Case # 88 by Gary Martinsky

Author:Gary Martinsky [Martinsky, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

Before he knew it, Finn was lying facedown on the cold, sticky sidewalk. He lifted himself up little by little. The sticky part was his own blood, but, as far as Finn could tell, he wasn’t seriously injured. Propping himself up with both arms, he looked around. Alexa was lying beside him, seemingly unconscious. After the buzzing in his ears began to diminish, he noticed the commotion in the street. Ambulances and pedestrians rushed around a spot outside his field of vision. Something had exploded. And, before he could turn around and take a look, he felt like he already knew what it was.

Finn carefully touched Alexa’s shoulder. She grunted, moved slowly, and sat up. Alexa seemed shocked, looking around wide-eyed. Judging from how fast she got up, she was in better shape than Finn. Aside from a couple of minor surface wounds on her face and hands, she seemed uninjured. They helped each other get up. Finn’s head felt like it was about to explode just like the car had. He hadn’t fully recovered from the nasty head injury he’d suffered just a few months ago, which still gave him periodic migraines, and now he might have a concussion on top of that. But there was no time to think about it now.

“Was it…?”

“Yeah.”

“Your car…?”

“Yeah, it was.”

“Oh my god….”

It didn’t look like much of a car anymore, just a ball of flames raging in the parking lot. Finn and Alexa had no time to stick around. Knowing full well the fiery surprise had been meant for them, they had to flee the scene as quickly as possible, using the commotion to blend in with the rapidly growing crowd of onlookers.

Having put enough distance between themselves and the crime scene, they cleaned themselves up as well as they could in a diner bathroom to avoid unnecessary attention. Finn examined his face in the greasy mirror. Looking into his reflection’s cold but attentive gray eyes, he carefully touched his head. He wasn’t seriously injured externally. The best-case scenario for them right now would be if their assailant assumed they were dead. The explosive had probably not been detonated remotely but triggered from within the car itself—either by a pressure-sensitive device in the seat or a rigged ignition mechanism. Otherwise, the assailant would be able to ensure that they’d gotten the right person inside the car. There was a good chance that they weren’t under surveillance at the time of the explosion. But still…

Alexa stared at the blackness inside the coffee cup she was holding in both hands. The surface of the thick beverage was shimmering, producing ominous reflections.

“I can’t believe they’d go so far to get rid of you!”

“Yeah, I expected them to use a more subtle approach. Hopefully, they think we’re out of the picture now. But we still got nothing in terms of leads. Aside from some superficial story about a secret government project from some conspiracy theory website.”

“As a matter of fact, my source is very reliable. And I’ve arranged to meet with him later today.

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