The sun was setting over the city of Chicago and a chill blew through the streets, the skyline lit up with buildings, signs and all sorts of things as it did every night. The streets were just emptying out as people made their way home for the evening. But as everyone was making their way home to sleep, there was someone to make sure they could do so soundly. And just as they would lie to rest, he would rise from his – just unwillingly.
In the room made office of an old, rundown apartment building, outside a flickering sign reading “North & West Detective Agency”, an alarm clock began to buzz. Filling the room with an annoying tone. A second later a hand flew up, flailing aimlessly in an attempt to silence the clock. Finally doing so, a figure rose from bed, stretching and muttering something profane. As he got up from bed, the man, who was no shorter than 6’4″, made his way to the washroom.
Once there, the groggy man stepped up to the mirror. He was not a pretty sight, at least, at the moment. His face was unshaven and rugged and his hair a mess.
“Jesus North, you look like shit.” He said in a thick, Irish accent. North reached for a razor, picking it up. He stopped for a moment, glancing at his face and then the razor.
“Eh, why bother?” He said, putting the blade back. “Not like anyone’s going to come in anyway.” North splashed his face a couple times and gargled mouthwash. As he passed a closet, he took a pair of pants and a shirt and threw them on and walked from the bedroom.
North made his way across the hardwood floor to the door and unlocked it, flipping over a sign reading “Durocha P.I. is Open” in a pretty font. The room had been turned from a living space into an office; a cluttered desk sat by the window. Diplomas, pictures and newspaper cutouts covered the wall around it.
As he pulled out his chair, North sat down at his desk and threw his feet up. He straightened a tag on his desk reading “North McCoy, P.I.” and leaned back and waited for another dull day to go by.
Thunder crashed across the sky as an unexpected autumn storm decided to grace the city. Flashes of lighting streaked across the sky every few moments lighting up the empty streets, casting plays of shadows on wary stray cats stalking their prey. Giving the cloudy night sky a slight scowl of disapproval she continued her way down the street, her heeled boots giving a soft click with every step. Often she heard comment about how impractical they were on the field… how could a woman run in heels? She always easily explained a good pair of boots had better ankle support than a pair of sneakers, but just maybe she had the same affinity as the stray cat to walk on the toes of her feet.
Besides, they were damn sexy and hurt like a mother when you kicked people just right.
As expected, escaping the rain wasn’t possible. By the time she reached the trashed looking old building and the flashing neon sign of North & West Detective Agency her auburn hair was damp and the black fabric of her jacket was no longer sufficient cover from the chill. Muttering a curse she twisted the knob of the agency door, having to push with a bit of force to get it open. Walking in with that inborn air that she owned the place, as though of her field always seemed to have, she gave a curious raise of the eyebrow at the scruffy man sitting behind the desk.
“You look like shit.” She remarked, regarding him with a blink and a slight curve of her lips in an obviously contemplative look. He had that distinct look as if he had just crawled out of bed and plopped himself in the office chair. “Never mind,” she continued before he had the chance to reply, “You are North McCoy, I assume. I have a special assignment direct from the bureau.” Pulling a brown envelope from her jacket then grimacing at it’s slightly dampened appearance, she dropped it on the desk in front of him. “I don’t suspect you’ve been involved in many murder investigations but this might just catch your fancy…”
North was close to dozing off again when the door swung open to reveal a “charming” woman in red. At first, he was rather taken by her splendor, but then she opened her mouth. North would have been insulted if he didn’t agree with her so much.
“Y-yeah, I’m North.” he said, glancing at the envelope on his desk with a confused look. He ran his hand through his red hair as he picked up the papers, but didn’t open them.
“Murder case, huh? Well…” North glanced past the woman at an empty desk in the back of the room. “I’ve had my share of ’em.” He sighed and stood up.
“But just one thing.” North said, putting the papers back down, still without reading anything. “What does the FBI want with me? I mean…” He looked around a bit. “I’m pretty sure they could find someone a lot more qualified than me. Or at least someone who’s had a case in the last … seven months.”
He stepped from his desk and walked around to the other side with the mysterious woman. “And another thing.” He leaned up against the desk, crossing his arms. “Just who are you?”
Jesus, the man was tall. She was not petite at 5’8″ but generally she’d be staring a man in the eyes, not looking skywards a good half a foot. He moved around the desk and leaned against it with his arms crossed, giving her the distinct impression he was one of those carefree types. Just what she needed. One of those.
