Chapter Twenty-Four
Lamar stood back as Detective Lovato was loaded into the ambulance. Something about the scene unfolding was bothering him, but he couldn’t be sure why. Trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, he raised his cell phone and began to record.
“I’m riding with my partner,” Joe Scaline snapped as the Chief walked toward the ambulance, his words nearly a challenge.
“I’d expect no less, son,” the Chief said calmly as Scaline climbed in behind the stretcher holding his unconscious partner. “Update me as soon as you know anything.”
“Make sure they check your face, Joe,” Lamar called out, a frown twisting his lips as a drop of blood from Scaline’s cheek dripped down and plopped to the floor of the ambulance. Scaline raised his hand in acknowledgment as the ambulance door was slammed shut.
Lamar watched in silence as the ambulance screamed off toward the hospital and then turned back inside as the Chief stepped to his side on the way to the elevator.
Officer Down! All EMT teams to parking level two!
They froze and stared at each other as the call rang out through the wall-mounted loudspeaker.
The Chief shook his head as they turned back the way they’d come at a run. “What the hell is going on?”
With nothing to offer, Lamar just shook his head and kept on running.
Skidding to a stop at the crowd of uniforms huddled together around the fallen officer, Lamar took advantage of his proximity to the Chief, all but plastering himself to his back to follow him through the crowd.
When they reach the inner circle, Lamar’s stomach dropped. “Son of a bitch.”
Lying on the cold concrete floor with the emergency medics kneeling around him, his skin a deathly white against the bright red blood welling out from the wound in his belly, was Joe Scaline.
TherealJoe Scaline.
The fucking killer hadn’t just escaped out from under their noses, they’d all but called him a taxi.
“Get ahold of that ambulance!” the Chief shouted at no one in particular, his cheeks flaring an unhealthy red. “I want this fucker caught, now!”
“On it,” a rookie that Lamar thought he recognized from the dispatch team responded immediately, his cell phone already at his ear. “They aren’t responding to radio calls.”
“Get the chopper in the air,” the Chief snapped at someone else. “Right this minute!” He turned to Lamar. “You packing?”
Lamar pulled his jacket back to reveal the nine-millimeter Barretta snug in his hip holster. The Chief nodded his approval and headed for the stairs. “You’re with me.”
Lamar was strapping on his seatbelt in the Chief’s department-issued SUV when his cell phone rang. After a moment of terse conversation, he shoved it back in his pocket and turned to the Chief. “That was Annie in Community Relations. The bird is still twenty minutes from being ready to take off, but Channel 11 has their traffic team in the air. They are going to head our way and broadcast on the department frequency.”
The Chief grunted his approval and threw the SUV in gear, his lights flashing and sirens blaring as he turned down the same path that the ambulance had taken.
“Stop!” Lamar shouted, catching the faintest flash of hunter orange in the brush about a mile down the road. “There’s something there!” He was out of the car and down the embankment before the SUV reached a full stop. Sure enough, the orange that had caught his eyes was the reflective vests the EMTs wore over their uniforms. “Son of a bitch!”
Realizing that he’d left his radio on his desk, Lamar hollered at the Chief who was preparing to follow him down. “Throw me the first aid kit and get a bus! It’s Scaline and the paramedics. Three gunshot wounds!” Waiting impatiently in the seconds it took for the field EMT kit to be tossed down the embankment, Lamar snatched it from its landing spot and trotted back to the victims, determined to do what he could for them until help arrived.
“Are we sure these are all real victims?” the Chief asked under his breath as the three stretchers were loaded into the two newly arrived ambulances.
Lamar nodded grimly. “I checked each of them before they were treated.” He ground his teeth together. “I flashed all four paramedics with the mirror also.”
Despite the gravity of the situation, the Chief snickered. “I’ll betthatconfused them.”
Lamar just shrugged. “I’ve already got the reputation for being that weirdo who works with the P-Norms,” he said. “Not sure anything can make me seem any weirder than that.”
The Chief narrowed his eyes. “Are you guys getting shit I don’t know about? The department’s Paranormal Inclusion program is one of our top human resource priorities. If you’re being hassled, I need to know.”
“Not the way you mean, boss,” Lamar denied, regretting mentioning it. “You know how it is. Some guys don’t like to work with anyone who isn’t like them and don’t understand the people who will.”
The Chief nodded slowly, making it clear he was only letting it go due to the timing. “We’ll shelve it for now. But when we nail this fucker, we’re sitting down.”
Lamar nodded, still keeping his eyes trained on the ambulances that were pulling away, this time sandwiched in between patrol car escorts. “Sure thing, boss. In the meantime, I should probably get on the radio and see if they’ve got a twenty on that stolen ambulance.”
The Chief nodded his agreement and followed him back to the SUV. “And I should probably let Genov out of my office. Let’s head back.”
