talking about?!” someone inside the pod yelled. I couldn’t see them from my position beneath the pod, but I could make out a man’s voice. “There are no girls in here, dude. We don’t even know you!”
“You’re lying!” the drugged man said as he squeezed his eyes shut. I took advantage of the moment and quickly scaled the two lower rods holding his pod in place.
“He is lying,” I agreed as I slowly scaled the side of the pod. From there, I could see through the clear glass into the car, and there were, in fact, only men inside. Judging by the balloons and drinks, it looked like a bachelor party. The drugged man was completely delusional, but I remembered Naomi agreeing with Howard to get him to calm down.
“What?” the man whimpered as he looked up at me. He was so surprised by my words, it looked like he’d failed to notice how much closer I’d gotten.
“I said I believe you,” I assured him as I climbed onto the top of the pod. There was more open space up here, and if I could just convince him to climb up after me, I’d be able to handcuff him and get us both down unscathed.
“You do?” he asked, slowly lowering the gun as he did. “Hahaha, I knew it! I knew I wasn’t crazy. She’s in there. She’s in there, and he’s trying to steal her from me!”
“There is no one in here, you crazy moron!” the same man from before yelled.
“Shut up!” I yelled as loudly as I could over the rain. He was going to get himself killed if he kept provoking the suspect like that. “We both know he’s lying. Why don’t you come up here, and we can talk about it, okay?”
I reached a shaky hand down toward the man. He stared at it in puzzlement before slowly taking it. I let out a sigh of relief. So far, so good. I just had to pull him up here and cuff his hands behind his back.
I pulled hard as the man began to climb back up. He was halfway up the side when the sky lit up again as a flash of lightning tore across the sky above us. The suspect panicked and flinched backward, dropping his gun as he stumbled back. He tried to regain his footing, but the smooth glass of the pod was slick with rainwater, and his feet just slid against the side.
I reached out both hands to steady him and regretted it immediately as my own legs slid unsteadily against the domed top of the pod.
“Pull yourself up!” I shouted as I struggled to keep my own balance. A tiny, ugly voice in the back of my head was screaming at me to let him fall, but I couldn’t bring my fingers to let go.
Finally, he managed to catch his shoe against the corner of one of the windows and pushed himself up to safety. I allowed myself to fall backward onto the wet roof of the pod. My arms and legs were shaking, and my heart was beating painfully. I was soaked to the bone and starting to shiver.
“You tried to throw me off,” the suspect muttered under his breath, so low that I wasn’t sure what I’d heard over the sound of the rain.
“What did you say?” I snapped as I got to my feet.
“You tried to trick me,” he growled. “You pretended to help me, then you tried to make me fall. You’re one of her friends, aren’t you? She probably called you and told you to come pretend to be nice to me.”
“You cannot be serious,” I grumbled as I glared at the man. “I just saved your life, you ingrate! I did the opposite of what you’re accusing me of!”
“You can’t trick me!” the man screamed as he scrambled unsteadily to his feet. The way he was wobbling and slipping on the wet surface would have been funny if he wasn’t actively threatening me.
“Okay, then,” I said and drew my gun as the man lunged at me. I fired one shot directly into his knee, and he collapsed instantly. Pain or no pain, he was going to have a hard time trying to attack me with a shattered kneecap.
He yelled, more out of surprise than pain, and I moved in quickly to restrain his arms behind his back. Once I was finished, I sat directly on top of him as I waited for assistance. There wasn’t a lot of room to spare on the top of this pod, and I didn’t want to risk either of us slipping off with how wet everything was.
I looked up for the first time since I’d caught up to him and realized that there was a news helicopter hovering right above us. I hadn’t noticed its lights over the glaring neon glow of the Ferris wheel, and I guessed that the thunder and rain must have drowned out the sound of the propellers.
“So everyone will see what just happened on the nightly news, huh?” I murmured to myself. “I bet Wallace is gonna love that.”
32
Miranda
“Did you even have a backup plan?” Fiona scolded me for the hundredth time that evening. “I saw you slip, you know. Everyone did, literally. The entire city watched it happen live. What would you have done if you’d fallen off?”
“Die, probably,” I smirked.
Naomi and I had retreated to the office while the suspect was taken to the hospital to be treated for the overdose and the bullet wound I’d given him. Fiona had been spending the past half hour fussing over me, plying me with candy while Wallace was busy in his office declining offers from news stations for personal interviews.
“That’s not funny,” Fiona flicked me on the arm. “I mean, I know you’re a badass Marine or whatever, but you’re not invincible.”
“I know, I know,” I sighed. “I’m sorry for freaking you out, okay? It was just a spur-of-the-moment decision. I didn’t even think about it. My body just moved on its own.”
“Well, I can tell you didn’t think about it,” Fiona retorted before heaving a long sigh. “But I understand why you did it. Those poor guys are probably going to be traumatized for life.”
