CHAPTER 2

Wednesday started out quiet. Almost too quiet. Malloy and Reed were halfway through their shift, looking forward to "code seven." Dinner. But where to eat tonight. It was Malloy's turn to choose, but he couldn't decide if he wanted burgers or a steak.

Steak. Yeah, that sounded good. And he knew just the place for a great steak. As he turned to tell Reed, though, the radio crackled.

"1-Adam-12, Domestic Disturbance...eleven-twenty-two Garfield Street, one-one-two-two Garfield Street. White male armed with a rifle, standing on the porch, yelling that he just shot his wife. Paramedics and ambulance also enroute. Sergeant will meet you at the scene."

"1-Adam-12, roger," answered Reed.

Malloy reached for the toggle switch and turned on the overhead lights and siren, and they headed toward the address the dispatcher had given them.

"Well, I guess that blows '7', huh Pete," said Reed.

"And I was just getting a taste for a steak, too," replied Malloy. "I guess it'll have to wait until later."

/

A Paramedic Squad was just pulling up to the curb half a block from the house when Adam-12 came around the corner. Pete was relieved to see it was Squad 51, with his friends Roy Desoto and John Gage on duty. At least if he had to go after this guy with the gun, and something happened to him, the best paramedics in LA would be on hand to help him.

Reed removed the shotgun from the rack of the police unit and followed Pete over to the curb where Sergeant MacDonald had pulled up his vehicle. Mac walked around to the back of the vehicle, and pulled out the silver case holding the tear gas launcher and canisters, in case they had to force the guy from his home.

Desoto and Gage walked over to the Sergeant's vehicle.

"Any idea what the situation is inside with the wife," asked Roy.

MacDonald turned to look at the two paramedics and shook his head. "Only what we got in the original report. The guy was on his porch yelling that he shot his wife. And he was waving a gun around. No verification whether she's really in there with him or not. We haven't had any reports of shots fired, but we don't know if any neighbors are even home at this time of day." Mac glanced down toward the house. "It looks like he's gone back inside now. We're trying to get a phone number for him, so we can call him and find out what the problem is there. Just stand by here in case we need you."

"I'll let dispatch know what's going on," Johnny said to Roy. "They may want to do a move up to have another squad cover our area if this is going to take a while." Roy just nodded in response as Johnny walked toward the squad.

/

Sgt MacDonald walked over to where Reed and Malloy were standing by their black and white. He doesn't look very happy, thought Malloy. Pete exchanged a quick glance with his partner, before turning back to ask Mac what was going on.

"Well," said McDonald, "it doesn't look like this guy's coming out on his own. We may have to go in and get him. You guys get suited up. SWAT's on the way, but I want to be ready when they get here."

"Right Mac," replied Malloy "we'll be ready."

"So will we," remarked Roy Desoto, as he and Gage looked on from where they were standing about 10 feet away, leaning against their Rescue squad.

Sgt McDonald looked at his two best officers, then over to Gage and Desoto, and shook his head. "I hope to God we don't need you boys, but I'm glad you're here, just in case."

"Sarge, did that guy give you any idea how the woman is?," asked Roy.

Shaking his head, Mac looked back toward the house. "No, he won't answer us when we ask about her. I just hope that doesn't mean she's already dead."

"Maybe he'd let us go in and get her," offered Johnny. "I mean, we're not cops, he may just let us in."

This time MacDonald's head shake was more emphatic. "You have got to be crazy if you think I'm letting you go in there without police escort," he said. "Absolutely not! No way. No how."

MacDonald started to turn back to the command center, stopped, looked at Gage and Desoto. "But thanks for the offer."

/

Two hours later, SWAT was in place. But the negotiator was making no headway at all with the husband. In fact, for the last half hour, he had refused to even pick up the phone and talk.

The decision was made to enter the house by force.

/

MacDonald was instructing his officers. Although SWAT would make the initial entry, they would be followed up by Reed, Malloy and MacDonald. And if needed, Gage and Desoto would come in after the area was secured, so that they could check on the wife.

"Jackson is going to try one more call inside before we get started," said MacDonald. "We found out that the Hamiltons, that's the name of the couple, Sally and Mike Hamilton….anyway, the Hamiltons have a couple of kids. We're hoping that by talking about the kids, we can convince Mr. Hamilton to come on out and give himself up. Or, at the very least," continued Mac, "let us get in and get Mrs. Hamilton out of there."

