Page 5 of Daybreak

Dan shrugged and shook his head.

Gunner frowned. “Did they bring you any food?”

“No, sir.”

Gunner put down the food and took a deep breath. “I’ll be right back,” he said, then stormed out of interrogation and up the hall and into Homicide, shouting. “Rowdy! Why the hell is my witness sitting in interrogation wet and cold, still handcuffed, no shoes or socks, his bad foot still untreated? Is there not a single cup of hot coffee in this place to be shared? He’s not under arrest. He’s just here to give a statement. Son of a…”

Then Gunner stopped mid-sentence, took a deep breath, and glared at the people sitting at their desks. He pivoted with more grace than a man his size should have been able to manage and was making calls as he slammed the door on his way out.

The silence he left behind was telling, and everybody was suddenly busy thinking about something else besides their sins of omission.

Gunner stormed back into interrogation, removed the handcuffs, took a packet of wet wipes out of his jacket pocket and laid them on the table for Dan, and then began unpacking the food.

“I apologize for how you’ve been treated. Detective Rowdy should have removed your cuffs.”

Yankee Dan shrugged. “He was okay. He wasn’t mean or anything. Just curious about the situation. Real talky… You know.”

Gunner was through talking about Rowdy. “Do you want sugar in your coffee, or do you take it black?”

“I wouldn’t mind a little sugar, since you’re asking,” Dan said, as he reached for the wet wipes and began wiping his hands.

Gunner emptied two packets into the large coffee and stirred it, then took two sausage biscuits out of the sack and put them down with his coffee.

“These are for me?” Dan said.

“Yes, sir, they are,” Gunner said. “I’m hungry and need the coffee. I thought we could kill two birds with one stone and talk while we eat. You okay with that?”

Dan took a deep breath, and then nodded.

Gunner caught a glimpse of tears and looked away. Yankee Dan was about his dad’s age. But for circumstance and the grace of God it could have been—Then he reached for his coffee without finishing the thought.

As soon as Dan had some food in his belly, Gunner called in Lieutenant Samuels and asked him to witness the statement. After Samuels arrived, they began.

It was the same story Dan had given Gunner at the warehouse, but now they had it on record, and as they were finishing up, there was a knock at the door.

The EMT Gunner called was here to treat Dan’s foot, and another officer came in with a pair of prison-issue slippers and socks.

Lieutenant Samuels liked Kingston. The man was brutally honest and never backed down from a situation. Kingston drove his car like a bat coming out of hell on fire and waded into whatever was going down without hesitation. It was Samuels’s personal opinion that if Kingston didn’t get himself killed, he could go as high up in law enforcement as he wanted to go, and the EMT’s arrival was Samuels’s signal to leave. He eyed the horrific wound on the old man’s foot and then put a hand on Gunner’s shoulder.

“See that he gets a ride to wherever he wants to go, okay?”

Gunner nodded. “Yes, sir. I’ll take him, myself.”

Samuels nodded and left the room.

A short while later, Gunner and Yankee Dan were walking out of the precinct when they met Cliff, who was just returning from the scene.

“Where are you going?” Cliff asked.

“Just giving Dan a ride home. Did the Feds show?”

“Yes. I left when they took over the scene, but I don’t think they’re gonna get much,” Cliff said.

Gunner shrugged. “That’s because it was the dump site. No telling where the scene of the crime took place, and it’s the Feds’ case anyway.”

Cliff eyed the old man, nodded at him, then walked away.

As soon as Gunner got Dan out of the building and into his car, he headed toward a shelter.