“Diana Jones.” she replied, stuffing her hands in her still sodden jacket. “I’d have to agree… I don’t see how two-bit P.I. is going to be any sort of help on a murder case, but those are the orders.” Diana tilted her head giving him another once over… Yeah, he didn’t look like he knew about investigating a lolly pop thief, let alone a murder.
“If you would just look at the file,” she pointed at the envelope on his desk, “you’ll see why the bureau thought you should have a look. The one murdered was from an old case of yours.”
North was getting the feeling that this Diana woman didn’t care much for her surroundings. Primarily himself. While he thought of himself as a pretty patient person, his guest wasn’t getting on his good side anytime soon.
“Flattery will get you everywhere…” North muttered softly as he turned around to pick up the papers. “All right, let’s see what we have here, miss – er, Agent Jones?” North slid the reports from the envelope and clicked on a lamp overhead.
Murmuring as he read, North began pacing slightly, a habit he had whenever there was a case for him. “Victim … stabbed twice … slit throat – Terrence Armacu…” He paused for a moment. “Terrence, Terrence. Where have I heard that name before?”
North stepped behind his desk again and began shuffling through his drawers. Looking at old files and reports. He moved on to another drawer when he found nothing.
“Say, could you look in that cabinet over there?” He asked Diana. “It’d be filed under – well, I … don’t have anything filed, really. He was a doctor, just look for something like that.” North glanced up and saw her standing there, still in her wet coat and everything.
“Oh, and, uh, feel free to take off your coat – or anything.” He said, and went back to digging.
She blinked at his back, raising an eyebrow with an incredulous stare. Did she look like a secretary? “No thanks. My guns might be too intimidating for you.” With a slight smirk she moved to the cabinet he pointed out, and at least made the effort to keep her more snippety comments to herself.
“Gee. It looks like you had bagel filed correctly, at least.” Maybe not. Diana plucked out an old crusty bagel from the files and gave it a distasteful stare before giving it a toss to a near overflowing trash can. What ever her boss was thinking, it couldn’t have been the right idea. Sure, the private eye had past connections to the case, but he couldn’t possibly be of help in a real investigation. To think she had to work with this hack!
“Nothing in this one. Might I recommend you store your documents and your groceries separately?” She brushed a few strands of hair behind her ear and thought twice about leaning against the cabinet. Or sitting. Or touching anything in the office for that matter.
North popped his head up over his desk a little, narrowing his eyes at Diana. He shook his head and went back to his desk, but found nothing. Huffing, he returned to his feet and stepped back in the open.
“Where did that file go? I know I remember that name for a reason…” He said to himself. He watched the FBI agent finger through the cabinet and then the bagel. “I wouldn’t have touched that if I were you. I mean, I haven’t been in there in years.” He said, slightly smirking.
Then he noticed the waist basket that sat next to that empty desk. A thoughtful, sad look came over North’s face as he stepped over to it. It wasn’t something he enjoyed doing, but this was a special case. “Excuse me, bro.” He said softly and opened a drawer. Inside, papers were filed, sorted and organized beautifully, almost like art. A drastic change from North’s desk.
“I think I got it.” North said to Diana as he pulled out a file. He tucked the other files back neatly and closed the drawer, returning to his own desk. Opening the folder, North read through some of the reports. The file was dated a few years back, but it was what he was looking for.
“Here it is, Dr. Terrence Armacu. He was a surgeon with Russian mob tie-ins. He also worked with a one, Charles Mandell, or “Syco” Mandell as the media called him. The guy was a nut to begin with.” North flipped a few pages.
“You probably know this one already, I mean, this is you we’re talking about. Terrence was arrested for conspiring against a government official. Mandell was slated too be as well, being the man who made the bribe to the Russians. But after Terrence went down, the good doctor disappeared.” North sat down, putting his feet up.
“But Terrence was found not guilty for lack or evidence. No Mandell, no guilty party. It was a dark day for the justice system. But with what you brought me, looks like someone got the out-of-court settlement they wanted.” North put the file on the desk for Diana to read if she wanted.
“I’m guessing your FBI sent you hear because…” He paused. “Because West and I were the only people to actually ever confront Mandell after the court hearing. Completely by accident, but that was still the case.” North leaned back in his chair, hoping that he might have proved he wasn’t a total crock to the stingy FBI agent.
