Broken by Gordon Hopkins

Author:Gordon Hopkins [Hopkins, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781533119742
Published: 2016-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon when half a dozen Daly City police cars arrived at DataGuard, the police officers armed with a warrant, weapons, Kevlar vests and a battering ram, just in case. Inspector Hiro rode with Lieutenant Aaron Bradley, the senior officer and the man in charge of the operation. As they approached, the lieutenant said to Hiro, “You stay here until I give the all clear.”

“What?” Hiro didn’t bother to hide her outrage.

“Stay in the car. Do you understand?”

“No, I don’t understand. This is supposed to be a joint operation between San Francisco and Daly City.”

“The hell it is. You are here strictly as an observer.”

“My captain said …”

“I don’t give shit what your captain or anyone else said.” Without waiting for a response, he slammed the door and joined the rest of his team as they prepared to enter the premises.

“Asshole,” she said out loud to no one. She should have expected this. The Daly City PD always resented it when San Francisco stepped on their turf. It was the same with Oakland, San Jose, Cupertino, and most of the other cities in the Bay Area. The San Francisco police Department was better funded, better respected and, frankly, a lot more glamorous than the others. No one ever made television shows about the Daly City police force. On the one hand, she could understand his attitude and even sympathize. One the other hand, why did he have to be such a dick?

Hiro sat in the quad car with her arms crossed, watching the action. They didn’t need the battering ram. Entering the building was a breeze. There was a fence around the property, but the gate was unlocked. The front door was not only unlocked but wide open.

Uh-oh. That wasn’t a good sign.

The officers swarmed the building with Bradley in the lead. She could no longer see them, but Hiro knew what would happen next. First, they would search the entire building, floor by floor, looking for any people and booby traps. Only after they building was secure would they allow the forensic team to begin the search for evidence.

Hiro scanned the windows. She saw no lights save for the flashlights carried by the police. Wait. She did see another light source. They couldn’t have reached the top floor, yet, but there was definitely a light in one of the upper windows. It wasn’t from a torch, it was more yellow and flickering. Then she saw the smoke seeping out.

Hiro grabbed a megaphone, opened the door and called out, “Withdraw! Withdraw! The building is on fire! The building …”

Then came the explosions. The top floor windows blew out first, sending plumes of flame into the air and shattered glass tinkling to the ground. Then the windows on next floor went, then the floor below, then the floor below that, in rapid succession.

The officers retreated, and Hiro was relieved to see all of them leave the building alive. No one would know

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.