“I said, hand the bag over before I drop you little homey.”
Awash with anger, Frank seriously considered taking that gun and shoving it right down Jimmy’s throat.
Frank dropped the bag and in a move that took Jimmy by surprise, he grabbed the gun by the barrel and said, “This shit is bananas” as loud as he could.
Chapter Three
It happened in slow motion. The gun exploded and Frank felt a searing pain in his left shoulder. Did he just get shot? Frank pushed away from Jimmy and heard the officers even before he saw them.
“Drop the gun! Drop the gun, now!” Officers seemed to swarm in from nowhere and everywhere.
An unmarked van drove up on the curb and bounced to a halt. Officers spilled out with rifles and handguns pointed at them both. Jimmy turned toward the commotion.
Frank froze but Jimmy smiled. With the gun still in his hand he turned to face a k9 officer and his dog. “Drop the gun or I‘ll release the dog!”
Suddenly Jimmy took off running. What the hell was Jimmy thinking? Frank dropped into a crouch and ducked behind the garbage can. He tried to shield himself from the chaos and make himself as small as possible.
Frank heard a gunshot. He saw Jimmy’s knee buckle, but he never fell. Jimmy slowed to a lope as he continued towards the north parking lot.
The officer with the dog let go of the leash and Frank watched the missile of fur seek out and hit Jimmy in the legs, knock him to the ground and begin shaking him like a rag doll.
Frank peeked around the garbage can, trying to glimpse Detective Jackson or Werner. He couldn’t see them anywhere. Frank scrambled over to the backpack and grabbed it. He noticed that a few drops of blood stain the backpack. Frank wasn’t entirely sure what to do next but adrenaline was pumping so hard he could hear his own heartbeat in his ears muffling every other sound.
Another gunshot. Frank decided he wasn’t waiting around to get shot again. He righted himself and willed his feet to run as a volley of shots fired in response. Was Jimmy shooting at the dog? Shooting at the cops? Sticking to the wall, Frank pushed through the tide of panicking students and ducked into the first open door he found.
Chapter Four
The school library. Confusion reigned as students ducked under desks while others tried pushing to the exit. Frank fast walked his way to the farthest corner of the stacks. Frank reached the last aisle and, finally hidden from view, he dropped to the floor. He was panting hard and his shoulder was screaming in pain. He was certain he could feel the blood seeping through his jacket. What the hell had he been thinking?
A disembodied voice boomed through the loudspeakers, “Lockdown procedures are in place. No one will enter or leave until law enforcement has cleared the campus of any danger. Please stay where you are and don’t panic. Stay away from doors and windows.”
They locked the doors? How the hell had this happened? Frank peeled back the edge of his jacket and looked at the blood seeping through his shirt and onto his jacket. His shoulder was on fire but the bleeding wasn’t as bad as he had imagined.
“Are you ok?”
Frank froze as a beautiful girl popped out from behind the closest shelf of books. Frank quickly sized her up. Medium length golden blonde hair, twenties, face of angel, she didn’t look like a threat. Before Frank could speak she knelt down beside him. A little close for Franks comfort.
“Are you shot?”
He stayed silent as she pulled his jacket away from his left shoulder and examined the wound.
“Here.” She unwrapped her scarf from her neck and pushed it up against his shoulder, “put pressure on it.”
“I‘m… I‘m ok,” Frank stuttered but flinched in pain as she pushed the scarf in even harder.
The blonde started firing questions at him quietly. “What’s going on out there? I heard shots and then the building locked down. Is there an active shooter? I mean you read news articles of school shootings every day but you never think it will happen to you.”
“Hey, hey, hey,” he grabbed her hand and held it to his chest. Mostly to keep her from pushing harder on his wound.
“Take a breath. What’s your name?”
“Lizzie”
“Lizzie. Ok, Lizzie, this is no mass shooting. We were conducting an undercover buy and the suspect shot at the cops.”
