Chapter 4: Getting even and a hostage situation

Sam was lucky to be all right. He only suffered from a black eye and bruises in the ribs, and no broken bones.

His injuries weren't bad enough to keep him in the hospital, so he was able to continue on working.

In the days since the beating, Sam came up with a plan to get even with his partner, who masterminded the beating.

The officers involved in the beating were smart to keep their identities concealed with the help of ski masks, but Claphammer' laughter gave him away during the beating, allowing Sam to figure out who was behind the beating.

March 4, 2001

That evening, after telling Wendy that he had to take care of an emergency, Sam was driving his car with a baseball bat on the passenger seat by the side of the driver's seat.

During the drive, he spoke into his departmental-issued radio, on the channel used by the station's shift supervisor.

"Wembley, I will like to know if Claphammer is on duty now." He spoke.

It took a few moments for Wembley to come back to Sam, replying, "Claphammer? He's off duty, lieutenant. He's probably over at the East End playing poker with the guys."

"With the guys," Sam thought after thanking Wembley.

He had an idea who Claphammer will normally hang out with, and he know that they normally hang out at one of the guys house, which is located in the eastern suburbs of the city, at a community close to the city's rural border with the county.

With that in mind, Sam drove on to his destination.

An hour later, Sam was parked at the house in question with the lights out as he watched the house.

By then, the sun had completely set, which makes it hard for anybody passing by to see him in the car.

He waited patiently. Soon, at around 21:30, the door to the house opens, and a man Sam instantly recognized as Detective Oldfield came out. Oldfield got into his car and then drove off, not noticing his lieutenant was watching him.

Sam knew that Oldfield has a wife and another girlfriend waiting for him, hence the reason why he had left early.

Another thirty minutes went by before another man exited the house.

It was Officer Joshua Roven, who also looked hunched as he staggered his way to his car.

Sam shook his head in disapproval at the thought of his men having had plenty of drinks during the poker game before driving home.

"Figures." Sam thought to himself as he watched Roven looking hunched as if he had just lost his life savings while walking to his car. "Must be a high-stakes poker game."

Sam also let him be and continued waiting.

Another hour of waiting went by before Sam's efforts finally paid off as Claphammer came out of the door.

He was clearly intoxicated, yet he climbed into his car and backed it out of the driveway.

It took a near collision with a fire hydrant before he remembered to turn on the headlights. After that, he drove off and Sam followed, keeping the headlights of his car off.

Sam continued to follow his partner as he drove onto a two-lane highway that leads off through a forest before exiting the city.

After several minutes of driving without seeing a house, Sam sped up and ran his partner's car off the road, causing Claphammer to crash into a tree in the woods.

At that time, Claphammer was driving 20 miles over the speed limit, but luckily it wasn't fast enough for him to end up in a box when the car crashed into the tree.

Claphammer managed to get out of the car unharmed, but then he saw Sam with a gun aimed at him.

"Why,...Sam." Claphammer slurred as the lieutenant walked towards him with a gun on him.

"Here's the deal, pal." Sam said. "You drop your weapon, and I'll drop mine."

Claphammer nodded before letting go of his service weapon. Sam then followed suit before tossing the baseball bat towards him for his partner to catch.

From his observation of Claphammer's moves during the time he beat up Jake, Sam can tell that his partner had Green Beret training.

"It's been a long while since I took out one Green Beret." Sam thought to himself.

Claphammer nodded and smirked before using the bat to try to take down Sam in the same fashion he did during the beating a week ago.

However, Sam was able to anticipate several of Walter's moves and ducked successfully before disarming him, as there was no one around to witness the fight, nor was Walter's gang nearby.

After that, Sam proceeded to take out his partner by punching him dozens of times.

With his partner on the ground, not moving, Sam then took one of Claphammer' handcuffs and proceeded to handcuff his partner.

He had also taken off much of Claphammer clothes and then grabbed Claphammer' service weapon and tossed it into the nearby creek.

Afterwards, he took the baseball bat, went back to his car and drove away, leaving his partner cuffed and naked in the snow-covered forest.

As he drove away, Sam thought to himself, "Thanks for teaching me what it takes to be a cop in Coolsville, Claphammer."

March 6, 2001

Two days later, in the morning, Sam was going through some reports in his office when he saw his partner walking into the squad room with a cast around his arm and shoulder. He was also bandaged and had some bruises in his face.

"Holy cow, Walter!" One of the detectives exclaimed when he sees Claphammer, "What on earth happened to you, man?"

"Oh, it happened after the poker party, Sean." Walter said with a pained expression. "I was on my way home when some guys, at least a dozen of them, from one of Big Bob's rival gangs ran me off the road and beat the stuffing out of me."

"Holy cats! I hope you get better soon, Walter."

"Yeah, I hope so too."

Sam smiled to himself as he overheard the conversation between Claphammer and Oldfield.

He knew his partner won't tell on him and will make up some story involving at least a dozen attackers and will never admit that he did it to him.

"But he did learn," Sam thought as he continued on reading the stack of reports, "I sure taught him to leave Wendy alone."