Just then, a young SWAT member came trotting over to MacDonald. "Hey, Sarge, Jackson says the husband is talking to him again. Said he wants us to hold off going in." Mac nodded, relieved that he might not have to put his officers in danger after all.

A few minutes later, Jackson, a tall blonde man in blue jeans and yellow polo shirt, poked his head out of the trailer and waved MacDonald over.

"Mac, Mr. Hamilton says he'll let us come in and get the wife," stated Jackson.

"Only one hitch. He won't let a cop come in. He said he can see the Fire Department truck out here and he wants them to come in and get his wife."

Mac looked at the squad, then at the house. "What about putting a couple of our SWAT guys in Paramedic uniforms and…"

Jackson was shaking his head. "Won't work Mac. Hamilton has already seen them. He knows what they look like. It's them or no one."

"Damn it," said Mac. "I can't risk the lives of civilians like that!"

"Mac, I don't think we have a choice," pressed Jackson. "Hamilton says the wife is still alive, but she's lost a lot of blood. We can't afford to wait."

MacDonald sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I'll go talk to them. They offered to go in earlier," he said. "I guess I'll see how serious they were about it. Damn, I hate being pushed into a corner like this."

Mac worked his way back over to the Rescue squad, making sure to not put himself in the line of fire, keeping low behind the police car when necessary.

"Hey, Gage? That's your name right?" called MacDonald.

Johnny nodded. "Yeah, John Gage. My partner is Roy Desoto. What's up Sarge?"

"Looks like you're going to get the chance to go in after all," Mac informed them. "Hamilton has decided to let us take his wife out. Only he won't let a policeman go in there. He already knows you boys are here, and has given his permission for you to go in."

"Let us get our gear…" started Johnny.

MacDonald raised his hand. "Hold on there now, son. First off, you're both going to wear vests. Secondly, I am going to have Reed and Malloy go in there with you."

Pete and Jim had wandered over when they saw Macdonald talking to the paramedics. "I thought Hamilton wouldn't let any cops in there," said Reed.

"Yeah, he won't, but I'm going to try to convince him," answered MacDonald. "Just be ready to go in about 10 minutes, all four of you. I'm hoping he'll let you go in as long as you're not in SWAT gear. I'll be right back." And with that he returned to the negotiator's van.

/

MacDonald watched as Reed, Malloy, Gage and DeSoto slowly walked toward the front door of the house. The two paramedics carried several pieces of equipment and followed the two police officers up the sidewalk, and up the 3 steps to the front porch. Just as they stepped onto the front stoop, the front door opened and they could see the barrel of a rifle sticking out from the right side of the doorjamb.

Gage glanced at DeSoto, both of them wondering if this was such a good idea after all. Both also hoped they could get in and out quickly. DeSoto was thinking that he was glad the sergeant had been able to convince Hamilton to let the officers come along, although he insisted that they be unarmed. Even though they didn't carry weapons in their holsters or in their hands, Gage and DeSoto knew that both of the policeman were carrying weapons hidden under their shirts, just in case they got the chance to take the suspect into custody.

The barrel disappeared from the doorway, and they heard a man call out.

"Come all the way inside, and keep your hands where I can see them. Especially you cops, don't do anything stupid, cause I don't care if you leave here alive."

The four friends walked in through the door, Hamilton instructing Gage to shut the door behind him.

Mac watched all this from across the street, feeling totally helpless. He had been in touch with Captain Stanley and had advised him what was going on, since his men would be at such risk. And right now he understood what Stanley meant when he told MacDonald he hated not being there when his men were putting their lives in danger. They were responsible for these men, and now they were both "out of the loop" and could do nothing else to help them.

MacDonald hated that. He liked to be the one in control, the one who made the decisions. He just hoped that Hamilton would keep his word and let them take the woman out. And he hoped the bad feeling he had in his gut was just the burrito he'd had for lunch.

