by Jamie Davis
Zipping up the full suitcase, he went out onto the small porch at the top of the stairs and pulled the door shut behind him, locking it and checking to make sure it was latched. It had just been a few nights before when the former paramedic Zach had attacked both him and Ashley in that apartment. It had been an act of desperation, after his actions as a member of the hate group, The Cause, had exposed him to authorities. The Cause was determined to expose the monsters living among the humans, and drive the Unusuals from their community. Zach was now being hunted by the police, following his exposure on surveillance video firebombing a local restaurant owned by a member of the Unusual community in Elk City. Based on his statements to Dean and Ashley during his attack on them, The Cause was displeased with him getting caught on camera.
Ashley had disarmed Zach, even while he held a knife to her throat, by using her innate Eldara powers to overwhelm him. The former paramedic had fled the apartment in fear. That attack had finally persuaded Ashley that she and Dean needed to take James and Brynne up on the offer of a safe place to stay downtown. Dean wondered where Zach was now. Ashley had announced to Zach during the attack, with startling finality, that his time on the earth was short, stating that The Cause member would not live out the week. She had told Dean that she sensed his lifeline shorten as soon as he made the final decision to refuse their offer to surrender and accept their help. Instead, he tried to kill Ashley. Wherever he was, Dean hoped he didn’t do anything else dangerous or stupid in his desperation to change his fate. Grabbing the suitcase by the handle, Dean headed down the outside stairs and tossed it in the passenger seat of his white pickup truck. He glanced at his watch. It was time head into work.
2
Dean pulled into the station parking lot about fifteen minutes early, then went inside to see the two nightshift paramedics, Brook and Tammy, seated in recliners, watching some syndicated, reality court TV show. He laughed because he knew they were hooked on the show, and they talked about it all the time.
“What’s Judge Jane up to now?” Dean asked as he walked by. “Is she slapping down some idiot who thinks he doesn’t have to pay his ex-wife’s car payment or something?”
“You have no appreciation of what good entertainment is all about,” Tammy quipped. “Judge Jane tells it like it is and she doesn’t take any sass from anybody.”
“Did you really just say ‘she doesn’t take any sass’?” Dean asked, laughing aloud.
“That’s what Judge Jane calls it, and I don’t know a better word to use than what she uses,” Brook, the younger of the two, defended her partner then changed the subject. “Hey, how’s the new digs downtown? Is the apartment classy?”
“It’s nice, but it’s not the same as being home in my own place,” Dean said. “It’s kind of like a high-end hotel suite, as in a fun place to stay, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”
“Wouldn’t want to live where?” Brynne, Dean’s partner and supervisor, entered the squad room, catching the end of the conversation.
“We were just asking Dean for details on his new place downtown,” Tammy explained. “We wanted details on how the other half lives. You know, Brynne, like when you have a sugar daddy.” Dean knew that Tammy referred to Brynne’s boyfriend, James Lee. He was more than just wealthy. He was also the vampire overlord of all the Unusuals in the Elk City region.
“Oh, ha ha,” Brynne said. “James is not a sugar daddy by any stretch of the imagination.”
“He just pays the bills and gives you a free place to stay,” Brook chimed in. “I don’t know. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck … you know.”
Dean jumped in. “You should see the penthouse apartment on the top floor, ladies, all full of artwork and fancy furniture, personally selected by an interior designer. I thought I’d stepped into a museum. Plus he’s got a big screen TV that is as big as that entire wall,” he said gesturing at the wall with the bookshelf and the station’s small flatscreen television.
“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 injur
ed 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, his 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 p
aramedic 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.
3
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.”