Putting Everything on the Line

by Kathryn Pana

  ‘What?’ Will responded.

  ‘You just knocked my cue as you went past.’

  ‘Yes, and I apologised, so I am not sure what your problem is.’

  ‘You ruined my whole shot,’ he shouted.

  ‘Come on, you can retake it,’ his friend said, trying to pull him away.

  ‘I suggest you go back with your friend and carry on with your game,’ Will said very calmly.

  ‘Why? You think I should be scared of you or something? What, because you are bigger than me, you think you can push me around?’

  Tom stood up and came over.

  ‘Listen, guys, we just want a quiet drink after a rough shift, so if you don’t mind, we would like to get back to it,’ Tom said.

  ‘Rough shift? Why, what do you do?’ said the taller one.

  ‘We are police officers,’ Tom replied.

  ‘So that’s why you think you can push us around, is it?’ he started again.

  Just then, Charlie came over. ‘Listen, guys, I don’t want any trouble. You either carry on with your game or you leave.’

  ‘Us, leave?’ he said, outraged. ‘What did we do?’

  ‘Come on, let’s just get back to the game,’ the taller one said as he pulled his friend away towards the pool table.

  Charlie followed them over to make sure that was the end of it.

  ‘Listen, guys, Sergeant Falco there is a regular and he is not a man to piss off, OK?’

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘He’s SWAT, and one of the best there is. Word from the other guys I get in here from the PD, him and his team are the top team over there and shoot more bad guys than all the others put together, and he is also a very good friend. I have known him for years.’

  The two men looked over at Will and Tom as they finished their drinks and headed out of the bar.

  Outside the bar, Tom stopped.

  ‘You OK?’ he asked, gesturing back at the bar.

  ‘Yeah, I’m heading home. Don’t worry, I am not going to shoot anyone tonight.’ He smiled and walked over to the PD car park and collected his motorbike.

  Chapter Eight

  Will had hardly slept and was on his third cup of coffee when the rest of the team walked in the office. Will had been sat in his office for the last hour going over reports from the previous day and past cases to see if he could figure out where he would be holding Kathy. Truth was, he had come up with nothing, and he had to face a whole day at work without being able to get anywhere. He came out of his office and walked over to get another coffee.

  ‘Morning, guys, hope you all slept well. Could be a long one today, especially with us being one short. I need your A game.’

  Just then Captain Bridge appeared, followed by an officer from internal affairs who Will recognised well.

  ‘Why do you think he’s here?’ Bennett asked.

  ‘Has to be about yesterday,’ Tom replied.

  They went into the Captain’s office and closed the door behind them.

  ‘So, any news yet, Sergeant, from whoever is looking for Kathy?’ asked Palmer.

  ‘No, nothing yet,’ answered Will. ‘But I am sure there will be something soon, he can’t hide her forever.’

  They were all sat round the desks talking, when the Captain’s door opened. The Captain came out.

  ‘Sergeant Falco, can you come in my office for a minute?’

  Will got up, looked at Tom and went over to the Captain. He went in and the Captain followed, closing the door.

  ‘Internal affairs have graced us with their presence. Apparently, they are looking into the incident yesterday and they are looking at you and your team,’ said Captain Bridge as he walked back round behind his desk.

  ‘Seriously?’ Will said, folding his arms across his chest.

  ‘Well, Sergeant, why don’t you sit down and we can discuss the matter further?’ said Lieutenant Green.

  ‘I’m OK standing, thanks.’

  ‘OK. We know there is a leak somewhere. Your team knew both locations and timings, so I am here to find out if it’s you or a member of your team.’

  ‘You actually believe one of us is responsible for the kidnapping of our own team member?’

  ‘It’s possible.’

  ‘It’s bullshit!’ Will shouted.

  ‘Sergeant, watch yourself,’ Captain Bridge intervened. ‘Lieutenant, you know this makes no sense.’

  ‘They could have done it for the money. Even a Sergeant’s pay isn’t that good.’

