First Offense (43 page)

Once Sawyer was cuffed, Abrams handed him over to Reed, and the detective started shoving him in the direction of his unit while Abrams tried to find the men driving the police cruisers that were blocking his own.

“I’m freezing,” Sawyer said in the passenger seat of Reed’s unit. “I mean, I came here to turn myself in. Every time I try to do something right, it turns into a fucking nightmare. Can’t you at least let me put my clothes back on?”

“Not until I get some answers,” Reed told him gruffly. “And for your information, your roommates rolled over on you. You’re staring down some serious drug charges, Jim-boy.”

Sawyer was silent, a muscle in his face twitching.

Reed turned to him, looking him squarely in the eye. “Were you working with Hopkins?”

“Sort of,” Sawyer replied. “I mean, I liked to think we were working for ourselves, but it didn’t turn out that way.”

Reed was confused. “Are you talking about the drug lab?”

“Yeah,” Sawyer said, leaning forward and trying to get comfortable with his hands cuffed behind his back. “He was our financial backer, see. Someone Peter knew on the street told us about this guy who would put up ten grand for us to set up a home lab. They said he would give us all the chemicals we needed to cook the stuff too and we’d make a ton of bread. How the hell did I know the guy was a fucking district attorney?” He started struggling again. “Shit, these handcuffs are killing me.”

Reed couldn’t believe his ears. Hopkins was dirtier than they’d ever imagined. Feeling a measure of sympathy for the boy, the detective reached over and unlocked the handcuffs. Then he removed his own jacket and tossed it over to him. “When did you first hook up with Hopkins?”

“I don’t remember the exact date,” the boy said, slipping his arms into Reed’s jacket. “Maybe eight months ago or something. Look, he guaranteed us we wouldn’t go to jail, and the money was great. We cooked the drugs, delivered them to this warehouse he had in L.A., then sold the rest of them on the street. We bought the cars, some new threads. Then when I got busted, things went crazy.”

“You’re talking about the first arrest, right?” Reed said, rubbing his chin, cursing himself for buying Whittaker’s informant’s tale about Colombian drug dealers. But never would he have connected Glen Hopkins to a drug operation. “Did you shoot Ann Carlisle?”

“No, I swear,” Sawyer said earnestly. “Hopkins shot her. I even saw him. I mean, I didn’t see him actually pull the trigger or anything, but I saw him running across the parking lot and he had something in his hand.” When Reed just stared at him. Sawyer continued. “He promised I would only get court probation, see. He said he would fix it. Then when I got to court, Ann messed everything up. I was scared she was going to come out and find the lab, so I tried to talk to Hopkins and ask him what he wanted us to do, but I couldn’t because he was with her. I left and then drove back later to find him. That’s when I heard the shots and saw him running across the parking lot.”

“Why did you stop to help her, then?” Reed asked, fearful Sawyer was feeding him a line of bullshit and might actually have shot Ann himself.

“Look,” Sawyer said, an indignant expression on his face, “I might be a drug dealer and all, but I don’t kill people, and I wouldn’t let someone bleed to death like that. Shit, he would, though. He just stood there and stared at her. Then when the paramedics got there, he pulled me over and told me to move the lab, that he shot her so she wouldn’t bust us.”

“Didn’t he realize that if he killed her, they’d just appoint another probation officer?”

“Hey, how do I know?” Sawyer snapped. He paused and then continued, “Wait, he did say something. He said if she was only out a few weeks, the case would just sit around dead. And he was right. No one else came around, and we had enough time to rent another house and get it set up. But, of course, when she found the fingers, Hopkins told us to shut down for good.”

Reed’s thoughts turned to Ann, and he picked up the microphone to try to raise Abrams. When Abrams answered, he roared at him with impatience, “Where the hell are you? Where’s Ann? I thought you would be back by now.”

“I’m almost at the park,” Abrams said, the radio cackling with static. “I could have never walked it. Reed. You have no idea how faraway we were, but listen, Ann hasn’t made a peep all night. She’s fine. I even confirmed it with the dispatcher.”

