by Jamie Davis
“Okay,” Brynne said. “That’s enough of that, Dean. Anyway, since your probationary period is over, we need to be ready for when the Chief arrives to present you with your new badge. He approved it effective today, and he will be here any minute to give it to you personally.”
“Hey, congrats Dean,” Tammy said. “I had forgotten that was going to happen this morning. It is well deserved, and about time.”
“Yeah,” Brook added. “Kudos. You’ve definitely got the right touch for this kind of work.”
“Yes,” a raspy voice said from across the room. “Congratulations, Dean. I should whip up something special for the occasion.”
The voice came from a shambling, gray figure in the kitchenette area of the squad room. It was Freddy, a zombie and one of the undead Unusuals cared for by the Station U paramedics. He was also one of the best chefs in the country, or at least he had been. Unfortunately, Freddy had cheated on his voodoo priestess girlfriend and paid the price when she laid this curse on him. A few weeks earlier, when his trailer was burned down by The Cause, everyone had thought he perished in the fire. After it had been discovered by the paramedics at Station U that he had survived, they had decided to put him up in their station. Since then he had become the de facto housekeeper and cook for the paramedics there. It was a good arrangement for everyone, as long as he kept track of his digits and other body parts while he was cooking.
Dean murmured thanks to the congratulations from his friends. He felt the blush spread across his face at the praise, but he didn’t care. This was something he had been waiting for, and it had finally happened. No longer on probation, he was now a full-fledged paramedic and member of the team at Station U.
Ari, the Chief of EMS for the Elk City Fire Department arrived a few minutes later, and in a very brief presentation, without much ceremony at all, handed Dean his new badge that read “Paramedic,” without the probationary qualifier of his former shield. Everyone shook his hand and congratulated him again. The Chief left, waving off an offer to stay for breakfast saying he had an early meeting. He did tell Freddy that he’d take a rain check, stating that his favorite breakfast was Eggs Benedict.
Brook and Tammy came over and shook Dean’s hand one more time. Then the two ladies grabbed their gear, including a takeout container of fresh breakfast from Freddy for each of them, and headed out the station door to go home.
Dean watched them leave, still basking in the glow of the promotion. Brynne broke his reverie. “Don’t you have some bags to check at the beginning of the shift? Get them checked out and then I’ll let you drive to the first call.”
“Yes, Mistress Brynne,” Dean said with a flourish and bow. “I’ll get right on that.” He headed out to the ambulance bay to get started on the shift work. He was going to get the chance now to trade off on most calls with Brynne. He would drive some and act as primary patient care paramedic on others. He climbed into the back of the ambulance and began to go through the bags to make sure that everything they’d need for the shift was available and in the right place. It did not take him long. Brook and Tammy had done their end of shift checks within the last hour, and everything was fully stocked and in its expected place. He was just finishing up when the alert tones sounded on the overhead speakers.
“Medical Box 423, injured subject from an assault. 1258 Sparks Road, Elk City,” said the dispatcher over the radio.
Dean’s head jerked up when he heard the address. That was his former street address. He hoped the Baxters were alright. Brynne popped her head around the open door at the back of the ambulance.
“Hey, Dean, isn’t that your …”
“Yep, it’s my address, or my landlord’s,” Dean responded. He finished zipping up the bags, storing them in their compartments. He then walked around to the driver’s seat as Brynne climbed into the passenger side. She got on the radio and reported them responding, then switched to the med channel for additional information. The dispatcher came on and relayed that no additional was available, only that an injured subject was found in the garage, and that police were on the scene.
“I wonder why they called us?” Dean wondered aloud. “There are no Unusuals in the neighborhood that I know of and what are the police doing there? My apartment is in the detached garage. Could some former patient have sought me out?” Brynne leaned forward and keyed the siren on the ambulance dashboard to help move some of the early morning rush hour traffic out of their way as they sped down the road towards his residential neighborhood.
They saw the police lights first as they approached the scene. There were three police cruisers pulled up in front of the house and garage on the usually quiet residential street. Neighbors were standing on their porches and on the sidewalks nearby, watching as the police stood in the driveway. Dean pulled the ambulance out front between two police cars, positioned so they could easily pull out of their parking slot once they were ready to leave with the patient. It was important not to park in a way to get blocked in by other responding units. Dean climbed out, feeling a bit apprehensive as he saw one officer come down the stairs from his apartment above the garage. Brynne grabbed the bags and oxygen container from the side compartment while he grabbed the heart monitor and drug bag from inside the ambulance before joining her on the sidewalk.
The police officer who had just descended the stairs shook his head as he approached them. “I don’t think you’ll need that stuff. We just need you to go up and pronounce the guy dead so we can let the crime scene guys go in and do their work when they get here.”
“There’s a dead guy up there?” Dean blurted out. He rushed across the driveway and up the stairs with Brynne close on his heels. He did not hear her calling after him in alarm. Running up the stairs, Dean pushed open the door to the apartment he had left less than an hour before and saw that the place had been ransacked. It looked like there had been a fight. His kitchen chairs were pushed aside or overturned, and the sofa was shoved back from its usual position. A police officer was standing next to the sofa, and when Dean rounded the edge of it, he saw the body - Zach’s body. There was the handle of a large kitchen knife protruding from his chest, and Dean could see several other stab wounds in the body from where he stood rooted to the spot. Brynne gasped from behind him.
