Chapter 4

What seemed like only a little while later, one of the nurses was gently shaking Charlie's shoulder. He'd ended up spending the night in the chair and had slumped down into a position that his back tried to protest was a bad idea. After rubbing his eyes, the nurse jerked her head toward the hallway to indicate they needed to talk in the hall. He quietly got up. Rex was about to join him but using his hand to gesture "stay", the German Shepard did as he was told.

"Detective, I'm sorry to wake you but I needed to talk to you," it was Constable Gadhavi. She had been wheeled over to the room in a wheelchair, despite her injuries.

"Make this quick. Those ribs should be in bed and not sitting up," the nurse gave them both a look before heading back to the nurses' desk.

"What's going on Constable?" He asked, concerned about her health.

"I had to tell you about the shooting. Something was off. Also, I wanted to check on Sarah," she admitted.

"She's not out of the woods just yet but they got the bullet out, so I'm grateful for that. As for the shooting, Joe says that our shooter, Danny Bauman, had a mental breakdown," Charlie figured that it would explain it all.

"That may be, sir, but he had more than ample opportunity to kill me and he didn't. Could have shot me in the head but he didn't. He walked into the house, aimed specifically for my vest, and fired. Then, when I was down, he came up and purposefully put two more into my vest," Gadhavi said. Charlie gave it some thought. In the heat of the moment, everything seemed to be moving so fast. Now that the officer had had the opportunity to think it over, this bit of information stuck out.

"Your partner took two in the back, in the vest. As he spun around, the third one went into his leg," the detective said.

"He definitely could have killed Brad. He didn't," the constable pointed out.

"He was incredibly accurate," Charlie nodded.

"What if he was in the service, sir?" She asked.

"Even if not, he definitely had some training. Something to look into. Thank you, Constable. Also, please call me Charlie. I'm sorry that I made you restrain the suspect. I should have never put you in that position," he gave her a smile.

"I'm Chanda and you do not have to apologize. I would have done the same thing if my girlfriend were in trouble," she smiled back "Besides, I owe Sarah."

"How so?" Charlie was confused.

"She's always let me ask her questions about forensics. I'm thinking about my career and I thought a better knowledge of forensics would help with making detective," Chanda admitted.

"I think you already made a good case. Now, you get back to your room before the nurse skins us both alive," he winked at her.

"Yes, sir, I mean Charlie. Tell Sarah I hope she feels better soon," she smiled. The nurse who had brought her to the room wheeled her back toward her own room. Charlie pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted Joe: Gadhavi came to see me. She thinks the shooter has some sort of training.

Come down to the cafeteria. We have much to discuss, came the reply. Charlie raised an eyebrow and responded: I'll be right down. He poked his head into the hospital room and Sarah was still sleeping. Rex was at the ready to move but Charlie shook his head before heading for the elevator.

As he entered the cafeteria, Joe waved him over to the table he'd picked in the corner of the room. There weren't too many people about and Charlie checked his watch, it was almost seven am. He groaned inwardly a little because despite being in the hospital for twenty-one hours, he was working on probably five hours combined of sleep. His stomach rumbled and that's when he realized he hadn't eaten since yesterday's breakfast.

"You look like hell," Joe said as he handed him a cup of coffee. Then he pushed a plate toward him, which had eggs and toast on it.

"Same to you," the detective gave him a look before taking the cup of hot liquid before sitting down. The food smelled good and his stomach rumbled again. He started tucking into it.

"So, the constable came to see you?" Joe asked.

"Against the nurses' wishes. She thought that our shooter had maybe been in the service," Charlie said in between bites of breakfast. He then recounted the full conversation.

"She has a good eye. Danny served in the Army. Afghanistan to be more specific. He came home with more than just physical damage," Joe explained.

"He was seeing Tim Watkins for PTSD," Charlie figured as he pushed the empty plate away from him. He was feeling much better.

"He was medically discharged and directed to Tim Watkins. Tim has an impeccable reputation, by the way. Plenty of people, including other soldiers, had a lot of praise for him," his boss said.

"So, what are we looking at? Why was Danny going on about photos?" Charlie was confused.

"Seems that Danny was a little more… I can't think of a better word – he's damaged. Jesse found illegal substances in his apartment and bottles of the medicine prescribed to him by Tim, still full. Worse still, he found a manilla envelope full of photos…" Joe sucked his breath in.

"So, Tim never had the photos. They're bad, aren't they?" Charlie could tell by the look on the Superintendent's face.

"The envelope had been mailed to Danny. Someone wanted him to be close to losing his mind entirely. It was like loading the gun themselves," Joe slid a folder over to him before continuing, "Those are copies. Forensics is still trying to get prints or DNA off of the originals." Charlie opened the folder cautiously.

"Oh geez," he quickly closed the folder. These had obviously been taken when Danny was a young boy and he was clearly being abused.

"I have to talk to his parents about these," Joe swallowed.

"Take Parsons from Special Victims with you. She's probably one of the most empathetic detectives I know and she's good at her job," Charlie said.

"Good idea. You think the family didn't report whoever this was?" Joe wondered.

"I'm guessing that they didn't know. There is no way that they would have let Danny attempt to join the service. I don't see how he passed the Army's medical exam to get in," the detective said.

"I've put a request in for his medical records to be released to us. It's a long shot but we need to have a full picture here. I can't see how mentally stable this guy was before. Sending him to a war zone…" Joe shook his head.

"Agreed. I have to wonder though…" Charlie paused.

"What is it?" Joe asked.

"Well abused kids tend to lash out in different ways. They get addicted to drugs, they end up in court for petty crimes, but these things are not exclusive to abused kids. What if he was given a choice?" The detective wondered.

"You mean like the judge said – you join the service or you go to jail?" His boss gave him a look.

"There was a military school that my father used to talk about if we didn't shape up," Charlie said.

"And that would open the door to be in the service," Joe nodded.

"Exactly. I need a shower and a change of clothes," the detective admitted.

"Go home quick. I'll see how Sarah is," Joe winked. Charlie thanked his boss for breakfast and quickly headed for the parking ramp and his Dodge Charger.

To Be Continued…