by Mark Stone
My eyes flickered over to Nate for just an instant as I raised my hands over my head, attempting to show this guy that I wasn’t going to fight him. That wasn’t true, of course. If he didn’t have that gun in his hand, I’d have punched him. I’d have knocked him down and kicked his ass twice before he hit the ground. I knew this without a shadow of a doubt. He was a big enough guy, but that didn’t bother me. In my line of work, you learn a lot about the way people move and what that means. People who lumber are slow on their feet. People who walk on the tips of their toes are easier to knock off balance. I could tell from the way he moved, the inching manner of his steps as he walked closer and the way he seemed to favor his left side, that I would be able to take him without much trouble. That is, if he didn’t have the gun.
Unfortunately for me and Nate, he did have a gun. Even if it was shaking, he could still use it. Nate, lying on the floor clenching his gut as blood began to pool under him, was evidence enough of that.
“Hang on,” I said to my former friend, not looking at him as I bridged the gap between this guy and me with my hands still in the air. “What’s your name?” I asked, settling in front of the man, noticing the glint of fear in his eyes and the scar above his nose that seemed to bridge the gap in his eyebrows.
“Don’t talk,” the man said, his voice shaking almost as much as the gun did. “Let’s just get this over with.”
There it was. This wasn’t about passion. This wasn’t about anger. He’d have turned tail and run when those things faded if it were. He obviously didn’t feel any of those things right now, and he was still pushing himself to do this to ‘get it over with’. He was being forced to do this, but by who and for what reason? I needed to know, and what was more, I needed to keep both myself and Nate alive.
“That doesn’t really seem fair to me,” I quipped, trying to keep my voice light and unthreatening. “If you’re going to kill me, I should at least know your name.”
“I’m not telling you my name,” the guy said.
“Why? What does it matter? I’m gonna be dead in a few minutes anyway, right? Who cares if I know your name?” I asked.
Still, the guy didn’t budge. He just stood there shaking as he looked at me with those fearful eyes.
“You can make one up,” I suggested.
“Chris!” the guy shouted. “You can call me Chris if it’ll shut you up and let me think!”
“There we go. That wasn’t so hard, was it, Chris?” I asked, my hands still in the air. “You’ve never killed anyone before, have you, Chris?”
Chris’s eyes widened and his face went pale as he looked at me and then past me. He didn’t need to answer the question. His expression told me everything I needed to know.
“You still haven’t,” I said, motioning over to Nate with my head. “He’s still alive, and he will be for a few more minutes, longer if you let me help him.”
“Let you help him?” Chris asked as though his voice was trying to cut through a fog, as though he was looking for some sort of safe place inside all of this.
“I’m not a paramedic, and I’m certainly not qualified to do what they do, but I am certified in life support and I’ve seen and helped with enough bad crap on the beach to be able to keep this man breathing until an ambulance shows up.” I shook my head. “You can run. You can get out of here, and no one will know anything about you.” I swallowed hard. “You’re a blond guy in Florida who's wearing board shorts. You wouldn’t stand out. There are no cameras in this building and you gave me a fake name. This doesn’t have to go any further, Chris, but for that to happen, it has to happen now. The longer my friend stays on the floor with no help, the harder it’ll be to save him. I need all the time I can get, and that means you have to turn around and leave right now. You’re not a killer, Chris. Let me help you keep it that way.”
Chris took a deep breath, his eyes scanning some far off place and probably looking for answers. As they focused in, his face hardening, I knew I had failed.
“It’s not that easy,” Chris said. “This is about so much more than you know.”
“Chris, I—”
“You can’t live through this, man,” Chris said. “You’re the one I was sent for.”
He lifted the gun quickly, and in that second, I knew I only had one shot. Dropping my hand, I grabbed the gun. Using his momentum, I swung the gun upward. I felt the gun jerk and the barrel light up as he pulled the trigger. The shot rang out again through the room.
Instinctively, I threw a knee into the guy’s gut. Then, with my hands still wrapped around the gun, struggling with Chris as he tried to wrestle it away from me, I twisted my elbow into his face.
With him stunned, I saw a chance to finish this. Letting go of the gun with one hand, I pummeled the guy in the face. Finally, he reluctantly let go of the weapon. As he stumbled backward, I tightened my grip on the barrel. Though it was still hot enough to burn my hand, I whipped it through the air, bringing the handle across Chris’s face and knocking him to the ground.
“You,” I said, breathing heavily and standing over him as I turned the gun around and pointed it at him, “should have taken the offer.”
22
“What the hell happened, Danny?” Jules asked me, her eyes wide and glassy and her hands shaking as she ran into the hospital's waiting room to find me sitting there with my arms crossed. As I stood to meet her, my heart broke for the woman I grew up with. Though Nate wasn’t my favorite person in the world, I knew how much she loved him. I knew how close they were and how much something like this would destroy her. Jules was a good woman, a great woman. She didn’t deserve this. Neither of them did.