  Will laughed. ‘Money? That’s your motive? Well, good luck with that.’

  ‘What I do know, Sergeant, is over the next few days, I will be scrutinising your team and this unit until I have cleared you, and one bad shoot and I will have your badge.’

  Just then, Will’s radio went.

  ‘We have armed assailants in a clothing store down on fifth avenue.’

  ‘Alpha Team on route,’ Will responded. ‘Excuse me, Lieutenant, I have real work to go and do,’ he said, then walked out. They watched him cross the office.

  ‘Come on, guys, let’s go.’ And with that they left.

  Lieutenant Green and Captain Bridge stood at his office door.

  ‘He will bring this whole unit down, Captain. He is hot headed and arrogant, and worse than that, he doesn’t care who he takes down with him.’

  ‘Lieutenant, you don’t know Sergeant Falco. He is a fantastic officer and he is the best this office has. So, if you are looking to take down him and his team, you had better watch yourself because that will not go down well in this office or across the NYPD. This city is safer because of officers like him.’

  ‘Captain, I hope that’s not a threat.’

  ‘No, Lieutenant, it’s a promise. Now, I too have work to do, so show yourself out.’

  ***

  They arrived in their cars, another team had taken the truck for training outside the city. They stopped a block down and got out.

  ‘What we got?’ Will asked.

  ‘Sergeant Falco, how are you? Heard about Kathy, sorry man,’ replied Sergeant Edwards. They had known each other for a few years, meeting on incidents and having the odd beer together after shift.

  ‘Cheers. We will get her back.’

  ‘Of course, you will. Now, we have two armed assailants in a luxury leather goods store.’

  ‘OK, so what’s the front like? Any vantage points?’

  ‘It’s glass fronted, but they have a display in the window.’ He paused. ‘We aren’t really sure what’s going on in there. They don’t have much money on the premises at this time of day, and there have been no demands.’

  ‘Have you cleared their line of sight from inside?’

  ‘Yeah we have, even the cops.’

  ‘Good, here’s what I think: me and Tom approach from this side and go in the front door. My other three cover the sides.’

  ‘Sounds good to me, Sergeant.’

  Tom and Will approached the store, the door and front were all glass so they had to be careful. Will knew the store and the owner, he could see two people in front of the counter, behind which the owner was stood. It appeared the two were holding weapons, but they looked different, he could also see at least two customers in the back of the store.

  ‘OK,’ he whispered to Tom, ‘there are two with weapons, the owner and I think two customers at the back. It looks like someone has been throwing paint around or something. I will see if I can get the owner to make them look towards the back so we can enter from here.’

  Will took his phone out and text her, he knew she kept her phone on the counter and that she kept it on silent when working. He saw her glance down at the phone. She started to move down the counter and they started to turn; when the door was out of their line of sight, Will signalled to Tom and they entered through the front door. Will went in first and Tom stopped just inside the door while Will moved forward.

  ‘NYPD, put your weapons down and turn around slowly,’ Will shouted.

  The two
assailants turned around, there was a male, he was five-foot-ten with thick dark blond hair and thick stubble, he was quite heavy and had a nervous look about him. The female was not much over five foot two, she had long, thin bright pink hair and black make up, her skin was so pale, it was almost white and she was so thin she looked like she could break at any time.

  ‘They are just paintball guns,’ she whimpered.

  Will assessed them, they were an odd couple indeed.

  ‘Why are you in a clothing store firing paintballs at things?’ Will asked

  ‘We are against using animals for clothing or to eat, and this is our protest against the cruelty’ she stated but rather quietly.

  ‘No,’ Will replied ‘a protest is quietly walking around outside with placards chanting or something. What we have here is criminal damage and therefore, you two are under arrest’

  ‘Under arrest?’ the man said with a hint of a non-American accent, his voice harsh and showing his anger.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Will, ‘so put your paintball guns on the counter and put your hands on your heads.’

