Pleasant Harbor

by Thomas Bloom

Just as the last of the crowd was disappearing around the sides of the Capital building the armored car came into sight. “Hold your fire,” Tamourini cried into her mike.

  The armored car slowed as it approached the Capitol. They had expected to see a crowd but the only thing visible was an empty grandstand and empty bleachers. Suddenly the car started to speed up again. Whoever was in charge had evaluated the situation and concluded that the crowd had to be fleeing in the other direction. Just then a flash was visible from a clump of bushes on the side of the road and a moment later the front of the armored car exploded. It skidded to a stop with no front wheels and an engine compartment blown apart. Tamourini assumed that the people in the cab were dead but that still left a number in the rear. She had to give the Arab commander credit. Within about five seconds the rear doors flew open and a number of men came out firing on the run. Tamourini counted eight of them. Within seconds they were cut down. By this time the perimeter had collapsed inward and the Arabs had been subject to fire from the FBI agents and some of the state police.

  “Roberts, now,” Tamourini cried. The agent raced past her with his tool kit in hand. He entered the rear of the armored car and most of the people on site stopped breathing. Everyone knew about the bomb. Only a few knew it might be dirty. About forty-five seconds later Roberts exited the vehicle with a wire in each hand. “Piece of cake,” he cried.

  “Don’t enter the vehicle she cried over her radio. We know there are explosives in there and we don’t need to set them off accidentally. Let Mr. Roberts do his thing.”

  “Okay, Roberts, you direct the recovery. I want all the explosives out of there and the box or crate or whatever it is ready to transport.”

  At this point Dusty arrived on the scene winded and sweaty. All he saw was a blown up vehicle and a number of dead bodies. He went through the crowd looking for Amanda. When he found her he gave her a hug and a kiss. “I needed to be sure you were alright. There was a lot of lead in the air for a while. I missed the whole thing.”

  “I heard why you missed it. Great job but you could have been killed.”

  “There wasn’t time to think about it. I just had to take a chance.”

  “Next time think about it. The boys and I need you. You could have ruined family night.”

  “Were any of our people hit?”

  “Two wounds that I know of, neither life threatening.

  A few minutes later they gathered in the bleachers for an impromptu reprisal. “We’re in luck,” Tamourini said. “One of the Arabs suffered only a superficial head wound. He was down but not out. We’re got him on the way to the hospital with four agents guarding him. He could prove invaluable in sorting out who these people were and who backed them. The other nine of them are dead. Thank all of you for your help and particularly you, Sheriff Donavon.”

  “Hell,” Dusty said. “It was dumb luck that I saw them and I just tried a stupid maneuver to slow them down and wreaked my car and damn near got killed in the process. Plus I missed the finale. Sorry it didn’t work out better.”

  “Hey Dusty,” Tamourini said. “You don’t understand what you did. You only held them up for about ten minutes but that was ten minutes that allowed us to get the Governor and his entourage out of here and clear the stands and get them out of the line of fire. Plus it gave us time to collapse the second ring into the Capitol. If they had gotten here ten minutes earlier they would have had a lot fewer of us to fight and the Governor and a whole bunch of other people to shoot at. Plus we would not have had time to positon the RPG or get our bomb squad guy ready. That ten minutes made the difference between success and some kind of disaster.”

  “Okay, I’ll take that,” Dusty said. “But I have two questions. First, where in the hell did they get an armored car? Second, do you guys always carry RPG’s with you?”

  “The first part we’re working on. And I have to admit they totally outthought us on that one. We never expected it. The second part is that when we deploy for a full scale action we have a basic unit of two vehicles loaded with everything we might ever need including one RPG per vehicle and at least one agent who knows how to use them. Thank God in this case, right? One more thing. The press is going to be all over this site in a few minutes. So far we’ve held them off with a bomb threat but they will not be turned away forever. The best thing to do is just get through it. I’ll handle it but I want you up there with me Dusty. You’re the hero of the day. We’ll just use the podium that’s already set up.”

