40 Williams Park Main Entrance 9 03 PM

created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:

Alex looked at the gate, sighed, put the car in reverse and backed up. Looking at the gate again, he smiled and put his car in drive, and punched the gas. The Chevrolet Tahoe shot forward, colliding with the gate and into the park.

“S30, we have the shelter lit, I’m pretty sure you can find it,” The Observer in the chopper said. “Thirty three and Thirty five, Be advised that S30 has opened the front gate...”

“Copy” Alex heard from the radio as he laid eyes on Lee Winston for the first time. He could see the figures of the girls huddled in the corner. He hit all of his forward facing lights and lit the son of a bitch up. As he hit the brakes, he opened the door and drew his service weapon, the trijicon sights glowing as he got a good sight picture.

“Lee, Drop the gun...” Alex shouted. Lee just looked at Alex as if he had six heads. Suddenly he charged toward Alex. “STOP!” Alex shouted, He was vaguely aware of thirty three or thirty five pulling up. He would have fired, but he wasn’t sure about what was behind Lee. He didn’t want to risk rounds hitting the girls. He quickly side stepped to the left, aimed and fired, knowing that behind Lee was clear in that direction. There was a shower of blood, and Lee screamed, turned toward Alex blood dripping down his right arm. He looked at Alex again, blinked, and charged again. Alex pulled the trigger three times, while moving for cover. He heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun get racked over the sound of his ears ringing. Alex glanced to his right and saw that Officer Danielle Brooks had leveled her shotgun at Lee.

“Drop it!” she commanded. Lee charged toward her and she fired one round; and racked the action again. There was no need for a second round as Lee practically did a backflip as he was stuck by the projectile.

“Chopper to radio.” A radio crackled. Alex couldn’t pinpoint the direction the sound came from because his ears were ringing too loudly. “It appears that shots have been fired. Suspect is down, I repeat suspect is down, roll fire.”

“Danielle,” Alex shouted. “I’m going up, cover me.” The radio crackled again.

“Copy, Chopper,” a dispatcher said. “Time is twenty one oh six.”

“I got your six, Sarge.” She slung the shotgun across her back and drew her service pistol. She covered Alex as he approached the fallen figure of Lee. Alex kicked the gun away, and reached back for the handcuffs that he knew Danielle would be holding. She placed the cuffs in his hand and he quickly, and expertly applied them to Lee’s wrist. Quickly checking Lee’s pulse Alex looked back and shook his head. They’d come back to his body. Alex pulled his side arm and flashlight back out and cautiously peered around the comer looking at the two girls that were huddled there.

“Samantha and Heather?” Alex asked, pulling his shield out. One of the girls nodded. “I’m Sargent Alex Thompson with Metro PD. Are you guys ok?” He glanced over at Danielle, who was sticking her fingers on Lee’s neck. She glanced up at Alex and shook her head nodded. So he was still alive. Probably not by much, but alive.

“Yeah...” Samantha said, rubbing her ears. “I think we’re ok...” In between rubbing her ears, she was holding Heather and gently rocking her.

“Ok,” Alex said, smiling at the girls. “You two stay put while we make sure that no one else is around hiding somewhere.”

“Yes, Sir.” Samantha said, tucking her sisters head under her chin. Alex walked back over to where Danielle was emptying the pockets of Lee’s body. She pulled out around four thousand dollars in cash, some pills, keys to the van, a second magazine, his ID, his cell phone, and a prepaid calling card. Danielle attempted to unlock the phone but it was pass code protected, looking at Alex, she picked up Lee’s right hand and pressed his thumb to the sensor. She went into the settings and disabled the auto lock so that they could keep accessing the phone.

“Sarge, you have a charger for one of these?” She held the phone up.

“A phone,” he replied. “Sure.”

“This is an iPhone with that new connector...” She said as he walked over.

“Yeah, I just replaced my phone so I have a charger for it in the car.” He replied, opening his door and reaching in. She handed him the phone and he plugged it in. “We’ll bag and tag it once we get it cloned...”

“Alrighty.” Danielle said, going back to placing everything that she had pulled out of Lee’s pockets in bags.

“S30 to chopper.” Alex said, shielding his eyes so he could see the chopper.

“Chopper, go.”

“Can you verify that there are no other people in the park? We’ve got limited visibility due to trees.”

“Sure thing,” The chopper said. “It’s gonna get dark.” The area was plunged into darkness as the chopper turned off the night sun and flew away. As they did so, the air suddenly felt cooler. Alex poked his head around the corner to look at the girls.

“Would you two like to get in the backseat of my car where it’s warm?” He asked. Both girls nodded and stood. There was a puddle on the ground where Heather had been sitting against the wall. Samantha guided Heather to the car and had her slide in.

“I’m going to go talk to him really quickly,” Samantha said, closing the door and looking at Alex. Several pair of headlights appeared outside the front gate and Alex knew that the media had arrived. A new pair of headlights traveled down the path that Alex had left in his wake. “May I speak to you over there, sir?” She pointed back in the direction they had come.

“Yeah,” Alex said, as a larger vehicle turned into the park. This one would be Delaney in the crime scene van. Placing his arm around Samantha’s shoulders he led her back toward the shelter house.

“So Heather has a problem with wetting the bed still. She had fallen asleep and she wet herself. Any way we can get her some dry clothes?” Samantha said. She was very protective of her little sister.

“Yeah, we will do that,” Alex said. “However, it may not be what your used to wearing...”