8 months earlier continued
WALT
Through the haze of righteous anger and vicious fury, the meaning of her words sank in and he stepped back, hands in the air. Barlow was barely conscious enough to lean against the truck and stay standing up and Vic ordered Ferg to assist him. The ambulance and EMT crew were in view and would be on site in a few minutes.
Vic motioned Walt round the other side of her truck from view with the Glock and he did the perp walk, hands in the air. She grabbed his Colt out of the holster, roughly patted him down for backups, remembering to check his boots and the small of his back, and thoughtfully removed his pocket knife too. Curtly she held a hand out "Keys to the truck too" and he handed them over.
They stood there in a Mexican standoff for a moment, she was in charge but he was her boss and she sighed heavily "Fuck Walt, you have fucked this one up big time. Barlow is going to press charges, and anyone who takes a look at the damage you did to him will know he has a strong case. Do I have to cuff you?"
He realised now that she would, that he had crossed the line badly, too far to step away from and shook his head. He had thought that vengeance would make him feel better, but right now he felt worse than ever.
Vic stalked away, taking control of the crime scene, directing the EMT crew where to go, Barlow was being assessed in the back of the rig, and the other two carried a stretcher over to load up Branch's body into a black body bag. The sound of them zipping it up tore a hole in Walts composure.
Up until now he thought the only thing that mattered was catching Martha's killer. He had that within reach of that but now stood on the precipice of losing everything else in the process, his job, his income, his relationships in the community, the respect of friends and family, the support of his team. It was then that Walt realised how far down the rabbit hole he had fallen, and that he didn't know the way back or if it was possible to come back from this.
He waited, both Connollys loaded into the back of the ambulance, Barlow in cuffs with Ferg along for the ride. Vic stood watching it drive away as she radioed a status update into to Ruby, who sounded shocked. Vic finished up her call
"Walt and I will work the scene, Ruby can you call Campbell County and see if they have a couple of spare guys to lend us for a week, maybe two. I think this is going to get messy. Unit Two out."
He had walked around her side of the truck once they were alone, and she eyed him hands on her hips for a long moment.
"I don't know what the fuck is going on with you Walt, but you ever pull a stunt like that on me again, I will shoot you, in the knee like I fucking promised. Are we clear?"
He nodded but before he had a chance to speak she carried on in that implacable tone
"I have to work this crime scene, before I do, tell me what the fuck that was about. Because if you are involved in this, I can't have you here but I'm not sure I can trust you out there either. So explain, clearly and logically, right now"
A very short update for my lovely readers, with my exam in two weeks I am deep in study mode. It doesn't leave any space for creative writing but I will finish this, I promise, about half the story is told, so more to come!
Song Inspiration:
Heart of Everything - Within Temptation