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Austin’s voice was frantic as it came through the earpiece. “Stacy. Talk to me, Stacy. What’s going on?”
Stacy felt every muscle in her chest burn and ache. The blinding pain made spotted circles impact her vision as the figure of Brian Dowdy blurred into a shadow she couldn’t recognize.
“Fuck it,” Austin said. “Let’s move. Now!”
Stacy rolled to the side, hacking and wheezing. As she turned back over, Brian swung around and pushed Josie back. Josie stumbled and dropped her gun. He bent down with one uncuffed hand and grabbed the gun, pointing it at the young officer and firing.
Bang!
Josie’s body disappeared under the park trees. Stacy tried to scream, but her voice wouldn’t respond. Her face felt hot, and the muscles in her neck had tightened.
Brian stalked over to Stacy and stood over top of her. “Sorry. I’ve got gas.” He cackled. “Hydrogen sulfide, to be exact. Sweat and saliva ran down his lips and onto his sweatshirt.
His entire face was sweat-smeared. Stacy gazed up into his eyes, wheezing, gasping, and clawing at her throat. Nothing inside her chest felt like it was working. The muscles seized and hard. Stacy panted like a dog, trying to get air to her lungs.
She looked down and noticed that Brian had straddled her legs. Her mind was paralyzed with fear, and her brain tried to use its synapses to determine why the oxygen wasn’t getting to where it was needed.
At that moment, everything around Stacy turned into a haze that blurred the sounds and images around them. Instead, her eyes focused on the man who stood over her with Josie’s gun pointed down at her face. In the distance, Stacy could hear sirens and felt the heavy steps of feet vibrating against the grass.
Stacy peered up into the chamber hole at the end of the nozzle. He spat on Stacy again and turned around, his head whipping around the park, looking for a place to escape.
She made her move. Before Brian could refocus on her, Stacy managed to take her right foot and lodge the toe of her boot into the bend of his leg. The kick’s force, coupled with the fact that Brian had most of his weight shifted to the other leg, caused him to fall to one knee. Stacy reached up and slammed the heel of her palm into the soft space under the bridge of his nose. The bones cracked and buckled as blood spurted from his nostrils.
Brian wailed and dropped the gun, covering his bleeding nose with both hands. Stacy took the toe of her boot and drove it into Brian’s crotch, knocking him backward.
“Stupid bitch,” he cried out.
Still coughing and wheezing but able to think more clearly, Stacy stumbled to her feet. She found her gun and picked it up. Brian locked eyes with her for a moment, then pushed himself off the ground and lunged for Stacy. She sidestepped his charge, and he fell onto his stomach.
Brian flailed on the ground for a moment like a displaced fish. Stacy coughed heavily before taking in a deep breath. Twisting in the air was the loose handcuff that had not been connected to Brian’s right wrist.
“Stacy,” someone called out from behind. It sounded like Austin, but her senses were on overdrive, and her body was still reeling from the gas fumes.
Stacy snagged the swaying handcuff and pulled. Brian snarled as she pulled back. He pushed himself up with a freed hand and managed to turn sideways. Stacy took the barrel of her Glock and slammed it against the side of his face.
“Sit still,” she breathlessly said. Stacy spat on the ground next to her, spittle and sweat denting her lips and tongue. She slapped the second mental cuff around his other wrist, clamping it tight against his skin.
“You’re under arrest, you son of a bitch.”
Brian moaned inaudibly as Austin approached. His weapon was drawn with the Tactical Unit members flanking him on each side. He holstered his weapon and reached down to lift Stacy, pulling her into a tight embrace. The gesture startled Stacy for a moment as Austin was not the type to show physical emotion.
“Jesus Christ.” He panted. “I thought he’d shot you.”
Stacy pulled away and pushed some wisps of hair away from her face. “Check on Josie. Brian shot her.”
Austin made a gesture for the men to head in that direction, and he pressed his earpiece into his ear with two fingers, then pulled out his cell phone. "We need a bus now,” he barked into the phone at dispatch. “Fairview Park. Officer down.”
He hung up the phone and approached the disheveled clump on the ground, moaning and turning his head from side to side.
“We heard everything.”
Stacy nodded in affirmation. “Good.”
“Everything,” Austin repeated, arching an eyebrow at Stacy. Stacy knew he meant Chance and his role as the photographer of those photos.
Austin lifted Brian by the bend in his arms and stood him upright. His face was bruised and bloody, the mottled skin changing into dark shades of violet and black. His nose was swollen, the tip smashed inward near the top of his lip.
“Let’s get this piece of shit out of here,” Austin said, looking back to two of the tactical officers that approached casually from behind.
Stacy pointed at him. The officers’ eyes followed the end of her finger. “Be careful. He has some type of cartridge in his pants that is emitting hydrogen sulfide.” The men looked at each other and pulled out their plastic facemasks as they held up the bruised and woozy suspect with two hands under his armpits.
“Take him to the trailer and get a patrol car ready to take him downtown. Don’t leave him alone for a second.”
Stacy watched Austin turn around, but she didn’t meet his gaze. She’d tucked her teeth inside of her lip. The breathing struggles she had from earlier had waned, but her lungs felt like they were on fire. Stacy felt lightheaded as she looked down at the ground, staring at the bald spaces devoid of grass where she had tumbled with Brian earlier. Imprints of their bodies resided on some of the wet ground surrounding the flattened grass.
“This isn’t over yet,” Stacy said quietly.
Austin made a face. "What?" He settled a look at Stacy, and his eyes widened with surprise. "What is it? I know that look...."
“Colton is alive.”
“Stacy...”
She closed the small distance between them and looked up at her partner.
“Brian Dowdy had no problem bragging about everyone else he killed that was close to Colton, but he said Colton was alive.”
Austin sighed. “He didn’t exactly say Colton was going to be alive for long. He might have killed the kid already.”
For a fraction of a second, Stacy felt the corners of her mouth twitch upward. Her brows were creased and her face tense. Austin studied her for a moment and frowned.
Both tracks of Stacy’s thinking were moving backward and forward against one another. One track had her thinking back to everything that had occurred in the investigation until today, including everything she knew and had discussed with others. These thoughts centered on what she had done right and what she had missed. The second track of thinking was focused on the present and what she knew and understood after listening to Brian Dowdy. When these tracks of thought converged, Stacy knew she could take a chance.
“Stacy?”
She lifted her eyelids and locked her gaze on him. “Sorry.”
“I think you went away for a bit.”
“Yeah,” she said, her body suddenly recoiling from the decreased rush of adrenaline and fatigue. “I think I know where Colton DeVito is.” Stacy grabbed Austin by the arm. “We need to hurry.”