Page 52 of Gentle Persuasion

Everyone exploded into action. Rick grabbed the hand radio from his belt.

“Shots fired! Shots fired!” he yelled. He quickly gave their location and began to run.

As he ran, he ducked, and using the heavy, untrimmed shrubbery for cover, he made his way toward the front door. He dared one quick glance through the window. The thin curtain gave away only the faintest hint of a man moving through the front room.

Cole crouched, tested the doorknob and, when it turned freely, shoved the door open wide.

“Police!” he yelled. “Come out with your hands up.”

A round of bullets sprayed through the open door way, gouging huge chunks of concrete out of the porch. Cole’s heart sank. It figured. The criminals always had the high-powered stuff, while the police were relegated to using regulation weapons that were often outmatched.

Footsteps pounded, running through the small house…running away from Cole’s position. He quickly ducked inside the house, his gun held in position, his eyes searching the dim depths of the house for the assailant. He got one quick glimpse of a man lying on the floor. Jackie Warren?

The man was heading out the back. And then Cole remembered the bullets. He shouted at Rick as he ran.

Rick heard Cole yell. He positioned his gun and stance and waited for the door to open. Cole kept shouting something about bullets and cop killers, but he had no time to react to the warning.

The door was kicked open. The man exited on the run, his semiautomatic spraying the entire backyard as he made a dash for the high fence surrounding it.

Rick squeezed off one shot. It hit high on the man’s leg. Just for a moment, he staggered, and Rick made his mistake. He stepped out of concealment.

Wild with pain and desperate to escape, the man turned. Rick felt the first bullet catch his side. There was no pain, only surprise. And then nothing at all.

Cole saw it happen. He came through the back door in time to see the man hit and Rick move.

“Look out!” he shouted. But it was too late. The man saw Rick and fired.

Cole shot. The gun bucked in his hands. Rick was down, and still the man kept shooting. Cole shot again, and the man turned. For one long moment, time suspended itself. Cole could see the green flecks in the man’s eyes. He could see the pupils dilating with pain, and he saw the man’s desperation. It wasn’t over.

Bullets sprayed the ground in front of Cole. He emptied his gun, and finally…finally, the man went down. In the distance, Cole heard the sound of sirens. But they were going to be too late. The man was no more.

Then there was silence and the harsh gasps Rick was making as he struggled to breathe past the hole in his lungs and Cole’s footsteps pounding across the yard.

Cole groaned softly. Blood everywhere! He grabbed for his radio.

“Officer down! I need an ambulance. Fast.”

It was a policeman’s worst fears. Hearing that call go out soon had a bevy of cruisers and several unmarked cars converging on the scene. But by that time, the ambulance had arrived and Rick was swiftly being carried away.

Cole was running beside the stretcher as they lifted his partner into the ambulance. He stood in shock, Rick’s blood drying on his fingers, as they took Rick away.

“Tough one, Brownfield,” one of the officers remarked as he walked up behind Cole. “Say, who got the one inside the house?”

Cole jumped. It was hard drawing himself back to the business at hand. He started to wipe his hand across his face and then took a look at its condition and shuddered.

“The guy out back,” Cole muttered. “I don’t suppose we’ll ever really know why, but I suspect it was to shut him up.”

The officer nodded, took a good, long look at Cole and stared at the blood on his clothing. “Maybe you need to get to the hospital and get yourself checked out,” he offered.

Cole looked down in blank shock and shuddered. He felt sick to his stomach. “None of it’s mine,” he muttered, and walked away.

***

“We interrupt our programming to bring you this bulletin. Today, a detective from the Laguna Beach Narcotics Department was seriously wounded during a shoot-out in a local neighborhood. He was taken to South Coast Medical where the surgeons are now working to save his life. The identification of the officer has been withheld until—”

“No!”

Sheer terror overwhelmed her as Debbie stared at the television. She grabbed onto the nearest chair for support and stood in shock as she listened to the rest of the bulletin. Then regular programming resumed.

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