The figures were all in the same places but there was an addition, a stick figure for the man in scrubs pushing a wheelchair.
‘And that man in scrubs,’ Sarah said, ‘could have pushed his chair on into that room without a cross word from me. He looked perfect to be exactly where he was. But Judy really knows her turf, she spotted him right away for a fake. Tore into him like a sheep dog and got knocked down for her pains.’
‘OK, next chart, Alice,’ Delaney said. ‘This is where we need you to clear up a few things, Jason. We established that you were thirty feet from the suspect when he knocked Judy down, but I don’t believe you tased him from that distance, did you?’
‘No. We spent one whole winter and spring wrangling over which taser to buy, and most of the following summer training with it. So we’ve all got those parameters drilled into our brains – ten to twenty feet of clear space with nobody in it but your target bad guy. That’s what it takes to make the taser man happy, right? Turns out it’s hard to find in real time, so we don’t use it as much as we expected.’
‘Which is why we’re all so pleased when it works,’ Delaney said. ‘This shot of yours went just about as advertised, didn’t it?’
‘Textbook. I took one big step toward him as he moved away from the chair, and there it was, as fat as butter, the perfect shot. I didn’t know he was high, so I didn’t even worry that the shot wouldn’t work.’
‘Oh, I forgot about that,’ Sarah said. ‘Some of those drugs can make people immune to the jolt, can’t they?’
‘So I hear,’ Jason said. ‘But I think my guy has been pickled for so long that he’s about ready to fall over from any little nudge. He didn’t go totally disabled the way some do, but that first jolt put him on the ground all right.’
‘Yes. Each take-down is a little different, isn’t it? Now let’s move along to the second half of this incident. Alice?’ A new graph appeared onscreen. ‘You were putting cuffs on your prisoner when the second man came out of the room your man had been headed into, right? Is this about right for your position – left of Sarah but somewhat ahead?’
‘Yeah. Little further ahead, I think – maybe ten feet. Well, to tell the truth we were rolling around some. Tased or not, this dude doesn’t like to get tied up. He had a kind of panic reaction to restraints.’
‘So you had a pretty busy time, finishing the arrest?’
‘Fair to say, yes. I think he must have been tied up a few times as a child and maybe had some bad stuff done to him because he went totally apeshit. Tried to bite me – almost made it once. I don’t ever want to meet this guy in the dark – he’s dangerous.’
‘But then you couldn’t really have been watching Sarah when she shot the second man, could you?’
‘Well …’
‘Think about it. Were your eyes really on Sarah when she fired that shot? Or were you watching the man you were tying up?’
‘Um. Put it that way, I suppose I must have been watching my prisoner. But I was aware of my surroundings and I heard Sarah warn her attacker. Twice, actually, wasn’t it, Sarah?’
‘Yes,’ Sarah said. ‘But he’s right, Jason, you were busy with wheelchair man on the floor there, and weird knifeman was heading straight for your unprotected back. So I drew my gun, there wasn’t time for anything else. I thought when he saw the Glock he’d believe me when I told him to drop the knife.’
After a long moment of silence, Jason said, his voice as dry as the desert outside the window, ‘My God, Sarah, is that really what happened? The knife guy was headed for me?’
‘Yes. He’d been busy in DeShawn’s room, remember, tearing the patient out of his IV hookup, but he heard his partner yelling with pain from the taser. So he abandoned the guy they came to get and came out to help his partner.’
‘But then he ran into you first?’
‘No, at that point he wasn’t even looking at me. He spotted you on top of his partner and started toward you right away. I saw him heading for your back and pulled my gun and told him to put the knife down or he was dead.’
‘No shit?’ Jason said. ‘He was headed for me?’
‘Yes. You couldn’t see him because you were on the ground with the one you were fighting.’
‘So then instead of planting his fancy knife in my nice wide-open back he kicked Judy out of the way and went after you?’
