Fixer Redux by Gene Doucette

Author:Gene Doucette
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gene Doucette

12

I think he IS dead, and I think nobody’s talking about all he did to save the city because of that. Because of the next time, when he could have saved us but didn’t, because the police killed him, because they didn’t know better. They’re saving face ahead of time, you know?

—anonymous comment to

“Rumors Continue to Swirl Around Reported Death”

The Boston Globe

There should have been someone at the front desk. Joe and David were at the desk not ten minutes earlier, when they were checked out by a uniformed corrections officer named Janice Chapman. Janice smelled like wintergreen and looked like someone’s grandmother, and would probably be the last person Joe might consider deputizing in the event a fugitive needed hunting down, but such was the nature of public service. She looked fine for manning an open-area desk, as the first of many bulwarks against proceeding into the county jail.

In that, Janice was not alone. The desk area was a small bullpen space, on a raised platform, such that all entrants had to look up, as if beseeching the mighty Oz for a favor.

Janice was no longer there. Neither was anybody else.

The alarms they heard going off from the outside were much louder in the lobby. Joe could scarcely imagine a scenario in which Janice might, on hearing the alarm (which perhaps meant a prisoner was attempting to escape?) grab her service revolver, and race inside to cut off the breakout.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“Prison break?” Dave suggested.

Joe took the three steps leading up to the platform, and looked around the desk.

“Shit,” he said. “Yeah, but from the outside in. Call an ambulance.”

Janice was lying in a heap on the floor under the desk. Someone had cold-cocked her, but it looked like she was breathing.

Dave got a look for himself.

“Jesus,” he muttered, pulling out his phone. “Who does this?”

Dave had only just connected with the emergency dispatch when they both heard gunshots from deeper inside. They looked at one another.

“Tell ‘em we’re going to need backup, while you have them on the phone,” Joe said.

Janice’s keys were missing, but that didn’t end up being as much of an issue as it could have, once they discovered the first door was unlocked.

They both drew their guns, and proceeded down the hall, to the second desk.

It was also now unmanned, but without anyone unconscious behind it.

“Maybe we should stop here,” David said. “You figure they have some robust processes in place to prevent this kind of thing from escalating, don’t you?”

“A lockdown procedure.”

“Yeah, exactly. Nobody’s making it back out to the street that isn’t supposed to, and even if they did, I mean, we’re in the middle of the city. How far can they get? Plus, this place is full of armed men dressed in uniforms, and neither of us are wearing a uniform today.”

“You don’t want to get shot.”

“Do you?” Dave asked.

“Not really.”

Another gunshot sounded.

“That was just ahead of us,” Joe said. “I agree with everything you just said, but at the same time, I’m worried people need our help right on the other side of that door there.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.