The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips Read Online Free PDF Page A

investigative team. Rivers had taken pictures of Andy’s bloody hand and pants legs, then snapped several shots of John, especially his hands. Only then was Andy allowed to wash. Once he was finished with the two of them, Rivers went down the hallway, snapping pictures every foot or so, carefully placing numbered placards into each shot. For the past half hour he’d been in the tiny bedroom.
    Although the apartment was small, Andy could only make out bits and pieces of the conversation between Dan Warner and the detectives in the bedroom. There was no missing Warner’s shout of profanity when Rivers made him wait before entering the room. Andy also heard Warner say with a loud, clear voice, “Yeah, hard call on this one. The kid’s dead.” Andy wouldn’t learn all that Warner discovered in Gabe’s bedroom until several days later. Yet, he was already growing suspicious that everything was not as it appeared. A few minutes after the coroner started his work, Ted Jackson walked out and said, “Andy, would you do me a favor and take Mr. Phillips over to the sheriff’s department? We need to get a full statement from him.” Jackson hadn’t said much, but what he did say spoke volumes to Andy. It wasn’t so much Jackson’s words in that moment that grabbed Andy’s attention, but the look the two exchanged. Andy and Ted went way back. They’d worked together on the Trask Police Department before Ted moved on to bigger and better things with the sheriff’s department. The two had even been drinking buddies before Andy’s first stroll through the twelve steps. Then Jackson said, “Ask Duncan to handle it for me. He’s on duty tonight. You might also make sure he asks the standard questions and follows Miranda.” The Supreme Court Miranda decision made sure all suspects were read their rights. Andy read this as Jackson saying,
This is important. We don’t want to screw it up
.
    Andy smiled and replied, “Yes, sir. I will be happy to do it.” Now that was a bunch of crap, because in that moment Andy wasn’t happy to do anything but go home and try to scrub this night off himself.
    “What about my son?” John asked without looking up. It was the first thing he’d said to anyone but God in nearly an hour. “Who’s going to take care of him if I leave?” Andy found his question to be pretty ridiculous, since the boy had died while in John’s care.
    Ted Jackson played it cool. “I understand your concern, Mr. Phillips,” he said. “We’ll take good care of him. The coroner isn’t quite finished. Once he is, we will release your son’s body to you. For now, the best thing you can do for him is to go with Officer Myers so that we can clear this whole thing up as quickly as possible.” When John hesitated, Jackson tried to reassure him. “This is all standard procedure with accidents like this. Thank you for being understanding. And again, I’m very sorry for your loss.”
    “But it’s not a loss,” John said as he rose from his chair. Those words really stuck with my pop. “It’s not a loss,” John said, “because to be absent from the body is to be at home with God in heaven, the final resting place. That’s what the Bible says. How can I call that a loss?” he said with a smile. Yeah, with
a smile
. Andy thought that to be the single most absurd moment he’d experienced in his whole, entire life. The man’s kid is lying in a pool of his own blood, dead and cold, and the guy can smile about it. My dad looked at his friend Ted Jackson, and Jackson looked at him. Neither needed to say a word, because they both knew what the other was thinking.
    “Come on, John, this won’t take long,” Andy finally said after a few moments of awkward silence. The two of them walked out of the apartment and down the stairs toward Andy’s patrol car. It was a little before four in the morning. The carnival at the Madison Park Apartments was starting to wind down.
    A NDY’S NIGHT STILL wasn’t over. A wave