The Sheriff In The Crosshairs
Chapter 3
III
"Hansen, you might as well go on home. I can handle things from here on out… for the rest of the day."
"You sure, Sheriff? I've still got three hours before my shift ends."
"Yeah, I can handle it. Go on. Get out of here."
"Okay, Sheriff… but if you need me…"
Jim shook his head, and Hansen walked toward the door. Then he stopped and turned around.
"Sheriff, you're expectin' trouble aren't you?"
"Get out of here, Hansen! That's an order!"
"You may need some help…"
"Go home."
"Sir, with all due respect, I'm still on duty. If you're expectin' trouble, I should be here to help."
Jim sighed and turned around to face his deputy. "Thanks, Hansen. I appreciate your diligence, and it's duly noted… but there's no point in us both getting' killed now is there?"
"Sir!"
"Hansen, that's an order!"
Hansen sighed and walked toward the door. As he reached the door, the phone rang.
Jim picked up the receiver. "Sheriff's office."
"Sheriff, it's Jeff Parker. You got a moment?"
"Yeah, sure, Jeff. What is
it?"
"Well, maybe nothing, but… Liz wants Vera to take her over to the New Haven Cemetery, and I was wonderin' if you could…"
"Jeff, it'd really be best right now if you could convince her to wait until later… maybe tomorrow… better still, a few days."
"I'm sorry, Sheriff… it's just that… they already left."
Jim closed his eyes.
"Sheriff? Are you still there?"
"Yeah, Jeff, I'm here. All right, I'll keep an eye on 'em."
"Thanks, Jim. You don't know how much I appreciate it."
"Somehow I will," Jim said to himself as he hung up the phone. Turning around, he noticed that Hansen was still standing at the door looking at him.
"Hansen, what are you doin' standing around? Your shift doesn't end for three more hours!"
Hansen grinned, and Jim smiled.
"Yes, sir, Sheriff!"
"Hansen?"
"Sir?"
"How many mirrors do we have in this complex?"
"Excuse me?"
"How many mirrors?"
"I don't know. I never counted 'em. There's the one in the men's room down the hall. I reckon there's one in the ladies room as well. I've never been in there, but I imagine they put one in there, too. Upstairs there's two more bathrooms. And there's a mirror in the lounge on this floor. I guess that's five… that I know of."
"Okay."
Hansen looked at Jim suspiciously.
"You plannin' somethin' Sheriff?"
"Yeah. Come on! Help me take
the mirror out of the men's room."
Hansen followed Jim to the men's room, and together they carefully removed a large mirror from the wall.
"Sheriff, you wanna tell me what you're gonna do with this?"
"Create a decoy."
"For whom?"
"You ask too many questions, Deputy."
Sorry, Sir."
"That's all right. I reckon you've got the right to know. I'm expectin' someone to want to get me out of their way… a special unit of the army… very unofficial… and deadly."
"The ones who ordered the massacre at graduation?"
Jim looked at Hansen. "What do you know about that, Hansen?"
"More than I wanted to say. I keep my eyes open, Sheriff. But you can't fight the whole army."
"Well, Deputy, I'm not plannin' on havin' to fight the whole army… just a few renegade sharpshooters… We're gonna set this mirror up on its end in my chair behind my desk. Then we're gonna get the mirror out of the ladies' room and cut it –or break it- in half. I'll show you what we're gonna do with it."
Jim and Hansen carried the second mirror out and placed it on Jim's desk. Then Jim pulled a small glass cutter out of his drawer.
"You keep a glass cutter, Sheriff?"
"A sheriff never knows what he's gonna need, Hansen. I might have to rescue someone from a burning building or something."
"Couldn't you just break the glass?"
"Hansen!" Jim gave Hansen an exasperated look. "Just help me hold this, okay?"
"Yes, Sir." Hansen held the edge, as Jim scored the mirror in the middle. Then they placed it over the edge of the desk, and Jim held the inside edge as he gave the glass a rap, breaking it along the score. Jim removed some of the backing from the mirror halves so that light could pass through, then he placed the two parts in front of a small TV, inserted a videotape into the VCR, and turned it on. The video came on, and Jim appeared on the screen, sitting in his chair giving an interview to the local TV news crews after he had got his job back. Jim had recorded the segment off the TV news. He paused the picture momentarily.
Hansen looked at the mirror in Jim's chair and his mouth dropped open.
"You… you look like you're sitting in your chair, Sheriff. You look kind of small, though."
