Free The Darkest Days (Death & Decay Book 0.5) by R. L. Blalock Page B

on his
weapon, ready to draw it if necessary, he approached the
stains.
    “Four three one, there are reports of shots
fired at one zero zero three Castleview Court. Please respond.” The
sound nearly made him jump out of his skin.
    “Dispatch this is four three one. I’m still at
Upper Dardenne Farms Road. I’ve found something, but no body.” His
heart raced. “Has county been contacted for backup?”
    “No, four three one. Will do.”
    Wyatt returned his attention to the smudges. The
glossy, red spots were fresh. With an almost inaudible snap, his
weapon came free of its holster. Cautiously, he followed the
scattered spots as they began to appear more often and larger.
Whoever had left them had been bleeding badly. They trailed into a
trampled patch of grass. Many of the broken and bent blades were
stained with blood.
    As he reached for his radio, it crackled once
again. “All officers please be advised. Return to the station
immediately. Repeat. Return to the station immediately. Code three.
All patrols please respond.”
    What is happening? Wyatt’s mind spun. All
officers were to return to the station. All of them.
    “Dispatch, please advise those officers out on
calls.” Lieutenant Jamie Carter’s shaky voice broke through the
silence that had suddenly fallen.
    “Repeat. All officers are to immediately return
to the station. You are needed here.” The dispatcher broke her
normally stoic demeanor. “Get here safe. God be with you all.”
    The hair on the back of Wyatt’s neck rose. The
day had been busy. Suddenly they had become flooded with urgent
calls, many of them still in progress like his own. Something was
wrong. Really wrong.
    The entire department had never been called back
to the station, and the dispatcher’s words added a new layer of
tension. The dispatchers were trained to remain calm and detached
from the information they shared and the officers they shared it
with. The lack of composure had set him on edge.
    Hastily, Wyatt jogged to his car. As he flung
open the door, movement in the window of a house caught his eye. A
woman peered out at him, her eyes wide as she watched him climb
into his cruiser and pull away.
    The seconds that ticked by seemed like hours as
Wyatt flew through the red lights. What had happened?
    The roads were unusually crowded. A number of
times, Wyatt found himself inching up the sidewalk or through the
lanes of opposing traffic. The radio had been oddly silent since
the foreboding words of the dispatcher.
    At the intersection of Weiss Road and Route N,
Wyatt once again thought of Officer Grey. The accident scene was
only a short detour away. But the dispatcher’s words rang clearly
through his mind.
    As he crossed the intersection, a flash of blue
caught his eye. Just a short distance down Weiss Road, a figure
sprinted from the road, across some grass and towards the backyards
of a subdivision. Another figure trailed behind the first. Wyatt
hit the brakes and, after a quick check in the rearview mirror,
slammed the cruiser into reverse.
    “Dispatch this is four three one. I have eyes on
a disturbance. I want to investigate further. Please advise.”
    “Four three one, return to the station. What is
the ETA on your return?”
    Wyatt clenched his teeth as he continued to
stare at where the figures had disappeared. “Two minutes or
less.”
    “Make it less.” Wyatt shook himself as he jammed
the cruiser back into drive and continued to the station.
    As he pulled off Route N, he could already see
why they had been recalled to the station. Cars lined the narrow
street that led to the station. People were out of their vehicles
and crowded around the small, two-story brick building. Through the
open car windows, he could hear shouting.
    “Wyatt!” Jamie shoved his way through the
crowd.
    “Lieutenant!” Wyatt jumped out of his cruiser
and met the other man at the back of the crowd. The lieutenant’s
navy-blue uniform and dark, close-cropped hair hid his