Chapter 23: "You Don't Always Bounce Back" (Part 2)

Residence of Anna Barakova
Inseno Road
Banham Canyon
10:00 PM

Sergeant Harrison was suddenly awoken by the shrill ringing of his cell phone. After a grunt of frustration, he rolled over in bed and opened his eyes, briefly patting the opposite side of the bed, at which point he realized Anna Barakova wasn't lying beside him.

"Anna?" he called out.

"I'm in the shower!" Anna called back from the direction of the adjoining bathroom. It was then that Harrison mentally noted the sound of water coming from the running shower.

Harrison sighed deeply and answered his phone by the fourth ring, putting it to his ear. "Harrison", he groggily said into the phone.

"Hey Troy", Adam Xander's voice replied from the other end of the line, "It's Adam. Sorry, man. Sounds like I woke you."

Harrison sat up in bed and threw the bedding off himself before grabbing his watch from Anna's bedside table and checking the time. "No worries, bro" Harrison said, "What's going on?"

"We need to get out to Sandy Shores ASAP", Xander began to explain, "Raven Wolf Claw just found a guy shot in the head and clinging to life out there."

"Okay", Harrison replied, "But why us? I mean, we're not even with Homicide anymore."

"Sheriff Burton out in Blaine County made the request personally through Chief Sacco", Xander continued, "I guess the guy was found with five one-hundred-dollar bills still stuck in his mouth."

"Which matches the MO of those murder cases we found that look like they're connected to Martin Madrazo", Harrison said as he connected the pieces in his head.

"Exactly", Xander replied, "I'm in my car headed up the freeway towards Blaine County as we speak."

"Alright", Harrison said, "I'm at Anna's house up in Banham Canyon, so it might take me a little bit to get there."

"Not a big deal, bud" Xander replied in a very supporting tone, "Gordon Pulaski's the Chief Deputy out there. He's agreed to hold down the scene for us until we get there."

"Alrighty, man" Harrison said, "I'll see you out there in a little while."

"You got it", Xander replied, "See you then."

With that, Harrison promptly hung up his cell, momentarily setting it on the bedside table right beside Anna's cell phone as he scrambled to find his clothes, most of which had been strewn throughout the bedroom during the couple's intimacy earlier in the evening. He soon found his black button-down shirt, badge, gun belt containing his Sig-Sauer P-226 handgun and handcuff pouch, and boxer shorts, promptly throwing each item back on. For whatever reason, however, he struggled to find his khaki cargo pants.

The frazzled sergeant soon heard Anna's voice from behind him. "They're sticking out from under the bed on your side", she said. Harrison turned to see his girlfriend fresh out of the shower, her nude body and wet hair both wrapped in white cotton towels.

Seeing the leg of his pants protruding from under his side of the bed, Harrison scooped them up and hurriedly put them on along with his white sneakers. "Thank you, dear" he warmly said.

Anna removed the towel from around her hair, tossing it into the laundry basket across the room, and sat down on the bed behind Harrison. "You're welcome, babe" she sweetly replied as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek, "Got called in, huh?"

Although he was in a considerable hurry, Harrison took a moment to enjoy Anna's romantic gestures. "Yes", he replied, "I'm sorry. Adam just called. A detective we know named Raven Wolf Claw just found a guy shot in the head but somehow still alive out in Sandy Shores. The modus operandi matches a case that he and I worked on back in Homicide."

Anna's cell phone then chimed with a musical beeping tone, indicating that she had received a new text message. She walked around to the bedside table, scooped it up, and checked the message before sighing deeply. "That's Dispatch", she said, "I just got paged out to the scene of a Ten-Fourteen in Mirror Park."

"I thought you weren't on call after Seven-Thirty at night", Harrison said.

"Usually I'm not", Anna replied, "But if they're calling me in on a simple burglary call, night shift must be getting slammed with calls."

"Bummer", Harrison said before engaging Anna in a passionate kiss. After the kiss broke, he lingered in the moment, looking deeply into the eyes of the attractive criminalist.

"What are you thinking about?" Anna asked.

Harrison cunningly grinned in response. "How badly I want you to drop that towel and continue what we were doing earlier", he bluntly replied.

Niland Avenue
Sandy Shores
25 Minutes Later

Harrison arrived at the scene on Niland Avenue in Sandy Shores in his blue 2006 Dodge Charger SXT. He pulled the vehicle up to the taped off area where Adam Xander, a young female officer in an LSPD uniform, and what looked to be two uniformed deputies from the Blaine County Sheriff's Office were standing. Exiting the vehicle, he ducked under the tape, at which point Xander turned to notice his approach.

