Chapter 8
"Morning, Brisco."
"Morning, Debbie."
The young police aide gave him an appreciative smile as she passed Cal's desk and looked down at him. Brisco spent so much time at the station, Borland considered him an unofficial member of the squad. His insight into the past gave Cal a new perspective on some of his cases and helped to crack them wide open. He couldn't go out with him to help in the arrests, but he at least helped to save him a lot of footwork.
Her desk was one over from Cal's, and she faced Brisco. Even though Debbie's job was to supply the detectives with information, she gladly showed the handsome lawman how to use a computer and the internet. One handed typing wasn't easy, but considering he'd never typed before, he quickly adapted. Someone set up an old typewriter stand on wheels near his chair so Cal could keep his desk space for the explosion of paperwork and his collection of action figures and toys that were there strictly for creative stimulation, so he said. Brisco sat in profile, and Debbie thought it was the nicest profile she'd ever seen. Too bad he was from another time and that he was planning to go back.
Everyone who worked the squad room knew about Brisco and his situation. It was hard not to when they all worked together closely and shared their personal lives. At first no one believed it, but there were too many things about Brisco that didn't add up for a modern man. When Cal showed them historical proof, all speculation stopped, and they accepted him as one of their own.
Cal growled as he walked past with a piece of paper in his hands. Brisco glanced up and saw that it was a police report. He'd gotten quite used to them in the past few weeks.
"Whatcha got there, Cal?"
"Another report of a gunslinger robbing a convenience store. On the surface it looks like any other robbery, but these guys come in with bandanas on, six shooters, and they're tearing up the places before they leave."
"Cal..."
"Yeah, Deb." Cal dropped into his chair heavily. He and Brisco had spent the night staking out a store that they thought would get hit, but nothing happened, if you didn't count a case of terminal finger staining from eating a whole bag of cheese balls. He held his hands up toward his face. Scrubbing with a lot of soap got most of it off.
"I was able to get a copy of the tapes from that last robbery, the one on Calhoun. I burned it onto a disc for you." She reached over her desk, gave Brisco a wide smile, and asked, "Brisco, would you be a sweetheart and give that to Cal, please?" The way she leaned over, he could see her cleavage and smell her perfume.
Brisco knew what she was up to, but he remained a gentleman and carefully kept his focus on her face. He nodded, smiled at her, and took the disc, just barely making contact with her fingers. It was enough to make her shiver with delight. He ignored it, and passed the disc to Cal.
"Thanks, Deb." Cal put the disc into the computer and after a few clicks got it running. "Okay, BC, let's see what we've got."
Brisco came around the desk and watched over Cal's shoulder. Onscreen was a bird's eye view of the store from behind the cash register. Three men burst into the store with bandanas over their faces. They split up, and one went out of camera range but soon returned with a female clerk. She looked terrified with her hands up in the air as the robber pushed her down the aisle to the register. Her hands fumbled over it while she tried to get it open. One of them hopped over the counter, pressed himself up against her, and figured out the drawer himself. The other two scooped the cash into a bag, while the one seemed to be chatting up the clerk. She shook her head, a look of pure terror on her face. Then the robber did something that neither of them would have expected. He pulled down his bandana and kissed the girl.
She pushed him away and screamed, although there was no sound on the recording, they knew it had to be loud. He gave it one more shot, but she got in a good kick to his shin, and he backed off. For a moment, his face turned toward the camera before he replaced the bandana and he and his cohorts ran out of the store.
"Bill..."
"Wait a second, BC. You know that guy?" Cal froze the picture and pointed at the tall man with the cowboy hat off-kilter after the woman's rebuff.
"That's Bill Swill. I'd know him anywhere. And this guy here, with the long hair, that's Will. And Phil, the squirrelly little guy. Also known as the Swill Brothers. They're a good case for why inbreeding is a bad idea."
"Oh my god. Just as we thought, you're not the only one who's out of time."
A sensation like a cold, hard fist struck Brisco in the gut. "What if these men with the time machine are bringing back outlaws from the past?"
