The roar of the high-performance engine filled the cruiser as it sped through the city streets.
“Dispatch, 57 responding to a silent alarm at 1022 Briarhaven, code 2.”
“Roger 57. Show you out at 11:23. Code 2”.
The officer glanced to the camera as the car jerks and sways speeding down the street to the call.
“We’re responding to a silent alarm at a residence. Now at this point, we don’t know exactly what this is. It could be someone who forgot to disengage the alarm when they got home, or it could be an intruder. We won’t know for sure until we get there.”
“Okay., we’re back in the studios. So Tom, our viewers would probably like to know what is a code 2 that officer Dandridge is referring to?”
“Sure Bill. A Code 2 means that it’s an urgent call but to run without lights or sirens. That way if there is someone, such as an intruder in the residence they won’t be alerted to our presence and we have a better chance of catching them in the act.”
“It looks like officer Dandridge is arriving at the scene, so let’s cut back to the action.”
“Dispatch, 57 at scene.”
“Roger 57. I show you at scene at 11:27.”
“Turning on body cam”.
As Dandridge ran towards the front of the house another cruiser pulls up next door and Williams, the second officer, jumps out.
“I’ve got the front. Go around to the side and see if you can see anything through the side windows.”
Dandridge continues onto the porch and shines his flashlight through the front window as he carefully moves towards the front door. He steps around the bay window when something catches his eye.
“Dispatch, be advised we have a man down… make that two. Request EMS.”
“Roger 57. EMS on the way.”
Dandridge moves quickly to the front door, “57 entering the residence”, he checks the door handle, draws his sidearm, opens the door and enters the house.
“Wilmington Police!”
He makes his way over to the man laying closest to the door. He checks for a pulse, then in a crouch moves to the woman several feet away and again checks for a pulse.
In a muffled tone, “Dispatch adult male and adult female 10-54 in residence.” He stands and begins moving through the house when he hears the distinct crackle of breaking glass in the back of the house. He quickly moves towards the sound. Reaching the kitchen door he sees one figure going through the door and another one ahead running through the yard towards the fence.
“They’re going out the back!”
Williams is coming around the side of the house when he sees Dandridge coming out the back and glimpses someone going over the top of the privacy fence and run through the narrow alley towards the street.
“Call it in!” Dandridge yells as he sprints across the yard.
“Dispatch, 57 in foot pursuit of two suspects exiting the back of the residence and heading south down the alley! Request backup!”
Williams runs back to his car and heads down the street turning at the next cross street.
The two men stumble out of the alley and into the dark street.
“I can’t breathe!”
“We can’t stop! Keep running!”
“Johnny I can’t go anymore, I can’t breathe, my asthma” he begins to wheeze more loudly and crouches down on one knee.
“Goddammit, Mikey!” Johnny looks around. Across the street, he sees a house with about a dozen cars parked outside and four people walking up to it.
“Come on Mikey.” He grabs him by the arm and lifts him up.
“Where we going, Johnny?”
“We’re going to a party.”
The two men walk across the street and make their way around to the back of the house. They pry open the back door and walk in. Johnny pulls a pistol out of his jacket.
“As the Patriarch of the family Stanovich, I want to welcome everyone to this year’s reunion.” Stano stands over six feet tall and is noticeably fit for a man in his sixties.
“Patriarch? The oldest you mean!” yelled Milo as all thirty family members begin to laugh.
“You’re drunk Milo” came from the back causing everyone to laugh even louder. Chants of “Milo” begin echoing from the back of the room.
“Don’t nobody fucking move!”
Everyone stopped laughing and looked over to Johnny. Mike was standing slightly crouched behind Johnny looking around his left shoulder, still breathing heavily.
Milo was standing in front of the fireplace where the Stanovich Family Reunion banner was strung above the mantle. He began to step forward saying, “What are you doing here? Who are you? You’re trespassing on private property, you know that right? Not to mention you’ve interrupted our family reunion.”
Johnny backhands Milo with his gun hand and Milo falls onto the table knocking over the lamp. Several of the men begin moving forward.
“Un uh, step back! Don’t nobody be a hero tonight.”
Stano took a step forward, “Mister, I don’t know who you boys are but there’s no need for this.”
“Then tell everybody to just relax and don’t do anything stupid and no one gets hurt.”
Stano helps Milo to his feet and motions to a couple of the others to gather the children into the other room.
“What do you boys want?”
Before Johnny could answer Mike interrupts, “Johnny look.” He points to the TV in a small sitting room.
“Welcome back to Cops Live. We have several calls happening live across the country but in Wilmington, it looks like we’re in the middle of what seems to be a home invasion gone terribly wrong.” Turning to his left, “Tom, officer Dandridge mentioned a 10-54. What is that?”
“That means when officer Dandridge checked the individuals that were down he had reason to believe they were deceased.”
“So we’re witnessing the initial investigation of a potential homicide?”
“It looks that way Bill” he puts his hand to his ear, “I’m getting confirmation now, the couple found in the home are dead. And it looks like it has the same earmarks of several other killings in the Wilmington area over the last few months.”
“Are you saying that they believe they’re on the track of the individual the media has been calling the Wilmington Nightmare? But there are two people they’re chasing.”
“Yeah, for a while now we’ve had reason to believe that the murders were caused by multiple individuals. We didn’t make that public so we could weed out the false leads and crank calls that cases like this attract.”
