The Possibilities - Desire - A Collection of Short Stories Read Online Free PDF Page A

detectives are going to need to see the photos you took and
question you about what you saw go down between Jimmy Spuds and Lieutenant
Harcourt. “
    Bridie looked at the young cop as if
he was nuts. “Who?”she asked incredulously.
     The cop pointed to the two men
on the ground.  The prick was being loaded onto a stretcher, an I.V. stuck
in his arm, as an ambulance backed up to where he was at.  Two men wearing
coroner’s jackets were standing by as an Evidence technician took pictures of
the dead dealer.  “Him,” the cop pointed at the ‘prick.’  “Lieutenant
Nick Harcourt.  He just stopped a gunfight from happening in that crowded
club…if he hadn’t done what he did, there would be a lot more ambulances here
right now.”  The young policeman shook his head in admiration.  “He
risked his life to keep it from going down in there, and blew a two year
undercover operation doing it.”  He sighed.  “Guess it doesn’t matter
now,” he said, “they’ll decorate him and promote him to Captain…his cover’s
blown and he’s out of the undercover business from now on.”  He turned to
Bridie. “Come on please ma’am, we need to get to headquarters pretty quick or
they’ll have you there all night.”
    “I apologize Ms. Halloran, the
officer should have been more clear.  We are requesting copies of
your pictures, no one here has any intention of restricting your first
amendment rights.”
    “Then I can send a copy to my editor
before letting you see the pictures?” Bridie said defiantly.
    “Absolutely,” said Detective Bill
Sterling.  “We do request that you blur Lieutenant Harcourt’s face
before publishing them.”  Bridie glared at him but reached for the preferred
laptop.  She checked to make sure of the internet connection and inserted
the SD card from her camera in the slot, then emailed the photos to her
editor.  She explained the photos and gave as much of the story as she had
gleaned outside the club to her editor, and then removed the SD card from the
slot.
    “I saved a copy of the pictures to
your desktop,” she said with an insincere smile.
    Detective Sterling smiled at
her.  “Thank you.  Most of the media don’t seem to appreciate that
we’re dealing with some really nasty people, people who don’t mind intimidating
witnesses…and worse, to keep them from testifying in court.”
    “Oh come on Detective,” Bridie
retorted, “It’s not like we’re living in Miami or New York, we’re a small city
of maybe a half million people.  We don’t have a lot of drive by shootings
and murders here, and we don’t have drug dealers on every corner.  We
don’t really have a great deal of crime here at all.  I think you people
just try to make it sound worse than it is so you can keep your budget nice and
fat.”
    Bill Sterling, a veteran of twelve
years police service, nine of them in Crimes Against Persons, a department
of the detective division that covered all assaults, robberies, and murders,
sat back in his chair and tried to assess Bridie Halloran.  She didn’t look stupid.  “Exactly what do you do for the paper?” he
asked.  “Don’t you read it?  Disgusted, Bridie didn’t answer him.
    Sterling sighed and opened the
pictures on his laptop. The first and second pictures showed another man, well
dressed with the same tacky gold jewelry the dealer had been wearing. 
“Did you have any contact with this man?” Sterling asked her.
    “No,” Bridie said, “he was there
when I got outside.  “When I looked again, he was gone.”  Sterling
narrowed his eyes.  She had gotten the third man on three photos. In the
first two he had been going through the dealer’s pockets, and in the third he
was leaving…and he seemed to be in a hell of a hurry.
    “Ms. Halloran, at the risk of
offending your sense of journalistic propriety, you might want to consider
accepting police protection when it’s offered to you,” Sterling said, “this
gentlemen you