Murder in the City: Blue Lights by Clare Tatum Read Free Book Online

into the still street. The humid air swirled away the last effects of the air conditioning.
    Moistness coated her skin, immediately.
    She walked toward the cop car, stepping to the side of it but at a distance so as not to startle the officer.
    There was no one inside. She turned around. Where was he?
    “Hello,” she called.
    A low, moaning keen came from her left, from a wooded overgrown lot. The sound begged her to help. Someone was desperately hurt and needed assistance.
    Suddenly, she realized just how alone she was on the isolated street. Distantly, a car motor hummed as if to remind her how far she was from help.
    This lonely pocket of overgrown lots existed as if designed for murder and dumping bodies.
    She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed 911 as fast as her fingers would punch.
    “911. What is your emergency?” a voice intoned calmly as if Lainey had called for a pizza.
    They should answer yelling, “Where are you? What’s going on?” That would match the alarm in her blood.
    She wanted to scream into the phone, “Help. I need help. I’m terrified and alone out here.”
    Instead, as calmly as she could manage, she matched the woman’s tone. “This is Assistant District Attorney Lainey Thomas.” Her voice wavered on the last word, thin and almost unintelligible. She sucked in a breath and forced out as steadily as she could manage, “I was called out to the scene of a body just south of I-20.”
    “Oh, yes ma’am. I’m sorry. Someone should have called you back and told you that was nothing.”
    “Nothing?”
    “Yes, it was called in first as a body, then they realized it was an old sleeping bag left by some homeless dude. Sorry, Miss Thomas.”
    Lainey’s blood surged into her ears. She was alone out here. Where was the police officer?
    “I need help,” she said. “There’s a police officer’s car parked on the side of the road, but no police officer. And someone’s hurt in the woods.”
    “Oh lord. I wonder what could have happened. The officer said he was leaving the scene.”
    Lainey felt hands reaching for her neck. She twirled around quickly but no one was there. She backed up until she hit the police car. It would provide a hard surface that someone would have to run around in order to get to her.
    She glanced all around but saw no sign of anyone on the street behind her. A moaning cry of pain came from the woods in front of her.
    “Get someone out here right away, someone’s hurt and the police officer is nowhere to be seen. I think there could be an officer down.” She said the words as she knew they would be issued on the radio. Those words, O fficer Down , would turn on the blue lights of every cop that could get to the scene.
    They’d blast here as fast as possible.
    “I want you to stay on the line with me until someone gets there, Ms. Thomas.”
    Lainey scanned the woods on the other side of the street, searching for sign of the person who needed help. The pulsing blue lights from the police car shot illumination across the area. But, it was more disorienting than helpful.
    “Are you in your car?” the dispatch operator asked.
    “No.” Was that someone standing behind a tree?
    “Then, get back in your car and lock the doors,” the operator’s voice interfered with her ability to listen for crackling footsteps in the woods.
    The painful cry echoed from the dark again.
    “I need to go see who needs help. It could be the officer.”
    “Ma’am, you need to get in your car and lock the door.”
    “Just get someone out here.” She punched the disconnect number. That crying sound wrenched at her heart.
    The time it took another cop to get out here might mean the difference between life and death.
    She couldn’t let anyone lie on that lonely path and die alone, the way her parents had before rescue crews had arrived.
    She ran to her car and took out the baby Glock she owned but rarely carried. Checking it, she grasped it between both hands and pointed