The Adventures of Doc Daye, Book 1 by Tommy Hancock

Author:Tommy Hancock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pro Se Press
Published: 2016-12-21T16:00:00+00:00

***

Crowds make for interesting conundrums. We talk of getting lost in them, of how they are ‘maddening’, of how it’s just blamed easier sometimes to go along with them. All in all, crowds, in the psyche of the general American Joe anyhow, seem to be veritable forces of human nature. Yet there are those certain individuals, people of unique composition and personality, that no matter how small they may be in physical size or how well they blend in to almost any situation and scene, there are those who simply cannot be contained, controlled, or confounded by a crowd, be it a handful of people or a thousand. Or a lobby full of uniforms, flatfoots, and spectators of the human condition.

Sovereign City Police Chief Lawrence Tate was one of that rare sort.

I approached the rippling throng that ebbed and flowed around the corpse purported to be August Rothguard and even from my first step from the elevator onto the lobby floor, I was fully aware of the presence of Chief Tate. Standing five feet tall and change, Tate hopped and jumped back and forth around the crime scene, first kneeling beside the body, then up on his feet barking orders and indignation at some plainclothes gumshoe who had no taste in ties, and then at the other end of the tumult faster than you can say tumult, chastising some mother of three for letting her ankle biters witness such horror as now lay before them. Even though most of the men who worked for him and even several of the women woven into the action packed display before me stood taller than him, the Chief was easy to spot, his close cut, well groomed shock of snow white hair rising up and down like the crest of a wave as his stocky, tightly muscled frame paced anywhere it wanted to.

Chief Tate caught sight of me as I was just short of the first line of spectators. His dime size blue eyes sparkled, just enough that the wrinkles of wars fought and battles won around them vanished briefly and to let me know that he was now aware of my presence. As he rolled into another command to another officer, I glanced over at the lobby desk and saw young Yemen sitting there. The look of disbelief and fear that marred that matinee idol face of his told me that he’d at least been in the vicinity when Rothguard shook off what living he had left in him. Letting Tate continue his one man show, I made for Frank.

“Mr. Pariah,” Yemen’s words staggered out with the staccato of a man shaken to his very core. He stood and remained so even though I waved for him to sit back down. “I…honest, Mr. Pariah…I don’t know what happened…All I did was…” he held up his right hand, the usually pale skin tainted a slight shade of copper, “All I did was touch him!”

“Easy, Frank,” I said, extending my right hand so he would offer his left.

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