Page 80 of To Have and to Hold

The scene of the explosion was complete chaos. Orange, red, and blue lights flashed against the buildings; the roadway was cleared and blocked off with police barricades and multitudes of civil servants were crawling all over the place.

I stood for a moment, stunned, before weaving past a barricade and searching for Knox.

“Sir—excuse me, sir! You’re not allowed past here.”

I held up my badge, an item all prosecutors receive that is very similar to a police badge, but my stare remained straight ahead. The officer saw the flash of metal and didn’t look any further, perhaps my murderous stride making him recede out of my peripheral vision.

I found Knox sitting in the back of the third ambulance I checked, his face alight with red and orange, but on a canvas of bloodless skin. As I came closer, a bandage across his head became noticeable.

“Knox!” I called, dodging individuals walking across me.

He turned to the sound. “Jesus Christ,” I said once I reached him. “What happened?”

“I’m fine,” Knox said and gently prodded his bandage. “Concussion from the blowback, they said.”

I looked to the right, assessing the damage to the three-story brownstone I hadn’t bothered to study when zeroing in on Knox. Smoke billowed and merged into the night—the tangy scent of metal and water mixed with the acrid afterburn and fire hoses still out and strewn about the slick road. Fireman entered and exited the building while others stood on the sidelines, pointing and discussing potential weaknesses that could remain in the structure.

“Is this Ed’s place?” I asked.

Knox nodded, then winced under the movement. “The dickwad booby-trapped the entrance.”

I squinted harder at the damage. “Ed couldn’t have—”

“We knocked first,” Knox said, seemingly not hearing me. “No answer. We were all under such urgency, all the facts pointed to Emme being kept in there, so we went to the next move. I directed the guys to get the ram and stood back while they blasted the door open.”

“You’re lucky you weren’t in the front,” I said.

“Two guys are severely injured,” Knox said. The lights surrounding us added to the bleakness.

“Levi?” I asked quietly.

“No.” Knox wiped his nose with his jacket sleeve. “But they’re good men with families, and we don’t even have Ed Carver in custody to show for it. If I’d known, I would never…”

“I know.” I bent to his level. “And they know. There was no way you could’ve predicted that Ed liked to build bombs.”

“Actually, there was.” I straightened at Knox’s words. “I should’ve gone about this cleanly and done a more thorough background on him. Instead, I had Levi talk to Ed Carver’s parents while I banged into his apartment and didn’t wait for any additional information Levi could’ve given me.”

I pointed to the building. “Because you believed Emme was in there, that’s why. And any time wasted is more opportunity given to the kidnapper to kill her.”

“Turns out our Eddie has a penchant for building explosives, ever since he was a small child. Lighting up trees, throwing cherry bombs in toilets, toiling in junkyards to find things to light on fire later. It was all there.”

I turned back to the building, unable to keep the confusion from controlling my features. Was this yet another coincidence?

“Knox, I’ve been calling you because I had new info,” I said. “But with all this, I have no fucking clue what to do with it.”

“Tell me. I ain’t going anywhere for a while, and don’t even ask me where my phone went. Probably over there buried in the lawn.”

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said. The thought of what could’ve happened hit home. I’d been texting and leaving voicemails, growing more annoyed with this guy by the second, and all the while Knox was lying on the ground.

“I have a feeling the worst is yet to come,” Knox said, and the moroseness in his tone had me peering closer.

I hesitated. “I’m not too sure you’re going to believe it.”

“Well, I didn’t wake up this morning thinking I’d get a bomb to my face, so I’m pretty open to new discoveries at this point.”

“I came across information that lead me away from Ed Carver as the suspect,” I said. “When you left, I went into the interview room with Jack and Perry, remember that?”

“Yeah, sure.” Knox rubbed at his temple, but his attention stayed on me.

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