Hester!”
My eyes hadn't quite adjusted to the dark, and I heard her voice off to my left, well before I saw her.
“Over here. Slow down. He's gone.”
I slowed to a fast walk, and almost stepped on her before I saw her, crouched down, looking farther into the darkness. I could see well enough to catch the movement of her head as she spoke to me.
“You might want to get down a bit, you're silhouetted against the house lights… ”
I dropped to one knee, breathing hard. “Who is it?”
“Beats the shit out of me,” she said. “You're slowing down.”
“Yeah.” I took another deep breath. “Hard”-an-other breath-“to stop me, though.”
“I saw him heading this way,” she said. “Lost him in the dark.”
“What's going on?” Old Knockle. The reserve was coming around the far side of the house, shining his flashlight into the backyard. Right on us.
“Turn off your light!” It snapped off. “Stay there, and make sure nobody circles around to the front of the house,” I yelled to him. “Play your light out toward the trees.”
He did. Nothing, of course. No movement. No sound.
“Borman might be hurt,” said Hester.
She was right. And he had a walkie-talkie. We were going to need reinforcements before we started to go after anybody in those woods. This was definitely not Toby or his ilk.
She and I both went cautiously back toward Borman, keeping in shadow as much as possible.
“It's us,” I said. “Don't shoot.” You can't be too careful.
“Right,” he said. “Right.”
When we got back to him, I could see he had a scrape on his cheekbone, his shirt was torn near the right shoulder, and there was an enormous slash right across his chest, through his shirt, and slitting the underlying Kevlar bullet-proof vest.
“Holy shit,” I said. “He had a knife?”
Borman looked down at his chest. “Yeah, he did, I think. It was so fast.”
“You sure you're all right?” I asked.
He nodded. “I looked. No cut or anything.” He patted his ruined vest. “Close, though.”
“No shit,” I said, impressed by the damage.
“What happened?” asked Hester as I gently reached over and pulled Borman's walkie-talkie from his belt.
“Hell,” said Borman, “I was just standing at that door, and I heard a commotion that sounded like it came from upstairs, and then the door busted open and hit me in the face and knocked me against the back door, and then this asshole came through and”-he gasped for breath-“I thought he just shoved me in the chest, you know, and then”-another breath-“I could see it was a fuckin' knife, and he was heading past me and to the yard.”
“That's when you shot?” asked Hester.
“Yeah,” said Borman. “Yeah.”
As I made sure the walkie-talkie was on the right channel, I asked, “Think you might have hit him?”
He just shook his head.
I pressed the transmit button on the walkie. “Comm, Three. Ten-thirty-three.”
You announce an emergency, right out of the blue, you get some pretty good attention.
“Three?”
“Ten-thirty-three, Comm. Up at the search location.
Armed suspect, officer slightly injured, suspect fled the scene on foot. Get us as much backup as you can ffnd.”
“Ten-four, Three. Comm, all Nation County cars, we have-” I turned the volume down so I could talk to Borman for a second.
“So, you don't think you hit him?”
“I'm positive,” he said.
“Got a description?” asked Hester.
“Dark gray shirt,” he said. “Dark pants. I think. Yeah, maybe black or dark blue. Kinda tall, maybe dark hair.”
“Happens really fast, doesn't it?” said Hester.
“Damn,” I said, mostly to myself. “Sure you might not have hit him? Make ffndin' him a lot easier.”
“I couldn't have,” said Borman. “I shot up in the air.”
Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. “Up in the air? Like, you… you fired warning shots? ”
“Yeah.”
“He slashed your chest with a knife, and you shot up in the air?” Hester gave me a “shut up he's got enough trouble right now” look. I ignored it. “He tried to do you, and you fired warning shots?”
Borman looked like he could crawl in a hole, but defended himself. “He didn't kill me… ”
“Of course not, you idiot,” I said evenly. “If he'd killed you, I wouldn't expect you to fucking shoot at all!”
“Carl,” said Hester. “Cool it for a minute.”
“Yeah. Jesus H. Christ.” I looked at Borman. “He was running away from you, then?”
“I dunno,” said Borman, embarrassed. “No, I guess not. Not right then. He was kind of in front of me, but he was starting to move, I think. I think he might have been surprised to find me at the bottom of the stair. And I think he thought he got me, you know? I just… I got my gun out real fast. I, well, I'm not comfortable with taking human life without good reason.”
I just didn't understand. “Well, somebody around here sure as hell isn't worried about it! He may have tried to get you with the same fuckin' knife he used on her! You listening to me?”
“Houseman,” said Hester, “just lay off for a minute.”
“Yeah.” Thoroughly disgusted, I put the walkietalkie in front of my face, and called Dispatch again. “Three, go ahead.” “Yeah, Comm, have a couple of cars search the base of this bluff, down by the highway. We're looking for a white male, tall, gray shirt, black or blue pants, dark hair. Armed with a knife. Use caution.”
“Ten-four, Three.”
“And get hold of One, and tell him we need at least four or five more officers up here on the top of the hill, to search going down. Then get Freiberg PD stopped before he gets here, and have him go back and look up Kevin Stemmer.” I paused. “Just check location for now, and if he can't find him, let us know right away.”
“Ten-four, Three. Ten-fifty-two has been dispatched.” An ambulance. A good idea, as I thought Borman should be checked out. Mostly, I thought, for a suspected injury to his common sense. But it was really a very good idea.
“Ten-four.” I put the walkie-talkie down, and talked directly to Hester. “I want that Stemmer dude located, mainly to make sure it isn't him.”
“I don't think it is,” said Borman.
I took a deep breath. “Okay. That'll help. Look, we'll go over our deadly force procedures later. You did okay.” I don't think I was too convincing. “You get checked out, make sure you're all right. Then, if you can, I want you to sit down and describe every detail of this guy you can remember. Everything. Take your time, and don't rush. You got all night.”
“Right.”
“Let's get you back inside,” said Hester, and sort of gently pushed Borman back up the stairs and into the kitchen. “Where you can sit down.”
As Borman entered the house, Hester turned to me. “Our man Peel?”
I nodded. “I think it sure as hell could be. Alive and well, unfortunately. Well, we're just gonna have to work a little harder to find out, I guess.”
She smiled. “See? You can adjust, after all.”
“Hmmm.”
Lamar pulled out all the stops with the assistance. He'd contacted state patrol, as well as the boys across the river in Conception County, Wisconsin. Adjoining counties in Iowa, too, judging from the sudden surge in radio
