�Two DOAs, Wendy and Roger Williams,� the officer indicated two lumps covered by tablecloths in the back of the pub. �Married, and from the look of the guy�s wallet, there are two kids, probably pre-teens. We found money and credit cards in the wallet, so no robbery motive.�

�Any idea how they got dead?�

�Bartender said a woman came in and fought with a man about his drinking. He was real belligerent. Bartender figured it was an old marital spat. Then the couple intervened, and all four of them got into a brawl. They acted like they knew each other. At least, they knew the belligerent drunk. The bartender said the insults were pretty personal and detailed, not like your usual bar brawl. But he�d never seen any of them before. Anyways, a shot was fired and it passed clean through the wife�s body, probably nicked a major artery on its way through, and then landed square in the guy�s heart. Killed them both. At least, that�s what the EMTs thought when they looked at the bodies.�

Andy looked over at the gurney, where paramedics where struggling to stabilize a third person who was bleeding profusely.

�What�s the story here?�

�That�s the woman who came in to fight with the man. No ID on her, no one remembers seeing her before. Looks like she was stabbed in the abdomen by the male DOA, who was found with a knife in his hand. They think she�s not long for this world.�

Andy stepped over to the gurney and looked over at the patient. As he did so, his jaw dropped, and his hand went to his chin to hold in the scream that nearly escaped. Danny observed this and ran over to the gurney to see what had alarmed his partner. Lying unconscious, her face pale and splattered with blood, an oxygen tube hooked into her nostrils, was Claire Kelly.

Danny fell back into Andy, and for a moment, he was barely able to breathe.

�Where�s the drunk?� Andy yelled at the officer. The officer looked up at him in shock, completely surprised by the rush of anger that exploded from Andy�s red face and raised veins.

�I ... I ... I ...� he struggled to regain his composure, but his horror that he�d made some career-fatal procedural error muted him. Danny looked sympathetically at the guy, waved a hand at Andy to back down from the pit bull he�d become, and took the young officer aside. Andy knelt to hold Claire�s hand and speak words of encouragement to her, and when the EMTs brushed him aside, he flipped open his mobile phone.

�I�m sorry, detective,� the officer said to Danny when he had regained his voice, �I don�t know where he is!