Walk the Blue Line by James Patterson

Author:James Patterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2023-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Lou Delli-Pizzi

Lou Delli-Pizzi is a veteran of the New York City Police Department.

It’s evening. The streets are crowded. I’m standing at the front door of a smoke shop, acting as a deterrent to neighborhood drug crime, when I hear multiple gunshots.

A big guy runs past the door, firing a gun over his shoulder.

I dart outside. Remove my sidearm and order him to freeze and drop his weapon.

He keeps running. I chase after him.

Get so close I tackle him.

I wrestle the gun away, then manage to subdue him quickly. It isn’t much of a fight, and the guy isn’t injured in any way. For evidence, I literally have a smoking gun and spent shells lying a couple of feet away.

I bring him to the station. He waives his Miranda rights. After I have him printed, I let him use the bathroom, then take him, handcuffed, to the muster room, where we get our assignments and intelligence briefings. Another cop guards him while I go over to the vending machines.

A patrol cop asks me what I’m doing. I say I’m going to try to talk to him.

“Don’t bother,” he says. “We’re not detectives, let them handle that.”

Anyone I arrest, I treat with basic human decency: bring them to the bathroom, give them cigarettes, even buy them food. It helps to build trust. I want to see if I can gather some intelligence—find out where he got the gun, the name of the person he was trying to shoot.

I start dropping quarters into the vending machine. The patrol cop knows what I’m doing.

“That food is for us,” he says.

I ignore him. I bring the shooter a soda and a Hostess apple pie. He’s a young guy, maybe early twenties. He appears very relaxed. We get to talking, and he tells me his name is Ostin, and he’s originally from the Dominican Republic.

I keep asking who he was trying to shoot, and Ostin keeps saying, “Some guy with red hair.”

I try to engage him in further conversation, but his English is limited. I don’t get much in the way of crucial information from him.

“Is there anyone you want to call?” I ask.

“My wife.”

“Where is she?”

“Hospital. Having baby.”

“All right, which hospital?”

He’s not sure. Ostin gives me his wife’s name. I call a couple of places but come up empty.

Later, I bump into a friend and tell him about my arrest. “I literally found him with a smoking gun,” I say.

“That’s great, Lou. Case like that will never go to trial.”

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.