"Now why would they bother? These guys have got to be amateurs compared to the criminals we've got today."
"I don't know." Brisco shook his head. He carefully stood, favoring his ribs that were still tender. But they were healing, as was the rest of him. He couldn't wait to be well enough to go home, but there were two factors preventing it: apprehending whoever had been taken from the past, and not having the means to return. "I just hope..." He shook that thought out of his head.
"Hope what?" Cal stood beside Brisco and eyed him warily.
Brisco broke out of a thoughtful pose. "No, that could never happen. Forget I mentioned it."
"Mentioned what? BC, if you know about some really notorious gangbanger who should never be let out of the past, you better tell me now."
He let out a deep sigh. "His name is John Bly."
"Bly?" Cal's brows furrowed. "But you defeated him, didn't you? He was killed, right?"
"Yes. But as we've come to discover, time is fluid. What if these time travelers went back farther, to when Bly was still alive, and brought him here?" Brisco turned to his friend with fear in his eyes. "Cal, if Bly comes here, I truly dread what might happen. If he has access to an orb..."
"An orb? Oh, this is getting weirder by the minute!" Brisco had told him about the orbs and how mysterious they were, and dangerous. "Yeah, if they caught him early enough, he could be a real threat with that thing."
"Now I understand why the woman from the future was so worried about the orbs getting into the wrong hands. I never fully fathomed the implications of time travel until now."
"Me neither. Holy moley," Cal whispered.
Brisco glanced at him. He noticed that Cal was starting to pick up some of his words and phrases from the past. It amused him. But there was no time for that. Cal stopped the disc and ejected it from the computer. "Okay, let's take this one step at a time. We worry about apprehending the Swills and interrogate them, see if they know who else has been imported here. Maybe they'll even give up the reason why."
Kelly entered the squad room and made a beeline for Cal's desk. She looked peeved. "Cal, you were supposed to bring Brisco home a half hour ago. He has an appointment at the hospital, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, we, uh, well, we kind of forgot about that," Brisco said as he looked into her eyes. "Sorry." He still had trouble sometimes with her resemblance to Dixie, but at least she'd cooled her romantic notions of late. She took more shifts in order to avoid him, and working with Cal helped to keep their time together rare. Still, he felt sorry for her. Living in the same apartment with a man she was in love with who didn't share the same feelings couldn't be easy.
"Well, we better get going. Maybe if you're lucky they can take that cast off and you can be on your way home, back in time."
"We still haven't found the time machine, Kel, so Brisco ain't going anywhere until we get this wrapped up. I'm thinking if we find the Swills and whoever else is here that shouldn't be, they'll lead us right to the ones who brought them here." Cal smiled. "Especially if we offer them immunity."
"Immunity? Are you crazy?" Brisco's eyes widened.
"Yeah, come on, BC, I'll take you to that appointment and we'll talk about it on the way." He grabbed Brisco's elbow and steered him toward the door. "See ya later, Kel."
"Cal! Brisco!" She stood with hands on hips, glaring at them, and sighed heavily.
Brisco turned out of Cal's direction, spun and picked his hat off the coat tree between Cal and Debbie's desks, and turned back to leave. He caught Kelly's eye. Not sure what to say to her, he said nothing, because she knew that her brother was like Brisco. When he was hot on a trail, there was no stopping him. He simply nodded and hurried to catch up to Cal.
"I've got some good news for you, Brisco. Your arm has healed well enough that we can remove the cast. You'll have to wear a brace for a couple more weeks, but at least now you'll be able to function a little better." The doctor turned away to prepare some tools. "You must have been doing a lot of the exercises we recommended."
"Oh yes, Sir. They became second nature, I'd say. And I also think they've made my gun hand stronger." He smiled. "So I guess it wasn't all bad to have this happen."
"You're one lucky man, Brisco. I remember what you looked like when they brought you in here. You were a mess." He fired up a small saw, and within a few minutes had him free of the hot uncomfortable cast. "How's that feel?"
