“What?”
“I don’t like seeing another cop in cuffs, and I don’t know what happened out there or why you did what you did,” he said, “but you need to have a lawyer in the room and your rights on record. That’s me talking here, cop to cop. ”
Dez stared at the back of his head. The impossibility of the day had slid sideways into the surreal and she sputtered, trying to find a route of logic that would take her back onto firmer ground. She suddenly stiffened.
“You didn’t even see them … did you?”
“See who?” he demanded again.
“Christ. ” Dez tried to think it through. JT said that they were coming up the road, but he’d been hunkered down behind the pickup truck, and everyone else was in the store. The rain was getting heavy and it was dark as the devil’s asshole out there. Maybe that was it, she thought. Maybe those things lacked the brain power or imagination to seek out prey unless they saw it or heard it. Or smelled it. Walking uphill toward an empty road in a downpour, they might not have had anything to go on.
So … where did they go?
There was forest on both sides of Mason. Forest with farmland beyond it. She tried to remember if you could smell the farm animals from Mason. Probably. You could always smell cow shit.
“Did anyone go to the crime scene at Hartnup’s?”
The trooper shook his head. “You really don’t want to do this now. ”
“Yes, I fucking well do, because you have me cuffed in the back of your cruiser when I should be out there. Somebody’s made a big goddamn mistake and we’d better do something before it bites us all in the ass … and that is not a frigging joke. Now pull over, undo these cuffs, and put me on the radio with someone who doesn’t have his own dick in his ear. ”
The trooper sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For whatever happened to you. For whatever’s wrong with you. I heard you were a fuckup off the job, but I always heard that you were pretty good on the clock. What happened? No … wait. Save that for when we’re doing this right. I don’t think I want to hear it. ”
Dez leaned as far forward as the cuffs would allow. “What’s your name?” she asked.
There was no need for him to stonewall her on that, so he answered, “Trooper Brian Saunders. ”
“Trooper Saunders. Good. Brian. I’ve seen you around. People call me Dez. ”
“I know. ”
“I don’t know how or why they think that I’m responsible for anything that’s happened today, but I want you to hear me on this. I was protecting the public at all times. I was defending myself at all times. I am not irrational, and I have committed no crimes. ”
“Okay. ” His tone was neither encouraging nor dismissive. Merely an acknowledgement that he heard her.
“There are people out there who are acting irrationally. They’re sick, possibly as a result of a chemical agent or some kind of toxin. It might be a disease. I don’t know. Whatever it is, it hits hard and it hits fast. I saw it hit one of the locals. Kid named Diviny from Bordentown PD. Diviny went apeshit and attacked fellow officers. We restrained him and my partner, Sergeant JT Hammond, and I transported him to the hospital. This is a matter of record. Check with the hospital. Immediately after that we received a call from dispatch to return to the Hartnup crime scene. Dispatch said that people were killing each other. Understand that? Killing each other. Whatever this thing is, it must have spread. That dispatch call is also a matter of record. Call the station. Talk to Flower, she’s the dispatcher. Let her play the tape. ”
Saunders said nothing. The sound of the windshield wipers seemed unnaturally loud.
“When my partner and I arrived at the scene we were attacked by the infected. Some of those infected were police officers, including state troopers. We tried everything—verbal control, beanbag rounds—and then the situation forced us up a rung on the force continuum, so we defended ourselves to the best of our abilities and training. As any cops would. As you would, Brian. ”
Saunders was shaking his head, but he didn’t say anything.
“Brian…” Dez pleaded. “Please. Just check. ”
“They are checking,” said Saunders with exasperation. “They did check, and that’s not how we’re reading the scene. We didn’t find any ‘infected. ’ All we found was evidence that two officers went batshit and began killing people. Killing cops. We found Chief Goss with half his head blown off. Burn marks around the wound look like the barrel was right against his flesh. His own gun was still in its holster. How would a cop let someone get that close unless he knew the person?”
“He was infected!”
“Uh-huh. ”
“What about the hospital? Have your people talked to them? Dr. Sengupta?”
“I don’t know anything about that. ”