The police officer turned and looked at them with a quizzical expression. “You guys act like you’ve never seen a dead guy before.” He moved across the room to the doorway. “I have to get the digital camera out of the car. Make sure you don’t move anything you don’t have to. This is a crime scene, remember.”
Brynne took a deep breath. “Dean …” She moved in front of him, into his field of vision, making him meet her eyes. “You need to go back to the ambulance. Go right now.”
“But …” Dean started towards the body on the floor by the sofa, his sofa.
“No buts,” Brynne said, firmly planting her hand in the center of his chest, stopping him from moving. “You go down and wait for me at the ambulance. I’ll take care of things up here and be down in a moment.” She finished in a whisper. “Don’t say anything to anyone until I get there.” She poked him in the chest to get his attention. He glanced back at Zach’s body then looked down at his partner standing in front of him.
“Did you hear me?” Brynne whispered, poking him again to punctuate her question. “Go downstairs to the ambulance, and don’t talk to anyone until I get back down there. Do you understand?”
Dean nodded, then turned and went back out onto the small landing at the top of the stairs. He took a deep breath then descended back down to the driveway to the ambulance. The police officer was returning with his camera and nodded at Dean as he passed. Dean hardly noticed. His mind was racing. How had Zach gotten back into his apartment, and who had attacked him? He had just left there a little more than an hour before. Everything had been normal. He had made sure the door was locked, and everything was secure. There were so many questions swirling in his head. He continued walking to the ambulance, hi
s legs feeling stiff and wooden. When he got back to the emergency vehicle, he climbed in the back and replaced the heart monitor in its rack and put the other bags back in their compartments. Then he exited the back of the ambulance and sat down on the back bumper. He was sitting there with his mind racing in multiple directions when Brynne returned from the apartment. She walked over to Dean, took him by the arm and led him to the passenger side door of the cab.
“Get in,” she said.
“But, I’m driving,” he responded.
“No words, just get in. I’ll drive back,” she ordered. “We are going back to the station. Don’t say anything, just get in your seat and buckle up.”
He didn’t understand, but followed her instructions and climbed into the passenger seat. He watched her walk over to one of the officers on the scene. She exchanged a few words before coming back to the ambulance and climbing into the driver’s seat.
“Put us back in service with a priority four patient,” Brynne said as she put the ambulance in gear, slowly pulled out from between the police cars, and started down the street.
Dean picked up the mic and alerted headquarters that they were back in service following pronouncing their prospective patient dead - a priority four. A priority one patient was a critical patient, and then the numbers went down to four based on the differing needs each type of patient had for emergency care. A priority four patient was one who needed no care at all - usually, but not always because they were dead.
He placed the mic back on its cradle on the dash and looked at his partner. “Brynne, what’s going on? Why was Zach killed back there, in my apartment? I was just there before I came to work.”
“I know, Dean,” she said as she drove, not taking her eyes off the road. “The police didn’t know whose apartment that is. I asked. That gives us some time to come up with a plan. We need to get you back to the station, and we need to get you some legal representation before the police detectives put two and two together and come looking for you. You’re being set up, Dean. Someone obviously wants to frame you for Zach’s murder.”
“But why?” Dean asked.
“It’s a perfect plan, actually,” Brynne said. “You get saddled with the murder of Zach and end up disgraced, or even in jail. If you are in jail or no longer working as a paramedic, maybe that means you can’t do what it is you’re supposed to do to stop the current attacks on our patients. Then you can’t stop The Cause. They obviously have their own resources who have told them you are central to the situation here in Elk City. Someone decided to try and remove you from the picture.”
“But I didn’t do it,” Dean argued.
“I know that Dean,” Brynne replied. She looked his way with concern on her face. “I know that. You know that. We all know that, but to the police… Well, at the very least, this is going to look suspicious. They are going to tag you as a material witness or person of interest. At worst you’re going to get charged with doing the deed. Maybe it can be passed off as self-defense, but that will take a trial to determine. In the meantime, you may be sidelined by the investigation, and maybe suspended or fired from the department.”
They drove in silence for a while. Suspended? Fired? But he had just gotten promoted. He was wrapped up in these sad thoughts when Brynne spoke up again. “When we get back, you call Ashley and tell her what happened. If you don’t get her, don’t leave a voicemail. Just hang up. We don’t need you recording your random thoughts about this anywhere the police can find it. I’ll contact James. He’ll know what to do, and should be able to get you a lawyer in the meantime.” Dean had no words.
“We’ll get through this, Dean,” Brynne said as she drove. “We just need to keep our heads on our shoulders, think it all through, and plan carefully.”
