Red Man Down (4 page)

Immediately after the third shot Ed Lacey’s knees buckled and he fell backward onto the asphalt where he lay without moving, his dead eyes staring at an empty sky.

The young officer, taking no chances, apparently maintained his shooting stance for twelve seconds (Sarah had timed it, thinking,
I bet it felt longer to him
). Actually it felt longer to the officers watching the video now, too – an incredible taut stretch of time while the nose of the Glock stayed motionless at the edge of the screen and Lacey lay on the asphalt, little motes of dust rising in the sunshine from the body heat his wounds gave off.

Then the edge of the Glock disappeared and Spurlock moved cautiously into camera range, his gun lowered but still not holstered. He walked stiffly to the side of the fallen man, leaned down, and with his left hand touched the spot behind the ear where the pulse should have been. Finding none he straightened up, holstered his gun and walked slowly, like a much older person, to his vehicle.

Out of camera range, he could be heard on the dispatcher’s recording, calling to report the shooting and ask for an EMT unit. It was extremely poignant, after that textbook performance with the Glock, to hear his young voice ask plaintively, ‘Am I ever going to get any backup here?’

Spurlock’s face flushed brighter at the sound of his own voice. He had been spooked and sunburned, standing so long alone in that lot with the corpse. Now, his knees were starting to jitter in his chair; his cheeks and nose and even his eyeballs got redder and redder. He looked about ready to light up like a box of fireworks and fly into space.

Sure glad his weapon’s put away, Sarah thought. She found herself hoping he had no guns at home for personal use.

‘Let’s watch it again from the beginning,’ Jeffries said. They had sent Spurlock home, telling him to expect a call from somebody on the counseling staff no later than Monday morning. ‘If you don’t hear from them by noon,’ Sarah had said, ‘you call me, you hear? And I’ll light a fire under somebody.’

‘Sure,’ he’d said, not meeting her eye. ‘But I’m all right, Sarah.’

‘I know. But it’s very important that you talk this through with someone who’s trained to help.’ She’d watched him walk away, hoping he’d do as she’d asked. He was getting a ride home – his squad car was impounded and his personal Prius had been chauffeured home after Jeffries checked his blood pressure. They were treating Dan Spurlock with every consideration, which little by little was stripping him of his newly-formed identity as an authoritative officer of the law.

‘I asked Counseling to get to him as soon as they could,’ she said. ‘But they’re so busy – they might have to make him wait.’ She did an anxious dry-wash.

‘He’ll be all right,’ Jeffries said. ‘I had bad dreams for a couple of weeks after my first gun fight, but I survived it and he will too.’

‘Tough to have it happen in his first six months, though.’

‘I know. But right now our job is to clear him and the department of culpability. Let’s take another look at that recording.’

They locked the door and asked the support staff to hold calls. With all the building sounds at a distance, they watched the four-minute film again, rolled it back to the beginning and started over. After they’d watched it twice more in silence, Jeffries said, ‘OK, I’m ready to review, are you?’

‘Yes.’ She got her mouse ready. Seven seconds in, she stopped the video. ‘First thing I noticed is here.’

‘Yes. The suspect moved around to the far side of the box he was working on. Getting his back out of sight, right?’

Sarah nodded. ‘Yes. And then I think I saw something a few seconds later …’

‘Wait,’ Jeffries said. ‘Back up a— There.’ It was just a flash, but they both saw it: the whites of Lacey’s eyes when he peeked to make sure the black-and-white was moving toward him. ‘This is what, fifteen seconds in?’

‘Eighteen. Twelve seconds before Spurlock turned on the flashers. Don’t we love that retroactive recapture?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘Lacey wasn’t surprised by Spurlock’s approach, was he?’

‘No. He pretended to be caught off-guard by the flashing lights, but I think this shows he set himself up to get caught.’

‘I agree.’ After they’d both looked at their shoes for a while, Sarah said, ‘Of course, this opens as many questions as it answers—’

‘I know. But we’re waiting for the autopsy anyway, so …’

‘And the crime-scene crew were still working on the lot when I left. It’ll help if they find the bullet Lacey fired.’

‘Yeah. Delaney will have Spurlock’s jacket, right?’ Jeffries spoke absent-mindedly; he was packing his briefcase, a chore he performed with complete absorption, as if the integrity of the entire force depended on his keeping his notes in good order. He snapped it shut finally and said, ‘I’ll find out what shifts Lacey worked at the academy, talk to some of his crewmates there.’

