Page 6 of Shadows of Before

“Fuck you,” one of them mumbled under her breath. She couldn’t hear what the other said.

Kate sat up straight, alert now. She watched them, but they ignored her. The phone rang. She picked it up while keeping her gaze on them.

“Westwood Police Department, Officer Donovan speaking.”

“I need to talk to Captain Thomas.”

“Who’s calling, please?”

“Tell him his wife needs to speak with him.”

Oh. “Sorry Mrs. Thomas. I didn’t know it was you. I’ll patch you—"

One of the women bolted up and hurled herself at the other. Woman number two was caught unaware. Number one grabbed her by the arm and flung her to the floor.

And drew a knife.

Kate dropped the phone, threw back the chair, leapt over the counter. She grabbed the number two’s tattooed arm. The woman turned on her. “What the hell?” She waved the knife at Kate. “You wanna get some of this too?”

Kate grabbed for the handle of the knife. Number one attacked and the second woman took a slice out of Kate’s hand.

“Arrgh!” she hissed at the fresh pain. Despite that, she caught the woman and she grabbed her wrist, twisted it until the weapon fell to the ground.

The patrol officers came out of the precinct proper. They corralled the women and cuffed them.

“What happened, Donovan?” Landry asked after they were taken care of.

“Your two culprits started a knife fight.”

“Fuck, youareincompetent, Donovan. No wonder you’re riding the bench. You should’ve—"

Captain Thomas burst into the front area. Observed the scene. “Hell, you’re bleeding, Donovan.” He rushed to a dispenser on the wall and brought her back a bunch of paper towels. She covered the wound.

Then he turned on the men. “Landry, Lawrence, my wife could hear you yelling over the phone. She called me on my cell. In my office now. Both of you.” To Katie he asked, “You okay?”

In truth, lightheadedness made her vision blur for a few seconds. Then she saw that the cut had soaked the paper towels. “I think I need to get this checked out.”

Grabbing his phone, he pressed three numbers. Said, “Captain Thomas from police headquarters. I need a med car at the precinct.” Then he turned to her. “Go sit in the lounge. Can you make it alone?”

“Uh-huh.” She got to the door. Opened it and walked inside. Other cops stared at her as she made her way to a couch and sunk down on it. She closed her eyes, thinking about her bad karma. There was definitely a black cloud hovering over her.

* * *

When Will arrived at Katie’s house the next morning, the sun was shining bright and the air warm. He found the door ajar. Hesitating, he thought for a second. She knew he was coming over at ten because he’d texted her last night to confirm.

He called out, “Katie?”

“Back here.”

He walked inside and strode through the small living room off to the right. The place was tiny. And shabby with smudged and peeling walls. He’d only seen it in the dead of night. Its appearance was worse in the daytime.

She was sitting up in the bed, naked, covered up to her breasts with a green sheet. “Hey, Will.” Her hair was damp from sweat and she had dark smudges under her eyes.

He crossed to the bed. “You okay?” She was pale, too.

“Yeah, sure.”

He noticed her left hand lying on the white sheet. Frowned. “You’ve got a big bandage around your hand.”

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