She Has A Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be - J.D. Barker Page 0,26

down that sidewalk, pushing past the people blocking my path, jumping over the cracks and holes. Inside our building, I made quick work of the stairs, fumbled with our lock, and pushed inside, slamming the door behind me. I dropped to the floor in a wheezing and huffing mess, trying to draw in enough air. When I realized I had dropped the wallet, the note too, the real panic set in.

5

“Dude, that’s fucked up. You need to call the police,” Dunk said, his voice muffled through the telephone receiver. His dad fell asleep watching TV, and he didn’t want to wake him.

Although our phone was in the kitchen, the cord was about a mile long, and I had dragged it to the window so I could see what was going on. “They’re already there. There are four cop cars blocking the street, and they sealed off the alley with orange cones and yellow tape. There must be a hundred cops down there. An ambulance, too.”

“Dude. I’ll be right there,” Dunk said before hanging up.

Five minutes later, he stood at the window with me. “We should go up on the roof.”

“I’m not allowed on the roof. Besides, they’ll see us.”

“They can see us here.”

“Not with all the lights off.”

“I saw you.”

“Oh no, really?”

Dunk smiled. “Don’t worry, all your neighbors are at their windows, too. This is way better than L.A. Law. I can’t believe you dropped that stuff. You might as well have written your name on the wall right under Arrest Me. You are so dead.”

“Not helping.”

“If I were you, I’d drop to the floor right now and start doing push-ups, lifting weights, too. You need to bulk up. A scrawny little kid like you won’t last the night in the big house.”

“Still not helping.”

“I should have swiped my dad’s binoculars. He’s got this sweet pair he brought back from the war. I forget what kind, starts with an S. You can see for miles with those things.”

I let out a breath. “He was alive. I don’t know how, but he was alive.”

“Well, unless the paramedics are back there starting up a poker game with him, I don’t think he is now. How long has it been since they got here? Ten minutes?”

“Twenty-three.”

“He’s a stiff, all right.”

When the phone rang, I nearly fell out the window.

Dunk’s eyes went wide. “That’s the cops. They probably want to give you a chance to come out peacefully before they storm the building.”

“I don’t think they’d call first.”

I didn’t want to leave the window, but I did anyway. I answered the call on the third ring. Auntie Jo.

“Are you seeing this?”

“Yeah. Dunk is here. We’re watching out the window.”

“Can you tell what’s going on?”

“No,” I lied.

“We’re packed right now. The police keep coming in for coffee. We got a bunch of reporters here, too. One of the detectives told Krendal none of us can leave until they speak to each of us. It might be a few more hours. Krendal said if we’re stuck here, might as well stay open and make some money. We haven’t had an empty table in an hour, and there’s a line at the door. One reporter just gave me a twenty to seat him at the window. Sounds like someone was murdered across the street in that alley next to True Value.”

“A murder, really?” I repeated softly.

Dunk turned, mouthed the words, “Who is it?”

“Auntie Jo,” I said.

“What?” Auntie Jo said.

“Not you, sorry. Dunk asked who was on the phone.”

Krendal shouted something behind her. Auntie Jo’s hand went over the receiver as she replied, then she was back. “Probably best you’re not alone right now, so tell Dunk he can stay as long as he wants. I don’t want you leaving the apartment. And don’t answer the door. If someone comes to the door, you call me here and I’ll come home. If you can’t reach me, you call 911. You hear me?”

“Yes, Auntie Jo.”

“Gotta go.”

She hung up, and I replaced the receiver.

Dunk was back at the window. “They’re coming out!”

I ran back over and dropped down next to him.

The two paramedics were standing at either end of a stretcher. On that stretcher was a large plastic bag. It looked like an oversize Hefty trash bag.

“Whoa,” Dunk said softly. “There’s a body in there.”

“Andy Flack is in there.”

They lifted the stretcher over the curb and wheeled it to the awaiting ambulance. At the back, they collapsed the stretcher’s frame and lifted it inside. Five minutes later, one of the