Electra Rose
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Superdim 4
🕑 Added 2023-03-19 20:00:02 +0000 UTC“-ust shut up and let me thi-!”
“go back, we have to go back-”
“Shut up! I need to-”
“-ave to go back-”
A male and a female voice overlapped with the sound of a baby crying.
‘Oh, fucking hell.’
Ji-Min bared her teeth as the shouting died off. She was close enough to catalog the damage- Gene had shot off the passenger's side window in his warning shot. The back bumper had fallen off, revealing ugly denting. If she had to guess, the exhaust system had probably been shoved forward through the converter and engine mounts.
'... I'm not sure that wraith braked at all.'
She made a mental note to gently ask Gene to have his driver give more following distance. She wasn't brave enough to say that personally.
Ji-Min couldn't see it but she guessed that the front probably wasn't as rough. A human body wasn't as hard as a car.
That thought pissed her off again. She prowled up to the driver’s side and looked in.
A red-faced baby, properly secured in the backseat, was screaming their little head off in a frilly yellow shirt, one sock on and one on the floor. The passenger was the woman. Her head was buried in her hands, so Ji-Min just saw curly blonde hair. The woman was probably not white, judging by what Ji-Min could see of her shoulder and jawline.
The driver had his left hand gripping the steering wheel, defensively blocking off his phone. His head was pointed down as he used his phone. He had short-cropped hair, dark brown, and he was nearly as red as the angry baby.
As Ji-Min watched, he closed an article about lighting cars on fire. He opened up a new search tab and typed in ‘dispose of car.’ After a few seconds, he said, “Water? There’s a river…” He opened up a navigation app and panned out to look at how far they were from the river. It was not close.
Ji-Min put her hand on her chin as she watched him repeatedly type and backspace. She was blessed to watch the frustration on his face as he realized that he would have a hard time getting home after sinking his car. He searched ““Can i get a txi from an embankment” and then deleted that, and typed out “can i get a taxi no questions” and then “how to be forgotten by taxi.” He was not a fast reader. She really shouldn’t have been watching, but she was transfixed by the silent drama.
‘How are you going to get the car there?’ Ji-Min wondered, a little invested now. ‘Did he forget that the car isn’t driveable? That aside, the police are going to be looking for him.’
He made a frustrated groan and opened a new tab. “wgere to get berosene”, he typed.
‘Aww,’ Ji-Min thought, disappointed. ‘He gave up on submerging the car already? I wanted to see him try to move it.’
That chain of misspelled garbage gave him nonsense, so he tried again, “where to buy fire fluid.”
She straightened up from her lean next to his window. It was probably time to call this in.
Well, she could be reasonably confident that he didn’t plan on turning himself in. And he also wasn’t bright enough to know that it would be hard to get a non-working car to somewhere isolated enough to destroy it. Ji-Min pulled her phone out of her back pocket and dialed up 9-11.
The passenger looked up from her cry. Her eyes widened. They were red with tears and sticky with ruined mascara. She didn't say anything to her partner. She just stared.
…Ji-Min showed her the phone. The number 9-11 was prominent on the otherwise white screen.
The passenger looked at the asshole, and she looked back at what was probably her baby crying in the backseat. She made a hand gesture to indicate that Ji-Min should step back.
That was fair. As the call rang through, Ji-Min slipped to the side of the alley, hopefully out of the driver’s immediate line of sight if he looked up and in his mirrors. If he made a break for it, Ji-Min could catch him on foot. But it was probably better not to spook him.
“This is 9-11, what is your emergency?”
Ji-Min leaned against the wall without letting the driver out of her sight. He was still using his phone. She really wished she could see what he was trying to problem solve by now. Had he realized that the police would identify the car and the owner? “There was a hit and run,” she said. “That was already reported. I am looking at the driver right now, about 12 blocks away from the scene of the crime.”
The driver was still on his phone. Maybe he was searching ‘how to change my name’ or 'do moving companies ask questions'
The passenger twisted around to comfort the baby, but her eyes fixed on Ji-Min. She looked tense, but not too rough. Ji-Min felt an anxious twist in her stomach as she wondered if the baby was crying because it was stressed or because it was hurt.