“Somebody came into my house after you left, Jules,” I said, bridging the gap between us. “He had a gun. I think he came for me, but he got Nate instead.”
Jules collided with me, digging her tear-soaked face into my chest and wrapping her arms around me. The instant she was secure there, she melted. I was the only thing holding her in place as she sobbed, shaking against me as I kept her upright.
That lasted for just a few minutes, with Jules crying and me softly trying to tell her that everything was going to be all right. Then, suddenly and without warning, she pulled away from me, wiping her eyes and clearing her throat. Straightening her hair, she looked at me. “Who did it?”
“One of the guys from the beach the other night,” I said. “From the group trying to sell drugs under the pier on 6.”
“He came back for revenge?” Jules said, her eyes tightening like she didn’t quite understand. “Why the hell was he not in jail?”
“He probably made bail,” I said, omitting the fact that I didn’t actually think this Chris guy was at my place for revenge. In fact, he acted like he was being forced to be there, like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world.
“Bail? Seriously?” Jules asked, disgust filling every inch of her. “Meanwhile, my mom has unpaid parking tickets and she’s been to court six times about them. I hate this world.” Just when I thought she was going to break down again, she shook her head as if trying to clear the cobwebs out. “How is Nate? I can’t get anyone to tell me anything.”
“He’s in surgery,” I said, watching her face steel up as I spoke. “They said the bullet nicked his kidney and it’s still in there.”
“My God,” Jules said, gasping a little as the weight of what had happened settled on her shoulders again. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Of course, he’s going to be okay,” I said immediately, though the truth was that I had no idea. Nate lay bleeding on that floor for a while before I managed to take that Chris person down. Even after that, though I managed to keep him awake and talking while I applied pressure to his wound in order to slow the bleeding, it took a few minutes for the EMTs to arrive. Though I did what I could to help my former friend out, I wasn’t a trained doctor or medical professional, and there was no way to know just how much damage those delays caused him. Still, there was no reason to worry
Jules more than she already was. Her concern wouldn’t change anything. Nate would be okay because he had to be, because the last conversation I had with him couldn’t be our last conversation ever. It just couldn’t.
“Are you all right?” Jules asked, looking up at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You’ve been through a lot too, and the one thing the staff around here would tell me is that you refused a medical examination,” she said. “So, I want to know that you’re all right.”
“You don’t need to be worrying about me,” I said, taken aback by the fact that even with all she was going through, Jules’s mind would go to me.
“I’m always gonna worry about you,” she said. “Mostly because you’re too stubborn to worry about yourself.” She shook her head. “I never understood that about you. You’ll go to the ends of the earth for people. You’ll throw yourself into literal dangerous waters to save a stranger, but you won’t take the time to look out for yourself. So, if you’re not going to do it, somebody has to.” She took a deep breath, looking at the floor. “I don’t see anyone better suited for the job than me.”
I ran a hand through my hair and closed my eyes. “I’m gonna be okay,” I said. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“I couldn’t go see Walt Jermain,” Jules said, clearing her throat. “After you called me about Nate, I just couldn’t think of anything else.”
“I know,” I said, shaking my head. “I should have never asked you to. That was stupid of me. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you into this.”
“No,” Jules said sharply. “That’s not what I want. Honestly, you shouldn’t be involved in any of this either, Danny. This isn’t your fight. I talked to Miller. He told me enough of what was going on. The fact that the mayor and everyone is putting so much pressure on you to do this, and with Cameron James, no less . . . it’s awful.” She grabbed my hand. “I’ll tell them I was there if you want. I’ll go to the press and tell them I was on the beach that night and that all Cameron did was cry like a baby. It’ll put an end to all of this.”
I squeezed her hand. “A lie isn’t going to help another lie, even if I do appreciate the offer,” I said. “Besides, I’ve been thinking about what the mayor said, and though I think he’s a crappy person with awful tendencies, I don’t think he’s entirely wrong about this. Obviously, whatever’s going on is still happening. The guy who shot your brother, he didn’t do it for revenge. Someone forced him to do this. I could tell by the look of him, by the way he spoke. I need to find out who that person is.”
“So, you’re going to dig yourself deeper into this?” Jules asked, ripping her hand away from mine. “My brother is fighting for his life because of what’s going on here. Isn’t that enough to convince you to walk away, or does every man in my life have to suffer because the mayor’s daughter is in trouble?” She stepped closer to me. “You don’t have to do this. Even if the rest of the world tells you that you do, you don’t.” She blinked hard, and I saw tears pooling in her beautiful eyes. “And I’m asking you not to. I’ve been through so much tonight. I can’t go through any more.”
“I get that, Jules, and I hate what’s happened,” I said. “But I’m already in this. This man came to my doorstep with a gun. He might have shot your brother, but he was after me. If I don’t fix that, then what has any of it been for?”
“If you stop, they’ll stop,” she said. “If you just back off, then whoever is doing this will leave you alone.”
“And Gina will die,” I said.
A flash of hurt ran through Jules’s eyes. “Better her than you,” she muttered.
