The woman started talking to the guy quietly. I was glad that someone was thinking, because my brain went blank with one look at the gun.
I tore my eyes from him and took in the woman’s blond hair. For some reason, I thought about the fact that she was probably around five and a half feet tall since I could see completely over her head.
I heard her ask the man what was going on.
He looked at her quickly and then flicked his eyes back to me. “Move!” he yelled, and I flinched. Why wasn’t she moving? If someone was pointing a gun at me and told me to move, I would. I wanted to, but my feet felt glued to the floor.
“Sorry, but I can’t. Why are you pointing a gun at me?” she asked him, her voice soft and smooth.
He looked at her again, glanced at his gun, and then focused on me. He told her he wasn’t pointing it at her; though, actually, he was. I wasn’t stupid enough to think her thin frame would stop a bullet if he decided to fire at that close of a range.
“Wait a minute, why do you want to point a gun at this guy?” The woman jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at me.
The guy looked at her hard. “Because I’m going to kill him. Now move, or I’ll shoot you, too!” he shouted. His words ran quickly through my mind as nausea grew in the pit of my stomach.
“Why would you want to kill this guy?” I saw her look over her shoulder, but I was staring at the gun. I knew Kayla was behind me and, for once, she wasn’t talking. Troy was to her left, and neither of them moved a muscle. It wasn’t like he could do much anyway.
The man with the gun shouted that his wife was in love with me and I cringed. I had heard this before, although I had never had a jealous husband threaten to kill me because of it. I made a sound low in my throat. I wanted to speak, but I couldn’t get the words out over my dry tongue.
The woman turned sideways, and I met her serious expression. She appeared so calm. How could she be so damn calm? She inspected me from bottom to top, stopping when our eyes meet. Her eyes were heated, intense, and a light clear blue, like the summer sky. I kept staring at her until she turned away.
“Your wife is having an affair with that?” The way she said that made it sound like I was a piece of low-life trash, not exactly what I expected after seeing the heat flare in her eyes. Somehow, I wanted to prove that I was more than that, and I took a step closer to her, finally finding the strength to move my feet.
“No! She’s not having an affair with him; she’s just in love with him. Everything is about him! She has pictures of him everywhere in our house, and she is constantly watching his damn movies and telling me I need to look more like him.” Yuck, that’s kind of creepy.
“So you want to kill him, why?” the woman asked. I wanted to know that same thing. Why did he want to kill me if it was his wife with the fatal-attraction problem?
My knees almost buckled when he answered.
“I don’t think killing him is the answer,” the woman responded.
I couldn’t agree more, and I couldn’t believe she was able to speak so calmly. I wasn’t sure I could have gotten a word out without stuttering. It’s amazing how different it feels when you’re filming a movie and someone points a gun at you. You know it’s not real. But this, this was real.
“I don’t think killing him is the answer. If you kill him, you will go to jail, and then you won’t have your wife at all.” Hell, he’s still going to jail even if I’m not dead. “Is that what you want?” This woman had a death wish, I realized, when I saw her move closer to the gunman.
The crazy man stared her down and then glared at me. As our eyes locked, I could have sworn she took another step closer to him.
It was at the moment when I noticed all of the activity around us. There were people on both sides, most of them at a distance, except for about eight officers all with their guns drawn and aimed in our direction. My stomach heaved thinking about being in the center of this three-ring circus. Three of the officers slowly moved back. Hello! Where are you going?
The guy said he didn’t want to go to jail, but didn’t he realize he was either going there or to the morgue? I looked back at the lunatic in front of me as he finally spoke again. My eyes widened when he said he would rather be dead. He might be getting his wish if this went on much longer.
“You don’t really want to die. Imagine the pain that would cause your wife.” She spoke so softly it was hard for me to hear her clearly with my pulse beating so loudly in my ears. Who cared about how much pain it caused his wife!
I watched and listened as she went back and forth with him for a few moments, every once in a while she took a step closer. She was about a foot and a half in front of me when I noticed the back of her shirt. Written in small grey letters between her wide shoulders were the words, “I Fear No Evil.” She fears no evil. So that’s why she stepped in front of a gunman? This woman was crazy. Mind you, at the moment, I was happy she was standing between us and was able to communicate with him. Nevertheless, she was still crazy. Beautiful, but crazy.
I lifted my head so that I could stare at the man as he spoke. “But what am I supposed to do?” He was speaking intensely with her.
“Hand me the gun, and we can figure it out.” She took another step closer and started to reach out to the guy. It was insane, but I wanted to grab her and pull her back to keep her safe.
Cameras flashed all around us as I heard her say very quietly, “Please.” She took another step forward, and I stared again at those four simple words on her back: I Fear No Evil.
Everything around us was silent; there was not a sound as everyone looked on, and he finally nodded at her. She took another step, her hand reaching out to him.
Before I could even comprehend what was happening, the woman was standing in front of me with the gun’s slide back, and it hung from her pointer finger. Her hands were above her head, and the guy was against the wall sliding down. That was the best action scene I was ever in, and I didn’t remember a bit of it.