She should have tossed the bagel at him.
The immaculate contents of the second desk didn’t escape her notice as North searched through the drawer and found the file he was looking for. She suspected it belonged to West McCoy, and was curious to know more, but knew when to leave it alone. Diana was no stranger to odd circumstance.
“Perhaps…” she replied, picking up the file from the desk and flipping through it. “It seems the Doc saved a little something from his escapades, though. Perfect Russian diamonds.”
Diana gave the lounged back man a sour look as she replaced the file back on his desk. Her fingers were itching to straight it up a bit… or maybe tilt is chair back so he’d go flying backwards. It was a devilish thought. “You do realize we will have to work together, and this case will require finesse if not a bit of under cover work. Those diamonds are missing, and if we can track them down we might who we’re looking for.”
North straightened up as Diana spoke, her last comments striking a cord. “Work together now? I just thought you were here to give me the bad news and be on your way!” North’s voice was beginning to show frustration now. He scratched his head and leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. Sighing softly, the detective regained himself.
“I mean, I appreciate the gesture and all, you’ve been nothing less that a perfect … guest. But this is really something that’s better done on my own.” Standing up once more, North walked over to a closet and took out his firearm and holster, dusting them off. It had been a while since he had to use them, and North was a little hesitant to put them on once more.
“Besides.” He said, carrying the equipment back with him. “What does any of this have to do with you?”
Twitch! He lets his fire arms get dusty?! Blasphemy! “Look, buddy. You don’t have much of a choice. I don’t have much of a choice! The bureau says this is the way it’s gotta be, therefore you’ve just gained yourself highly skilled and lethal partner.”
Diana leaned over and plucked his gun from its holster, giving and obviously dissatisfied blue-eyed scowl during her scrutiny. It wasn’t even loaded. “You, P.I., are hopelessly inept in a tricky situation. At least, that’s the impression your gun gives me.” Her smile was lazy, and perhaps a might bit conceited as she handed back his gun and pulled her own beneath her jacket. Black, sleek, and perfectly tailored. The woman took choosing her gun seriously.
“You get to use your investigating talents, and I will do the rest. Someone has to keep your rear out of trouble.” She flashed a smirk. “I’d have everything under control before you even get that fossil dusted off.”
At this point North figured arguing wasn’t going to do any good. Sucking up his pride, he threw his arms up in submission and just accepted the situation. North took his revolver back as Diana handed it over and watched her take out her own weapon.
The way she looked at and held it, North wouldn’t be surprised if she slept with it under her pillow. But he resisted the urge to make a comment on that. After all, one of them had to show some sort of restraint.
“Well, excuse me if I don’t carry around a hand cannon with me wherever I go.” North said, picking some bullets from his desk. “After all, you know the use of deadly force is for a last resort. Right?”
He finished loading his gun and placed it in its holster on the desk. “Oh, and thanks for your … support. All that paperwork and other desk jobs you guys do down at the bureau will really help.” North said, a sarcastic tone in his voice.
Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment.” He stepped away, back towards the washroom. “I need to “freshen up.” and disappeared into the room, just leaving the agent alone for a moment in the office. A short while later, North stepped back out, shaven, combed and surprisingly acceptable looking.
When North returned he found the woman sitting at his desk straightening out the chaos.
Pens where they belonged, papers in perfect searchable order and stray bullets in a straight row. Slightly neurotic maybe, but the desk was neater. Blinking up, she supposed now that he was clean he didn’t look too shabby. Almost handsome even, if a girl liked that sort of thing.
“About time…” she muttered, rising from the chair and smoothing her hands of her jeans. “We can check out the crime scene first for clues. I made sure to keep forensics from mucking up the place too bad.”
She stuffed her hands in her pockets and cast a glanced out the window. “The rain has stopped at least. The docks are close by, we could walk from here.”
“Yeah, we can probably make it there in-” He paused when he saw his desk. Not so much as it was clean, but he actually saw his desktop for the first time in a while. “…a few minutes. You cleaned off my desk?” He said, slightly confused. Sure, he suspected she might snoop around, read a few things. Probably stuff she wasn’t suppose to. But clean his desk?
“Umm, thanks…” Shrugging it off, North grabbed his coat from a hanger and threw it on. He then glanced up at a bowler cap that hung from the hat rack. North picked it up and studied it for a second.