  A half hour later the bleachers were filled with the press and Tamourini started the conference. She begin by giving a summary of the whole affair with a special credit to Dusty. The only thing she left out was the possibility that the bomb was dirty, which, in any case, they did not know for sure yet. She fielded any number of questions which, in most cases, she could not answer except to say that there was still a lot of investigation to do. That included the identity of the attackers, what group they were affiliated with, where and how they acquired an armored vehicle, how they acquired their weapons, what kind of bomb was it, how they got into the country, assuming they were aliens, and, if not, where they lived prior to the attack.

  Finally, the press decided they had all they were going to get and they turned on Dusty.

  “What alerted you to the possibility that the armored vehicle was a threat?”

  “It was taking a very circuitous route on residential streets. These guys normally go from point to point on main roads. Plus it was headed in the general direction of the Capitol which was doubly suspicious because this is a Sunday. No financial institutions are open today and virtually every business within our cordon had been shut down by the FBI. It wasn’t until I saw it break out onto Michigan Avenue and speed up toward the inauguration that I felt sure we had a problem.”

  “Can you please describe the maneuver you used to disable their vehicle?”

  “It’s a standard pursuit tactic. I’ve been trained in it in the classroom but have never actually done it. Basically, you use the nose of your vehicle to move the rear of the vehicle being pursued to the right or the left. My instructor called it a ‘nudge’ but others may have a different name for it. The effect usually is that the driver of the other vehicle reacts instinctively and overcorrects which throws their vehicle into a spin in the opposite direction. That’s what happened here except I hit the armored car so hard that my vehicle became entangled with theirs. They spent several minutes trying to disengage which I guess gave us some extra time to clear out the crowd.”

  “Is it true they were firing at you during most of this time?”

  “Yes, I took some incoming but I was behind the engine compartment of my car and never in any real danger.”

  At this point the press ran out of gas and Tamourini ended the conference.

  As soon as he was off the platform Dusty grabbed Amanda. “Let’s get out of here. They don’t need us for anything else. My car seems to be shot. Can you give me a ride home?”

  “Do you want to drive?”

  “No, you drive. Any second now I’m going to start throwing up.”

  Chapter Seventy Two

  The next few days were catch up for Dusty and Amanda—paperwork, reworking the duty schedules to allow for the time their officers had spent in Lansing, catching up on activity in progress and, most important, spending a little extra time with the boys. Dusty had to write a long memo to the City Manager explaining why he needed to buy another cruiser that wasn’t in the budget. There would be some insurance recovery but they were not sure how much. By the end of the week life had returned more or less to normal. Dusty was still waiting for an answer from the City Manager concerning his vehicle. In the meantime he was using one of the patrol vehicles.

  Late Thursday afternoon Dusty was interrupted by his dispatcher. “We’ve got a situation chief. It’s that Jiminez guy. His mother called 911 and said he threatened to kill her. He had a gun and he was screaming nonsense at her. She made it out of the back door
and called us on her cell. She’s at a neighbor’s but is watching the house. She said he’s still in there. What do you want to do?”

  “How many units do we have out?”

  “Five. But two are tied up with traffic stops.”

  “Anything serous?”

  “No, just speeding tickets.”

  “Okay, two citizens just got lucky. Tell our guys to give them a verbal warning and then have all five get to the house. But tell them to stay at least one hundred yards out and someone should cover the back door and the side door. Jiminez has a separate apartment upstairs with a side entrance. Call the mother back and see if she can give you her home phone number if she has one plus a number for Jiminez. I’m on my way. Call me when you have something. Also, call Chief Stevens and tell her what’s going on. If she has any units to spare we could use them.”

  On the way Dusty called Edward Zitweiller, the profiler who had met with Jiminez several times. He breathed a sigh of relief when the man picked up. Dusty explained the situation. “You know this guy. Any advice on how to handle it?”

  “If he’s screaming nonsense then he’s gone over the edge. He may be impossible to deal with. Go ahead and call him if he will pick up and just tell him it’s time to end it before someone gets hurt. Don’t mention his mother. That may set him off again. If you can’t get him or if you can’t get any positive response out of him I’d suggest you wait a full day and try again. By that time he may have come out of it. Your only alternative is to go in shooting and that’s the last thing you want.”

