In The Wrong Place
Chapter 20
Jeannie moved slowly back towards the couch and Steve backed up slowly making sure that Jeannie stayed right behind him all the way...When they were back at the couch...Joe pulled up a chair and sat down clumsily keeping his gun aimed at the two young people in front of him. From where he sat Steve noticed that he had a clear view of both him and Jeannie and the front door...Dear God, Steve thought. He's gonna shoot Mike as soon as he comes in...He doesn't stand a chance unless we can warn him...Putting his hand behind him he took Jeannie's hand in his in a bid to reassure her that he had no intention of letting Joe harm her or Mike..Jeannie felt Steve's fingers entwine hers and found comfort in it...Her heart was pounding in her chest as she kept her eyes on the crazed, drunken man who was threatening everything she held dear...Studying Steve for a moment Joe spoke...
"You know Steve...You don't look too good..."
Anger replaced the fear in Jeannie's heart and despite the fact that her head was telling her to keep quiet she found herself shouting at her captor...
"He's sick...And it's all your fault!...The only one you should be blaming for this whole mess is you!"
"Jeannie!" Steve pleaded shooting a warning glance in her direction...Seeing Steve's disapproval she immediately quieted down ...Steve knew that Jeannie had inherited Mike's stubbornness and his inability to suffer fools gladly but he had hoped that seeing the alcohol induced rage that made Joe that bit more unpredictable and dangerous might make Jeannie think twice about challenging him...
"Ooooh...We've got a feisty one here Steve!..."Joe said smirking and pointing his gun in their direction again he continued..."With a holier than thou attitude like that you've got to be Mike's daughter...Is that right? Is that who she is Steve? Huh?"
Steve's heart almost skipped a beat ...He had been desperately trying to keep her behind him and thus keep Joe's attention off her but her jibe at Joe had backfired and now he seemed to have his sights directly on her...Steve had been feeling very weak from the fever but their current predicament and his desire to protect Jeannie had his adrenaline pumping and it seemed to give him a new boost of desperately needed energy...Glaring at Joe, Steve felt anger grow within him...
"You leave her out of this Joe. You hear me? She has nothing to do with this."
"Maybe she'd like to come over here and keep me company Steve...What about it little lady?"...
Jeannie gasped and clung on to Steve...Feeling her panic angered Steve even more and with increasing menace in his voice Steve replied...
"She's not coming anywhere near you Joe!...She's staying right where she is and if you want her company that bad you're gonna have to come through me to get it!"
Joe laughed out loud..."You're a real live hero aren't you Steve?...Say if I didn't know better I'd say you had a thing for the boss's daughter...Is that it?...Did I disturb your little love nest...Huh?"
"You get your mind out of the sewer Joe!" Steve spat out...
Joe laughed again. "Aw relax Steve...Relax...I'm just teasing you... You know you kind of remind me of me when I was your age...I was full of hope and ideals of what a great thing it was to be a police officer...I gave everything to the job...But it doesn't love you back Steve...It destroys... your soul...your marriage..EVERYTHING !... Until one day ...you look in the mirror and you don't recognize yourself anymore...And that's when the higher-ups put the boot in Steve...See you're no use to them anymore so they step on you...they spit on you ...they look down their noses at you...But today I'm going to crush them instead...Today it's MY TURN TO CONDEMN !..." Joe finished his rant and slumped in the chair...He was breathing heavily and deep in his thoughts...
Deciding in that moment that he HAD to get Jeannie out somehow to warn Mike he took the opportunity to glance back at Jeannie and lowering his voice as much as he could he spoke to Jeannie in barely a whisper, all the while keeping a trained eye on Joe...
"Jeannie, listen to me carefully. We have to get you out of here to warn Mike...I'm going to try to reason with him.. But if it doesn't work I'm going to try to take him down...If it comes to that, I want you to run for the front door and down the street as fast as you can...You need to wait down the block for Mike and warn him when he gets here..."
Before he could finish Jeannie started to protest...
"No Steve.. please...You're not up to that...I can't leave you here with him ...If I get away...He'll kill you..."
"Jeannie...you have to!...You're Mike's only hope... I'll be ok...But Jeannie you have to promise me something...Once you start running, you mustn't look back no matter what happens or no matter what you hear..Ok? You have to promise me...All our lives might depend on it...Ok Jeannie?" With that another bout of shivering shook Steve as the adrenaline was wearing off...
Jeannie felt him shivering and squeezed his hand tighter...With tears forming in her eyes and fear gripping her heart she whispered...
"Ok Steve...I promise...But you better not get yourself killed Steve Keller or I'll never forgive you!"...
Steve smiled and squeezed her hand back ...
"Ok...I'll try not to..."
Coming out of his thoughts, Joe was starting to shake a little...He hadn't had anything to drink since he'd left his house and it was making him jumpy...
"I don't suppose the upright Lieutenant has any booze around here...Huh little lady? I could use a little pick me up..."
"Don't you think you've had enough for now Joe? You're looking pretty shaky" Steve half smiled at his own ironic statement as he felt pretty shaky himself at the time only for different reasons...
"Nooooo, No Steve...I haven't had nearly enough...Oh I'm loaded right up to here alright but they've taken everything...the booze is all I have left...Don't you understand?...DON'T YOU GET IT?" Joe yelled and started pointing the gun in their direction again...
He was shaking it and Steve noticed that the safety was off...! Damn it Steve thought to himself...In Joe's current very unstable state one false move and that gun could go off very easily...Steve was starting to feel light-headed again...His shivers were getting worse and his legs felt like jelly. Beads of sweat were running down the sides of his face and he wiped at them with his free hand...Hold it together Steve he told himself...Deciding that he had to make his move sooner rather than later as time was running out and Mike could arrive at any time...He whispered to Jeannie again over his shoulder...
