Kevin remained quiet this time.
Sergeant Joseph asked a few questions about the location of the drug house and the number of persons who had been there, and Kevin answered to the best of his knowledge, using his personal encounter and what he saw on the video footage to guide him.
“Okay, that should be it.” He looked around at each officer, getting a few nods. He then looked at Charles.
“You search him?”
Kevin froze on hearing the question. His neck and shoulders felt tensed. Kevin was carrying the pistol on his waist without Charles's knowledge. Before leaving Charles's house, he had contemplated whether or not he should carry the firearm and had finally decided to. He kept his eyes away from Charles knowing very well that his answer could determine how this whole operation would go down.
Charles looked at Kevin and then turned to Joseph and answered with a yes.
The sergeant studied Charles face for a moment. The hesitation had obviously brought doubt to his mind.
One of the officers took a step forward to conduct the search, but the sergeant raised his hand, stopping him in his tracks.
“Alright, good.” The sergeant finally said and turned away. He had spared him the embarrassment.
Kevin finally exhaled.
“Now that we pass that stage, how about if we go straight to planning a strategy?”
“Okay,” Kevin said.
Joseph started instructing his men. The plan was that Kevin would stay in the leading vehicle with him and Charles in the vehicle to the end of the convoy. Kevin didn’t like being separated from Charles, but he said nothing. The police team drove out of the track, leaving the rental behind. Kevin started giving directions.
They followed the road and made a few turns and when Kevin came to the village he began feeling as if he had been pressured by the officers.
“We almost reach?” Sergeant Joseph was looking at him from the rear-view mirror.
“We have a little distance again to go.” Kevin answered.
Joseph waited a short while and then he stuck his hand out of the window and signaled to the vehicles behind. The two officers on Kevin sides began checking their rifles.
The sergeant and the officer in the driver’s seat did the same with their pistols.
They reached the spot where he had pushed the police vehicle down the precipice and he told Joseph that they were almost there and pointed to the end of the road where the drug house could be seen beyond the trees.
“Okay, good,” Joseph said, and they proceeded slowly while scanning the area carefully.
When they were a few seconds away, two officers came out of each vehicle and began walking alongside them.
Kevin could feel his heart racing as he anticipated the moment. He counted down the seconds in his mind.
They came off the road and after passing the tall trees that created a fence, Kevin saw the drug house. It looked exactly the same.
He saw the broken window upstairs and he could see the broken chair and pieces of glass on the ground below it. All the vehicles came to a stop and his eyes were glued on an excavator on his left, in the spot where the truck and the police vehicles had been parked. The excavator was military green and it look as if they were planning on demolishing the building sometime soon. Kevin realized if he had come at a later day there was a possibility that the house would’ve been destroyed just as Sean had predicted.
Sergeant Joseph and everyone else exited the vehicles and Kevin followed.
“So this is the place?” Joseph asked.
“Yeah,” Kevin answered.
Although the place looked deserted a few officers started moving around the perimeter of the building.
“Clear!” one of the officers shouted from the left side of the building and the three officers on the other sides said the same, as if they were his echo.
They remained where they were, and three other officers started moving towards the front window.
One of the officers was holding a metal case in his hand that was the size of a lunch kit. He remained in a crouching position on one side of the window and another officer was on the opposite side. He opened the kit and when the officer broke the glass he threw three cans at different angles inside the building. Kevin saw the building become clouded with smoke, then the officers pulled down their gas masks and entered through the window. They vanished in the smoke.
Kevin heard a similar noise and saw more smoke escaping through the windows upstairs.
About five minutes after he saw one of the officers appear at the top window and indicated that the building was empty. The front door opened shortly after and the sergeant moved towards the building after the smoke had cleared. Kevin, Charles and the other officer followed.
They entered the storage room and the sergeant stopped and observed the metal tables.
The officer who had gone in with them began taking a few pictures and Sergeant Joseph walked to the other room where the similar metal tables were located.
“It had drugs in this room too?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Kevin answered.
They made their way throughout the entire building and Kevin explained what took place in each room from what he had seen. When they were finished, they all left the building and Sergeant Joseph contacted the superintendent and described everything that he had observed. He told him that nothing illegal was found and that no one was there.
“Okay,” the sergeant said when he finished his call. Everyone was around him except the officers who were guarding the perimeter.
“I call Rampersad and tell him what went on. So, we have to take the suspect into custody like what we originally planned, and when we get back to base I would take back accordingly, okay.”
“So what going to happen there?” Kevin asked.
“Well, we would use the information we get here and the investigators would question you, but I not sure which way it would go from there. You have to keep in mind that, at the end of the day, we didn’t find any solid evidence, but the soldiers would have to answer for this.” He pointed to the excavator.
“As long as they could give a good enough reason for it being here, you might very well be on your own. It don’t have no footage or anything, so it would be a difficult case for you to fight.”