The operative on the line asked for her location. Ji-Min listed off the sign she’d noted, and then she described the car, giving the license plate twice. “The driver is a male, maybe 30s, and I think he threw his passenger’s phone out the window so that she didn’t make a call,” Ji-Min said calmly. “She was trying to convince him to turn in.” Her adrenaline was fading now that she was pretty sure there wouldn't be a confrontation.
“What’s your name, please?”
“I won’t give it,” Ji-Min said just as blandly as the emergency dispatcher’s trained voice. “There’s an infant in the car. Tell whoever comes to be careful to keep the bystanders safe.” She glanced back. "Come with the sirens off, he's gonna be an asshole to his wife if he hears you coming."
“Ma’am, I really do need your name.”
Ji-Min hung up and put away her phone. Then she waited. The couple in the car had another argument, but this one was less subdued. She didn’t strain to hear the details, because she heard enough to be pretty sure that the woman was trying to convince the driver to turn himself in.
There were distant sirens.
‘It would have been so easy to just not turn them on,’ she griped. ‘Work with me here.’
The asshole jerked to attention and looked around. Ji-Min pressed up against the wall, but she could still tell that he saw her by the look that passed through his eyes. He was gonna make a run for it.
"Don't do it," she said conversationally. "Don't fucking do it."
He was way too far away to hear her. But he was also a dumb asshole. He screamed something at his passenger, setting off a fresh round of wailing from the baby.
The ignition turned and turned without turning over. He twisted to look back at her again and slapped the steering wheel.
"Loser," Ji-Min muttered. She kicked off of the wall. "How's this going to go, my guy? I don’t think you’re a world class runner, and you’d have to be for this to be worth it."
The sirens were getting closer.
He unlocked his car and threw the door open. He made a run for it down the alley.
Ji-Min exhaled a gust of air and met eyes with the passenger. Then she started running after him at an easy ground-eating lope.
She wasn’t worried at all about losing him. She didn’t actually wanna hurt him, so there was no point to tackling him at full speed or tripping him. He wasn’t a supervillain. He was just some guy
She was in much better shape than he was. She could have sprinted him down in a matter of seconds. But it felt more humiliating to let him lose speed about two blocks later, huffing and puffing furiously. “You good, man?” Ji-Min mocked from about a foot behind him. He swerved when he looked over his shoulder.
“Fuck off,” he spat at her. He ran into the street without looking, which was a bold decision for a man who’d run down a pedestrian not twenty minutes prior.
“Be careful,” Ji-Min called, pausing to look both ways. It was clear, so she jogged across. “Wouldn’t it be awful if somebody hit you?” She ignored the growl he let out. “There’s some real dickwads out there, selfish little windbags too up their asses in misinformed self importance to remember that we exist in a society of other real human beings with complex inner lives.” She was enjoying this. This was better than her morning treadmill run.
He stopped running. “That wasn't my fault."
Ji-Min hung back as the guy wheeled back to stare defiantly down at her.
"It was his fucking fault," he insisted. "What kind of idiot goes running into traffic?"
Ji-Min rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter if it was his fault," she said waspishly. "Take some responsibility for your actions. You should have seen him. And even if not- it hurt him a lot more than it hurt you. You should have just stayed." She put a hand on her hip. "You're being real selfish right now. You know what you should be doing?"
He didn't say anything. He just heaved resentful breaths and watched her.
"You should take that baby to the fucking hospital." Ji-Min jabbed her finger at him. "The fuck, man? I don't know shit about babies but I know that they're delicate."
His face went slack.
"You really didn't think of that?" she marveled. "Holy shit." Ji-Min sneered at him. "Goddamn irresponsible. All three of you need medical attention, probably." She rolled her eyes. "Just go back to the car and wait for the police. It's worse now than if you had stayed at the scene, but the worst thing is for you to be arrested while I'm sitting on you." She raised her eyebrows at him meaningfully.