Reed dropped the microphone on the seat and stared out the windshield. A funny feeling came over him, the kind he got when something wasn’t right. Ann would never sit down there without a word all this time. At least twenty minutes had passed since she walked into that park. Ignoring his prisoner now, he drove forward a few feet and then stopped in front of several officers, reaching past Sawyer to open the passenger door. “Take this guy in,” he told the men, instantly shoving Sawyer out the door.

Before the men could react. Reed had roared off, the passenger door of his unit still open. He gunned the engine and the speedometer started climbing, the door slamming shut when he whipped the car around the corner and headed to Marina Park.

Ann was back on her knees at the water’s edge, pleading with Glen to let her go, the gun trained at her head. “Glen, please,” she begged, “don’t do this. If you did these things because you’re sick, then you can get help. We cared about each other. I have a child. Don’t do this to me.”

“Should have thought of that before you started poking around in places you didn’t belong,” he said, wiping his sweaty face with his shirttail.

Ann’s eyes were darting all over. Far off in the distance, she saw what had to be headlights pulling into the parking lot. It could be a total stranger and not one of the officers, but Ann didn’t care. She was filled with such utter hatred that she no longer cared if she lived or died, as long as she could be assured Glen would pay. What she simply couldn’t tolerate was the thought that he would escape without punishment.

Suddenly Ann stared at the barrel of the gun, and something darted through her mind. Any second he would pull the trigger. Anything she did in her own defense would be better than nothing. If she made an attempt to escape and failed, the outcome would be the same anyway. Cutting her eyes to the parking lot, she saw a dark figure step out of a car and head toward the playground area. If Glen was going to kill her, Ann wanted him to do it now.

She had her witness.

But she also had one chance. Not a good one, but a chance. When she had been a police cadet, her father used to practice a trick with her, a way to disarm a person aiming a weapon at close range. She closed her eyes and tried to bring back the exact moves that her father had taught her.

In a flash she went for it, seizing the barrel of the gun with both hands, twisting his wrist sideways with every ounce of strength she possessed. Once the gun was pointing away from her, Ann used her ribs and body weight to apply more pressure against Glen’s wrist. He yelled in pain and she heard what sounded like bone cracking. With lightning speed Ann slid her fingers between Glen’s and suddenly found his gun in her hand as they toppled over backward.

“Now,” she said, gritting her teeth as she stared up into his eyes, the gun flush against his forehead, “make a move. Glen. Go ahead. If you so much as hiccup, you’re a dead man.”

Ann looked to the side and saw Noah Abrams sprinting across the sand. “Over here,” she called out to him. “We’re near the water.”

“Jesus Christ,” Abrams said, seeing Ann on the ground with Hopkins. Immediately he pulled him off her. “Are you okay?” he said quickly, reaching in his back pocket for his handcuffs and clamping them roughly on Hopkins’s wrists.

At first Ann didn’t answer. Flat on her back, staring at the sky, she stretched her arms out from her body and let the revolver fall from her fingers onto the sand.

She was alive.

“I’m fine,” she finally said, standing and dusting the sand off her clothes. But there was sand in her hair, sand in her mouth, sand in her eyes, and sand inside her clothing. Ann started scratching as if a million fire ants were attacking her. Then she saw Abrams staring at her and narrowed her eyes at him. “Where were you guys, by the way? It’s a good thing I didn’t have a problem out here or anything. I mean, it’s nice to know you’ve got such great backup. Gives a person a real feeling of security.”

Abrams looked miserable. “I’m sorry, Ann. Really, I feel terrible. I don’t know what happened. As soon as we set up down the street, I called this bastard’s house and he answered the phone. We even dispatched a patrol unit to watch his house, and I called him again to verify he was still there only a few minutes after you said you were walking into the park.” With Hopkins in a choke hold, Abrams yanked his head back and screamed in his face, “How did you pull this off, asshole?”

“He has a scanner,” Ann said. “I heard it coming from the fort.”

Abrams was perplexed. “That doesn’t explain how he could answer his phone, though. How could he be in two places at the same time, Ann?”

“Answering machine,” Ann offered. “Maybe when you called, you got his answering machine and thought it was him.”

“No way. It was a real voice on the phone. I don’t know how, but it was him.” Shoving Hopkins to the ground, Abrams moved to kick him. “Tell me, motherfucker, or I’m going to break every bone in your body.”

