Graham Park

by Kevin M Moehring

  On the screen, the words cannot be heard but there is an extensive dialogue between Fred Donovan and Steven Graham. It continues for several minutes until Fred walks over to the man, reaches into his pocket and hands the prisoner a metallic object. Fred practically runs out of the room after giving the man whatever the object is. A few heads in the conference room turn toward the deputy before returning their gaze to the screen.

  No sooner had Fred left the room and the prisoner is using the object to cut through the ropes that bind him. It takes him several minutes to cut through the ropes until he is completely free. He rises to his feet and tries to inch his way to the doorway without rising suspicion. He puts his head out to peek around the corner and when he thinks the coast is clear he moves rapidly out of the building. The camera follows him as he makes his way along the hallway and outside of the building.

  A soft voice can be heard in the background as Steven Graham makes his way to the parking lot in an attempt to flee the scene. The camera angle changes again and everyone is watching Stuart, with his injured leg, hobble after the man. He is in agony with every step, but he is the only one who sees that the man is getting away.

  "Stop! I've seen enough. We obviously have the wrong deputy in custody," barks Agent Walker. As if on cue, the entire room turns to face Mitch and the empty chair that is next to him. Everyone was so focused on what was happening on the screen that they hadn't seen Fred exit the room. Even Mitch didn't know he had left and Fred would have had to walk right in front of him in order to leave the room.

  Voices ring out from all corners of the room. Questions are being asked about how long Fred had been gone and making accusations that Mitch had to know when he left. One agent even stands up and says that he saw the two men whispering throughout the video. Mitch is as stunned as anyone else in the room. While all of the agents are speaking at once, Mitch just stands up and exits the room quietly. Once again it is highly unlikely that any of the agents even noticed that he has left. He begins walking down the long corridor that leads to the holding cells. Halfway down the hallway he is stopped by the voice of Agent Walker behind him.

  "Where do you think you are going?" Walker is almost in a sprint until he sees that Mitch has stopped and turned to the sound of his voice.

  "Well it's obvious, isn't it? We have a suspect at large and the only other deputy I have left in this town is trapped in a prison cell, wrongly accused I might add."

  "I agree he is innocent, but you have to look at it from our side. He was seen fleeing the building with Mr. Graham. It seemed likely that he was the one who freed the man from the ropes and helped him escape."

  "Did you bother to ask him what his side of the story was?" Mitch is practically yelling at the federal officer.

  "Shortly after we apprehended the two, the fireworks went off. It was total chaos and we didn't have much of a chance. That is why we brought them here, so we could sort things out. It's standard operating procedure in times like these to arrest the most likely suspects and sort out the details when things have become much calmer."

  "Well we have sorted things out. The man you want has escaped and nobody knows him or this town like Stuart and myself. I am going to free my fellow deputy and we are going to bring in Fred. You lost good men today and these agents have assuredly lost friends. I don't want your guys to get a little happy on the trigger finger." Mitch turns and heads away from the agent as if there was nothing that could be done to stop him.

  "Mitch my computer guy just came over the radio. He said he was able to clear up some more of the feed. There is something else you need to know about our fugitive. He says it was Officer Donovan that killed your father. I'm sorry."

  Chapter 34

  With a firm turn of the solid brass key, Mitch opens the door to the holding cell. He steps in and looks at his friend and fellow officer, who looks relieved to see that it is Mitch who has come to see him. The medics at the scene bandaged his leg and gave him some pain medicine, which seems to have worn off given the look on his face when he tries to stand up.

  "Boy am I glad to see you. What are they accusing me of? All I remember is being told to go and get some rest then seeing Steven Graham run through the parking lot. I tried to catch up to him, but I only had one good leg. Then the next thing I know, I'm being tackled by several guys and handcuffed." Stuart must have been practicing his story while he has been in this cell.

  "Calm down Stu, the truth has come out and I'm here to let you out. You did nothing wrong at all. In fact, I might have to talk to the mayor about getting you some sort of recommendation." Mitch gives him a wink of confidence while swinging open the iron door.

  "Wait, I'm free to go? I thought they said I was going to fry for helping with the explosions." The look of confusion on his face is about to get far worse when he hears the next part of what Mitch has to say.

  "We can talk about it in the truck. Right now, we have to go find Fred. We watched the video from the park and he is the one who helped Steven Graham escape. When we went to arrest him, he had somehow sneaked out. I want us to find him before the feds do. That is the only way we know that he will be brought in safely."

  "Fred is involved? There is no way that's possible. Where do you think he went?" Stuart is talking like a man who has had his whole life turned inside and out over the course of the last twelve hours.

  "If you were Fred, where would you go?" He asks the question as the two men enter the office area and head for the door to the outside. Stuart shields his eyes from the bright afternoon sun as he gets into the passenger seat of the truck.

  "If I know Fred, he is over at the bar. I thought he would be excited to reap the benefits of actually being involved in a good police case. I never thought he would put himself in the middle of it." Stuart is still a little confused over the happenings of the last few hours.

