1

“That’s all you're good for anyway. Burning bridges.”

Diaz was stuck. The Captain warned him that if he didn’t find Hope in the next 10 hours he would be off the case, facing suspension, and possible legal issues with Eli’s parents for endangering him and his friends during a time of distress.

That was 8 hours ago, and despite the brain-racking, he was still stuck.

But why did those words stick to him? Like a cancer within himself, he began to believe them. I burn everything I touch. I could do better if I handed in the badge; it would at least do these women good rather than being burned.

Burned bridges.

Bridges.

That’s it, he thought, running to Campbell asking to see the letter for the eighty-seventh time. He began to circle phrases that stood out to him.

“Under this paper is another. That is the clue. A clue on how to find this rose, and one is all you will get.

--

How about next round you bring the heat. That’s all you're good for anyway. Burning bridges.”

“Campbell look!” He turned toward his tired partner. “Under, clue, rose, one, round, for, bridge.”

“Huh? Can you make sense, please? I think you finally lost it.”

“He gave us the map right here! Underneath is the clue, to find the rose, One round about the fourth Bridge.

He jolted with energy and pulled up his radio informing dispatch to give out the address to the other police officers, calling for anyone in the vicinity.

“Unit Seven, please respond to the under the Roundabout Bridge on Fourteenth Street for a missing persons. One Hope Andrews, female, caucasian, age nineteen. Advise on arrival.”

“Copy that dispatch, Unit Seven, responding to under the Roundabout Bridge on Fourteenth Street for missing persons,” an officer reiterates.

Diaz hopes that he isn’t on the wrong track but is close to saving this girl who did nothing but trust him.

“Matt!”

Campbell snaps him out his thought telling him to come on. He grabs his gun, his badge, and the letter before heading off.

2

“Did they say anything, it’s been almost half a day. E, I can’t lose her, then I will be stuck with you, and right now I want to hit you. What do you think will happen if we’re all that’s left,” mutters Daniel before he flops on the couch in Eli’s living room.

“If they can’t find her then we will. It’s as simple as that. You can wail on me all you want we we get her home. Deal?”

Eli begins pacing the floor thinking about the letter he read. The cops took it for evidence of course, but he took a screenshot of it before leaving the station with his parents.

“What are you two plotting? Stay put until the police call,” Eli’s mom yells from the kitchen.

“Alright, mom. Me and Daniel are going down the hall to his house, to check if his parents heard anything.” Elijah mentions before shutting the door behind them.

Forget that Wisdom, right now, you can be wise for the both of us.

One thing I know is the cops, are undependable until it's too late.

“Daniel, Let’s go, I have a hunch,” they wind down the staircase and head towards the block.

Within the cop car, Diaz is trying to let Campbell into his thought process on how he concluded to know the location of the hostage, before looking out the window.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He sees Daniel and Eli running in the same direction.

“Where are you guys headed,” he yells out the window

“Fourteenth Bridge, you?”

“Same, hop in.” The duo joined the other in the car, Campbell accelerating the gas to make up for lost time.

“So how’d you come to the conclusion like we did?” The Luitenant asks impressed with Elijah.

“Well within the letter, I barely mentioned, even though Hope is my friend. Figured it was directed toward Diaz. That made me stare at the words and bridges stood out. Went from there.”

“We could use a kid like you on the force.”

“No, if Diaz is getting heat like this from some killer, I wouldn’t be surprised if I made even more enemies .”

“Yeah, because you have a big mouth,” interjects Daniel, earning a shove from Eli.

Elijah disrupting the flow of the conversation turns toward Diaz.

“Do you still have the letter on you, both pages?”

“Yeah, why,” turns the detective.

Wis, I said I had a hunch.

“No reason.”

I hope.

3

The scene at the bridge was a bee hive. The news, the bridge, the cops and civilians. All buzzing.

Diaz and Campbell told Eli and Daniel to stay behind the police tape, near the Captian in case they were needed.

“Eli, I know your folks don’t know you’re here. Don’t be a hero. I can’t face your parents with news of your death if things go wrong, okay?” Diaz urged the young man, staring him in the eye as if him breaking that promise would crumble what little hope Diaz had in this whole thing going right.

“Yeah, yeah, go save Hope stop worrying about me,” Eli says before pushing the Detective towards their friend.

Hope was under the bridge, screaming for help, tears rolling down her face, as she trembled from the pain of a knife being held into her cheek.

Diaz froze, staring at the spectacle before him, afraid that if he reached out to her something bad would happen.

“Hope, we’re here! We will get you out of here; just tell us what's going on.”

“I can’t he, told me that you have to be smarter than that Detective!” She whisper-yells at him.

“Okay, okay, take it easy.” Diaz inches closer, before a figured body hops up near her body grabbing at the knife and pulling it out of her face. Hope cries in pain, begging the cops to stay back.

All of the officers kept their guns facing the body wielding the knife towards them.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” begs Hope. “You don’t understand, you don’t get it! Please don’t shoot,” she says before fully breaking down into a hysterical sob.

An officer on the side slowly stepped into the frame, grabbing at Hope.

The figure hopped in defense and stabbed the officer, resulting in all of the police shooting at them.

Hope screamed out once more, half shocked by the slurry of bullets and half terrified of the consequences of the police’s actions that would follow.

Diaz leaped forward and grabbed Hope, backing away from the body still on the ground. Hope squirmed out his arms and yelled at the cops. What is wrong with you all!? Can’t you use you’re heads? Look at them!” She points to the lifeless body, while a cop uncovered their face, showing that it was a woman, a victim as well on the floor, bleeding into the grass, soul slipping rapidly.

Eli lowered his head, blaming himself for putting everyone in danger. Daniel began running towards Hope before Campbell yelled for everyone to back away from her.

“Diaz, something’s not right. Do you hear that?”

Hope backed up more trying to distance herself and reach for the device stuck to her back.

It was ticking.

“Hope stay calm, but I think you have a bomb on your back,” yelled Eli.

She shot him a panicked face laced with hints of bewilderment, as to how clueless he thought she was towards the situation she was in.

Eli ran towards Diaz, confusing the girl even more with his antics.

“Matt. Do you trust me,” asked E.

“Not really no, what did I say about staying out of the way?”

“Come on I have an idea.”

“That’s what I'm afraid of,” he uttered still obliging to hearing him out, as Eli leaned to let him in on his plan.

Diaz took out a pen, wrote something down, and threw the paper on the seat Hope was recently tied to.

As Elijah suspected, the countdown of the weapon on his friend, slowed to a stop.

Like I said Wis, the cops are useless.