Dressed in a plain black t-shirt, a gray zippered sweatshirt, gray track pants, and black steel-toed work boots with his own LSPD Sergeant's badge on a chain around his neck, Xander extended a hand to his good friend and former partner. "Hey Troy", he said cordially, "Sorry again about dragging you all the way out here, man."

Harrison reciprocated Xander's gesture with an equally firm handshake. "Good to see you again, Adam", he said, "Even under these grim circumstances. What do we know so far?"

"Detective Wolf Claw called in a rather strange nine-one-call about an hour and a half ago", Xander began explaining as he lifted the crime scene tape and ducked under it with Harrison, "she said she saw a person being dumped from the back of a Cadillac Escalade. She drew her weapon, trained it at the vehicle, and ordered whoever was in there to get out, but they took off."

"But you said that the guy they dumped was still alive", Harrison interjected.

"Yeah", Xander continued, "After the vehicle tore ass and sped away, Raven checked the guy's pulse and found one. It's a damn miracle the dude's even viable at all, if you ask me."

"How so?" Harrison asked.

"The guy had two small-caliber gunshot wounds to the back of his head, bro" Xander candidly replied, "EMS brought him to the small medical center here in town, but he wasn't there long before the staff there decided to have him airlifted to Pillbox Hill Medical Center back in LS. He's on his way there now and they have a neurosurgeon standing by."

"Damn", Harrison said, "Poor guy. Do we have an ID on him?"

"That's the kicker, Troy" Xander said, "It's Ahron Ward, that kid we busted with Raven and Lieutenant Curtis last month."

"The Burger Shot guy we pegged as a known associate of Martin Madrazo", Harrison replied, putting two and two together.

"Bingo", Xander said, "I sent two of my patrolmen to the Pink Cage Motel where he lives. They found Ahron's Toyota Prius in the parking lot with its driver's-side door still open, the engine still on, and the keys still in the ignition. They also found a Burger Shot take-out bag near the car with the food all spilled out onto the ground and a large fountain cola cup crushed and broken right next to it."

"So", Harrison inferred, "Ahron gets back to the motel with his dinner in tow, goes to get out of his car, and gets jumped by one or more assailants."

"Who put him in the Escalade", Xander added, "Drive him out here to the desert boondocks, and put two rounds in his head before dumping him out of the car, where an off-duty cop just so happens to be nearby."

"Where's Raven now?" Harrison asked.

Xander then gestured to a parked 2013 Ford F550 ambulance that was emblazoned with the name and official logo of the Sandy Shores Volunteer Fire Department that was parked just outside the 24-7 Store. "She's in there", he said, "Giving a statement to Deputy Morris."

"Why don't you go sit in on her statement?" Harrison suggested, "You guys have more of a history together. I think she'd be more comfortable having you there as opposed to me. I'll go observe the crime scene more closely."

"Cool", Xander replied, "I'll check back with you in a minute."

Xander then made his way to the open rear of the ambulance, stepping up onto the running board, but still staying to the side as not to interrupt the ongoing interview.

Blaine County Deputy Sheriff Winifred "Fred" Morris was questioning Detective Wolf Claw as the latter sat on the edge of a stretcher, still sipping the same iced coffee from before. Morris was a very athletically built white woman in her mid-twenties, dressed in the signature beige sheriff's uniform with a dark green campaign hat on her head.

"You said you were able to catch a plate, right?" Morris asked Wolf Claw.

"Yeah", Wolf Claw replied, "San Andreas plates. Two-Charlie-Edward-Paul-Seven-Robert-Nine-Three."

Xander then raised his hand in an attempt to catch Wolf Claw's attention, which in turn, managed to catch the attention of Deputy Morris as well. "Hey Raven", he warmly said to Wolf Claw before turning his consideration to Morris. "I'm sorry", Xander continued as he extended a hand to Morris, "I don't believe we've met before. Sergeant Adam Xander, LSPD."

Morris very cordially shook the sergeant's hand in retort. "Oh yes", she said, "You're one of the two LSPD guys that the sheriff asked for. Deputy Winifred Morris, Blaine County. Please call me 'Fred'."

"Adam's also an old friend of mine", Wolf Claw cut in, "We were patrol partners for a while."

"Nice to meet you, Sergeant" Morris said to Xander, "Sheriff Burton also requested the presence of a 'Sergeant Harrison'. Is he here, too?"

"Yes ma'am", Xander said, "Troy's over checking out the scene for himself. Is Chief Deputy Pulaski here?"

Morris nodded. "Yeah", she replied, "He's the scene commander tonight."

"Good to know", Xander said to Morris before redirecting his focus back to Wolf Claw. "Raven", he continued, "Were you able to get a good enough look at anybody inside the car before the guy's body was dumped out?"

