Kurt nodded. “Yeah. And this one shot him.”
“I saw it,” one of the men admitted. “They came with a gun and a baseball bat.”
“They’ve been bad news from the start.” Kurt tried to clamp down on Simon’s bleeding, but he could already see that there was no hope for the older man. Laurie Ann joined him. She quickly bound up the arterial bleeding, doing what she could, but she looked at Kurt and shook her head. Kurt nodded. He didn’t say anything.
Today two men had died, and both of them had come to attack them. A solemn group faced the cops when they finally arrived. The detective rushed up the stairs, took one look, and said, “Them again?”
Kurt nodded. “Them again,” he said. “I can tell you until I’m blue in the face but the kid shot himself. He pulled the trigger when it was against his chest because we were fighting for control of the gun.”
“And I saw it all happen,” said one of the other motel guests. “They came here with a baseball bat and a gun. I watched them walk past my door, and I wondered what the hell they were up to. I called the cops, and, next thing I knew, it was chaos out here.”
“Yeah, that’s about the size of it.” The detective said, “Chaos is what they do so well.” He shook his head and looked at Kurt. “This is where you’ve been staying?”
“Yeah, after the attack last night in Laurie Ann’s place,” he said, “we came here. We needed a place where the dog could go.”
“Right, but they found you.”
“I’m wondering if they followed us or if somebody else was keeping an eye out. A car is down there,” Kurt said, pointing to the small silver one. “It had these two guys in it. For all I know now, there could be more gang members in the parking lot.
Amos nodded. “My men are checking it out.”
At that, the silver car backed up and took off out of the parking lot. One of the cops hopped into one of the cruisers and took off after him, blocking his escape. At that, the kid gave up. He was pulled out of the car.
Laurie Ann looked at the scene and sighed sadly. “That’s Reggie, the kid who was two years ahead of Jeremy,” she said. “I was really hoping, really hoping, that he would get free and clear of this.”
The detective looked at her and said, “It’s pretty hard to get out of the gang once you get in. He’s involved in this, and that just won’t go down well.”
“Well, at least these two were killed,” she said, “and not us. So I don’t know how you look on it, Amos, but you can’t hardly charge Reggie with murder when the two assailants killed themselves.”
He nodded. “I don’t know what he’ll be charged with. That’s not my deal,” he said. “I haul them in, and then we deal with the outcome afterward. We need to make sure that we have at least enough evidence to prove what went on here.” He looked around and said, “Please, everybody, we need statements.”
“That’s pretty easy,” said the one guy, holding up his video camera. “I’ve got it all on tape.”
The detective looked at him in surprise. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, we had also called the cops,” he said. And he played back the video, and then the fight was displayed nice and clear. The detective shook his head. “Well, this will go a long ways to proving your innocence.” He stared at Kurt.
“I am innocent,” Kurt said drily. “Just think. You know bad guys are out there who have nothing to do with me.”
“This guy didn’t do anything,” protested the guy with the camera. “Obviously this poor woman was in the motel room.” He waited a bit, then asked, “What kind of assholes are they?”
“These guys? Bad ones, gang members,” the detective said, shaking his head, “but not anymore.”
“Wow,” the others said.
The cops came and quickly took everybody’s statement, some cameras, and contact information. Most of the witnesses were travelers heading in and out of state. By the time they were done, Laurie Ann sat just inside the motel room on the floor, near the open door. She looked up at Kurt, exhausted, black circles under her eyes due to all she’d been through. “Can we leave?”
“They’re done with your house now.”
One of the men in the crowd asked, “What’s wrong with her house?”
At that, Kurt looked up and said, “Two associates of these two assholes attacked Laurie Ann here in her house last night. We came here because forensics was all over it.”
“Jesus Christ,” the guy said to the cops. “Can’t you even protect one single woman?”
The detective flushed. “We’re on it.”
“Yeah, after they have to save themselves. Twice,” the same man said in disgust. With that, he turned and headed back into his own motel room and slammed the door shut. The others in the group muttered equal sentiments.
Kurt smirked, hearing them backing up his side of the story.
The detective studied Kurt. “They are right, you know? I didn’t take you at face value, and I didn’t see the value in even listening to what you had to say, and I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath. “And I allowed that to rule my judgment.” He looked over at Laurie Ann. “I’m really glad that you weren’t hurt in any of this.”
“Me too,” she said. “I’m exhausted. I’m worn out. I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep again.” She added, “All I’ve had is attacks and intruders. I want to know that this is over, Amos. I want to go home and hug my son and tell him what a great man he is.”
“Well, after this,” Amos said, “it should be over with. We have the younger two gang members from the B&E already in jail. They’ll be charged for the previous two attacks,” he said.
“And what about Reggie, the one in the vehicle down there?”
“He’ll be charged as well,” he said. “The problem now is cleaning up the mess. But that’s my problem, not yours.”
“Glad to hear that. So I can go back to my house?”
He nodded. “You can check outta here because we’ll have forensics in here and do a full investigation. We’ll get any other cameras that captured this latest attack, plus what we’ve got from those witnesses who were observing, and we’ll have to get yet more statements from you.”
She groaned at that. “Fine,” she said, “but I need more sleep, and I have a barbecue to plan.”
“Not a problem,” Amos said. “Head on home. We’ll contact you there.”
She looked at Kurt. “You ready to go home?”
He smiled, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and said, “Absolutely, I’m ready to go home.”
She realized just how much that word meant to both of them right now. Because they had spent a lifetime without each other, this was now a perfect time to go home. Together. After they packed up the last of their stuff, they walked down to the truck with Sabine. “Nobody’s mentioned the dog, huh?” Laurie Ann asked.
“No,” he said, “and I find that interesting too.”
“Me too. I mean, it’s a good thing. I don’t want anybody arguing about who has rights here.”