“Are the cops here? WE? Are you a cop?” Her face washed with relief.
“Yeah, yeah, the cops are here. No one else will get hurt.”
“Wait, why aren’t you out there with the rest?”
“I was working undercover,” Frank stammered, “and the dealer tried to rob me. I called the bust signal. I don’t know how I got shot.” What the hell was he doing? Pretending to be a cop? Shit, this girl asked a lot of questions. He had to get out of here.
“I gotta get back to my partners” he said as he pulled away from her and tried to cover up the wound.
“It’s just a graze, but you need an ambulance.”
“I’m sure my partners have called for one and I can get checked out as soon as the scene is in order.”
“Where’s your gun and badge?”
Frank startled, think, dummy, think. “I left them in the van. Undercover, right?”
The voice in the loudspeaker boomed once more, “The lockdown is lifted. Please exit the school and head straight to your vehicles. Campus is closed until tomorrow.”
Frank removed the scarf from his wound and zipped his jacket to cover the blood now staining his shirt. “My teams right outside. I’ll be fine. It’s ok. I’m ok. I gotta get back.”
Frank didn’t even look back at Lizzie as he got to his feet, slung the backpack over his good shoulder and hurried to the front of the library. Once Frank reached the front door he was able to take a quick look out and gauge the chaos. Shit, the news vans were already here. How did they get here so fast? He scanned the library. Spotting a second door he crossed the library and exited to the west.
Chapter Five
Once outside, Frank bowed his head and walked towards the commotion. Keeping his head bowed but using his eyes to scan the people around him, Frank approached the area he had just fled. Patrol cars were parked haphazardly on the lawn and in the red zones of the lot. Frank glanced up towards the location he had seen Jimmy last. He saw a lump in the dirt, covered by a white sheet. Oh God, was Jimmy dead?
“Move it, kid. This is a crime scene.” A uniformed cop with a roll of crime scene tape pushed Frank aside. Frank’s breath caught as pain shot through his shoulder.
Frank stepped back and walked around the north side of the building. Kids, staff and news crews were gathering in hordes. Frank pushed his way through the crowd to the crime scene tape going up. He saw Werner and Jackson amongst the other officers in the middle of the mayhem. They didn’t look happy. Frank wasn’t quite sure what to do next. Should he call out to the detectives and get their attention? Stay put until they came to talk to him?
“Damn it!,” a gruff voice with a sergeant’s stripes came barreling through the crowd and ducked under the tape next to Frank.
“What the hell is going on here! How the hell did you fuck up a simple buy bust?” The voice yelled at Werner.
“Sarge, it was the kid, the snitch we used. Jimmy had a gun. He fired first.” Lawrence wasn’t making any sense to Frank.
“Where’s your informant?”
“I don’t know. He ran off in the scuffle,” Werner said
“And the dope? The money?”
“The kid must have grabbed it,”
“Damn it. Let‘s get a BOLO out for him. No statements to the press.”
Werner raised his mic to his mouth. "Bolo for a WMA, 6’, 180, brown hair, approximately twenty-five years of age, last seen wearing blue jeans, black leather jacket, red shoes. Possibly suffering from gunshot wound. Last seen Sorro College campus. Probable cause to arrest for 187.”
187? Frank knew enough police codes to realize Werner had just announced to every cop on the air t
hat Frank was wanted for murder! What the hell was Werner doing?
Frank’s body churned with a mix of adrenaline, anger and panic. He turned and pushed his way through the gathering crowd. He reached under his sweatshirt and ripped the mic from the tape holding it to his chest and pushed it deep into the nearest garbage can.
Frank saw a bus just getting ready to pull away from the curb and ran to catch up to it. Banging on the bus door until it opened, Frank weathered an exasperated look from the bus driver as he jumped on and the door closed behind him. The bus pulled away from the curb as Frank found a seat near the back. Frank looked out the back window and saw the sergeant directing a group of officers. A search. A search for him, no doubt. Frank scrunched as far down into his seat as possible and tried to decide where in the heck he could go. Frank knew one thing; he was now on the run.
