Wolf in the Big City

Chapter 26 - Hunt

I shoved my phone into my pocket and yanked my helmet back on. As I stomped on the starter lever of my bike, Evelyn tapped on my shoulder.

"What was that about?"

"That was Dylan. He just told me that someone attacked the Rusty Knot bar. I'm driving us over there right now."

"Don't have to tell me twice. Step on it."

We zoomed off to the bar at top speed and I'm pretty sure I broke one or two traffic laws on the way there. But I had the flashing lights on, that protected me from the wrath of the car cops at least. As we reached the Rusty Knot, I saw a scene of chaos.

The bar's front windows were smashed in. The front area was cordoned off with yellow tape and the parking lot had a few squad cars and two ambulances parked in it. Police officers and EMTs littered the scene; two EMTs were tending to a man laid out on a stretcher while a few of the boys in blue questioned witnesses and held overly curious onlookers at bay. I could see from here that there was more than one stretcher as well and the fact that there were two ambulances here said a lot. And I could hear the sound of more sirens on the wind too.

Past all the organised chaos, I spotted Dylan within the mess of people. He was talking to another police officer, most likely a first responder to the scene. I pulled my bike into an unoccupied space, stowed our helmets and approached the LT together with Evelyn. He gave me a nod as we came in close, a grim expression written across his face.

"Detectives. Right on time. We got word from first responders that the bar had been attacked. Since this place is a part of our case, it's not that hard to put two and two together."

"You think it's our perp, LT?" Evelyn asked as she stood beside me. Dylan nodded as he folded his arms together.

"It's entirely likely. I figure that he's running out of places to hide, so he came here thinking he could camp out here and wait for all this police attention to die down. But something or someone must have riled him up because he wrecked the bar. Terrorised the patrons, broke shit and then escaped before the cops could get here. Hurt quite a few people in the process."

"Is it just us here, LT?" I asked as I scanned the scene, taking mental note of where people were and what was what. Dylan nodded again in response.

"Yeah, Dan. Eddie and John are over at Benjamin's apartment, scouring the place for evidence. So it's just us three here. I'm going to go in there, talk with the manager and see about getting CCTV footage from the cameras in here. Why don't you two canvas the scene, talk to some witnesses and try and put together a timeline of events? This could be the break in the case that we needed."

Evelyn and I exchanged a glance, then we both nodded to each other as she spoke.

"I'll head inside and talk to the bartender, Dan. Why don't you see if one of the injured folks out here is put together enough to paint us a picture?"

"You got it Evey."

As she headed inside, I made a beeline towards one of the ambulances. Two EMTs were there, tending to a man sitting on a stretcher. The man's arms were wrapped up in bandages but he appeared to be alert, at least. He was talking to the ambulance techs while one of them was finishing up another bandage going around his head when I approached and showed all three of them my NYPD badge.

"Hey, sorry to bother you three. NYPD, Detective Daniel Anderson. May I have a moment to speak to the gentleman here about what happened?"

The two techs, a man and a woman, exchanged a glance before the woman shrugged and gestured to the injured man as if to say 'here go ahead interrupt me from my job why don't you'. I nodded my sheepish thanks as the male EMT finished up the bandaging and stepped back into the ambulance. The man sitting on the stretcher looked between me and the ambulance and sighed.