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I break into a run, ignoring my pain, and I hear Neil jogging behind me.
Kendrick turns around as our footsteps echo in the street, and the grin on his face when he sees me is enough to set my heart soaring.
“Doc!” He leaves Keys’ side and runs to meet me, scooping me up into a bear hug.
“Oof!” I bite my lip to keep from screaming. Kendrick doesn’t know I’m hurt, so it’s not his fault. Still, I think I feel something tear at the wound site, and I just know I’m going to have to restitch it.
That’s okay. Kendrick’s here. Keys is here for Neil. We just need to find Bunny, and then everything will be okay.
Neil assaults Keys almost as heartily as Kendrick grabbed me, though I note a hesitation in Keys’ eyes when Neil hugs him. A quick peek reveals a fresh bandage under Keys’ ballcap, and I realize he was hurt in the explosion, too. A brain injury would be the most devastating thing I could imagine for Keys, though if he was able to hack banking institutions to pay the waitress’s mom’s medical bills, then I’d wager he’s on the mend.
“Let’s get off the street,” Kendrick says. “The Cobra’s got his men cruising town looking for us.”
We follow Kendrick to a bus station, where he nudges Keys at the ticket kiosk. Keys sighs and sets to work rigging the machine to spit out four tickets. I take mine and look at the destination, frowning as I read the street name. It’s in a high-end neighborhood that sounds vaguely familiar, in an area of town that none of us have any business going to. I toss Kendrick a questioning glance, and the dark expression that crosses his face terrifies me.
“Why are we going to Bunny’s old place?” I ask.
I expect Kendrick to answer, but instead Keys pipes up.
“Someone shot and killed Bunny’s mom. We think it was Ramsey, but we won’t know until we go there and investigate.”
Would Bunny really go to her mom’s house to hide out? I find it almost impossible to believe, but the Cobra wouldn’t have any other reason to be there—if he indeed was the shooter. There’s a chance it was a random coincidence, but I know Kendrick doesn’t believe in those.
The bus ride to Bunny’s old neighborhood is quiet, filled with palpable tension. Neil fusses over Keys, checking his injuries as if he’d know what to look for. A few days as my stand-in nurse and all of a sudden he thinks he’s got medical knowledge. I don’t fault him for it, though; he’s been worried sick.
Kendrick gives me a similar once-over on the bus, scowling when he checks the wound in my side. I don’t let him remove the bandage, but he probably already knows what I do: the infection is getting worse. I can feel the heat of the wound through the gauze and tape.
We exit the bus a few blocks from Bunny’s house. That’s the closest that public transportation will get us. We’re on foot from here.
As we approach Bunny’s old street, we notice flashing police lights in the distance. The house Bunny grew up in is cordoned off with police tape, and several officers guard the scene. We’re going to have a devil of a time getting inside to look around.
Kendrick grunts and grips Keys’ shoulder. “You up for creating a distraction, buddy?”
Buddy? Since when is he Kendrick’s buddy?
“Why can’t I go inside, too?” Keys asks, pouting. “It’s not fair. I never got to see where Bunny grew up.”
“Well, I can’t be the one distracting the cops because I’m the only one whohasbeen inside. I know my way around the house better than you or Doc would, and I doubt you’d want me volunteering Neil for this job.”
Neil takes Keys’ hand. “I can help Keys out here. I may not be as street smart as you three, but I’m sure I can distract the police just as easily as any of you.”
Not wanting to endure any more posturing, I nudge Kendrick. “Let the two of them be our decoys. I’ll go in with you, and we’ll split up once inside. We can search the place twice as fast and be out of there before the cops realize we got in.”
From his guttural growl, I can tell Kendrick isn’t keen on me joining him. After being without him for two days, though, I don’t want to let him take a risk like this alone. Besides, I get the feeling Neil is offering to help merely to stay at Keys’ side; I doubt he really wants to play at being cop bait while Kendrick and I break into a crime scene. No, his motives are more likely related to Kendrick’s implied dig at his usefulness and a burning desire to stick to Keys like glue.
Sure enough, their ploy for luring the cops away turns out to be acting like a drunken couple engaging in some public indecency. Neil actually initiates the scene, much to my shock, by shoving his hand down Keys’ pants—and shoving his tongue in Keys’ mouth—right across the street from Bunny’s old house, in full view of the police.
I snicker to myself as I follow Kendrick inside. The cops swarm the poorly dressed gay couple making out in public in a high-end neighborhood and completely miss us slipping by.
While Keys and Neil quote Monty Python, loudly declaring their repression, Kendrick and I comb Bunny’s house looking for clues. The downstairs floor is practically untouched, but once we get up the stairs it’s clear that’s where things went down. Crude tape outlines where Bunny’s mother breathed her last, and tiny shards of what looks like glass litter the carpet where a small spot of blood dripped. Odd for the blood to be there, as it doesn’t seem to have come from Mrs. Kincaid. The direction is all wrong for that, plus it looks like a stationary drip as opposed to splatter from the momentum of a bullet.
Kendrick kneels next to the spot outside the bedroom and inspects it closer. “Cell phone. Pieces of screen.” He points at the shards. “My guess? Bunny tried to call one of us, and Ramsey shot her phone. There’s not enough blood for him to have shot her, though I wonder if it’s her blood or not. I can’t figure how she could’ve gotten hurt.”
I glance into the bedroom to see if there are any signs of a struggle in there. Some blood smeared on the bed sheets, and more drips leading across the carpet to the hallway bathroom. Someone cut Bunny in the bed, and she probably went looking for a first aid kit. At least, I hope she did. It’s too much blood to be a nick from shaving or something like that, but thankfully a small enough amount that she won’t likely bleed out from whatever it was.
For whatever reason, the lack of any other signs of struggle bothers me more than if we’d found gallons of Bunny’s blood up here. “Did he just …takeher?” I ask as I look around.
“I think so,” Kendrick says with a sigh. “And we got here too late to see everything we might need to see. The cops have already taken everything important. Sun Yi’s body, Bunny’s phone, any weapons that might have been here—it’s all gone.” His hand balls into a fist, and he punches a neat hole in the drywall next to him.
