Dragonfly by Jax Hill 

Pete was just standing with his back against the wall of the bank that fronted our street and the side street we’d come up. His eyes were a bit glazed, and his shoulders slumped, his hands hanging loose at his sides.

“Pete, you okay?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the sidewalk, his knees pulled up toward him. “Will you go look for Phyllis?” he said.

I didn’t want to leave him, but I knew he’d want to make sure his wife was all right. I ran off after the others. The park was in chaos. Some of the people in the crowd were giving the police a hard time, shouting at them that it was a public park and they had a right to be there. Cydney was flat on her back on the ground, wailing like a siren. Her dad and Marigold were stooped beside her and Bruiser was desperately trying to tell the officers that they had to leave her alone so she could get calmed down. Phyllis, too, had run to Cydney. She was all right; she was trying to get Cyd calmed down.

“Bob, just pick Cyd up and let’s get out of here,” I said to Cydney’s dad.

“If I touch her you know she’s going to get crazy,” he said.

“Let’s risk it. Come on, now.”

Bob stooped down and picked Cyd up, and she did go wild. She was a difficult one to touch at the best of times, but when she was in a state like that, it was crazy. I think maybe her wild thrashing scared the policemen who’d been telling us to get out of the park, and they backed off. Bruiser helped Cyd’s dad hold onto her, and we made our way out of the park toward where I’d left Pete.

The detective, Waverling, had arrived here with the officers sent to break up the unlawful assembly in the park. He was standing out on the street, and he’d noticed Pete sitting by the bank with his bloody face. I saw him walking that direction and ran out ahead of our little shrieking party to get there first. The last thing I wanted was Waverling confronting Pete. I wasn’t even sure what was wrong with Pete.

I saw the detective call over his shoulder for a couple of uniforms. This could not be good.

I was still dizzy. I didn’t think those guys had broken my jaw, but it hurt like the devil. With every thud of my footsteps as I ran, the side of my head felt like a little explosion. But I didn’t want Pete to mouth off to those cops and get arrested, so I kept running.

I was close enough to hear Waverling saying to him, “Hey, you been in a fight? You’re one of Torstein’s guys, aren’t you?”

“No,” Pete said to his hands which were propped on his knees in front of him. “Not hardly.” He didn’t even look up, and he sounded as if he could barely speak.

“I know you are,” Waverling said. “You got arrested with him before.”

“Never been arrested,” Pete said.

The uniformed officers were advancing.

Pete looked up and started to push himself to his feet.

“Look, I told you, dammit, I’ve got nothing to do with Torstein,” he said.

I finally got close enough at that moment to help Pete up and said to him, “C’mon, Pete. We’ve got Phyllis. Let’s go.”

“Yeah, get out of here,” Waverling said. “Torstein’s days in the park are over.”

I steered Pete back toward Bruiser and Mari and Phyllis. He had a black eye, but otherwise I think he was okay. Just ... deflated.

Cyd had finally stopped screaming and thrashing, and her dad said he would take her home. He asked if we’d seen Torstein, if Torstein had been arrested ... but what could we tell him? We said we didn’t know what had happened to him.

Back at Pete’s house, Phyllis and Marigold made ice packs for our various aching jaws, eyes and noses. Bruiser made some phone calls to old friends in Nikolai’s organization. Marigold called Tawny and told her what had happened. Angel and her new husband Len had gone away with Tawny and Franz for a few day’s honeymoon. They knew that Angel had been called home because Sully had gone missing, and they’d just been packing up their things, and Angel’s, to come home themselves. Franz said he would drop Tawny off with us, then go try to find out what he could about Torstein.

I called Vic Mondino, the lawyer who’d come for us when we’d been detained for taking Sully to the shore, and told him about Caroline, Angel and Len being in jail. He said he’d see what he could do.

Then there was nothing to do.

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