Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 by Claudia Hall Christian

p.m.”
    “ Were you working on this
case when Bonita died?” Delphie asked.
    “ I don’t really remember.
Everything is a blur from that time in my life,” Seth said. “We’d
just gotten our first case which was…”
    “ The bones found at Coors
Field?” Delphie asked.
    “ He killed Bonita and the
kids,” Seth whispered. His face went completely blank.
“Oh.”
    They sat in silence while Seth digested the
information.
    “ I can’t think about this
right now,” Seth said.
    “ That’s why I didn’t want
to say anything,” Delphie said. “Just put it away, sweet Seth.
We’ll deal with this later.”
    Delphie’s hand stroked Seth’s forehead.
    “ What did you just do?”
Seth asked.
    “ I helped you put it
away,” Delphie said.
    Seth nodded to her.
    “ You’ll tell me
everything,” Seth said. “No matter how ugly. Don’t protect me
Delphie.”
    “ I protect you because I
love you.”
    “ I know,” Seth said. “You
love me like a brother. I love you like a sister. I’ve been meaning
to ask… Are we?”
    “ We have been in many,
many lifetimes,” Delphie said.
    “ Huh,” Seth
said.
    Delphie hugged him.
    “ I’m going with you,”
Delphie said. “I wore my hiking boots.”
    Delphie held out her feet.
    “ Deep inside, I know I
can’t stop you,” Seth said. “But you really shouldn’t
go.”
    Delphie patted his arm and got out of the
car. A police officer brought over two Kevlar vests. He helped
Delphie with her vest. When Delphie looked up, Seth was surrounded
by the head of the police units on scene. The officers updated him
on the status of the situation. Walking over, Delphie stood just
behind him. When Seth looked up to find her, he was ready to go.
Delphie nodded.
    They jogged down the Sand Creek trail.
    ~~~~~~~~
    Monday night — 9:15 P.M.
    Middle of Denver, CO
     
    “ The sound’s off,” Alex
said.
    Munching on a handful of popcorn, Alex stood
up so that Raz could take her place in front of his laptop. Raz
clicked a button and the sound came on.
    “ Got it,” Troy Olivas
yelled from the other room.
    The picture from the laptop came on the
large flat screen television in the living room.
    “ That’s perfect!” Cian
Kelly clapped. “Look at those buggers go!”
    Raz picked up his laptop and went into the
living room. He kicked at pajama clad John Drayson’s legs. John
vacated a chair at the small table so Raz could sit down.
    “ They’re starting to
move,” Alex said. She plopped down on the couch next to
Max.
    “ Do we know where they’re
going?” Max asked.
    “ Looks like they’re moving
toward that pile of cement,” Matthew said as he came into the
room.
    “ How did you..?” Alex
started.
    “ Troy texted,” Matthew
said. “Didn’t want to miss out.”
    As an ex-New York City police officer, Raz
couldn’t resist explaining the scene.
    “ These are SWAT shooters,”
Raz pointed to the men in the trees. “This is a bomb team. Look!
The dogs…”
    Raz stepped back to look at the picture. He
shook his head.
    “ They don’t know what
they’re getting into,” Raz said.
    “ We should help them out,”
Alex said.
    “ Why?” Cian
said.
    Alex scowled at her brother-in-law.
    “ Just got the text,” Colin
Hargreaves walked into the room.
    “ I want radar and heat
imaging now,” Alex said. “What else can we get off this
satellite?”
    “ We can call NORAD,”
Matthew said.
    “ I’ll call Denver PD,” Raz
said. “We can’t help if we don’t know what this action
entails.”
    “ Do it,” Alex said. “I
don’t want to sit here eating popcorn while these guys go down in
flames.”
    ~~~~~~~~
    Monday night — 9:15 P.M.
    In Sandy’s Salon on Colfax Blvd, Denver,
CO
     
    “ Hey the sound came on,”
Teddy said.
    “ Oh shit,” Nash
said.
    “ Oh shoot what?” Noelle
asked.
    “ They know we’re on the
satellite,” Nash said. “We should stop watching.”
    “ Now?” Teddy asked. “They
already know we’re on. It’s not like we can get