I knew that if I went out those doors, I wouldn’t be getting back in for a while. Not while they were in a lockdown.
I kept going until I could look down the street.
There was nothing there.
The station was a short three quarter of a mile drive down the street from the school
But there was nothing to be seen.
No huge commotion. No police lights. No nothing.
Then I started walking.
It didn’t take me long to realize why I couldn’t see any of the commotion going on.
All the officers were in the parking lot already. The shooting had taken place at the station, which meant that the officers hadn’t had to get in their cars at all. They’d already been there.
The same went for the fire department.
The fire department’s station was directly across the street. They hadn’t had to move the vehicles. They’d just had to run across the street.
The closer I got, however, the easier it was to see the yellow police tape strung up along the road.
There were news crews held behind large, blue sawhorses.
That’s about the time I started running, fully unaware that I’d been doing so until I started getting a cramp in my side.
That didn’t stop me, though.
I kept running.
My legs pumped.
My lungs screamed.
My heart hurt.
My eyes burned.
I was caught by strong arms before I got too close.
I looked up to see a man with dark brown eyes.
He was older, mid-fifties or so. Dark salt and pepper hair. Large mustache that took up half of his face. Deep brown eyes.
“You can’t be in there, darlin’,” the man said sternly.
His name plate said Stoddard, and I remembered Luke speaking with Downy a couple days ago about the man. Stoddard was the man that’d been on KPD for the longest. He had a ton of experience, according to Downy, and was the one cop in all of Kilgore that didn’t let anyone get away with anything. Let it be man, woman, or child.
He wrapped his hands around my upper body and I broke. “My boyfriend…his name is Luke Roberts…is he okay?”
His eyes lit with recognition at hearing Luke’s name. He looked at me for a few long moments. So long that I thought he was going to kick me out. But he shook his head, mouth tight and said, “Girl, I don’t know anything yet, but we’ll find out, okay? I just got here myself. Don’t go far and stay at my side.”
Stoddard grabbed a hold of my wrist and started walking towards the building.
My breathing, which hadn’t slowed one bit, started sawing in and out of my lungs as I saw the dozens of uniformed officers milling around.
The first person I saw that I knew was Downy.
He was in much the same as he always was, black pants and black polo shirt with KPD embroidered on the left breast pocket.
Except his shirt wasn’t tucked in, in fact, he was missing half of his shirt. A long strip had been ripped off the bottom.
He had what looked like dried blood on his neck and hands, and he had a thin cut that was oozing blood on the bridge of his nose.
I parted from Stoddard, much to his annoyance, and walked over to Downy.
“Do you have a first aid kit?” I asked quickly.
If I was distracted, maybe I wouldn’t worry so much about Luke and whether he was alive or dead.
I knew he was involved, though. There was no way an active shooter was outside the police station and he didn’t respond. He wasn’t the type of man to stand back and let things happen.
Downy had seen me coming, and he braced himself against the car as I walked up to him.
Stoddard growled something about ‘stubborn ladies’ and ‘she’s yours.’
Downy and Stoddard had some kind of man communication happen above my head, and Stoddard disappeared into the crowd.
Downy looked down at me, eyes blank, and said, “If I put you somewhere, would you stay?”
I shook my head, causing him to heave a long, loud sigh. “Fuck.”
When he started to walk away, I grabbed ahold of his hand, clutching it with both of my own and asked, “Is he okay?”
He nodded and pointed. I followed his finger to find Luke leaned over someone on the ground. Luke’s hands were planted on his knees, and he was talking very quietly to someone. Soothingly.
“What the hell is she doing here?” I spat.
Lydia was sitting on a rock that was decorative along the police station’s yard. Her hands were crossed around her belly and she was rocking back and forth.
“No clue. But the shooting started as soon as she got up to Luke. We were outside getting instructions from Trance, and then the shots fired,” Downy shook his head.
That’s about when I noticed Downy’s shadow, a large white dog the size of a small pony. She was gorgeous, but I felt it prudent not to mess with her. She looked a little shaken up.
“Anybody else hurt?” I asked quietly.
He looked down at me. His pretty eyes saddened. “Trance lost a dog. Radar got shot because he was trying to protect Trance. Trance was the closest to Luke, and when they all dropped, Radar covered Trance’s body. Trance wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Radar.”
A cry bubbled out of my throat, and I started to cry. “Oh, God. No.”
Poor Viddy, Trance’s wife. I’d grown fond of all the wives of The Dixie Wardens, and it broke my heart to hear that her dog had perished in this senseless shooting. Especially one that’d given so much over his short lifespan, saving not only Trance’s life countless times, but Viddy’s as well.
“Who did it? Did they catch him?” I asked.
Downy shook his head. “No. It was a drive by. He got about a magazine’s worth of shots off before he took off. They found the car four blocks away empty.”
My head hung for a few short seconds before I squared my shoulder and looked up at Downy. “Tell me what I can do.”***Two hours later I found myself picking up the girls from their respective schools.