  They both put their paintball guns on the counter, the female put her hands on her head, but the man pulled a handgun from the back of his jeans and pointed it at Will. The female looked at him in shock, it was clear she knew nothing about this actual gun he now held.

  ‘No, we are going to walk out of here and carry on with our protest of stores that sell animal products,’ he said.

  Will looked across at Tom and smiled, his weapon pointing at the assailants the whole time.

  ‘Really?’ Will said as he turned back to look at them. ‘You wouldn’t get a foot out of that door. You see, you have just that one gun and even if you managed to get one shot off, you would most likely miss and I would shoot you.’

  ‘Why do you presume I would miss?’

  ‘Even if you hit me, my man over here would put you down or one of the other three of my team outside would, so you can put the gun down or I can put you in the hospital, or the morgue.’

  ‘You are just trying to scare me.’

  ‘Do you really think, as SWAT officers, we would miss you? Really?’

  ‘You can’t shoot me for nothing, I know the law.’

  ‘Well, look it up again, you are pointing a gun at a police officer, threatening to fire. I am allowed to fire first if you refuse to put it down, so put the gun down.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘We are leaving’

  ‘OK, last chance. Drop the gun or I will fire.’

  ‘NO!’ he shouted.

  Will glanced at Tom, nodded then fired. The round went straight through his right shoulder, he fell to the ground. The woman screamed and bent down to him, her hand reached for the gun he had dropped.

  ‘I suggest you don’t do that,’ Will said.

  She looked up to see him stood right in front of her, gun pointing right at her. She stood and stepped back.

  ‘We are all clear control, we need an EMT and we need officers to escort the two assailants, as they are both under arrest,’ Will radioed through.

  Then, as the officers and EMT entered the shop, Tom opened the door for them, the customers came from the back of the store and over to Will. Will recognised one of them, the man from Charlie’s the night before that had tried to start a fight with him; he had a woman with him, Will guessed it was his wife. She was about the same height, with highlighted bobbed hair, she was really quite beautiful, though she had eyes that said she had been through a lot in her life.

  ‘We just wanted to say thanks’ she said. ‘We can’t quite believe what just happened, we only came in for some boots.’

  ‘Just doing my job,’ replied Will.

  ‘Thanks, anyway,’ the man said holding out his hand. Will shook it and they left with an officer to give their statement.

  ‘Will Falco, look at you, you’re looking good, not seen you in uniform before, it suits you.’

  ‘Rachel,’ he said as he turned to face her. ‘Long time no see, thanks for the assist.’

  ‘You are welcome,’ she smiled. ‘Glad it was you that came out though, I know you said you were a cop, but it was hard to believe without seeing it.’

  ‘Well what can I say, they sent the best, and you haven’t seen me in uniform before because you haven’t needed to.’

  ‘And I am grateful for that. Seriously though, how long till I can sort out and clean this place up because it’s going to take me ages to get that bloody paint out and this blood, well, that’s even worse.’

  ‘Well, it shouldn’t take too long, sorry about the blood.’

  ‘Not your fault, some of these people go too far.’

  ‘Well, tell you what, get some professional cleaners in and send me the bill, OK?’ he smiled ‘Now don’t forget to give your statement and I will see you at the black and white dinner next month.’

  ‘Yes, for sure, will save you a dance. Goodbye, Sergeant Falco.’

  Will left and Tom followed him.

  ‘I am not going to ask how well you know her.’

  ‘Good, because I don’t want to discuss it.’

  ‘That sure was fun though, some of these protesters really take the piss, I wonder if they really know what they are doing sometimes.’

  ‘Well a couple of people can be the exception. I mean, you think of all the protests that go without any trouble, including animal rights, but then you get a few nut jobs who think they can do what they want.’

  ‘True, well, let’s get back because I could murder a coffee.’

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ Will laughed.

  They got back in their cars and headed off.

  Chapter Nine

  On their way back, Will’s phone rang, it was Captain Bridge.

