What the hell is going on around here?
He walked to the nearest building and shone his light on the exposed hinges of the steel door. Bright scratches in the rusted metal told him the door had recently been opened.
He pushed the door open and went inside.
He walked down the corridor.
The smell of feces and urine assailed his nostrils.
Some fucking bum is in here. Or was in here. I hope was. The last thing I want right now is to find some dead bum in here. I’d never get home tonight. What a smart man would do would be turn around and get his ass out of here.
There were three doors opening off the corridor. Two of the doors were open.
In one of the rooms, his nostrils found the source of the smell of feces.
And a pile of clothes.
Nice clothes. Not a bum’s clothes.
What the hell is going down in here?
The third door was closed, with latches that reminded Cronin of his time as Fireman First Class, USN.
The last time he had been in here, all the doors had been open.
Harry worked the levers and pushed the door inward.
Somebody’s taken a dump in here, too.
What the fuck is that?
“Listen, we have to talk!” a naked man sitting against the wall with an overcoat over his shoulders said plaintively. “Please, let’s talk!”
“I’m a police officer,” Harry said. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
“Thank God!” the man said.
“You want to tell me what happened?”
“You’re a policeman?”
“Detective Cronin, South Detectives.”
“Look, all I want to do is go home. Where’s my clothes?”
“What did you say your name was?”
“All I want to do is go home.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible right now,” Harry said. “Now, what did you say your name was?”
“I don’t have to tell you a goddamn thing!” the naked man said with absolutely no confidence, but a certain desperation, in his tone.
What the fuck do I do now? I’m off-duty. I’ve got no authority inside that fucking fence. And, since I’m in my own car, I don’t even have a goddamn radio to call this in!
Matt Payne, who had been watching a program of television commercials interrupted by three-minute segments of a John Wayne leading the cavalry against the Chiricahua Apache movie, jumped out of bed when there was a knock at the door, went to it, stood behind it, and pulled it open first a crack, then all the way.
“It’s not that I am not delighted to see you, but does your mommy know where you are, little girl?”