Jack Daniels Stories by Jack Kilborn

Author:Jack Kilborn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joe Konrath
Published: 2010-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

My friend Libby Fischer Hellmann edited an anthology called Chicago Blues, published by Bleak House in 2007. I wrote a Jack story for her, based on a premise I thought of while stuck in traffic downtown. Why do cars get gridlocked? Here’s one possible answer…

The man sat in the center of the southbound lane on Michigan Avenue, opposite Water Tower Place, sat cross-legged and seemingly oblivious to the mile of backed-up traffic, holding a gun that he pointed at his own head.

I’d been shopping at Macy’s, and purchased a Gucci wallet as a birthday gift for my boyfriend, Latham. When I walked out onto Michigan I was hit by the cacophony of several hundred honking horns and the unmistakable shrill of a police whistle. I hung my star around my neck and pushed through the crowd that had gathered on the sidewalk. Chicago’s Magnificent Mile was always packed during the summer, but the people were usually moving in one direction or the other. These folks were standing still, watching something.

Then I saw what they were watching.

I assumed the traffic cop blowing the whistle had called it in—he had a radio on his belt. He’d stopped cars in both directions, and had enforced a twenty meter perimeter around the guy with the gun.

I took my .38 Colt out of my purse and walked over, holding up my badge with my other hand. The cop was black, older, the strain of the situation heavy on his face.

“Lt. Jack Daniels, Homicide.” I had to yell above the car horns. “What’s the ETA on the negotiator?”

“Half hour, at least. Can’t get here because of the jam.”

He made a gesture with his white gloved hand, indicating the gridlock surrounding us.

“You talk to this guy?”

“Asked him his name, if he wanted anything. Told me to leave him alone. Don’t have to tell me twice.”

I nodded. The man with the gun was watching us. He was white, pudgy, mid-forties, clean shaven and wearing a blue suit and a red tie. He looked calm but focused. No tears. No shaking. As if it was perfectly normal to sit in the middle of the street with a pistol at your own temple.

I kept my Colt trained on the perp and took another step toward him. If he flinched, I’d shoot him. The shrinks had a term for it: suicide by cop. People who didn’t have the guts to kill themselves, so they forced the police to. I didn’t want to be the one to do it. Hell, it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. I could picture the hearing, being told the shooting was justified, and I knew that being in the right wouldn’t help me sleep any better if I had to murder this poor bastard.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Paul.”

The gun he had was small, looked like a .380. Something higher caliber would likely blow through both sides of his skull and into the crowd. This bullet probably wasn’t powerful enough. But it would do a fine job of killing him.

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