Jim was right. The talk around the station would no longer be about Pete, Mrs. O'brian and his toe; Ed had seen to that. What had just happened in the hallway would generate more questions than answers. Was Ed really that bad at fulfilling his duty or was Pete overreacting? Had Pete gone too far, considering that he had, seemingly, chosen to chew Ed out in public? More importantly, there would be many officers wondering if Pete had been bluffing or did he have the power to remove Ed as a TO. The older officers, the ones who knew Pete well, were sure of one thing; Pete didn't bluff.
"Sometimes, you amaze me Partner. " Jim was still taking immense pleasure in what had happened. "You had me fooled. I thought you were going to have a heart attack and here you were enjoying yourself!"
"I was having a ball." Pete was chuckling and Jim was very glad to see this side of Pete again. It had been too long. "Being a supervisor has its advantages. Even if Ed gets his act together, the other procrastinators won't want me to go off on them."
"I had forgotten how menacing and terrifying you can be when you get going. You haven't done that to me in a long time." From his first day on the job, Jim had received dressing downs from Pete. It's part of the TO's job; they have to impart a lot of knowledge in a very short time. Intimidation is a great motivator.
They were interrupted when the phone rang. Jim was still worried about Pete's injuries and so, he was watching carefully as Pete answered the phone. The phone was slightly out of reach and Pete had to stretch to answer it. Jim heard Pete wince; clearly his partner was in a lot of pain. While Pete handled the phone call, Jim left the office. He returned with a glass of water and a few aspirin. It wasn't enough to take away his pain, but it might help some.
Pete nodded a 'thanks' and continued to deal with the call. Jim left Pete alone and made his way to the report desk. There was still a lot of paperwork that needed to be done before he could go home. Jim had taken the time to call Jean and let her know that he would be late. He did notice that the officers in the hallway were being very quiet as they went about their jobs. Most attempted to avoid the watch commanders office, if at all possible. Jim had to laugh; if they only knew what he knew.
Over the next hour Jim dealt with a parade of curious officers. Walters was first, but he was quickly followed by Grant, Brady, Brinkman, Miller and a few officers Jim really didn't know since they weren't on his usual watch. None of them had been there to see what had happened and they all wanted Jim's version of the events. The interruptions were making it hard for Jim to finish his reports. When he couldn't take it anymore, Jim gathered up the paperwork and went to the watch commander's office.
Pete was on the phone, but he waved Jim into the office. The younger officer hesitated to sit down as he heard Pete's part of the conversation.
"Yes, I got the messages, but you know that I can't get personal calls at work. I am not going to discuss this with you now." Pete paused, listening to the person on the other end of the line. "I haven't spoken to Jean in days so don't blame me for that. If she's turning against you it is her choice. Look, I have to get back to work. Goodbye." This thing with Judy wasn't over yet.
"Coming In for the peace and quiet"? Pete chuckled; he didn't bother to try and explain the call; Jim already knew it all. "You can finish the reports in here. They'll have the same questions tomorrow."
There would be a lot of questions tomorrow but Pete didn't seem worried about it, so Jim wasn't either. Pete had taken this shift's paperwork and put it aside. He would have time to work on it once the arrest reports were done. Jim looked as tired as Pete felt.
Twenty minutes later, the phone rang again. Pete was pretty sure that it wasn't Judy. If she meant to continue arguing, she wouldn't have waited that long to call him back.
"Watch Commander's office, Malloy speaking. Mac? How are Mary and the kids? That's good to hear. What? Why were you calling my apartment? Well no, I'm obviously working." Jim hated hearing only one side of a phone call, especially when he had the feeling that Mac was not happy that Pete was working hurt. He did wonder how Mac found out about Pete.
"I'm okay Mac. I can work with a black eye. Yeah, I know. I meant to go straight home. How did you find out about me being hurt? It wasn't like that. No, don't come here. Mac, go back to Mary and the kids. You can yell at me tomorrow." Finally, Pete hung up the phone. He knew this wasn't the end of the issue. Mac would undoubtedly breach the subject of Pete's medical status again. Reluctantly, Jim stated the obvious.
"You didn't tell him about Wells."
"One thing at a time, Please. Besides, I still haven't figured out what is going on with him." He had discussed some of his concerns about Ed's state of mind with Jim. Pete gathered up their finished reports and put them into the "done" bin. "Go home Jim." It was said with a smile. Jim hesitated, but he was tired and he did want to get home. He told Pete to call him if he needed anything, then he left the office to get changed.
The first hours of a Saturday AM shift were always busy. Things only calmed down once the bars closed. Pete had a large pile of arrest reports that had been dropped off by members of the watch. He tried to concentrate, but between his headache and the lateness of the hour, he had no idea what he had spent the last twenty minutes reading. It was 3 am and he needed caffeine, desperately. There was always fresh coffee in the breakroom and Pete helped himself to a cup, and tossed a dime tossed in the kitty. The coffee seemed to help. Pete was on his way back to the office, when he turned a corner and froze.
A boy, about the age of fourteen, turned and pointed a gun at him. A group of officers stood further down the hall. Apparently, the boy, who was not wearing handcuffs, had been holding them hostage before turning on Pete
"Are you in charge here?" Damn those stripes on his sleeves. Pete nodded, never taking his eyes off the gun the boy held in shaky hands. From his current angle, Pete was almost sure the boy was holding one of the longer barrel "duty" weapon. The identity of its owner could wait till later. Pete needed to talk this kid down before things got worse. He told the gathered officers to stay back and let him handle it. Pete silently cursed when he saw that Jim was among them.