Chapter Six
TWO YEARS LATER
“Knock, Knock! Is Officer Noble in here?” Jack pushed open the door of the bedroom he shared with the love of his life, Lizzie Noble. He poked his head inside and grinned at the sight of her cuddled on the big four-poster bed. She was reading Sam his favorite fractured fairytale, and they had just gotten to the part where the dragon rescued the princess from the knight in shining armor.
“Come innnnn”, Sam sang out in his 6-year-old voice and giggled as Jack threw himself down on the bed next to them.
“Whatcha guys reading?
“Hubert the Dragon,"
“Sounds scary” Jack pretended to shiver with fright.
“No, it isn’t!”
“I got your mommy a present.” Jack pretends to whisper in Sam’s ear.
“Oh, presents! What is it? What is it?” Lizzie squealed putting the book down beside her and straightening up.
Jack handed her the little box wrapped in dark blue tissue paper. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
“Open it mommy!” Sammy wiggled impatiently in between them.
Jack reached over and swept Sam’s curly blonde hair from his eyes. Sammy’s eyes were cornflower blue, the same as Lizzie’s. Whenever Jack looked into them he felt that he was in the presence of absolute innocence and that made his heart soar with hope.
Sam had been born four years before he had even met Lizzie, but he loved him like his own. He had made a promise to himself to ensure Sam had a complete family.
Jack had grown up in and out of foster homes his whole life. He knew the damage an unstable family environment could do. He hated remembering those cold unfeeling homes with adults who either were unbearably cruel, nauseatingly overbearing or worse yet, indifferent to anything other than the paycheck the state sent to help care for his growing frame.
Once he had turned 16, he had finally fled the last foster home and never looked back. The Smith’s were their names if he remembered correctly? They were decent people, but he had never really felt attached to them. Jack mentally shook the ghosts from his brain and forced himself to focus on Lizzie as she popped opened the little box.
“A Saint Michael's medal! Oh, Jack it's beautiful!” Lizzie exclaimed as she handed him the slender chain. She swept her long hair up and turned for Jack to clasp it around her graceful neck.
“The patron saint of police officers; This will keep you safe out there on the street since I can’t be there to protect you every moment of the day and, for some reason, you insist on fighting bad guys.”
“You do it every day, too, and being an undercover officer is twice as scary.” Lizzie gently ran her finger along the chain around his neck that held his police badge under his shirt.
“Sometimes I worry myself sick you won't make it home.” She sniffed a little and lifted her chin in mock defiance, “Now it’s your turn to worry.”
“The job is different for a man. I’m not a little 5’3 blonde bombshell.” He tugged her hair a little in a teasing gesture.
“Lizzie, listen to me, you have no idea how difficult it can be, pretending to be someone you aren’t. I’ve had years of practice and if I do say so myself, have made an art form out of it. Don’t rush it. Your time for playing secret mission will arrive soon enough.”
“Aren’t you ever scared someone will find out who you really are? I mean, all it takes is for one person to recognize you and your cover is blown!”
“Every day, baby. Every day. But you, you have nothing to worry about. Most people aren’t as smart as you are.”
“It’s one reason you fell in love with me, my smarts. That and my smarmy” she pursed her lips and wiggled her eyebrows up and down.
“Oh, I know EXACTLY how smart you are, smarty pants. Just promise me you won’t figure out I’m really just a dragon trying to rescue a princess and leave me for a knight in shining armor” he quipped as he gave Sam a tickle.
Sam squealed in delight at the rough housing and squirmed while screaming laughingly, “Help! The dragon is going to eat me!!!”
“Who wants waffles with whipped cream?” Jack asked as he got up from the bed slinging Sam over his shoulder and marching toward the kitchen.
Sam chanted “I do! I do! With sprinkles!”
“With sprinkles!”
