AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

it,” she said.
    “I’m not sure that’s a good thing, Linda.”
    “You sure can look on the dark side of things, no offense. Hey, I need to stop at a drug store to pick up some decongestants. There’s one just up the road from here.”
    “OK,” he said, not wanting to tell her that her nose was running during the whole press conference.
    She pulled away from the curb and drove a few blocks to the Walgreen’s at Speer and Federal. She called dispatch to tell them she’d be code 7.
    It only took a few minutes to make it to the drugstore. She parked the car and told Munroe she’d only be gone a few minutes. She came back in five and got back into the car and took a cold pill, washing it down with a swig from a water bottle.
    “Oh somebody please rip my head off.” She waited for a witty response to her straight line. “Alex?”
    “What?”
    “I gave you a straight line.”
    “Sorry.”
    “All right, want to tell me what’s on your mind?” she asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “Once a man resorts to one word replies …”
    “I’m OK.”
    She looked at him and nailed his location. “Spill it.”
    “I was damn scared in there.”
    “Where?”
    “What do you mean where? In the crack, between the buildings.”
    “You were? But …”
    “I was really stuck. I couldn’t move.”
    “Well you obviously did.” He said nothing. “Does it matter? You found the kid. You conquered your fear.”
    “You don’t know what it’s like if you’re dead,” he said. “You laugh whenever I get stuck somewhere and I laugh with you because sometimes it is funny. But there were a couple of times when I had no idea how long I might have to wait.”
    “Wow, I’m sorry, Alex. I didn’t know. But hey, as long as I’m around … I mean, I wouldn’t have left you there. You know, I’m your partner. Besides, you weren’t in there all that long.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “From the time you went in the crack to the time I heard back from you, maybe ten minutes.”
    “Ten minutes? God, it felt like an hour at least.”
    “Well, I was starting to get a little bit worried. Mainly I started thinking, ‘What if he’s stuck in the crack? How do I get him out?’ So I had ideas like putting a plank on the end of the stick and squeezing you out. You know, like those ice cream push-pops I ate when I was a kid.”
    Munroe didn’t respond.
    “Alex?”
    “I’m so stupid.”
    “Well, I won’t disagree.”
    “That’s what they did at that rave.”
    “What? Stiffs for Jesus?”
    “Yes. The marks on the floor. They made a giant push-pop.”
    “I don’t get it.”
    “They made a temporary room with the stuff they brought in. And one of the walls in that room was on wheels. That’s what the tracks were. It’s like those box traps from Ghostbusters. They push everyone in the room into one area and then trap them.”
    “That’s … that’s insidious,” she said. “Never get to use that word. But, Alex, you’re making up this theory from a line of dust on the floor. A little thin don’t you think? And we’re totally ignoring the question of why a Christian group is trapping dead people.”
    “Your line of critical reasoning is interfering with my beautiful hypothesis.”
    “Can you even trap the dead with plywall?”
    “You can trap the dead with a Hefty bag … or a vacuum cleaner. Ugh, forget I said that. Bad image.”
    “Yeah … well, we need to take another look at that warehouse. Let me see if I can reach the Barfly guys. Meanwhile, you will probably be checking your email.”
    He had been checking his email while they drove over to the drugstore. He found another message from Brian’s mother, asking if he’d made any progress. He really didn’t know what to tell her. His partner was right: his theory was thin and he didn’t want to present it to Brian’s mother until he was sure. How do you tell a woman someone has kidnapped her dead son?
    He had also gotten another message from someone who remembered the deleted posting from the Denver entertainment forum. Not as specific as the first message, but more or less a confirmation.
    “No message from the Springs woman or the guy. And no one’s answering at Barfly. It’s 7 p.m. anyway. I guess we can try tomorrow,” she said.
    “No, we have court, remember?”
    “Right. OK, so we have a busy Thursday. Let’s hope we hear back from the Springs. Uh, Alex, at what point do we say something to … someone up the food chain. Now we’re talking