Gallery of the Dead

Ninety-One

Hunter and Garcia exited the house in the direction of the stables at full speed. As if on cue, as soon as they hit the ground outside, the rain that had been threatening finally arrived... and it seemed angry. Its raindrops were the size of grapes.

‘Officer down,’ Hunter heard Agent Fisher’s voice come through his headset. ‘Officer down.’

‘What?’ Hunter called over giant strides. ‘What happened?’

In no time at all the two detectives had reached the stables, squeezing through the gap between the two sliding doors with a simple body twist. Their weapons were up and ready, their breathing labored, their clothes drenched in rainwater.

They looked left, then right — nothing.

‘Over here.’

They both heard Agent Fisher’s voice coming from the horse enclosure to their left. Hunter and Garcia lost no time, immediately rushing to it. As they entered the square pen, they saw Agent Fisher kneeling by a pool of blood, cradling Agent Williams’ lifeless body in her arms. A few feet behind her was a second door, which stood wide open.

‘Jesus, what happened?’ Hunter called out, kneeling next to the agent.

Garcia stood by the first door, guarding the entrance like a hawk.

The rain, pelting down against the old roof full of holes, filled the stable with a deafening drumming-like noise. Water drips began appearing everywhere.

‘Too many enclosures,’ Agent Fisher explained in an anxious voice, her eyes full of tears. ‘We decided to split up. I took the right side and Larry took the left one. I had just entered the first enclosure on the other side when I heard the shots.’

‘Have you called it in?’ Hunter asked. ‘Have you called for an ambulance?’

‘Yes, but what good will that do, Robert? He’s gone, can’t you see? He’s gone.’

Hunter looked up at the opened door. ‘Did you see anyone? Did you see the shooter?’

‘No, I didn’t see anyone, but it looks like the enclosures all connect internally. He could be anywhere right now.’

Hunter looked back at Garcia.

‘No one has exited the stables,’ Garcia said. ‘At least not through the door we came in. If anyone had I would’ve seen it.’

CRANK.

They all heard a loud noise coming from outside the enclosure. Hunter and Agent Fisher jumped to their feet.

CRANK.

It happened again.

Weapons in hand, all three of them stepped outside the enclosure as cautiously as they could. There was no one there.

‘Shit,’ Agent Fisher said. ‘The doors.’

‘What?’

‘When we got here,’ she clarified, ‘every single door was shut.’ She indicated the door to enclosure number five on the right side and then the one to number six on the left. They were now both open.

‘Where the hell is the strike team?’ Garcia asked. ‘Shouldn’t they be here by now?’

Agent Fisher didn’t reply.

‘So what now?’ Garcia again.

‘Well, I’m not waiting,’ Agent Fisher said, stepping to one side to avoid a leak from the roof. ‘I’m going after this bastard. You guys do what you think you should do.’ She began moving toward the second enclosure on the right.

‘Wait,’ Hunter called, as he turned and faced Garcia. ‘Stay with her. I’ll take the left side.’

‘I don’t need a babysitter,’ Agent Fisher replied, before using the back of her right hand to wipe tears from her eyes.

‘No one is babysitting anyone, Erica,’ Hunter came back. ‘We need to split up and there’re three of us. No offense, but you’re a bit shaken up and your eyes are full of tears. Your reflexes are not the same as they were a moment ago. So I’ll take the left side, you two take the right. Go.’

‘No,’ Agent Fisher retorted. ‘If you take the right side and we take the left one, the corridor between both sides stays clear. The killer might get past us without us noticing him. Better would be if you take the left enclosures, Carlos takes the right ones and I’ll hold the corridor. If he runs from one side to the other, I’ll spot him. It gives us a better chance.’

‘She’s got a point, Robert,’ Garcia agreed.

‘OK,’ Hunter said. ‘Anyone see anything, shout. Let’s move.’

Repeating the same maneuver Agent Fisher had performed with Agent Williams when opening the door to the first enclosure on the left just moments ago, she helped Garcia with the door to the first enclosure on the right.

Hunter went back to the one on the left, skipped over Agent Williams’ body on the floor and entered the second enclosure through the internal door.

It was empty.

So was the one Garcia had entered. It looked identical to the one they had just come from, with an internal door that linked the first enclosure to the second one. The door was open.

Garcia moved fast but quietly, his eyes covering every direction as he took each step. He placed his back against the wall to the left of the opened door, readied himself and rotated his body counterclockwise into the next room.

Empty.

Directly in front of him was the internal door that linked that enclosure to the next one. Garcia moved to it.

The rain outside, and some of it inside, had strengthened considerably. The drumming noise against the old roof now sounded like a Death Metal concert.

Once again, Garcia placed his back against the wall to the right of the door, but before he was able to perform his rotating maneuver, he saw Agent Fisher walk in through the same connecting door he had just walked through. She had tears in her eyes.

Instinctively he lowered his weapon.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked. ‘Has the killer come through the corridor?’

Agent Fisher raised her weapon, pointing it directly at Garcia’s chest.

‘I’m sorry, Carlos.’

‘What?’ Garcia’s shock was so intense, he practically froze.

‘This wasn’t supposed to go like this.’

‘You’ve got to be joking.’

Garcia tried to move, but his weapon was down while Agent Fisher’s was locked on to her target. There was no contest.

As Garcia tried to bring his weapon back up so he could fire, Agent Fisher squeezed her trigger three times.

Some say that your whole life flashes before your eyes just before you die. In Garcia’s case, a single memory... a single image flashed before his eyes a millisecond before the three bullets exploded against his chest and blood splattered against the wall behind him.

The image he saw was of his wife, Anna, smiling at him.