Bridge started moving around a little more and Nicole tried helping him back to his feet.
“Can you make it?”
Bridge held the small of his back. “I think my back’s broken.”
Nicole looked down at what was left of the table. “You sure put that thing out of commission.”
“Are you sure I’m not dead?”
“Pretty sure.”
“‘Cause it feels like every bone in my body is broken.”
“You always were a little dramatic.”
“I’d like to see you get thrown through a table and see how you react.”
“I’ll pass. I’ll live vicariously through you on this one.”
After a minute had passed, though he was still sore, Bridge started moving his arms around and tried to stretch out his back. Nicole rubbed his shoulders.
“Looks like someone’s gonna need something to relax them later.”
“I don’t think my body could take your version of relaxing,” Bridge said.
“I promise to be gentle.”
“Remember what you told me about not regretting taking this job?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, it’s official.”
“What is?”
“I definitely now regret it.”
3
Bridge and Nicole walked around the office for a few seconds before he hunched over and put his hands on his back. Nicole grabbed hold of him and walked him over to a chair in the corner of the room.
“Here. Just sit tight for a few minutes.”
Bridge opened and closed his eyes slowly a few times, hoping that would magically transform the pain and take it out of his system. It didn’t work. “Do I look as bad as I feel?”
Nicole looked at him and nodded. “Well… I’ve seen you look better.”
“I think I hurt so much that I can’t even tell if that was a dirty comment or not.”
Nicole laughed. “It was kind of in the middle.”
“Oh.”
“You just sit there for a few minutes. I’ll start looking around.”
“We may not have much time.”
Nicole started looking through the desk. “Well, I doubt that guy’s calling the police.”
“What if he has friends?”
“Then we probably would have seen them by now?”
“He was looking through the file cabinet.”
Nicole glanced around. “Looks like he checked everywhere. Wonder what he was looking for?”
“Has to be something that Bevell was working on.”
“But if he had more than one case going, then it could have been anything. Doesn’t necessarily tie in with our thing.”
“Too many coincidences here, Nic. You know I don’t believe in them. Everything with this guy just so happens to take place after he takes on the Abbott case. It’s too much to believe it’s got anything to do with anything else.”
Nicole started going through some papers. “I don’t even know what I should be looking for.”
Bridge was able to drag himself out of the chair, though he still wasn’t feeling too good. But he couldn’t just sit there and let Nicole do all the work. Especially since they didn’t belong there.
“You all right?”
Bridge tried to stand up straighter to stretch his back out. “I’ll survive.”
Since Nicole was checking out the desk, Bridge figured he’d try his luck in the filing cabinet. After a few minutes, Nicole sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“It just…” Nicole sighed again. “I just… I don’t know what’s important and what’s not. There are names and dates and places and… and I don’t know what any of it pertains to. Considering we’re on the clock here and can’t stay here all night, I’d say this is probably a worthless endeavor.”
Bridge glanced at his girlfriend and winced as a shot of pain went up his spine. He then looked around the room and saw a backpack on the floor. He then went over to it and picked it up.
“You know what, let’s start shoving everything in here, and we can look at it later.”
“That’s a good idea,” Nicole said. “Then we can take our time with it.”
Bridge started to lean over to pick up some papers on the floor, but made a groan. Bending over was a problem for him at the moment. Nicole came over to prevent him from hurting himself more.
“Here, I’ll get this stuff. You go over to the cabinet and start taking stuff out of there. That way you can stand up.”
As Bridge walked back over to the cabinet, he saw another backpack nestled in between the file cabinet and a table that was next to it. He gingerly bent over and picked it up to start shoving papers and folders from the file cabinet inside it. Within a few minutes, they had every piece of paper and file folder that was in the room inside a backpack.
“Ready?” Nicole asked.
“Pfft. Am I ready? I’ve never been readier.”
Nicole smiled. She took her backpack and put it on her shoulder, then she took the backpack from Bridge and slung it over the other shoulder. “You need me to put you on my back, too?”
“Is that another dirty comment?”
Nicole laughed. “Could be.”
They started to walk out of the house, with Bridge feeling a little better. At least he didn’t need help walking. As they got to the kitchen, they stopped upon seeing a bright light. It was coming from the back of the house where they came in. Nicole looked at Bridge to see what he wanted to do. He wanted to split up and pointed for her to go behind the kitchen table, while he went back to the living room, ducking behind the corner of the wall.
After a few more seconds, the light got a little brighter. It was obviously a flashlight that was coming toward them. Bridge and Nicole waited silently and out of sight, until the man, or men, got closer. Then they’d spring a surprise on them. They patiently waited until the person came into view. It was only one man. It could’ve been the same person they’d run into before for all they knew. Maybe he wanted a rematch. The man, in dark attire, passed through the kitchen. It looked like he was on the way to the office as well. He seemed to know the way.
As the man passed the corner of the wall that led into the living room, Bridge jumped out and grabbed him
