Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Ed Bernero and them except for Sarah Boscorelli, Samantha Boscorelli, Ray Sharp, Gordon Sharp, the nervous little man, and Del Velicio.
Author's Note: So this is my prequel to Safeguarding Sam. I kind of felt like I needed to explain a little more about what happened to Bosco's wife, Sarah. You don't really need to read my other story to understand this one.About of half of this is set before Sam is even born, but she is in this story eventually.I hope you like! My other story, At Her Bedside, isn't going so well. I'm gonna stew over it for awhile and see what comes out. For now, on with this story.
What Happened To Sarah?
"Sarah! Where are my shoes?"
"In the closet, where I threw them!"
"Why did you throw them there? Why couldn't you just leave them by the door where I put them?"
"Because you need to learn, Maurice, that the floor is not your personal shoe rack." Bosco gave an exasperated sigh and walked back towards the bedroom. This was normal for Maurice Boscorelli and his wife Sarah in their year old marriage. It really was only playful banter, but since they were both from strong Italian backgrounds, it didn't always come off as such. By the time Bosco had retrieved his shoes from the back of the closet, he had cooled down and went into the kitchen.
"You're right, I'm wrong, you win." He said. Her smile beamed and her green eyes glowed. Even her long brown hair seemed to shine a little brighter, for she knew she had been right again. She stepped close to her husband and gave him a long kiss.
"You can make it up to me later," she said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. "But right now, you're going to be late again!" Bosco glanced at the clock on the microwave and saw that he was, in fact, going to be late to the precinct again.
"Damn, Swersky's gonna have my ass this time."
"Then go! Oh, and ask Faith if we're still on for the movie tomorrow night."
"I will." He gave her a quick peck. "See you later."
"Bye. Love you."
"Love you too." The front door slammed shut behind Bosco as he ran out.
"We're looking for this man," Lieutenant Swersky said, holding up the mug shot. "His name is Ray Sharp. We've got a couple of inside resources telling us that this is the man who sold guns to Del Velicio. If you don't remember him, Velicio is the guy we caught up with last week who's responsible for the death of at least six people. According to our inside sources, and Velicio himself, Sharp has been selling illegal guns all over the city. We need to get Sharp off the streets. Keep a close eye out people. Be careful out there." With that, all the officers in the room got up to start their shift. All except one person.
"Bosco!" Faith exclaimed. "Wake up! Let's go!" Bosco had been dozing off in his chair until he heard Faith's voice in his ear.
"Wh-what?" he asked, jumping up. "I wasn't sleeping. I heard everything he said. We gotta find a sharp guy and something about the farmer in the dell…"
"No Bosco," she sighed. She walked over to the podium where Swersky had left Sharp's mug shot. "Ray Sharp. Sold guns to Del Velicio. We gotta find Ray Sharp, not a sharp guy."
"Right, right I got it. Let's get going." Within minutes, they had grabbed their radios and gotten into 55-David. As usual, Faith was driving. After a year of working together, they pretty much had their routine down to a T.
"Oh yeah," said Bosco. "I'm supposed to ask you if your 'date' with Sarah is still on for tomorrow night."
"Are you kidding? Of course it is! Fred's buddies are comin' over tomorrow night. I really don't wanna be there to see that." Faith and Sarah had roomed together in Faith's one semester in college, but still remained close after Faith left to marry Fred. Faith and Bosco had met in the academy a few years later. Faith introduced Bosco to Sarah. The rest is pretty much self-explanatory.
The day was pretty slow. Very slow, as a matter of fact. One speeding ticket and one false alarm at a bank was all that 55-David had. Bosco and Faith had just come out of the diner where they had eaten dinner, laughing about the new rookie, Ty Davis, when they noticed a small, nervous looking man ducking suspiciously into the empty warehouse across the street. Faith and Bosco stole a glance at each other in the fading daylight as Faith got on her radio.
"55-David to Central, we have a suspicious man entering an abandoned warehouse. We're gonna go check it out.
"Central to 55-David. Copy that. Do you need back up?" Something inside Faith told her they did.
"Yes, send a few cars to our location."
"Copy that, 55-David." Faith and Bosco drew their guns and crept across the street to the door of the old building. Bosco slowly pushed the door open, and it creaked louder than they would have liked. They both pulled their flashlights, as it was pitch black inside.
They heard a creak from somewhere on the floor above them, so they quietly climbed the stairs to the right of the door. Bosco was about to bust through the door, but Faith put a hand on his shoulder, signaling him to wait. They heard voices.
"I…I need a-a-gun," they heard, assuming it was the anxious man they had followed inside. "A big one."
"And what will be the reason for your purchase?" came a new voice, the gruff voice of another man.
"I wanna kill my wife," said the first man, rather boldly. "She's…she's sleeping with my best friend!" he squealed. "I-I found them…together…in our bed!" he said, breaking down.
"Alright, man, alright, don't lose your head," said a third male voice. "We'll sell you one. But it's gonna cost you."
"Whatever you want, I got it!" the first man exclaimed.
"Then let's do some business, shall we?" That's when Faith and Bosco's radios came to life.
"Central to 55-David. Do you copy?" They quickly shut off their radios, but the damage had already been done.
"What the hell was that?" one of the men said. "It came from the stairs." Knowing that they had already been found out, Faith and Bosco burst into the room. In the dim light of a lantern placed on a crate in the center of the room, they could see two bigger men, who looked like they could be brothers, holding guns, while the smaller man had already gone to cower in the corner. The partners pointed their guns at the brother's heads just as the brothers pointed their guns at the partners.
"Drop you weapons!" Faith yelled.
"Not until you do!" said the younger looking man.
"Do you think we're crazy?" asked Bosco.
"Apparently you think we are if you think we're gonna drop our weapons." They stood, pointing their guns at each other for a long time, even after they heard the sounds of the sirens of other officers arriving at the scene.
"This could end very badly if you don't drop your weapons right now," said Faith. "As we speak, they are setting up snipers at the building across the street. They will shoot you in the head if you don't cooperate." Faith could see them starting to get nervous, but not nervous enough to put down the guns. Bosco had been very quiet through this. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the wheels turning in his head. Before anyone could do anything, Bosco shot out the light in the lantern. Chaos erupted.
Faith didn't know what was happening, but there were a lot of gunshots. Through the shots, she could hear one single cry.
"RAY!" Faith heard. Not a minute after, she heard footsteps running away. She couldn't tell which way they were running. The gunshots ceased and it was silent.
"Faith? Are you okay?" Bosco called.
"Yeah I'm fine. You?"
"Yeah." In the midst of barging in on the men, they had dropped their flashlights. The darkness was soon remedied when spotlights from the building across the street shone through the window. The guy buying the gun was in the corner, whimpering, with a wound in his leg. One of the men, a man they now saw was Ray Sharp, was dead of a bullet shot right through the skull. The other man was no where to be seen. Faith switched her radio back on.
"We need a couple of medics up here. No officers have been injured, but we have one wounded prisoner, and one dead." She turned to Bosco and saw that he was still staring at Ray Sharp's body.
"Did I do that, Faith?" he asked.
"I don't know, Bosco. It could've been one of the snipers."
"Yeah, I guess." Any more conversation they might have had was cut off as people burst into the room. One of those people was Lieutenant Swersky.
"What happened here?" he asked.
"It's a long story, sir," said Bosco.
"The most important thing right now is that there was someone else up here," Faith spoke up. "Maybe Ray Sharp's brother. He got away, sir."