“Tom, we’re getting more information from the scene where it’s been almost 15 minutes since they’ve responded to the call. Let’s go back to Wilmington and officer Dandridge.”
“We’ve cordoned off the entire neighborhood in a 20 block radius and we’re going to begin going house to house searching for the suspects. We know we’re looking for two males based on the evidence we’ve gotten from the scene. We know one is wearing size 11 boots with a tactical sole pattern based on shoe impressions he left in the mud behind the house. Based on the depth of the impressions we estimate him to be about 190 pounds. We’ve also found green fibers from what we think is a green hunting jacket. They were found on a nail sticking out from the fence. Based on the height of where these fibers were found we think this is a second individual that’s much smaller than the first.”
Dandridge began walking towards one of the houses. Looking back to Williams he motioned to him to go across the street.
“I’m going to start with this house, you start with that one with the blue truck.”
Dandridge looks back towards the camera, “This was the last place I saw the suspects and where I lost them. It’s as good a place to start as any.”
“Johnny, they’re talking about us!”
“Shut up Mikey.”
Milo looked to Stano with a concerned look. “Seems like you boys are in some trouble.” Said Stano.
Johnny whipped around, “Yeah, so what!”
“Johnny!”
“What Mikey?” he snapped as he looked to see Mike looking out the window.
“There are cops everywhere. They’re going door to door.”
The distinctive sound of the doorbell ringing caught everyone off guard causing everyone to look in unison to the front door.
“Wilmington Police, come to the door please!”
Stano started moving towards the door.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“They can see people here Johnny, if I don’t answer it they’ll know somethings wrong.”
Johnny motioned for Stano to open the door.
“Just remember…” Johnny waved the pistol briefly before putting it in his jacket pocket.
Stano opened the door.
“Hello sir, my name is Office Dandridge of the Wilmington Police Department. May I come in and ask you a couple of questions?”
“Of course” Stano stepped back and motioned Dandridge to come in. “We’re we making too much noise officer?”
Milo seeing the camera asked, “Are you guys from Cops Live? I love that show! We watch it all the time. We have it on now.”
“Thank you, sir,” Dandridge said turning back to Stano, “We’re not here about any noise complaint. There was a home invasion a few blocks away and we tracked the suspects in this general area. Have you seen anyone you didn’t recognize or noticed anything out of the ordinary?”
“I’m afraid I can’t be of much help officer. We’ve been having a family reunion and have been oblivious to anything happening outside.”
Dandridge glanced over to the fireplace and noticed the Stanovich Family Reunion Banner. He turned his gaze questioningly to the TV.
“We only put that on about 5 minutes ago.” Interrupted Milo with a big grin.
Dandridge looked around and saw that Mike was looking down, not making eye contact. He seemed uneasy and perspiration was beading on his forehead. “You nervous about something sir?” Pointing to Mike.
“He ain’t nervous about nothing!”
“Be nice Johnny!” Stano insisted.
“Why don’t you tell him,” Milo said.
“Milo!” Johnny said threatening.
“Remove your hand from your pocket sir,” Dandridge said indicating to Johnny.
“Go ahead tell him! If you don’t tell him I will!”
“Milo, that’s enough!”
Dandridge unsnapped the restraint on his service weapon and has his hand on the grip. “Remove your hand from your pocket, sir! I’m not going to tell you again!”
“He’s got unpaid traffic tickets,” Milo exclaimed with a light chuckle.
Dandridge paused, then looked at Milo. “He’s, what?”
“Yeah, he’s got like five of them.”
Dandridge signed loudly and snapped the restraint on his service weapon again. He stood more relaxed and moved towards the door.
“You folks have a nice evening. Let’s go.” Dandridge turned to Mike before leaving the house, “Take care of your damn traffic tickets!”
“Yes sir,” Mike said timidly.
“Back here in the COPS Live studio. Well, Tom, those were some intense moments in Wilmington.”
“Yes, they were. And I’m sure there’s a family member at that reunion that’s got a good old fashion beating coming his way.”
“I’m sure he thought that was funny but I’d hate to be him right about now.”
Milo breaks out laughing uncontrollably.
“Real funny asshole!” Johnny steps to the window to look out. “I ought to kill your stupid ass!”
“They’re going to the house across the street Johnny.” Mike turned towards Stano and Milo.
Stano lifted his hand and snapped his finger. The doors behind him opened as everyone in the house begins coming out forming a circle around Johnny and Mikey.
“As soon as the cops leave we’ll leave. And as long as no one pulls anything stupid like that again you’ll all be free to go.” Johnny turns to see all of the family members in the house encircling them.
“But who says you’ll be free to go Johnny?” Stano’s emotionless tone unsettles Johnny.
One of the family members said, “Johnny, you look like you wear about a size 11 boot”. A small child appears from behind the group and tosses a pair of muddy boots towards Johnny’s feet.
“And Mikey here could almost be my twin.” Another person from the back calls out as one of the women walk up behind Mikey, “You look cold” and she puts a green jacket on him. He looks and sees a large tear on the left sleeve.
“Johnny? What’s going on?”
“You? You’re the Wilmington Nightmare killers?” Johnny frantically grasps for his pistol in his pocket and nervously drops it on the floor.
“And now we’ve got patsys!” Stano said sharply.
“Well folks here in the studio it’s 11:57, we’ve only got three minutes left before the end of the show.”
Tom places his hand to his ear again and listens intently.
“We’re getting live reports from Wilmington of shots fired! They appear to be coming from the family reunion house that officer Dandridge just left.”