Chapter 10. Red and Yellow Lights

Cyler was led out the back door. Although he tried to remain calm, the enormity of the situation began to fall on him. His face grew blank as he began to think. He didn't even notice Pam off in the distance. Frantic to find some answers, however, she spotted him.

"Cyler!" Pam ran up towards the teen. A few officers tried to catch her, as she raced onto the scene. She was, however, a woman possessed. She had to find the kids, and find out what happened to Ralph.

"Cyler! Cyler!" Pam repeated, as she raced up to him, grabbing him by his shoulders. "Where are the kids? Where's Ralph?"

Cyler, not fully thinking, simply replied "I don't believe it! He was dead...!"

Pam's face grew pale, as she looked at Cyler in disbelief.

"What?" she asked, desperately. "What? Ralph is dead?"

Cyler, realizing his mistake, shook his head and breathed out deeply. "Oh! No! No Miss Davidson. No. There was a dead body. In there. I found it..."

"Excuse me? Who are you?" The officer held onto Cyler's arm as he spoke to Pam.

"Cyler, listen to me. Where are the rest of the guys? Tony? Rhonda? And where is Ralph?"

Cyler's heart skipped a beat, as he remembered what the officer had said inside.

"Are you listening?" the officer demanded, by now annoyed. "Who are you?"

"Oh, Miss Davidson. I think Mr. H was hurt. You said something about Mr. Hinkley being hurt, didn't you?" This time Cyler addressed both Pam and the officer.

"For the last time, who are you?"

Close to tears, Pam offered her name, then explained that she was with Cyler and the rest of the band.

Then, gaining her composure, she asked for Ralph.

The officer's demeanor changed, as he looked at the woman in front of him. She was desperate and ragged. He also noticed that she had obviously fallen to the ground. Her knees were scraped and dirty, and her hands were reddened. In fact, they were sore from a thousand scrapes from the tiny bits of gritty concrete and shard of glass she had fallen on.

"I'm sorry, M'am. I can see you've been hurt. I'm Markus. Let's get you both away from here. I'll need to ask a few questions."

The two looked around, as the officer guided them away from the building. As they walked, they realized a dozen officers were outside the building too, all busy talking to partners, or talking on walkie talkies. Every so often, one would come out of the exit, leading a punk rocker. Sometimes the punk walked, of their own will. Most were dragged, kicking and thrashing, and restrained in cuffs.

"Miss Davidson," Cyler asked. "Tony and the others are still in there? What are we going to do?"

---

Although it felt like an hour, only a few minutes had passed. Tony, Rhonda, Paco and the rest of the band remained under the stage, and listened from behind the black stage curtains that shielded them underneath. There were occasional noises everywhere: a scream, a crash, or a angry yell. But the scene appeared to be calming down, and the club was clearing out. The mad rush to flee the club seemed to be over.

"I ain't gonna sit here all day, Rhonda. I ain't no coward," Tony whispered, as they listened to a few footsteps on the other side of the curtain.

"Shhh!" she replied, just able to hear the click and a buzz of a walkie talkie.

"Sarge. It's all clear."Roger that. And everyone is out?"

"We've secured the front entrance. It's just those rooms in the back. We've got some guys on it now."

L.A. Freeway listened to the footsteps as they walked away, with the crunching sounds of broken glass growing more distant.

"We gotta get outta here!" Rhonda whispered, in a slight panic. Then, in desperation, she began to scream.

"Help! Help! Over here!"

"What the...?"

"Don't leave us here! Please! We're under the stage!"

Tony rolled his eyes, as he tried to shush his girlfriend. Now they would look like they were hiding. It didn't matter to Tony that they indeed were hiding. He just didn't want anyone to know it. Especially the cops.

The curtain was lifted, and the officers pointed their guns under the stage. The officers stood in amazement for a moment, as the flashlight shone in the band's eyes. They looked like trapped animals, huddled close together under the stage, shielding their eyes from the bright light.

"What are you kids doing here?" The officer grabbed Rhonda's arm, and pulled her out. Crawling out from under the stage in a dirty (but once white) puffy dress, she looked even more out of place.

"We... we were trying to get out when everything happened..." Rhonda instinctively grabbed the officer for protection, and buried her face in his chest.

"Uh, yeah..." Tony added, trying to redeem himself as he crawled out next. "You see, I kinda made a mistake. I booked my band here, you know. I didn't know it was some kinda punk rock place. So, I made a mistake." Noticing his girlfriend clinging to the policeman, Tony took her arm, and pulled her in towards him.