Four officers were on the guy in a second and they hauled him up off the ground and started to move him away. Kayla threw her arms around me.
“Oh my God, Ryan! Ryan, are you all right? I was scared to death. Who was that man? That woman must be nuts to get in the middle of it; maybe she was in on it. Maybe, it was all a publicity stunt.”
“Kayla, I’m fine. Would you do me a favor and hush for a minute, please.” My arms shook. The whole episode had been so quick and surreal. I looked up to find the woman and speak with her, but she had walked toward a door off to the side. She was following an officer and there was another woman with her.
Our eyes locked for just a moment before she nodded once and disappeared behind the white metal exit. I wanted to say thank you, but how do you express such gratitude with two simple words? As she left my sight, I vowed I would find her and thank her later.
“Sir, we need to get you and your party into our offices for your statements.” An officer stood in front of me while I continued to stare at the place where I had last seen her. Who was that woman who feared no evil?
“Yeah, sure. Who was that woman?” I asked the officer in front of me.
“Don’t know, sir. If you will all follow me, we’ll get this done as quickly as possible so that you can still make your flight.” The officer turned and started walking away. We all followed, although I was surprised I could walk with how badly my legs were still shaking. The adrenaline of fear was still running fiercely through my blood.
He took us to a non-descript set of offices near the security checkpoint. An officer gave each of us a statement form to fill out. When I finished, an older man walked into the room.
“Mr. Palmer, if you wouldn’t mind, I need to speak to you privately for a few minutes.” He motioned for me to follow him. I assumed he wanted to ask me some additional questions.
I followed him down a hallway and into a plain white office. A simple metal table with four chairs sat around it; there were no other furnishings exc
ept for a camera mounted on the ceiling and a mirrored window.
We sat down on opposite sides of the table, and the man introduced himself as Lieutenant Dorsey. “Mr. Palmer, I want to make sure you have all your questions answered and you understand how this process will work.”
“Actually, I do have one question,” I said.
“Sure,” he answered and leaned back in his chair.
“Who was that woman who stepped in front of me?” I looked him directly in the eyes. “Does she work for you?”
The Lieutenant studied me for a few seconds. “No, she doesn’t work for me; and she requested that we not disclose her name.” Well, maybe that was for the press.
“To you, or to anyone else,” he added after a brief pause.
She didn’t want me to know who she was? Why?
“Well, can I at least speak with her?” I leaned forward in my seat, the chair creaked under me. I wanted to thank her for what she did; I needed to understand why she had.
“Mr. Palmer, I’m sorry, but she is involved in a detailed interview right now. I’m afraid you won’t have a chance to speak with her before your flight.” He appeared completely relaxed sitting across from me.
“Then I’ll take a later flight. I’d like to speak with her before I leave.”
“Sir,” he cleared his throat, “she doesn’t want to speak with you. She specifically asked that we keep you and your entourage separate from her, and that we keep her identity private. I have to respect her wishes.” He looked down at the table for a second and I had the feeling he was about to say something else, so I waited. “I will tell you that she does work in law enforcement, but that is all I can tell you about her.” He had lifted his head back up to face me. “Now, Mr. Palmer, you better get going so you can catch your flight.” He stood up and dismissed me, just like that.
As my friends and I walked out of the offices and made our way toward the boarding gate, I saw that a TV station was already playing a segment about what happened. Someone had taken video of the incident. I stopped dead in my tracks as I watched the way the woman took the gun from the man and then kicked him across the room. Across the bottom of the screen, were the words, “Who is this heroine?”
I was glad to see they didn’t know who she was either. For once, I was glad the media was involved. They would figure out who she was; it would only be a matter of time. Then I could find her and ask her why she had done that and if she really feared no evil.
Chapter 3
October – Jacquelyn
“Jackie, can you come into my office for a minute.” My chief spoke to me over the office intercom system on my desk phone.
“I’ll be right there, Chief.” I closed the case file I was reading and sat back in my chair with a heavy sigh. I hoped he wanted information on a case I was working, but for some reason I didn’t think that’s what it was. If so, he probably would have mentioned which case, so that I could make sure I had all my information on it.
I figured it probably had more to do with all the events that had taken place over the last week. Hundreds of phone calls were flooding the station, the mail was coming in buckets, people stopped by, and there were endless interview requests. Not to mention the flower deliveries. Dozens of flowers arrived every day from Ryan Palmer’s fans. The cards on the flowers said everything from a simple “Thank you for doing what you do,” to “You are my idol!” I seriously thought it was all ridiculous.
I had no interest in them, and even the guys in the department were running out of people to give them to. If it didn’t stop soon, I was going to open a flower shop on the corner and start selling them off, cheap!
I got up from my desk and walked down the hall to my Chief’s office. I knocked briefly on the doorframe before stepping inside. He sat at his desk reading something on his computer screen.
“What’s up, Chief?” I sat down in one of the beat up leather chairs in front of his desk, glancing around his office at the photographs and certificates that lined the walls. I waited for him patiently.
