Part 6: Episode Four: Holy Shit!

Over there, in the trees!

I see him!


Although the flight of your bullet misses its target, it comes close enough to cause the suspect to take leg bail.

Damn it, he's getting away!

Keith! This way!




Jesus, Sonny, be careful! He's getting to cover!



It's not cover he's after.




Sonny, are you okay?

Yeah, I got out of the way in time.

Back to the car, come on. Where are we, anyway?



OK, I realize we're in the park, but I meant more sp-

There's no time for this. Come on.



S-Sonny! Bains... he was SHOOTING at you! I couldn't keep up. What happened? I just saw that car tearing by here like a bat out of hell!



It was Bains in the car he stole from the mall. Come on, we might still be able to catch him.



How do you even get an a on the end of "gosh"? That man has some seriously untapped linguistic talent.



And did she actually wait until you came back and things were definitely safe before running away? What the hell?



Sometimes people do weird things in a crisis. Weird, stupid, nonsensical things. Now shut up. We've got a man to catch. Hurry up, Keith!



Gee, sorry we're making you work for a living. Come on, get a move on.

Gee, sor... Sonny, did you just steal my line again?




Let's roll.

Really? Really.



Dispatch booms back... "All units hold your traffic... I have emergency traffic from 53mary2..."

Dispatch continues... "53mary2, go ahead with your emergency traffic."

Screaming into the mike Keith says... "Dispatch... 53mary2. We have just been ambushed at Cotton Cove by suspect Bains..."

Continuing... "Suspect last seen northbound on Clearwater Drive at a high rate of speed... Be advised, we do not have him in sight..."

Dispatch acknowledges your traffic. "53mary2... 10-4... Do you have a description of the suspect vehicle?..."

"...and advise injury status from ambush."

Almost out of breath, Keith answers... "Dispatch... 53mary2... negative injury to personnel..."

"...suspect vehicle matches description of vehicle stolen from Oak Tree Mall."

"10-4. Attention all units... per 53mary2... be on lookout for a stolen 1986 compact black station wagon..."



"Suspect vehicle last seen northbound on Clearwater Drive at a high rate of speed..."

"Break."

"The mary unit has lost sight of vehicle... caution... suspect is armed and dangerous... all units acknowledge."

As other units acknowledge the emergency traffic, Keith says, "We might as well back out of it, Sonny. Looks like we lost the &!*@#*$!"

Not yet. Not yet.

Sonny, I hate to say it, but Keith may be right here.

Just a few more minutes.

Captain Fletcher Hall comes on the air, car-to-car... "53mary2... 53mary1 bye."

Breathing normally, Keith presses the mike button and answers... "Go ahead, Captain. This is 53mary2."



"Negative," Keith answers.

"10-4... 10-22 the pursuit. Return to Cotton Cove and complete the investigation there. Every other unit will continue the search... 10-4?"

Sonny?

Damn it all.

Keith speaks up... "10-4, Captain..."

"Well," Keith says... "you heard the man."

"Dispatch," Keith says, more calmly now, "53mary2... we are 10-22 on pursuit of Bains' vehicle. 10-97 to Cotton Cove."

Sorry, Sonny.

We were so close.

We'll get him next time. The whole city is looking for him now.

I guess. Come on, we've got to see if we can do anything here.



Just... please get him to stop talking.

We're going to look around a bit, Mario.



So we're going to follow up on the jogger's lead?

Yes.



And Pate?

You know as well as I do what we're going to find. Let's not beat around the bush.



The river.

It's not the first time he's used it for that. It's deeper than it looks.



Just keep your ashes out of the evidence, Keith.

I saw some things back over where we lost Bains.

Yeah, we'll go there first.



GARBAGE!

Spectacular.

Hey, at least you don't have to smell it. Now, what have we here?

Moving the garbage around, you find discarded clothing. Looking closer, you see what appear to be spots of blood on the clothes.

You remove a pair of grey pants and a blue shirt from the can.

You think to yourself, "Man, these look like jail clothes...wait a minute! Here's a cloth nametag sewn onto the shirt."



OK. So he took off his prison clothes. Which I guess makes sense if he doesn't want everyone who sees him calling the police. And he picks up that outfit we saw on him when he shot at you.

So the question is, where did he get them from? Although I don't think it'll be too difficult to answer.



You see something there, Pointy?

I can't believe you're actually calling it that. And yes, I see it too.



Just like the jogger said. She's lucky Bains didn't catch her here.

He was probably changing clothes in the bushes at the time.



Oh, this is going to be good.



Hey, look at that! I'll bet Bains snuffed that poor jailer and then threw the body in the river.

That's an astonishing leap of logic there, Mr. Holmes. My hat is off to you.

Yeah, that seems pretty likely.



Oh, thank heaven, at least he isn't going to try to help us.

Alright, let's see what we have here.



First, we want to preserve the scene as best we can before more people show up and step on everything.



Now, let's see what we can do with those footprints.

You remove the box of casting powder. You mix the powder to the proper consistency and pour it into the footprint depression. After the liquid dries, you remove the impression of the footprint and add it to the list of evidence.

Is all of this really necessary? We know it was Bains. We SAW him.

It is, for two reasons. First, if it comes to trial, we need to have evidence that ties him to every piece of this crime. Overwhelming evidence. Our legal system says that he's innocent until proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, and we want to stack the deck in our favor as much as we can.

I guess that makes sense. And the second reason?

We don't KNOW it was Bains. What if he's not acting alone? And what if this blood really belongs to someone else? Speaking of which.