  “Thank you for your input. I owe you one. If anything more develops can I call you later today or tomorrow?”

  “Today’s fine. Tomorrow morning I have a golf game. I normally don’t carry my cell on the course but for you I’ll make an exception. Good luck.”

  Dusty checked with his men when he got on site. There had been no sign of Jiminez. He finally got a call from his dispatcher. “The mother only has the cell she has with her. Likewise with Jiminez—only a cell. But I have the number.”

  Dusty called twice and both times the call went to voice mail. He left a short message and his number. Then he called Amanda and filled her in. “Look this is technically your jurisdiction but we got involved because the mother called us. It looks like nothing will happen for some time. I’ve got every one of my on duty cars here. Can you spare two or three so I can put someone back on the street?”

  “Sure, I got a call from your dispatcher and I’m already working on it. What are we going to do if he doesn’t come peacefully?”

  “Well neither one of us has a SWAT team so I guess I have to call Sergeant Johnson again. I don’t want our guys going in there. They don’t have the tools or the training. This means another Christmas party.”

  “I don’t care about the jurisdiction issue. I’d just as soon not have to deal with this guy. We only have four solitary cells and the Mexicans are in them. Let’s just see how it plays out after the SWAT team gets here.”

  They waited until the State Police SWAT team arrived about eleven the next morning. Dusty and Amanda were sharing a car. Dusty filled in the officer in charge with the situation. “Let me try to call him one more time. He may be ready to talk. If we can get him to come out peacefully fine. If not, I’ll let you take over.”

  “If we have to go in I want a floor plan of the house.”

  “Okay, we can get that from his mother. Anything else?”

  “What kind of weapon does he have?”

  “The mother just said a pistol. She doesn’t know what kind.”

  “Okay, make your call. Then we’ll take it from there.”

  Dusty dialed one more time. Jiminez picked up on the second ring. “My head all blown up. I can’t think. I can see you guys and I know you want to kill me. I not come out.”

  “Look, we don’t want to kill you. We just want to end this peacefully. If you come out with your hands up then we can talk and sort this out.”

  “No. I not live with blown up head. I almost kill my mother. I think I just fix it all by shoot myself.”

  “Don’t do that Roberto. We can help you fix your head. Just give us a chance.”

  The phone clicked dead. Dusty turned to the State Police officer. “He’s talking about killing himself and hung up on me. I think we need to move fast. Look, I’ve been in the house. Let me sketch out a floor plan for you. We don’t have time to work with the mother. My guess is that he’s in his apartment upstairs but we need to go in both ways at the same time just in case. I doubt very much he’s waiting for you.”

  “Well, we always assume the worst. That’s why we’re all still here.”

  After another ten minutes of reviewing the floor plan the officer divided his men into two teams. One officer approached the bottom floor from the side of the house and then worked his way to the porch. He attached charges to the door frame and a flash-bang to the center of the door. He wired everything to a detonator and then backed off ten feet against the side of the house and put plugs in his ears. Another officer did the same thing to the door leading to Jiminez’s apartment. The officer in charge checked with both men to be sure they had communication, told the remaining officers to be ready and then gave a one word command into his speaker: “Now.”

  Two explosions went off virtually simultaneously. Even from one hundred feet away Dusty felt like he had been kicked in the stomach. Both doors were blown off their frames and within seconds the officers were inside. There was some noise, some shouting and a minute later the upstairs team came out with Jiminez in cuffs.

  “He was in no shape to put up a fight. By the time he figured out what was happening we had him pinned and disarmed. I wish they were all this easy.”

  “Thank you guys. Tell Sergeant Johnson we owe you another Christmas party.”

  “Will do. The last one was great.”

  “Okay, we’ll take possession of the prisoner. Just having a weapon on his person is violation of his parole so we don’t have to charge him with anything else right now. We’ll try to get him some psychiatric help as soon we can. I’ll have to talk to his mother and convince her that bailing him out again would be a very bad idea.”