The officer looked the group up and down. The band consisted of a few kids in relatively clean leather jackets and unripped jeans, and a young blond in a puffy white dress, with exaggerated makeup. The story, as far as mistakes went, was completely believable.

"Come on. Good kids like you don't belong in a place like this."

Tony was stunned. For the first time in his life, someone saw him as a good kid. He had been wrongfully accused before, and was automatically expecting to be dragged off to jail just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But standing there next to a girl in white, they looked like angels. Part of him resented being called a good kid, on both counts. But right here, right now, among the dark figures silhouetted in the smokey light, he was grateful for the mistaken identity.

The officer got on his walkie talkie.

"Sarge, we got a few kids in here. They're ok. Nothing but bystanders..."

---

"They found your friends, Mr. Johnson," Markus said to Cyler, as he put his walkie talkie back on his hip. "They'll need to be questioned, too. They're bringing them around. You can all go downtown together."

"And what about Ralph?" Pam asked, anxiously.

"Well, Miss Davidson, he is still en route to Mercy General. But the ambulance driver says he is stable."
Pam was relieved, but still anxious to leave. The three leaned against the police car, in the front of the building. The night was dark, but everything on the block was lit up, brightly lit by flashing red and yellow lights of police cars. The lights pulsed beams against the brick building, and made the dirty marquee appear to flicker.

Cyler, dropped his head, not looking forward to the thought of spending the night in a police station, even if it was only as a witness. When he finally looked up, he spotted the Villacana Piranha off in the distance. The red lights reflected back off the black paint of the car.

"Villacana," Cyler mumbled under his breath, breaking the name up into two words. "What till I see him. There may be another murder tonight."

"What?" Markus asked.

"Nothing. I just can't believe Villacana brought us here. Tonight of all nights..."

Markus let out an acknowledging chuckle, then turned to Pam, who was cleaning her wounds with supplies from a first aide kit.

"So, Miss Davidson. You say you were attacked by two punks, leaving the building?"

"Actually, it was three. And they seemed to think I was someone else at first. A woman. They thought she set them up..."

"A woman?" Cyler asked, once again, curious.

Markus looked at his two witnesses, eyebrows raised. "What woman?" he asked.

"I don't know. But they kept telling me to warn her... They kept saying that she'd be dead soon."

"Um, I don't know if this means nothing, but..." Cyler looked back and forth at Pam and the officer, unsure of whether he should say anything.

"Wait a minute..." Markus interupted, taking notes on a small pad of paper.

"First, they thought I was her. Then they thought I was a police officer. They thought the woman they were looking for had called me."

Markus' face lit up. Something Pam said clicked.

"Hey, listen up," Cyler insisted. "You see, there was this woman... in the club..."

"What woman?" Markus asked, now more interested in Cyler's story. "Was it the same woman they were looking for?"

"I don't know who she was. But she was in that same hallway. You know, where I found the body..."

Markus was suddenly intrigued, anxious to learn of any possible connections.

"But who was she?" he asked, pressing on.

"I told you. I don't know. We barely said anything to each other." Cyler decided that the details of their encounter were probably none of their business. Still, he continued.

"But she kept warning me to get outta there. Like something was gonna go down. You know? Like she knew. Yeah, like she knew the place was going to blow up."

"And where is she now? What happened to her?"I don't know," Cyler replied, annoyed. "Before I could turn around, she was gone. The thing is, right... this woman kept looking around. Like she knew someone was after her..."

Markus smiled, as he nodded his head. His smile reminded Pam of the look that Bill often got, when he was about to crack a case, or when Ralph holographed on some important clue. It must be a look reserved only for law enforcement personnel, she thought.

Once again, Markus reached for his walkie talkie. He turned his back on the two, as he spoke.

"Sarge, I just found two witnesses. I think we may have a hit on our anonymous caller."

"Ok, good! Let's get them downtown for statements."

Pam and Cyler looked at each other in shock, as Markus put his pad away, and pushed off from the side of the police car. He opened the door, and quickly directed them in.

"But what about Ralph? I need to get to him?"I'm sorry, but that will have to wait. We're going to need your statements as soon as possible. We dragged seven dead bodies out of that hell hole, and you are our only leads."

Markus called over to another cop, then spoke a few words into his walkie talkie again. With the windows of the back seat of the police car rolled up, neither Pam nor Cyler could make out the words. Moments later, he was behind the wheel, turning on the siren, and pulling out.

As the car drove away, Cyler caught a fleeting glimpse of red and yellow lights, reflected off Villacana's black leather jacket as he leaned against a police car.

-To Be Continued-