And with that, Ace and Jai swung to the lot to get the Crown Vic while Eric went wide, glad to see that the outside cameras had red lights flashing, showing they, too, had been put out of commission when he’d been tootling about on his phone.
“Brady,” he ordered, sliding behind the SUV with the cop, “call for an ambulance, and go cuff the fuckers before they figure out they’re not gonna die.”
“Eric?” Brady had been sweating, Eric realized. He’d been crouching here behind his SUV, planning to stand here and make a heroic stand while no help—none at all—was coming. “What in the hell are you doing here?” Brady slid his eyes sideways, and he took in the gun held at Eric’s side. “You didn’t….”
Eric shook his head. “As. If,” he pronounced with disdain. He didn’t want to say that he made more interest in his offshore accounts in a day than this place took in during the course of a week, but, well, it was what it was. “No. I was going to openan account here, since I just moved to the area, but, well, things happened.”
Brady’s eyes narrowed. “Really? That’s what you’re going with?”
There was a beep behind him, and Eric shrugged gamely. “Listen—call for an ambulance, handcuff the perpetrators, take people’s statements, and when it comes to passing some of what they say on, remember this. Those assholes were waiting for something—they could have been out of there three minutes early, before you even arrived. But the minute you came roaring in, they said, ‘That’s him!’ and lined up to take you out. So you make your own decisions, but before you mention you talked to your new friend Eric, maybe check to see what that’s all about.”
Ace stuck his head outside the window. “Comeon!” he hollered. “Those assholes can only pretend to be so late for the fuckin’ call!”
Brady abandoned his fear of whatever was in the bank and stared at Ace.
For his part, Ace grinned and waved, his hand bloody. “Did he tell you to call the ambulance? You’d better hurry—one of those guys has a gut wound!”
And then Eric hustled his ass to the back of the Crown Vic, hopped in, and belted up before Ace could hit the pavement.
Seatbelts saved lives, doncha know.
Night Swimming
THE NURSEat the hospital was sort of cute, Brady thought absently. Slightly built, blond, and blue eyed, he had a sweet, reassuring smile, even for baffled police officers checking on bank robbers.
“Well,” said Nurse G. Carmichael, “I’m not sure what to tell you. All of the men needed some sort of surgery, and we’re a ten-bed hospital! Two of the guys had head injuries—concussions and broken jaws—and one of them had his forearm broken by a bullet. Another guy had a bullet in his shoulder muscle”—Nurse Carmichael indicated the fatty upper part of the arm—“and a knife wound in his lower abdomen. And don’t get me started on the guy with the knife woundthroughhis hand into one of the concussion’s shoulder. It was aclusterfuckinvolving guns, knives, and a size fourteen….” The nurse’s voice trailed off for a moment. “Oh fuck,” he muttered.
Brady glanced at the nurse in confusion. “Is something wrong here?”
Nurse Carmichael shook his head no and then squinted at Brady’s uniform nametag in concentration. “Ohfuck,” he said again, shaking his head.
“What?” Brady asked, his voice rising. “What—are these guys going to die?”
“No,” Carmichael said. “Even the guy with the gut wound is going to be okay—you called in the ambulances and the wounds soon enough for us to get a trauma surgeon here, stat. I just…goddammit.” He shook his head like he was mad at something else entirely.
“George!” called another nurse, as slight as the blond one, but with the liquid dark eyes and gold-toned brown skin that indicated either Indian or Pakistani lineage. His nametag read A. Dara, and George Carmichael glanced up at him.
“I’m answering the policeman’s questions,” he said patiently. “This is officer Brady Carnegie.” He said Brady’s name with a subtle emphasis, and Brady tried to remember if he’d told this man his whole name.
Nurse Dara must have heard it because his eyes widened. “Pleased to meet you,” he said. “What do you need to know?”
“What happened,” Brady said, trying not to let his desperation show. “The bank cameras all blanked out about five minutes before these guys walked in. I’ve interviewed half the bank patrons, and they can tell me the robbers went by the names Fucker One, Fucker Two, Fucker Three, and Fucker Four, but you know what they can’t tell me?”
“How all these fuckers ended up in the hospital?” Nurse Dara asked, head cocked sideways like he was taking a guess.
“Yes!” Brady was trying not to wail here, but this wasinsane. “I… I got a call to a bank robbery and was reassured I’d have backup, and no backup showed. None. And there I was, thinking, ‘It’s me and my department issue, and I’m going to die,’ and suddenly hell breaks loose inside and….” He remembered Eric, next to him, telling him the bank robbers were waiting for something, and Brady’s arrival had been it. And then Ace, waving with bloody hands from a powder-blue Crown Vic that Brady had justseenat breakfast.
And a man very much like Jai in the front of the Crown Vic.
He shook his head. “A bank patron had to stick his head out and tell me it was safe.” He sighed. “Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?”
Nurse Carmichael patted his shoulder, sympathy written all over his face. “Well, sugarpuff, it’s better than getting shot, right?” he said.
Brady stared at him. “Yes,” he admitted. “But….” He shook his head. “Never mind.” He didn’t want to talk about how the ambulances had been loading up the injured bank robbers before any other police officers rolled up on scene. He’d called dispatch several times, asking where his backup was, and the woman at the switchboard had gotten bitchy with him. “Well, if they’re not there yet, maybe it’s not that important, Carnegie!”
He’d given up then, only to be reamed by his captainon an open channelabout letting shit go down in front of his eyes without having the stones to step into it.
Brady had screamed, “Where in thefuckwas my backup!” into his radio until the feedback loop had the entire precinct shutting off their radios, and then he’d….
