Characters: Detective Brenda Day, Detective Mike Burns, Austin Henderson, Sergeant Ralph Walker, Officer Frank Wright
Word Count: 1685
Rating: T/PG-13 (violence, character death, adult themes)
The Way It Went Down
There was a buzz in the room when Detective Brenda Day woke up. She couldn't tell if it was in her head or from somewhere around her. She raised her pounding head from the cold floor and a wave of nausea hit her. She slowly eased it back down as she tried to focus on something to keep her from falling unconscious again.
There was the sound of footsteps coming towards her. They were heavy and deliberate.
Brenda fought to sit up. She was going to face whatever was going to happen head on.
“Well, good to see you are awake, Detective Day. I was beginning to think I wouldn't get the pleasure of killing you myself.” The tall thin man said with a British accent. “You have interfered in my business for the last time.”
“Don't think it’s over just because you kill me, Henderson. There are people looking for me right now. They will kill you for what you are about to do.” Brenda said bravely. She knew it was over for her. The mob boss had the upper hand.
“They will have to find me to kill me. I don't intend on waiting around for them. Your time is up, Detective.” The thin man raised his hand. The dim light in the room reflected off the chrome plated revolver in his hand.
Brenda took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she waited for the bullet.
There was a loud bang.
Brenda opened her eyes and Detective Mike Burns was standing over Henderson's body on the floor in front of her.
“Mike?” Brenda said with a hitch in her voice.
“Hey. Sorry to be late to the party but I stopped for coffee.” Mike grinned. “You in one piece, Bren?”
“I think I have a concussion. I have all the symptoms.” Brenda said. “I think one of his men hit me in the head with something.”
“I have to call this in and get the paramedics to look at you.” Mike smiled. “Be right back.”
Mike pulled his phone out of his back pocket. He walked away a short distance and Brenda listened as he gave his badge number and their location. He walked back to her.
“You need to stay quiet. I'll go flag them down. Grab his gun in case he's still breathing.” Mike told her as he walked out the door.
Brenda grabbed the mob boss' gun and felt for a pulse. She sat back against the concrete pillar next to her to wait for Mike to come back with help.
Five minutes later she heard the sirens and breathed a sigh of relief.
Sergeant Ralph Walker burst through the door. “What happened, Day?”
“This is Austin Henderson. He was going to shoot me but Mike got him first.” Brenda said.
“Mike Burns? It couldn't have been, Brenda. We found him in the trunk of his car out front. He's been dead for hours.” Walker told her.
“No Ralph. He was right here not five minutes ago. I saw him I talked to him. He called it in. I'm telling you it was him.” Brenda started to cry.
Ralph Walker looked around. He hated it when a woman cried. “Come on. Let's get you to the ambulance. We will figure it out when your head is clearer.”
Ralph pulled her up and helped her outside. He helped her sit on the gurney for the paramedics to check her out.
“Ralph I want to see him.” Brenda said as she grabbed the sergeant’s arm..
“No you don't. Henderson slit his throat. He bled out in the trunk. It’s a mess. Stay here. I'll be right back.” The sergeant walked off to talk to another officer by the crime scene tape.
“What do you have for me?” Ralph asked the officer.
“Henderson took one to the back of his head. Dispatch claims it was Burns that called it in but that's not possible. The ME said he's been dead two hours or more.” Officer Frank Wright told his sergeant.
“Day said she saw him shoot Henderson. She talked to Burns and she said she heard him call it in.” The sergeant rubbed his chin. “Frank, I have no idea how this really went down. I guess we have to wait for ballistics to sort it out.”
“Got it. I'll look around for shell casings.” The officer said. “Where's her gun?”
“The only weapon I saw was a chrome plated .45 revolver. That must be Henderson's. Burns and Day have .9 mils.” Walker told him. “Have the officers search everywhere. One of them has to have been fired and that would be the weapon that took out Henderson.”
Frank nodded and stepped away from the sergeant. He called out to some other officers and they went inside.