“You don’t mean that,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re better than that.”
“I wish I were,” she said. “But I can’t lose you, Danny. My brother’s on an operating table. I know you well enough to know when you’re lying. Nate is in worse shape than you’re letting on.”
“Jules, I just—”
“You want to protect me. I get it,” she said, cutting into my words.
“I do,” I confirmed.
“Good. Then protect me by walking away from this,” she said. “Let someone else handle it.” There was pleading in her voice as she continued. “You don’t have to fix everything, Danny. Please. For me, just—”
“I’m sorry, Jules,” I said, my heart breaking to let her down. “I wish I could do this for you, but you know that’s not who I am. I have to see this through.” Nate flashed through my mind. He might not have been my friend anymore, but he was hurt because he was coming to see me. “Especially now.”
23
My foot tapped quickly and loudly against the pavement as I stared at the police department, waiting to see her. I had been standing here for almost half an hour now, a full twenty minutes longer than Abby said it would take her to come out when I called. It took her another fifteen before she finally pushed through the glass double doors of the station, her hair pulled back and a leather jacket on her back, though it was by my account way too warm for that.
“Good thing I wasn’t in a hurry,” I said flatly as she walked up to me.
A smile graced her face, though it was a snide one. She pointed to the chrome on her belt. “This badge says I’m the only one who gets to be in a hurry.”
“I guess that’s fair,” I said. “I heard you had a busy day.”
“Not as busy as yours, it seems,” Abby said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You get yourself into more trouble than I can keep track of.”
“It’s not on purpose, I promise,” I said. “But it is what I wanted to come see you about.”
“I figured,” Abby said. “They told me you called asking who was questioning Edward Trembley.”
“Is that Chris?” I asked.
“He’s the man who attacked you and shot Nate,” Abby confirmed. “If he told you his name was Chris, he lied.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I answered. “I think he’s lied about a lot of things.”
“Well, he’s a low-level drug dealer and now an attempted murderer,” she said. “He’ll be an actual murderer if Nate doesn’t pull through this. You really shouldn’t expect honesty from people like that.”
“What do we know about him?” I asked, leaning against my car as the coastal wind drifted through the air, smelling of salt and cooling my face.
“Excuse me?” Abby chuckled. “That’s not a question I’m going to answer for you.”
“What?” I said. “And why not?”
“Because it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“The hell it doesn’t,” I said. “That man came to my doorstep. He wanted to shoot me.”
“All those things are true, but it still doesn’t give you the right to have insight into my investigation,” she said.
“I figured the fact that you asked me into the investigation gave me that right,” I said.
“Different investigation,” Abby said without missing a beat.
“Is it?” I asked. “Because I think it might be connected.”
“You broke up a drug deal,” Abby said. “You cost the kid money. Cost him product too. You also got him arrested and gave him his first strike. He was probably pissed about that, probably wanted some revenge.”
“This wasn’t about revenge!” I yelled. “This was something else! Someone was forcing him to do that, and I think it might be the same person responsible for trying to kill Gina.”
“You think that, do you?” Abby asked.
“I do,” I confirmed.
“Well, do you have any evidence that points to it? Because I just spent an hour interrogating the kid, and I don’t have any reason to believe it at all.”
“Like you said, maybe you shouldn’t be looking for honesty from someone like that,” I replied. “You ever think that he might have lied?”
She looked at me with mock shock, staring at me with exaggeratedly wide eyes. “You mean criminals can lie?” she asked.
“D
on’t be a smartass,” I muttered.
“Then don’t assume I can’t do my job,” she said. “Of course, I entertained the idea that the kid wasn’t being truthful with me. I see that every day, Danny. I know what it looks like. This kid was unsure of himself, but that comes hand in hand with a perpetrator’s first violent crime. So does the back and forth you’re talking about. He told me the same thing, you know? He told me what he told you and how in retrospect, he wasn’t making any sense. He was nervous. He had just shot a man, and he wasn’t thinking straight. It’s more common than you think.”
“With all due respect, I don’t think you’re right about that. I think it’s something else,” I said.
“And with all due respect, this isn’t the ocean. If I were stuck out on a sandbar and needed to be pulled back to dry land, there’s nobody I’d call quicker than you,” Abby said. “But this is a criminal investigation, and just because you happen to be one of the victims of it doesn’t mean you’re qualified to investigate it. Let me do my job, Danny.”
“And what the hell am I supposed to do while you’re doing so?” I asked.
“Last I heard, you had a Dateline interview to prepare for,” Abby said, smirking at me again. “I mean, the events of tonight will only serve to make it more interesting. They obviously haven’t done much to quench people’s curiosity about you.”
She motioned behind me. Turning, I saw a man standing off in the distance filming me with his phone.
“Dammit. I thought I shook all of those guys,” I said.
“You have a lot to deal with,” Abby said. “You have a newly public profile to grapple with, you’ve got new work responsibilities, the mayor is breathing down your back, and your friend was just shot in front of you.”