"Well, we wouldn't want that, would we, Deputy… me lookin' too small." Jim moved one half of the glass in front of the TV a little further away from the other half, and the image in the mirror grew larger.
"Dang!" Hansen exclaimed. "If it wasn't just a little out of focus, I'd swear you was sittin' there in that chair, Sheriff! Where'd you learn to do that?"
Jim smiled. "I watched some McGyver. And it'll just have to stay out of focus. We don't have time to make a masterpiece out of it. I need you to help me with one more thing, Deputy, before I open that curtain up on my window."
"Sure, Sheriff. What's that?"
A few minutes later, Deputy Hansen opened the curtains, giving an unobstructed view of the reflected image of Jim sitting in his chair talking and moving his hands. Then Deputy Hansen opened the door and walked out holding the arm of a rather sturdy-looking lady.''
"Deputy?"
"Yes, Sir?"
"If you ever mention this to anyone…"
Hansen smiled. "Duly noted, Sir."
**********
[i]"Bulldog here. Someone is coming out… It's the deputy… and a woman."
"Hold your fire, Bulldog. We just want Target One. No collateral."
"Roger that, Samson. I have a lock on Target One."
"Is there anyone on the street?"
"Two… kids playing down the block."
"Hold your fire until they're not in sight."
"Acknowledged. Bulldog over."[/i]
~Twelve minutes later~
[i]"This is Bulldog. Target One is clear."
"You have go, Bulldog. Terminate target."[/i]
A second later, a high-powered bullet blasted through the window of the sheriff's station, shattering the window and the mirror in Jim's chair.
[i]"This is Bulldog. Come back!"
"Go ahead, Bulldog."
"Something's not right here. I need clearance to enter the target site."
"Do it. Stay on it, Bulldog. Report back."
"Bulldog out."[/i]
The agent climbed quickly down the fire escape from the roof of a nearby building and crossed over to the sheriff's station. Kicking the door in, he looked around the inside with his rifle ready for any resistance. He found none… just a TV and a VCR running, two pieces of a broken mirror, and in Sheriff Jim Valenti's chair, a pile of broken glass.
[i]"This is Bulldog. Outcome Negative. Repeat. Outcome Negative."
"You missed?"
"Target One had a decoy. Target has evaded the net."[/i]
**********
Vera helped Liz out of her wheelchair, and she sat down on the ground in front of the granite memorial marker. Then she reached out and touched it, running her hand over the engraved words…
Maxwell Evans
1984 – 2002
Tears filled up her eyes, and she wiped her fingertips across her cheek, but it was like trying to drain the sea with a straw. The tears rolled down her face faster than she could wipe them away. She stopped even trying.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this, Max. We were supposed to live happily ever after. You should never have healed me. Look what it got you!" Liz began to sob, and Vera helped her wipe some of the tears away with a handkerchief.
"If you hadn't healed me, you would still be alive. Nobody would have ever known about you. Why did you have to love me? You weren't even supposed to love me. You just did. And you're the one who got hurt. I couldn't help loving you, Max. I couldn't help myself. I loved you so much. I'll always love you! Always, Max! I can't even imagine my life without you? You are my life. You're my soul! I was everything with you… I'm nothing without you…" Liz began to sob again, and Vera tried to coax her to leave, but Liz shook her head.
"Who's going to save your people now, Max? I betrayed them all by loving you. Because of me, Kivar wins. Where's the fairness in that, Max? All I ever did was love you! Why did you have to die?"
Liz sank to the ground and sobbed, not caring that her face was pressed into the grass and she was unable to move or stand up. At the moment, she would just as soon have stayed that way until she could join Max and have the life she so yearned for with the one person she knew she would ever truly love.
"Liz… sweetheart… let me help you up."
"Leave me, Vera. I don't want to get up. I want to be with Max."
"Max isn't here, sweetheart. He's gone on to… wherever he was meant to go. It won't do anyone any good for you to pine your heart away here."
"Can't you understand, Vera?"
Vera was silent for a moment, then she sat down beside Liz and stroked her back gently.
"I do understand, honey. I lost someone, too… in Viet Nam."
Liz looked at Vera and wiped her eyes. "A… boyfriend?"
Vera nodded. "Fiancé. We were going to get married when he returned."
"I'm sorry."
"It was a long time ago, honey. I haven't stopped loving him. But I've gone on with my life."
"How, Vera? I don't know how to…" Tears started to run again from Liz's eyes.
"I know it doesn't seem possible now, Liz, but time heals wounds.
