Page 69 of Tough Justice

“Are you going to—” Tori began, but he interrupted her.

“Wait.” He muted the phone. “Go ahead.”

“Are you going to call the police?” she asked.

He shook his head. “If I spook him, he’ll run again.”

“For someone overdosing, he sounds pretty lucid. Maybe he’s already coming down from the high.”

“Yeah, maybe.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was some kind of a setup.

He slowed as they came alongside a tree-lined promenade bordering the south side of the park’s twelve acres. During the day, the place would be packed with people on their lunch breaks and joggers using the paved trails lining the river banks. At night, the park was deserted.

Deck lowered his window, trying to catch a glimpse of Aidan. The park was dark, the only light coming from restaurants and bars across the street. He parked at the entrance and took his phone off mute. “Aidan, I’m outside the main entrance. Where exactly are you?”

“On the grass…somewhere,” came the kid’s breathy response. “Hurry, please. I-I’m getting sleepy, and I can’t breathe.” Gasping sounds came through the phone.

“Deck, we have to get to him.” Tori grabbed her medical bag and opened her door.

“Wait.” He muted the phone again then clicked the mic on his radio. “The kid’s in Commons Park. Send backup and an ambulance.”

“Ten-four,” said the dispatcher.

Again, he unmuted his cell. “Aidan, we’re on our way.” He set the phone down on the dashboard then grabbed the hand radio and clipped the microphone to his shirt collar. Before picking up the phone, he unslung the tactical flashlight hanging from the rearview mirror. “Tori, stay close to me.” When she nodded, he got out and opened Thor’s door. His dog bounded from the SUV. “Let’s go.”

With the phone to his ear, they moved deeper inside the park. Deck swung the flashlight’s beam ahead of them and to either side. Other than the flashlight, darkness surrounded them.

After they’d walked for several minutes, he held his arm out in front of Tori. “Stop.” The only sound came from Thor panting. “Aidan, talk to me.” Nothing. “Aidan?” The hackles on the back of his neck stood at full attention. A crumpled form lay on the ground twenty feet ahead.

Lowering his head, Thor let loose with a throaty growl.

“There he is,” Tori whispered. “Let’s go.”

“Wait.” Alarm bells pinged in his head. Something felt off about this. He clicked the mic. “Dispatch, any word on that backup?”

“Two units are on the way. ETA three minutes.”

“C’mon, hurry.” Tori clutched his arm. “We have to go to him. Seconds count. You know that.”

His warning radar was pinging louder, but he couldn’t take the chance that Aidan was really lying on the ground twenty feet away, moments from dying. “Let’s go. Slowly.”

They started walking. Five feet. Ten feet. Deck swung the flashlight’s beam in an arc ahead of them, searching for anyone hiding in the shadows. Fifteen feet. Engines roared behind them, getting louder. Deck figured that was the patrol cars jumping the curb onto the grass.

Thor reached Aidan first, sniffing and circling, only it wasn’t his dog’s typical behavior at approaching a person. The engines roared louder, closer. Deck spun. No headlights. No strobes. Not patrol units.

“Tori, move! Thor, come!” He grabbed her arm, pulling her away from what he now suspected wasn’t a body lying on the ground. He dragged her from the path of the oncoming vehicles, racing toward a thicket of trees.

The vehicles were almost on top of them. He looked over his shoulder. The moon peeked from behind the clouds enough for him to catch sight of a pickup truck. Headlights flashed, blinding him, and he stumbled. “Keep going!” he shouted over the roar of the engine.

One of the vehicles peeled off to follow Tori. No. He took off again, running at top speed, catching up to her and shoving her out of the path of the oncoming pickup.

Something slammed into his right side, sending him flying to the ground. He felt a distinct pop, then intense pain knifing into his body like an ice pick.

Tori screamed, sending another kind of pain through his body, this one out of fear that she’d been run down, too. He had to get to her. And where was Thor?

Extreme pain stabbed at his shoulder and ribs. Vaguely, he heard the pickup and another vehicle slow as they turned and headed back around. To finish the job.

“Deck! Deck!” Tori screamed.