“Nice to see you again gentlemen,” Luke chuckled. “What can I offer you today?”
Billy looked around in the illuminated glare of the truck headlights. There were eight other men besides Shupe. He didn’t recognize any of them except for the smelly tattooed man whom Shupe had called Jess.
One of the men whom Billy did not know spoke up. “We need some guns; semi-automatic assault rifles, Glocks and ammo.”
“I think I can accommodate you gentlemen”, Luke said sarcastically.
He opened his trunk to display a vast arsenal. He picked up an AR-15 and handed it to Shupe.
“Try that on for size?”
Shupe just motioned toward Billy and said, “Give it to him!”
Billy couldn’t believe his ears, “Me!” he exclaimed.
“If you’re going to be a soldier in the Army of the White Brotherhood, you’re going to need a weapon.”
“But I don’t have any money!” protested Billy.
“Don’t worry about it! Consider it a recruitment bonus,” said Shupe.
In addition to the assault rifle, he handed Billy 15 boxes of ammo loads for the rifle.
The other men bought guns too, and Shupe bought another Glock handgun and an AR-15 rifle as well to replace the one that had been stolen. Concluding their transactions, they headed back toward their respective pickups. Billy got in first and Shupe said “Wait in here.” He then turned to walk toward another man in the group. The man spoke in a low hushed voice that was out of Billy’s earshot.
“Are you damned sure that you can trust this kid? Anything that gets traced back to us can mean real trouble!”
“I’m sure,” said Shupe. “He’s one of us now. When the time comes, he’ll do the job!”
“Well then you better go check and make sure he doesn’t go emailing his friends or posting our plans on Facebook or Twitter or something. After this thing goes down the police are going to be all over his computer like white on rice!” he retorted.
Shupe thought for a moment and then said, “I’ll take care of that”.
Shupe walked back to the truck and got in. As they drove back down the isolated dirt road Shupe turned to Billy and said “We’ll have to hide that somewhere; we can’t let your mom go finding it under your bed or something. Do you know any good hiding places?”
Billy thought for a moment “Yes, I think I do! There is a closet in the dance studio. The teacher leaves the dance studio unlocked so that Melissa can come in and practice. No one goes in there so it’s safe. I can wrap it up in a blanket or something and no one will notice it even if they do go in there.”
“OK, Billy, that sounds like it should work.” He replied. “Oh, and bring your laptop computer by tomorrow, I want to show you some interesting Web sites for our Cause”.
On the day Billy and Shupe had obtained the assault rifle, Melissa went to the dance studio after school hoping to practice some new moves. As she was about to open the door she heard voices from inside the room. She instantly recognized them as belonging to Billy and Shupe.
What in the world were they doing there? She thought. She stopped and put her ear to the door. She heard Billy say, “I’m sure it will be safe in there.”
Melissa quickly retreated around the corner of the hallway out of sight until she heard the studio door open, close and their footsteps heading toward the exit.
After they had left, she entered the studio herself. She looked around but nothing seemed out of place. But the presence of the two together, particularly since it was evening puzzled her. Could Shupe be the cause of Billy’s new found racism? It started to all make sense. The clandestine meeting when she saw Billy enter Shupe’s pickup, the incident in the parking lot with LeVon, and now this. Something was going on here that wasn’t quite right. She’d try to talk to Billy about it and see if he would supply some answers.
Chapter Seventeen
Shupe found Billy after school as he had planned.
“Ya bring your laptop with you?” he queried.
“Yes Sir, its right here”, Billy said pointing to a black bag with a shoulder strap.
“Okay, let’s go into my office where we can have some privacy and access the Web”.
Billy followed Shupe into a small back office. When they were inside, Shupe closed and locked the door.
“We don’t want to be disturbed” he said to Billy.
Billy booted up his computer and placed it on Shupe’s desk.
“Go ahead and access the Web or whatever you call it. I’m not much good at these things” Shupe demanded.
Billy obliged and launched into Internet Explorer.
Shupe interrupted, “Say Billy, why don’t you go in the next office and get me some coffee. Just knock three times and I’ll let you back in.”
With the computer still running, Billy got up and left out of the same door he’d come in. Shupe then re-locked the door after he’d gone. He sat down at Billy’s computer and went immediately to the Browsing History option and hit the command to delete all. He then went into his email program and deleted all the messages there as well. He didn’t know if Billy had gone onto any of the American Front’s Web sites but just in case, he wanted no traces.
He launched Facebook and then Twitter. He didn’t see anything there so he’d have to ask Billy if he posted messages to any of these sights. The last thing Shupe wanted was for somebody to find a bunch of Tweets or Facebook posts that he might have put on there to blurb about their activities.
When Billy came back, he asked him, “Billy, do you ever put anything up on Facebook or Twitter?”
Billy replied sheepishly, “I don’t really have any friends in the real world let alone the virtual one, so what’s the use of Facebook or Twitter”.
