Now a small push while at the same time pressing the doorbell.
The bell gave out a raspy shriek, way too loud, as if they had put the ringer on the wrong side of the door.
“Shit. I’m going in,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez kicked at the open door, the noise loud, the door banging open. Jack didn’t like making noise. He kept looking around.
Always fucking bad, he thought. Not knowing if something was about to happen.
Rodriguez took a few steps inside. Then: “Hello?”
Back to Jack.
Gesturing. Two fingers to his eyes. A freaking army move. I go, you stay back.
Like they were in a goddamn war zone. Police as army.
The ear bud in Jack’s left ear was silent. The two-way radios were so damn unreliable. No one from the station house asking how things were going. Everyone dozing. Though Miller undoubtedly had their audio on a speaker somewhere.
Very low.
Wouldn’t want to wake anyone up.
If he could pick them up at all.
Jack took another look behind him and then started moving closer to the open door. If it all looked cool, he’d follow his partner in.
He got to the doorway.
Rodriguez, louder now to an apparently empty apartment. “Hello? Anyone the hell here?”
Nervous.
Not just me, Jack knew. Rodriguez, too. Jack quickly turned around to check the hallway. Then he took a step inside, looking left and right.
His partner was right—the neck protector made head movement hard. And hearing? That sucked, too.
But—
It didn’t cover the front of Jack’s face.
So he could smell.