"How did you get out of there alive?"

"Dunno. Maybe I was just smart with how I handled it."

Suparto sat next to me on the curb of the street, his horse hitched to the signpost. Mex cop and the rookie got inside an ambulance to ride with the paramedics to the hospital. Yaegar was on a stretcher in the ambulance. I had told them about his crimes and they thought it unnecessary for me to come down to the station. They suggested I head to the hospital instead, to get the bullet out of my side. But I told them that all I wanted was to watch the sunrise after spending so much time in the night. They also needed a witness to attest that I had been attacked. The girl from room 14 came forth. She had been watching everything except for when we entered the lobby. She was just too scared to do anything. She was real quiet and sweet about it, and I didn't understand why she stayed day and night in her motel room. She said she was waiting for her ma and pa to come back. I was certain they had abandoned her here, but that was a problem that I could solve in a second of decision. She was sitting next to Suparto, waiting for the sun to come up with us.

The ambulance drove away, and I realised that they had left their cop car on the side of the road. Bimbo and the Mex were both really unprofessional, so I wouldn't hold it against them. They hadn't even thought about confiscating the evidence from Yaegar's van. I stood up and had the curiosity to check the cop car out. Suparto and the girl followed me. I still didn't know her name. The windows were rolled down which left me with the conclusion that this was the only car Mex and Bimbo ever used. No one leaves their car windows down.

I reached through the window and opened the glove box. Spare keys were practically in plain sight. I took them and walked to the back. I wriggled the keys into the lock and turned. A soft thud as the lock released. The kids seemed to be into it, and I wondered if this was the first felony they had seen performed. But this was a felony for education's sake. What lies in a Texan cop car's trunk? I lifted it up and we all looked down at a shotgun on top of an alien mask and folded black overalls.

I looked up to take a breather and to gaze at the stars, following the horrifying discovery. To gaze at a lone star that was the brightest and biggest of them all, and rising from the east to put an end to the painful night. I felt a small smile creep onto my face.