Here's another chapter for you for christmas. I hope you still like my little story and wish you a merry christmas :-)
Cole ran out the door and could only make out the silhouette of a very tall and lean man, wearing gray clothes heading towards the exit. "LAPD, freeze!" He followed the guy out onto the porch and through the backyard. The other guy jumped over the fence which seperated the property from the neighbours. "Don't make me chase you!" Cole called out as he himself jumped over the fence. His hurt ankle smarted when he hit the ground but he ignored the pain. That man might be their only lead in this case.
Soon they reached the mainstreet and crossed a crowded junction what caused many cars to hit the brakes. On the other side of the street the man turned right to run down an alleyway with Cole hot on his heels. It turned out that it was a blind alley. The man came to a halt in front of the huge backwall of a building. Cole could see that his opponent was quite young and quickly searching for a way out of the situation. Cole drew his gun. "It's over! Stay where you are." "Okay, okay! But I didn't do anything..." "Right and that's why you punched my partner and ran away from me. You'll have to answer some question down at Central station."
He led the fugitive back to the Black's residence where an LAPD transport van had already arrived. Two officers were just about to take Black in it. The man couldn't even walk properly any longer. "Take that one with you as well." called Cole while shoving the cuffed man towards them. "We'll follow you back to central station to question him." he met Stefan by the car.
"You don't look so well, partner." said Bekowsky while walking towards the driver's seat. "Take a brake, I'll drive." "You sure about that?" Cole inquired who still felt suspicious about the drug. But Stefan hadn't shown any sign of the effects the last hour. And he did in fact feel very exhausted after the hunt with sharp pain racing through his leg and back. He sat down on the passenger's seat reaching out for the aspirins in his pocket. "You sure you shouldn't sit this one out? I guess Mason would find another partner for me until you've fully recovered." said Stefan while tailing the police transporter. "I'm okay. Listen, you don't need to worry. You can still depend on me, I managed to trace down that runner to turn him in and it's fine, Stefan. I won't let you down." he muttered and swallowed two more pills. But Cole wasn't dumb. He knew that the strongest reason for his strenuous work on the case was that he could find distraction in it. Distraction from his complicated and broken privat-life. And although he was aware of the cowardly act he just couldn't change it.
"Phelps, we're there." Cole startled heavily. He hadn't realized that he'd dozed off sometime on the drive. "Right." he quickly rubbed his eyes. At least the effects of the painkillers had finally kicked in. They got off the car and walked towards the receptionist's desk. "Ah detectives. They're taking Black to a cell to sober up and the other guy's waiting for you in interview room 2." "Thanks."
They entered the interview room and took a seat in front of the frightened looking man. "What's your name?" asked Cole while pulling out his notebook and pen. "Benjamin Wright." "Age?" "22, sir." In the immediate proximity to Wright Cole detected some dirt on his face and realized that his messy dark blond hair almost reached his shoulder. His trousers and shirt looked very frowzy as well. "So what's your relationship to Martin Black, Mr. Wright?" "I, I only do the deliveries. I visited Mr. Black to pick up the money for my principal." "So you're the connection between clients and the killer." stated Cole, closely observing Wright's reaction. "What?" the young man called out. "Killer?" he looked horrified. It appeared that the young man didn't even know who he was working for. "Yeah, the killer. We're currently working the case of Rebecca Black's death. She died this morning and we have reason to believe that she was poisoned with a drug. Mr. Black admitted to have engaged someone to drug his wife but he's currently too drunk be be questioned any further." "That's why we have to deal with you first." added Bekowsky. "You're in serious trouble my friend."
Wright suddenly looked very pale. "But I didn't know he's a killer. My god! You have to believe me! I don't wanna go to jail...this guy...he offered me 20 percent of the money if I delivered messages between him and Mr. Black. Today was supposed to be my last tour. I just needed the money..." "Give us a name! Who's your principal?" "I don't know his full name...we only had contact via letters and a few conversations on the phone...he used to sign the letters with Blake. But I can't tell you more..." "So why did you run away back at Black's apartment, genius? And why the hell did you punch a policeman? That really hurt, asshole!" said Bekowsky angrily. "I was scared when I met you there...I kinda had the feeling that buisness with this Blake guy was shady in a way." "But still you decided to work for him?" inquired Cole. "I really needed the money! I just lost my job and was very close to loosing my apartment. I had no choice!" called Wright his voice sounding desperate. "One always has a choice!" stated Cole strictly and realized that he was in fact yelling.
He took some deep breaths to calm himself and continued with a much lower voice: "I can help you out of this situation but only if you give me something to go on. Do you have any address on this guy?" "He gave me an address that I was supposed to use for our correspondations..." "Spill it, Wright!" interrupted Cole him and could feel his patience fading. "Alright, alright! It's Figerola street number 10. That's all I can tell you I swear it." Cole quickly wrote down the address. "Okay, kid. We'll go and check this out. You'll stay here until we know that your information's valid. Someone will come and officially take your statement."