He kept walking until he approached a Burger King, and slipped inside. He ordered a Coke and took a seat away from the front doors which gave him a clear view of the entrance.

He sat and waited, glancing at his watch every few minutes. He saw police officers walk past the restaurant twice and on one occasion one of the officers glanced in the window, but her gaze didn't lock onto him.

He was still desperate to figure out what had happened. Things weren't making sense; neither of them ever used drugs, and no one had access to their apartment. Still, someone had placed drugs, cash, and guns in their place. The police had been at the apartment within minutes of them returning home, which suggested they'd been waiting for them. But why would someone put the stuff in their apartment and how did the cops find out? Either the police had followed the person who put the stuff in the apartment, or the person who'd placed the drugs in the apartment told the cops. If that was the case, then he and Rob were intentionally being set up for some reason.

The more Derek thought about it, the more he kept coming back to the critical question - why would someone do this? What reason was there to go to this kind of trouble? None of it made any sense.

Ten minutes later, he rose and left the restaurant carrying his drink with him. He crossed the street and casually headed toward the park. If the timing was right, he'd meet Rob right on schedule. The possibility that Rob might have been caught crossed his mind, but he pushed it away not willing to dwell on that.

Approaching the park, he heard a loud male voice behind him call out. “Police! Stop right there!”

The panic continued to override logical thinking, and he never considered stopping. He approached the entrance to the park and dashed inside, his heart sinking when Rob was nowhere to be seen.

On the path, about thirty feet ahead of him was a small female police officer.

Derek never considered fighting her, but he was fast, and she was small. He assumed getting around her would be easy, so he increased speed and ran straight at her. At the last minute, he would dart around her, and she would never catch him.

He heard her command him to stop and watched her reach toward her gun belt. He was about fifteen feet away when she raised a can of CS/OC pepper spray pointing it at his face.

Suddenly everything changed; he couldn't see, breathing was almost impossible, and his whole neck and face felt as if they were engulfed by fire.