The policeman, or rather a policeman, Bill, and his partner, Adrian, saw that the man was throwing up out the window of the car, as the car was going. The driver had slowed the car down a little, but was still in the passing lane, so the vomit was spraying all over the median and much of it was ending up on his own car. They pulled him over and within a couple blocks he had pulled in to the parking lot of a bank. He said his name was Ted, and he had trouble getting out of the car, though he was able to find his ID. They asked him to do a sobriety check and he flunked it big-time. He was very drunk.
The car was not in very good shape either. It had a huge spider-web crack in the front windshield that made them wonder if Ted could see anything while he was driving. Ted said that Marlene did this with a hammer. Marlene was his wife, apparently, or perhaps ex-wife given the situation with the hammer. He tried to explain something about how he'd been at the bar too long and she had to come get him but she wasn't very diplomatic. There was no question he'd been at the bar too long.
While Bill was arresting Ted, putting him in handcuffs, reading him his rights, and trying to get him into the police car, Adrian did a cursory search of the car. Ted was still throwing up, in fact, more than even while he was driving. It was like his whole life was coming out from the inside out onto the bank parking lot. This car and this vomit might have to wait until morning, thought Bill. But he really didn't want to shove Ted into the back of his patrol car under such a circumstance. He knew they couldn't stand here forever in the parking lot, but he thought that if he stalled a few seconds it might save the upholstery from weeks of a wretched smell.
His partner, Adrian, was finding all kinds of things in Ted's car. There was a big jug of what could only be described as everclear, homemade alcohol, but also a chemical that she knew was intended to make the drinker throw up. Why would that chemical be in the car? Actually it was a little vial, labeled that way, but it was empty. Had Ted poured the chemical into his drink? Had someone else?
He had an arsenal of guns, all in the back, down by the feet of the back seat. Three of them, all loaded and ready to fire. Where did he say he was going?
Then came a quick series of actions Bill would remember forever. He was hesitating, standing next to his car with Ted in handcuffs; he was waiting for Ted to finish throwing up before he tried to push him in to the back of the police car. Ted made a weak call to Marlene but his throwing up was interfering with his voice. Another small car came into the bank parking lot and stopped suddenly. A woman jumped out of the car, started screaming, and attacked Adrian as she was backing herself out of the back seat of Ted's car with one of the guns she had just picked up. This gun was evidence; she didn't want to use it, yet she couldn't reach for her own gun when her hands were full. The woman was screeching and attacking her with her fists on Adrian's back.
Suddenly, when Ted called Marlene's name with his garbled voice, a shot rang out. Bill watched in amazement as Ted was hurled back into the policecar, a bullet through his heart. Marlene had shot Ted! Bill was shocked because really, he would have been an easier target himself. Ted was between him and the car itself, and she would have had to have been a markswoman to shoot Ted and not him. But that's what had happened.
And then another shot rang out; she'd shot herself. Again, it would have been easy enough to have shot Adrian. She'd got the gun; she had the advantage; for some reason she wanted to do her murder-suicide in dramatic fashion.
Later on, the ID never checked out; Marlene had been carrying something fake, which didn't lead to anyone. Ted was a local dealer and was known to get into trouble, but Marlene was a mystery. The best they could figure, she was a woman who had gone AWOL from the Army, had been specially trained in marksmanship but had a falling out of some kind. That woman, who the Army identified, hadn't been seen in several years, but in fact could have done the shooting that Bill and Adrian described. Bill and Adrian were both a bit shaken by the event but ultimately figured they were lucky and she really only wanted to kill him and herself, not the police; perhaps she liked the police. Whatever her secrets, she'd carry them to the grave.
No comments:
Post a Comment