The Seventeen Series Short Story Collection by AD Starrling

Author:AD Starrling [Starrling, AD]
Language: eng
Format: epub

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THE END

THE MEETING

A SEVENTEEN SERIES SHORT STORY #3

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AD STARRLING

The Meeting

The Colt Mustang Pocketlite is one of the smallest and most consistently reliable concealed-carry firearms on the US market today. A scaled down version of the original Colt M1911, a recoil-operated, semi-automatic, single-action pistol popular among the US Armed Forces and law-enforcement agencies alike, the Pocketlite is 5.5 inches long, weighs just under thirteen ounces, and has a 6+1 round capacity.

These facts ran through Reid Hasley’s mind as he stared into the stainless steel barrel of one such gun. Particularly the part about the round capacity.

How the hell did we end up in this situation?

‘You don’t want to do this, Dennis,’ he said in a steady voice.

Detective Chris Lockett, his partner in the Boston PD Homicide Unit, shifted slightly a couple of feet to his right.

Reid kept his gaze focused on the pale, sweaty young man who stood on the other side of the front room of the shabby, second-floor apartment in South Boston.

Dennis Wittman was a key witness to a violent armed robbery, assault, and attempted homicide perpetrated by two masked men the previous night at a 7-11 franchise on Broadway. It had taken Reid and Lockett three hours of going through CCTV recordings to finally identify him as the skinny male who had been standing on the corner of the road when the suspects ran out of the store. One of the men stumbled into Wittman and pushed him to the ground before fleeing into the night. As such, Wittman was one of two people who had gotten close enough to the suspects to be able to help with their identification. The other was Fernando Lopez, the 7-11 night store manager currently fighting for his life in the intensive care unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Wittman was known to the police for a previous DUI and two counts of possession of a Class D substance. According to his probation officer, he was now clean and ready to embrace a life free of crime. Which didn’t quite explain the presence of the gun currently clasped in his damp, shaking hand.

They hadn’t seen a license for a firearm in his records. And they certainly hadn’t expected to be faced with one when they came upon the open door of his rental apartment sixty seconds ago and entered the place to clear it.

‘Look, we just want to talk to you about what happened last night,’ said Lockett.

Reid avoided looking at his partner. A seasoned patrol officer and a sergeant, Lockett only made detective eight months ago. Although the man was an experienced cop, Reid knew this was Lockett’s first time looking at the wrong end of a gun. As a Marine turned homicide detective, Reid was a seasoned veteran who had seen plenty of firefights and knew how to handle them.

Right now, Lockett’s body language reminded him of some of the young soldiers who saw action for the first time on the battlefield. The jumpy ones who got themselves and their friends killed.

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