Knight sat in the dark, trying to use his feline hearing to listen to what was going on upstairs. All he could hear was voices, but not what they were saying. Then he heard the phone ring. The main door opened, and a chime went off.
The phone rang again a short time later. The main door opened again. There was no noise except footfalls, and then the light went on.
He looked down the corridor. The dispatcher from upstairs came down, carrying a key on a ring and a large ziplock bag. She stopped at his cell, while he stood up near the bunk on the opposite side of the door.
“If I let you out, you have to get out of here.”
“If you let me out, you’ll be in a shitload o’ trouble.”
“You didn’t do anything,” she said, and unlocked the cell.
He walked over to the unlocked door, and stood in the doorway for a long moment. She handed him the ziplock bag, containing his wallet, cell and keys. “Quick, before they come back.”
They both heard the door chime upstairs. The dispatcher froze, and Knight stepped out. He said, “Get in there, make it look like I’m breaking out – ”
“No,” she said. “If it’s Kyle, I’ll be blamed no matter what.”
“Diane?” called a voice that Knight didn’t recognize.
Diane relaxed. “Judge? Down here.”
“What’re you doing down there?” he called, coming down the stairs. He rounded the stairs and stopped seeing Knight. “Oh, hello.”
Knight inclined his head. “Sir.”
“He’s all right, Judge. They put him in there because he’s gay.”
The man called Judge was an easy six-four, large and rotund even in his wool coat that came to his knees, He had wide blue eyes and wore a flat, soft cap with melting snow. “You don’t look gay,” said Judge.
Knight bristled. “Whaddya want, feather boas an’ fuckin’ rainbows?”
Judge laughed. “I guess that’s what I expect from around here. I’m sorry, my apologies. You can set him free, Diane, but where’s he going to go? There’s three feet of snow out there.”
Knight took the ziplock bag. “Leave’t to me.”
“He’s got a bike out there. One of those new-fangled gravity bikes.”
“Fuck tha’,” Knight said. “I’m goin’ home.” He stepped back from the two people. He’d shifted in front of people before, so it didn’t bother him when he shifted to his leopard form. The two stood staring, as he picked up the ziplock bag in his teeth.
The chime at the door opened again. “Diane, there’s nothing going on at Miller’s.”
“Kyle!” Diane gasped.
Knight ran toward the stairs. He stood at the foot of them, and started up them as Kyle called, “Diane?”
Knight ran to the top step and saw Kyle. “What the hell–”
Kyle fumbled for his gun but Knight tackled him, knocking him down. He ran for the door. The door chimed when he hit the carpet, and he stood on hind legs to push the door open. There was a loud bang behind him, as Knight got the door open and a bullet whizzed by him into the glass door, shattering it.
He dove out the door, into the snow, sinking to his haunches. He didn’t have the same snow-paws as his husband the snow-leopard, but at least he had agility and speed once he got out of the parking lot.
He ran north, into the teeth of the storm.