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Two cops got out and shouted.
“Put the gun down!” they called to Hudson, who very calmly raised his hands and put the gun on the ground. Seconds later, he was against the SUV, getting handcuffed by one cop as the other called for more backup and another ambulance.
Everyone was screaming. Vince was still screaming, Quinn’s parents were screaming. A baby was crying somewhere in the motel, and Quinn was still unconscious.
“Arrest these men!” Quinn’s father shouted.
“My baby!” wailed her mother.
Finally, there was nothing Julius could do but watch.
* * *
It was almosttwo in the morning before he got finished giving his statement to the police, sitting in a small interview room, drinking cup after cup of shitty coffee until his hands nearly started shaking from the sheer force of the caffeine mixed with his total exhaustion. He gave the same answers over and over again, for hours, until finally, the officer questioning him stopped, looked down at his notes, and sighed, rubbing his temples.
He kept asking about Quinn and Hudson. They told him Quinn was alive and in the hospital.
They wouldn’t say anything about Hudson.
“All right, I think that’s everything,” the officer said said.
“Can I at least go sit in the lobby?” Julius asked. “These lights are giving me a headache.”
It probably wasn’t the lights, though one over in the corner was flickering. It sure wasn’t helping.
“Not just yet,” the officer said apologetically. “I gotta talk to the boss first.”
“Come on, Rick,” Julius said. He knew everyone at the station by name, after all. “You know where I live.”
“Give me ten minutes,” Rick said. “Sorry.”
It was twenty until he came back and poked his head in the door.
“You’re free to go,” he said. “We’re not charging you with anything.”
“Where’s Hudson?”
Rick’s face went carefully blank. “They’re still talking to him,” he said.
Julius put his head down on the table for a moment. He’d managed to stay calm and cool for the five hours of questions, but this was enough to nearly make him give up. He needed Hudson to go free, and he needed to get out of the police station, call the hospital, and see how Quinn was. She’d woken up as the medics loaded her into the ambulance, but he was still worried sick about her. She was only human, after all.
“Rick, you know him,” Julius said, his voice echoing off the table. “You know he didn’t do anything.”
Rick sighed. Then he entered the room and closed the door, a slightly guilty look on his face.
“Listen, we can’t question the other two witnesses just yet, because they’re in no condition to talk,” Rick said.
Julius sat bolt upright.
“Is Quinn—”
“Heavily sedated and sleeping, yes,” Rick said. The corner of his mouth twitched into an almost-smile. “Hunter and Cora are at the hospital with her, and Ash has been getting updates.”
Julius slumped back in his chair.
“The guy she crashed into got airlifted to Redding,” Rick said. “No word on him yet.”
Julius felt bad about Vince for a split second. Getting pinned between a car and a brick building had to be incredibly painful, and most of his bones were probably broken or worse. He might not survive.
