Twenty-four hours later – Eighth & Villanova
The EMTs tried to stabilise the woman on the spot, but she was
losing blood too fast. Within ninety seconds, the call was made
to move her to the ambulance for transport to the emergency
room at St Mark’s.
The risks attached to moving the woman were huge, which
told Casey all she needed to know about her chances.
She could see Billy further up the street, moving from person
to person. There was a vacant property on the lot next to
Strongbox and beyond that a sign for a 7-Eleven. Two more
patrol cars had arrived, parking in the street by where the dead
man had fallen, and the presence of HCPD was enough to
bring some civilians out from wherever they’d been sheltering.
A drip became a steady flow, and the block filled with dazed
faces, becoming even more chaotic than it already was. Billy
was trying his best to catch people as they emerged, assessing
potential witnesses, but there were men and women crying,
strangers hugging each other in shock, a mom gripping two
children to her chest. One man fell to his knees on the sidewalk
and began to pray.
Clusters formed around the uniformed officers, some
witnesses eager to talk to the police. Casey could see the cop who she’d first spoken to on the corner surrounded by three men and two women, all talking at once as he tried to make
notes. From an investigatory standpoint it was a disaster, but
Casey’s biggest worry was if the shooter came back – or if they
were already moving through the crowd. In the confusion, they
were all sitting ducks. She radioed Dispatch for an update.
‘Every available car is either there already or on the way. Still
no description of a suspect. We have Patrol criss-crossing the
area around and to the north of your location, where the last
shots were reported, but right now we’re looking for suspicious
vehicles or behaviour, nothing more concrete than that.’
‘When was the last report of shots fired?’
‘911 took a call from a payphone on Villanova, north of
Eighth.’
‘Yeah, I heard about that one. Nothing since?’
‘Negative.’
‘Copy.’
Casey radioed instructions for assembly points to be set up,
one at either end of the block, and for uniforms to ID and
question as many of the people there as they could. But no
matter how efficiently they worked, there would inevitably be
some who slipped through the net, often unaware they might
possess vital information. The hope was always for a witness
who’d seen the whole thing and could give them a description,
a licence plate or even a suspect name – but that was almost
never how it played out. Assembling a picture of a scene like
this was like piecing together a jigsaw, and it only took one
witness not to realise the significance of the small detail they’d
seen to leave Casey with a gaping hole.
Rod Reynolds is the author of five novels, including the Charlie Yates series.
His 2015 debut, The Dark Inside, was longlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger, and was followed by Black Night Falling (2016) and Cold Desert Sky (2018); the Guardian has called the books 'Pitch-perfect American noir.'
A lifelong Londoner, in 2020 Orenda Books published his first novel set in his hometown, Blood Red City.
The first in the Casey Wray series, Black Reed Bay, published in 2021, was shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger, with its long-awaited sequel, Shatter Creek, out in 2025.
Rod previously worked in advertising as a media buyer, and holds an MA in novel writing from City University London.
Rod lives with his wife and family and spends most of his time trying to keep up with his two daughters.
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