Friday, March 5, 2010

The night passed as nights always do. The trick was to realize that it had passed. If you did that, then you were both alive and able to think. I recognized the sound of my alarm clock, so I was in the game again. I took a long shower then dressed for my walk. Since the park was on the way to the police station, I put a clean shirt and tie on a hanger.

When I walked out my front door, I noted with some dissatisfaction that there were two additional cars in the drive. My having emphasized to Molly the need to keep the driveway open, must have taken, since the guest had parked behind her. Since the guest had parked where they had, I had room to back my car into the street as I would have done normally, so all was marginally right with the world.

I had decided the day before that after the forty minute walk, if the park ranger was on time, I would changed in the bathroom at the park. If she was late with the key, I would need to change in the bathroom of the courthouse.

It was august even at 7AM, so I also carried a dry tee shirt in addition to the top shirt and tie. That morning I saw the ranger pull her pickup truck into the parking lot while I was about a hundred yards from the end of the path. I knew I would be ready for work when I pulled into the parking lot of the courthouse. It was my first choice, since I didn't want any more BS from Faircloth.

I really needed coffee badly, so it was going to be vending machine coffee as my second cup of the day. I would have made a better plan for coffee had I know just how long I could take the other bastards in the courthouse. Sum bitch there were a lot of lawyers running around over there.

Worse than that even, they had stump broke Faircloth. He had fallen in love with his job and was willing to do whatever it took to keep everyone happy. Well after today things were going to change drastically. I expected that the change meant I wouldn't be in the courthouse much longer. that was the real reason I hadn't added a coffee stop to my morning routine.

It was about 11AM when Captain John Faircloth got his going away party. Not the one with the tea and cookies, it wasn't until 3pm. The one at 11AM was courtesy of a prisoner who managed to grasp the bailiff's pistol. The prisoner was a felon, but he wasn't facing life or the needle, so why he shot the bailiff was anyone's guess. He did shoot him in the chest though. Then he turned the pistol on a gaggle of lawyers waiting just outside the door of courtroom number one.

John and I were in the hall on our way to the same courtroom to deliver a message to the judge. John had the message, I was just there to meet the Judge. He wasn't in the building the day before.

I heard the shout, "Gun" just before the shots began. I fell to my knees and pulled my glock on the way down. John was still standing when the popping began. I had to push him out of the way so that I could empty my 10mm in the general direction of the prisoner. I suppose god had decided that I was doing okay since the heart attack, because he stood beside me. The prisoner did a ballet dancer's turn as the first round struck him in the side. The next one got him in the back tossing him to the floor. I thought immediately, the one in the his back is going to come back to haunt me.

Time seemed like slow to a crawl as it unfolding, but as soon as he was on the floor things went into hyper drive. There were suddenly screams not just noise. It seemed that there were people bleeding everywhere. My cop training came out as it always did. I made sure the threat was over first, then I bent and tried to help the wounded. The reporters said it was heroic, but I knew better. I was just acting out a part in the play. It was just training, and over twenty years of preparing for something just like what happened.

"Get me some paper towels from the bathroom," I shouted to Faircloth. He was frozen in place. "Damn it John get me some paper towels." I wasn't a bit worried about calling the paramedics. There were cell phones everywhere.

I took off my shirt and pressed it to the shoulder of a female lawyer. "You, I said to a lawyer standing beside her. "Get your ass down here and hold this hard against her shoulder." He shook his head and stared blankly at me. "Don't make me shoot you," I snapped at him. He slipped to his knees and took my place over his fellow ambulance chaser.

I pronounced the bailiff dead and moved on to another lawyer covered in blood. He must have been shot after the bailiff and the other lawyer because he was shot in the butt while trying to run for the exit. I pressed a wad of paper towels into his ass cheek. "This does not mean we are going steady," I said smiling. He never did get it, but he smile seemed to calm him a little.

One second I was pretty much alone, Faircloth was not to be seen, the next the place was lousy with cops and paramedics. I finally stepped back to look at the overall scene. It was one hell of a nightmare. It looked like something from the six o'clock news from Iraq.

I walked calmly into the bathroom and immediately threw up. I hadn't had any food since the night before, so it was just bile. The bile burned my throat and made me want to throw up even more, so I did. I was covered in blood, but fortunately none of it was mine. I wanted to just stay down, but I knew there would be questions. There are always questions. Hell I might have shot the lawyer with the hole in his butt.

"We got lucky," I said to the Chief of D's. "It could have been a whole lot worse. There could be a body for each of the shots he got off. It was awfully crowded in that hall." I was covering my ass in case one of my rounds he struck a lawyer.

"I know but you did the right thing Abba?" It was a question and we both knew it.

"I hope so Cap," I replied.

"So where was Faircloth?" There was a certain amount of disdain in his voice. It was my chance to sell the old man down the river, but he was a cop, even if he was also a prick.

"When I heard the word gun, I pushed him out of the way without thinking. He was pretty much trying to keep his balance, when all the shit went down. He did help with the wounded after it was over." It was the best lie that I could come up with on short notice.

"Well steel yourself for the news whores, they are everywhere by now."

"Surely not yet Cap, it's only been a few minutes."

"This is a new day Abba, every person with a cell phone camera is a reporter. I wouldn't be surprised to find a shot of you dropping a witness. Damn Cnn and electronics are going to kill good police work. We are all going to need to ride with a lawyer to protect our ass."

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