Dean just nodded. He was still in shock. He could still see Zach’s lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling as he lay on the floor next to the sofa with that knife sticking out of his chest. It was one of his kitchen knives. He recognized the handle where it jutted from his paramedic predecessor’s chest. This was all spinning out of control, and he didn’t know what to do. He hoped Brynne did because he was lost at that moment. He was lost and afraid that his whole life was slipping away. This shift had started with his promotion. Now, it may be taken away from him. He stared out the windshield trying to make some sense of it.
Chapter 54
Dean left the ambulance after Brynne backed it into the ambulance bay, and started pacing back and forth in the garage behind the emergency vehicle. What was he supposed to say when he called Ashley? How had this happened? Who killed Zach in his apartment? There were too many questions swirling around in his head for him to figure out what was going on. He turned and went into the squad room to find Brynne finishing up a conversation on her cell phone.
“I will keep him here, James,” she said. “You get him a lawyer, a good one. This is going to be tough to beat. The set up looked pretty solid. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he did it.” She looked up and saw Dean standing there. “Uh, look, I gotta go. Call me back when you have a lawyer for him and a plan.”
“Did you mean what you said?” Dean asked. “That you could believe that I did this?”
“That’s not what I said, Dean,” Brynne replied. “I stated that if I didn’t know otherwise, I would think you were a suspect. Believe me, if I thought you had done this, I would have reported you to the police right there on the scene.” She glanced down at the phone in his hand and asked, “Did you call Ashley?”
“No, not yet,” Dean admitted. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to tell her.”
“Tell her you’re likely to be framed for Zach’s murder and that you expect the police to come looking for you any moment,” his partner said. “But, remember, don’t leave a voice message if she doesn’t pick up. Just hang up the phone.”
Dean pulled up Ashley on his phone and pressed the send button to call her. He waited to hear her voice. She would know how to calm him and ease his anxiety. She always did. He waited and waited, and then it went to voicemail. He did as Brynne said and hung up rather than leave a message. Her smartphone would show he had called, so that was enough. She would call him back.
“Not picking up?” Brynne asked. “Okay, I’ll text her and tell her to call me right away.”
There was a knock at the station door, and Dean flinched. Brynne went over and looked out the window into the parking lot. Dean waited for her to tell him who it was. She turned and looked a little pale.
“It’s the police, Dean,” she said. “I’m going to let them in. Don’t say anything, just request an attorney and then shut up.”
“But why don’t I just tell them I didn’t do it?” Dean asked. “We work with these guys all the time at accidents and other emergency scenes. They know us.” The police outside knocked on the door again.
Brynne headed to the door. “You don’t say anything. They could twist anything you say to mean something different. Just stay quiet. Request an attorney. That’s it.” His partner held his gaze for a moment to let what she said to sink in, then turned to walk across the squad room to the parking lot door.
Brynne opened the door and stepped back as two uniformed police officers, and a plain-clothes detective with his badge on a lanyard around his neck entered the room. Dean recognized the two uniformed officers from the scene, and he knew them as the police officers from the law enforcement version of Station U.
The detective spoke up as he came in. “Dean Flynn? I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Detective Ricketts. I’d like to ask you a few questions. We are all a little curious as to why you didn’t identify yourself as the resident of that apartment to the officers on the scene when you responded back there?”
Dean started to answer the question, to defend himself, but caught Brynne’s quick shake of her head out of the corner of his eye and stopped himself. “Uh, I’d like to have a lawyer present before I answer any questions,” Dean said quickly. Brynne nodded
and gave a little smile of encouragement.
The detective seemed to notice the byplay. “If that’s the way you want to do this. You know that asking for a lawyer only serves to make you look guilty in our eyes. It will go better if you just tell us what happened back there at your apartment.”
Dean couldn’t resist. “How would I know? I didn’t even stay there last night.”
“Well that might be true, but your landlord,” the detective paused and pulled out a notepad and glanced at it. “A Mrs. Baxter, says that you were there just a few hours ago. She saw you go upstairs this morning around five thirty AM. Would you care to explain that? I could understand if you surprised a burglar. It could all just be self-defense.”
“Dean, don’t say another word,” Brynne cautioned. “Wait for your lawyer like I said.”
“Ma’am, I’ll ask you to stay out of this,” the detective interjected. “I have questions for you, too. I wondered why you didn’t remain on the scene longer? I was surprised when you weren’t still there when I arrived. It seems that you may have a part in this, too, since you tried to hide evidence.”
“What evidence?” she shot back. “I only pronounced the victim dead. That was why we were called to the scene. Once that is done, we’re obligated to put our unit back in service. We usually hang out on the location for a while when we have nothing better to do, but nothing says we have to.”
“Did you recognize the victim?” the detective asked her. “O’Malley here says he does. Isn’t the deceased your former partner at this ambulance station?”
“He is. But you didn’t ask for his identity,” Brynne replied. “I was just doing my job pronouncing death. I will let you all do the police work.”
The detective sighed and motioned to the two officers. “Okay, if that’s the way you two want to handle things. Dean Flynn, you are being taken into custody for questioning in the death of Zachary Castle. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can, and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you by the court. Do you understand these rights as I have recited them to you?”