Page 27 of Dirty Cops Next Door

Nothing happened, so I relaxed, and looked back at Avery. He had the packet open, at last, a final plastic zipper bag holding the contents secure. White powder. From the way Avery eagerly dug a finger into the bag before wiping it on his gums I knew it had to be cocaine.

“Damn that’s good. It’s working already! How pure is this?” Avery seemed to be reacting to the drug far too quickly, a sense of urgency entered his voice, and the way he shifted from foot to foot told me something was up. My hackles rose again immediately. That shouldn’t have been enough to hype the man up so quickly, that little dab on his finger.

“As pure as you can get it without cutting down the leaves and processing it yourself.” The pale man whispered, his hands shifting to his waist. Did he have a gun? Was this about to all go wrong? “Now, Avery, we want to talk to you about that attention you drew to our… association… not long ago. I hear your son was brought in for questioning?”

Cold shot down my spine, yes, this was about to head south.

“That bullshit! Man, I was trying to deal with one of my dealers who thought he’d try and take over. My boys and I showed him the error of his ways though. There wasn’t nothing left of him to find when the police finally came.” Avery chuckled and wobbled a bit, the coat of his black suit opening to reveal a girdle holding in the man’s gut. “And my kid will keep his mouth shut, don’t you worry.”

“See that it stays that way.” The pale man backed away from Avery and clasped his hands in front of himself. “I’ll see you around, Avery.”

“Just a minute there, Casper,” Avery called out to the retreating figure. From the way the man stiffened I knew he wasn’t called Casper and didn’t like being hailed in such a way.

That’s when two things happened. Avery pulled out a gun and shot Casper and his brother, and Grant slipped and caused one of the ceiling beams to slide down on top of him. Grant screamed, one of Avery’s goons shouted and started firing, and I ducked down.

“Shots fired, shots fired!” I called into the radio clipped to my belt.

I started firing at the goon in a red t-shirt aiming at Grant’s head as Avery turned to me, firing in my direction.

“Kill whoever the fuck that is!” I could hear over the sounds of guns going off over and over again.

I tried to pull Grant down, and almost succeeded but the world slowed down and sound disappeared as I saw his eyes go wide and blood sprayed from his chest straight into my face!

“Grant!” I shouted, his body slumping to one side.

“Officer down, officer down!” I called into the radio, still struggling to try and get Grant out of the line of fire. Luckily, the idiots shooting didn’t have very good aim.

“Let’s get out of here!” Avery yelled to his goons. “They’ll be dead soon enough! Come on!”

I wasn’t sure what the bastard meant, and I wanted to go after him, but Grant was barely breathing and his eyes were closed. I knew where the bastard lived, let him run.

A whooshing sound filled the air when I stood, and heat coursed through the building suddenly. Fire!

I covered Grant’s body with mine, trying to protect him from a wall of flames.

Sirens filled the air; police, fire, and rescue, as I pushed at the wooden beam, trying to get Grant out of the building.

“Police, lower your weapons!” I heard voices calling, and called out.

“It’s David! They’re gone! Send in the fire units and the rescue squad! Grant’s been hit! He’s bad.” He might even be dead, I thought as I stared down at him. I couldn’t see his chest rising or falling, and smoke was starting to fill the air. The crackle and pop of flames started and I looked around. “Get those bodies out before they burn! They’re evidence!”

I saw water from a fire hose starting to pour into the building just as two paramedics ran in, stretcher between them. We all worked together, the flames not dying as the fireman worked to hold it at bay. Two more stretchers carried out the dead men as we continued to work to move the beam. It was wedged in too tight.

“Fire crew! Bring in a saw!” One of the paramedics screamed into his radio, but there wasn’t time. Grant was still bleeding and growing pale. Deathly pale!

“No time!” I yelled and rammed my shoulder into the beam forcefully. Something popped in my shoulder, but I screamed it out. Grant was not going to die in here because of pain! “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed as I felt something give in the wood and pushed at it with my last reserves of strength. “Fucking shift!”

The beam broke into two, the piece over Grant fell away, and the paramedics yanked him onto the stretcher before the beam could fall back on him.

I collapsed but somebody pulled me up and frog-marched me out of the building before forcing an oxygen mask over my face.

I looked up to see the chief standing over me.

“Not quite to plan, eh?” he asked, face grim.

“Not quite, no. But we have him this time, Chief. We have him.” I handed him my bodycam. “Have somebody analyze this, or whatever they do. It’s all on there. Drug trafficking and murder. He’s never getting out of prison.” I sighed as I sat on the edge of the ambulance, my head pounding.

“Grant?” the chief asked, watching as the other ambulance drove away.