Brotherhood of District 23 Complete Series

by Amy Briggs

  “Let’s do a quick perimeter search,” I said as I strapped my bulletproof vest on. I wasn’t taking any chances today. Kevin already had his on, so we unholstered and did a quick walk around the house. Underneath the kitchen window was another small pile of cigarette butts. Our guy had been here watching. I pointed to them so Kevin would see them too.

  It was definitely time to go in. I radioed dispatch quietly we were going to enter the home. We had reasonable suspicion the arson suspect was inside, and that he was hostile. They identified that backup was on the way, and we got in place at the front porch.

  I peered through the window but couldn’t see anything. I suspected he had her in there, but I really didn’t know for sure. We agreed to knock and pretend we were just following up on the 911 call hang-up as standard protocol.

  “Is anyone home?” I yelled as I knocked.

  I heard a chair move, and then Catherine answered, “Hello? Who is it?”

  “It’s the police, ma’am. Detective Cruise. We had a report of a 911 call that was dialed and then the caller hung up. We have to come out and check those things. Can you please come to the door? We have to see you’re ok,” I called.

  “Uh… just a moment,” she called out. I heard a hushed whisper and was certain our guy was in there holding her hostage.

  The door opened just a few inches, and there she was, standing before me. “Mrs. Cavanaugh? I’m Isabelle Cruise. We haven’t met before. We were in the area when someone dialed 911 and hung up. We have to check on those calls. Is everything ok?” I repeated as I met her eyes. I lied so she would know I knew something was up.

  “Yes, yes, everything is fine.” Then she mouthed the word NO. I nodded my understanding of the situation. “It was a mistake. I thought if I hung up fast enough, it wouldn’t go through.”

  “Not a problem, Mrs. Cavanaugh. I’m going to head back to my patrol now. Let me know if anything suspicious happens, and we’ll come right out, ok?”

  “Of course. Sorry for the trouble, officer. Just a mistake. I wasn’t paying attention. Do you need anything else?”

  Kevin never spoke or moved until just then when he quickly whispered to her, “Hit the floor when we come in,” and held up his hand counting down from five, four, three, two, one…

  I pushed the door open, shoving Catherine to the ground and yelling, “Police! Freeze!” while Kevin ran in toward the back of the house. “Catherine, get outside NOW!” I hustled her outside, making sure she was safe, and then returned my attention to where in the house this guy was. “Connor!” I yelled for my partner.

  Suddenly, I heard a gunshot, and the doorframe near me splintered. That was fucking close, and I went for cover in the front room. Going for the radio on my shoulder, I yelled into it, “Badge number 2345! Shots fired! Shots fired! Need immediate assistance on scene!”

  I had only heard one gunshot, and it had whizzed past me, so I knew Kevin hadn’t been shot. I couldn’t figure out where he was when I heard him yell.

  “Cavanaugh, you need to put your weapon down right now and surrender! This isn’t a joke,” he screamed.

  “I’m not going anywhere! This is my house, and I’m taking it back, or burning it to the ground. Take your pick.” He came out of the kitchen holding a gas can and a lighter, with a revolver shoved into the front of his pants.

  “You gotta be kidding me,” I said. “Drop the fucking gas can, Cavanaugh!” I yelled at him.

  “Not happening, sweetheart. Hey, wait a minute. Aren’t you the one who’s been running around with my son, Matthew?” He’d been following all of them, I thought, and that was how he’d recognized me.

  “Am I adding stalker to the charges today, Cavanaugh?” Kevin had rejoined me, and we both had our weapons drawn, pointed at him, when the front door swung open and Matt and Brian rushed in, giving Patrick Cavanaugh a chance to drop the gas can and grab his weapon again.

  “Well, look here, it’s my boys! Hey, sons!”

  “What the fuck is going on here?” Matt exclaimed.

  “I’ll tell you what the fuck is going on here. Your girlfriend with the gun is trying to keep me from getting my family back. This house was mine, and your mother made me leave. And then that fire chief took care of all of you, leaving me with no family. I’m here to get it back.” He sounded almost drunk, certainly deranged.

