Excerpt: The Spook

The two officers walked down the dark concrete path, night sticks in hand. To their left, traffic was busy even at that late hour. Behind them, great white buildings led off into the distance. The air was cool, without a breath of wind. “What sounds good?” the first one asked.

“Chicken,” said the second. “A big bucket of chicken. With cole slaw and corn on the cob.”

“Biscuits and gravy?”

“You got it,” the second officer said. “Dibs on the wings. I’m starting to get hungry now…” The first officer had stopped, and was shining his flashlight out onto the grass. “What? What is it?”

The flashlight beam fell on a lone figure, lying motionless in the grass. “Oh, my God,” said the first officer. He rushed over to the man’s side and knelt down. The second officer followed, his flashlight finding a man, flat on his back, his shirt covered in blood.

“Is he alive?” said the second officer. The first one nodded his head.

“Looks like he’s been shot!” said the first officer, applying pressure on the wound. “There’s blood everywhere. Call it in!”

The second officer checked the man’s pulse as he pulled out his radio with the other hand. The pulse was weak. “Dispatch, this is Dugan. I’ve got a man down just off 17th Street, near Constitution Avenue. Request ambulance.”

The first officer leaned forward to look at the man’s face. The man’s eyelids were heavy, and his breathing was ragged. He kept blinking his eyes. “Stay with me, buddy,” he said. “Help’s on the way.”

Paramedics arrived within minutes. The second officer left the man’s side to flag down the ambulance. The paramedics went to work on the man immediately. The two officers watched from a safe distance. Red and white lights flashed up and down the street. As soon as the man was stabilized, the paramedics loaded the man onto a board and strapped him down. An oxygen mask was strapped over his mouth. They would transfer him to a gurney once they got him to the ambulance.

As they carried him across the grassy expanse, the man opened his eyes and looked up. Towering above them all, the clean, straight lines of the brightly lit spire dominated the scene.

Bailey managed a smile. The Washington Monument was exactly as he remembered it…