"Yes, I'm in charge. My name is Pete. What's yours?" Malloy had some experience dealing with armed and scared people. The wrong word spoken could spur the boy to shoot. Getting shot, again, was not on Pete's bucket list. His best chance was to calm the young man into surrendering.
"Why do you want to know my name? There ain't a sergeant or someone higher than you here?" The boy's eyes were darting back and forth between Pete and the door behind him.
"I just like to know who I'm talking to and no, at 3 am all you get is me." Pete kept his voice calm and level, despite the warning bells going off in his head and the churning in his stomach. He took the smallest of steps towards the boy. "Your name?"
"Stay back! I wanna get out of here." He was jerking the gun around so much that Pete was afraid it would go off accidently. Pete didn't move any closer, but he also didn't back away.
"I figured you did. Hey, I want to get out of here too, but I can't. You still haven't told me your name." Pete could see the officers behind the boy were trying to move closer to him.
"It's Eli. Now get out of my way and let me go. I'm not afraid to shoot you if I have to." Pete's assessment of the situation was that the boy didn't know just what shooting someone entails. It was relatively easy to point a gun at someone; pulling the trigger was much harder.
"Eli, shooting me won't get you out of here. It also won't make me happy. Trust me, I've been shot before. It's not fun." A little levity couldn't hurt. Pete kept his hands held out before him as he took one small step closer.
"Let me go….." Pete was going to take that hesitation as a good sign.
"Pete. Call me Pete." A slight wave of his hand signaled to the other officers that they should stay back. He didn't want the young man to feel crowded.
"Pete. Let me go." The use of his name was a good sign. He might be reaching the boy.
"I can't Eli, but I want to help you. Do you believe that?" Pete slowly moved closer to the boy. "I don't know why you were brought here, but whatever you did do; it wasn't as bad as what you are doing now."
"Pete. Don't come closer. I don't want to shoot you." Malloy stopped advancing towards the boy and held his hand out to Eli as he spoke slowly, wanting him to understand the possible consequences of his actions.
"Eli. Give me the gun. If you shoot me, those officers over there will shoot you. Think about that. I might survive you shooting me once, but you won't survive all of them shooting you." Pete paused a second to give Eli a chance to think about what he said. "I promise to help you. Give me the gun."
Eli lowered the gun and placed it in Pete's outstretched hand. Pete tucked the gun behind him and into his belt. He placed a hand on Eli's shoulder and waved for Brinkman to come closer. It was a guess, but Pete had a feeling that Brinkman wasn't involved in whatever caused this mess. To be sure, he asked Bob if he was responsible for the boy being here. Bob shook his head and gave a glance back at the other officers.
"Eli, this is Officer Brinkman. I'm going to have him take you to the lock-up. When I'm done figuring this out, I'll come and get you. Relax; no one is going to hurt you. You have my promise."
Brinkman took Eli by the arm and guided him into one of the holding cells. Pete leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes; He was breathing heavy and sweating. Jim had come close to Pete, asking him if he was okay. Pete collected himself and nodded to Jim before turning to stare down the officers who were still gathered in the hall. He held the gun above his head, careful to only touch the barrel.
"Who belongs to this?" Now that the danger was past, Pete felt the fear and internal panic being replaced by outrage. He wanted answers. Fast!
Slowly, Ed Wells raised his hand.
Pete couldn't believe his eyes. Was Wells really that stupid? He was in trouble before this shift started, but now, that incident was a paper cut compared to this. Pete asked Jim to take the "witnesses" to the roll call room with instructions to have each one write down exactly what they saw. As the group moved away, Pete reminded them to not discuss this among themselves until they were debriefed by detectives.
Their departure left Wells, Fraser and Pete in the hall. Malloy pasted on a smile and led both of them to the watch commander's office. He made a shushing noise when Ed looked like he wanted to say something. Instead of listening he grabbed a legal pad from the desk and handed it to Ed. Pete ordered him to go into the adjoining room and write out his version of what had happened from the time they left roll call until Pete encountered Eli. He touched Fraser on the arm, stopping him from following Ed.
"I'm going to have you write the same type of report that Ed is writing now, but I wanted to get your version of the events first. You're scared and I don't blame you, but whatever happened, this doesn't mean you will wash out. I just want the truth." That said, Pete leaned back to listen to the probationer.
They had rolled on a suspected 459 call and Eli is who they found. He was spray painting a mural on the side of an abandoned building. The paints were confiscated and Eli was placed under arrest. According to Fraser, he had begun to put the cuffs on the boy when Ed told him not to; saying that he was just a kid. Eli had behaved himself until they were escorting him down the hall to lock-up. The boy panicked and grabbed Ed's gun from his holster. In answer to Pete's question, Fraser informed him that Ed didn't keep his holster buckled closed.
Once he finished speaking, Pete handed him a legal pad with instructions to write down everything that happened on their shift. For the time being, he had Fraser sit at the report desk. Jim arrived with the reports of the witnesses and handed them to Pete.
"Did any of them see the boy steal Ed's gun?" Jim told Pete which ones saw everything; those were the reports he wanted to read first. "Go home Jim, and thanks." Those two versions agreeded with Fraser's account of the facts; the others hadn't seen the beginning of the incident. Ed returned with his version and asked Pete for his gun back. Pete refused and told Ed to get changed and leave. He would be called tomorrow. Uncharacteristically, Ed didn't argue with Pete, but left willingly. Fraser likewise was sent home. Pete picked up Ed's report first; he wanted to get Ed's version of the facts.
If he didn't already have a throbbing headache, Pete would have been banging his head on the desk. He never thought of Ed as having the talent to write fiction.
