“The hyper-fixation look.”
“I was shot fifteen minutes ago.”
“And somehow your main concern became the hot paramedic upstairs.”
“She’s not my concern.”
Mason snorts loudly enough that one of the nearby officers looks over. “Sure she isn’t.”
I lean back against the car briefly and immediately regret it when pain shoots through my arm.
The blonde paramedic, Alice, notices my flinch immediately and points at me again.
“Hospital,” she mouths exaggeratedly.
I shake my head.
Jett looks delighted by that response.
“You’re aware they can legally sedate you, right?” Mason asks.
“They can try.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
“It is.”
Mason shakes his head like I’m exhausting. Which is fair.
The scene slowly settles around us. Crime scene tape goes up. Officers collect shell casings from the pavement. One detective photographs bullet impacts in a parked car near the curb.
The usual aftermath.
But underneath all of it, my brain keeps circling back to why we were here in the first place.
Missing persons cases are piling up in the area, three women in six months. All similar ages and similar disappearances. All gone within a few miles of each other. No bodies or meaningful evidence has come up. Nothing solid enough to connect officially anyway, but enough similarities to make my instincts itch.
Tonight was supposed to be a quiet follow-up on a lead tied to one of the victims’ last known contacts.
Then the shooters showed up which means someone got nervous.
“They knew somebody was talking,” Mason says quietly, reading the same conclusion on my face.
“Yeah.”
“Question is whether tonight was intimidation or cleanup.”
That’s the problem, we still don’t know. Rain starts falling again, soft against the pavement and flashing lights.
I glance back toward the apartment building one more time before I can stop myself.
Fourth floor, second window from the left… still lit.
Mason catches it immediately. Of course he does. “Oh, this is bad.”
I look at him. “What now?”
“You memorized the window.”
