I STOOD OVER Ned at a complete loss as to what to do next. All ambition and motivation fled as I stared down at him. His one arm peeked out from under Coffman’s green raid jacket. The sleeve of Ned’s tee shirt was scrunched up, revealing a portion of the team’s tattoo, the “F” in “BMF.”
Coffman took hold of my arm and shook me. “Bruno? Bruno? Pull your head out of your ass and get out front. I want you to take control of the scene. Can you do that for me, son?”
I looked at him, then over at D’Arcy on the floor half in the kitchen, half in the living room. Coffman read my mind and said, “I’m okay now, I’m not going to do anything to that punk. I’m okay. I’m good. Go on, get out there and supervise.”
I nodded and tried to pull myself away from where I stood, tried to pull myself away from my dead friend on the floor. I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t real. Coffman took hold of my arm and tugged me along.
Once outside, the bright light and the heat of the day reminded me life moved on, nothing could stop it, not even a tragedy of historic proportions. Coffman took his revolver from my hand and put it back in his holster.
More and more cop cars continued to arrive, their brakes smoking and smelling of asbestos. The sea of cop cars already spread clear back to the intersection. Gibbs and Tiny Tina stood, one on the sidewalk and one in the street, the flat of their hands up as they yelled to keep all the uniforms back. I walked up and recognized in the mob four deputies from Lynwood station. Grief hung over me like a dark cloud, making it difficult to speak. The dry summer air didn’t help. I pointed. “You four, come here.” Tina let them through.
I placed them on the sidewalk in front of the house. “No one goes in under any circumstances.” They nodded with somber expressions, just happy to be doing something. I went back to the group. “Anybody else want something to do?” All of them in earshot yelled versions of “Hell, yes.”
“One suspect might’ve slipped out. I need this neighborhood locked down, five blocks in either direction until we can organize a door-to-door search.” The front of the herd of uniforms turned and ran to their cars. The others moved up. “The rest of you that are left,” I said, “I need this street cleared for paramedics and the ambulance so we can get the suspect out of here.”
Nobody moved to get the cars cleared from the street. I understood how they felt. “Come on, let’s move. Act professional, get these cars out of the way, now.”
Some of them started to make their way back to their units. Not to cooperate but more to get away from the emotional pain.
I yelled, “Someone get on the radio and put out code four so we can stop all these cars from showing up. It’s all over. It’s done. There’s nothing anybody can …” I couldn’t finish.
Paramedics arrived and could only make it to within half a block of 11431 Willowbrook. They left their siren on, pulled up onto the center meridian and drove the rest of the way on the dead grass in between the hundred-year-old pepper trees, and parked. They pulled out boxes of gear and the gurney and wheeled up to the front of the house. I said, “Follow me,” and took them inside.
D’Arcy no longer moaned and writhed on the floor. He now lay on his side handcuffed behind his back in a puddle of his own blood. The side of his face swelled red and purple from where Coffman butt-stroked him with the shotgun. He saw the paramedics. “’Bout time you all got your asses in here. Git on over here and help me. These fools ’bout killed me. I thought dey was here to jack me. I was defending myself. You hear? You’re witnesses. I thought dey came here to jack me.”
The paramedics ignored him and set their gear down next to my friend. They pulled away Coffman’s green raid jacket.
Ned’s dead eyes stared right at me. I grabbed my stomach and turned to the side and threw up until I dry-heaved.
D’Arcy yelled, “Hey. Hey, you assholes, git your asses over here and hep me. I’m the victim here. Dey shot me for no reason. Din one of ’m hit me over the head with the shotgun. You believe dat? After I was already handcuffed. Dat’s poolease brutality for sure. I’m gonna own dem for it. You wait and see if I don’t.”
The paramedics cut off Ned’s vest. They took off his body armor and cut off his shirt. They put on EKG leads and ran a tape that showed a flatline. They wanted to be sure. They replaced the green jacket covering him and moved their gear over to D’Arcy.
Coffman, with a strange expression, walked past Ned without looking down and went outside. I’d seen that look before, years ago, the night in the ER room when he’d come in half-dressed and asked me how many we’d lost, a flashback to a time long ago on a South Pacific island.
I followed.
Coffman walked out to the sidewalk and up to Tiny Tina who was still holding the line. He took her by the arm and started across the street, weaving in and around the cars.
On the sidewalk, I yelled at Gibbs above the din. “Go inside, you got custody from now on. D’Arcy’s your responsibility.” Gibbs nodded and hurried past me. He was a good man. I went after Coffman and Tina.
I found them standing alone next to the back doors of the ambulance. I stopped by a large tree out of their view and listened.
Tina said, “I don’t know, Sarge. I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Listen, Ned Kiefer is lying in there dead, and that little shitass is going to get away with it. The law won’t do anything to him. He’ll get twenty-five years, and when he turns twenty-one, juvie hall will kick him out. He’ll do six years for killin’ Ned. Six years, Mitchell, think about it. Ned’s one of ours. We take care of our own. Now, you’re small, and a girl, and you can get away with it easy, trust me on this. Hand me your gun.”
Tina stared up at her sergeant, her mentor, drew her handgun, and handed it to him. He unloaded it and handed it back to her. “Put this empty gun back in your holster.” She did. He handed her back the six bullets. “Now be sure to reload it afterward, you understand? You ride in the ambulance with D’Arcy and let him grab your duty gun, put your hip right up where he can see it, put it right in his face. He’ll go for it, I promise you. I know the type. Then you take him out with your backup gun. You have a backup, right?”
She nodded.
He said, “Good. Give him all five shots right up close, you understand? Aim for his head point blank, you understand?”
She looked scared to death at the prospect of committing murder in the name of some malignant, misplaced sense of honor.
The paramedics came out of the house wheeling D’Arcy on the gurney. The mob of cops in the street went silent, their eyes filled with anger and hate. Gibbs stayed right alongside. When they passed me, I fell in with them. The paramedics slid the gurney with D’Arcy into the back of the ambulance.
Coffman said, “That’s okay, Gibbs, Mitchell here is going to ride in the ambulance to the hospital with the suspect.”
With her blank stare, Tina looked like a zombie. I stepped up and into the back of the ambulance.
“Bruno?” Coffman said. “What are you doing? I said Mitchell’s gonna take this ride.”
“She can’t,” I said. “She was the one who shot him. That’s a major conflict, and she also has to stay here to be interviewed by the shooting team. I’ll take this.”
“No!” Coffman said. He looked bewildered and didn’t have a good answer for my logic. Tina caught my eye with an expression of relief as she nodded to me.
I got in. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t know how I would be able to handle being in the same enclosed space as D’Arcy, but I needed to make sure he got to county hospital safely. That’s what the law dictated. D’Arcy deserved his due process. Ned’s words echoed back at me, the title he’d hung on me, Mr. Law Enforcement. And now, in the quiet calm of grief, I realized I would never live down the fact that Ned died while angry at me, believing I’d betrayed him.