March 27, 2001

Three weeks or so went by after Sam had got even with his partner. In the weeks since that beating, many of the officers and detectives in his squad are following Sam's new rules, with less cases of officers being placed on probation, which impressed Sam.

The new work environment also led to an increase of cases closed by his division, which also made him happy to think that he has begun making a difference at work.

However, while Commander Gosnell was happy to see the change in weekly statistics, he was not impressed with how Sam was making the changes.

That mid-morning, Sam was doing some paperwork in his office when the phone ringed.

"Rogers, East Coolsville Division." He said as he picked up the phone.

"Lieutenant, Commander Gosnell here. I want you in my office, right now." Gosnell replied at the other end with a stern tone in his voice.

"Are you kidding me, Commander? I'm in the middle of some important stuff now and I can't leave my office."

"Doesn't matter, Rogers. I want you to be at my office, right now."

"In your dreams, Commander. You are just wasting my time and your own time."

"Oh, is that right? Say this one more time and –" Sam instantly hung up the phone before the commander could finish his threat.

With a huff, Sam continued on with his paperwork.

He was almost finished when someone knocked on his office door. Turning and looking towards the door, he saw Sergeant McBride standing at the doorway.

"Yes?" Sam asked.

"Sir, what was the commander calling you for?" Daniel asked.

"Oh, he was trying to get me to see him in his office and I'm in the middle of some important stuff right now, and I can tell you that he wanted me to explain the meaning of running the squad this way."

McBride shook his head in response. "I figured. That guy is wasting his time."

"Yeah."

After the conversation with McBride, Sam managed to finish his paper work when the door opened.

In came Commander Gosnell, who had a frown on his face.

"Rogers. What is the meaning of this?" He asked with a hostile tone in his voice.

"I had no idea, Commander, but I thought you've got better things to do right now instead of calling me to your office and demand an explanation on the way I'm running this squad." Sam replied with a calm but firm voice.

"Oh, is that so, Lieutenant? To me, getting you straight is an important thing to do. The watch lieutenant and Captain Hindley are concerned about the way you are running this squad."

"Getting me straight, eh? You're just wasting your time trying to convince me that the way things are doing right now is the best and that I don't have to meddle with that. If fact, I don't care what those two men think. They can report on me if they want, but they're not making me back down."

"That's what you think, Rogers, but all I can tell you is that if you continue to try to meddle with the way the department is running, I can and will have the chief dismiss you. Besides, you didn't seem to have learned your lesson after the Incident of '85 at the Docklands."

"Yeah, yeah, forcing me to consider early retirement. You should know that covering up many of the department's problems isn't the way to go, Commander." Sam said with a sarcastic tone in his voice when referring to Gosnell's rank, "And besides, that shooting was in self-defense. Bayek shouldn't have raided the warehouse with her husband the way they did that night, and I will do it again if I were to face a corrupt cop breaking into the warehouse and stealing cargo."

"Right then." Gosnell huffed. "Looks like Internal Affairs is going to open a file on you, Lieutenant."

"Yeah, right. Unfortunately for you, Commander, Claphammer has taught me not to be afraid of Internal Affairs. You're only wasting taxpayers money and IA's time if you do that." Sam says before spotting a hand signal from one of his officers out at the window and added, "Now, if you will excuse me, I have a homicide to check out and investigate."

With that, he walked out of his office, locking the door in the process, and walked by Gosnell without acknowledging him as he made his way to the parking lot.

April 3, 2001

A week after Sam had his heated conversation with Commander Gosnell, Sam was driving his departmental car in the busy Coolsville traffic on a raining morning, en route to meet up with the division's patrol unit, who had responded to a hostage situation earlier that morning.

He had his radio on so McBride can keep him up-to-date on what is going on at the scene.

"Daniel. What's the current situation?" Sam asked as he stopped at a red light.

"The same as before, sir. No shots fired yet. The man still had gun pointing at the girl's head." McBride responded.

The hostage situation the patrol unit had responded to was located in the neighbourhood of East Dote, a neighbourhood that is currently pending redevelopment.

What had happened was that patrol had received a tip on where the notorious kidnapper Johnny Hardy is hiding out. When patrol arrived at the apartment, they spotted Hardy, who had a girl that was kidnapped as a hostage.

The officers tried to talk him into surrendering, but the man headed back into the apartment and, where he then got his gun and went to the window facing the officers, threatening to open fire unless the officers back away.

Due to Sam's experience as a crisis negotiator during his service in New York and with the Marines while serving in the Gulf War, McBride had to radio him in to end the situation.

Just as the light turned green, Sam was about to hit the gas when McBride radioed in, saying, "Uh oh, sir. We've got trouble, sir."

"What is it?" Sam asked.

Before hearing a response, he heard McBride trying to tell someone to stand down, and he instantly became alert when McBride says, "It's Anders, sir."

The message had only consisted of three words, but that was enough for Sam to activate the siren on his car, steer it onto a sidewalk and speed up.