“Yeah,” I grimaced. I had been right about it being a bachelor party. Apparently, the group of men had been having a nice night on the town when the suspect had suddenly approached them out of nowhere, demanding to know where his girlfriend was. He had tried to force his way into their pod as they were boarding, but when that failed, he started scaling the side of the Ferris wheel instead. They’d all been thoroughly shaken up by the time they were back on the ground, and I was sure the experience had ruined their night.
Our conversation was broken by a tinny, high-pitched jingle.
“Oh, that’s me,” Naomi announced as she pulled her phone from her bag and stepped away from us.
“I thought Wallace would be angrier,” I remarked as I unwrapped a comically large lollipop. “Since I shot a suspect live on TV, and all.”
“You were well within your rights to do so,” Fiona insisted. “You like a hundred feet up, standing on a slippery surface. It’s not like you could run or anything. What were you supposed to do when he came at you? And anyway, I think he was just glad you were okay. He was already shaken up over what happened with Howard. I think he would’ve been beside himself if something happened to you too.”
I knew that shot had been clean, but there were always people who would try to sensationalize anything and everything, and already my conduct was being called into question by the news stations. I didn’t care, personally. I’d never really cared what other people thought of me, but I was worried about how this might affect Wallace and our branch.
“Good news!” Naomi announced as she returned. “That was the hospital. The suspect is awake and lucid enough for questioning.”
“Let’s go,
then,” I replied as I took one last piece of candy for the road.
The rain was coming down hard now, and as I got back into the car, I wondered if that would deter the people who were out enjoying the Halloween festivities. To my surprise, the streets were still reasonably packed, as people were either partying under umbrellas or just ignoring the rain altogether.
“Nothing will stop Las Vegas,” I chuckled. “Not even a downpour.”
“Indeed,” Naomi nodded.
There was enough traffic that it took longer than it usually would for us to get to the hospital, and by the time Naomi pulled into one of the parking spots, I was bursting with impatient energy. I jumped out of the car and led the way into the hospital and up to the reception desk.
“Hello,” a pretty young woman with her hair slicked back into a tight ponytail greeted us. “Can I help you with something?”
“I’m Agent Castillo, with MBLIS,” I responded as I pulled out my badge. “And this is Agent Patel. We’re here about the man that was pulled off the High Roller a few hours ago.”
“Oh, right, of course,” the woman replied as she turned to look something up on her computer. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it on the news. It was so scary. How did they not fall off?”
“I have pretty good balance,” I shrugged, holding back a snicker as realization clicked in her mind.
“That was you?” she asked, eyes wide and mouth agape. “Wow, wasn’t it scary for you?”
“Nah,” I replied cockily. “I’m a former Marine. I’ve been through scarier.”
“That’s so cool.” The woman smiled. “Anyway, the man is up in room three-thirteen. At the very end of the hall. There’s an armed guard outside his door.”
“Thanks,” I replied before turning to set off down the hall.
“You just thrive on showing off, don’t you?” Naomi sighed as we stepped into the elevators. “You really could have gotten yourself killed, you know. It’s nothing to brag about.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t,” I retorted. “I restrained the suspect and made it back down alive, so it is something to brag about.”
“You’re insufferable.” Naomi shook her head, but there was a slight smile on her face that took the bite out of her words.
“I know.” I grinned back at her as we got off the elevator on the third floor. I spotted the room in question right away, as there were not one but three uniformed police officers gathered around a door at the very end of the hall to the right.
“Good evening, officers,” I greeted as I approached the trio of men. They halted their conversation as soon as they looked up and saw me. “Agents Castillo and Patel, with MBLIS. We need to speak to the suspect.”
I presented my badge to them as I spoke.
“Alright,” one of the officers sighed. “Good luck with that. They pumped his stomach, and he’s not tripping out anymore, but he hasn’t exactly been cooperative, either. He keeps thrashing around and having fits, typical tweaker behavior. He’s going through withdrawal, and the hospital won’t give him any of the strong stuff, so he’s whining about his leg.”
“I see,” Naomi frowned. “Well, we’ll just have to try our best, then. He’s a part of our investigation, so even if it’s a fruitless endeavor, we have to at least make an attempt.”
“I hear you,” the officer shrugged. “His name is Kyle Mosley. He has a long list of priors, mostly drug possession and distribution. A few robberies and petty theft, too, but nothing on this level.”
“So he’s a drug addict,” Naomi surmised. “His behavior pattern certainly matches Penny’s and the other earlier cases.”
“So you think this guy was high on rush?” I asked. “And not an unsuspecting cough syrup victim.”
“I’d say that’s most likely,” Naomi nodded. “We should operate under that assumption.”
“Okay,” I nodded as I walked past the officers and pushed open the door to the room. There were two beds in this room, but only one was occupied, obviously a safety precaution considering the suspect’s unpredictable and violent state.
Kyle was lying on the bed furthest from the door. His hands and ankles were strapped to the sides of the bed, likely for his own protection as well as the hospital staff. If he was going through withdrawal, he might try to hurt himself to get drugs.
