Schism

Chapter 24 part 1

Chapter 24

The black nylon bag itself was impressive, but the weapons inside it left Bryan speechless for a moment.  Slowly, he turned to Meyers.  "I just need one taser.  I'm not invading a country or anything."

Meyers simply snorted back at him and pulled out a yellow and black plastic gun with barn doors on the end.  He held it out for Bryan.  "It's fully charged.  Don't shoot yourself.  It hurts like hell."

That pulled Bryan's attention away from the layout of guns, ammo and supplies in the orderly gear bag that sat in the back of Meyers' SUV.  "You shot yourself?" he asked.

"Not myself, had somebody shoot me.  Haven't you tested one?" Meyers actually looked surprised to Bryan, as if he thought it was normal to take 60,000 volts.

"Guess I missed that day at the academy."  Bryan felt the gun.  It was lighter than he expected, not much over a pound.

"This means you've got a lead on your escapee then?" Meyers asked.

It was a lie, but Bryan nodded back.  He wished he could tell Meyers the truth.  If there was anybody in the department who he felt he could talk to, it was Meyers.  But trying to explain what he had learned about William was ludicrous.  He knew it would be a waste of effort. 

And if he did, Meyers would look at him like the other officers did.

"You want some backup?  Just in case?" Meyers asked.

"Nah, thanks."  That was another lie.  The reason he'd asked Meyers for the stun gun was because he'd lost the backup he'd asked for.  After lunch, Lieutenant Hayes had pulled Bryan into his office and told him that there would be no patrol car outside of Jessica's apartment.  The D.A. had put out an order that morning that all resources were to be directed at finding the vigilante.  Bryan had kept the irony of the order to himself, but regretted the loss of a patrol car to keep an eye on Jess.  There was too much going on with William, too many variables that he hadn't pulled together yet.  And without another officer near her home, it was easier, safer to bring William in.  "Appreciate it though," he said to Meyers.

"You sure?"

Bryan nodded, hefted the taser.  "The guy's just a mental patient, this is just in case he tries to run away."  He wasn't sure what else to tell Meyers.  Maybe a bit of truth would help convince him.  "Besides, I want to show Hayes I can hack it."

He saw the frown spread on Meyer's face.  "Hayes doesn't doubt your ability.  I don't think anybody does."  Bryan watched Meyers close up the bag and shut the SUV's hatch.

"Thanks," Bryan said.  "Hopefully I won't have to use it."

Meyers started toward the precinct building.  "Just don't shoot yourself.  Catch this guy quick and…I'll talk to Hayes for you."

Bryan stood for a moment, then walked to his new motor pool car.  He thought about what Meyers had said.  Hayes didn't doubt his abilities.  It was the last thing he'd expected to hear, and more than a little ridiculous.  If Hayes didn't doubt Bryan's ability to solve a crime, he would have given him real cases.  But this was the second time Meyers had intimated that they needed his help quickly.  He just didn't know if it was because of some new traction on the big fires, or the increasing number of small ones recently.  He hoped there was a connection between the two.

He looked down at the stun gun as he opened the car door.  Bryan didn't feel anything but doubts.  He doubted his ability to bring William in, and whether it was even the right thing to do.

And he doubted that one stun gun would be enough to do it.

*

The drive to Jessica's apartment was over before he realized he had even turned the car on.  The scorched and melted pavement was still evident and Bryan pulled further down the street to the next empty parking spot.  He wasn't sure if flaming cars were like lightning striking twice, but he didn't feel the need to push his luck.

He grabbed his notebook from the passenger seat and stared at the mishmash of doodles he'd drawn there.  His talk that morning with Meyers had sparked him. 

He had started with the same visual stepping stones, drawing circles on the pages and letting his mind associate patterns and meaning with all that he had seen.  But the circles hadn't been right, even the concentric rings that had popped up on the page.  It was leaning in the right direction, but it didn't feel complete.  Didn't feel big enough somehow.

Bryan flipped to a blank page and began writing down names.  Jessica, Westen, William, even his own.  He stacked them in a grid and looked out the window as his hand did the work.  He knew it was pointless to guard her apartment at this hour.  Jessica was at work and he had no idea where William could be.

But, William had been here yesterday evening.  That meant he had been watching her apartment, just as Bryan suspected.  He might be here now.

A flash in the rearview mirror pulled his attention from worries about William.  Behind him, a green early model truck pulled into the burned parking space he had passed by and the driver got out, walked to Jessica's building.  Bryan couldn't make out the face clearly, but saw he was a white male, probably in his late thirties.

Bryan shook his head at his own suspicions.  His paranoia over William's proximity to Jessica's apartment had him looking at everything and everyone with suspicion.  He didn't want to be that way, knew that it rarely led to good police work.  And personally, he didn’t want to regard William as a suspect or target, especially after they had talked about the arsons.  William had not only saved Bryan's life but Bryan had seen William's memory of it firsthand.

What he couldn't figure out for certain was whether William was a valuable ally or some kind of dangerous threat.  The feeling growing inside of him was that William was possibly both.

Movement in the rear view mirror caught his eye again as two men climbed into the green truck and drove away.  As it passed him, he couldn't see the driver, but the passenger rode low in the seat, either hunched over or rather short.  There was something familiar about him, but Bryan couldn't place where he had seen the man before.  Probably just someone he had passed in Jessica's building.

He looked down at the notepad, connected the four names with short lines to form an empty box.  He thought back to the concentric circles he had made earlier and put down twelve dots around the names.  Quickly, he connected the rest of the dots to form a larger square made up of nine smaller squares, with the names at the center. 

This was closer.  Smaller squares making up bigger squares.  Bryan looked up from the page.

William stood outside his car.

*