Of course, her eyebrows were covered. So he wouldn't see any of that.
He looked a little green. His hands were shaking.
"Come on," Ji-Min prodded. She tapped her foot on the ground. "You're not getting away. There's no chance of it. Go back and apologize to your girlfriend for yelling at her." She didn't hide her impatience. She had better shit to do.
"Wife," he corrected. He took a shaky step towards her and paused for a moment. Then he scrubbed a hand over his face. "Yeah… fuck. Okay." He took a deep breath. "You're not gonna tell them I ran from the car?" He started walking back, jaw set like he was steeling himself.
Ji-Min hummed. Of course not. She wasn't going to talk to the cops. But she wasn't going to tell him that.
The sirens had to be real close by the time they made it back to the car. The guy settled on the sidewalk with his face in his hands, too ashamed to talk to his wife.
Ji-Min considered spitting on him, but that would be DNA evidence. Instead she dug into her back pocket for her wallet and knocked on the passenger side window.
The woman inside tried to roll it down and made a face when the glass didn’t budge. Then she opened the door. "What?" Her tone was defeated.
"Cut the straps on that damn car seat," Ji-Min ordered. She flipped open her wallet and pulled out a stack of bills. "Get a new one. Once you've been in an accident, they're garbage."
There was a pause while the older woman stared at the cash. "I can get a new car seat on my own," she said, in a tone that made Ji-Min think she meant she'd ask around her friends.
Ji-Min shook the bills impatiently. "Don't be proud. It's for the fuckin baby." She sniffed as the lady gingerly took the cash. "Besides, it's not my hard earned money. I got it from a criminal."
She got a stare for that one. "This is evidence for some kind of crime?" the lady asked. She had one hand on her purse, the money still out. She was thinking about it.
"Only if you tell the cops. Hammer doesn't miss it." Ji-Min slapped the car companionably. "Good call on not moving the baby. You're waiting for the paramedics?" The police were really close now. They must have come the same way, from the accident, because it sounded like they were gonna come from the same place she'd entered the alley.
"...yeah." She put the money in her purse and zipped it up. The air was very awkward. The woman avoided eye contact. “Do you know… Is that man alright?”
Ji-Min thought back to what she’d seen. It would be a stretch to say that the pedestrian was fine. "I don’t know. I think he was alive when you left the scene.”
The woman took in a deep, shaky breath. “That’s… good. That’s good.” She fidgeted. “I don’t know what I should be doing. Next, I mean. And with my life.” She let out a sharp little laugh. “After the hospital.” Her fingers twisted around each other and she stole another nervous look at the baby in the mirror.
“I don't care what you do," Ji-Min said honestly. "I'm out."
The lady blinked. "Wait, what?"
Ji-Min didn't turn back. She gave the driver a kick as she walked past him that sent him sprawling on the cement. "I'm watching," she lied, and watched his face turn resentful and pained. Then she darted down the block and turned down a side street.
The street lit up with flashing blue and red lights behind her. She took another turn to be careful and ducked into an alcove. After a quick survey for cameras, she took off the mask and gloves and stuffed them into her pockets. Ji-Min pulled out her phone to check the closing time for the store she'd left her car at. She didn't want to go back past the cops while they were still there, but she needed to collect it before the store closed.
She had time. She walked a few miles, ducking cameras and changing roads a few times before she shrugged off her jacket and tied it around her hips.
'I wonder if it's possible to get a jacket to fold or zip up into a bag. That would be useful.'
Useful or not, it was really out of her skillset. Ji-Min put the thought aside and found a place to get lunch. She transferred a thousand dollars from Hammer's account to hers, feeling like she'd earned it. On a whim, she put 'baby car seat' on the explanation line.
She lingered over a coffee afterwards until she'd judged the cops absolutely had to be done with the scene. Then she made the trek back to her car, bought juice from the grocery store, and finally went to the landmark she'd picked out that morning.
Gene didn't call. Ji-Min told herself that she wasn't disappointed.
