Joshua watched it all.
Bowers emerged from the bank entrance, then the guy carrying Sergeant Walker’s bloody corpse appeared behind him. Somehow Bowers had overpowered Walker and taken him out.
Or did Radar take his own life?
Was it possible?
Either way, a cop had died. It’d been filmed. It was over. Joshua was certain that the man who’d called him earlier in the day, before sunrise, would be impressed.
And they would finally meet.
He made his way through the crowd inside the cordoned-off area, then went back to the moving truck to take care of the boy.
Ralph crouched beside me as the paramedics worked to cut off his jacket so they could get to the bullet’s entrance and exit wounds. As they did, he said to me softly, in a voice meant only for me, “People see what they expect to see.”
When I looked at him, I realized he knew. “How did-?”
“You’re not the only one who notices things. The bloody shirt Radar had on-that’s the one you were wearing when you got here.”
So, he’d figured it out: when I was standing outside the door and the SWAT members first rushed forward, I’d told them the truth, and one of them had quickly informed the paramedics-pretend he’s dead, buy us some time.
I kept my voice low. “I didn’t know if anyone else was on the line when I called from the bank. That’s why I said what I did, when I told you he was dead.”
“It was smart.”
“He almost didn’t go for it.”
“Thank God he did.”
Hopefully, it would provide us the window we needed to save his son.
The helicopter rotors started gearing up and I had to yell in order for Ralph to hear me. “We need to find Tod!”
He shouted that he was on it, that he would find the boy. I asked him one last question: “Do we know who the woman was, the one in the slaughterhouse?” But before he could answer, my attention was drawn to something else.
A moving truck at the end of the street, turning the corner.
“No,” Ralph replied, “but we’re gonna find out!”
I grabbed his sleeve and pointed to the moving truck. It was too far away to make out the plates, but when he saw it, he realized what I was thinking, spun, and bolted back toward the squads parked beside the bank.