‘Yep. That’s when I warned him again, and he did pause, for a couple of seconds. But I saw him decide that I must be bluffing. He got that sneer that the real bullies get; I could see him decide that no woman was ever going to shoot him. So he lunged at me with the knife held in both hands, straight-arm, like this.’ She showed him. ‘He was really close by then so I had to shoot him.’
Delaney, who’d been swiveling his head from one side of the table to the other like a man at a tennis match, said, ‘All right, this sounds very credible now.’
‘Does it?’ Sarah said. ‘You think the establishment is going to accept my word when I say the victim was a male chauvinist pig who couldn’t believe a woman could hurt him, so I had to kill him?’
‘You’ve still got a week or so,’ Delaney said, watching her carefully. ‘Maybe in seven days you can think of a better way to say that.’
‘I’ll try.’
‘Good. So now do you two agree? You’re both firm on this recollection of how the two shootings went down? You’ll need to make a few amendments to your written reports in the case file. Can I count on you to revise them so they match this account? Jason, you won’t change your story any more after this?’
‘I haven’t been changing my story, Captain,’ Jason said, starting to bristle. ‘I’m just doing the best I can to recollect all the moves we had to make to survive in that very confusing situation.’
‘I know but—’
‘You make it sound as if I’m trying to hide something.’
‘I never said that,’ Delaney said, getting pinker. Sarah began wishing for the lunchbreak she knew they weren’t going to get. ‘But your story has changed from the original in the course of this conversation and I want to be sure we get our details straight today and stick to them from now on.’
‘Why wouldn’t we stick to them? We’re just after the truth, aren’t we?’
‘Of course. And I appreciate your wanting to support your partner; we all want to help Sarah as much as we can. But beware of giving testimony that’s not supported by the evidence. That makes us all look dodgy.’
‘Dodgy?’ Jason was becoming very angry, his back was up and he was breathing fast. ‘I’ll tell you what looks dodgy to me – it’s holding this freaky dress rehearsal before the hearing, like we’ve all got to make up some phony excuses for why we behaved as we did. What the hell? We just did our jobs.’
‘Excuse me, guys,’ Sarah said, getting up suddenly, ‘but I need a bathroom break right now.’ She pushed her chair back fast so the legs shrieked on the tile floor, walked out quickly and left them sitting there, glaring at each other.
She took her time about it, freshened her makeup and drank some water. When she came back fifteen minutes later the room was empty. She sat reading through her notes, listening to the humming silence. She was about ready to give it up and go home when Delaney walked back in and sat down.
‘Jason’s gone on to his deposition. Just as well, I guess – give him a chance to get over himself.’ Sarah sat silent, with no intention of rising to that bait, and presently he went on. ‘I just have a couple more things to talk to you about and then you can get back to your …’ He raised his eyes from his notes and looked at her straight, the first time today he had met her eyes. ‘How’s it going for you, after the shooting? Any trouble sleeping?’
‘I’m all right,’ Sarah said. ‘I’ll be better once I get back to work.’
‘I know. I’m sorry it takes so long. Another week or two should clear it up.’
At the thought of two more weeks’ idleness, Sarah shivered. Delaney looked at her closely and said, ‘You
’re sure you’re all right? We have a psychiatrist on call, remember, and it might be a good idea—’
‘I’ll think about it. There’s something I would like to ask you.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘Have you talked to DeShawn yet?’
‘Sarah, now, you know the rules—’
‘He’s the center of the whole case, the one with the money. Have you heard what he has to say?’
‘No. That crazy knifeman put a lot of new hurt on him, so he’s had to have more surgery. I’m waiting again for a go-ahead from doctors.’
‘What about Jason’s collar? Wheelchair man? He give you anything yet?’
Delaney shook his head. ‘He’s taking a long time to detox; got the shakes and sweats and he’s babbling a lot.’
‘Any chance he’s faking?’
‘The docs say not. He’s been taking drugs and booze together, he’s got DTs and they think he’s got pneumonia. Now I’ve already told you more than I’m supposed to, so forget it, go on home and try to get some fun out of this. How’s your mother coming on the booklist?’
