Page 29 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Road Kill

But that didn’t happen. The next instant the attacker flipped
through the air and came crashing down in a heap. Labelle stood
over him while Sherrie continued to scream. Then Fassner arrived. I
waited no longer. How long it took me to get back to the ranger
station I cannot say, but I had some trouble gasping out what I had
witnessed once I got there. The ranger radioed for more police and
then I must have passed out on the platform for a few minutes. I’m
not very athletic, and all that running back and forth left me totally
exhausted.

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The siren of an arriving police car stirred me to a kind of half-
wakefulness. As in a dream I looked down upon a scene of total
unreality—to me, at least. The parking lot was in chaos. Visitors and
police mingled in no apparent pattern, with flashing lights and
distorted police radio broadcasts adding to the confusion. Then I saw
Brad Fassner coming down the trail, his beefy right arm grasping the
collar of someone whose wrists were obviously handcuffed behind
his back. It was Labelle’s attacker, and I recognized him instantly:
Ronny Knowles.
Fassner turned his prisoner over to a uniformed officer, who
unceremoniously shoved the boy into the back seat of a police car.
The detective then looked back in the direction from which he had
come, and I saw Labelle and Sherrie walking slowly toward him.
Sherrie was sobbing convulsively, tears and dust making a mess of
her makeup. Labelle’s mouth was a tight thin line, and her eyes were
clearly focused on the squad car now bearing its prisoner slowly
through a crowd of curious onlookers toward the park exit.
I managed to stand up without blacking out. Sherrie Cook was also
being escorted off the premises by the police, but with a bit more
gentleness than her boyfriend. Fassner said something to Labelle,
who shook her head and pointed to a row of parked cars. He
shrugged and walked away, shaking his own head. She glanced my
way and waved, then came briskly up the stairs to join me on the
platform.

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