If I Should Die

Three

Alex Gordon walked across the street toward Macie's Café. The city of Chicago was definitely beautiful. Most of the time. The city's first snow of the year was yet to come and it always looked even better in the snow.

He had information about something big that was going to happen in the next few weeks. He didn't know who else to tell besides Lexi. She would know the right person to give the information to.

Or at least that was his hope. Some major crime bosses were moving in to take more territory from other gangs. Bodies would start to drop and that wouldn't look good on Alex's part.

Alex looked around and noticed a black van following him. It soon came up and someone opened the door, Alex watched the masked man grab a machine gun and started firing.
Bullets flew towards him.
Alex didn't have time to duck or run. Bullets pierced his body and blood pooled around him as he fell to the ground.

Soon the masked man started firing the gun at the bystanders nearby. And started firing at the café. Bystanders could be heard yelling and screaming. More bullets flew into the café and all around as the van drove off.

***

"Everybody down!" Dominic yelled as the shots started. A bullet pierced through a few of the civilians inside the café. Dominic hoped that no one was killed. Whoever did this had this planned. And it was good.

People ducked and screamed. Dominic slowly made his way through the café unsure of what lay outside. Soon he noticed the bullets stopped firing. He got up and told everyone to stay down because some were starting to get up.

He saw some dead bodies, the blood that pooled around them and the bullets holes that had pierced their bodies. He spotted a young child, it had looked to be three or four years old, with a bullet hole in its neck. He winced and crawled toward the door. He got up slowly and saw a man on the ground.

He sighed and grabbed his phone to call it in. After he was done a woman came up behind him and ran out of the café and ran straight to the body.

"Ma'am!" he called out. "You can't be near him. This is a crime scene now," he told her. She looked up at him. She had blonde hair,  blue eyes, and a round face. her eyes were red from crying. "Did you know him?" he questioned her.

She slowly nodded. "He had some information for me. I'm a reporter, Lexi Cole. Alex wanted to meet here so he could tell me of a plan that would hurt a lot of people." she choked out.

"How did he get that information?" he asked her. Dominic needed the information so he could stop whatever Alex was going to tell Lexi.
She didn't look at him or say anything all she did was look down at the ground. "Miss Cole, I need you to answer the question. I'm a police officer." Dominic told her.

She still looked down at the ground. Dominic heard sirens and soon three police cars, some ambulances, and fire trucks arrived at the scene. Dominic led Lexi to an ambulance. "Stay here. Paramedics are going to look at you and then you're coming with me," he told her. He walked off for a moment and saw Danny there.

He figured Danny would've known he was here and came as soon as he heard the call. Dominic quickly walked over to him. "You good?" the boy asked.

"Yeah. Casualties?" Dominic asked.

"At least three dead and thirteen injured." Danny nodded his head over toward the café where Alex's lifeless body was being put onto a gurney and was to be taken to a ME's office to be autopsied. "Who is he?"

"Alex. At least that's what I got from that lady-" Dominic pointed over toward Lexi-" she didn't tell me the last name though. She was very shaken up."

It didn't surprise either of the two. When it comes to traumatic experiences, being shaken up was what came with it.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Danny told him.

"Run his prints. I need a last name." Dominic ordered.

***

Lexi watched Dominic talk to the other cop. She hasn't even begun to process what had just happened. Alex was dead. Her friend was dead. Alex had been her friend for so long. And now he was gone.

What would she do? Whenever she needed intel she would go to Alex. Her better questions were: Who would do this? Who wanted Alex dead and why did they want him dead.

She winced as the paramedic put a four by four on her head. She had gotten cut from the glass when the bullets started firing. She was near the window and the glass went everywhere.

Lexi noticed the cop coming back toward her. What did he want now? She asked herself in her head. Out of everything she'd gone through today she still knew that she had to answer questions.

"Miss Cole," he started. "I just have a few more questions for you," Dominic told her.

"Sure. Anything to help find who killed Alex," she said to him.

"What's Alex's last name?"

"Gordon," she replied.

Dominic wrote it down in his notebook and looked back up. "Any idea of who would want to kill Alex."

She shook her head. "No sir. Alex was a good guy. He did some stuff in his past. But I wouldn't know anything about it. He would just mention it."

"Thank you, Miss Cole," Dominic told her.

"It's Lexi!" she called out as he walked off.