‘We got sidetracked onto flower beds. How’d you know about Mom and the novels?’
‘Dietz told me your mother thinks paid leave is one of the department’s better ideas.’
Sarah shuddered again. ‘This leave is giving me new insight into one possible cause of depression. Maybe people shouldn’t retire. It’s very disorienting to have your routine yanked away.’
‘Be patient,’ Delaney said. ‘Read some good books and keep your spirits up. I need you back here as soon as possible.’
Buoyed by that thought, she drove home. Her body was beginning to send messages indicating that one power bar is not, after all, a steak. She was in the kitchen, munching on a cracker and cutting up an apple, when the phone rang.
‘Are you home?’ Jason said.
‘No, Jason, I’m out. But my amazingly lifelike answering service will be happy to take your message.’
‘OK, Smart Ass. I meant have you got time to talk?’
‘Yes. You’re just in time to split an apple.’ She hung up and immediately wished she hadn’t mentioned the apple. Her stomach was lobbying for calories in a hurry, she wanted to eat the whole thing right away. But Jason was at her door in three minutes, he must have been just around the corner.
He came in carrying a bag of peanuts in the shell. ‘I went by that corner fruit stand on Speedway and they were selling these. I couldn’t resist. You got a bowl?’ They sat at the round table tossing down fresh-shelled peanuts and juicy apple slices, and for a few minutes were all munchy noises and small talk – he had just been to look at the new water running in the Santa Cruz river.
‘Call it effluent if it makes you feel better,’ he said, ‘I still think it’s sewage. Who wants to go wading in that?’
Then he abruptly dropped all pretense at pleasantries and said, ‘I really came to thank you for demanding a wiz this afternoon when you did. I think you saved my career.’
‘You’re welcome. What are friends for if they can’t take a pee when you need them to?’
‘And boy did I need you to. I was awesomely close to taking a punch at my boss.’
‘It’s too bad the way he gets under your skin. I’m sure he didn’t mean—’
‘Oh, bullshit, Sarah, he meant exactly what he said. For some reason he thinks we’re not being exactly straight about what happened in that ICU.’ He was suddenly angry all over again. ‘And that’s such a damn outrage! Think about it: with no warning at all, the three of us walked into a shitstorm in that hall. But we all kept our heads and handled it as best we could with a minimum of casualties, and now instead of an attaboy for avoiding a massacre we’re taking crap about not remembering all the details exactly? Why doesn’t this make you as mad as it does me? I was just about to tell him where he could put his details when you walked out.’
‘What happened after I left?’
‘His phone rang.’ Jason laughed, forgetting his anger. ‘Isn’t that typical Delaney? He’d like to eat your liver but he doesn’t have time, his phone is ringing!’
‘So I suppose he stepped out—’
‘Sure. Said, “I have to take this,” and left for ten minutes. When he came back, he said, very stiff, “Well, I guess you need to get going to that deposition, eh?” It was way early but I flung him a yessir and rode outta Dodge at high speed.’
He laughed again and Sarah joined him. She saw no reason to tell him what she had once learned from his secretary after an outburst of her own – that Delaney had a button on his phone which, when pushed, elicited an ‘emergency’ phone call from her, that he would use as an excuse to escape the scene until tempers could cool a few degrees.
Instead, she said, ‘I just remembered there’s something I want to ask you. What happened to the car keys you found in your prisoner’s pants? Did you follow through on that or—?
‘Oh, yes, didn’t I tell you? Guess I never got a chance. That car was registered to a rental agency.’
‘So now you’ve got the name of the renter, right? Wheelchair man?’
‘We wish. When I walked in with the keys and asked who rented that car, the two people at the agency started out all brisk and efficient and soon morphed into a blizzard of record searching and lot scrutiny. After a quarter of an hour they admitted that I had the car they were looking for, that was missing from the lot. But the original keys were where they belonged in the rack, and there were no contracts missing. Long story short: Delaney is now close friends with the regional manager, who’s on his way here from Denver with a temp staff to take over till we unsnarl this mess.’
