Free Alchemystic by Anton Strout Page B

anyone,
especially
an officer of the law.”
    “But—”
    Marshall pointed toward the bright light shining on us. “He’s got
a gun
,” he said. “Will that convince you?”
    “He does…?” The wind went out of her words as she spoke them.
    “Get the hell over here right
now
!” the officer repeated.
    Without brooking further argument, Marshall stepped carefully off in the direction of the flashing lights, raising hishands even higher. “We’re coming,” he called out, his voice wavering with obedient fear.
    Rory helped me up. I wiped the back of my coat’s sleeve across my face and allowed her to lead me toward the gates as well. My arms and legs felt like jelly, twitching and shaking as I tried to walk.
    “Easy,” Rory said, noting my weakness.
    “Open the gate, slowly,” the officer said. Up close, I could finally make them out, one younger, taller, with a short blond crew cut, and the other shorter, stockier, older. They didn’t scare me as much as the short, rectangular end of the gun Tall and Blond had pointed at the three of us.
    Rory saw it, too, and didn’t argue as she fished my key out of her front pocket and slid it into the gate, unlocking it from the inside. The blond officer pushed the gate open toward us using his foot.
    “What’s this about someone being dead?” he asked.
    I nodded, and raised my arm, pointing into the park. “There is,” I said. “At the base of the statue.”
    “Back to the center of the park,” Short and Stocky said, already driving us back as he walked forward with caution. “Now.”
    I shook my head, my legs shaking. “I don’t think I can,” I said.
    “You can,” he insisted, grabbing one of my shoulders hard, “and you will. You’ll do as we say until I see what’s going on there.”
    It’s amazing the strength you can find when someone is pointing a gun in your general direction. Although I had no desire to go anywhere near what I had just seen, I found myself doing as I was told. When we were close enough to the statue for Tall and Blond, he turned his light on the base of it. In regular light the body was more broken and tangled than the shadows had told. A crimson-brown spatter of blood radiated out from the body, and it was all I could do to turn away before my stomach retched again.
    “Jesus Christ,” he said. He flicked off the light and turned away from it as his partner focused his on it instead. Tall andBlond’s voice went from dark wonder to something colder, more formal. “Would you care to explain what you were doing in here?”
    “That man,” I stammered, unable to shake the surreal, dreamlike state that was slowly washing over me. “His head…”
    The officer’s eyes fixed on mine, unmoving.
    “I need you to explain what you three were doing in here. Now.”
    I couldn’t speak. The image filled my mind, threatening to take it over. When I felt someone touch my arm, I just about screamed before I realized it was Rory.
    “Relax,” she said. “Does it look like any of us could have done
that
?”
    He considered this, then sighed and went for the thick black book sitting in the oversized pocket on his uniform. “You live here, then?”
    I nodded. “Not in the park…” I corrected, then felt my face flush.
    Rory squeezed my arm and stepped forward. “She’s just flustered, but yeah. She does.” She pointed to the west side of the park. “Over there. The Belarus building.”
    I could have hugged her just then. Even though she had been the one to rush into the park, Rory was busy talking while I simply couldn’t.
    The officer scribbled in his book. “And the three of you are each other’s alibi, I suppose?”
    “Alibi?” Marshall said, nerves filling every word. “What do we need an alibi for?”
    “We were walking along the south side of the park and saw the cop car lights flashing,” Rory said. “From the
other
side of the park, so I used her key so we could cut across and see what all the fuss