by Frank Zafiro
And Every Man Has to Die
( River City Crime - 4 )
Frank Zafiro
Frank Zafiro
And Every Man Has to Die
’Tis a hard winter when one wolf eats another.
— Russian Proverb
Part I
River City, Washington
July 1998
Tell lies, but become not tangled in lies.
— Russian Proverb
ONE
Friday, July 11th, 1998
2214 hours
Graveyard Shift
“Adam-122, on scene,” chirped Officer Katie MacLeod’s radio.
Adam-122 was the call sign for Officers Battaglia and O’Sullivan. Despite their joking demeanor, Katie was glad they were responding with her. The call came in as a violent domestic dispute in apartment seven of the Delilah Commons. The neighbor who called it in had reported crashing noises and screaming from inside. If there was a scrap going on, it’d be nice to have Sully and Batts at her side.
Katie guided the patrol cruiser along the curb, gliding to a stop. She took a quick look at the four-by-four-inch computer display in the console area. The devices were fairly new to the River City Police Department, though she knew they’d been in cars down in LA for almost a decade. The amber screen was so small that she had to page down twice to read the entire description of the call, including which apartment the witness lived in. Then she reached for her own microphone.
“Adam-116, on scene.”
“Copy, Adam-116.”
Katie glanced around and didn’t see another cruiser. Then she remembered that the Delilah Apartments had a rear entry, too. Battaglia and O’Sullivan had probably parked behind.
Katie grabbed her baton and stepped out of the vehicle. Out of habit, she eased the door shut instead of slamming it. She slid the metal PR-24 side-handle baton into the ring on her belt and made her way to the front door. The heavy sway and solid tap of the baton against her side gave her confidence. Most smaller officers preferred the straight wooden baton, but Katie stuck with the larger side-handle. While some complained that it was unwieldy, she liked the heft. More than that, it got the job done.
The front entrance to the apartment complex was supposed to be secure, but someone had used a softball-sized rock to prop the door open. Probably Sully. He was usually more thoughtful than Batts. A large, steep staircase awaited Katie on the left. On the right was a narrow hallway. A sign indicated that apartments six through ten resided upstairs on the second floor.
Katie started up the stairs toward number seven.
“Adam-122, start medics.” The slight elevation in Battaglia’s voice came through even over the radio. “I’ve got a conscious female, suffering from blows to the head.”
“Copy. Is she breathing?”
“I just said she’s conscious, didn’t I!”
“Copy, but medics need to know-”
The harsh buzz of multiple radio transmissions interrupted her.
“Other unit?” the dispatcher asked.
“22,” O’Sullivan said quickly. “The neighbor says the suspect is probably still in the building. He left less than thirty seconds ago.”
Katie quickened her steps as she neared the top of the steep staircase.
“Description?”
“He’s a white male,” O’Sullivan answered, “large build, wearing a white tank top.”
Katie reached the top of the stairs. She started to turn the corner to her left when a mountain in a sleeveless white T-shirt barreled toward her. He stopped short as soon as his chest brushed up against her, but his momentum jarred her backward. She grasped at the railing to regain her balance.
The man gave Katie an appraising look. She stared back at him resolutely. “Police,” she said in a firm voice, pointing at the top stair. “You need to have a seat right there.”
He stared at her with dark, flat eyes. Katie could see the gears working behind them. She sensed she didn’t have much time. She wrapped her left hand on her side-handle and depressed her radio mike with her right.
“Adam-116, I’ve got him here on the stairs. He’s-”
The man burst forward. He barreled into Katie, driving her backward. Panic flared in her stomach as she lost her balance, falling to the rear. The man’s huge hands clutched at her shoulders and upper arms, pulling her to the ground with him. The two tumbled down the narrow stairs in a heap. As they bounced and jostled awkwardly, the equipment on Katie’s duty belt dug into her sides, caught on the railing, twisted on her belt. Her baton caught in the fold of her knee, causing a twinge of pain.
Suddenly, a shot of piercing pain blazed through Katie’s left ankle. She imagined a piece of the banister had shattered and jabbed through the leather of her boot and into her flesh. She tried to suppress a cry, but could only dampen it to a painful grunt.
The pair flopped into the entryway. Katie landed on her back with his weight on top of her. The bullet-resistant vest softened the sharpness of her landing, but did nothing to blunt the force. Her breath whooshed out as her lungs collapsed. Frantically, she struggled for breath, her mind whirring.
Where’s backup?
What’s my next move?
Why can’t I breathe?
The large man let out a long, ragged grunt and pushed himself up. The sickening feeling of being unable to breathe began to fade as she gasped and labored to fill her lungs.
The man got his knees under him and started to rise, searching for an escape. Katie’s hand flashed out and clutched his wrist.
“You’re under arrest!” she tried to say, but could only wheeze out the final syllable.
His gaze snapped back to Katie. He stared at her a moment, his flat countenance revealing nothing. Katie took advantage of his hesitation to draw a shallow breath and repeated, “You’re under arrest. Stop resisting.” She sensed the ridiculousness of uttering those words while lying on her back beneath his powerful frame.
