“Look out!” he shouted. But it was too late. The man saw Rick and fired.

Cole shot. The gun bucked in his hands. Rick was down, and still the man kept shooting. Cole shot again, and the man turned. For one long moment, time suspended itself. Cole could see the green flecks in the man’s eyes. He could see the pupils dilating with pain, and he saw the man’s desperation. It wasn’t over.

Bullets sprayed the ground in front of Cole. He emptied his gun, and finally…finally, the man went down. In the distance, Cole heard the sound of sirens. But they were going to be too late. The man was no more.

Then there was silence and the harsh gasps Rick was making as he struggled to breathe past the hole in his lungs and Cole’s footsteps pounding across the yard.

Cole groaned softly. Blood everywhere! He grabbed for his radio.

“Officer down! I need an ambulance. Fast.”

It was a policeman’s worst fears. Hearing that call go out soon had a bevy of cruisers and several unmarked cars converging on the scene. But by that time, the ambulance had arrived and Rick was swiftly being carried away.

Cole was running beside the stretcher as they lifted his partner into the ambulance. He stood in shock, Rick’s blood drying on his fingers, as they took Rick away.

“Tough one, Brownfield,” one of the officers remarked as he walked up behind Cole. “Say, who got the one inside the house?”

Cole jumped. It was hard drawing himself back to the business at hand. He started to wipe his hand across his face and then took a look at its condition and shuddered.

“The guy out back,” Cole muttered. “I don’t suppose we’ll ever really know why, but I suspect it was to shut him up.”

The officer nodded, took a good, long look at Cole and stared at the blood on his clothing. “Maybe you need to get to the hospital and get yourself checked out,” he offered.

Cole looked down in blank shock and shuddered. He felt sick to his stomach. “None of it’s mine,” he muttered, and walked away.

*  *  *

“We interrupt our programming to bring you this bulletin. Today, a detective from the Laguna Beach Narcotics Department was seriously wounded during a shoot-out in a local neighborhood. He was taken to South Coast Medical where the surgeons are now working to save his life. The identification of the officer has been withheld until—”

“No!”

Sheer terror overwhelmed her as Debbie stared at the television. She grabbed onto the nearest chair for support and stood in shock as she listened to the rest of the bulletin. Then regular programming resumed.