The sergeant went back to check on Detective Day. “Well what's the verdict?”
“I need a cat scan but it looks like a concussion.” Brenda told him.
“I hate to ask this but where is your gun, Brenda?” Walker asked.
“I don't know. I had it in my hand before I was knocked out.” Brenda looked down at her hands. “Mike wasn't here. He was on the way but I went in anyway. I know I should have waited but I didn't see anyone and I just wanted to look around.”
“You should have waited.” Walker said sternly. “Where were you when they got the drop on you?”
“I was at the west entrance just a few feet inside the door. I never saw it coming. My car should be parked on the other side of the fence.” Brenda told him.
“We found it on the way in.” Walker told her. “Burns came to the south entrance. That was where we found his car. Why?”
“I told him west. He always had a lousy sense of direction.” Brenda laughed sharply then put her hands to her temples.
“Take her to the hospital.” Walker said to the paramedics. He patted Brenda on the shoulder. “I'll check on you later Brenda.”
The paramedics loaded her into the ambulance and left.
“Sergeant!” Frank called out. He held up two evidence bags with a gun in each. They were Burns and Day's service weapons.
“Where did you find them?” Walker asked.
“This one was at the west entrance and the other was in the back floorboard of Burns' car. The one in Burns' car was the one that was fired recently. One round is missing.” Frank told him.
“His gun? This is just too weird. This case is just not adding up.” Walker rubbed his chin.
“What if he did it then was killed? She could have passed out after.” Frank proposed.
“No then Henderson would have been dead longer. He was still warm when we got here.” The sergeant shook his head. “Let’s go over the place one more time to make sure there wasn’t another person here.”
“Got it Sergeant.” Frank went to start the search.
When the officers had combed through the crime scene, they couldn’t find evidence of anyone else being there. Everything was still as mysterious as it was when Detective Day gave her statement to the sergeant.
Several hours later, Brenda lay alone in her dark hospital bed staring out the window at the rain. She went over the last minutes with Henderson in her head. She thought of Mike looking so alive but it couldn't have been him. He was already dead. But who was it if it wasn’t Mike? It was too much to deal with.
Mike had been Brenda’s partner since she became a detective. Mike had lost his first partner, Charlie, in a fire fight with a street gang selling cocaine for the local drug lord.
Brenda knew Mike and Charlie were close but so was she and Mike. By some standards, they were maybe a little too close. But that was the risk the department took in setting up a male and female partner situation. Sometimes they grow a bond deeper than trust.
Brenda and Mike were what they jokingly referred to as ‘partners with benefits’. Two lonely people coming together to make themselves less lonely. That was all it was supposed to be.
After today, Brenda knew it would come out. Nothing would be the same.
A noise behind Brenda made her turn away from the window. She looked up and gasped. “Mike?”
“Yeah I know, Bren. I'm dead and all that but I just wanted to see you one last time. To tell you that I did what I did to protect you and just to make sure you know I'll be alright where I'm going.” Mike said with an impish grin. “You won't have time to miss me with that bun in the oven. He's gonna be a handful like his old man.”
“I just found out. How do you know?” Brenda asked.
“You find out a lot by dying.” Mike chuckled. “You told them what went down and now they think you're nuts.”
“Yeah. They put me on stress leave.” Brenda said. “Half pay isn't going to be easy.”
“My stuff goes to you including my house. I put it in my will when we started being more than just partners. I only had you to give it to.” Mike looked up. “I have to go. Don't tell anyone I was here. Don't want them to think you've gone off the deep end.”
Brenda nodded. She watched as Mike faded into nothing. She turned back to the window. She put her hand over her belly and cried.
Sergeant Walker had a tough time with the case file. The gun that killed Henderson was Mike’s and the only prints on it were mike’s. The medical examiner confirmed that mike had been dead two full hours before Henderson. The dispatch tape that was made after Henderson was killed had mike’s voice on it. The voice print matched a dead man.
It didn't seem possible that a dead man could fire a gun to save his partner. But no one counted on the power of love.
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