  "Then we start at The Bottom Dollar and go from there. I don't know what happened when he was left alone with Steven Graham, but he definitely gave him the knife he used to cut the ropes free."

  The ride to the bar is a short one, just down Main Street to the corner of Maple. He finds a spot just off the street and the two men make their way inside.

  The Bottom Dollar is the only bar in town that is open year-round. It has been around for longer than anyone can remember, and the odor of stale beer and warped wooden floor boards fills the air. Mitch has been in the place a time or two but not nearly enough times to be considered a regular. Fred on the other hand, practically has a bar stool with his name on it.

  The two deputies make their way around the long bar, dodging peanut shells on the floor to try not to draw attention to themselves. Sitting on the far corner of the room, with a half full mug of beer and an empty shot glass in front of him, sits Fred Donovan. He doesn't raise his head to look at them, even though it was hard to imagine that he didn't know that they were there. The large bell on the inside of the door was a sure giveaway that someone had entered, and not too many people come into the bar on a Sunday afternoon.

  Mitch gives a hand signal to Stuart and they sit at the two open stools on either side of him. Fred stares blankly in front of him, at the rows of liquor bottles that line the wall behind the bar. He knows they are there, but right now he is more worried about being able to finish his drink. He motions for the bartender, a portly lady in her mid-forties who is trying to look fashionable in clothes that don't really fit, and she fills his shot glass again. He downs the drink with ease, slams the empty glass to the table and looks at Mitch.

  "Hey Fred, what in the world were you thinking?" Mitch didn't have much time to role play how he expected this conversation to go but now that they are here he is unsatisfied with how he started the questioning. He remembers the dozens of movies his father would watch, admiring how cool and collected the detectives would be when questioning a suspect. Now that he is actually in a similar position, his words come out more like a kid trying to ask a girl out to prom.

  "Cecilia, anothe
r beer please." Fred is still finding it hard to look at either of the men on his sides but remains focused on the drinks being poured for him. "I don't know what I was thinking. That man pulled me from that burning building. He told me things were probably going to get hairy and he was right. He promised to make me a very rich man if I helped him make it out of the park safely."

  "Money? You did all of this for money? Money is a good thing, but I don't think there is enough money in the world that would make me want to kill a building full of federal officers." Mitch reaches into the bowl of nuts and cracks a few of the shells. He thinks if he tosses a few into his mouth it may give the impression that he is not furious at the moment.

  "I had no idea that was going to happen. He must have had everything rigged to blow at a certain time. If I would have known his entire plan, I never would have gone along with it. All he told me was the minute he made it out of Graham Park, he would make sure I would never have to work again."

  "Did he tell you that you had to kill my father. Did he tell you that he would make you filthy rich and all you had to do was kill the sheriff?" The blood has rushed to Mitch's face and the tension between the two men now burns brighter than the neon beer sign on the wall behind them. Stuart can feel the intensity and leaves his stool to stand in between the men but stays a few feet behind them.

  "We both know that if the sheriff is on the case, then the chances of Steven Graham getting out of the park would have been much worse. I did what I needed to do to accomplish the task at hand, just like the good sheriff has taught me over the years." Another long drink out of his beer mug and Fred is ready for another shot of whiskey. "I didn't want to kill your father, but he was going to ruin the plan."

  "So you just walked up to him and stabbed him? You just took the life of one of the finest men this town has ever seen, all in an attempt to get rich. He treated you like a son."

  "That's not how it went down at all. He was racing across the park and I walked in front of him and stopped him. We talked for a bit and then he said he had Steven Graham tied up in the office building. That's when I decided that in order to make sure I got paid, I had to kill the sheriff." He says the words as if he doesn't have a care in the world or an ounce of remorse. "I told him I was happy to see him and that I knew it would all be over with soon since he was on the case. I leaned in to give him a hug and stabbed him with the small sword I got when I choked out the Japanese guy."

  Mitch leans back into his bar stool and reaches into his coat pocket. "Now that I have your taped confession, I guess the only thing left to do is to put the cuffs on you. I really didn't think it would be this easy to get the information out of you." He lays the metal tape recorder on the bar and presses the stop button. He calls for Cecilia who rushes right over to them, "I think I'm ready for a drink now."

  Chapter 35

  The idea to run the tape recorder was a brilliant move and one that his father would have been proud of. Having to arrest a man he worked side by side with for the last few years is not something Mitch wants to ever repeat again. Fred was not able to keep up his machismo persona once he realized that it was all over and there was no way for him to get out of this bar. The sound of the sirens outside let him know that the federal agents had surrounded the place and he was heavily outnumbered.

  Stuart raced out of the bar once he realized the agents had shown up. He is able to hold them at bay long enough for Mitch to do a thorough pat down and confiscate the police issued revolver from Fred. It is hard to see a once proud man, who took pride in being the toughest man in the room, now broken and sobbing like a child. Mitch lets him finish one more shot, which he follows with the remainder of the beer in his mug. When he places the glass back on the bar, Mitch pulls his arms behind his back and places the handcuffs on him, making sure to not tighten them too tight. It was in everyone's best interest to keep Fred thinking that it was a friend who was bringing him in.

