The man screamed in pain.
The Special Operations car slid to a stop and two cops jumped out.
Suffern came to Matt, said, “Jesus!” and touched his face.
“You can put your pistol away, Payne,” Suffern said, and then raised his hand and gently forced Matt’s arm down.
Matt looked at him. He saw something sticky on Suffern’s fingers, and then touched his face. His fingers, too, came away bloody.
He squatted to feel his calf, and fell down.
Suffern ran to the RPC, slid behind the wheel, and found the microphone.
“This is Suffern, get the van here, now!” he called, then: “This is Team A Supervisor. We have had a shooting. We have an officer down. We have a suspect down.”
Matt, at the moment he was aware he was lying facedown in the snow, felt hands on his shoulders. He felt himself being first rolled over, and then being held up in a
slumping position.
He put his hands to his eyes, and wiped away the bloody slush over them. He could see one of the Special Operations cops looking down at him with concern in his eyes.
“You all right?”
“Shit!”
He heard the wail of a siren in the distance, and then other sirens.
“Suffern, where are you?” Wohl’s voice came over the radio.
“In the alley behind the scene.”
“Who’s down?”
“Payne and the suspect.”
“On my way.”
Matt saw Suffern’s face now, close to his.
“Just take it easy, the van’s on the way. We’ll have you in a hospital in two minutes.”
Mickey O’Hara’s flashgun went off again.
“Get that fucking camera out of here, Mickey!” Suffern said angrily.
“You all right, Matt?” O’Hara asked.
“I’m shot, for Christ’s sake!”
There was the sound of squealing brakes, of clashing gears, and tires slipping on the ice and snow.
Matt looked over his shoulder and saw a van backing into the alley.
“Here’s the van,” Suffern said, quite unnecessarily.
Matt felt something scrubbing at his face. When his vision cleared, he saw the cop who had rolled him over throwing a bloody handkerchief away and being handed another. He put the fresh handkerchief to Matt’s forehead.
“Can you hold that?” he asked.