  “Matt, Brian, please step aside,” I commanded. “Patrick, you are going to jail today, or are we carrying you out of here? You’re guilty of arson, kidnapping, and apparently stalking, so you need to put the fucking gun down right now. We’re not having a standoff here all day!” Never taking my eyes off the perp, I could hear the gas spilling out of the can. Hopefully, he didn’t realize that was happening, as now he had a lighter in one hand and his gun in the other.

  “I’ll tell you what’s going to happen, pretty cop lady. I’m gonna burn this house to the ground, and you’re not gonna fucking stop me. If I can’t have it, my ex wife can’t have it either. She can go live at her dead boyfriend’s house.”

  “Are you seriously our dad?” Brian chimed in. “What the fuck, man? We needed you. Our whole fucking lives, we wished you were there. Jack stepped in when you walked out!”

  “I didn’t walk out. Your mother made me leave.”

  “Because you’re a drunk and a cheat! This house doesn’t belong to you. We aren’t your family. You decided you didn’t fucking want a family twenty years ago, old man. You’ve put countless people in danger. You can go fuck yourself.” Brian was getting angry, and I didn’t want it to egg Patrick on.

  “Alright, that’s enough. You either put the weapon down, or I’m going to shoot you, Cavanaugh,” I said.

  “You’re what?” Matt finally spoke. “You can’t shoot him!”

  “Matt! You need to stay out of this!” I yelled.

  “Isabel, you can’t shoot my dad!”

  “Listen to him, honey. You can’t shoot me. He’ll never forgive you.” I could feel the sweat dripping down my back. Something had to happen soon. This standoff was going on too long. Our backup had to be coming soon, and I hoped they would come in the back door through the kitchen.

  “You need to drop the gun, Cavanaugh. I’m not going to ask you again,” I repeated.

  “Drop the fucking gun!” Kevin yelled.

  “Wait! Wait!” Matt yelled.

  Just as it appeared from the corner of my eye that Matt was taking steps toward his father, Patrick took his chance and lit up his zippo lighter, dropping it to the floor next to the gas can, which immediately erupted into flames. Everyone scattered, creating chaos. In the same moment, our backup crashed through the back door, catching Patrick off guard and tackling him to the ground without any further shots fired.

  The living room was starting to burn, and as Kevin, Matt, the other officers, and I scurried outside, Brian, Jax, and two other firefighters I wasn’t familiar with came in with the fire hose and began putting the fire out. Mrs. Cavanaugh was out on the front lawn with Jo and some of our other officers, and Patrick Cavanaugh was cuffed and hauled away to a squad car. I peered in Matt’s direction as he walked over to his mother, scooping her into a hug. I truly didn’t think he would forgive me for threatening to shoot his father. A father who’d left him and held his mother hostage, but his father nonetheless.

  I put my gun away and walked over to one of the squad cars to catch my bearings and to internally and ceremoniously kiss goodbye the only relationship I’d ever really had.

  I was so confused. My mom looked so upset, I had to go straight to her to make sure she was ok. I had checked on her quickly before running into the house with Brian, but I had known Isabel was in there too, and I had to protect her if I could.

  Apparently, my dad was a criminal, and in the last several days, he had effectively set five fires, displacing countless people from their homes, ruined no fewer than five small businesses, torched his ex wife’s car, and held her hostage. Turned out my dad was a real piece of shit, and a little bit c
razy.

  My mom promised to tell us why she threw him out twenty years ago, and Connor said they would tell us the laundry list on his rap sheet when we came down to the station the next day to give our statements. Apparently, he was some kind of chain smoker, and they had matched a bunch of cigarette butts from crime scenes to his DNA. He was in the system because of a bunch of petty thefts and other small crimes he’d performed over the years.

  Connor was the one who told me this much, because I couldn’t find Isabel. She had threatened to shoot my dad in front of me, yet she couldn’t even tell me all of his crimes herself and had disappeared. I looked all over for her. I was angry and disappointed, but I knew I needed to find her. Something was definitely wrong. She had a job to do and was protecting all of us, so I couldn’t understand why she would just leave, especially after our talk this morning.