  The few steps it takes to walk toward the door seem to take much longer than they would under normal circumstances. The guilty man has his head hung in shame as Mitch leads him toward the front door. Once they exit the building, they are practically crushed by the herd of federal agents who have gathered outside. Luckily, due to the remoteness of the small town, there is no media to worry about. Mitch continues to usher his prisoner through the crowd, leading him by the arm as they make their way to the truck parked nearby.

  Fred is more than happy to disappear inside the passenger side of the truck. As Mitch closes the door and begins to head to the driver’s side, he is face to face with an angry looking Agent Walker. He is obviously upset that Mitch was able to find and arrest the wanted man so quickly. Before the two men could have a heated exchange, Stuart steps between them and begins to usher the federal agent away from the truck. The interference is enough of a distraction to allow Mitch to fire the truck up and head away from the gathered mass of law enforcement that has surrounded the bar.

  They head straight to the police station and not a single word is said between the two men. The low grumble of the engine is the only noise that breaks through the intensity between a murderer and the son of the man he killed. Mitch takes up several parking spots as he parks the truck right in front of the main door to the station. He races around and opens the passenger door and reaches in to help Fred out. A few short steps later and they are inside the building and making their way to the holding cells when the rush of agents begin to make their way back from the bar.

  The loud clank of the metal door closing brings an end to the short search for the former officer. He sticks his hands between the bars and allows Mitch to remove the cuffs. He turns back to his friend and finally looks him in the face. "I'm sorry Mitch. I know there isn't much I can do that will change anything, but I need you to know that I am sorry."

  Mitch can hear the footsteps coming down the hallway and he knows his time alone with Fred will soon be over. He has been lucky thus far, the F.B.I. is famous for taking over investigations and making sure the local police force has nothing to do with it. In this case, he has been very involved in the entire investigation. Even though he didn't give Agent Walker much of a choice, he was able to bring in the suspect and lock him in the cell without assistance from the feds.

  He doesn't respond to the words from Fred. Instead, he turns and begins to head back down the corridor to the central office. He stops as soon as he passes the cell that still holds Steven Graham. The mastermind of the entire series of events that led to several men losing their life, sits quietly on the bed and smiles out at Mitch. The coldness in his eyes infuriates the officer. How can a person be so obsessed with money that they are willing to kill anyone they encounter?

  "Stop! Mitch, I really need to know what you're thinking. I didn't intend to kill anyone." The words break the stare between Mitch and Steven Graham. Reluctantly Mitch returns to the door of Fred's cell. "All I wanted to do was to make a little money and get out of this awful town."

  "Fred, I don't really care about what you were thinking. I don't really know what to think about any of this. I thought you were a friend and never in my wildest dreams did I think you would ever be capable of something like this." Mitch is shouting now, much as he remembers his father doing whenever Mitch had done something wrong as a child.

  "I understand what you are saying but I hope that in the future you will be able to forgive me. I am not a killer."

  "Forgive you? Right now, I want to reach through these bars and choke the life out of you." His complexion has turned a bright shade of red. The rush of frustration and anger has finally boiled over to the point where he is ready to lash out at Fred. "You make a decision that you wanted the money and you were willing to do anything to get it. You say you are not a killer, but you looked my father right in the eye before you stabbed him. That makes you the worst kind of killer. You handed the lunatic in the other cell a knife that allowed him to escape, moments before the explosions. I have no idea how many lives were lost as a res
ult of that. Now you tell me you are not a killer and you hope I can forgive you? Listen closely to what I am saying. I hope you get everything that is coming to you. I am going to be at every court appearance you make, and I am going to make sure that they throw the book at you. I want you to see my face every time you wake up in the morning and every night before you go to sleep. I want you to remember me in the last moments before you burn in hell."

  He needed to get those words out and he needed Fred to know his thoughts. He turns away from his former friend and walks away silently. He is met in the hallway by Agent Walker, who has apparently been listening to the verbal tirade. Mitch hands him the tape recorder that caught Fred’s confession before the two men share a knowing nod and make their way past each other without speaking.

  The shuffling of agents in the office makes it difficult for Mitch to make his way out of the station. He stopped long enough to give Stuart a grin and a nod of approval before making it down the steps and outside to his truck. Once in the driver’s seat, he pauses long enough to allow the fire in his body to die down. It has been a very long and confusing day. One that started like it would be just another calm, early spring day. It was twenty-four hours ago when this whole thing began when he rolled into the parking lot of Graham Park. He turns the key in the ignition and starts the lonely drive home to his apartment.

  Chapter 36

  It has been three days since the conclusion of the events that happened at Graham Park. The F.B.I. has pretty much taken over the police station in that time but things are wrapping up and the agents that are still in town have become scarce. Mitch has stepped away from the investigation almost completely, allowing Agent Walker to have complete control. Today is also the day that the body of Sheriff Thompson will be laid to rest.