Red Man Down(3)

‘Officer Spurlock,’ Sarah said, ‘are you sure this is a fatality?’

‘Well, the ME isn’t here yet, but the head guy on the EMT team said he was qualified to call it and he did – no use transporting a dead body, he said, and he called the ME to take care of it. Take a look if you— Do you think he’s still alive?’

‘No, but I’m puzzled – where’s all the blood? Just hang on here a second while I take a look, OK?’ She hurried toward the motionless body on the ground. She had recently had a corpse at a crime scene begin to move. It was not an experience she expected to forget, or wanted to repeat.

Buddy Norris was the police photographer today. A methodical man who didn’t like distractions, he said sharply, ‘I’m not done yet, Sarah.’ Which meant get the hell out of my crime scene. And the rules said he was right. An iron-clad rule at a crime scene was to take a picture of everything before you touch anything.

‘Buddy, I’m not touching anything, I just have to get one look. Because if this is a fatality where’s all the— Oh.’

Spurlock’s first shot must have been a thousand-to-one successful crime-stopper that entered just below his chin. It appeared to have kept going straight back, probably through his spinal cord. Or was buried in it? Either way, there wouldn’t have been much bleeding after that bullet found its target. This man was probably dead when he hit the ground. Nice shooting, Officer Spurlock.

She walked back and stood beside the young officer. ‘Looks like your suspect died really fast,’ she said. She glanced through her notes and found his first name. ‘Daniel,’ she said, watching the nerve twitch in his cheek, ‘is this your first shooting?’

‘Yes, it is,’ Spurlock said, ‘and I gotta tell you, it does not feel good.’

‘It never does,’ Sarah said. ‘I would be quite alarmed if you said it did. But you and I are going to have to walk this scene together while you tell me everything you can remember about what happened here. And then, once the rest of my crew gets here, you and I will go downtown and meet somebody from Internal Affairs. I’ll sit in while he interviews you and we’ll make out the preliminary report. First, though,’ she said, pulling on gloves, ‘I have to ask you for your badge and your weapon. As of now you’re on paid investigative leave, Daniel.’ She watched his eyes darken for a couple of seconds and got ready for an argument, but the moment passed and he pulled his badge off his belt.

‘Call me Dan – everybody else does. This doesn’t feel so good either,’ he said, unclipping the holster that held his Glock.

‘I know. Think of it as a nice paid vacation with the family.’

‘I’ll try. When does it start?’

‘As soon as you finish talking to me and Internal Affairs.’

‘How long does the investigation take, usually?’

‘On average? Three or four months. But you won’t get that much time off – just three working days, usually. Though you can request one or two extra if you feel you need it. What shifts are you working?’

‘Saturday through Tuesday.’

‘So you might get back to work on Tuesday, if all goes well. Check with your duty sergeant. Meanwhile a dozen or so people will be writing their reports – I’ll write one, and Delaney, and the Chief of Police after he walks the scene with one of us. Internal Affairs will review the scene and write a report, too, and somebody from the County Attorney’s office—’

‘Jeez,’ he said, ‘everybody gets to comment but me?’

‘Oh, you’ll get interviewed plenty – more than you’re going to like, probably. But the more you help me right now, the easier the whole thing will go.’ She turned to a fresh page. ‘Did you talk to the men who called in the complaint?’

‘No. Like I said, the minute I got here I saw that guy and called for backup. I walked over to that bar as soon as the other two patrol cars got here and asked the guy who’s running the place to show me who called it in. He said they left right after they ended the call, said they didn’t want to get involved.’ He shrugged. ‘People are funny about that sometimes, aren’t they?’

‘Yes.’ The ME’s car had just parked beside hers and she saw Moses Greenberg, a.k.a. the Animal, get out of it and stride impatiently toward the tape. Sarah removed the ammo clip and the last bullet from the chamber of Spurlock’s gun, then dropped it and his badge into an evidence bag, saying, ‘Will you wait here, please, while I have a word with Doctor Greenberg? Then we’ll take a stroll around this lot before we go downtown.’