Black Brick – Chapter Twenty

Dan Decker Books

This week’s episode features Chapter Twenty of Black Brick. Here is an excerpt from the show:

The sun had long since reached the middle of the sky and was on its way down by the time we returned to Black Brick. It had been hours since we’d last seen a cop and I hoped that we’d completely left the chase behind.

While Cherry had driven like a mad woman, I’d bandaged up Tom’s leg so we could move to another car. His wound wasn’t bad, and I was relatively certain he would be on his feet in no time. We had changed vehicles twice in the last couple of hours and had finally decided it was safe enough to return.

“Five dead found at the scene,” Cherry said. I looked over from the wheel. I’d told Cherry she was risking our lives with her crazy driving and had taken the driver’s seat when we had switched cars.

“They give any details?” I asked, thinking about the two people that I’d shot—the woman with the tattoos and the man at the front of the van—and hoping I’d only killed two. I couldn’t remember if Tom had used his weapon or not, but if he had, he hadn’t used it much.

“Yep. Four men and one woman. Strange I didn’t see a woman. Must have been a bystander.”

I shook my head. “She was in the Toyota that sideswiped us.”

“I see. Looks like I got two with the car because they were run over.” She didn’t sound pleased or bothered, it was just a comment. I knew her well enough to know that it was a facade and that she was dealing with some inner turbulence. As far as I knew, it was the first time she’d killed on a mission.

That left two for me in addition to the woman, assuming Tom hadn’t gotten off a shot.

I tried to avoid thinking about the woman and found I couldn’t. It had happened so fast, and I’d acted out of instinct.