The temperature was still at its peak of a hundred and three degrees, even though it was almost five in the afternoon. Heat radiated off the blacktop of the mall parking lot, causing refractive rippling when looking across the lot’s surface.
Josie’s T-shirt beneath her body armor was soaked, and she’d never felt so hot and sticky. Is it like this every day in the summer?
“Price! Report to the command post.” Startled from her misery, she looked around, and then saw Sergeant McKenzie standing on the step of the CP. He’d been the one to call.
He motioned for her to come to him.
She jogged over to learn what he wanted.
“It’s over a hundred degrees. You don’t have to double-time unless I tell you to.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go inside and cool off. You’ve been out there for hours.”
She glanced around to see what other officers were doing. She didn’t want to seem like she was being treated differently.
McKenzie caught the movement of her gaze. “Relax, they’ve already taken a break to cool down.”
He moved inside and motioned toward a small fridge. “There’s bottles of water in there. Take what you need. We have plenty.”
There was a table with a semi-circle of seating around it.
“Sit there and rest a few minutes to relax.”
She reached into the refrigerator and took a plastic container.
“Get at least two. You’re likely dehydrated. We can’t have you passing out.”
She did as he said, but thought it was over-kill—until she took a sip. She quickly guzzled down one bottle and drank a quarter of the second.
“You and Bender will be relieved as soon as night watch gets out of roll call.”
She nodded.
“Well, you’ve had baptism by fire. Your first homicide, and a cop is the victim.” He sighed. “As you can see, setting up a crime scene of this magnitude starts off chaotic, but once we’ve got it secure, things settle down.”
Another officer, the one called Hoppy, trudged into the CP. “Hey, Sarge. Is there any water in here. My partner and I are frying out there.”
Josie jumped to her feet and addressed the sergeant. “I’ve cooled down. Thank you.” She looked at the man called Hoppy. “I’ll help you haul bottles to the others who are outside.”
“Great.”
She filled her arms with as many bottles as she could carry and before she went twenty yards, other officers had relieved her of her burden.
She’d kept two for Bender and took them to him.
Outside the Flair department store, he was sitting on a concrete planter that held a dwarf palm tree. He was scrolling through his phone.
She walked around the perimeter protecting the point of impact of vehicles and pedestrians. Inside the protected space, men in suits—she assumed from RHD homicide or Traffic Division, were consulting with what appeared to be techs from SID, or Scientific Investigation Division.
“Officer Bender. I brought you some water.” She extended the bottle to him.
“Thanks. Did McKenzie call you into the CP for a break? He said he would.”
“Yeah. It was great to get out of the heat.”
“He’s a good sergeant. He takes care of the troops. He grabbed me to cool off about three. I think you were still canvassing for wits.”
She nodded. “I’m surprised at the number of people willing to talk to us.”
He chuckled. “Did any of them see anything of value?”
“Not many.” Then she smiled. “I did have one good witness who actually observed both of the victims get hit.”
“You’ve got their FI, right?”
She nodded.
He drank the last of his water and placed the containers in the recycle bin outside the store. His gaze shifted off to the distance.
A convoy of patrol vehicles pulled up at the far end of the parking lot.
“Hot damn,” he said. “Looks like night watch is out of roll call. We’ll be going home soon.”