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Dial the numbers, damn it.
A squeak behind me. I turned to a flashlight shining in my eyes. Beside it, the barrel of a gun. The phone fell. My hands shot up. Sparks sizzled from my fingertips.
"Drop it!" a voice barked.
The flashlight swung out of my face and I saw Chief Bruyn. The younger officer stood behind him.
"Hands up," Bruyn said.
They already were, but I hoisted them higher, palms out. My fingers had stopped sparking.
"She had something," Bruyn said to his officer. "Find it, then take her out to the car."
"I had my phone," I said, my voice eerily calm. "I dropped it when you startled me. I was dialing 911. It's Michael Kennedy. He ... he fell. From up there." I pointed. "He's dead."
The officer patted me down as I spoke. Bruyn checked Michael, then called the sheriff's department and doctor, then phoned the other officer, telling him to get over there. When he hung up, he walked back to Michael.
"He called me here," I said. "I found him."
"Sit her down over there," Bruyn said, pointing. "And stand guard."
"Stand guard? You think I killed--?"
I didn't finish. Stupid question. I'd been found over a dead body.
"Michael sent me a text. It's still on my phone." I pointed to it on the ground. "Just check--"
"Get her away from here," Bruyn said.
"You want her in the cruiser?"
"No, just over there." He pointed. "In case the doc has questions."
The other officer arrived, then the doctor. He didn't ask me anything. I don't think he even knew I was there. Having me sitting twenty feet away as they discussed the case wasn't exactly smart policing. After the doctor left, Bruyn seemed to figure that out, and had the young officer take me to the cruiser as the sheriff's department arrived.
"Someone called 911 before me, didn't they?" I said to Bruyn as I left. "Reported a disturbance? Just in time for you to find me with the body."
He said nothing, but I could tell by his expression that I was right.
"That would be your killer," I said. "He saw me arrive and is probably out there, right now, watching us."
"There's no one else for a mile."
"We're on a street with a bunch of empty buildings. Any one of those would be the perfect place--"
"We didn't see anything."
"Do you think the killer parked his car out front and left the lights on?"
He glared and swung open the back door of a king cab pickup marked "Columbus Police Dept."
With a roar of tires and cloud of dust, another pickup swung into the lot. Jesse jammed it into park so fast the brakes hiccupped.
"Is she okay?" he called, running over as the officer prodded me into the back.
"I'm fine," I said. "The prime suspect, it seems, but otherwise fine."
"Suspect?" He wheeled on the cop. "Are you serious? She called it in."
