Spilling Guts

Part 34 - Take Down

Megan let Teegan out of the car a block away from the Net-Inn and then parked and swiped her Watch issued card through a meter for fifteen minutes of parking. She hoped this encounter wouldn't take longer than that.

Detective Lee Seung-woo stood to the side of the Net-Inn's street-facing windows, out of sight from anyone inside. She had only met him once at the Police station where he wore a suit and tie and had the presence of a cannon ball rolling down a hill, propelled by gravity and a need to strike something solid to stop. Now, he wore a fitted dark brown leather jacket, dark circles under his narrow eyes, and a frown as he checked his watch. He hadn't stopped rolling yet.

Megan jogged up from his left. "You got here fast."

"I drive two wheels." Lee gestured to a motorcycle parked up the street. The shine of a badge flashed from his open collar. "Where's your partner?"

"Around back if Rover decides to run."

"Smart." Lee nodded and gestured to the door. "Do you mind if I take point? I have some questions for Mister Rover after that last batch of videos you sent me."

"Sure. Such as?"

"How do you plead?" Lee trudged to the door.

That's a change of tune from before. Megan followed, tapping her wrist-screen. "Teeg, we're going in."

"Ready when you are. Be careful."

"I will." No jumped up asshole is going to keep me from seeing my kid as a carrot.

The cafe door dinged open, the warm air smelled of artificial clean, body odor, and very strong spray deodorant. At the table closest to the front counter outlets sat Jared Rover in the flesh. He wore jeans and a button down dress shirt that lay snug across his shoulders and stomach. A dark five o'clock shadow encrusted his wide face and neck. He sat in front of an open laptop, a can of a vibrant energy drink in his hand, having an animated conversation with Cam, the Net-Inn worker. More accurately, Rover was talking at Cam with an air of "if you don't understand where I'm coming from I pity you", and Cam stood there taking it with a firmly plastered on customer service "is fifty dollars worth this?" smile, nodding along.

A glance around showed the Net-Inn with one other customer near the back wearing a thick pair of headphones and a violent red glow on her face from the screen.

Megan took the left of Rover's desk, closer to the front counter, Detective Lee wove around a desktop setup to the right.

Cam glanced over at the sound of the door chime; his shoulders sagged in relief, but the customer-service mask stayed on. He interrupted Rover's tirade with a perky: "Welcome to Net-Inn, how may I help you?"

It was then Rover looked away from his captive audience and noticed the two people on either side of him. He shut his laptop. The overeager smile became wary. To Megan, he looked like a guy that hadn't slept in a few days.

"Maybe." Lee answered, keeping his eyes on Rover. "I have a few questions."

Cam backed away behind the front counter.

Rover slowly unplugged his laptop from the table outlet. "Me?"

"Yes." Lee slipped the badge out from under his collar. "Like what did you pick up from the Colefax pharmacy two weeks ago?"

Jared Rover threw the can of energy drink, barely sipped, towards Lee's head. The can hit Lee's temple with a blunt thud, making him stagger back. The fizzy caffeinated liquid sprayed over his face and eyes, blinding him.

"Shibal!" yelled Lee as gravity won its unfair war against a rolling cannonball, and dragged him down to the floor.

As Lee fell Megan lunged, hand on the tazer under her green jacket. Rover, in a fit of strength and who-cares-if things-break, snatched his laptop into a safe arm, flipped the table, and made a mad dash for the front door. The table, extension cord to the charging ports still attached, didn't go far. It landed on Megan's foot.

"Fuck!" Megan hissed through the throbbing pain in her toes as she shifted the table off her foot.

The front door chimed violently as Jared Rover fled. For a man that looked that tired and had that much body mass, he could run. Lee didn't look like he would move any time soon, not with a knock to the head that bad. So Megan hobbled after Rover, mentally making a note to invest in steel-toed boots.

"Teeg," Megan called over her wrist-com. "He's running! Front door."

"On it."

Megan followed him down the sidewalk, sidestepping sparse pedestrians that wisely stayed out of the way once they were shoved out of the way by Rover.

"Stop him!" Megan called, hoping a good Samaritan would take the hint.

The hint was not taken as Jared Rover disappeared down an alley half a block away. When Megan turned the corner, she found the alley empty save for a few trash bins too small to hide behind. She hobbled down it anyway, calling into her wrist com.

"I've lost him!"

"On it," chimed Teegan.

"Why do you sound happy?"

A few seconds of silence passed, then a few more. A small seed of dread burrowed into Megan's mind that something had happened to Teegan while apart, speeding Megan's steps though they pained her. From the other end of the alley, Megan heard a soft scuffing sound; shoe soles against pavement and the heft of a falling body. Megan exited the other side of the alley and saw Teegan standing next to a prone Jared Rover, the man groaning as he curled on the ground. The laptop Jared had hauled out with him lay in two pieces.

Teegan waved like a princess with one hand, and held a stun-gun spent of its first charge in the other.

Megan approached, the pain in her toes becoming more evident now that the chase was over. "How did you know he'd go down this alley?"

Teegan pointed behind her to a rust colored Oldsmobile with a long scrape on the door and bumper stickers plastering the back end. "I saw his car when I walked around back. Figured if he was running away, he'd eventually run here."

Megan nodded. "That'll do."

"Unlawful assault," Rover wheezed, gaining back some semblance of where he was though he still couldn't move. "I have rights."

"I'm sure Detective Lee will be glad to tell them to you," said Teegan.

"Especially after you assaulted him first via an open can of hell-knows-what to the face," added Megan.

Teegan winced. "Ouch."