“Call-forwarding,” Hopkins mumbled, moaning in pain. “I just forwarded my home number to my car phone. My wrist is broken. I need medical treatment. I’m in severe pain.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Abrams said, “or I’ll break your frigging neck.”

Off in the distance, they both saw Reed jogging toward them. “Reed’s the one who fucked everything up,” Abrams told Ann. “We popped Sawyer on the way over here, or we would have come back to check on you sooner.”

Reed reached them and, quickly sizing up the situation, rushed over to embrace Ann. “It’s over now,” he said tenderly. “Sawyer and Hopkins are both in custody, as well as the others. Everything is going to be okay now.”

Ann pulled back and retrieved Glen’s gun, handing it to the detective. “You might want this,” she said. “It’s probably the gun he used the night he shot me. My gun fell out when he jumped me. It’s back there somewhere in the sand.”

“Shit,” Reed said, turning the .9mm Ruger over in his hands. “You disarmed him yourself?” When he looked up, Ann was already walking back to the parking lot. “Hey,” Reed yelled out, “wait and I’ll drive you home. I don’t want you going home alone.”

Ann glanced back over her shoulder, then continued walking.

“Where are you going?” Abrams called after her. “Maybe you should be checked by a doctor.”

Ann stopped and faced them, speaking from several feet away. “I don’t think that will be necessary, gentlemen.” She spun around and called out the rest, making her way to the parking lot. “I’m going to get my son, and then I’m going to take a shower. I don’t think I need your assistance to do that.”

Reaching the Range Rover in the parking lot, Ann just stood there, leaning back against the car, the sheer joy of being alive causing her entire body to tingle with pleasure. For a few minutes she stared up at the sky, letting the cool evening breezes caress her face, inhaling the salty sea air. She felt her father’s presence surround her. Somehow he had known, had experienced some type of premonition. Years ago, when he had taught her the maneuver she had used to disarm Hopkins, he had told her she might be forced to use it one day, and that it would be the most courageous moment in her life. The gun could have easily discharged and killed her, but her father had known. He had known that if his daughter were ever in a situation that grave, she would be facing certain death anyway.

Ann watched as Reed and Abrams trudged across the sand with Hopkins in tow. After all this, the two detectives were still trying to protect her, offering to drive her home. After what had just occurred, it was so ridiculous, it was almost comical.

But Ann had learned a valuable lesson tonight, one she would never forget. When it came down to the wire, all the armies in the world couldn’t protect you. Man, woman, child, it was all the same, she told herself.

There was only one person in the world who would never let her down, never make an error in judgment, never fail to appear when she needed them. With her fist she tapped her chest, acknowledging herself.

Then she got in the car and sped off.

Chapter
23

A
nn slipped into the courtroom and the first empty seat in the back row. Jimmy Sawyer was on the witness stand, and the courtroom was packed with spectators.

“Did Mr. Hopkins ever come to the Henderson house?” Harold Duke asked.

“Yes,” Sawyer said. “The first time was right after I was arrested.”

“Was this the night Sally Farrar saw him through her window?”

“I guess so,” Sawyer said. “See, we were having a party. Hopkins talked to me and then he started talking to the chicks. He dropped some Ecstasy with us like he was one of the guys. Then he just partied with the girls the rest of the night.”

Ann knew Sally Farrar had already testified earlier, positively identifying Glen as one of the men she had seen at the Henderson house, but the fact that he had used drugs and engaged in group sex was utterly appalling. This was the man she’d been sleeping with, the man she had thought she could love. She also couldn’t understand why he would take such a blatant risk. But Ann had seen this type of behavior with other multiple offenders: serial killers, serial rapists. They started out cautious, but as they continued to commit crimes and get away with them, they became sloppy, almost as if they were taunting the authorities to apprehend them. Glen was committing atrocious crimes, raping old women around the time he went to the Henderson house. Subconsciously, Ann decided, he must have been crying out for someone to stop him and put an end to his madness. She shook her head, turning her attention back to the proceedings.

Duke paused, walking back to the table, then quickly spinning around to face his client. “Ms. Farrar testified that she saw a large object in the back of Peter Chen’s Lexus. Can you tell the court what this object was?”