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“Cooper, you canvas the neighborhood. Knock on all the houses we can see from here. Maybe somebody saw something.”
“Yes, sir.” Lani strode off toward the closest house, ready to knock on doors and take names.
Their eyes were on Lani as she started toward the first row of houses, so they both witnessed it when she stumbled, lurched forward, and reached for her leg before falling to the ground in a heap.
“Lani! Deputy Cooper!” André yelled, running toward his deputy.
“André!” Dante bellowed. “Over there! The shot came from over there!”
He glanced over his shoulder. Dante was pointing toward the roof of a two-story home about three hundred feet away from where Lani lay.
Squinting against the damn rain, André spotted an open window on the second story. A figure moved in the shadows, but he didn’t see a weapon. The shooter was waiting to take another shot, he wasn’t getting the hell out of Dodge yet. There was no help on the way, the totality of the Cooper Springs Police Department being dead, shot, or about to be shot.
Without considering that he was moving closer to danger, André continued running in a jagged line to where his fallen deputy lay, kneeling in the wet grass beside her.
“Call emergency direct!” he yelled as he unceremoniously began to drag Lani under the cover of a stand of nearby cedar trees. She would certainly die if they didn’t get to safety. The ground next to him splattered as the shooter tried again. André kept moving until they were underneath a massive cedar tree.
“God dammit, André,” Dante shouted. “What the fuck are you doing?”
It was perfectly obvious what he was doing so he didn’t answer. André felt along Lani’s neck for a pulse. She had one and it was steady. Her eyes blinked open.
“Motherfucker, that hurts,” she whispered.
Lani tried to help him move her a little further, but the bullet had hit her in the thigh. Seconds later, they were around the backside of the dripping tree. André couldn’t see the house clearly, which meant the shooter couldn’t see him either.
Sucking in a deep breath, André had readied himself to check the extent of Lani’s injury when there was another pop, like a firecracker going off, and then Dante was under the tree with them.
“I’m going to climb up and see if I can spot the fucker,” he said before André could open his mouth. “I used to be a champion tree-climber. Won the under-tens in my old hood.”
Dante jumped and deftly caught the lowest branch, levering himself upward. He looked back at André and Lani.
“I’ll be right back.”
André refocused his attention on Lani.
“Where?”
“Above my knee. Hurts fucking everywhere though.”
As gently as possible, and all while listening for the sound of running footsteps or another gunshot, André ran his hand along Lani’s leg to find the entry wound.
“It’s bleeding but not pumping, so that’s good. We need to wrap it.”
With a sigh, he stripped off his slicker, the sweatshirt, and the t-shirt. Shivering, he quickly pulled his sweatshirt back on before wrapping the t-shirt around Lani’s thigh. Picking up the slicker, he lay it over her like a blanket.
“It’s not a tourniquet, but it’ll hold until we get you to the ER.”
“Why now?” Lani asked, forcing the words out. Her face was pale from the pain and blood loss.
André frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t see anyone through that window,” Dante called down to them.
“There was someone there. I saw a shadow,” he said.
“Why shoot atmenow?” Lani whispered. “You’re stuck here with me. Dante is literally up a tree. Dani is alone at the station with Carol.”
“I told Carol to keep all the doors locked.”
