Devil's Harvest

Chapter six

Deaq helped Van remove his shirt as he sat down on the examining table, the blood bubbled out of the wound and ran in a little stream down his stomach. A short time later the doctor came in and began examining him.

"Looks like you got yourself a nasty cut here buddy." He said as he poked and probed the cut. Van squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the edge of the table to help him deal with the pain of the exam. When the doctor was finished he told Van to lie back on the table.

"You're a lucky young man. It's a deep cut but it hasn't hit anything vital. Luckily the blade seems to have been deflected by your rib. If it had gone in straight you'd be up in the OR now in big trouble. As it stands, I'll have to flush the wound out with antibiotics then stitch you up, but then you'll be free to go."

"Any restrictions doctor?" Deaq asked knowing Van wouldn't bother asking.

"Just keep it dry and take it easy for awhile. If you don't have any problems come back and see me in about five days so I can check to make sure everything's healing the way it should." The doctor took out a long sharp syringe. "I'm going to numb it the best I can. This is going to hurt." The doctor warned as he first flushed the wound out, then began sticking the needle deep inside it to numb the area. He was right, it did hurt. Van closed his eyes and winced in pain until the numbing process was complete. Deaq stood back and watched. He was growing angrier and angrier with Jason for causing his partner to be injured. Jason knew they were cops and when they told him to stay back he should have.

When Van was finished being stitched up the doctor gave him some antibiotic pills to take home with him. Van was told that the knife was more then likely filthy and there was always a chance he could have picked up some kind of germs from it, and that the antibiotics should help.

"If you start feeling sick or if the wound gets red I want to see you immediately."

"Okay doc, thanks." Van was already out the door. He hated hospitals and the sooner he was away from one the better. Deaq looked at the doctor.

"I'll keep an eye on him."

"Make sure that he takes it easy. The last thing we want is for that wound to open up."

"I'll try doc." Deaq said as he followed his partner. Trying to get Van to take it easy would be next to impossible.

"You know, you could have been killed tonight. You heard the doc."

"Well, things happen, what are you going to do?" Van brushed off the incident.

"It shouldn't have happened. We had everything under control before your buddy showed up."

"He's not my buddy Deaq. I don't even like the guy. I just felt sorry for him."

"You never did tell me what happened with you and this girl that he liked."

At first Van didn't want to go into it but then decided Deaq had a right to know.

"She had gone to his house to tell him to leave her alone. They found her in her car the next morning. Apparently she had either fallen asleep or something caused her to swerve off the road into a tree. She died ..................." Van looked down sadly as the memory of that night came back to him.

"Guess she was pretty special?" Deaq asked seeing Van's reaction.

"Yeah, she was."

"You know, we better tell Billie what happened. She's gonna be pissed that we didn't call her immediately." Deaq changed the subject trying to get Van's mind off of the past. He was sorry he had brought it up.

"No, let's leave Billie out of this. I'm fine. If Billie finds out she'll take me off of the streets. Deaq, we got to find who ever is doing this, and the more cops out here looking the sooner we will."

"You heard the doctor. If that opens up and gets infected you could be in all kinds of trouble."

"I'll take it easy, don't worry about it."

Just then word came over the radio that the woman's body had been found. They hurried to the location.

A storm drain on the outskirts of L.A.

The woman's naked body lay at the opening of a large storm drain. The medical examiner knelt by her. Once more there were no visible clues. It was as if she had been dropped out of a plane. Nothing in the area seemed to be disturbed. Billie was already there when they got there. Deaq noticed Van zip up his jacket quick so she wouldn't see the bandage. He shook his head, if Billie found out Van had been hurt and was ignoring doctor's orders to take it easy she would be mad at both of them. All he could do was to make sure his partner didn't exert himself too much and start bleeding again.

"Hey Billie, anything new?" Deaq asked as they made their way down to her.

"Nothing. These people are disappearing into the city, or wherever, and taking their time dissecting these victims."

"Anyone check out the storm drain?" Van asked as he looked into the large pipe that ran under the ground below the road.

"Not yet."

"Got a flashlight?" He asked Billie.

"Yeah, there are two up in the car."

Van was about to climb out of the ditch when Deaq grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"I'll get it." Deaq volunteered. He knew it was a steep climb back up to the road and he didn't want Van to rip open his stitches by climbing it.

"What was that all about?" Billie asked wondering why Deaq didn't let Van make the climb. Van just shrugged and shook his head, he quickly walked over to the entrance of the pipe to wait for his partner.

When Deaq climbed back down he handed Van one of the flashlights and they entered the pipe together.

It was pitch black inside the pipe and they could hear rats or something splashing around in the water. Spider webs hung around the top of the pipe and they knocked them down with their flashlights as they walked past.

"I never did like spiders." Van said as he shivered when he spotted a large spider hanging directly in front of him. "I fell into a nest of them one time when I was a kid. I swear I could feel them crawling on me days later."

Deaq gave a little nervous laugh. He didn't like them either but right now he was more concerned with the squeaking he heard off in the distance. Bats. He prayed they would soon come to the end of the tunnel. Just as Van attempted to walk past the spider it jumped on him and landed on his shoulder. He frantically swatted at it with his flashlight.

"Get it off of me! Get it off of me!"

"Hold still!" Deaq yelled as he tried to flip the spider off of Van. Finally he did. "You sounded just like a school girl." Deaq laughed. "Get it off of me! Get it off of me!" He repeated what Van had yelled.

"Go to hell." Van was embarrassed that Deaq had seen him panic. He quickly walked ahead and came to the end of the tunnel. When he turned around he saw Deaq running through the tunnel his arms flying in all kinds of directions over his head.

"Bats!" Deaq screamed as he exited the tunnel. Van was laughing so hard, he had to hold his hand over his wound to stop from popping a stitch.

"Who sounded like a school girl?" He said smiling at his partner.

Both of them were unaware of the two large dogs that watched them from the woods.

TBC