“What the bloody hell was I thinking when I bought this?” He said and put it back on the rack. Snatching his gun and holster, North placed them on the inside of his jacked and turned to Diana.
“Well, Agent Jones, is there anything else before we go?” He said to the lady behind his desk.
She cast his hat a peculiar look, but refrained from jesting. Every kid that wanted to be a detective had something odd, and she had her own collection of silly goodies. Not that she’d ever admit to such.
“I figure it’d save us trouble later.” Chewing on her bottom lip and giving the room a good once-over to be sure, she finally shook her head. “That’s enough for now.” Diana moved from behind the desk and crossed the room, magically seeming to beat him to the door. She opened it and waved a hand for him to follow. The woman was a control freak!
“Ok then, we’d better get going. Here, let me get the – door?”
Before he could even turn around, the woman was out the door and moving fast. Now, any other man wouldn’t have minded, but North was raised to be a polite man. Not holding the door irked him, especially for a lady.
North darted out only to find Diana rounding another corner ahead of him. “Di-, er, Jones! Wait up!” He called out while locking the door to his apartment. Again, he hurried to catch up to the nimble agent as she headed towards the front of the complex.
Just as she reached the front door and began to open it, North’s hand flew past her and slammed the door. With a quick glance, North made a quick smile. “Here, let me get that for you.” He said and opened the door. “After you, Agent Jones.” And he gestured her to pass. The man was obsessive!
She jumped! Well, how could she help it? He darted out of nowhere and slammed the door before she could open it! Diana raised a curious yet amused eyebrow. A stickler for manners was he? “Don’t feel like you have to open any doors for me, McCoy! I’m your partner, not your girlfriend.”
Outside the air was crisp with the chill of autumn and the ground was still wet from the previous rain. The streets were devoid of life beyond the two, gutter critters and ragged looking hobo curled up under a blanket of newspaper. Barely peeking from behind the clouds, the moon was casting a shimmering glow on the world below.
Diana remained silent for the walk, her hands stuff in her jacket pockets for lack of a better place to put them. She surmised they could probably talk about business… but then there was only so much to be said about a cut up body and his pack of missing diamonds. This was exactly why she hated meeting new people. She was not a conversationalist!
Casting him another sidelong glance and pursing her lips, she guessed anything was better than nothing. “So… it’s been seven months since your last case? Do you never advertise?”
North wasn’t feeling much different than Diana. The sudden silence between them was getting to him as well. He tried to ponder up something to ask, but nothing came to him. ‘So what’s your – no. Where are you – No. Do you have – NO!’ Ideas raced through his mind as he tried to ponder something.
When Diana asked her question, North was thinking so hard he almost missed it. He snapped out of it as she glanced at him. “Hmm? Oh, well, uh, yeah. Of course. But that hasn’t done any good.” He said and stuck his hands in his coat pockets. “Heck, the name of the place isn’t even ‘North & West’ anymore. But I just don’t have the money to replace that sign.”
The pair passed another block as they made their way closer to the docks. A few 24-hour shops were still open, but except for the cashier, they were deserted. The streets felt empty, more than normal, but it could have just been the because of the circumstances.
“So…” North began. “What about you? You’re not from around here, are you?” He asked his companion.
“Nope.” Diana replied, then went silent for a few moments. When seemed like she wasn’t going to elaborate until she finally spoke again. “Not really, anyway. I moved here from Seattle.” A strange look crossed her face, like the memories were uncomfortable or simply confusing. She brushed them away quickly enough, casting him another glance. “I’ve been here a couple weeks. This is my first in town assignment.”
“Why did you pick the P.I. business over everything?” she inquired casually, that same supercilious tone returning just as quickly as it disappeared. Hopping in front of him she turned to walk backwards, giving a cheeky grin. “It has to be on the lowest end of the field.”
Her answers felt quick, like she didn’t care to talk about the reason. This caught North’s attention, but he wasn’t someone to peruse questions that didn’t want to be answered. And Diana was already back on the attack with another query and North wasn’t one to disappoint.
“Well, it’s not the best job, I’ll be honest.” He said, watching Diana hop in front of him. “But being a cop, I felt, well, alienated from everyone else. Especially here in the city. Nothing like it was back in Ireland.” North removed his hands from his pockets, stretching his fingers. He then continued.
