Vengeance of the Freeway Phantom

Chapter 4

Wednesday morning's briefing started out all too similar to the last few days. Only this particular morning, Getraer didn't have to warn his people to 'pipe down'. As he walked into the room, it quickly fell 'dead' silent as every last officer's strict attention was focused on him. Instantly, all of them could tell by the expression on his face that another officer was down.

"This is getting really old, people! A third officer was taken out by the suspect late yesterday afternoon. This time Stevenson may not be so lucky. I called the hospital this morning to get the status on him. He's..." his voice cracked a little, he cleared his throat before continuing, "he's still unconscious. From what I've been told he hasn't regained consciousness since the 'accident'. Again the car was a different color, but the typical fast, sporty type. Umm, the Captain is, ah, how should I put it, absolutely livid over the situation. He wants this guy off the streets and now!! So far only Grossman has managed to avoid getting caught in the snare, thanks to Baricza's quick warning. Again, people, should you spot a car that even remotely gives you the feeling that it could quite possibly be our guy, its fair game to at least be checked out. I don't need to tell you to be careful." Then he turned his attention to Ponch, "I wanna congratulate Frank on a tremendous drug and weapons bust." He joined in the applause with all the other officers there. Then he had to raise a hand to quiet everyone down. When the room finally did, he continued, "And Frank, thanks for getting all those weapons before they managed to hit the streets. As we all know, that will help save a lot of lives," he paused a moment, "some of those lives could very well be any police officer out there including all of you here." He stopped, clear his throat once again and then continued, "We have enough trouble out there right now with the 'Phantom' so we certainly don't need all those weapons coming up against us too." After that note he continued on with the briefing.

Once briefing was finished, Getraer dismissed everyone so he could retreat to his office. Joe was really beside himself about all that was happening out there on the highways. It really bugged him to think that someone out there had such a deep hatred for police officers that they would actually carry it out this far, not once, but four times. The next thing that bugged him was the guy didn't take a break. He kept it up each day for the past four days. But what really bothered him was the fact that the suspect has been successful three out of those four times--at seriously injuring his victims, which meant this 'Phantom' was extremely dangerous. Not only has this character been successful, but because of not being caught at it that could only make this guy braver and braver. Every single motor officer out there was in a perilous situation. It wasn't that Getraer had forgotten about the number of innocent civilians out there. No, Joe hadn't forgotten about them at all. It was just that he had his officers up at the forefront of his thoughts.

The Phantom's first victim was doing a little better now. True, the officer was terribly bruised from hitting the pavement and his dislocated shoulder would keep him out of commission for a while, but at least he was alive---very sore, but alive. Although the suspect seemed to be taking out officers of other shifts Joe knew his team of officers was not immune. The Phantom could pick on any one of them at any time. Grossman was the prime example of that fact. Grossie sure must have had a guardian angel in his back pocket that day. As he continued to reflect on this entire 'Phantom' business Getraer grimaced. He finally decided he'd better get to work. Unfortunately, even under the present circumstances, the world didn't stop turning, nor did the paperwork stop piling up on his desk.

The day had started out pretty warm and showed all the signs of getting even hotter, which only meant that any traffic snarls would also heat up the tempers of some of the motorists out there. True to form, that's exactly what happened. And Jon and Stephanie were right in the thick of it. As they rode on between the lanes of fairly slow moving traffic, suddenly it was no longer moving at all. They kept going down the highway by driving between cars to get to the area of whatever was holding up the traffic. Then they came upon a number of people that had actually gotten out of their vehicles and started a pushing and shoving match right in the traffic lanes. Both officers left their motors and quickly went up to the fracas to separate the parties involved.

"Hey, break it up!! Break it up right now!" Jon commanded the two that he stepped between.

Stephanie also managed to get between her two. She noted that one of the people opened his mouth to make a retort. However, she quickly squelched that idea.

"Officer, he--"

"Break it up now!" Stephanie shouted, stopping him in mid-speech.

Due to the 'scuffle' the traffic was gnarled. There wasn't any apparent accident, so after a quick question and answer session it was noted as a simple, but bad case of road rage, which the CHP officers managed to interrupt--before it escalated into something potentially serious. The matter was taken care of and with both officers' assistance, traffic slowly, but progressively returned to back to normal.

They cleared up the last of this latest traffic snafu and as they were getting back on their motors, Stephanie commented, "We sure timed that one perfectly."

"Yeah, another five minutes and I think we would have added four more to the county jail," Jon replied as he fixed his helmet strap.

"Or one of us to the hospital," she added. Then they started their motors and got back on the highway.

As Jon rode beside Stephanie he wanted to so badly know what was troubling her. However, he had only known the officer for a few days now and he just wasn't sure if it wouldn't still be prying. But there definitely was something bothering this young woman. Baker thought about the 'little get together between friends' that Ponch had planned for Friday night. Maybe it was a good idea after all. It just might help her to get to know them better--under more informal circumstances--and it just may be what she needs. He began to feel much more at ease with the whole idea. 'Leave it to Ponch,' he quietly thought.

As the afternoon was now drawing to a close, many of the day-shift officers decided to head for the beach when their shift ended. They all felt a real need to relax and cool down. Once everyone finally arrived at the agreed upon location, a picnic area was quickly set up. It turned out that Joe Getraer, his wife Betty and their children also came. They were quickly voted in as the barbecue chefs while everyone else, including their kids, left them behind for a nice, cool, relaxing swim.

Betty, of course, kept a watchful eye on her children. She knew she had nothing to worry about because it seemed there was always someone looking out for them. No matter how many times she'd been involved in some kind of get together with her husband's fellow officers she couldn't help but think of how wonderful they all were. Joe was their boss and all of them seemed to look up to him. They respected him for his position, but mostly considered him as a trusted friend. She was really grateful for that.

Once the food was cooked, eaten, scraps taken care of and the area cleaned up, it was time for fun and games. A little volleyball, 'touch' football and tag (just so the kids could get involved). In the end, everyone had a wonderful time. Then reality set in and it was time to head home. Tomorrow was a whole new day.