No Safe Haven

Bishop in the Tower

Bishop opened his eyes to sunlight. Another dreamless night had come and gone.  

The buzzing that had awakened him started again, and he reached under his pillow to find his phone. His hand finally located it and brought the phone out from its resting place. He checked the display and saw the incoming call was from Victoria. Bishop accepted the call with a tap of a button and rolled onto his back, making sure to stay under the sheets. 

"I didn't request a wake-up call, could I please talk to your manager?" he asked, half-awake and half-joking. 

Victoria's voice came through as muted and distant, the voice of someone making a call they really didn't want to make. "Bishop, we've got another victim."  

Bishop was fully awake now. He expected their suspect to kill again, but it surprised him that this new murder came so soon after the first.  

From the get-go, the Mankins murder seemed to Bishop like it would be the first in a series of murders. Typically, serial killers started slow then decreased the time between murders. That there was a victim after only one day told Bishop... well, he didn't even know what it told him about their killer.  

In the background of Victoria's call, Bishop heard voices, including one voice that requested Victoria's attention. Victoria acknowledged the voice in the background then returned to speaking with Bishop. 

"Get moving, Bishop. I sent a unit to pick you up; they'll be there in ten minutes." 

Victoria disconnected the call before Bishop could say anything, though he didn't intend to. 

Bishop flipped the comforters and sheets off of his body while he looked longingly into the bathroom at the shower located there. He frowned, knowing he didn't have enough time. Mildly saddened, he stood up and shuffled over to his dresser, grabbing everything he would need from its drawers. 

Bishop dressed as quickly as he could and went about finding something to eat. 

He had stopped for some food on the way home from Callahan's last night; the only true food items to be found in the fridge, he pulled the left-overs out. Half of a burger and some fries were better than nothing, he supposed. In an attempt to hurry, he devoured the burger and began on the fries. After only two of the fries, he found they were no better cold than they had been when they were warm, so he dumped what was left into the garbage. As the lid to his garbage can closed, he heard a knock at his door. 

Eager to get to the crime scene, Bishop rushed to the door and opened it. 

A uniformed officer waited in the hall. 

"You ready?" the officer asked. A flash of light glinted off the officer's nameplate, which identified him as 'J. Alvarez'. 

"Yes. You're my chauffeur?" Bishop questioned back. 

"Yeah, I drew the short straw." The officer scowled and began to walk toward the stairs which led down to the street. 

Bishop stepped out into the hallway - taking just enough time to lock his door - then followed the officer down the stairs and out into the frigid air. It hadn't snowed since yesterday morning, but the snow that had melted during the day - and then froze overnight - remained in hard-to-see icy patches scattered along the sidewalk. 

The officer had begun to walk around the back of the patrol car toward the driver's door when Bishop spoke up.  

"Colburn, you're not gonna get the door?" he asked, suggesting Alvarez was - for all intents and purposes - Bishop's driver. 

Alvarez reversed direction and came back around to Bishop's side of the car. Opening the back door, where suspects were normally placed, he backed away and gestured into the vehicle with both arms. "Sorry, Miss Daisy. Here y'are."