Déjà-BOOM!

by Wally Duff

  110

  “I’m sorry?” I said to another EMT tech, as he unwrapped a blood pressure cuff off of my right arm. “It’s my ears. They’re ringing so loudly I can’t hear you.”

  I sat in an ambulance. I couldn’t stop shivering. I kept asking about Tony, but no one knew anything.

  Tony might die because I got him into this.

  There was total chaos outside the vehicle.

  “I said ‘nice throw,’ lady,” he said, as he helped me wipe Tony’s dried blood off my hand and forearms. My top and shorts were soaked, too, but they were a lost cause.

  He reached up and removed more blood from my face. “Not much I can do about your hair,” he said. “Shower will help that.”

  “Not sure how his blood got in there.”

  “In all the excitement you probably touched your hair.” He looked at me. “Like you just did.”

  I quickly lowered my hands from my head.

  A SWAT team member walked up to me. “One of our guys said you threw the detonator almost two hundred feet in the air before it exploded.” He paused. “Thank you for saving all of us.”

  Another SWAT cop came up. “Ma’am, you have real balls, but if you don’t mind me asking, what the hell were you thinking?”

  “I wasn’t. I guess that’s why I did it. How is Tony?”

  “Sorry, I don’t know.”

  “Did you catch the bomber?”

  “Didn’t catch the bomber or the shooter.”

  “Don’t you think they’re the same person?”

  “I don’t think. Not my job. The detectives do that, especially with what’s going on at lab.”

  “God, with all this excitement I forgot all about that. What happened? Is Dr. Mittelman okay?”

  “There was a bomb somewhere in the lab. It was detonated one minute before Infantino got shot. I don’t know anything about who was injured out there.”

  “So there are at least two people involved in doing this?”

  “Again, it’s not my job to speculate, but our bomb guy says a device can be set off by a cell phone, so the bomber could have done it from here before he shot Tony.”

  “Where did the shot come from?” I asked.

  “No one saw a muzzle flash, so it’ll be up to the shooting team to figure it out.”

  Cas walked up, covered in Tony’s blood. The tech handed her a wet towel. She used it to clean herself up and then she hugged me. “Thanks for helping me with Tony.”

  “All I did was get in the way. How is he?”

  “You pretty much saw it all. He has an intracranial GSW. It’s what’s going on inside his head right now that matters.”

  I touched the scar on the right side of my head. “How well I know.”

  111

  A mass of humanity and vehicles jammed the street, making our return to the stakeout apartment a struggle. In addition to the police and rescue units, there were fire trucks and other emergency vehicles blocking the way. A cloud of smoke from the exploded detonator hung over the street, the stench of the spent explosive still fouling the air.

  There was already a yellow crime scene tape across the front door of the building. Three uniformed cops, who didn’t appear happy, guarded it. One of them held a clipboard.

  Cas stood next to me. I wanted to call Carter, but my cell phone was upstairs in my backpack.

  “We need to get in here,” I said to the cop in the middle.

  “Not happening,” he said.

  “Please. I need my cell phone.”

  His response was to cross his arms in front of his chest. The other two followed his lead.

  “They’re with me, officer,” a low-pitched voice behind me said. “They’re material witnesses.” She pointed at Tony’s dried blood on our clothes. “I need to interview them in there.”

  I turned around and saw a woman about my age with short, curly ash brown hair holding up a gold detective’s shield. The brown leather jacket and black slacks she wore didn’t hide an athletic figure. She held up her credentials to the cop holding the murder book. He checked her in. She gently shoved Cas and me past the three officers into the lobby before they could object further.

  She stopped. We did too. She held out her right hand.

  “I’m Detective Jan Corritore.”

  I shook her hand. Cas did too.

  “I’m Tony’s partner,” she continued.

  “But...” I began.

  “Being a woman?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Tony and me, a skirt, for a partner. Hard to figure, but it works.”

  She urged us forward. “I’m running this investigation and need all the help I can get.”

  “We’ll do whatever we can,” I said. “Where are my friends?”

  “Still upstairs with one of my detectives,” she said. “Follow me.”

  We walked into the room. A male detective talked to Brittany and Molly. David wasn’t there.

  “I got this, Nick,” Corritore said.

  He left. I introduced Detective Corritore to Molly and Brittany, who immediately took out her cell phone.

  “What are you doing?” Corritore asked.

  “I’m going to send out a tweet about what just happened. Then I’ll take a couple of pictures and post them on the Tribune Facebook and Instagram accounts.”

  “I’m not sure how smart that is right about now,” Corritore said.