Wolf Claw shook her head. "Not at all", she said, "All I really saw was the back door come open and then a few seconds later 'Plop', the body hit the ground."

Xander then stepped past Deputy Morris and went a bit further inside the ambulance, sitting next to Wolf Claw on the edge of the stretcher and putting a soothing arm around her. "Sorry you had to see what you saw tonight, kid" he said.

Taking a hint, Morris started to back her way out of the ambulance. "I'm going to go run that plate", she said, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Wolf Claw nodded to Morris before putting her head on Xander's shoulder as her eyes welled up with tears. "I've been a Los Santos cop for almost five years", she said, "I've seen people dead from car accidents, stabbings, drug ODs, all kinds of sad, tragic shit. But I have to tell you, Adam, this one's probably going to stick with me for a while." With that, the once stoic young detective began to sob.

Xander kissed the top of her head and wrapped her in a tight hug. "It's perfectly alright, Raven" he said, "You don't always bounce back immediately after getting a shock like that. But I know you well enough to know that you will, kiddo."

Meanwhile at the dirt lot where Ahron Ward had been found, Harrison knelt beside the pile of medical debris that was left over from the paramedics' heroic life-saving efforts.

The glove-handed detective very carefully picked up Ahron's red Burger Shot uniform shirt, placing together the two sides of it that had been cut up the middle by the medics' trauma shears and recreating what it had looked like beforehand. "Damn, Ahron" he softly said under his breath, "Whatever nefarious crap you were involved in, you certainly didn't deserve this shit, homie. Hang in there, dude."

He then very abruptly turned around to find a tall uniformed white male deputy and a younger-looking female officer in a black LSPD uniform standing above him. "It's Harrison, right?" the male deputy asked.

Rising to a standing position, Harrison nodded as he removed his soiled gloves and tucked them into the side pocket of his pants. "Yeah", he replied, "That's me."

The male deputy then extended a hand. "Gordon Pulaski", he said, "I'm the Chief Deputy Sheriff out here in Blaine County. Nice to meet you, sir."

After Harrison shook Pulaski's hand, the lean, athletic, short-haired blonde female LSPD officer took her turn and cordially extended her hand to him. "I'm Officer Arashel Horowitz, LSPD" she said, "Please call me 'Shelly'. Sergeant Xander is my Field Training Officer. It's nice to finally meet you, Sergeant Harrison."

"It's a pleasure to meet you both", Harrison replied to them both equally before specifically addressing Chief Deputy Pulaski. "Gordon", he continued, "I'd like to know something if I could. Was the victim, Ahron Ward, on your radar out here as a drug dealer or chronic user?"

"Detective Wolf Claw mentioned his name to both myself and Sheriff Burton before", Pulaski explained, "But all she said at the time was that you, her, and Xander had come in contact with him during an investigation back in Los Santos."

Harrison nodded. "We did", he replied, "Adam and I used to work together as detectives in the LSPD Homicide Unit. We discovered a series of murders that spanned several Southwestern US states that seemed to be tied indirectly to a guy back in LS named Martin Madrazo, who we believe to be a major player in the San Andreas narcotics trade. The kicker here is, all the victims were found with bullets in their heads and five one-hundred-dollar bills stuffed in their mouths. Just like our poor Mister Ward was tonight."

"Damn", Pulaski said, "I guess this dude isn't a big fan of competition."

Xander and Morris then came over to them. "Okay", Xander said as he removed his memo book from his pocket and flipped it open, "Raven was able to give us the full license plate of the Escalade she saw. The thing is though, those particular plates didn't actually belong to an Escalade."

"The plates match up to ones that were stolen off of a late model white Ford Expedition", Morris added, "The Expedition's registered owner is a middle-aged soccer mom from Vespucci Canals in Los Santos. She said in her report to the LSPD that she left her house two mornings ago to find that somebody had apparently stolen both the front and rear plates off of her car. She never saw the suspect or suspects who did it."

"More than likely", Harrison said, "This was done to make it harder for us to run down the Escalade's owner." He then turned his attention to Pulaski. "Have your guys had any luck tracking down the mysterious Escalade?" he asked.

"Sheriff Burton and a few of our guys are out looking for it now", Pulaski replied, "The San Andreas Highway Patrol are on alert as well."

Suddenly, in yet another instance of very disconcerting timing, Pulaski's portable radio sprung to life with a loud emergency tone. "Attention all Blaine County Fire Units", a female dispatcher's voice said from the radio, "We have a reported Ten-Seventy-One. Vehicle fire, Paleto Boulevard near the Paleto Forest. Paleto Bay Engine One, Paleto Bay Truck One, and Paleto Bay Ambulance Three are all currently in transit to the scene at this time. All responding units, please use caution. Heavy smoke reported on scene and visibility is low."