"Ok...here I go...Be ready!...Wish me luck!...And remember don't stop for anything"
"Good luck Steve and please be careful..."
Meanwhile...
Across town at the Bureau, Mike had gathered his coat and hat and had made his way down to his car...He was anxious to get home and get Steve to the hospital as soon as possible..He hadn't sounded too good on the phone. As he sat in and was placing the key in the ignition his radio had come to life..
"Inspectors 29 to 81 come in please..Urgent message...Repeat Inspectors 29 to 81...Please respond..."
Knowing that Inspectors 29 were Lockner and Harris, Mike felt that sinking sensation again as picking up the radio receiver Mike nervously spoke into it...
"Inspector 81 here...Go ahead Lockner...over"
"Mike!...I'm really sorry but Landers gave us the slip!...Looks like he took off on foot out the back way...There was a box of bullets on the table..We think he might be armed. But we think we have a lead as to where he was heading..There was a notebook on the table...He'd written an address on it...We were able to make out the indentation on the top page...It read 768 De Haro Street..What do want us to do Mike? Over!"
Mike's blood ran cold and he almost dropped the receiver...Steve was right!...
"Lockner!...That's my address!..."
Then pulling himself together he barked orders over the radio...
"All units in the vicinity of De Haro Street respond to number 768...We have a suspect Joe Landers, presumed armed and dangerous possibly heading to that location...On arrival secure the area and wait for me..There may be hostages..If the suspect is spotted approach with caution...Repeat all units to 768 De Haro Street. Be on the lookout for our suspect Joe Landers presumed armed and dangerous..Over..."
With that Mike reached over and picked up the red light and spotted Steve's gun on the passenger seat...Realizing that Steve and Jeannie were in grave danger with Steve in no fit state to handle Joe and now noting that he was also unarmed sent cold shivers up Mike's spine. Placing the flashing light on the roof and with sirens blaring Mike drove off at high-speed in the direction of home...Hang on Jeannie and Steve...Hang on!...
Meanwhile...
Back at De Haro Street, Steve was making his move...Inching very,very slowly forward towards Joe and still holding Jeannie's hand behind him and gently pulling her along with him..Steve spoke...
"Hey Joe, why don't you let the girl go...Huh?...She's not part of this..."
"Oh yeah...So she can warn Daddy dearest ...Is that it? No...sorry Steve...She stays!..."
"What happened to you Joe?...This isn't you doing this ...You know when I was in a black and white, you and Mel were the ones we looked up to...You were the best...Look at yourself Joe...Look at what you're doing...Mel wouldn't want you to do this...I know it was an accident Joe...I know how close you two were...Why don't you give me that gun and we'll talk ok?...I want to help you Joe...Let me help you...I can vouch for you...I can say that this was all a misunderstanding...Come on Joe...It doesn't have to end like this...Think of Mel,Joe...What would he want you to do? Huh Joe? Give me the gun and everything will be ok..."
All the while he'd been talking, Steve had moved ever closer, holding his hand out towards Joe with Jeannie still right behind him..He felt that he was getting through to Joe...Joe had sat staring at him but his gun was no longer pointed firmly in his direction. Steve could see that he was thinking about everything that Steve was saying...At the mention of Mel, Steve could see Joe getting upset and tears appeared in Joe's eyes...Joe was shaking pretty bad now...
"I didn't mean to kill him Steve...It just went off..."
"I know you didn't Joe...I know...It's ok..."
Joe was filled with guilt and regret and for a split second thought about giving the gun to Steve...He was just about to lower his weapon when he heard police sirens in the distance...Looking up at Steve who was now very close Joe pulled himself together and his rage came back and he pointed his gun again at Steve.
"Oh you're very good...You know that Steve..You almost had me, but it's too late for surrenders Steve. Stone has to pay! NOW GET BACK OVER THERE !"
For a moment there Jeannie thought Steve was getting through to Joe and she marveled at his ability to gain people's trust...But on seeing Joe's rage return she realized as did Steve that there would be no easy way out of this situation and she prayed in that moment that they would both make it out of there alive...While the sound of the sirens were in one way a comfort to Steve,knowing that help was on its way he also inwardly cursed them for their poor timing as he truly felt that within another couple of seconds he would have disarmed Joe peacefully and their nightmare would have been over! Now he'd have to do it the hard way and as his side started to burn again Steve worried that he wouldn't be up to the task at hand...Glancing at Jeannie gave him all the courage he needed to proceed to plan B. He had to get her out of here no matter what the cost...!
"Ok Joe...We will...Take it easy!" Steve said and taking one small step back Steve pretended to double over in pain..." Oh God...my side..." he gasped not entirely having to act as his side was starting to spasm uncomfortably...
Jeannie wasn't sure if it was part of Steve's plan or not so she stood hesitantly for a moment, part of her waiting for his signal and part of her studying him to see if he was indeed genuinely hurt...
Taken aback by the sudden movement of the young man in front of him...Joe spoke to Steve...
"What's the matter with you?"
Dropping his guard and lowering his gun for a few seconds while he studied Steve was all the time Steve needed as he grabbed Joe's hand that held the gun and pushed him backwards yelling as he did...
"JEANNIE RUN !"
Jeannie raced for the door and bolting through it raced down the steps not looking back as she had promised Steve even when she heard the gunshot...Sobbing and with tears streaming down her face she kept her promise to Steve as she kept running until she was safely down the block...