April at the Antique Alley (17 page)

We kept the guns pointed at each other and we started moving slowly each to our left which would take us in a circle so that I would be near his now useless Harley and he would be near my car which I had left running for him. My stance was professional with my right hand holding the gun and my body turned sideways giving him the smallest of targets which positioned my left hand, still holding the rest of the keys, behind my body and out of Donald’s sight line. It was my hope that he had not noticed it and is specifically why I left the car running in the first place. His stance need not be so particular because he was hiding behind a terrified Jill. As we turned I also tried to decrease the distance between us.

He had no way of knowing that I had only one bullet but it was very much in my mind. I am a good shot. Using my 38 at twenty yards I can shoot out the flame of a birthday candle without knocking the candle off the cake. But that is with a cake that is not moving, and one that is not hiding behind my friend, and one that is not shooting back. I had just one shot and I needed to make it count.

Slowly we turned until he was closer to the car and I was closer to the bike. I would wait just one more step which would put the sun more to my back and more in his eyes. He hesitated when I hesitated but he was in more of a hurry then I was.

He took another step which put him right in front of my car but with his back to my car. The sun was to my back. His next move would be to step backwards to the car. Once he got the bags loaded into the car he would not need Jill and she had no defense and she would be too close to him for a shot to miss, so it was now or never and my shot had to be perfect.

I pointed the sight of my gun just to the left of his gun hand. With my left hand I depressed the button on the key ring that locks the car but also makes that “Beep, Beep” sound. That sound, suddenly and unexpectedly coming from behind him, startled him just a bit which forced him to turn to look to see what it was, and with Jill held by his left hand and his gun in his right hand he had to turn and look over his right shoulder, which made him turn slightly to his right which was my left, so that brought his gun hand directly into my aim.

My shot was spot on and I saw the gun and blood and flesh fly from his side as the shot rang out. He was a big man but in pain and with only his left hand to fight with and with two rather pissed off ladies against him the fight would be short. He and Jill both made the mistake of trying for the gun he had dropped. I went for him. My tackle allowed Jill to get to the gun and her shoes met his testicles at the same time my fist met his nose.

He struggled just a second then gave up all fight. I looked up a second later when I heard a siren and Jana leaned out of the passenger side of a cop car and asked if we needed any help.

CHAPTER-17.

It had already been a very busy and successful Monday but the day was long from over. The Grand Prairie officer that Jana had flagged down had trouble figuring out how to get his cuffs on Donald since I had blown away most of his right hand. I was kind enough to show the officer how to hook Donald’s left wrist to his right ankle and I assured the officer Donald would be no trouble at all until backup arrived.

Almost immediately backup did arrive. The young officer got on his radio and ordered up an ambulance as well as several other patrol cars and supervisors.

On my cell I let Samuels know where we were and just about the time he arrived in an unmarked but city owned Dallas PD car, a couple of cars from the Irving Police Department rolled to a stop. Technically we were standing just inside the Irving border but the Grand Prairie squad had been first to arrive and call in the backup so the two cities could argue about who got the collar for a crime that originated in Dallas.

Paramedics showed up and not only patched up what was left of Donald’s right hand but they actually looked around a little and took care to bag up a couple of pieces they could find in hopes that they might be able to reattach them.

A supervisor from Grand Prairie and a cop from Irving started arguing about who was going to take me into custody and I realized that it was probably fifteen minutes after my shot and nobody had even taken my gun away yet so I surrendered my weapon and my person to Senior Detective Eric Samuels of the Dallas Police Department. Jill and Jana and I sat in the back of his car for a while just chatting.

I looked out and saw the two rucksacks sitting on the pavement near my car so I suggested to Samuels that he take custody of these, so he picked them up and locked them in his trunk without protest from any of the other teams on the scene.

A media truck showed up with cameras rolling and every uniform there postured around hoping to be interviewed. Then a second media van pulled up.

A tow truck was called to haul Donald’s Harley to some evidence lockup and it turned out to be one of those big ones that load your whole car up on the bed of their truck. I knew I wasn’t going to be driving anywhere for a while and I wanted to keep Jana with me, and I figured Jill was probably a bit too spooked to drive right now so I asked Samuels to have the truck take my car to my house.

There was plenty of room on the flatbed for both my car and the seized motor cycle.

There would persist a jurisdiction problem but we were just barely within the city limits of Irving so the ambulance was loaded with Donald and two Irving cops as well as a paramedic and it went to Baylor Irving where I had left just the day before.

A slow parade of several vehicles, all with dueling light shows atop them, crawled north on Belt Line then turned east on Rock Island and pulled into the Irving Civic Center parking lot where the Sheriff’s Department was. Samuels was driving the fifth vehicle in the parade and we three ladies were still in the back seat of his car.

We were on Irving turf so even though it hurt, Samuels allowed them to run the show for that afternoon. He told Jill and Jana and I that we should give truthful statements but to relate only information as it applied to today’s events as his investigation into the deaths in Dallas was still ongoing. Of course they also separated us at that time so we couldn’t work on our stories together.

I have to give a thanks to the Sergeant in Irving because he had Samuels from Dallas and an investigator from Grand Prairie and an investigator from Irving all interview me at the same time so I wouldn’t have to go through it multiple times. I was first and they kept me at it for about an hour. I was then sent out of the room and they called Jill in. Her statement took longer than mine had. Finally they called Jana in and let me sit in a waiting area with Jill. Jana’s statement only took about twenty minutes and then they pulled her out and called me back in. This time I was only there about five minutes. They told me I wasn’t going to be charged with any crime like firing a gun in the city limits or making an illegal u-turn, but they did tell me that they would keep the 38 to be used as evidence until the court action was completed. I knew from experience that the court business could be over in as quick as a week if Donald took a plea or it could take months if he actually went to trial, and since there were no murders connected with that days events I might actually get my gun back quickly.

