Erks was dead.
His body was found slain in the alley outside Tommy’s apartment. Only a few feet away from her front door.
The sound of police sirens woke Tommy and Kelly around 3 a.m.
Some residents returning home after last call had spotted the body, or at least a foot, sticking out of the dark shadows.
When the sirens stopped on the street below, Kelly had quickly dressed, telling Tommy to wait there. But of course, she pulled on a pair of sweatpants, grabbed her camera, and followed. Kelly laughed to himself in the elevator, shaking his head and looking down.
“Yep. I was crazy to think you’d wait behind.”
She smiled back. But her smile was a little more fragile. She couldn’t stop thinking about Erks. Nobody had been able to reach him at all the previous day.
As she stepped onto the cobblestone street outside her building, she knew.
It was Erks.
One look at the black military boot sticking out of the shadows confirmed it even before Kelly pulled back the sheet and looked over at her with a mixture of anger and sadness in his eyes.
Tommy gasped and shoved her fist to her mouth, trying not to scream. No. No. No.
When she looked up, it didn’t seem as if anybody had noticed. They were riveted by the body only a few feet away. Tommy hastily wiped her face on her sleeve and stood rigid. Unsure what to do or where to go. She was shaking uncontrollably even though the night air was still in the sixties.
She wanted to hug Kelly and cry, but he was already working, taking over the crime scene, even though this time the murder victim was his colleague.
Tommy watched him giving orders to the other officers, sealing off and protecting the crime scene until the homicide investigators arrived.
Soon, the area was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape. The body lay alone, waiting for someone from homicide to take over the scene. Kelly stood just inside the crime scene tape conferring with someone on his cell phone and then using the officer’s police radio.
The ambulance drivers stood against their van, nearby. Waiting. No hurry now. The few bystanders who had stopped to see what was happening slowly wandered off, except one old guy who sat smoking and looking around as if he expected the killer to come back any minute.
Tommy’s camera hung unused on its strap looped around her shoulder. She was shivering. She didn’t know what to do, either. But she knew she couldn’t just go back upstairs to her apartment.
Finally, two homicide detectives Tommy recognized arrive. They ducked under the crime scene tape. After Kelly briefed them, they headed toward the body. One crouched down and peeked under the sheet. The other nodded, his face unreadable. They both looked around until their eyes met Tommy’s. One of the detectives narrowed his eyes at her, while the other gave her a grim, tight-mouthed nod.
Good God, did they think it was her fault that Erks ended up dead? Ridiculous.
But the thought sent a choked sob rising into Tommy’s throat. Unable to bear the accusations in their eyes, she stumbled inside the apartment building’s lobby, collapsing onto a couch near the front desk.
“No, no, no!”
She was startled when she felt an arm around her. It was Kelly. She hadn’t seen or heard him come in.
“Don’t pay attention to those clowns,” he said. “Erks knew what he was doing. He loved it. He knew the risks. He was one of our best. If this guy got to him, then he would have gotten to anybody we had out here on this case. It has nothing to do with you.”
Tommy closed her eyes and nodded. Then opened them. “How did he die?” she asked.
Kelly shook his head. “Don’t know. No sign of trauma. It’s a little odd.”
“Heart attack?”
“No, the one thing I know is this wasn’t natural.”
“How do you know?”
“Erks had some skin under his nails. He was scratching or clawing at someone as he went down.”