“So, my brother and I decided to start out own little agency. And to tell you the truth, it was everything we were hoping for. People called us by out names, not “officer.” We were actually pretty successful at first, but I guess that’s because we were a little gimmicky. Brother private eyes. Like something you’d hear in a bad story.” He smiled a bit at the thought.
North was surprised at just how chatty he suddenly got. He had just met this Diana woman, not even under pleasant circumstances, and was already telling her his life story.
‘North, you need to get out more.’ He thought to himself. ‘This is what happens when you spend all your time alone.’
She laughed softly, and surprisingly it was more genuine than it was sarcastic. “Ah, I see. The down home super hero. A noble fate.” Diana turned to fall back in to step next to him again as they grew nearer to the docks. “I enjoyed the intrigue. I was trying to solve mysteries by the time I could ride a bike and chase down by suspects. I chose F.B.I. for the tougher cases…”
As they reached the pier an eerie fog had started to form around the docks making the place look spooky, much less inhabitable. It was empty save for a few birds perched on a roust for the night. The agent took a turn on the wood planks heading towards the warehouses. “The place is locked up tight, but I managed to score a key.”
North smiled at Diana’s reaction; it was nice to hear a laugh every once in a while. Maybe she wasn’t all that bad after all, but they still had a case to solve, bigger things to think about.
As they entered the dock area, North got an uneasy feeling. “Yeah, someone was defiantly killed here,” He said quietly. The two made their way to a warehouse taped off with the standard police line. Diana unlocked a side door and entered, North following behind her.
The building was dark and empty; a musty smell filled the air. It probably hadn’t been used in some time. They found the body a moment later, just as it had been explained. There were three, bloody wounds in the back and a dried pool of blood from the slit in his throat.
North was the first to examine the body, careful not to disturb it too much. “This is Terrence alright, but what is he doing all the way out here.” He said, confused. “He worked out of New York. At least, that’s where his Mafia ties were.” North snooped around the scene, hoping to find something, a clue even, but found nothing.
“Well.” North turned to Diana. “My guess he was waiting for someone here. Hence the location. Now, he was either killed by the people he was waiting for, or there’s a third party at work.”
North knelt beside the body, inspecting it further. “The stabs in the back indicate he probably didn’t know they were there. There’s also no sign of any struggle, and the cut throat was probably just to make sure.” Standing back up, North scratched head, thinking.
“But as to who killed him…” His voiced trailed off. “Anyway.” He looked to Diana. “Do you have anything?”
Diana did an ample job of looking at everything but the body and large pool of blood, only casting a brief glance in that direction to acknowledge North as he spoke. She wasn’t exactly squeamish about dead bodies, she had seen her fair share of those, but the blood was an entirely different matter. The woman hoped it was too dark to tell if she visibly paled. There were a dozen reasons why she didn’t like the medical side of forensics, and that blood was number one on the list!
She focused her gaze at a few scattered boxers simply for the sake of having something else to look at. “If I did, I wouldn’t have you here. I don’t believe he had the diamonds with him here, though. The body never moved after it hit the ground.”
“Well, we can worry about a bunch of rocks later. Right now we have a dead body and nothing to go on.” North said, huffing in frustration. “There has to be someth-” he stopped when he took a step and heard a crinkling noise beneath his foot.
Looking down, he saw he was standing on the dead man’s coat. The noise sounded like paper, something inside a pocket maybe. Bending down to inspect, North plucked a note from the inside of Terrence’s coat. “Hey, Agent Jones.” He called out.
Unfolding the note, North read “Warehouse 3, dock 5, 9:00.” Unfortunately for them, it was nearly eleven at night. “Say.” North scratched his chin. “Did the report mention a time of death at all?”
“Eight or nine-ish this morning.” She moved from her spot and peered around his shoulder at the crumpled piece of paper. “Don’t muss it up too bad, we might be able to get some prints.”
Hating every second, Diana sucked up her aversion to the crimson pool and leaned down to search the pockets. “Hmm, keys… House, car… Ah. This one might be good.” She held up the key attached to the chain and jangled it until he retrieved it. Rifling through the other pockets she managed to scavenge up a train pass dated for that evening and some pretty normal wallet contents. “Doc was going somewhere tonight. Probably didn’t count on getting wh–!!”
