Next day....

"Bosco my office NOW!" Swersky called to his officer as he walked out of the locker room.

"Lieu?" Bosco called after him, getting into a jog to catch him up. "What have I done this time??"

"Close the door!" Swersky said as he rounded his table and Bosco walked in.

"Lieu?" Bosco closed the door and turned out front and centre.

"Sit Boscorelli" Swersky gestured to the chair as he himself sat back in his.

"Sir what is it?" Bosco hated it when Swersky play these games.

"Boscorelli. Bosco, are you ok?" His boss asked sincerely.

"No Lieu, not you too!" Bosco pushed back in his sit, "geez I'm fine, for I don't know how many times now, I'm fine"

"Bosco it's my job to check on you, look son, the last thing I want to do is push you, you're too important for that, if you need the time, you've got it, I understand, just don't.."

Swersky didn't have time to finish "Lieu, seriously I'm good, wasn't nice to see, shit I don't even know why anyone could do that, but I can't change it, I've tried to justify it, but I can't, I can live with that though"

"But what would you do if you saw Mr Johnson again, the guy who done it?" Swersky asked having spoken to Ty about what he had said last night.

"Nothing! I had a talk with Shadow last night, made me see sense"

"Shadow?"

"Oh yeah, sorry" he laughed, "Shadow the kitten I found last night at the back of the bar!" Bosco realised what he was saying, he blushed slightly now thinking if Swersky didn't think he was nuts before he probably did now.

"A kitten?" Swersky looked at Bosco

"A kitten!" Bosco smiled back "made a whole lot of damn sense!"

Swersky shook his head "Ok Bosco I'll believe you, but you'll be on desk for the first part of the shift" and before Bosco could utter a word "NO arguments!"

"Sure ok" Bosco had to reluctantly agree.

"And just so you know Sullivan and Davis will be transporting the prisoner in about half an hour to the court house, so try and keep out the way!" Swersky had every confidence his officer had no intention now of making a scene but he didn't want to tempt fate.

"No problem" Bosco said "do I go to role call now or straight to desk?"

"Straight to desk, role call should be over now anyway," Swersky instructed as Bosco rose to get on with his work. "Here take these to the front desk for me first though" Lieu gave Bosco a handful of files and waved him out the door.

As Bosco came down the stairs, heading towards the front desk, the reception of the police house was busy; a little old lady was screaming at the desk clerk, 55 Edward were bringing in a young kid for something or other. All hell seemed to be breaking loose. With all the commotion, no one saw the tall man come in and take a seat in front of the reception desk, he didn't look to have any complaints, and he just sat there like he was waiting for something.

"Hey Swersky asked me to give these to you" Bosco said handing over the bundle of files "guess you're a bit snowed under right?" He laughed.

"You can say that again! You come to give me a hand?" the frantic desk clerk asked.

"No can't, I've got to keep out the way, Swersky wants me away from Sully and Ty when they transport Mr Johnson. As the words came out to the officer's mouth the tall man that had taken a seat lifted his head in the direction of Bosco intrigued by the information.

"Come on man, just two minutes, help me get rid of this back log!!" The plea worked, Bosco huffed "ok but two minutes, that's it, Swersky will kill me!"

"Man how do you deal with these people?" Bosco asked having received more of the angry outburst the little old lady had.

"You tell me! You bring them here!!" The desk clerk tried to joke before turning round to see Sully and Ty walk into the far side of the reception area with their prisoner "Oh Bosco I'm sorry"

Bosco looked round to see what the desk clerk was sorry about. He looked from Ty to Sully till finally resting his eyes on Mr Johnson. He thought he would have been able to control himself but he still had to know. He walked around from the desk and went to meet the three men. They had stopped in their tracks having seen Officer Boscorelli approach them.

"Bosco man its not worth it" Ty took a step in front of the prisoner having heard what Bosco wanted to do with Mr Johnson from the night before.

"It's ok Davis I'm not going to kill him! I just need to know why" Bosco calmly stated, stopping just a couple of feet in front of the three men showing no signs of aggression.

While they all stood there, the tall man that had been quietly sitting rose to his feet, reaching inside his jacket pocket.

"Look man I just need to know why you would do it, that's all" Bosco looked into Mr Johnson eyes looking for the answer as to why he would burn his girlfriend to death for allegedly sleeping with another man. He just had to know.

"HEY! MARK! YOU SON OF A BITCH, YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH I'M GONNA KILL YOUR SORRY ASS" the tall man stood close to the reception desk about 5 metres away from the officers and Mark Johnson, pointing his gun.

Bosco spun round to see who was doing the shouting as Sully and Ty both reacted and reached for their guns.

"Whoa, hey you're in the wrong place to be pointing that gun" Bosco said as he placed his hand on his own.

"HE KILLED MARIE, THE FUCKING SON OF A BITCH IS GONNA PAY" the tall man grabbed the little old lady who was still trying to rant at the desk clerk. "Let me have him or she gets it!"

"Hold on man, take it easy, she's done nothing to you" Bosco felt himself being transported back to the day before. He was yet again standing in front of a man willing to kill someone, but he was just so glad there was no gas! "We can sort this out" Bosco looked back to Sully who still had one hand on his prisoner and one on his gun. "Let the woman go" Bosco could see the old lady was about to burst, she didn't hold back to a police officer she wasn't gonna be the type to let some jagoff hold a gun to her head if they weren't going to use it!!!

"Ok look, we can sort this out" Bosco found himself saying again "let everyone else leave this area ok"

Bosco thought he was going to have another battle on his hands but the tall man nodded and waved the gun to gesture everyone that could, should leave.

"Good" Bosco said relieved, the desk clerk herded all the people away from the incident that was taking place. Swersky was now at the top of the stairs waiting on information as to why someone was in his station house, holding an old lady, a prisoner and three of his officers' hostage.

"And the lady?" Bosco asked.

"She's going no where till I kill that some of a bitch" the tall man responded holding the gun still to her head.

"I don't want to tell you what to do, but she ain't the person you want to mess with" Bosco tried to tell the tall man, as the old lady turned her head and boldly stared at the him.

"Go on son, shot me, you little piece of shit" the old lady dared the tall man. The man looked down at the lady, some what shocked at the ladies guts "go" he pulled the gun away from her head and aimed it in the direction of the three officers and Mark. The old lady muttered under her breath as she left but turned back and looked at Bosco

"I'll be back, you're going do something about my landlord if it's the last thing you do" Bosco didn't know whether to laugh, there he was, standing in now an empty reception, a gun pointing in his direction and was being threatened but an old lady!

"Look man he's not worth it, I can tell you that!" Bosco was basically looking down the barrel of a gun; sure he had his vest on but being so close and the type of gun the tall man had, he had no doubt the bullets would sail right through the vest. "You don't want to be doing this" again visions from the day before came flooding back.

"Go on let him, the whore deserved what she got, she slept with that prick, and when I get out I'll get him too" Mark blasted out causing Ty to pull him back.

"You don't think he ain't going to shoot you now!" Ty said like the man was stupid. Infuriated the tall man took a step forward and fired. The situation now beyond Boscos control he pulled out his own gun, wincing from the graze the bullet made to his left arm. Sully took aim immediately and returned fire shooting the tall man, but as the man fell with a gunshot wound to the chest he managed to let off another shot.

A scream rung throughout the station; one man laid on the floor dead, the other bleeding, his life slowly slipping away as the paramedics came running into the house, surely there was no hope?????!

The End!