Alex Ankrom - [Gabriel Carter 02]
Page 3
“I wasn’t in her situation so I don’t know. It’s not the point. She killed a guy. Maybe it was justifiable, maybe it’s not. That doesn’t matter. We are going to call it against the law. And I am going to go back into the Box, give her the GSR, and read her Miranda, and then I’m gonna give my report to the DA, because that’s the fucking job.”
“Why are you fighting me on this? We have a confession. We have a gun registered to one Jerry Rakowski. We have his prints on it. His GSR test will come up positive. Why do you want to go after the girl, too? Hell, she’s the real victim in this.”
“Why? Because she pulled the trigger. You can’t call them back after they’re fired. She broke the law, now she’s going to have to man up to it. What? Are we just going to start making up the law as we go along, now? This guy here’s guilty, but not that guy over there. We’re going to start picking and choosing who we arrest? Handing out warnings for homicide?”
Carter rubbed his chin. “Please don’t do this.”
She threw her arms out to her sides. “Why do you care?”
“I made a promise.”
“To who?”
“I owe Rak my life. He’s calling in the favor.”
“You know these people?” Locke put both her hands over her head. “Christ, that’s ethically wrong on so many levels. They could have your badge for this. Hell, you’d probably be sharing a cell with him.”
“I want you to listen to something, okay? Those people out there are practically-no, they are my family. We don’t share any blood, but we’re kin. That old man in there he was natural fucking police. Natural.”
“So where do you come into this?”
“He was my TO. We partnered up after that. One day, we chase this fucking clocker doing a re-up into an abandoned walkup on Freemont. We split up and I was able to corner the prick on the second floor. Kid takes the G-pack and tosses it at me. I don’t know why, but I catch it. And when I look back, he’s pointing a goddamn Mac-11 at me. I freeze up. I see his finger tense up. I’m thinking I’m dead. Game over, man. But just as he points and sprays, Rak comes out of nowhere and pushes my ass out of the way. He takes five to the stomach. The piece of shit fucking vest only stops one of them. Rak spends the next three months in ICU at University. Almost a year pissing and shitting in a bag after that before they can fix his bowels completely. I failed him once, I ain’t gonna do it again.”
Carter sighed. “The Councilman doesn’t need both of them. All we need to do is have Alisa wash her hands. There’ll be no evidence tying her to the crime.”
Locke put her hands on the door handle. “You know what my TO told me,” she said, not looking at Carter. “No matter what you do, never compromise your ethics, always do the right thing.”
“Sometimes doing the right thing, ain’t doing the right thing.”
“What? That’s your logic in this? That’s what you think is going to change my mind? Fuck you for asking me that.”
She exited the bathroom.
Carter called out after her. “You think this is easy for me?”
She made a beeline right toward interrogation room one. Jerry Rakowski looked disappointed to see her.
“Okay, Mr. Rakowski, you want to confess?”
“Yep. I did it.”
Locke leaned in closer. “We both know that’s bullshit. And while I commend you for what you’re trying to do, your daughter’s still the shooter. The only thing you’re doing is setting the both of you up to take the fall. There’s nothing I can do. You were a police; you should be able to understand that.”
“I could still be a police, you know? I chose not to after I got shot because of that little girl in the next room. I don’t remember much from my time in intensive care, but I remember this. This was like right after the second surgery. The doctors still think it’s a coin toss to see if I’d live. So Carter and Beth, Carter’s ex, brought Alisa to see me, thinking that seeing her would give me something to fight for. I couldn’t help it when I saw her. I cried. I didn’t want her to seem me like that, but she saw me.” And Rakowski broke into tears himself. “And she says to me ‘Don’t worry, daddy. It’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna take care of you now.’ And he grabs my hand as tight as she could. And I knew everything really would be okay.”
Rakowski looked Locke in the eye. “Please don’t take my little girl. Do whatever you want to me, but don’t take my little girl.”
“There’s nothing I can do. It’s the law.”
“A father will do anything for his child. You have a father, you should know that he would do anything for you. He was hurting my little girl so I killed him.”
Locke snorted out a laugh. “You don’t know my father. He’s too busy worrying about his career to worry about me. “
“Then, I’m sorry. Your father should be ashamed of himself then. If you were my child, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. That’s what a real parent does. It doesn’t matter how old your children get, there’s nothing a parent wouldn’t do for a child.” He grabbed Locke’s wrist and said, “Please. Not my little girl.”
Locke broke free from his grasp and backpedaled away from his until her back hit the door. She scrambled out of the room. She looked at the ceiling so that the room would stop spinning. She breathed so hard that she couldn’t hear anything else.
NINE
Carter had his hand on Alisa’s. “You just keep saying your dad did it. Don’t get creative. Just say he did it.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You can and you will.”
Alisa put her forehead on the table. “The fuck did I do?”
“What you had to do. And that’s what your dad is doing. What he has to do.”
“He’s all I have left. What am I going to do?”
“Don’t worry I’ll be there. I’ll protect you. Me and Dylan, we’re your family now.”
Locke busted through the door as though she were raiding a stash house. She pushed Carter out of the way.
Alisa jumped.
“Okay,” Locke said. “Enough of the bullshit. I know you shot the asshole. And to tell you the damn truth, I’d have shot him too. But it doesn’t change the fact that it was wrong. It’s against the law. That’s all that matters. The law.” Locke felt pressure welling up in her eyes. “The law. You broke the law. I’m gonna take you down stairs and administer the GSR, which will prove that you were the shooter. That evidence will be used to convict you in the murder of Richard McCullough, Jr.” A tear streaked down her face.
Alisa gave her a weak smile. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re just doing your job.”
She stood up, sticking out her hands. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Alisa,” Carter said. “No.”
Locke pointed a finger at him. “Shut up.”
“Yeah,” Alisa said.
They exited the room, Locke holding on to Alisa’s shoulder, more pushing than leading. The office was still empty.
“You know,” Alisa said, “I wasn’t thinking about myself when I did it. I was thinking about the next girl.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Sometimes doing the right thing, isn’t doing the right thing, you know?”
Locke stopped. She studied the bruises on Alisa’s face, tensing, biting her bottom lip so hard that it broke skin.
Locke said, “You look like you could use the bathroom.”
“What?” Carter asked.
Locke turned to him. “We wouldn’t want to have a law suit against the city because we denied this citizen her civil rights of taking a piss.” Locke faced Alisa. “You do have to take a piss, right?”
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