You use the eye dropper to collect a sample of the coagulated blood and put it into the glass vial. You return the eye dropper to the kit, and add the vial of blood to your inventory of evidence.

We have a good theory about what happened. I'm pretty sure it's accurate. But I may end up shooting a man based on this theory, and I want to be more than "pretty sure".

I can get behind that. What else do we need to gather?

Nothing else we can do with this until the diver gets here. Let's go check in with the others.



Sonny... do you think Bains will really let it come to a trial?

No. No, I don't think he will. But I hope I'm wrong.



Thanks, Keith.

Why do you hope you're wrong? Bains has already had his day in court. If he shoots at you, he's putting himself at risk. He's got nobody else to blame if you have to shoot him.

Have you ever had to kill someone?

I... can't say that I have, no.

I don't recommend the experience.




Does your town really need a full-time SCUBA team?

No, and we don't really have one. But we do have a van, and a few people with certification.



Hey, Moore.

Well, here I am, Bonds. What can I do for you?



We've got one potential dumped body in the river. We need someone to go down and check it out.

I don't like diving alone, and I'm the only diver available. You wouldn't happen to have a scuba certification card, would you?

Yes, I do.

You show your scuba certification card to the driver.

OK. Wait here while I change.

What a fortunate coincidence.

Like I said, this isn't the first time this has happened.

Wow, this guy's a quick-change artist!

What?



Oh, he's dressed up already. Guess you'd better follow suit.

...

Oh, come on, you chuckled a little.

No. No, I did not.



Which tank should we take?

Let's see which one has the most air in it.



I think Pointy thinks it's that first one.

Could be. it seems pretty full.



Will you get that thing out of here, please?

Fine, fine. Not this tank, anyway.

Nope.



Not that one, either.



Just seems like kind of a waste. The first one should be fine.

Great. Can you gather up all this gear now?

Yeah.

Do you have to pick it up one piece at a time like that?

...yes? That is normally how human beings lift things.

Yes, it's just... never mind. All set?



Yes.



Cutting a dashing figure there, Sonny. Those yellow flippers really go with your hair.

Shut up.



And of course black is always in.

Can you please shut up? Just for a minute? Would it kill you?

It might. I'm not taking any chances.



Maybe I won't be able to hear you under here.

Don't count on it. I'm everywhere you are. Try focusing really intently on what you want to say, and I should still be able to hear you, too.

Well, now that you've deeply disturbed me, let's go for a swim.



That's been around far too long to belong to anyone involved.

What is Moore doing over there?

I don't know. Let's just focus on what we're doing.



They're a little Buddy Holly for swim goggles.

Different strokes.

Hah! Strokes!

...I did not do that on purpose.



Well, it's probably not the moonshine. What's that exceedingly tiny, barely noticeable object in the grass directly in front of you, which looks basically like part of the background?

I don't know. Let's find out.



You remember what the prisoner said; how the suspect held a makeshift knife on the jailer during the escape. You slip the knife into your belt and keep it as evidence.



How did Moore miss this thing?

Maybe because it's basically unnoticeable?

Excuses, excuses.

You brush the mud off of an object that appears to be a badge. You look at the badge and think to yourself, "this is like finding a needle in a haystack."



The current is pulling this way. Let's see what's over here.



I really don't like the looks of that. Check the boat on the way over; maybe something got lodged in there.



Doesn't appear so.



You move the rocks, exposing a human hand... Startled, you jerk backwards!

Sonny, are you alright?

Yeah. Yeah, just... one second.



Ah, dammit.

Well, even Keith knew this was what were going to find. Come on, let's get the poor bastard out of here. This is no place for him.




It's not a pretty sight, eh, Sonny?

No.

Poor guy. He's just a few years older than my kid.

I'm going to go examine the body for a minute.

All yours.



So Bains holds a knife to his throat to kidnap him.

Then, once he's gotten out of the jail, he forces the guard to retrieve his gun.

Once he has the gun, he doesn't need the knife anymore. And the hostage is a liability.

So he steals another car to put us off the trail - if the victim hadn't called it in we might not have noticed he switched or known what car he switched to for quite some time.

And then he comes here, to the river.

He probably told Pate he'd release him here.

I suppose he did, in a way. He shoots the guy, steals his clothes, and dumps his body in the river, hoping it'll be a while before anyone sees anything.

And again, we get lucky, as that jogger noticed the blood on the ground and called it in. If only we'd been just a little faster...

Not that it would have helped Pate here. Did you know him?

No. And I never will, now.



One more name on your list, Bains. Later, Moore.

See ya, Sonny! I'll stay here with the body.



We've got to catch him.

We will, Sonny.



I wanted to prevent this. Pate signed up to serve the city.

And now all the city can give his family is his body and a bunch of flowery words about duty and honor. I know, Sonny. But there's nothing you could have done.



You don't know that. Come on. We should get this evidence back to the station.

I guess, yeah.



What does it mean? Twenty years of people pouring knowledge into this kid. Twenty years of him getting himself ready for a life he never got to see. In the end it went nowhere. He lost everything.

We all face that in the end, Sonny. He knew this was a risk when he took the job.

I know. But he still deserved better than this. Murdered for his clothes. To buy a fugitive a few extra minutes. Come on. Time's wasting.



For fuck's sake, Keith.

Keith, one more thing to do before we get going.

Oh, right. I'll take care of it.




Next time on Police Quest: On the Trail

Let's see if we can stop Bains before anyone else gets hurt.