41 D Man of Valor by lisa simmons

Author:lisa simmons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

Breaking News

MY SISTER COOKIE TOOK OFF in her convertible Volvo, with me sitting up front and Melinda in the backseat. Looking out the window, my mouth flew wide open when I saw hundreds of police cars lining the streets for miles away. When I was up in the helicopter, I was oblivious to what was going on below. My sisters stated that they knew something tragic had happened when they drove up to the hospital and saw the multitude of police cars. The presence of all the police cars had them terrified. They felt terrible news could be awaiting them inside the hospital. Unfortunately, their inkling was right.

We didn’t talk much, as we wanted Cookie to stay focused on her driving and get us to her house as quickly as possible. I was so afraid the kids would hear about what happened to their father before I had a chance to tell them. As Cookie drove, Melinda used her cell phone to call my niece Amia and warn her that she should keep every television set off in the house. Amia was shaken. I could tell she was curious, but she must have sensed that something was terribly wrong, so she did as she was told.

Unbeknownst to Amia, her father, my brother-in-law Wilfred, had already received the news from his wife, Cookie. Devastated, he immediately went into an emotional state of distress, for he and Randy were like brothers. Amia realized it was strange for him not to come out of his room and check on the kids, as he was a terrific uncle and a wonderful father. But instead, he was secluded in his room, and Amia could hear him sobbing when she walked passed her parents’ bedroom, clearly indicating that something tragic had occurred.

It wasn’t long before we reached Wilfred and Cookie’s house in Leimert Park, a little district in the Los Angeles area where I grew up. Cookie and her family had lived diagonally across the street from my mother on a major thoroughfare. When we arrived, it was still early morning, and I couldn’t bear to knock on my mother’s door to tell her the sad news. I knew I had to stay focused, to concentrate on the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life: tell my children that their father had been tragically killed.

Once in Cookie’s house, Pastor Trimble, my sisters, and I, were greeted by some officers from LAPD’s Southwest Division, which responds to the Leimert Park area. Coincidently, it was also the division that Captain James Craig had overseen. Some of the officers there were Randy’s friends, and I gave them each a hug and then walked back to Cookie’s family room. The kids were upstairs waiting for my arrival. They walked down the steps and could clearly see that I had been crying. I looked at both of them with tears flowing freely from my eyes. Just the sight of them sent me into an agonizing state. Matthew

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