‘Yeah. My crew’ll be doing that too, and talking to Ed’s family, of course.’

They both said at once, ‘If you get anything useful—’ and shook hands. Sarah watched the tidy way he walked out of the office, carrying the shiny black briefcase that had become an object of fear and loathing to so many people.

OK, he’s a neat freak. But he seems reasonable.
As he closed the door
she thought,
I wouldn’t have his job for a million bucks.

She went home feeling dissatisfied, wishing she knew either more or less about the man Spurlock had killed. Her instinct was telling her to follow the evidence, find out what happened to change Lacey, learn why he’d set himself up to be killed. But if Jeffries cleared Spurlock, she knew, that would be the end of it for her section.

‘Denny,’ Sarah asked while they ate breakfast Sunday morning, ‘have you thought about shopping online?’ The prospect of taking her energetic niece to the mall to watch her lay waste to racks of clothing was no more appealing today than it had been yesterday.

‘I already did,’ Denny said. ‘I know exactly what I want.’

‘Oh. Well, then … do you need any help with the ordering?’

‘I don’t want to order online. Everything’s on sale here in town right now. Soon as you help me decide on a couple of things and I make sure of the discount I’ll be good to go.’

‘So you want to go see it in the store?’

‘Yes, please. If it’s not too much trouble?’ She had on her nice blue top, her hair was combed and her nails clean. Life with an often-reluctant mother had taught Denny how to be irresistible.

The parking lot was already crowded but they were both good walkers and it was a beautiful day. Sarah smiled, getting out of the car, and said, ‘You want to start in Macy’s? I saw some nice tops advertised.’

‘No, I think Penney’s or Sears will have what I want,’ Denny said. She skipped inside, looking pleased, paying no attention to the crowd all around her, pushing and yelling. Maybe she was more confused than she looked, though. She was passing shoes, jeans and sweaters, hopping on the escalator …

‘I think you’ve passed all the junior sizes,’ Sarah said.

‘I know. I think … yeah, there’s what I want.’

‘That’s Housewares.’

‘I know. Now, if they haven’t sold all the … no, here they are.’ She stood like a pointer in front of a shelf.

‘Honey, those are toaster ovens.’

‘I know. Have you noticed how hard it is for Grandma to bend over now? Even when I’m there to light it, she still has trouble getting a dish in and out of that little narrow oven. I know you and Will want to remodel the whole kitchen, but that won’t be for quite a while yet, will it? And one of these could sit up on the counter. I think Grandma would enjoy it quite a bit, don’t you?’

‘Denny, these things cost at least a hundred dollars.’

‘On sale right now for $89.95. See?’ She showed Sarah the tag. ‘The ad says it’ll cook a whole chicken. And I know it’ll bake four potatoes – I saw that on TV. What do you think?’

‘It’s very nice. But you don’t … Surely you don’t have that much money, do you?’

‘With this week’s allowance, yes, I’ve got enough and a little left over.’

‘How did you get so much?’

‘I saved up all fall for Christmas. But then you all said only small gifts, so that’s what I did. Hankies for grandma and that little bottle of cologne for you … Will’s Dreml head was the most expensive thing. So I still had most of what I saved, and then Uncle Howard sent me a check, remember? And Mom sent money in her card …’

Janine had certainly done that. The limp, stinking twenty, smelling of hemp and sorrow, had fallen out of a cheap card that arrived two days before Christmas and temporarily silenced all conversation in the house. Denny had put it away somewhere and never spoken of it again until now.

‘I see,’ Sarah said. ‘And this is how you really want to spend all your money?’

‘Yes.’

‘All right, then. Let’s see, this one has a broiler …’

They examined all the features available and picked the one that seemed best. Sarah managed to get a salesperson to help, in the madhouse that the store had become, by standing on tiptoe and turning on her Officer of the Law expression.

The clerk pulled a ready-boxed one off a back shelf. She showed them the numbers matched the model they’d chosen, said, ‘This is what you want, right?’ and rang up the sale. Denny counted out ninety dollars on the counter. When the drawer slid open the clerk said, ‘That will be $98.05.’

‘No, it’s on sale, see?’ Denny pointed to the tag.

‘Yes, but then I have to add sales tax, dear.’