This brought a smile to Shupe’s face. As he turned to the keyboard, he picked up the full mug of hot coffee intentionally shaking it so the hot coffee splashed onto the back of his hand. He immediately dropped the cup causing the entire contents of the coffee cup to get spilled directly onto the computer keyboard. Shupe grabbed it as though to move it out of the way and the whole laptop came crashing down onto the floor. Billy stood by helpless. He picked up the now lifeless laptop computer and put it back on the desk.
Shupe took out a rag and furiously wiped at the keyboard.
Billy tried to turn to the computer on, but not a sound came out of it and the screen remain dark.
Shupe looked down at a crest fallen Billy. “Son, I’m really sorry about that! I’ll see if I can get the school to buy you a new one. It was an unintentional accident .That’s all I can say”.
Billy shook his head sadly, and then put the lifeless laptop back into his case.
Shupe tried to console Billy “I guess we can’t do what we planned today, so let’s plan on meeting sometime this week to go to the range. You need to get better at shooting targets before you go up against the real thing.”
At that, he unlocked the door, checked to see if anyone was watching and shooed Billy out.
Well, I guess that takes care of the computer, he thought smugly.
Chapter Eighteen
A day later Melissa finally caught up with Billy. He was now the one who was intentionally avoiding her.
“Billy! Wait up!” She cried trying to run after him.
He just kept walking at a faster pace trying to ignore her.
“Wait Billy!” she cried.
Finally he stopped. She turned and faced him directly.
“Listen Billy, I’m sorry about how we ended things last time, really I am! I tried to email you, but you never responded”
“My computer’s broken”, he said forlornly.
“I’m sorry”, she said. “What’s been going on with you lately? I hardly ever see you – and’s what’s up with you and Shupe?”
At that and he turned red and glared angrily at her.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I saw you getting into Shupe’s pickup after
school.”
“Billy”, she said sincerely, “Shupe is not what he seems to be. I think the man is dangerous and you shouldn’t be associating with him. He nearly took LeVon’s head off in the school parking lot a week ago and accused him of robbing his house”.
“Well maybe he did”, retorted Billy.
“There’s no proof of that, and even then it would be a matter for the police and not for Shupe to go attacking a student like that. Billy please, tell me what is going on?” she pleaded.
Billy just looked down at his feet. “I can’t tell you Melissa,” he pleaded. “Soon things will come to light and you’ll understand, but I just can’t talk about it now”.
“Alright Billy”, she said caringly. “You are still my friend and I care about you. Just remember what I said about Shupe! Be very careful of him!”
On that note, she turned and walked away while Billy just stood there. He really liked Melissa, but she didn’t understand the Cause he was now swept up in. He’d have to find some way to make her understand – to bring her around to his way of understanding how things were.
Chapter Nineteen
He had gone out with Shupe several times now to the shooting range and felt comfortable with the AR-15. He could quickly fire off the entire clip of 30 rounds in about 35 seconds if he tried, but Shupe had urged him to fire in short bursts, and take careful aim at the target.
He knew he could do this! He had to show Shupe and the rest of the world that he was worth something; that he was a True Patriot!
On March 15th Shupe met him at their usual rendezvous site.
Shupe faced him and placed both hands on his shoulders. “Billy, the time has come. You’ve been the one selected to fire the first shots of the great race war that will decide the fate for America!”
He’d been selected! He could barely control his elation.
“Just tell me what I need to do sir”, said Billy.
“You need to take out that cell of Black Panthers in your ten o’clock class tomorrow”, ordered Shupe. “That’s when they’ll all be there together. We know for a fact that they are arming themselves to start the conflict soon and we have to beat them to it. Can you do that son? Are you ready for this?” Shupe asked.
“I’ll do it sir! I’m a True Patriot, and I won’t back down! You can count on me!” Billy said courageously.
“I knew I could count on you Billy”, Shupe said patting him on the shoulder. “I’ll make sure that the door is jimmied open so it’ll look like you came in from the outside. The dance studio should be empty at that time and I’ll make sure that you can get in to get your rifle and ammo without being seen. Once the shooting starts I’ll rush in and get you out!”
“You with me boy?” said Shupe commandingly.
“Yes Sir!” shouted Billy.
The rest of the day Billy sat alone pondering what he was about to do. He knew he could do it! Still he was mostly afraid that he’d lose his nerve at the last minute. School had let out hours ago and he still just sat there thinking. Finally, he got up. There was one more thing he needed to do.
March 17th
The Day After the Shooting
Chapter Twenty
Keith Watson woke up drenched in a sweat. He’d had that dream again. Every time there was a new school shooting, it would trigger the same nightmare; just like the real one that he’d lived through nearly a decade earlier at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. He was just a senior in high school then when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed twelve students and one teacher. In his dream, he would always see the scowling face of one of the armed boys point his weapon at him and fire.
His wife Emily turned to him and asked “Was it that dream again?”
“Yes”, he said quietly.
