Agent Alpha and the Angel maker

A box of nails

*Zac*

Okay so I might be kinda hiding, but I spotted someone talking to the boss, that I don’t have any desire to be confronted with, especially not today.

And as I find myself sitting on the floor in the lunchroom, I spot a back of chips that someone has dropped under the vending machine. My stomach instantly growls, as I have not had anything since late yesterday afternoon, besides alcohol.

So I slide down on my stomach on the floor, and start fishing for the bag, it is just beyond my reach.

I hear footsteps, and then the sound of Lydia, the resident psychiatrist’s, voice. “Zac are you okay?”

“Hey doc, yeah great … just another day in paradise”. I look up at her saying.

“But what are you doing under the vending machine ?” She asks in that ‘you can tell me all your problems’ voice. They are forcing me to see her for an hour twice a week if I want to keep my job.

I give her a small smile. “Well I needed a break, and this is a break room, and now I am trying to reach this little …”. I stretch myself as far as I can. “Arg”.

As I get the bag I sit up and lean on the machine, and open the bag, popping chips into my mouth.

“So this is it ? Have we finally hit rock bottom ?” She asks me as she sits down on the edge of the table.

“Nah there are still some places to go”. I say, stuffing more chips in my mouth.

A street cop walks into the room, carrying a big paper bag and I get up. “Hey Karsten, how did it go ?”

“I got most of what you wanted”. He says, handing me the bag. “Except for your wallet, I couldn’t find it”.

“No problem, thanks buddy”. I tell him, as I open the bag.

When he leaves, Lydia looks at me. “So you are eating floor chips and you send a man who should be out on patrol to retrieve your pants”.

“And a wool cap”. I pull it out. “It is getting a bit chilly outside”.

“This is looking like a pretty clear cry for help”. She says, shaking her head.

I blow out a long breath and look at her. “Well, as usual you are not wrong … so would you like to help me out ?”

“Yes … yes I would”. She says, looking almost excited.

“Apparently I have misplaced my wallet, and I am starving, so if I could borrow a buck that would be great”. I say.

She rolls her eyes but still gets out her vallet. “Well all I have is 200 Danish kroner”.

I snatch it from her fingers. “That works perfectly … one succesful cry for help”.

Then I hurry out the room, feeling her eyes burn into the back of my head.

Twenty minutes later I find myself sitting across from our victim's widow.

“h****n ?” She shakes her head in confusion.

“It was not by his doing”. I tell her. “Your husband was murdered from a forced overdose”.

She nods slowly, then looks at me. “And Uhm … What about the woman ? And the hotel room ? Was that also not his doing ?“

I honestly do not know what to tell her, I can’t even imagine how she must feel. “Was there anyone who had it out for your husband, had a grudge against him or anything like that ?”

“A couple of months ago, someone threw a brick through our window in the middle of the night”. She says.

“Okay, that’s a start”. I give her a small smile. “Do you know who ?”

She shakes her head. “No, but Dan did, he said it was work related and that I shouldn’t worry, he would get a restraining order against the guy”.

Well that I can look up at least.

*Astrid*

“So our suspect's name is Benny Johansen, he has a restraining order”. I tell Zac as we walk into the construction site our suspect is currently working on. “And a warrant for violating it”.

“Perfect at daily double”. Zac says, nodding. Then he yells. “Benny Johansen ?”

A big man lifts his head. “Yeah ?”

“From the brick throwing Johansen’s ?” Zac asks.

“Hey there, we are with unit one and we have some questions about one Dan Rasmussen”. I tell him.

He smiles stiffly. “Yes, sure … Just give me a second”.

But then he turns and runs as fast as he can up the stairs to a higher level in the building.

Zac rolls his eyes, then he sets off after him, and I follow. We have to dodge a couple of workers that Benny apparently pushed down the stairs in his hurry.

When we reach the next level Zac stops and looks first one way, then the other. “We better split up”.

So he runs left and I run right.

Due to the whole level being open, only beams and plastic separating areas, I can hear Benny yell. “Give me that”.

I turn going for the sound, seeing him shoot a nail with a nail gun after Zac, but hitting a beam instead. Making Zac call out. “Hey”.

The next shot nails Zac to the beam through the shoulder of his jacket, Luckily it seems to have only hit fabric. Zac looks slightly offended. “Hey that was …”.

“Drop it”. I yell, pointing my gun at Benny.

“I am not going to jail for violating some restraining order”. He says, shaking his head.

“No you are going to jail for the murder of Dan Rasmussen”. I tell him.

I can see that Benny is squeezing the trigger, and I am unsure if I should shoot. This is the moment Zac frees himself, and he charges the suspect like an angry bull.

“No Zac, don’t”. I yell, but it is too late, he smashes into our both, knocking all three of us through the plastic cover where a window will be in the future, sending us all plummeting from the second storey.

I guess we are kinda lucky, that there is one of those very high containers for the building garbage, about cutting our fall in half. Downside to it is that it is building garbage, so nails, skrues and wood … right now I would have killed for some bag of old food.

“Ouch”. I am not sure if Benny, Zac or me are groaning the loudest.

“I thought the tarp would hold”. Zac moans.

If I wasn’t in pain I would hit him. “Yeah sure, it's the tarp's fault”.

An hour later in the emergency room:

Zac's gnawing on an apple while a friendly looking nurse is pulling a rather big nail from his lower back.

“Not just nails, but also two types of screws … and an allen key”. She drops the nail into a metal tray with the others. “You are lucky”.

“Nah, luck has nothing to do with it”. He says, taking another bite of his apple.

I can clearly hear him from behind my curtain and huffs. “Hhmmp”.

“I mean you know, the perv had a nail gun pointed at my partner. I had no choice”. He tells the nurse.

I pull the curtain aside. “Really ? No choice ? Didn’t we just recently talk about our choices and about playing it safe ? Or was I imagining that ?”

“My options weren’t great”. He tells the nurse, who is now cleaning his wounds.

“You had options … like what about trusting your partner huh ? What about waiting for backup ? Even shooting the guy in the leg”. I half yell. “But no, you just had to take the one where we plummeted off the building, through a tarp and into a giant box of nails”.

He kinda waves his finger, like an old fashioned school teacher correcting a kid. “I made sure it was a controlled plummet”.

“You made sure ?” I huff.

“Yeah I made sure”. He says.

I glare at him. “Because you have x-ray vision and you saw what was on the other side of that tarp ? You had no idea of where we would land”.

“So I am just gonna go recalibrate my forceps”. The nurse says.

“I think she just made that up”. Zac says, pointing after the nurse who hurries out.

I just look at him. “Listen Zac, there is gonna come a time where there is nothing on the other side of that tarp, and I am not letting you bring me down with you … now get dressed, we have a suspect to interrogate”.