‘Oh.’ Denny’s voice grew smaller. ‘I forgot about that.’ She began pulling dollar bills and quarters out of her wallet. People waiting in line were watching. Her hands had begun to shake. There wasn’t going to be enough.

‘Denny, let me pay the tax, OK? Really,’ she said as the child looked up, ‘I want to.’ She slid a ten across the counter.

They got their purchase in a big sack and fought their way outside. Beside the car, Denny said, ‘Thank you, Aunt Sarah.’

Sarah looked at her niece fondly. ‘You’re welcome. I have to say, Denny, shopping with you is a real eye-opener and a very great pleasure.’

‘Oh, yeah, now that I’m safely broke you say that.’

‘Hey … did I really look that reluctant?’

‘I know how much you hate to shop. So thanks again for doing this for me.’

After they belted the box carefully into the back seat so it couldn’t fall, Sarah looked at her watch and said, ‘I know you’re anxious to go home and give Grandma her present, but … we got that done so fast. Why don’t we give ourselves a treat?’

‘OK. What?’

‘Oh, hot chocolate or … I wonder, is it legal to eat ice cream this soon after breakfast?’

Denny giggled. ‘You’re the cop, you tell me.’

‘Let’s see, have I ever arrested anybody for inappropriate consumption of dairy products? I don’t think so. Let’s give it a try.’

M
onday morning, Delaney called his crew into conference.

‘Jason’s right – the dead man’s name is Edward Lacey.’ He held up a service jacket, put it down and sighed. ‘For eighteen years this man worked for the Tucson Police Department.’ He slid a tall stack of pages onto his desk.

‘Soon as I saw his old photo I recognized him just fine. Back in the day, he and I worked the same shift, two to midnight, for more than a year.’ He pushed the yellowing pages around on his desk, remembering. ‘We backed each other on many a hinky call, and I can tell you, he was solid as a rock.

‘About the time I made detective – let’s see, that’s almost ten years ago now – I heard Ed got a spot on the training crew, where it seems he always did well and was pleased with the job. But he came back on street patrol, didn’t he, three years ago? I wonder why?’ He was leafing through the records, asking himself questions. ‘He had his first big problem then. A couple of months after he got his old shift back at East Side, he was accused of handling an arrestee too rough. Earned a reprimand and a few days’ suspension … After that no comments on his file till he wrecked his car and got fired, a little over two years ago. How could anybody change that much in only two years? He doesn’t even look like the same man.’

‘He didn’t do it all in two years,’ Leo Tobin said. ‘That last year on patrol, he was a train wreck.’

‘Oh? I guess I just didn’t happen to see him. But you usually hear something …’

‘The department didn’t want to talk about it when they fired him,’ Leo said. ‘They put the lid on tight, told the media something vague about his health. The incident that led to it was a one-car crash, so there weren’t any complainants to be dealt with. But anybody who had to work with him during the second half of his shifts that last year knew he was going down.’

‘What, he was using on the job?’

‘Sure was. Vodka and weed. And sometimes something else … I heard meth.’

‘Meth … That’s what I figured when I saw him today,’ Menendez said. ‘You notice the way his mouth was wrecked?’

Sarah tried to remember, but it had been the bullet hole beneath his chin which had attracted her attention.

‘Of course,’ Tobin was nodding to himself, remembering, ‘he didn’t look quite this bad while he was still working … he used to clean up for roll call and make a pretty decent show, but he had stuff stashed along his route, and by the time he checked out at night he was way up in the clouds.’

‘Huh.’ Delaney shuffled through the pages, looking. ‘His record doesn’t reflect any of that till he wrapped his squad car around a light pole, and then people came out of the woodwork, apparently, to say what a bad boy he was. He went off the charts for DUI, it says here, and flunked the narc screen big time.’ He pulled off his glasses. Polishing them, he asked the table, ‘Anybody know what set him off?’

‘His wife left him,’ Menendez said.

‘OK, but what was the
bad
news?’ Jason said, and got his laugh from everybody but Delaney, who just looked impatient.

‘Well, before that his uncle got, you know, disgraced …’ Cifuentes said.

‘Disgraced by what?’ Delaney hated gossip, and always got mean and sharp when, as now, it became useful and he had to tolerate it.

‘That’s right, that Martin guy was his uncle, wasn’t he?’ Tobin said.