The Viper

Gunfire broke out at noon today on a quiet side street in Garville. Police Chief Lloyd Clugger issued the following statement:

“We are currently investigating a violent incident that occurred earlier today next to Lanka’s Specialty Foods on Fourth Street. Gunshots were exchanged between a man identified as Jack Hardwick and Bruno Lanka, the store owner, and Dominick Vesco, the store manager. Mr. Lanka was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr. Hardwick and Mr. Vesco were transported to Albany General Hospital. Both suffered life-threatening wounds, and both remain in critical condition. The cause of the confrontation is yet to be determined.”

Jack Hardwick was formerly an investigator in the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Official sources have not speculated on whether his background might have a bearing on today’s explosive encounter.

Sources within the hospital have confirmed that Hardwick underwent a two-hour operation by a trauma surgeon and remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

No additional information was available on Dominick Vesco. This developing story will be updated as more facts becomes available.

Gurney felt a nauseating chill pass through his body. He sat staring at the computer screen—willing it to tell him that Hardwick had turned the corner, that his condition had stabilized, that he was out of danger. He clicked on the page’s Refresh icon once, twice, three times, but no new details appeared.

On his fourth try, the page was dominated by a flashing BREAKING NEWS banner above an article that Gurney was almost afraid to read.

STUDENT FILMMAKERS RECORD DEADLY GARVILLE SHOOT-OUT

Peter Flake and Yoko Klein, film majors at Marlon College, were in the right place at the right time to record the violent confrontation that took place in a Garville parking lot earlier today.

“We were driving around town, getting local footage for our term project, a video documentary on upstate towns in decline,” Klein explained, “when we spotted this amazing red GTO from the 1960s. Right after we slowed down to film it from another angle, a huge black SUV came along and pulled in behind it. The driver of the SUV and the driver of the GTO got into this super-bad thing, total insanity, everybody getting shot, and we got the whole thing on camera.”

The article went on to report that Flake and Klein had given WSKZ access to their recorded audio and video footage of the confrontation—which could be viewed via a link at the end of the article. A warning was appended below it.

CONTAINS IMAGES OF EXTREME VIOLENCE

Gurney’s hand was shaking as he clicked on the link icon.

The high-resolution video opened with a shot of a gleaming red 1967 Pontiac GTO parked just inside the parking area for Lanka’s Specialty Foods. Slouched in the driver’s seat was Jack Hardwick. A few seconds later, a black Escalade pulled in and stopped behind the GTO. Gurney recognized the driver—Dominick Vesco.

He stepped out of the Escalade, approached the GTO, and rapped on the side window. The audio was faint but sufficiently clear.

Hardwick lowered the window. “Yeah?”

“You’re on private property.”

“I thought this lot was for store customers.”

“You already been to the store. I don’t forget a face. Now get the fuck out of here.”

“Suppose I want to buy some of Lanka’s specialty foods.”

“Suppose I blow your fucking head off.”

Hardwick sighed. “You’re creating a problem.”

“That so?”

As Vesco reached into the pocket of his gray windbreaker, Hardwick suddenly thrust the heavy front door of the GTO open, smashing it into Vesco and sending him staggering toward the Escalade. He leapt out after him, delivering a flurry of punches to his head. As the man slumped against the vehicle’s passenger door, the window slid down, a pistol emerged, and a shot was fired, thrusting Hardwick backward. A second shot propelled his body in a half rotation, and he half fell, half dove to the ground, pulling himself toward the front of the vehicle, out of the shooter’s line of fire.

As Vesco struggled to his feet, Bruno Lanka emerged from the Escalade. With weapons extended they moved toward Hardwick’s prone form. There was a rapid exchange of gunfire, seemingly from all three combatants at once, then silence.

The silence was broken by a shaky voice—surely one of the student videographers.

“Holy shit!”

The video ended with a slow zoom in on three motionless bodies on the ground beside the Escalade, a pistol in the right hand of each one, blood seeping through their clothes onto the tarmac.

Gurney’s fists were clenched, the knuckles white. He was rigid with fury—a fury mingled with a terrible feeling of guilt.