  Within a few hours Jiminez was booked and jailed in the county’s jurisdiction. “You’re welcome to him” Amanda said. “You have more cells and more room. We need to try to get him transferred to a facility for the criminally insane so he can get some help. Has he had the psychiatric exam that the court ordered?”

  “Not to my knowledge. That was the DA’s responsibility. If not, we need to get him in as soon as I can talk to the DA. In the meantime I’ll put him in solitary for a day or two and if he quiets down some I’ll put him in the general population. I think Roberto needs a lot of help.”

  “He sure does. I feel sorry for his mother. This is like losing a child.”

  The following Sunday morning Dusty was in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee while Amada did pancakes and scrambled eggs. One of the boys was up but looked like he didn’t want to be and Dusty got up to rouse the other. Just then his phone went off. “Christ, what now.”

  It was the duty sergeant. “Bad news chief. The Mexicans have broken out and shot trooper Wilkins in the process. Someone opened two of their cell doors and gave them at least one weapon. The rear door to the cell block is open and they’re gone. No idea where or how.”

  “How’s Wilkins?”

  “Belly wound. On his way to the hospital but I think he’ll be okay.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Ten minutes or so.”

  “Which two got away?”

  “The two top guys.”

  “Okay, put out an APB and then get every car you can to start looking. You know the routes. One way north, one way east and one way south. Get a car on each of them with lights on at maximum speed. Maybe we can catch up with them. Any idea who let them out or how?”

  “No sir. But someone had a key. How they got it I don’t know and no idea how they g
ot a weapon. I hate to say it but it looks like an inside job. Also, Jiminez is gone. No idea if he was involved or just got out the back door on his own when they left it open. It happened just after we opened the doors for the general population for breakfast.”

  “You’re kidding. Call his mother at once and tell her to lock herself in and then get a car over there to watch the house. I’ll be in shortly.”

  Dusty filled in Amanda. “Look, finish breakfast with the boys. If it happened with two of my guys it might happen with yours. Put your people on alert and call in some extra officers. But I had the two big guys and I think that’s who they were after. The other guys are just mules. They’re expendable. I’m going in and try to figure out what happened. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

  Chapter Seventy

  Three

  Well momma, things are getting interesting. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about the Arabs ratting me out. They do have one of them in custody but he was not the one dealing with me. The leader is the only one who ever saw me.

  I did have a problem with the Mexicans. One of them we had in our jail was one of the guys that met me in the bar in Chicago. I saw him but he did not see me. I couldn’t hide from him forever though so I had to get rid of him. I used the Jiminez guy. He’s been wandering around the jail talking gibberish. He’s obviously off his rocker and no one will believe anything he says. It took me a while to figure out how to get at him. I finally just cornered him one day and asked him what he wanted. I want to get out and go away, he said. I can’t stay in this town any longer he said. Okay I said. I’ve made a deal with the Mexican guys to get them out. They will take you with them. Here’s what will happen. When you go to bed tonight there will be a gun and a key under your pillow. As soon as they unlock your cell in the morning and while everyone is going to breakfast you take the key and unlock the Mexican’s doors for cells number three and four in the isolation section and give them the gun. The key will also unlock the back door. There will be a car outside the back door with the keys in the ignition. There are three sets of clothes in the backseat. Nothing fancy but you can dump the jailhouse jumpsuits. There’s also a few dollars in the glove department for gas and eats. The Mexicans will probably head for Chicago and take you with them. Once you’re there you can stay with them or go your own way. Why they take me, he asked. Because I told them it was to pay you back for opening the door and giving them the gun. I can’t be in the jail when it happens. Why you do this, he asked me. Because they pay me. He said he understood that. Why just two of them he asked. Because that’s the way I want it. I have no money he said. Don’t worry about it I told him. They have plenty. If you work for them in Chicago they will pay you a lot. The two guys I told Roberto to release were the mid-level guy and one of his lieutenants. These are the ones the guys in Chicago want. The others are just infantry—expendable.