His face was red and twisted into a pained grimace, and he was clenching and unclenching his fists. He turned to glare at us as we entered the room. The blank, faraway looked I’d seen in his eyes earlier was gone, replaced instead by a mixture of anger and despair.
“Hello, Mr. Mosley,” Naomi said calmly as she took a seat in the chair by the side of his bed. I took a standing position near the foot of the bed instead. I’d managed to calm this guy down for a moment, but in the end, he’d been convinced I’d tried to trick him, and I had shot him in the leg. It’d be better for everyone involved if I just let Naomi do the talking.
Kyle regarded Naomi for a long moment before his gaze slid over to me.
“You’re the one who shot me,” he spat accusingly. His voice was low and raspy, nothing like the pathetic whine I’d heard at the top of the Ferris wheel.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I grimaced. “In my defense, though, you were trying to attack me.”
“Ha!” Kyle croaked as the short bark of laughter caused him to break into a coughing fit.
“Have some water,” Naomi cooed as she lifted a plastic cup of water off the bedside table and guided the straw into his mouth.
“Thanks,” Kyle rasped as the coughing fit subsided, and he drank from the cup gratefully. “I guess that’s true. Can’t really blame you when I was the one going nuts up there.”
My eyebrows shot up into my hairline at his words. I hadn’t expected him to agree with me and admit that he was the one in the wrong.
“Mr. Mosley,” Naomi prompted him. “Can you tell us what you were doing on that Ferris wheel?
“I, uh…” he trailed off, fidgeting uncomfortably as he did. As he shifted, the sleeve of his hospital smock rode up, and I could see needle marks littered along the purple, mottled skin of his elbow. Kyle was clearly no stranger to drug use. “It’s kind of embarrassing. I took some of that cough medicine I heard about on the news, and I guess I just lost control.”
“Deliberately?” Naomi blinked in surprise. “You took it on purpose, knowing what would happen?”
“I didn’t know that would happen!” Kyle protested. “I heard rumors that it was made of the same stuff as rush. That stuff’s impossible to get now, so I thought if I took just a little of the cough syrup, I’d get the same high without going too crazy.”
“That obviously didn’t work,” I scoffed, unable to contain myself after hearing how stupid he’d been. To his credit, Kyle actually flushed with shame.
“Yeah, I know,” he muttered. “Nothing happened for a long time, so I thought maybe I didn’t take enough. So, I took some more. Then still nothing happened, so I took some more, and, well, obviously, it just took a while to kick in, and by then, I’d downed like half the bottle. It was fun, at first. Everything was bright colors, and I could see stuff that I knew wasn’t there, but it wasn’t scary because it was cool stuff like dragons and eagles. Then I saw my girlfriend, Lilly.”
“But she wasn’t really there, was she?” Naomi asked.
“I guess not,” Kyle muttered. “I thought she was, though. She’s in Colorado right now, visiting her sick mom, but I suddenly saw her right there in my living room. At first, I was happy, thinking she’d come home early, but then she started telling me what a loser I was for doing drugs and that she wanted to break up with me. She ran out of the apartment, and I chased after her. The whole time she was telling me how much she hated me and how she was going to find a new, better boyfriend. I saw her go into that Ferris wheel car with those guys, and I just got so angry. You guys know the rest.”
“For goodness’ sake,” Naomi sighed. “You’re lucky you were brought to the hospital so soo
n. You understand that, right? The vast majority of the people who’ve taken this drug are dead. The only reason you’re speaking to us right now is that your stomach was pumped before the drug could finish you off.”
Kyle’s face went white, and he stared down at his own lap, unable to look Naomi in the eye as he spoke.
“I know it was dumb,” he muttered. “I just didn’t know what else to do. It’s so overwhelming when the craving kicks in. It’s not like it was meth or anything.”
“Actually,” Naomi clarified, “both rush and the cough syrup contain fairly large amounts of methamphetamines, along with a host of other substances. Just because it’s called something different doesn’t make it any less dangerous.”
“No way!” Kyle squeaked. He looked like he was about to cry.
“How did you get ahold of the cough syrup?” Naomi asked. “Did you just happen to have it at home?”
“No,” Kyle sniffed. “I got it online. Ever since that video went viral a few days ago, people have been treating bottles with that specific serial number as, like, collector's items. The guy I got mine from auctioned his off.”
“What video?” I asked. I didn’t spend that much time trawling the internet, so I probably wouldn’t have seen it if it wasn’t on the news.
“The one of the dude in the bathrobe,” Kyle answered. “He went crazy and bit a girl’s face off, then a cop showed up and shot him. Everyone already knew about the spiked medicine, but after someone uploaded that video to the internet two nights ago, people have been talking about it on social media and trying to find bottles.”
“And instead of throwing them away or turning them in to the police,” Naomi huffed, “they’re selling them online. Don’t people use their brains anymore?”
“Evidently not,” I muttered. “What else are people saying about the drug online?”