He continued to read and then directed his attention at me. He reached over and turned the computer screen on his desk to face me. Somehow, when he did this, I knew I wouldn’t want to see what was on the screen. She Fears No Evil was the headline on the screen. A picture of the gunman and Ryan standing very close behind me in the airport during the incident filled the computer’s flat screen.
I sighed and looked away. “Chief, I just want this to end. I’m sorry.”
“Jack, we all want this to end. This place is a circus. It’s making all the guys nervous, and the residents are even getting annoyed.” He leaned back and put his arms on the chair’s armrests.
“I don’t know how to get it to stop. Trust me, if I could come up with a way, I’d do it.” I looked at him. I was tired of the endless phones ringing in the station, and the cameras on me as soon as I walked out the door. They were even camped outside my house now. It was beyond ridiculous.
He took a deep breath and then looked at me hard. “There is something you can do, and,” he hesitated, “Well…you’re going to do it.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what he had to say, but I had to ask. “What’s that, sir?”
He put his hands behind his head, slightly ruffling his short brown hair. “You’re going to give a press conference in about thirty minutes.”
“What!” I wasn’t asking a question, I was giving an explicit “Why should I even entertain them?”
He sat up to his desk, both arms resting on its top. “Because, hopefully, it will make them go away. We need to get back to work, and we need all of this nonsense to stop.”
I put my hands up to my face, covering it to try to keep my composure. I blew air out in a huff and glared at him. “What am I supposed to say?”
“I can’t tell you that. You know how to do press conferences, do what you know.” He shrugged. He had a lot more faith in me then I had in myself. “Now, go freshen up and think about what you’re going to say.”
I clenched my jaw, and I would have argued if I thought it might do any good, but I knew it wouldn’t. Somewhere inside, I knew this was eventually going to happen, and I’d been dreading it every second. I shook my head and stood up. I went back to my office just as Susan was walking out of it.
“Hey, Susan. Did you bring me something?” She was our administrative assistant, the one who fielded the majority of the phone calls that were coming in about this whole mess. I owed her a couple of drinks, that was for sure.
“Oh, yeah, I brought you something—another hundred pieces of fan mail.” She laughed as she walked away.
I turned to my desk and saw the tray of mail. You have got to be kidding me! I picked it up and dropped it into the corner of my office with a loud thud. It would all be filed in the trashcan later.
What the hell was I going to say at this press conference? I had no clue. It’s not like I could talk about the incident. It was a current investigation that had not gone to court yet, so there was little I could say about it. I sat down in my chair and stared at the swirling colors on my computer’s screensaver.
Time went by way too fast, and before I knew it, the Chief was standing at my door. “Let’s go, Jacquelyn.” I sat there staring up at him for three full seconds, sighed heavily, and then stood up. I grabbed my gray blazer off the hook behind my door and followed him out. The Chief might not be happy about what I was going to say, but I was going to say it, no matter what.
We walked down the hallway toward the door that led to the township meeting room. Several of the guys on duty followed us down. The nerves in my body tingled on edge and I felt like I was going to throw up as we opened the door leading us down another hallway to the front part of the room. As we got closer, I could hear a lot of people talking. A lot of people. I clenched my jaw and fisted my hands at my side.
I had not looked outside to see how many people were out there, so when I stepped into the room and saw it packed with television
cameras and reporters, I almost spun and walked right back out. There must have been at least thirty different television cameras in the room. My Chief must have read my face because he grabbed my arm and guided me up behind the podium at the front of the room. I stood to the left of him, my knees shaking under my slacks.
Cameras instantly showed red lights blinking on the front, and digital cameras flashed as people started snapping pictures. There must have been at least two hundred people jammed in this little room. My hands were sweating, and my stomach rolled.
The Chief actually thanked everyone for coming, and I fought not to roll my eyes. Then he introduced me, and as I stepped up to the microphone, I thought I was going to be sick. Wouldn’t that make for some great news? Swallowing the bile that threatened to come up, I scanned the room. So many people were making such a big deal out of such a small thing. I took another deep breath and began.
“I’m Detective Jacquelyn Liveon. I am a twelve-year veteran of the Rosewood Township Police Department. On the fifteenth of October, I was involved in an incident at the Philadelphia International Airport. During that, a man held a gun directed at Mr. Ryan Palmer. The gunman was taken into custody without further incident.” I scanned the crowd, talking much more firmly than I thought possible with how the butterflies were flying around inside my stomach. “This is all part of an ongoing investigation, and I will say nothing further about it.
“I do not know Mr. Palmer. I had never spoken to him before the situation occurred, I did not speak to him during the incident, and I have not spoken to him since. In fact, I have no intention of speaking with the victim at all.” I was gaining speed now, and my nerves calmed down. The cameras kept flashing, and the reporters examined me closely.
“I am a sworn law enforcement officer. When I took that oath twelve years ago, I swore to protect not only the citizens of my township, but also the citizens of the Commonwealth and those who are passing through our area. On October 15, I did just that. If the roles were reversed, and Mr. Palmer had been the man with the gun, I would have done exactly the same thing.” I narrowed my eyes as I made that point.
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