  “Where is Isabel?” I asked Connor.

  “She left,” he replied.

  “No shit, she left. I can’t find her. Where is she?” I was getting angrier.

  “She went back to the station, dude. We still have work to do. Just leave her alone, Romeo. She’ll be at work tomorrow when you come in to fill out your statement, and you can talk to her then,” he snapped at me.

  Tomorrow? This guy was crazy if he thought I was going to wait until the next day to talk to her. I decided I’d go to her house later. I didn’t want to confront her at work, but I certainly wasn’t going to let this sit until the next day.

  I went back over to talk to my mom, knowing I’d have to wait to see Isabel anyway. She was still standing over by the trees in the front yard with Brian and Jo.

  “Mama, what the hell happened here?” I asked, running my hands through my hair, exasperated.

  “Oh Matthew. I don’t even know where to begin,” she sighed as she stared at the house. People were going in and out of the house; it was a crime scene now and a huge mess.

  “How about you tell us what exactly he wanted from you today? Then you can tell us what happened all those years ago, ok?” Brian asked.

  Turning her attention back to us, she took in another deep breath before beginning. “Well, boys, I always told you growing up that your father left us. That is mostly true. I talked to Brian about this one time many, many years ago.”

  I felt my face getting hot from anger knowing there was more to the story and it had somehow escalated to today’s events. Finding out Brian also knew some of this was just adding fuel to the fire I was feeling, but my mom continued telling us before I could set some of that anger free.

  “Patrick was a good man when we got married. He wanted a family, he worked hard, and he took care of us. Once we moved into this house though, he started to drink. Not like we do, a bit of whiskey now and again. I was finding bottles everywhere, and he had stopped going to work. He told stories of the job not needing him those days and went out to run errands and such, but he was out at the bar, spending money we didn’t have.

  He was never mean to you boys, but you were rowdy, which was often too much for him. He complained to me constantly about wanting quiet, and for what? For nothing. He stopped doing anything. Finally, I told him he needed to straighten himself out or leave. It wasn’t as dramatic as today would make it seem at all. One day, we had a big argument, like we’d had so many times before. I said the same thing I had kept saying, and he left. Only that time, he never came back.”

  “Did you look for him? Weren’t you worried?” I asked.

  “Of course, I was worried. I had the police involved, but they couldn’t find him for a while. I stopped looking for someone who did not want to be found. Eventually, a few years later, I received notification he was in New York City. He had an apartment, a girlfriend, apparently, and had moved on from us and obviously wasn’t coming back. I filed for divorce, had him served, and he signed the papers. I moved on with my life and even had a beautiful relationship with Jack, as you are all aware. I’ve never heard from Patrick once over all these years.” I looked over at Jo, who was also listening intently.

  “He knew what we were doing, Mama, who we were with. He had been following us all,” Brian said. “He knew about Jack.”

  “Yes, it seems he did. It seems Patrick has been watching all of us throughout the years. All he said to me was I’d moved on and didn’t leave a place for him in his own home. It’s very sad, but I think he has some emotional issues he will need to deal with, in addition to his drinking, which appears to still be a problem.” She hung her head. I moved over to hug her; she looked like she needed one. While most of the time, we went to her for those hugs, it was definitely her turn to receive some comfort now.

  Holding on to her, I too hung my head. What a fucking day. “Mama, I don’t think you’ll be able to stay here tonight. Do you want to come to my place?” I asked.

  Brian interjected, “I already asked her to come stay with us for a few days. The damage isn’t that bad; it will only take a couple of days to get it cleaned up. I am pretty sure she doesn’t want to hang out at your bachelor pad with you and Jax.”

  “Thank you, sweetheart. I’m going to stay with Brian and Jo until this little mess is dealt with. Besides, don’t you have something you need to do?” She had pulled away from my embrace and poked me gently in the ribs.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, knowing full well she meant Isabel. How that woman knew everything escaped me.