Chapter Seven
After a good breakfast, thanks to Jack, and a quick shower, Lizzie found herself driving westward on I80 towards the Roland Police Department. Today was her first day, and she wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. The butterflies in her stomach were unrelenting! Unlike others in her academy class she had not grown up wanting to be a police officer. She had gone to school to be a schoolteacher. But after Sam’s dad had left her, she had to make more money than teaching paid and she had found that opportunity while taking a few elective courses at Sorro.
Lizzie smiled to herself at the memory of her first class in police procedure. She had been hooked from day one. The academy had been rough, not as easy as she had assumed it would be but the physical training and the stress of it all had grown her. She had never thought of herself as an adrenaline junkie. She always played it safe until now. She had surprised herself, and everyone who knew her, when she signed up for the police academy at the end of her first semester. It had been worth every last penny of the meager savings she had. A bet on her and Sam’s future. She had to make this work.
Lizzie turned on the radio and sighed to herself as a sappy love song filtered through the aging speakers of her three hundred thousand mile Honda Accord. She had Jack and she loved him. After everything she had been through with Sam’s dad she was glad to be with someone so open and honest. And on the right side of the law.
Jack had been so great for Sam. He was a natural at this family unit thing. He took good care of her and even though her sister had strongly disapproved, Lizzie was happy with her decision to move in with him. Her sister Carly had strong opinions about her being with someone who couldn’t talk about his work. She just didn’t understand how undercover work HAD to be secret! Lizzie quickly turned the radio station and found some classic rock. If she thought any further about Carly she would begin one of those angry conversations in her head. The ones that never really happen but still get her all riled up. She didn’t need that this morning. She needed to be ready for her first day and mindset was everything.
Lizzie exited the freeway into Roland. She quickly forgot all about her sisters attitude as she turned onto Barnard street. She drove by the Hall of Justice and smiled. She loved that the officers still called it that. The police department building was as old as the one hundred year old city and it showed.
Lizzie pulled into the south parking lot and found a space furthest from the entrance. She had spent several weeks coming in everyday for training in firearms and geography as well as radio codes and etiquette so she was somewhat familiar with the building and the city itself.
Lizzie used her electronic key fob and keyed herself through the sally port door into the main hallway of the department. She was nervous but in an excited way. She could still barely believe that she was doing this. Her. Swe
et innocent Lizzie Noble was about to become one of Roland’s finest.
Chapter Eight
This morning’s conversation with Lizzie was stirring up that little anxious tickle Jack had been squashing ever since she announced her intention of going through the police academy. He had tried to talk her out of it but he could not deter her. Pushing the feeling down once again he told himself he would just have to be extra careful not to let those feelings run him if he wanted to keep Lizzie and Sam.
Jack’s little family enjoyed a painfully leisurely breakfast before Lizzie and Sam left for the day. The minute the door closed behind them, Jack grabbed a jacket and walked the three blocks to the corner store. This was a big day for him too. Jack needed a drink.
Jack reached the little bodega and made a quick glance around the interior as he stepped in. It was unseasonably warm for June in the bay area and the air-conditioned store was a nice change from the muggy 80 degrees out in the sun. Out of habit, Jack looked up and around at the mirrors reflecting the interior of the store. He casually glanced down each aisle, noting the other customers as he made his way toward the walk-in cooler at the back of the store. He window-shopped until he found the beer. It wouldn’t do to get drunk today. Jack never knew what might go down. Just one would do the trick. Just take the edge off. Push that whisper of foreshadowing down a little while longer.
The 18-year-old behind the counter didn’t even glance up from his magazine as Jack set the bottle of beer down on the counter in front of him.
“It’s five o'clock somewhere, right?” the kid smirked
“Yeah” Jack pretended to grin at the kid. Jack had perfected the fake grin over the years but he needn’t have bothered. The kid didn’t even look up when Jack handed him the exact change. Kids these days. This one will get robbed and he will never see it coming. Moron.
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