"Some wounds never heal, Vera. The bullet that went through my head and the bullet that crushed my spine made wounds that will heal… at least outside… but…" Liz motioned toward Max's grave. "This wound will never heal for me."
"I know. But life will go on, Liz. And you will go on."
Liz looked up to see Sheriff Valenti standing there.
"Ladies."
"Sheriff! You surprised me," Vera said. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"I have to be everywhere, Vera. Wherever duty calls."
"Is this duty?"
"A sheriff is always on duty. But since I just happen to be here right now, maybe I can talk to Liz a bit. Would you mind, Liz?"
"I don't mind. Vera, would you help me up, please?"
Vera reached out with both arms to help Liz up and back into her wheelchair.
"Did you visit the other graves yet, Liz?"
Liz nodded. "I can't look at these markers, sheriff, and think about Maria being there… being gone… or Michael… or Isabel. Much less…" She motioned toward Max's grave, and tears began to run down her face again.
"It just doesn't seem right or real. Maria was so alive and happy. Michael and Maria were so great together… Now they're gone. These graves… they're so sad. And Max… Max was my heart. What am I without him? I don't know how to go on."
Vera handed Liz her handkerchief, and Liz passed it over her eyes.
"That's your emotions talking, Liz. You can be whatever you put your mind to," Jim said. "I know you. You're strong inside. And you're smart. You can do anything… and you will."
"Then why do my emotions have to hurt so bad, Sheriff? I'd rather have another bullet in my head…"
"I know," Jim said softly. "What you're feeling right now is normal."
"Sheriff?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you see the… you know… the bodies?"
"I was at the graduation, Liz, remember? …to see Kyle graduate… when it happened."
"Yeah, but did you see the bodies?"
"Well, Max and Michael were found with their bike… a couple of miles from the school, so I never saw their bodies. They were taken straight to the hospital. I saw you and Maria and Principal Van Der Shul… and Isabel… after you were shot… before they took you away."
"But I was still alive."
"Yeah."
"Then the others were… dead?"
"Principal Van Der Shul was already dead. The others were alive… barely, but they died before they were transported, Liz. They were all DOA."
"Did you see them die?"
"Yeah."
"Did you see… Did they… have a funeral?"
"You mean did I see them in the caskets? No. The hospital sealed the caskets. They said it was best… considering the wounds… and the parents agreed."
Liz seemed to sit up straighter. She was silent for a moment.
"Did you see the autopsy reports, Sheriff?"
"Yeah."
"Max's? And Michael's? And Isabel's?"
"Yeah. I know what you're thinking, Liz. Believe me, I checked it out. I questioned the coroner intensively… without telling him exactly what I was looking for. Fact is, he did very limited tests on the bodies. The wounds were obvious. Nobody questioned how it happened. There was no reason to do a complete autopsy."
"I thought in the case of murder a complete autopsy was kind of the norm, Sheriff?"
"Well, it is… normally. Like I said, I checked it out. The coroner assured me that he didn't have to do anything, because the bullet wounds were the obvious cause of death. That's what he certified as the cause of death."
"And the… you know, the ones who shot them… didn't try to get autopsy reports or see the bodies or get samples or something? Doesn't that seem odd to you, Sheriff?"
"Yes, it does. Of course, they did get copies of the autopsy report, but like I said, it didn't say anything."
"They wouldn't let a chance like that pass, Sheriff. I know it. If they didn't ask for samples, they got them somehow. You can count on it."
"I suspect you're right, Liz. But they already knew… I don't know what good it would do them. Max and Michael and Isabel can't be touched by them now."
"And Maria?"
"She can't either," Jim said.
"I know. But something isn't right. I feel it inside."
"Oh, I forgot! The coroner gave me something. I kept it in my pocket all this time. After all these months, I just about forgot about it." Jim pulled a ring out of his pocket and handed it to Liz.
"It was Max's. I thought you'd like to have it, Liz. It's inscribed inside. You gave it to him."
Liz smiled and took the ring. As it touched her hand, a shock suddenly ran through her body.
[i]"Liz!"[/i]
Jim looked at Liz, and she was as white as a ghost. He touched her cheek and looked into her eyes.
"Liz! Are you okay? You kind of left us there for a minute! What happened?"
Liz looked at Jim, her eyes wide.
"It's Max… He's alive."
tbc
Coming Next: Confusion reigns for Liz as she tries to find Max but sees visions and sights that make her begin to think that she might actually be going insane. Liz begins to keep a diary of her visions, and the town council pressures Jim Valenti to convince Liz's family to leave Roswell with her… for the "good" of Roswell.