“Nyet,” the man grunted. He jerked his arm, breaking Katie’s grasp on his wrist.
Katie drove her left knee upward with as much force as she could muster, and his eyes bulged in surprised pain. The collision sent throbbing waves down her leg to her injured ankle. She did her best to ignore it.
Katie pushed at his chin. His large form moved slowly, then fell like a giant redwood. Katie scrambled into a sitting position, but the man recovered his senses before she could move to her knees. He drew back his left hand and threw a ham-sized fist at Katie’s head. Instinctively she tucked her chin and pulled up her shoulder. The blow landed square on her shoulder joint. Pain reverberated through her arm and chest. She let out a small cry of pain and anger.
He smiled and drew back his arm again.
Katie raised both arms to defend against the punch. She took the blow on the meaty part of her forearm and bit back a yelp, then rolled away to give herself some distance, bumping and clumping over the gear on her belt. As soon as she was facing him again, she pushed up to her knees.
He rose up like a grizzly bear in front of her, cold anger flashing in his eyes. He muttered something in guttural Russian. She didn’t know what the words meant, but she understood the sentiment.
Katie dropped her hand onto her radio and sought out the small, recessed red button that would tell every cop in the city she needed immediate help. He took a step forward before she could find it.
Katie rose to her feet to meet him, but as soon as she put weight on her left foot, a flood of pain thundered up her leg. She shifted her weight and struggled to remain standing.
A cruel smile formed on his lips as he moved toward her. His fists hung at his sides, clenched into massive, tight balls.
&nbs
p; Katie felt strangely calm. She reached for her pistol, but her hand clutched at nothing. Her fingers searched wildly for a moment before she realized that her holster was empty.
Panic flared in the pit of her stomach, and the man was upon her. His palms exploded toward her, catching her full in the chest. The force drove her backward into a row of metal mailboxes along the wall. Something clipped her on the back of the head. A trickle of hot blood oozed out of the cut.
No gun. What now?
He started toward her again. His anger and arrogance beamed out at her, as if she was nothing more than something to toy with now.
Katie set her jaw.
“Fuck you,” she whispered, sliding her baton out of its holder and pulling it into a ready position.
He paused for a moment, watching as she brandished the metal tube. The smile on his lips spread, exposing his square, yellow teeth. “Fuck me?” he asked, his accent thick. He pointed at the baton. “I fuck you with that, suka.”
“You’re under arrest,” Katie repeated grimly.
He let out a short, barking laugh and started toward her again. He displayed no caution, no defense.
Katie loaded her weight on her good leg and turned to blade her body slightly. She cocked the baton near her body. As soon as he was within range, he lashed out suddenly with a hard right. Katie anticipated the move and launched forward, driving the tip of the baton directly toward his solar plexus, every bit of her weight behind the blow. His huge fist grazed past her ear as she slipped inside his range.
Half a moment later the baton struck and all of her energy combined with his forward motion seemed to impale him upon it. He let out a cry of pain, surprise, and anger. His sour, harsh breath washed over her as both of them toppled to the ground.
This time, Katie landed on top. She scrambled up his body until she straddled his chest. She slammed the tip of the baton into the floor next to his neck, then lowered the baton across his throat. She stopped short of applying anything more than token pressure. Her eyes blazed into his.
“You make one more move and I will crush your throat,” she growled at him. “You’ll choke to death on your own blood. You hear me?”
He stared back at her, saying nothing.
She nudged his throat slightly, causing him to wince. “Do you understand me?” she said, raising her voice.
He gave her a short nod.
“Good,” she said. “Now put your hands straight out to the side. Slowly.”
The man moved his arms in a slow motion until they were in position.
“Turn your palms to the ground,” Katie ordered, staring into his eyes but watching his hands in her peripheral vision.
Slowly, deliberately, he rolled his wrists until his palms were on the floor.
“Good,” Katie said again. “Now just lay there and don’t move.”
As if on cue, Katie heard the thundering sound of heavy boots on the stairway.
“MacLeod!” a male voice called out.
“Down here!” Katie yelled back.
The tramping boots came closer. A moment later, Sully reached the landing. He pulled up short and took in the scene.
“Jesus,” he whispered, then stepped forward and immobilized one of the suspect’s arms at the elbow and wrist, using his knee and one hand.
A moment later, Battaglia appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He took one look at the scene and also whispered, “Jesus.”
“Grab the other arm!” Sully ordered.
Battaglia did so. “You cuff,” he told Sully.
Katie kept her baton in place as Sully retrieved his cuffs from his belt, even though she knew that if the man chose to fight now, she would never use such a desperate technique. Not with Sully and Batts here. But, before, when she’d been alone…
The metallic sound of ratcheting cuffs broke into her thoughts. “Got him, Katie,” Sully said as he secured the suspect’s wrist. “You can move.”
Katie released her dominant position, then slid off the suspect. The adrenaline that had sustained her just thirty seconds ago was already beginning to fade. She could feel the warm, sticky blood in her hair. Her shoulder and arm throbbed with each pulsing beat of her heart. But it was the cold, cutting pain that lanced upward from her ankle that worried her the most.
