Blood Dimmed Tide by Don Shift

Author:Don Shift [Shift, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-14T22:00:00+00:00

Conduct Unbecoming

Deputies; Second week

Felix Tapia sat in the shade of the porch, his stomach growling. His mother had forced them into eating small meals only twice a day, but after the police came and stole their food, they had nothing to eat. A neighbor with an orange tree thoughtfully let them have some green oranges, but they were too acidic. After the visit, Felix’s grandfather complained of a headache and slipped into unconsciousness later that night. At the hospital, the nurses said he was in a coma and given the state of things, was unlikely to survive without advanced medical care.

For three days, Felix had not seen a single cop. That was fine with him. He never wanted to see another uniform again as long as he lived. He burned with hatred towards the deputies who had stolen from his family and given his abuelo a death sentence.

So when he saw a deputy, patrolling alone, in a unit parked on the street in front of his house, he took his grandfather’s revolver that had been carefully hidden away and shot the deputy in the head three times. To Tapia, it was guilt by association.

Instantly after firing the shots, it felt like he woke up from a nightmare. The revolver seemed to burn in Felix’s hand. He didn’t really mean to kill that man. He just saw the badge and uniform and went crazy, like a bull seeing the matador’s red cape. Felix froze, not sure what to do for several seconds. When the spell broke, he dropped the pistol and began to run. Where didn’t seem to matter.

Ysabel Vacarro watched the assassination from across the street. She watched Felix, whom she had known since he was a boy, get up off the porch and emerge from the house like a robot holding that gun in his hand. The deputy in his Tahoe was looking down at something and never saw Felix coming. For a moment after Felix ran off, Ysabel wasn’t sure what to do.

She didn’t quite believe her eyes. The boy had trouble with the police all through high school and the last few years, but nothing serious. No reason for him to kill a cop, for all she knew. It seemed so out of character, like someone in a Felix suit had committed the crime. Things were so crazy these last few weeks. She knew she had to tell someone.

Deputy Phelps, one block over, heard the shots but with what was going on the last few days, didn’t think anything of it. No one made any radio calls that he heard on his scanner so he resumed his weekly ritual of cleaning the pool. Ten minutes later, his wife called him to the door. It was Ysabel, his neighbor immediately behind him. She had barely finished the second sentence about what happened before Phelps got up to grab his car keys.

Using his portable radio that he brought home, Phelps called in reinforcements. Units from across the county were rolling Code 3 to the Barry Street area.

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.