Delusion in Death

open door she saw the heaps and tangles of bodies—including the one facedown half in, half out of the café.
    “Get that barricade up. Peabody, call for MTs.”
    “We got them coming,” one of the uniforms shouted. “We called for more backup, Lieutenant.”
    “For Christ’s sake.” She grabbed one wrestling man by the shirt collar, dodged a flailing fist, didn’t quite dodge a jabbing elbow to the ribs. “Peabody, goddamn it!” She managed to get a boot on the chest of the second man, rocked as he bucked. “Stop! Cut it out or I swear to God I’ll knock your empty heads together.”
    She ignored the expected versions of “He started it.”
    “Make a move, and you’re in restraints and headed for a holding tank. One move. Don’t test me.”
    Ribs throbbing, she turned. “Listen up! I said, listen up !” Laying a hand on the butt of her weapon, she raised her voice over the din of the crowd. “I’m Lieutenant Dallas, NYPSD. You will not cross the barricade. You will cease and desist any attempt to interfere with these officers or you will be arrested and charged with hampering an investigation, creating a public nuisance, obstruction of justice and anything else I can toss in to screw up the rest of your day.”
    “People are hurt!” someone screamed.
    “Medicals are on the way.”
    “Fucking cops stunned unarmed people. I saw it. I recorded it.” He waved his ’link like a trophy.

    “And I’m here to determine what happened. My partner will take your statement.”
    “Then cover it up. Fucking cops.”
    Enough, Eve decided, and stared hard into the bystander’s eyes. “Pal, I’ve got people bleeding on the ground and officers in harm’s way. Record this.” She held up her badge. “That’s Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Get the badge number? This fucking cop is telling you to clam it until my partner takes your statement. If you continue to attempt to incite a riot you’ll be restrained and charged, and transported to Central.”
    When he opened his mouth again, her eyes went to ice. “Go ahead, say something. Once you do, get ready to tag a lawyer.”
    She waited until he broke eye contact and stared at the ground.
    “Officers will take statements, but anyone who’s a doctor or medical professional please step forward, and this officer will enlist your aid for any wounded. Call in the rest of the team. Start talking to people,” she told Peabody. “Get statements, keep them talking, and make sure you confiscate that asshole’s ’link for evidence.”
    “Yes, sir, and won’t that be a joy.”
    “Who owns the damn building?”
    “Not Roarke.”
    “Small blessings. Keep that line secured,” she ordered the droid. “And you”—she gestured toward the second uniform—“report.”
    “We were on patrol and observed several individuals running from this location. One ran into our vehicle as we pulled to a stop. He stated people were killing each other inside Café West. We called it in, approached the scene.”
    He took a breath.
    “Lieutenant, when we opened the door it was crazy. People were lying on the floor getting trampled while other people were fighting.Bare hands, knives—Jesus—forks, broken glasses. People screaming, howling like animals. Some of them laughing like mental defectives.
    “We called out warnings. Some of them came at us. That guy didn’t lie, sir. Some of them weren’t armed, but they were coming at us, and still going at each other. We had to deploy stunners.”
    “Is there going to be anything on that asshole’s ’link vid you can’t stand up to, Officer?”
    “No, sir, Lieutenant. No, sir.”
    “Then don’t worry about it. Continue.”
    “Okay. They’d go down, and more would come at us. I don’t know how many we stunned before we got some control, because some of them didn’t go down on the first stream. By the time we did, we had a riot brewing out here, with people who’d seen, some who’d started to go inside and got attacked before they managed to get out again.”
    He nodded toward the black-and-whites that pulled up. “There’s backup. And the MTs.”
    “What time did you stop at this location. Be precise.”
    “Logged the stop at thirteen-eleven, sir.”
    Fourteen minutes. Odds were they’d be clear.
    “All right. Work with Detective Peabody. Get statements, names, contacts.”
    She moved toward the arriving uniforms, snapped out orders.
    “You—” She pointed at a pair of MTs. “I need you to start moving the