by mudd » Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:24 am
Just after the parking lamps shut off outside sam's, a small team of couriers has coalesced in the sam's club parking lot. There seem to be two little clusters of grey-uniformed activity, circling slowly around the are where the shooting took place an hour or so earlier. Each team features a pair of couriers stumbling around with a portable flood light, another waving a long green rod with a flying saucer bottom that might be an army surplus mine detector, and then a final courier on what looks like a stationary bicycle pedaling furiously behind them. There are long, tangled cables extending from the bike to the lamp that seem to supplying the power necessary to keep the lamp burning. Every few minutes the lampholders and the mine sweep set down their gear, circle around the biker, and physically move both biker and bike closer to their own gear so the power cable can reach as they expand their search further.
One the one team, the biking courier is pedaling quite powerfully, with a look of concentration that doesn't break even when the movers stumble and drop him abruptly halfway through their journey. The biker on the other squad is getting sleepier and sleepier, and one of the light carriers keeps having to double back and snap him awake. It's on one of these trips back that the minesweeper on his team give a shout and the sweeper itself a sharp beep, surprising the now-solo light bearer and causing him to lose control of his lamp. The bulb smashes against pavement with a pop like gunfire, shocking the light bearers on the other team who drop their lamp as well. The parking lot plummets into complete darkness.
After a few minutes one of the couriers produces a weak pen light, and starts hunting for the minesweeper who found the prize. They play a bizarre game of marco polo, but the other couriers are confused and keep answering as well causing their flashlight-wielding colleague to scurry around back and forth until finally locating his target. at that point, he puts the flashlight between his teeth and he and the sweeper get down on hands and knees and search the ground thoroughly. After maybe 15 minutes of crawling about, with his exposed knees all pockmarked and raw from the asphalt, the flashlight wielder shouts happily and stands suddenly. This causes the flashlight to drop from his mouth and go out, so it takes another couple of minutes for him to recover the flashlight and confirm that he has, in fact, found the shell casing from the bullet that killed Elliot Salevyn. At this point the other couriers, who were variously standing about respectfully or napping in place, gather around and pat him on the back. The casing goes into a prepared envelope and into a pocket, and both search crews head back towards the bike rack where their bicycles are waiting patiently. With the light of their bike lamps, they release the stationary bikes, load the generator cables mine sweepers and lamps into bike-pulled carts, and prepare to head out.
Just before mounting, one of the shorter couriers bends to pick up what appears to be a cable crimping tool still sitting on the pavement from the event earlier. Another courier slaps his wrist back and shakes his head severely. The shorter fellow shrugs apologetically and both mount up and follow the crowd out of the parking lot and back towards the Estates.
m