  “It’s breaking news, and I have the exclusive,” she said.

  Before Corritore could say anything else, I yanked the cell phone out of Brittany’s hand. “Last time I checked, this was our story.”

  “You can write it for the paper’s print edition, or the online version, but by then it’ll be old news. You guys probably never used social media back in the day.”

  She reached for her phone. I held on to it.

  “Call your boss,” I said. “Tell him what happened and that I’m fine. I’ll call him when Detective Corritore is done talking to us.”

  I handed her the phone. Carter would freak out, but there was no other way.

  “If he okays the social media, then do it,” I continued. “But just so you know, ‘in the day,’ as you put it, we had all the facts before we wrote one word.”

  She took back the phone and began punching in numbers. “Whatever.”

  112

  “Where’s David?” I asked.

  “I’m pretty sure he’s still in the bathroom,” Molly said. “He got kinda sick when Tony was shot, and then, when the bomb exploded, he really freaked out and ran out of the room.”

  I turned to Corritore. “I’ll be right back.”

  “I’m going with you,” she said.

  We went down the hall to the bathroom. Cas was right behind us. The door was locked. Behind the closed door, we heard someone retching.

  I knocked softly. “David, are you okay?”

  The toilet flushed. The faucet was turned on, followed by splashing.

  A few seconds later, the door slowly opened. David had a towel in his hands. To say that his face was ashen was a gross understatement. He looked like was going to die.

  “I am so embarrassed,” he whispered, as he folded up the towel.

  Putting my arm around his shoulders, I gave him a hug. “Let’s go sit down, okay?”

  David hung up the towel and leaned on me as we walked back down the hall. I noticed Corritore inspect the bathroom before she closed the door.

  “Don’t use this room,” she said. “It’s now part of the crime scene.”

  David sat down in the chair by his computer. Once he was there, the color returned to his face. The familiar surroundings of his equipment seemed to revive him.

  Corritore took over. “I need to know everything you people remember,” she said, taking out her small notebook and a pen. “Tina, you go first. Set the scene for me. Where was everyone positioned?”

  I walked to the window. “I was right here. Molly was to my right with the binoculars. Cas was to my left.
Brittany was next to Molly. David was back there with his computer.” I turned around. “Actually, where he’s sitting right now.”

  “Why weren’t you with everyone else, David?” Corritore asked.

  “I, ah, didn’t want to watch,” he said softly.

  “Got it,” Corritore said. She motioned with her hand. “Keep going, Tina.”

  “Molly saw the detonator. I realized what was happening. I yelled through the window at Tony to get out of there, but before he could, he was shot. I saw him fall. I ran to him, picked up the detonator, and threw it as far as I could.”

  “The shot might have come from one of these buildings,” Corritore said. “But so far we haven’t come up with much. What else do you remember?”

  “I yelled at Tony about the bomb. A red laser dot appeared on his head.” I took in a deep breath. “And then he was shot.”

  113

  “That was the sequence,” I concluded.

  “Anything else?” Corritore asked.

  I shut my eyes and relived the scene. “I heard a gunshot to my left. As I ran out the door, I remember hearing someone yelling and footsteps behind me.”

  “That was me behind Tina,” Cas said. “David screamed at us to stop. But before that happened, Molly spotted the detonator. We opened the window. Tina yelled at Tony. He looked up at us. I saw the red dot, too, and then Tony was hit. Tina turned around and ran out the door. I would have been right with her, but I had to dodge David, who was standing right behind me.”

  “David, I thought you were at your computer?” Corritore asked.

  “I was, but when I heard Tina yell at Tony, I ran to the window to see what was wrong,” he said. “I was behind Cas, and she bumped into me when she ran to the door. I guess it must have been me who screamed at them to stop.” He put his head down. “I honestly don’t remember doing it.”

  His face turned white. I was afraid he would need to go back to the bathroom, but he swallowed a couple of times and seemed to rally.

  “I looked out the window and saw Tina running toward Tony,” he continued. “Cas was behind her. Tina reached down in the bushes and grabbed something, which she threw in the air. There was a bright flash of light and then a loud explosion.” He stopped and took in a deep breath. “I… I thought everyone had been killed, and I got sick. I don’t know much else, because I spent the rest of the time in the bathroom until you came and got me.”

  Corritore turned to Molly and Brittany. “Did you guys leave the room too?”

  “No, we stayed here,” Molly said.

  David suddenly stood up and wobbled out of the room. Through the open door we could hear him dry-heaving in the bathroom.

  “Poor guy,” Molly said.

