Page 64 of The Last Straw

She frowned. “Why not? I’ll let you drive.”

“Because I cannot fold myself up small enough to even sit in it, let alone drive the damn thing.”

She shrugged. “It’s faster.”

“Not happening,” Charlie said and loaded her into the passenger side of his Jeep and shut the door.

Wyrick buckled up, loosened the lid on her Pepsi and then unwrapped her candy bar as Charlie took off.

“You called Detective Floyd, right?” she asked.

“Yes, and I called Millie Chriss to give her an update.”

“Oh...I should have thought of that,” Wyrick said.

“I’m not completely useless,” Charlie said.

Wyrick popped a piece of candy into her mouth to keep from smiling. It felt so damn good to still be alive that she stayed mute. Charlie had moved mountains...and part of a wall today to find her. He deserved to have the last word.

Sonny was staying put in his apartment. He had his television on and some stew reheating on the stove, trying to settle back into his normal routine.

He wasn’t about to screw up his carefully planned alibi of being gone when all this happened, because it had cleared him tonight. Cops were still all over the place, and the last thing he wanted was to be noticed again.

But his choice to stay under the radar also made him unaware Charlie and Wyrick came back in full force, walking as if nothing had ever happened. Not only were Floyd and Mills waiting for them at the office, but they had two more uniformed officers going with them, as well.

Floyd couldn’t believe it when he saw them approach.

Wyrick had gone out unconscious and on a stretcher, and was walking back in a couple of hours later as if nothing had ever happened.

“Ma’am. It’s good to see you like this. You must be part Energizer Bunny.”

“Something like that,” she said.

Mills glanced down at Charlie’s hands, expecting to see them in stitches, or at least in bandages, and then what he saw left him in shock.

“Charlie! Your hands! What the hell?” he asked.

Charlie shrugged. “They weren’t as bad as they looked. Doc washed them off and cleaned them up. I’ve always been a fast healer. Are you guys ready to do this?”

“More than ready,” Floyd said.

“Wyrick’s the one with the gut feeling here,” Charlie said. “So she’s calling the shots. The rest of us are here for backup. We don’t need a repeat of this morning.”

“Got it,” Floyd said. “Ma’am. Lead the way.”

Wyrick took off for the elevator with Charlie at her side, weaving her way through the lobby and the continuing chaos of the investigation.

It wasn’t until they got back into the bedroom of Rachel’s apartment that Charlie moved in front of her. “I go first.”

She didn’t argue. But when they stepped into the closet and she saw what Charlie had done to get to her, she froze.

At that point Charlie warned her.

“Watch where you’re walking. There’s a lot of debris.”

But she was still standing, staring in disbelief.

Charlie turned, saw the look on her face and sighed. She wasn’t going to let this pass. And he was right.

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