Brisco lifted his arm up off the table and flexed the muscles, staring at the pale skin as he turned his wrist. "It still hurts a little."
"Oh, it will for awhile. You might have some pain up to a year afterwards, but...let me take a look at it." The doctor probed with his fingers, pressing into Brisco's flesh to reach the bone. "Yeah, it's healed nicely. You shouldn't have any problems with it, but if you do, call and make an appointment."
"Thanks, Doc. I appreciate it."
"Take care, Brisco. And don't go running into any more cars, okay? It's a really bad way to try to meet women." The doctor laughed, but Brisco didn't think it was so funny. He'd met Kelly that way, and look what happened. "Sorry."
"No problem." Brisco rolled his sleeve down, a task he hadn't been able to do for weeks. He smiled a little as he buttoned the cuff, shook out the wrinkles, and picked up his jacket and hat from the chair...with his left hand. He dropped the jacket, and the hat followed. "What the..."
"Patience, Brisco. Your hand needs time to get back up to strength." He eyed him. "You said that was your gun hand. I suggest you take some time at the shooting range. Firing a gun will definitely bring the muscles back to normal."
"Thanks! I'll do that."
The second time, Brisco grabbed his jacket, transferred it to his right arm, and then he plucked up the hat, swung it around, and set it perfectly on his head. He nodded to the doctor and left the exam room. Cal was at the front desk chatting up the receptionist. Brisco grabbed his sleeve, pleased to see that his grip was good.
"Come on, Cal. Back to work!"
"Hey, call me!" He tossed his business card onto the desk and hurried out behind Brisco, but not without giving her a wink and a cocked grin.
She grinned back and shook her head as she carefully tucked the card into her pocket.
Borland was waiting when they returned. "Brisco, Cal...I see you got something accomplished."
"Yes, Sir." Brisco held up his arm. "One step closer to being back to myself. By the way, the doctor said I should go to a shooting range to help regain the strength in my hand." He looked up at Borland slyly. "It sure would help if I could get my gun back."
Borland had been holding off on this day for awhile. He still didn't completely buy Brisco's time traveling story, despite the growing evidence. But he'd come to the conclusion that resistance was useless. "Ohhh, alright. You'll have your firearm back today. But then you and I are going to the range, Mr. County. I want to see you use that gun, see if you're any good."
"You've got a deal." Brisco smiled. "Now, Sir, we've got a case to work on, so..."
"Go on, you two. We got a lead on the time machine. A witness came in this morning and reported she saw something weird out in the outskirts of town last night." He handed Brisco a sheet of paper. "That's her statement."
Brisco scanned the report. "Thanks. We'll check this out."
"Brisco."
"Yes, Sir?" It took some getting used to treating Borland as a superior, but he adapted. Fortunately, not all the man's mannerisms reminded him of Bowler.
Borland sighed. "I...I really appreciate all you're doing. If you didn't have to go back...have you ever considered staying?"
"Not at all, Sir. I've had my brush with the coming thing, much more than I bargained for, and I am ready to go back to the future that's waiting for me there."
"As long as all this time travel business hasn't altered things."
"We keep hoping that it hasn't. But I won't know for sure until I get back, will I?"
The captain shook his head as Brisco went back to Cal's desk. Despite all his old fashioned ways, Borland would miss Brisco when he was gone. He had a calm demeanor about him, a real professional attitude missing in some of his people, and a respect for everyone who came in through the doors, whether they were victims or criminals. The man understood that even bag guys were human, not garbage, despite the way they acted.
He shook his head again. He was wool-gathering while he had work to do. First order of business was to get Brisco's gun out of lockdown. In the afternoon, he had a date at the shooting range, and he was taking Brisco along. He was eager to see how a man from the past shot a six-shooter, if he had any tricks like the cowboys on the old western shows. He loved those shows as a kid. Having a real life hero walk into his station and take his place as if he belonged there made Borland come dangerously close to giddy sometimes. But he had to control himself this afternoon. It wouldn't look good for the boss to get starry-eyed.