Keith had graduated from Columbine High School and had received a Bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Colorado. While serving a one year internship at a Denver newspaper, he met Emily who was an arts and music teacher for one of the Denver middle schools. After a brief courtship, the two married. When a job offer came along for a junior reporter position at the St. Petersburg Times, he took it. They packed their belongings into their two-year-old Subaru SUV, drove to St. Petersburg, Florida, and settled into a nice starter home in Orange Grove. Keith checked into his new job, while Emily had no trouble obtaining a position teaching arts and music at Emery High.
Today every news station in the country and several international ones all had their mobile broadcasting trailers parked around Emory High School. Shootings like this one always made headline news and journalists and newscasters were huddled in a hastily erected events tent awaiting a press announcement from the Orange Grove Chief of Police Lewis Gibson. The bodies had been removed from the school to the coroner’s office awaiting positive identification by the devastated families.
Inside the school, in a teacher’s conference room, an internal investigation was already underway.
“Mr. Shupe”, the police chief asked, “Can you tell us again where you were when you heard the shots.”
“Yes Sir, I was toward the back of the school investigating a report of a door being jimmied open. When I heard the shots I immediately ran toward the hallway where I heard the shoots come from.”
“According to your initial report to Homicide detectives Rick Woods and Grant Howell, you said you then saw a Black student running toward you with a gun. Is that correct?”
“Yes sir”, said Shupe. It appeared to me that he had a handgun in his hand and was getting ready to fire.”
The Chief of Police interrupted, “Are you aware that no such weapon could be found?”
“No sir”, said Shupe, “At the time it appeared to me that he had a weapon in hand. I also had received word from one of the students that the Black student in question had acquired a handgun and was planning on shooting me because I had suspected him of a robbery in the neighborhood.”
“Wasn’t that in fact a robbery of your house, and is it not true that handguns and other weapons were stolen from you in that robbery?”
“Yes sir, that is correct.”
“When you saw him running toward you, did you challenge the boy to stop?”
“Sir, it has been my training that when confronted with a gun, I shoot first and ask questions later. I believe this is in keeping with Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, is it not?”
“Yes Mr. Shupe, it is.”
“Turning now to the boy in the classroom”, the Police chief spoke. “Was he known to you before the shooting?”
“No sir, Chief Lewis, I had no associations with him whatsoever. From what I understand he was not popular, and was suspected of having some mental and social problems at the school.”
“Can you think of any reason why he would target only the Black students in the classroom?”
“No sir, I cannot.”
“To the best of your knowledge, were you aware of any tensions that he might have had with these students, or had he been known to make any racist remarks in school?”
“No sir, I do not have any knowledge to that.”
“Turning now to the question of the assault rifle he used in the shooting”, the chief said, “I believe it was an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle with an extended ammunition clip capable of firing 30 rounds without reloading. Is that correct?”
“That is sir.”
“As a minor it would have been illegal for him to have obtained such a weapon. Do you know how and where he might have obtained this weapon?”
“No sir, I don’t know where he might have gotten this weapon or who might have aided him.”
“Thank you Mr. Shupe”, the Police chief went on, “While this has been a tragic incident, I want to say that because of your heroic efforts, many more deaths were avoided. We’ll adjourn now so that we can give a Press conference. We may need to ask you more questions as facts come to light.”
The panel of people including Shupe emerged from the sc
hool building and took seats at the table in the tent before the assembled crowd of reporters.
Keith Watson, representing the St. Petersburg Times was there holding his wife, Emily’s hand. Emily was beside herself in grief that something like this could have occurred at her school. Maybe if she’d known the boy, this could have been avoided.
The Press conference began.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting deaths that have occurred here. These are the facts of the case that we know as of today. The shooting was done by a single individual named Billy Edwards. He came into the classroom armed with an AR-15 assault rifle with an extended ammunition clip and fired 18 shots killing five individuals at close range. He was then killed by an armed security guard at the school who was able to prevent more students from being killed. At this time we do not know of any motive, and believe that he was a disturbed individual. Another student was killed by the guard in the ensuing panic. It is still unclear if that student was also armed, and was involved in the shooting. These are the facts as we know them and will present more facts as they come to light. We want to especially commend the heroic efforts of Clay Shupe who was the armed guard at the school and responded quickly to the shooting. Had it not been for his efforts, it is very likely that more deaths would have occurred. This case seems to also prove that Florida’s new Armed Guard School Security law, or as most of you know it by, the Good Guy with a Gun Law, does in fact save lives. Thank you all.”
Hands flew up from the crowd for questions. “Chief Gibbons, is it true that all of the victims in the shooting were Black?”
“Yes, that is true”, the chief responded.
“Chief Gibbons, do we know anything about where the boy acquired his weapon?”
“At this time, we do not have any information on this. As you know it is illegal in this state for a minor to own an assault weapon.”
“Chief Lewis, can you shed any light on the Black student who was also killed by the guard? Is it true that no weapon was found on him? Also did the shooter leave behind a note or tape that might shed some light as to his motive?”
“At this time we are still investigating these facts and will enlighten you as the facts emerge. Thank you all for coming.”
On that note, the police chief got up and the journalists departed to their respective trailers to file their stories.
A Good Guy With A Gun Page 4
