Durango – Installment 2

Durango

By

D.M. KURTZ

Installment 2: Gruesome

“…10-10 at 3rd and 9th…”

Don and Rodie had barely buckled themselves into their seats in the front of Don’s upgraded Dodge police cruiser before the female voice chimed through the radio in the dash. The former Jersey resident gave a quick glance and grin to his partner as he shifted the vehicle into drive, clicked on the siren and put the pedal to the floor.

“Parker and Simmons responding, en route,” Rodie spoke into the receiver. “ETA, 3 minutes.”

“So you ready to lose a wager, or what?” Don asked as he wheeled the vehicle around a sharp left turn.

“Ten bucks says it’s a crowbar,” Rodie replied with a smirk, and Don grinned all the wider. His partner already knew the drill.

“I’ll go double or nuthin’ on a baseball bat,” Don remarked.

“You always bet on a bat, and you always lose. You’d think after three years you’d switch it up a little.”

“Hey, today could be the day, pal. If you always bet on a bat, eventually,” Don shrugged, “it’ll be a bat.”

“Don’t forget about the twenty bucks!” Rodie chuckled. “That puts me up by what, a hundred and thirty?”

“Hundred n’ twenty,” Don argued. “Let’s not get so ahead of ourselves, huh?” He glanced at Rodie, and his grin dissipated as the car rounded the final turn.

“What in the…” His speech was cut short as he slammed the brakes. The squad car came to a stop a few feet shy of a bloodied body in the middle of an empty street just outside an abandoned building. Don glanced pensively to his partner and unbuckled his seatbelt. He and Rodie exited the vehicle with hands on their weapons and muscles taut. A clatter from an alley to their right caused both to swiftly let their department issued 9mm’s fly from each respective holster as the two aimed the handguns in the direction of the noise. Don motioned to Rodie and the pair moved together toward the collapsed form on the pavement.

“Jesus…” Don muttered as his eyes took in the broken form of a slender woman. The back of her head looked to have been smashed in horribly, as if someone had slammed her down again and again until the remains were hardly recognizable, but worst of all by far was the noticeable bump on her belly.

“Who.. What, what kinda monster would do this to a pregnant lady?” Don asked with a distraught glance to his partner. Rodie’s less seasoned face was pale, and he looked away quickly with a hand over his mouth.

“Hey, hey now,” Don told him carefully. “Keep it together, huh? Why don’t you go and call this in?” Rodie nodded as he turned and moved back toward the police cruiser, but the attention of both men were drawn again to their right as a scuffling sound trilled through the alleyway.

“No, no no wait for backup,” Rodie had started to say, but Don was already off. The blood in his veins seemed almost to boil, and his instincts told him that he had to go then or the perps responsible for the terrible act he had just witnessed would be long gone. He barely noted an irritated expletive erupt from Rodie before his partner started to follow.

Don rushed with careful but quick strides with gun at the ready. When he rounded a corner to his left, his heart skipped a beat when his eyes took in a short, fairly chubby fellow with blood-soaked hands standing near a dumpster at the base of a fire escape.

“That’s far enough, pal!” Don yelled. “Lemme see those hands, huh?” Strange, he thought, that he found the perp so quickly and so close still to the crime scene. Why hadn’t he fled? The man turned slowly, and his devilish face was split with a wide grin. Don’s instincts flared, and he had just started to turn around when –

BOOM!

He barely even registered the sound that erupted like thunder right before a fist-sized hole blew straight through the center of his chest.

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Copyright © 2018 D.M. Kurtz

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