Page 69 of Doc
Chapter 24
Doc
Something was fucking wrong. I knew it the moment I arrived at Harlow’s second appointment of the day, and she and Klutz weren’t there. I didn’t even turn off my bike before making a quick call to Klutz, dread filling my gut when he didn’t answer. When I tried Harlow and her phone just rang and rang, I swore and hit Oz’s number with shaking hands.
“Yeah, Brother?”
“Harlow and Klutz aren’t answering their phones, and they didn’t show for her second appointment.”
“Shit!” he muttered.
“Did you ever get around to putting a tracker on her car?”
“Yeah, checking it now. Shows her car is still at 1178 Arthur Drive.” Her first patient of the day. “Fuck, Brother, Klutz’s tracker is pulling up the same thing.”
“Tell Cole to meet me there!”
I raced all the way there, trying to hold down the panic when I turned the corner to see Klutz’s bike parked on the road and Harlow’s car right in front of it. I took in the empty driveway. Someone must have been there when they arrived, which would explain why she’d parked on the street. I turned off my bike and glanced around, seeing the elderly couple across the street doing yard work. They both looked up, but then went back to what they were doing.
Cole and Savage came around the corner and pulled up next to me.
“Oz filled us in. They in the house?” Savage asked.
“Don’t know, just got here.” We all three got off our bikes.
“Why don’t you let us go in first?” Cole suggested, holding me back.
I jerked away, knowing what he was doing. “Fuck no.” I refused to believe the worst.
Savage yanked the screen door open and then the unlocked the front door. We stepped into the too-quiet house, and the first thing my gaze landed on was Klutz. I rushed over to him and checked for a pulse. “He’s still alive! Call for an ambulance!” He was soaked in blood from a stomach wound, and stomach wounds were bad.
Immediately Savage made the call.
“I’ll check for Harlow!” Cole rushed through the place until he disappeared from view.
“Klutz, can you hear me, Brother?” I gingerly tugged his hand away from the wound he was protecting. It was a nasty-looking cut, deep, and it was still bleeding profusely. I immediately recognized that it was a knife wound. It would be a miracle if it had missed all of his vital organs. “Cole, grab me a towel from the bathroom on your way back!”
Klutz moaned, and I watched as he tried to open his eyes. “Who did this, Brother?”
“Bronx,” he answered weakly, his eyes still closed. “He...has...her...Doc,” he said in a broken voice. “I’m...sorry!”
“We’ll get her back,” I told him, praying that it was true. “You hang in there. Ambulance is on the way.”
Cole walked back into the room. He tossed a towel at me. “I found an old lady dead in the back.”
“You sure?” I removed Klutz’s hand again and put the towel against his wound, and then placed his hand over it. “Hold that tight ‘til the paramedics get here.”
“It was obvious, but I checked her anyway.”
I glanced over to where Savage was staring down at the table. “Looks like someone was doing drugs.”