"Anders." He muttered as he sped through the sidewalk with pedestrians moving out of the way.

Lieutenant Clifford Anders is the commander of the departments paramilitary SWAT unit. Whenever there was a riot or any acts of violence that required SWAT assistance, Anders would lead his SWAT team to sort things out, often with destructive, and in some cases, fatal consequences.

FLASHBACK – One Month Ago

March 3, 2001

Sam had got the newspaper that morning as usual, and the first thing that caught his eye was a news report on the front page, which covered the riot that took place at South Coolsville.

It all began when the Coolsville basketball team got eliminated in the state championship finals, and angry fans took to the streets to vent their frustrations at how the game unfolded, as the Coolsville team had a huge lead early in the game.

The whole thing subsequently escalated into a riot when the mob of angry fans started destroying property as they went, forcing the department to deploy Anders' SWAT team to calm the riot.

The result: There wasn't a glass window in the area that wasn't shattered when the SWAT team moved in to calm the riot. Not even a single statue was left standing, and there wasn't a rioter or a passerby who didn't stay in the hospital overnight.

END OF FLASHBACK

Knowing for a fact that Anders had a history of leading his team to do a lot of damage, Sam knew that meant only one thing after hearing that Anders was at the scene.

"There is going to be a massacre." Sam thought to himself as he pressed the gas pedal down further.

Meanwhile at the scene, much of Anders SWAT unit have moved out of their transport van.

The officers at the scene and McBride were trying to convince Anders to stand down, yielding unsuccessful results as the time dragged on.

"Lieutenant," McBride was saying, "There's no need for your team to storm that guy with the gun. It's like using a cannon to kill a mosquito."

"I don't care, Sergeant." Anders retorted. "We're losing time now, we're here to clean things up and I don't see your soft-hearted lieutenant anywhere, and –"

Anders didn't have time to finish when his attention was drawn to a car pulling up at the scene, narrowly missing some people who are watching the drama unfold. The car then stopped, and out came Lieutenant Sam Rogers.

Sam looked around as he got off his car. There was a media van parked nearby, and a reporter was standing in front of a camera man, reporting the situation.

Sam then walked over to McBride and Anders. All of Anders' men retreated when they saw the approaching lieutenant, and there was a sea of "Oh, man", "Aw, nuts" and "It's Rogers" with unmistakable moaning coming from Anders' men as they retreated.

"Daniel, tell the officers to stand down. I'll handle this." Sam said.

He then turned to Anders and said with a calm but stern tone in his voice, "Anders, I don't see why is it necessary for you to show up to try to deal with this hostage situation? It would be better if you go somewhere else to start your own war. Either that, or I can have charges pressed against you."

With that, Sam walked towards the entrance of the building, which was in a state of disrepair.

At the entrance, he looked up, making eye contact with Hardy, pulled out his gun, showed it to Hardy, and then he placed it on the ground. He then walked into the building.

"I hope Wendy isn't watching this." Sam thought to himself as he entered the building.

Meanwhile at home, Sam's wife Wendy was watching the news channel and when the news reporting on the hostage situation came, she looked on anxiously.

At the sight of her husband showing his gun, placing it on the ground and walking into the condemned building, Wendy gasped.

Fortunately, Norville and Maggie were having a nap, so they didn't see what was going on in the news.

Back in the building, Sam carefully made his way up the wooden stairs.

There were cracks on most of the wood and the walls, which has graffiti on it.

As he climbed the stairs, he didn't notice a stray cat watching him from the top of another set of stairs.

Soon, he made it to the top of the stairs and that's when the door burst open and out came Hardy, still armed with the gun and aiming it to the girl.

"Now, now, mister. Calm down." Sam says as he raised his hands to calm down the man. "I won't hurt you if you do what I told you. Everything is going to be alright."

However, the man replied with a retort. "You're not taking me in, officer!"

Just as Sam was thinking of saying something, the stray cat suddenly hissed loudly, frightening the kidnapper who turned the gun away from the girl.

Seizing the opportunity, Sam quickly slapped the gun away from Hardy.

Hardy, taken aback from what Sam has done, tried to punch Sam, but Sam managed to dodge the punch and then returned with a kick that caused Hardy to lose his balance and fell flat on the floor.

Swiftly, Sam walked over to Hardy and handcuffed him as he said, "Mr. Hardy, you're under arrest for kidnapping, resisting arrest, and attempted murder. You have the right to remain silent."

As Hardy groaned from the pain, Sam radioed in and say, "McBride. We have an all-clear. Send me two men up to pick up Hardy."

"On the way, sir." McBride radioed back.

After the two officers came and read Hardy his constitutional rights and freedoms, Sam walked into the room where Hardy was hiding in before his arrest.

In the room, he found 5 other children, all shivering and shaken up by the ordeal, and the girl.

Sam crouched down as he looked at the children, ensuring them that they are now in safe hands.

After that, he thought of something and placed his hand into his pocket.

From the pocket, he pulled out a pack of chewing gum, opened it, and then showed it to the children and said, "Gum?"

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