/

The woman lay on the couch, eyes closed, blood on the front of her blue shirt. For a moment they all just stood there, Hamilton pointing his rifle gun at the four men. Then DeSoto started toward the victim, slowly, so as not to startle the armed man. Gage followed, keeping a close eye on Mr. Hamilton, afraid he would just decide to shoot them all. Reed and Malloy watched it all, hoping they might get the chance to disarm Hamilton and end the whole nightmare.

Roy knelt down beside the woman, and grabbed her wrist to check her pulse. Johnny set down the drug box and bio-phone, and then asked Roy, "Is she alive?"

"Yeah, but her pulse is really weak and she's not breathing well at all."

As Gage sat on the sofa next to Sally Hamilton, and started to remove the blood pressure cuff from his equipment box, Roy looked over at Hamilton.

"Mr Hamilton, your wife is really in bad shape," he told the man. "We really need to get her to the hospital if she's going to have a chance to stay alive."

Hamilton was staring at Reed and Malloy, figuring they would make a move toward him. They were cops, after all. And that was exactly what Pete was thinking about—how to get that rifle from Hamilton. He thought, if his two paramedic friends could distract Hamilton by talking about his wife, maybe that would give him or Jim a chance to get that gun away from the man.

"Mr Hamilton? Mr Hamilton," Roy repeated. "Did you hear what I said? Your wife is still alive. If she's gonna stay that way, we have to get her to the hospital—NOW!"

Hamilton glanced at the sofa, where his wife was now beginning to moan softly. Then he looked back at Reed and Malloy, and gestured with the rifle for them to move further into the room. They moved, exchanging looks, sizing up the situation. Their eyes were moving around the room, taking in everything, wanting to be sure there would be no surprises when they did make their move.

Hamilton walked toward his wife.

"Sally, honey. Can you hear me, Sally?" asked Mike Hamilton. "Honey, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. You're going to be okay. Sally? Sally, wake up."

DeSoto stood up, concerned now only with his patient.

"Mr Hamilton, I'm going to get on that phone over there and speak to a doctor at Rampart Hospital. Alright? I need to do that in order to help your wife."

Hamilton just nodded, staring at his wife, watching as John Gage finished taking Sally's vital signs. DeSoto opened up the bio-phone and began calling Rampart.

/

"Okay, we're ready to go here," Roy told Gage. "I'm going to go out and get the stretcher." He started toward the door.

"Hey! Where do think you're going?" called Hamilton. As Roy turned to explain what he was doing, he saw Hamilton swing the rifle around to point directly at him.

Roy stopped. "Take it easy, I'm just going out to get a stretcher, so we can get your wife out to the ambulance."

Hamilton lowered the barrel a small amount, stating, "Just be sure you come back in alone." Roy continued toward the door and went out toward the waiting ambulance outside.

Sgt MacDonald was standing near the ambulance.

"So, what's happening in there? We've been kind of in the dark here."

"I just came out to get a stretcher, Sarge. The wife is still alive and Hamilton is going to let us bring her out."

"And you guys are coming out with her, right?"

Roy had grabbed the handle of the stretcher and started back up the street toward the house. "Yeah, that's the plan," he told Mac. "That's the plan."

As Roy came back into the house with the stretcher, he saw Hamilton over next to his wife, holding her hand with his. But he also kept a firm grip on the rifle, and kept it pointed at the two policeman, glancing their way every few seconds to be sure they stayed put.

Roy pulled the stretcher over toward the couch then he and Johnny moved the coffee table out of the way so they could position the stretcher. They removed the blankets that were folded on top, and turned to lift Sally Hamilton from the couch. They placed her softly on the stretcher, being careful not to disturb the IV's they had established. Roy then opened up the blanket and placed it over her, as Johnny pulled up the straps and got ready to tighten them around her.

As John Gage and Roy DeSoto started to wheel the unconscious woman out of the house, Hamilton started to follow, lowering the rifle down along his right leg.

Pete Malloy saw the opportunity to end it, but wanted to let the paramedics and the victim get all the way outside before he made his move. Reed sensed that his partner was getting ready to take the initiative, so he started to edge away from Pete, to try and get the angle on Hamilton and divide his attention.

Roy and Johnny lifted the stretcher off of the porch and started down the sidewalk to the street. As they lifted the stretcher into the ambulance they heard a shout.

Then two shots exploded from the house. And another. And then more shouting.

/