Free The Blood Detail (Vigil) by Arvin Loudermilk Page A

were about to knock on. Mac would be positioned somewhere among the masses, so would Racine—and even Castellano was deigning to show his face. Snipers would be on the surrounding buildings, ten of them at last count. A helicopter was also at the ready, as well as a fleet of twenty-four vehicles to block every way in or out. We were as safe as you can be in an urban environment, and I genuinely thought we were ready.
    We pulled into the front entrance and I pointed out the spot Angie and I had parked in a week before. Beth thought we should take that one for no other reason than we could. We climbed out of the vehicle and snapped on our caps.
    “It was raining before,” I said as we walked the pathway between buildings.
    “Well, that’s one thing even Castellano couldn’t recreate.”
    Beth had her hand on her weapon. We were both armed with tranquilizer handguns, and mine was shifting strangely on my hip—a bad fit in the holster. The tranqs were all we were supposed to be carrying, but Beth advocated that we both wear .22s on our ankles to be safe. The mini-gun down there gave me more comfort than I cared to admit. Firearms were a calming adornment for me, and they always would be.
    As we entered the courtyard, lights were on in several of the upstairs windows. We cut through the damp grass, on a swift approach to unit 1032. For a brief second, I wondered which house Mac was in, but then cleared my head of such brain dead stupidity. Beth and I strolled up shoulder to shoulder and knocked on the double door twice, just as we were instructed. The porch light to my right made the entryway as bright as day, and blinded my peripheral vision. Loud music was playing inside the house, some sort of bouncy pop song which sounded like I must have heard it before, but probably never had. We stood there a full minute without an answer. This was also planned. But when the lag dragged on a minute beyond that, Beth and I looked at one another. I heard a female scream soar above the music and my back went up. I went to pull out my gun, but Beth stopped me, placing her hand on my bent forearm.
    “Wait,” she said.
    I gritted my teeth. “Jeez, what the fuck are they trying to prove in there? We’re on a goddamned timetable, aren’t we?”
    “We are.”
    Beth seemed as confused as I was, but that wasn’t going to make the door open. And the music was only getting louder. She snagged hold of the portable radio on her belt and began to ask questions in a perturbed and angry voice.
    I turned to get a better look at what was going on behind us, taking a step away from the glare of the porch light. The pool in the courtyard of the complex was to my direct south, and it was glowing blue. All of a sudden, one of the upstairs lights on the frontmost building went out. In succession, all the others blinked out as well, one by one. Lodged in a now deeper darkness, the pool glowed bluer. Then, Beth stopped talking in mid-sentence and the porch light went dead. So did the music.
    I spun around, but Beth was no longer there.
    I raced back to the door and wetness fell down on top of me. At first I thought it was raining again, but what was coming down was too thick to be precipitation. I craned upward and saw a darkened figure on the roof holding a smaller figure by the neck. It was Jessup—and he was cackling.
    I pulled out my tranq gun and shot him in the leg. It startled him and he dropped what he’d been holding. Beth plummeted downward into the rose bushes, compressing their size in half. Her arms dangled amidst the branches, but she wasn’t moving. I continued backing up, hoping my first shot had had some kind of effect on Jessup. He held tight on the roof, his coat flapping in the breeze.
    I called for help, my eyes searching for any kind of cover.
    Jessup leapt, plowing down on top of me feet first. I crumpled into the grass and lost hold of my weapon. I remained flat out, gasping for breath and unable to think. He began to parade