Donald was in custody, of course, and charges would likely be filed against him for at least two murders but they would be filed in Dallas courts, not Irving courts. Detective Samuels would interview me several times over the next few

days and work with the prosecuting attorney’s office deciding just what all they could prove in a court of law and then decide what to book Donald with.

All that said and done we three ladies were free to go but we had no ride.

My car would be at my house by now and I only lived about three miles from the court house so the city of Irving was nice enough to dispatch an officer and a squad car to take the three of us there.

We had started the day early and it was quite dark by the time we got to my house. All of us were starving and it was going to take a good deal of wine to calm us down but there was hardly a drop to drink left in the house. I left Jill and Jana and by myself piloted the Taurus across the city line into Dallas to the first liquor store I could find and bought a big cheap jug of cold white wine. On the way back I hit the KFC and got the biggest family bucket they had.

When I got back to the office/house I found Jill and Jana in the kitchen but nearly every single light in the house was on. I guess they were still a bit rattled so I did not complain about the electric bill. Still dressed in black we three sat around the table eating chicken and biscuits. I must have been starved because in just a few moments there was a big pile of bones on my plate. I lifted my wine glass and looked at my partner Jill and my lover Jana.

“To Lola Martin, keeper of the world’s treasures. I didn’t know you long enough Lola” I said.

We clicked glasses and sipped.

Shortly after the third or fourth toast Jill asked if that waiting forty-five minutes after eating to go swimming applied to hot tubs. Democratically we decided to risk it.

Quickly we built a large pile of black clothing and white underwear on the floor of my back porch. The gallon jug I had bought was within reach and we still had our glasses even though we were up to our lovely necks in hot water.

Jill asked how I had pieced it together and it was the first time she heard about me seeing the tire tread on the wet road at the cemetery. Jana and I made Jill go through her story from start to end going over every detail. Jill actually felt a little hurt when she realized I had taken a shot at Donald but in her direction. Both of them were completely appalled that I had even done all that knowing I had just one bullet in my gun. We then played ‘what if’ trying to figure out what might have happened if I had missed Donald’s gun hand with that one bullet.

The one part of the mystery I never really did figure out was when Donald had known we were chasing him. Jill could not remember Donald ever checking his cell phone for messages, but according to her story she and Donald had gone from the cemetery to a nearby restaurant. In the parking lot they parked the bike and went in. She went to the ladies room and when she came out Donald wanted to

leave immediately even though they had not yet eaten. They rode from there to a residential area where Donald ran into a house, was only in it a minute or so, and he emerged with the two small rucksacks. He tied the rucksacks onto the back of the bike behind where she was sitting and they were off. She didn’t know what was going on until he stopped the bike when it ran out of gas.

Once the discussion died down Jill and Jana made me stand up so they could check out all my bruises now that I was uncovered of both clothing and bandages. I am happy to report that the cuts were all healing nicely but as most of you know the bruises look worse for a day or two before they start looking better. There were several places mostly on my back and left thigh where you could actually see the chain links in the bruises. I guess my face looked a little better though but in truth I had put on a little makeup while getting dressed that morning.

Jill picked up the wine bottle and made sure Jana and I each had a full glass and then she hopped out of the tub and said she was going to bed but to wake her if we needed her. I am not sure whether she was tired or not but she knew Jana and I needed some alone time.

Jana started with “Look, I know that in your line of work you must be suspicious, but it really hurt me that you thought I would somehow rat you out to one of the bad guys.”

I said, and I admit I was close to spilling tears when I said it “I am so sorry about that. I do not have the best brain in the business and I often have to act on instincts rather than thinking something through. I really like you Jana and I hope you will give me another chance. Maybe, over enough time you might even forgive me.”

“I got a real adrenaline rush today and it is this wine that is bringing it down” she responded, “so I am going to have to be real careful about what I say right now.”

Then she continued with “Did you enjoy the kinky sex we had the other night, Xara?”

“Oh, you know I did” I answered, “but I’m really feeling this wine too, and I really hope to drink enough of it that I can sleep well tonight. Right now we seem to have a truce going, and I certainly know we need to talk, but let’s just agree right now to keep the truce going for another 24 hours and I promise to meet you right here sober as a judge with a clear mind tomorrow night and we can have a serious chat then. O.K?”

She smiled “O.K. but that means you get no sex tonight.”

“The story of my life” I giggled.

We spent the next hour drinking wine and holding each other in the hot tub then dried off and went to bed together. We did honor our pledge to abstain though.

CHAPTER-18.

Damn! Tuesday started bad. I was planning on Jana keeping her store closed and the two of us doing some serious work on our new relationship, but that didn’t happen.

Samuels called me at 7:00 A.M.!!! What is the matter with that man? Well he needed me down at Dallas PD as soon as I could get there.

Dash down the stairs in my bath robe. Start the coffee pot. Dash back up stairs. Hop in the shower for about two minutes trying not to get my hair wet. Dry off quickly. Try to be quiet so I don’t wake anyone else. Get dressed in the first clothes I can grab. Run down the stairs. Put two slices of bread into the toaster.

Pour a cup of coffee. Wait impatiently until I realize the toaster is unplugged. Plug toaster in and use the second swear word of the day. Jam toast and half a cup of coffee down my throat. Write a quick note for Jill and or Jana to read. Get in the Taurus. Join the rush hour traffic on 183 creeping slowly into the city.

Since it was a week day the free parking lot around Eric Samuels building was full so I pulled into one of those parking lots where you take a little ticket and pay on your way out. As I was walking along I stuck the ticket into the pocket I keep the money in and found it empty so I was going to have to borrow a fiver from Samuels to get my car out of hock. What a start to a day.