He started walking back to the police vehicle and all of the officers followed. The officers who were guarding the perimeter walked the vehicles back out to the beginning of the road before entering.
Kevin sat in the back seat between both officers and remained quiet. He was glad that they’d made the journey to the drug house, but he was disappointed that there wasn’t anyone or anything there. He knew that during his court hearing he’d have to find a way for the judge to view the video. That was his only option now.
The vehicles were all speeding through the forested area when Sergeant Joseph signaled to the driver to slow down. Kevin began looking across his shoulders and wondering what was wrong.
Both officers stuck their rifles out of the window, prepared to shoot.
The sergeant waited a while and then give the driver the signal to proceed and stuck his hand out of the window, showing a similar signal to the vehicles behind. At that very instant, Kevin heard several loud noise like gunshots and the vehicle started swerving as the driver struggled to take control.
Kevin heard more gunshots being fired at the vehicles behind and before he could turn around, their vehicle ended up in the bushes just to the side of the road and the second vehicle came crashing into them, pushing them off the road and into a tree.
The officers dived out of the vehicles and went flat on the ground and started firing back.
Kevin struggled to stay low while attempting to exit the vehicle. The shooting stopped and he fell out the vehicle, hands first, and kept his body as low as possible and used his hands to shield his head.
When the shooting had stopped completely, and he finally opened his eyes he saw the sergeant lying on his
stomach and scanning the area in front of him with his rifle.
Kevin had no idea where the shooting was coming from and he was too afraid to lift his head or turn around. A few moments passed and when he saw Sergeant Joseph get on one knee, he turned around and saw that all the other officers were taking cover behind the vehicles in a similar posture.
Joseph looked around and then shouted out to the vehicle in the back and one of the officers shouted back that Greg was hit. Kevin realized that it had started all over again and that the persons running the drug house were making it clear that nothing and no one was going to take them down. Sergeant Joseph crawled across to the other vehicle, keeping his head down. Kevin went flat on his chest and kept his eyes towards the vehicle where Joseph was heading. One officer was lying on his back on the safe side of the vehicle, and Charles and two others were surrounding him with a first-aid kit. Their hands and clothes were bloody.
The two other officers were covering the open sides of the vehicle. When the sergeant reached them he took over. The three of them remained with the wounded officer for almost fifteen minutes before Joseph made it clear that he’d have to be rushed to the hospital. They left him there and covered the drivers while they checked the vehicles.
Only two of the vehicles were accessible so the remaining officers would have to sit in the back.
Charles signaled for Kevin to come towards them, but Kevin ignored him, pretending to be afraid. The Sergeant said something to Charles and as he ran across to Kevin, three shots were fired from somewhere in the bushes. The officers all started firing into the area from where the shots came.
“Come, we have to go!” Charles said and held on to Kevin’s arm.
“No,” Kevin said and pulled away.
“What?” Charles' eyes opened wide and Kevin saw more fear than curiosity.
“I not going.”
“What? What you mean you not going? Come!” Charles pulled him by his arm again and he pulled away with a lot more force.
“No. I not going.”
“Why you acting like this?”
“I have the footage.”
Charles looked confused now.
“What you talking about? What footage?”
“The one from the drug house. I have it. That is what they want.”
Charles face was angry, and he kept sharing his focus between Kevin and the other officers. More shots fired towards them and both Kevin and Charles lay flat while the officers returned fire.
“Why the hell you didn’t tell me that before, instead of getting all these people involve in this shit?”
Kevin looked at him and shook his head like a confused child. It was hard for him to concentrate with everything that was taking place around them.
“Charles? Why you taking so fucking long? We have to go now,” Sergeant Joseph shouted.
“I don’t know,” Kevin finally answered. “I thought this way woulda work out better.”
“Well you waste that fucking thought. Next time leave the thinking to the professionals.”
Charles looked towards the sergeant again and then looked back at Kevin.
The wounded officer was already in the vehicle and they were waiting for Charles in order for everyone to get in and drive away at the same time.
“Come, I would get the footage,” Charles said.
“No.” Kevin shook his head. “If they willing to kill a police, who is me?” He pulled the gun from his waist in one quick motion and pointing it at Charles. Charles' eyes opened wide. As much as Kevin didn’t want to do it, his life had become all about taking risks.
“You done do enough. I would get it, and…”
“Charles, we leaving in the next five seconds, with or without you,” the sergeant shouted.
“Give me the keys.”
“We don’t have to go through this,” Charles started saying.
“I don’t care about all that, just give me the keys.”
Charles shook his head and dipped his hand into his pocket, taking out the keys for the car.
“After everything I do for you, this is how you going to repay me?”
Kevin didn’t want to think about all that. He ignored everything that Charles was saying.
