Panic (Part 1)

Detective Inspector Mark Carlton gingerly turned the body over with his foot. The boy looked so peaceful he might have been asleep, had it not been for the small bullet wound in the side of his head. As he bent down to examine the body, he heard a call from the other side of the room.

"Sir?"

Carlton looked up. "What is it?"

His friend and assistant Katherine River pointed to the window in the dilapidated house. "I've found your man's bullet," she said, gesturing to a small hole in the window frame. A lead bullet was lodged there.

Carlton frowned, and checked the body again. "It can't be," he said, rising with a puzzled expression on his face. "No exit wound. The bullet must still be in his head." He joined her by the window. "Hey, there are more. Five - six bullets have struck the window frame before they hit our victim."

He returned to the body, searching through the pockets for anything that might identify him. The pockets of his jacket were empty, but crumpled in the bottom of his trouser pocket was a bus ticket. Carlton flattened it out to examine it. "Printed today..." he murmured. "From Grebe Lane -- that was probably his school -- to Knights Road, that's just outside here. But the question is, why did he come into this building?"

"No," came an ominous voice. "The question is, why did you?"

Carlton and River both jumped as a man, wearing black clothes and with a balaclava covering his face, came into the room. His right hand held a heavy gun, his left was extended towards Carlton. "Give that here," he growled.

In an easy move, Carlton had the bus ticket out of sight and his own gun cocked at the man. "Scotland Yard," he said in his commanding voice. "Drop it!"

The man didn't move. "I''ll shoot you. Hand that ticket over."

"Oh, sure. Add murder of a police officer to your list of crimes. Smart move, pal." Carlton spoke confidently. "One more chance. Drop the piece."

And then everything seemed to happen in the wrong order. The man slowly lowered his gun -- it was smoking? Why is it smoking? -- and disappeared out of the door. Then River screamed, loud, too loud. It hurt his ears, went on and on. Why wasn't she stopping? Why hadn't it stopped? And then he realised that it wasn't her scream any more, it was his own ears, ringing. And then came the bang, louder than he had imagined. Without any recollection of having moved, Carlton noted that he was on the floor. How had he got there?

And then came the pain, at first a dull ache, then worse and worse, like a hammer to his chest. But that was just the protective vest, that's what happened when a bullet bounced off it, right? The pain would fade, he'd be left with a bruise.

His sight was going, the room blurred. Why isn't the pain going? he wondered, Why does it still hurt?


And then everything went black.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" screamed River, as Carlton's eyes went out of focus. "You are staying with me, Carlton, do you hear? You are not leaving me! Don't you DARE!"

She yanked at his vest, trying to get it off. Why hadn't it protected him, what was wrong? Too late to worry about that now. She pulled the vest off and tore open his shirt, popping half the buttons off.

There was blood. Far, far, too much blood. River began to panic. She stabbed the numbers into the phone, 9,9,9. Get him an ambulance. Get him to hospital, now. She choked out their location into the phone, barely knowing if the operator could hear her through her panic and tears.

"Come on, come on!" River was sobbing properly now. "Carlton, stay with me, come on, just a few more minutes."

It felt more like hours before she heard the beautiful sound of sirens, the room filling with flashing blue lights. River stumbled over to the door, but her legs gave way with relief as the paramedics came into the room. What happened to him? She thought she heard someone say.

"It was a man... he shot him," River murmured. The room began to sway before her eyes, everything was blurry.

"Are you alright?" One of the men came over to her. "You look pale."

"Fine..." whispered River, "I'm... fine."

Then everything went black.

To be continued...