  ‘Sergeant, I know you usually say no, but I have a request from SVU on an arrest warrant, they asked for you.’

  ‘What’s the location?’ Will replied. ‘Tell them we are on our way.’

  ‘I will forward you the location now, Sergeant.’

  Will hung up and waited for his phone to beep.

  ‘Tom, pull over till we get a location.’

  ‘What are we doing?’

  ‘Arrest warrant.’

  ‘Really? You hate those.’

  ‘Yeah well, keeping busy will help me get through this day, so if this is what does that, then so be it.’

  The phone beeped. Will showed Tom the location and then sent it through to Harvey in the other car.

  ‘Let’s go, then,’ Tom said as he set off again.

  ***

  They pulled up outside an apartment block in the Bronx. There was a handful of detectives waiting for them to arrive.

  ‘Sergeant Falco, you don’t usually grace us with your presence, even when I request you.’

  ‘Yeah, well, slow day, so why not help you lesser mortals with our skills?’ Will laughed.

  Sergeant Simmons had known Will for ten years, they had always got on and had a lot of respect for each other.

  ‘So, we have a suspect in apartment 3D, he is wanted on multiple rape charges.’

  Will looked up at the building.

  ‘Do they have fire escapes for each apartment?’ Will asked

  ‘Yeah, think so.’

  ‘Do we know which one is for that apartment or where they come out?’

  ‘They are all down the side of the building, but I don’t know which is which.’

  ‘OK, Harvey, Palmer and Bennett, go up with the detectives. Tom, you come with me and we will cover the fire escapes, he is bound to make a run for it down one of them.’

  ‘OK, Sergeant, sounds good.’

  ‘Harvey, take point on entry.’

  ‘No problem, Sergeant.’

  As they went up, Will and Tom went round the side of the building, being careful not to be seen.

  ‘So, which fire escape do you think it is?’

  ‘Well, he said 3D so guessing forth one in.’

  ‘So how do we do this?’

  ‘You
go above, and I stay a floor below.’

  They went up the fire escape as quiet as they could, which was not easy as it was metal and they got themselves into position.

  ‘We are all set,’ Will said into his radio.

  Next thing, they heard shouting from inside. Then the window opened and a white male climbed out; he came down the fire escape and when he saw Will, turned round but Tom had come down behind him. He stopped and put his hands on his head.

  ‘Now here’s a guy who’s done this before,’ Will said. ‘We have the suspect on the fire escape,’ he said into his radio.

  Sergeant Simmons appeared from the open window.

  ‘Great job guys, could do with you more often.’

  ‘Thanks, Simmons, but we will see.’

  ***

  They got back to the office and as they headed in, Will could see Lieutenant Green in the Captain’s office. He grabbed a coffee and headed for his office, went in, left the door open and sat at his desk and started to write up his reports. Captain Bridge appeared at his door.

  ‘What can I do for you, Captain?’

  ‘Heard you did good on that arrest warrant, it does you good when you play well with other departments.’

  ‘Yeah, well, it takes my mind off things, but don’t expect it too often,’ he paused and sat back in his chair. ‘So, what does he want?’

  ‘To talk to you about your first shout this morning.’

  ‘OK,’ he got up. ‘Let’s get it over with.’

  They walked from Will’s to the Captain’s office and shut the door behind them.

  ‘So, Sergeant, I said I would be back but I didn’t think it would be so soon. Tell me, is it common practice to shoot people who are carrying paintball guns?’

  Will laughed and shook his head. ‘He had a hand gun and he pulled it on me when I said they were under arrest, he wouldn’t put it down and I gave him three warnings.’

  ‘Says you, Sergeant.’

  ‘Yeah and Hargreaves, plus three witnesses, who will all tell you the same thing,’ his voice raising.

  ‘I will check those reports and you had better watch your tone with me, Sergeant, but tell me, did you have to destroy his shoulder to the point he is now in surgery to have it repaired?’