Before the brunette could finish her sentence a booming gun shot rang out in the warehouse, a bullet zipping itself dangerous close past her head!
“Damn!”
North was just leaning over to see what Diana had found when the bullet whizzed between them. Letting out a startled grunt, he stumbled backwards a bit before ducking behind a crate, watching Diana do the same, only with more … finesse. Once he was out of view of the assailant, North retrieved his pistol from his coat and peeked around the corner and then to Diana.
“Are you ok?” He asked her, just loud enough so she could hear. Looking back where the shot came from, North wasn’t able to see anyone thanks to the darkness. “This is Detective North McCoy.” He shouted out. “Lay down you weapon and c-“ Before he could finish another bullet ripped through the crate he was hidden behind, splintering a corner.
“JESUS!” North cried out and ducked back. “I don’t think he’s going to give up.” He said and brandished his weapon. He didn’t like having to use it, but he wasn’t completely against it in extreme cases.
“Just fine under the circumstances!” she replied, lifting up a lock of hair and examining it. Those jerks barely missed her! Diana cast him a side-glance and nearly grimaced at his out dated little pistol. Grabbing his arm, she tugged him out of the way and peered around the corner, aiming her own gun and took aim with what seemed like very precise calculations. She fired, and was resorted with a pained yell from across the warehouse… along with a whole barrage of more bullets!
Ducking behind the crate again she cringed. “I guess that means there’s more then one. Why they hell are they shooting at us now, anyway! We barely even started the damn investigation!”
“I don’t know.” North said as he glanced over the crate. “Did you happen to mouth off at anyone else while in town?” He mocked while another shot fly overhead. Inching his way down the line of boxes, North peeked around the far corner, making sure no one was coming up that way.
That’s when he caught eye of one of the goons. He hadn’t seen North yet and was right in his sights. The detective took careful aim at the unaware thug – and hesitated. North couldn’t take the shot. He just couldn’t kill the man, even though he was trying to kill them. A second later, he disappeared behind some shelves.
“Damnit.” North said quietly, angry with himself. At least Diana didn’t see it, or he would never hear the end of it. He slid back over to his colleague and ducked next to her.
“Another one just rounded the corner. I – couldn’t get a shot off, he was gone before I could.” He lied. In an effort to make up, he glanced over the box and fired where he thought the shots might have come from, but hit nothing.
It was around that time that sirens could be heard in the distance, the firing stopped as they drew closer.
“C’mon, v’ets get out of here!” One of them shouted in what sounded like a Russian accent. The gunmen quickly fled the warehouse, leaving the downed man behind. North and Diana rushed to see where they went, but they were gone by the time the two made it outside.
“Great.” North said, sighing. He turned around just as a couple squad cars pulled up to the scene. He flashed his badge as officers piled out of the vehicles.
“What do you make of all of this, Agent Jones?”
“Ugh. I don’t know, but it must be pretty damn good if it’s only been fifteen minutes and they’re already shooting at us.”
Diana wasn’t happy to see the cop cars, and briefly wondered what peeping tom was lurking around the docks to call the cops that fast. It was bad enough she had to work with a partner, but cops always had a habit of trying to nose their way in to an investigation and seek a little piece of the credit for themselves. In this case they were scaring away her suspects.
Well, except one.
She rubbed her chin with some thought. “I didn’t kill that one. We could pay him a little visit in the hospital and see what he has to say.”
“Looks like that’s our only lead at the moment.” North said, peering back. Paramedics were already putting the Russian on a stretcher and loading him into an ambulance. They hurried to cover the gunshot wound and provide medical aid the best they could.
“Jeez, this guy’s a train wreck…” one of them said as she injected something into the Russian’s arm.
“If – he survives.” said North, with a bit of disapproval in his voice. Diana’s shot seemed to have left a larger than necessary hole in the assailant’s stomach and his chances of survival were slim. This is one of the reasons his choice in weaponry was such a small caliber. “Well, if we’re going to get anything out of him, we’ve better do it fast.”
North flagged down a paramedic as he was entering the ambulance. “Hey, where are you guys taking this one?” He asked him.
“Northwestern Memorial Hospital, detective.” He responded and shut the back of the truck. Its sirens began to blare as it sped off.
North returned to Diana and crossed his arms. “Well, that’s a bit of a drive yet. Let’s hope that hole you put in him isn’t as bad as it looked.”