The Unforgiving Minutes (a Peter Brichter mystery) by Mary Monica Pulver

Author:Mary Monica Pulver
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: FTL Publications
Published: 2013-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

When Hinckley pulled into the parking lot with Brichter, there were already six men waiting. As they got out, two more squad cars arrived.

In a couple of minutes, a dozen men evenly divided into uniforms and plainclothes gathered around Hinckley’s car. They were five blocks from the site of the raid.

Brichter unrolled a big sheet of heavy white paper on the hood of the car. “This is a sketch Hinckley made of the site, which is a small church. There’s a double front door, here, and a side entrance, here, which opens into an alley. There are four gray Lexan windows along each wall which may or may not open. Sergeant Feltgen’s been watching it since about eight this morning; at last report there have been no visitors. There are, however, at least two people in there, to judge from voices Feltgen overheard. Whitlock habitually carries a handgun.”

“And he bought a deer rifle two days ago,” offered Hinckley, and there were muttered expletives.

Hinckley was a stocky man with a shining dome of forehead and teeth that looked filed down short and even. He gestured at the drawing. “I been in the place to make a buy. It’s a pig sty; there’s eight or nine big boxes full of trash and some old metal folding chairs, maybe a dozen, scattered around. There’s a pew across the front, here, another along this wall, and a broken one here. Everyone goes in and out only at the side door, so if the two in there break and run, it’ll probably be for that. There’s a big round table up front in what used to be the sanctuary. That’s where Whitlock sits to sell his shit. He takes it out of a shelved closet right next to it, here.”

Brichter said, “I want you four—” he nodded at four uniformed patrolmen— “to stay outside and take the four corners. They may come out that door, they may come out a window. They are not to go any farther, understand?” The four nodded. “The rest of us will go in the front; it’s a double door and we can get in faster that way.”

“Who goes in first?” asked Hinckley.

“Since this was your idea, how about you?” said Brichter. “You and Nelson and me.”

“Uh,” said Nelson, “me?”

“Yes, you,” said Brichter irritably. “And since you’re the one with the shoulders, you carry the maul. Two good hits should break the lock.

“Gresham, you come in right behind us. With you and Nelson up front, showing the uniform, they can’t shoot and say later they didn’t know it was cops. The rest of you follow close behind.

“We go in hard, and the first thing said is, ‘Police, search warrant!’ Hinckley, you be responsible for that. After him, we all yell ‘Freeze” and ‘Don’t move’ and ‘Hold it’. Say it like you mean it, let the adrenalin flow, so it never even occurs to them to pull a gun or grab the evidence and eat it. The secret of not having a shootout is to take immediate control.

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