  “I wish we could do something to help him,” Cas said.

  “Catching the bomber might take care of it,” I said.

  Corritore went over her notes. “Okay, one more time,” she said. “Tina, are you positive you heard the gunshot come from your left?”

  “I am. Now that I think about it, the shot was so loud it seemed like it was close to me, like on a firing range.”

  She pulled out her gun. “You guys stay here.”

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “If that gunshot came from your left and was that loud, the suspect might still be hiding in one of the rooms on this floor.”

  She radioed for backup.

  114

  Corritore opened the apartment door.

  “Shouldn’t you wait for your backup?” I asked.

  Her voice was firm. “This guy ambushed Tony. He would do the same thing for me if our roles were reversed. When they get here, tell them where I am.”

  She ran out the door to the first room on our left. She shouted, “Police!” and crashed the door open.

  One minute later, she repeated the process in the next room. Nothing happened.

  There was one more room and the bathroom still to be searched. She knocked on the bathroom door.

  “David, are you okay?” she asked

  There was a pause. “I just need to sit here a while,” he said softly.

  “I’ll meet you back in the room,” she said. “I have something to do out here.”

  I turned to Cas. “Her backup isn’t here, and there’s only one room left. She needs help.”

  I took the Glock out of my backpack and chambered a round. Cas reached into hers and pulled out her Taser and the wasp spray.

  We joined Corritore in the hallway. We stood in front of the last room at the end of the hall. If the killer was still here, he was in this room.

  Corritore eyed my gun and Cas’s weapons.

  “We’re gonna be your backup,” I said.

  “Okay, but stay out here in the hall,” she said. “You are civilians. I do not want you getting hurt.” She glanced at Cas’s wasp spray and shrugged. “I have no idea what you do with that, but whatever it is, don’t point it at me.”

  “What if you need help?” I asked.

  “You stay here!”

  She took in a deep breath and kicked the door open. She barged inside.

  “Police!” she shouted, moving to her right.

  We wanted to help, but we waited in the hallway. Through the open doorway, we watched the detective cover the room with her flashlight. There was a form on a chair by the window.

  Corritore ran to it with her gun in front of her. It was a white lab coat draped over the chair.

  She nudged it with her gun. “It’s from a laundry company in Arlington, Virginia.” She turned to us. “You guys know anything about this?”

  “I do,” I said. “It’s a message to me from the bomber. He wants me to know he did this.”

  Corritore holstered her gun and found a light switch on the wall. She flipped it, but the ceiling light didn’t go on. She shined her flashlight up at it. The bulb was missing.

  “The shooter wasn’t taking any chances on someone coming up behind him and turning on the light,” she said.

  Through the open window, she studied the spot in the parking lot where Tony had fallen. “This is where it happened.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked.

  “The smell.”

  I sniffed. Even in the hallway, the pungent odor of fresh gunpowder faintly permeated the air.

  “Where do you think he is now?” Cas asked.

  “Best guess is that as soon as he fired at Tony he split. No one would notice anyone leaving with all this confusion.”

  “But what about the bomb?” I asked. “Wouldn’t he wait to set it off?”

  “I wouldn’t,” she said. “I would shoot Tony and set the bomb off with my cell phone. Or have the device on a timer, guessing at how long it would take for the SWAT team to get to Tony.”

  From the hallway, I looked at the chair and the window. “Doesn’t appear to be a hard shot,” I said.

  “Couldn’t be more than thirty or forty yards,” Corritore confirmed. “It’s a perfect kill zone.”

  “But Tony was still alive when the EMTs took him,” I said. “The other doctor he shot isn’t. Hard to believe the bomber missed.”

  “He didn’t exactly miss,” she said. “Let’s hope and pray Tony makes it.”

  115

  We reentered our room. Corritore’s backup finally arrived. She sent them down to the room and called for the CSI team.

  Molly stood and stared out the windows. David took down his computer equipment. One of his carriers was already full of cyber gear. Brittany was gone. I retrieved my cell phone from my backpack and called Carter.

  He picked up immediately. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Brittany told me her version of what happened. What’s yours?”

  I told him everything, just as I’d related it to Corritore.

  I finished. He didn’t respond.

  “I’m sorry,” I continued. “I shouldn’t have done what I did, but I couldn’t help myself.”

  “I unde
rstand why you did it, but I’ve already taken the liberty of editing the story. It will be reported that after Infantino was shot, it is believed that a member of the SWAT team discovered the bomb in the bushes. They threw the detonator into the sky before there was a terrible catastrophe.”