“Here.” Charles handed the keys to Kevin. “I not even bothering. But, when you dead don’t blame me.”
“Okay, I hear you. Now go before they leave you.”
Kevin could feel the pain of betrayal riding his chest. It was a difficult pain to ignore.
“Just go!” Kevin said in a soft but demanding voice and Charles got up halfway and started running back to their vehicle. At that same time Kevin pushed against the police vehicle and ran into the bushes. He was sure to stay as low as possible.
He heard several shots fired from a distance in the bushes and then he heard rapid shots being fired in the area above. When he finally stopped and looked up, he saw the two police vehicles driving away. The officers who were sitting in the back were shooting into the bushes, in the direction where the ambush came from.
Kevin was certain that whoever was shooting at them didn’t see when he ran into the bushes and this time he had a fair idea where he was.
He used the clear area above the road as his guide and he followed it for a distance. When he saw that he was approaching the village he made his way back up and remained just off the road.
He had recognized the houses, but there wasn’t any stopping to rest this time. He kept walking until he reached the bus shed and he felt the excitement and relief move up into his chest when he saw the car, right where they’d left it.
He got into the car and made his way onto the highway and began heading to Wendell’s house.
Kevin abandoned the vehicle in an empty lot and walked through an open yard in order to get to Wendell’s house without being seen. He saw Wendell mother’s car parked in front this time and the gate was also open. He went into the yard where he listened to the voices of Wendell’s mother and sister who were both talking in a nearby room. He couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying.
He knocked on the door and waited. Karen asked who it was and when she didn’t hear anyone answer, she came to the door within a few seconds. She was wearing a jeans and t-shirt and this time she had a surprised look on her face when she saw Kevin appear from the side of the house.
“Kevin! What you doing here?” she said with a worried look on her face and stared across her shoulders to see if anyone saw him come into their yard.
He was careful not to be seen.
“Kev, yuh face all over the news, why you still walking around like nothing happen? Come inside.”
“No, I not staying long. Wendell here?”
She remained at the inside of the door, looking at him from the corner of her eyes.
“No, he not home. I not even sure where he is.”
“Okay. But, when was the last time you did see him?”
“Earlier this morning, why?
“He might be in trouble, I need to see him. You have a number I could reach him on?”
“Oh God.” Her expression changed immediately, and he noticed that she was starting to panic. “Yeah, you could reach him on his same number.”
Kevin pierced his eyes at her, shocked by what she just said. He gave her an opportunity to correct herself, but she didn’t need to.
She stood there studying the sudden change in his face.
“What?” he said in a soft, angry voice.
Her face was confused.
He shook his head as he tried to cope with the instant feeling of betrayal. It was as if karma was already having its revenge. The anxiety and confusion were going to his head and he was beginning to feel as if he was about to explode.
He had tried calling Wendell’s phone several times last night, hoping that he had purchased one, and now to find out this. Kevin clenched his fist. But, before he lost control of himself, he turned to walk away, hoping that he wouldn’t place his anger on the wrong person.<
br />
It was like Wendell had completely changed. Kevin had no idea who he was anymore. First, he disappeared from the fight which was not like him, and then he lied about his phone being lost. Something wasn’t adding up. There was no way Wendell could have changed so quickly without anyone noticing. He wasn’t that smooth.
“What happen?” she asked.
Kevin could feel the pressure lingering in his head, confusing his thoughts. He had no idea what was going on and he hadn’t made any plans. His intentions were plain and simple. He would come here and meet with Wendell and they’d both come together and retrieve the memory card. But, unfortunately for him, it was as if Wendell had something else on his agenda.
He took a deep breath and lifted his head, wishing that he was the one who was overreacting and there would be an explanation. His shoulders and arms became tensed and he felt as if he didn’t even know himself.
He opened his eyes and focused on the blue skies. It was a beautiful day. The type of day that would usually give him the feeling of comfort and a joy to be alive. But this time it was different. It made him realize that shit happens. In reality he was a fugitive. His time was becoming limited and there was definitely no room for sympathizing.
He turned and looked at her. She had no idea what was going on, or what was about to take place. But, one thing he knew for sure was that she’d never forgive him for what he was about to do.
Within a blink of an eye he dipped his hand beneath his jersey and pulled out the gun. Her eyes opened wide and she attempted to run. He grabbed her by her hand and hit her on her head with the gun butt. Her screams had been cut short and he pushed her inside and closed the door behind them.
Her mother came running out from somewhere in the back. She froze when she realized what was taking place.
“Where Jimmy?” Kevin said, keeping control of the situation.
“He in his bedroom,” their mother answered.
“Let him come out here now!”
She called out to him and he answered and came out within some seconds. When he saw Kevin with the gun, he stopped at his mother’s side and wrapped his arms around her.
Karen was on the ground holding her head and crying. There was blood between her fingers.
Another Last Chance Page 9