Dust to Dust

woods and distant sirens. The sirens were the backup finally on its way. But the sounds in the woods, the rustling and crunching of leaves— Are the intruders retreating?
    Diane was hesitant to step out into the open. She clicked the safety off with her thumb.
    “Diane,” Hanks’ voice shouted from across the yard.
    She saw a flashlight come from somewhere.
    “Here,” she shouted, and cautiously started for the house, scanning the area as she walked, watching for movement.
    As she neared the house, she saw Hanks and Patrolman Daughtry both limping to the steps. Daughtry sat down and was holding his leg, whimpering. Hanks, holding his arm, sat down beside him. Both seemed to be in considerable pain.
    The three of them automatically turned their heads toward the sound of a distant car engine starting up. Hanks groaned.
    “They’re getting away,” he said. “Hell.”
    “What happened?” asked Diane. She clicked on the safety and gave Hanks back his gun, relieved to be rid of it—though having it probably saved her.
    “What didn’t happen?” Hanks took the gun from her and put it in his ankle holster. He turned his head to look at the back door and winced again in pain. “Damn it, I’ve got to quit doing that.”
    He took a deep breath. “We found a side door that was open and we went in. Some kind of mudroom, I suppose. We heard someone moving in the next room and saw his shadow pass by the door. Daughtry clicked on his flashlight, identified himself, and called out for the perp to stop. The bastard bolted before we even got a good look at him. It looked like he was carrying a box or something. When Daughtry ran after him, his leg went through the boards on the porch and he broke his flashlight. But he kept on after him and managed to get off a shot. I followed and almost caught up with the perp, when someone blindsided the two of us, knocked us down, ran, and shot at us. To tell you the truth, it got kind of confusing.” He tried to shrug and winced in pain. “Daughtry’s leg is skinned up pretty bad.”
    “Skinned?” said Daughtry. “It hurts like hell. I’m going to sue that damn woman. Why didn’t she fix her damn porch?”
    Diane frowned at him. “Marcella just bought the house. She was in the process of fixing it up,” she muttered, and almost added her thought, Let’s not forget that she is the victim here.
    “The son of a bitch hit me in the leg with a bat or something,” Daughtry said. “He just about killed me.”
    Diane took Hanks’ flashlight and examined Daughtry’s leg.
    “Oh jeez,” he said, “holy shit . . . my leg . . . oh God.” He looked away and groaned.
    The broken boards had torn a deep gash in the side of his left leg from his ankle to midcalf.
    “It looks worse than it is,” said Diane. Lame, she thought, but she wanted to give him some comfort. It looked terrible. She diverted the flashlight beam from the wound.
    “I don’t know why the damn backup took so long,” said Hanks.
    Diane noticed that Hanks’ breathing was off—more labored than it should have been, even considering the exertion—and it obviously hurt him to turn his head.
    “Are you all right?” she asked him.
    “I fell on my damn shoulder again,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to move and hurts like hell.”
    Diane shined the beam from the flashlight on Hanks’ shoulder. His clothes were covered with leaves and dirt from the tumble he took. She moved the collar of his shirt aside and shined the light on his throat and collarbone area. As she suspected, there was a lump under his skin on the clavicle.
    “Your collarbone is broken,” she said.
    “Yeah, I know,” he said, rubbing his eyes and forehead with his good hand.
    “Look,” said Diane, “both of you stay—”
    The three of them jumped when a beam of light flashed in their direction. Daughtry put a hand on his gun.
    “It’s me—Izzy,” said the voice behind the light. “Neva’s waiting out front for backup. We heard the shooting back here. Is everyone all right?”
    “More or less,” said Hanks.
    “The shooter in the woods seems to have got away,” said Izzy. “He hasn’t fired any more rounds at us.” Izzy stopped in front of them, letting his light play from one to the other. “The three of you look terrible. What the hell happened?” he said.
    Hanks gave him a brief version of events. “We lost them,” he finished. Hanks looked at Diane for a moment. “What happened to you? I heard some commotion