She slid backward until she backed into the wall, this time below the mailboxes. Dimly aware of a second set of ratcheting sounds while the other two officers took her attacker into custody, she set her baton on the floor, reached down and pulled up her uniform pant leg. She fully expected to see a ragged cut, but was surprised that the boot remained intact. No cut.
Katie stared for a moment, then realized that if the cutting hadn’t occurred outside the boot, then the injury was all inside the boot. Which meant-
“You all right?” Sully’s voice halted her realization.
Katie glanced up at him. “What?”
“I said, are you all right?” Sully repeated, his face darkening with concern. “You look pale.”
Katie swallowed and nodded. “I’m fine.”
Sully gave her an appraising look. He opened his mouth to speak, but Katie cut him off.
“Just stuff him,” she said, her voice sharp. “We’ll talk after.”
Sully’s eyes widened slightly at her tone, but then he nodded in understanding.
“Let’s go, asshole,” Battaglia said, standing the suspect up. Sully took his other arm, and together they escorted him down the narrow hallway and out the rear door.
Katie let out a long sigh and looked down at her trembling hands. She knew that they’d have to walk him to the car in the rear, search him, and put him in the back seat. That gave her about two minutes. Two minutes to get her act together.
She forced herself to her feet, leaning heavily on her right leg. She half hopped, half shuffled toward the stairs, her eyes scanning the dimly lit landing. When she didn’t see anything, she moved to the bottom of the stairs and peered upward. Her eyes searched each step, but she saw nothing.
Katie pulled her small backup flashlight from her belt and flicked it on. She bathed every step with the wavering light, but there was still no sign of her gun. She turned and swept the light beam slowly around the landing. Her heart began to pound again, a different brand of fear growing in the pit of her stomach.
Any cop that loses her gun-
Then she saw it, tucked into the corner of the landing. It must have been torn from her holster as the two of them were tumbling down the stairs, then skittered across the landing into the corner.
Katie limped heavily to the corner, reached down and retrieved the pistol. A quick examination revealed no damage. She slid it into her holster with relief, then shuffled back to the foot of the stairs. The throbbing in her ankle now dwarfed the pain in her shoulder. She eased herself onto the third stair from the bottom and straightened her injured leg.
Katie took several deep breaths to calm herself. Even so, her hands still shook with the after-wash of adrenaline. She wanted to cry. Or scream in anger. Instead, she sat and waited.
A short time later, Sully appeared again. “He’s in the back of our patrol car,” he reported. “Now, are you okay?”
Katie swallowed. “I’m a little hurt. Did you get probable cause to arrest him up there at the apartment?”
Sully shrugged. “Close enough. I’ll need to finish my interview with the neighbor. The wife has a shiner and a split lip, but she’s not saying anything.”
“Well,” Katie said, “you can add assault on a law enforcement officer to whatever other charges you end up with.”
Sully’s eyebrows went up. “He hurt you?”
Katie nodded.
“Bad?”
She shrugged. The motion caused her to wince in pain. “Bad enough,” she said, trying to keep it together. “I probably need to see a doctor, anyway.”
“What happened?”
“I think I broke my ankle when we fell down the stairs.”
Sully looked u
p at the steep, narrow staircase and whistled. “I can see that happening easily enough. What else? Do you need anything?”
Katie took another deep breath. “I could use a ride to the hospital,” she half-joked.
“I’ll call an ambulance,” Sully said.
“I don’t know if that’s necess-”
Sully raised his radio to his mouth. “Adam-122, I need an RA here for an injured officer. Conscious and breathing. Possible broken ankle.”
“Copy.”
“And start me a supervisor,” Sully added.
“Copy.”
Katie scowled. “Thanks, Sully. Now the whole world knows.”
He shrugged. “Everyone on the job is going to find out that you kicked the shit out of a guy three times your size anyway, MacLeod. So what’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is, I’m hurt. I don’t want everyone to know that.”
“Why?”
She didn’t answer the question. He wouldn’t understand, anyway. Instead, she said, “It’s not just cops, bonehead. Everyone with a scanner knows, too.”
Sully shrugged. “I still don’t see-”
“The asshole in the back of your car knows, too.” Tears rose in her eyes. She used the back of her hand to brush them away with annoyance. “I don’t want him knowing he hurt me, all right?”
“Okay,” Sully said.
“I mean, I know he’s going to find out eventually, once we charge him and everything,” Katie said, her words tumbling out. “He’ll see the report and we’ll go to court and all that. But I don’t want him to know now. I don’t want him to know how close-”
Sully reached out and rested his hand on her left shoulder. “It’s okay. I understand.”
Katie looked up and met his gaze. “Do you?”
Sully grinned and shrugged. “Kinda. But not really.”
Katie smiled through her tears. “You’re an asshole, Sully.”
“Aye, lass,” he whispered in his faux brogue. “’Tis true. But don’t worry about it. The dude in our car isn’t listening to anything except country music right now.” His eyes glinted. “Cranked-up country music, actually, since he looked like the heavy metal type.”
