AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

too.”
    “How the hell would she be able to trap you? She can’t see you.”
    He really had no good answer for this, so he diverted her attention. “But I bet she knew you were there.”
    She had no good answer for that. Whoever slammed the door must have heard her, must have been aware she was in the cellar. It’s conceivable the person, whom she did not see, thought she was a burglar. But then the person would have called the Colorado Springs police.
    The thought scared the crap out of her. “Let’s not argue about it. Let’s get out of here and out of this town as quick as we can.”
    He agreed readily because he’d followed the same line of reasoning. They let themselves out the back door and she walked as quickly as possible without actually running to their car.
    It wasn’t until they had gotten onto U.S. Highway 24, heading east and back to the interstate, that she allowed herself another chance to chastise Munroe.
    “If she had called the Springs PD, I can’t even begin to think how much trouble I’d be in,” she said.
    With the immediate threat behind them, however, Munroe said, “Yeah, but they didn’t. I’m sure Springs PD would have responded pretty quickly to a homeowner reporting that she’d trapped a burglar in her cellar. I think Duggan got Newell’s message and decided to leave ahead of us. I think we interrupted her.”
    “And somehow she knew that you had entered the house? She’s some kind of psychic who can sense your presence?”
    “No and cut the sarcasm. I’ll admit that seems unlikely. I think I went inside and she came back to shut the door before leaving. She didn’t know I was there. She went back to the garage to get her car, heard you and decided she didn’t want to stick around to answer questions. You go down the trap door, she seizes the opportunity. It was just a delaying tactic and it worked.”
    She had to admit it made sense. “You might be right. I guess she, if it was Duggan, doesn’t want to talk to us. If that’s the case, she played it nicely. We might find her behavior suspicious, but we can’t do anything about it. If anything, we’re the ones who’d have to explain why we were in her house.” She kept herself from adding “thanks to you.”
    They had reached Interstate 25 and were now heading north.
    “Finally got a signal,” Munroe said. At the same time, Yamaguchi’s phone rang.
    “Oh damn,” she said. “I should pull over.”
    “Just answer the phone, Linda.”
    “I don’t like driving and talking, you know that.”
    “You are such a … hey, wait a minute. Uh … you better pull over now and answer that phone. Right now.”
    “What’s the problem, Alex?” she asked, as she pulled over into the breakdown lane.
    “I think there’s a SWAT call in Denver.”
    She got out her phone and saw that the screen showed she had five messages. The phone rang again.
    “Yamaguchi,” she answered.
    “Linda, where the hell are you?” It was the voice of the watch commander.
    “We’re in Colorado Springs. We’re just heading back.”
    “What are you doing in the … never mind. Get back to Denver as fast as you can. We have a tactical in Five Points. Kid with a gun holding his family hostage.”
    “Yes sir, I …” He’d hung up.
    The drive back to Denver was a nightmare. Traffic out of the Springs was busy and the lights and sirens didn’t help that much until she got past Academy Boulevard. The whole time, Munroe was giving her the play-by-play whenever he was able to get a signal and access one of the television channel web sites.
    “Channel 7 has the best view,” he said. “Looks like your standard bungalow … oh, just caught sight of a sniper. They’re really close. Smart cameraman, I think he’s on the roof of a house the next street down. I think this is the neighborhood where we interviewed the minister. Damn, lost the signal again.”
    Munroe’s commentary was making her anxious, but she knew they would need the information once they arrived.
    “OK, got it back. They’re in the newsroom now. Looks like they’re talking about … that doesn’t make sense … oh, bad closed captioning … they must have a neighbor talking to them on the phone. Sounds like they heard arguing, the kid has some history of mental problems, cops are always being called out to that location.”
    “Oh, God, is the family … Williams, I think it was?” she asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “We always had to go there on domestics. No one ever