‘Damn. It’s like the handy chop shop, isn’t it? I hate the way this keeps growing.’
‘Me too.’ Then Jason’s hands went still on the table and he said softly, ‘You know, I didn’t realize until today that you saved my life in that hospital.’
‘Oh, well—’
‘Isn’t it amazing? We were together the whole time, working in close cooperation, I thought, and yet we saw two different events. I thought I was pretty cool the way I deployed that taser—’
‘You were. We’re always testing ourselves on that damn thing, but this is the first time I’ve seen it used effectively, and I must say it’s an awesome weapon in skillful hands.’
‘Thank you. I think so too. But I’d still have been dead meat if you hadn’t blown away the second man.’
‘The second man that you couldn’t have known was there. Don’t give up any credit for your part. I just happened to be there at the right time.’
‘But the point is until I heard your side I was sure I was the hero of this story, and I was kind of wondering, myself, why you didn’t try the taser on the second bad guy. Now I realize that if you hadn’t played it the way you did, he would have planted that screwy knife in my nice soft back, and right now the personnel department might be scanning their brains to find flowery adjectives for my obit.’
‘Oh, hey, dismal thought. Let’s not go there.’
‘OK, then, let’s go here: you saved my life and got rewarded with a furlough. Some people might find that a suitable gift, but I bet it works for you about like a javelina in a huddle. So is there anything I could do for you to brighten up this stupid hiatus?’
‘Oh, no, now, Jason,’ Sarah said, brightening perceptibly, ‘just put that thought right out of your head.’
‘Which thought?’
‘The one about how if you nosed around – and I know I’m not supposed to discuss the case but, as you say, that’s so unfair after we did that terrific job in the hospital, and now we’re being treated as if we did something wrong, which isn’t a bit like our boss, who’s usually a straight-ahead guy, so something new must have been added to the mix this week, and I’m stuck here at home … but I know how much you dislike idle gossip and snooping …’
‘Still, I am a detective,’ Jason said, ‘which implies a certain aptitude for poking around in corners
, even if only to try to find an end to this sentence.’
‘I bet you’d find more than that if you really turned yourself loose,’ Sarah said, brightening some more, ‘because for a handsome young man sometimes you can look a lot like Beelzebub.’
‘Do you really think so?’ Jason was beginning to beam like a lamp. ‘And have you spotted a corner you think might reward my satanic gifts?’
‘A couple of them, actually. Is your chair comfortable? Are you sure you don’t want any more peanuts? All right then … remember I told you about how the Fairweather Farms case started, with the company van buried in its own garage door?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘Now I think that besides delivering clients to their medical appointments, that van was delivering illegal drugs, mostly opioids and coke, to those same clients and some of their friends.’
‘Oh, fun.’
‘Yeah. I expect to prove it as soon as I can get back to work. Just lately I’ve been getting hints that maybe the regular driver, DeShawn, has a little pot-supplying enterprise of his own on the side. I think he’s got a little smoking club going with fellow employees, and it might be useful to know who’s in it.’
‘Such a busy fellow. You want me to sniff around that for you?’
‘In the dark of the moon. Yes.’
‘Why do you care? Pot is available everywhere now – legal even for fun if our bone-headed federal government would wake up and join the twenty-first century. If you’re going to prove opioids, why do you need pot?’
‘I just want to know who values DeShawn and for what. And I think you should start by talking to an aide named Tammy. She seems a little evasive; I’ve never managed to talk to her myself.’
Denny came home from school just as Jason was leaving. Sarah introduced them on the front step and they stood a few minutes in the carport, quickly getting acquainted. Jason was perfect with her, treating her as an equal when he asked her opinion of her advanced placement classes, and they traded critiques of the latest Spiderman movie. He shook her hand when he said goodbye, and she watched him out of sight.
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