She coughed, wiped rainwater from her eyes, and called out loud, "Hello! It's Kendra, coming for you. Where are you? Collier is incarcerated."
A pause. Then, from deeper in the house, somewhere past a barricade of old boxes filled with junk and overturned furniture, a man called out, his voice thin but clear: "Here."
She angled toward the voice and saw a jumble of boxes and bags, a makeshift fortress constructed to allow for a narrow passage through the mess.
She called again, her voice firmer now.
"Over here," a faint reply came from another officer, the words slurred but intelligible.
The way forward was blocked by half a wardrobe, but she shouldered it aside, its doors banging open to reveal a nest of moth-eaten coats. The mess was even worse inside: mountains of newspapers and mail, damp and fused together—musty and moldy.
She picked her way forward, feeling the floor shift beneath her and praying she wouldn't fall through to whatever basement horror lay below. The voices grew louder, and she knew she was close. A battered recliner had fallen on its side, and behind it, she saw the shape of a uniformed leg, knee bloodied and twisted at a sickening angle.
She pressed on, pushing the recliner out of the way. The officer wearing his hazmat suit—male, young—looked up at her with glazed, relieved eyes. His partner was nearby, wedged between a shelving unit and a stack of moldy rubber storage tubs, his face pale and sweaty, but he was alive.
"How are you injured?" Kendra asked, already moving to the first officer, shoving aside boxes and bags that had trapped him in place.
“The guy smashed my leg with a bat and hit me in the head, knocking me out,” he said. “I’m sure I have a compound leg fracture and a concussion. I’m seeing double and just threw up.”
“EMTs are on their way. Let me check on your partner.” In the meantime, she called Ivan and put it on speakerphone as she pulled bandages from her first-aid kit. “I’ve found the two officers. Are the EMTs here yet?” She bandaged the officer’s head. She didn’t want to touch his mangled leg.
“They just arrived.”
“Good. Both officers have broken limbs and probably concussions.” She made her way to the other officer and began wrapping his head in a bandage. The place was filthy, and they needed to get them to a hospital and decontaminate their wounds.
“Did he break your leg also?” she asked the second officer.
“And my arm, while I was defending myself.”
Then she heard people coming in through the back door.
“Police officers!”
“The two officers who have been wounded are over here,” Kendra called out. “There’s no one here that poses a threat to them or us.”
One of the officers radioed the EMTs. “You’re good to enter the house.”
They soon came into the house through the back door, as she heard a lot of commotion outside on the side of the house.
Then some of the gloved officers began throwing boxes of clothes onto boxes of magazines and newspapers to widen the path to the front door. They also widened the walkways so the EMTs could reach the injured officers and provide first aid before moving them.
After helping the officers move more debris out of the way so the men could be taken out on stretchers, Kendra checked her messages and saw that Grayson had texted her several times. She called him. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Yeah. Marcus and I got our guy. I packed up my SUV, and I’m on my way to your house now. How are you doing with your case?”
“The fugitive is in custody, but he shot out my tires.”
“Hell. Are you and Ivan all right?”
“Yeah. The windshield is shot out. We’re good. Luckily, a couple of bears came to our rescue and knocked the fugitive out.”
“Okay, where are you?”
She gave him the address. “I’ve got roadside assistance coming.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Ivan is there with you and the fugitive?”
“Yeah.”