  Rolling her eyes at me, she said, “Go. Go to her. She is confused, but you can fix that, sweetheart.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need me?” I was kind of relieved Brian had already handled taking Mama in, even though Jax and I would absolutely take her too.

  “I’m taken care of now, sweetheart,” she said.

  “Uh, Chief? I need to take the rest of the shift off.” I looked over at Brian with pleading eyes. This was a moment where having your brother as your boss wasn’t so bad.

  “Do what you gotta do, man. I’m going to see if we can find someone to take Jo’s shift too, so we can take Mama home. But where are you going?” It occurred to me Brian was the only one who didn’t know anything about Isabel and me.

  “Matt has a girlfriend!” Jo blurted out.

  “What? Get the fuck out of here. Is that why you’ve been so shady?” he asked me. Meanwhile, Jo and my mother were now giggling. I needed to leave and find her; I didn’t have time for these shenanigans.

  “Dude, I’ll explain it all later. Isabel and I are a thing. That’s the bottom line.” I started to walk off, realizing I didn’t have a vehicle.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. Nice work, bro,” he said.

  “Matthew, take the old Ford out back,” Mama waved. We had an old Ford truck we kept here mostly because it ran. Every once in a while, my mom would need a truck for something. For instance, when her ex husband lights her Buick on fire. But also, this was a perfect time for an extra car.

  “Thanks, Mama,” I kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll catch you guys later. Yes, Jo, I will text you.” Jo smiled at me. She always appreciated when I knew what she was going to ask before she actually said it.

  I took off to get the keys and make my way to Isabel’s. As I drove to her house, trying to figure out what to say, I was at a loss. After hearing everything my mom had told us, plus the events of this day, I just needed to understand why she’d left in the middle of all of that; it couldn’t just be work. Especially when we’d agreed that very morning we were an us. I needed us now. I parked in her driveway next to her usual spot and sat myself down on the front step to wait.

  About an hour and a million thoughts later, I could hear her car coming from up the street and thought how her neighbors must hate that beautiful Camaro of hers. My heart immediately began to race, and for some reason, I felt nervous.

  “What are you doing here, Matt?” She said as she got out of her car, still wearing her sunglasses.

  “What do you mean, what am I doing here? You left the scene without even saying two words to me,” I rep
lied.

  She walked past me to open the door. “What do you want, Matt? You don’t really want to be here right now.”

  “What do you mean, I don’t want to be here? Did you bother to stick around and ask me? You’re my fucking woman, and we need to have a fucking chat about what happened today.” She put her sunglasses up on top of her head. I noticed her eyes were red as if she’d been crying, and she was sniffing her nose.

  She motioned for me to enter, so I stormed in past her and turned around to face her head-on. “Why did you fucking leave the scene before I could even talk to you?”

  “Because it was the right thing to do, Matt. I threatened to shoot your dad. In front of you, and in front of your brother. That’s not something that calls for a discussion right then and there with all of those emotions running high. And I would do it again to protect myself and everyone else there if I had to. I really didn’t know how to tell you all that this afternoon. I know that’s not something you could ever understand or forgive, so I left.” A tear crept out of her eye and rolled down her beautiful face.

  Lunging forward, I took her into my arms. “Baby, I know you had to do that. Did you think I wouldn’t understand? I was just shocked in that moment.” She started to cry a little bit harder, letting it all out, and I held her tighter. “Don’t cry, baby, shhhh.” As her crying lessened, she pulled away to look up at me.

  “You’re not mad at me? I just assumed you would be. I don’t regret what I did. It had to be done,” she said, staring up at me with those big, brown eyes.

  Taking her sweet face in my hands, I wiped away a tear with my thumb. “Baby, I’m pretty sure you saved my mom and who knows how many of the rest of us. We are all lucky you showed up before we did, if I’m being completely honest. Of course, I’m not mad. I mean, I’m mad about you, maybe, but that’s all.” I was trying to get a little smile out of her.