Reckoning - 35. Chapter 35

Detective AJ and Artie entered Gavin Martin’s apartment, going straight to the bedroom. The corpus removed and sent to the morgue, leaving behind a blood stain impression.

“We should get an ID on the head, the body, and blood by the end of the day,” Artie said.

“What do you think the message on the corpus’s chest was for?” AJ asked.

“He will be next. Patrick Valdez was supposed to read that.”

“We have to give Adam the head’s up.”

“Yeah, but first I want to look at the bathroom again.”

Artie opened the door leading to the connected bathroom. Photos of one person cosplaying as unique characters covered the walls and floors, spattered with blood.

“Imagine Patrick found this?” AJ said.

“He’d check himself into a bar.”

“It confirms his statement about someone watching him.”

Artie glanced out the broken window toward Adam’s building. He could see Adam’s shower from where he stood. “The distance Adam jumped was insane even for him,” he said, shaking his head at the thought when a sound below caught his attention. He assumed it was an animal. He turned to AJ, who was looking in the medicine cabinet at the shelves of pill bottles. “Nothing’s coming to me, what about you?”

“Nothing that we don’t already know,” AJ said, closing the glass door.

“Let’s go find Potter. Maybe something will click once we talk to him.”

“Okay.”

Artie followed AJ out locking the front door behind them. When they reached Adam’s place found it locked up tight. Artie leaned on the buzzer with no results.

“Where can he be?” AJ mumbled to himself.

“This is a waste of time,” Artie said. “Why are we showing him anything, he’s a civilian?”

“He’s a PI who used to be a cop. We agreed we needed his insight on this case.”

“Yeah, yeah. Call him while I go check of this alley.”

“Do you think we missed something?”

“Potter found his geisha.”

AJ dialed Adam’s number while he followed Artie to the alley. He stopped when Adam answered.

“Hello.”

“Adam, where are you we need to talk.”

“I’m in a Hitch on my way back.”

“A Hitch? Where’s your jeep?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, AJ.”

“Adam there’s something you need to know.”

“What?”

“It’s about what we found in Gavin bathroom.”

“Son-of-a-bitch!” Artie shouted.

AJ heard boards hitting the ground, breaking him in mid-sentence.

“AJ?” Adam said.

“Hold on a sec; Adam. Artie, everything okay?” he shouted. His chest tightened when gunfire rang out. “Artie!” he shouted louder, racing toward the alley, drawing his gun.

AJ put his cell away as he held his weapon with both hands and stepped into the alley. “Artie,” he called out, receiving no reply. He walked to where they discover the head. He checked his surroundings, not lowering his gun, and listened for any abnormal sounds, still nothing. “Artie,” he shouted again. He moved further down and spotted a foot underneath collapsed wooden skids. AJ put his gun away and race to aid. “Artie, can you hear me?” AJ pushed, tossed, and lifted the skids, burying his lover. His hands got cut and splintered during it, but he ignored the pain. With relief he got a visual on Artie who laid face down, unmoving, holding his gun. AJ stooped down, placing two fingers on his neck to check his pulse,. “Thank God, you’re still with me.” The abnormal sound AJ looked for earlier came up behind him, swinging. AJ turned in time to a mask man wheeling a machete towards him. He dodges the first swing by falling back, reaching for his gun. The second one came at him like a hammer as sirens wailed in the distance..

AJ couldn’t get his gun out in time as the swinging machete came towards him. Instead, he grabbed a skid, stopping the blade on the second plank. The sirens came closer, a horn screaming towards them. The killer got distracted. AJ reached for his gun again and this time he could draw it at the same time the killer turned around and kicked the gun from AJ’s hand running off.

AJ tossed the skid with the machete to the side and laid back when Adam’s voice rang out and the calls of ‘Freeze’ from fellow officers.