We’re leaving in a few hours for a month on an Asian adventure. We will be cruising from Borneo to Japan with many stops in between. I will put that travel story up on my website when we return. Here’s some more of “The Bad Seed.” Do you need a couple of aspirin to read this or not?

Chapter Nine

The ambulance arrived as the young man and his mother were being questioned by two uniformed officers. The men wrote down their names and relationship down on their small pads and then went in for more detailed information.

They entered the garage and looked at it from the small doorway. No perps and not much in the way of evidence. They cleared the garage quickly. The garage was taped off to keep unauthorized people from entering it and disturbing what little evidence was on hand. The garage was large and clean. There was a white Jaguar sedan parked inside on the right side.

Two men were lying on the floor in the middle bay of the garage. Blood surrounded both of them. They weren’t too close to one another. They were conscious but not talking. They were familiar to this process of dealing with the police. They were always under orders to remain silent until their attorneys were seated next to them.

There were two holes in the garage door. Small tight holes a few feet apart. They were about an inch in diameter, blown outwards with jagged edges and bigger than a pistol round.

The younger uniformed cop spoke up. “The Toyota outside has one round in it detective. It came through the garage door and into the radiator, most likely. I think it’s DOA. The other shot missed the car and went out to who knows where, heading across the street. We have walked the houses and none have been hit by a round. The neighbors saw little but heard two shoots. Perhaps in the morning someone will find something out on the golf course or in one of the yards. It’s too dark to see much now.”

In a few moments the scream of the ambulance could be heard. “The neighbors weren’t going to get much sleep tonight,” one of the uniformed men said to the other officer in passing. They both looked fit and concerned. Their shirts fit tight with their thick body armor underneath. They were covered in small bits of equipment of all sorts. Their body cameras were turned on. They looked like they could have been on duty in Iraq.

After a few moments the detectives arrived. They always seemed to come in pairs like the uniformed officers for some reason.

One of the officers thought, “Did two detectives working together always arrive at two different conclusions? Did they have to rework their stories with each other to finally settled on the truth of what had happened? Is that why two detectives always worked together?” He understood why two uniformed cops were always on scene first, the possibility of danger, obviously. But why two detectives?

The older of the two uniformed men recognized Detective Kelso. They had arrived on the same scenes just a few moments apart a few times over the last few years.

Detective Kelso, the elder of the two detectives spoke first.

“Hey Sargent Nelson, nice to see you. Looks like you’re still making it to the gym.”

The uniformed officer’s arms were huge and covered in tattoos. The detective remembered that years ago that would have kept some men off of the police force, but not now. It was now accepted as part of mainstream society. In his early days of police work only bikers and worse wore sleeves of those things. The world had changed now, and not always for the better, or so Detective Kelso thought.

“What have you found out so far guys?”

The younger uniformed officer, Bob Clark, looked at his pad again and mentioned the relationship of the two witnesses and then started to mention something else when Detective Lands spoke up.

“Thanks Officer Clark, I’m going over to talk with them.” The two witnesses were standing near by in the dark night. Detective Kelso walked over to Mary Campbell and his partner followed.

“Can you tell us what happened her tonight Mrs. Campbell?”

“Yes, but my son Billy knows more than I at the moment. Perhaps we will all learn more if we let him speak first.”

Detective Kelso looked at Billy and spoke to him. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

“Yes sir, we have met once before when you busted me on a drug charge.”

“Yes, I never forget a face. Part of my work, of course. I seem to have a knack for faces. Perhaps I should have been a portrait painter rather than a cop. What happened tonight Billy?”

“I was in the garage here working out when a car pulled up. I was expecting a friend, but when I opened the door, two strangers came in and rushed me. They asked me for money and when I didn’t have any they tried to get into our house. When that failed and I couldn’t help them, they started in on me.”

“You don’t know them then?” asked Detective Lands.

“No, never laid eyes on them before.”

“You’re in the drug trade, aren’t you?”

“No sir, just a casual user. No dealing on my part.”

Detective Kelso walked back to his car and asked for more info on Billy Campbell over the radio. In a few moments the information arrived on the screen. He walked back to the knot of people and looked at Billy.

“You have a case pending of possession with intent to sell, don’t you?”

“That was a close call and hasn’t been settled in court yet Detective. I didn’t think I had that much in the garage. The facts will come out and we’ll see then just what I’m convicted of, if anything. That crap was left here by a friend on two separate occasions. So there is some confusion on my part about all of this. It wasn’t even my weed.”

“I see. Fair enough, that’s for the courts to decide, not me. I’m here on more serious matters at the moment. Those two guys were seriously injured. One might even loose a toe.”

Billy tried not to smile.

“Okay then, I can see we need to all go into town for a longer conversation tonight before we forget some important details. Billy, can you climb into the rear of my car please.” Billy looked at his mother in alarm.

“It will be okay Billy, I’ll be right behind you as will Bill Cramer, your attorney. I’ll call him right now. Don’t say a word until we get there.”

“So will see you at the station in a half hour or so Mrs. Campbell? We’d like a statement from you as well, of course.”

“Yes Detective Kelso, I’ll be down there with Billy’s attorney as soon as possible. Billy, remember, don’t say anything to anybody until we get down there.”

The two detectives walked into the garage and scanned the scene. They saw just what the two officers had described. A very clean garage except for blood and two large bullet holes in the garage door fired from inside.

“What do you think Bob?”

“Hard to say at the moment. The truth is hard to find early in these cases. Everyone is looking out for himself, of course. Maybe someone will give us a call and tell us what was really going on here.”

The detectives left the garage after sometime and came to the black and white police car. They thanked the uniformed officers and then got into their car. Billy was settled in the rear and was glad to be finally headed back to their office. Mary Campbell had gone into her house to call Billy’s attorney.

It was going to be another late night for the two Detectives and the Campbell family at police headquarters. Not the first for the Campbells, but hopefully the last if Billy’s mother had anything to do with it.

She had thought about calling Billy’s father but decided against it. He was miles away and could do little. He had his own life to live and a new girlfriend to think about. She knew that she should call him but she couldn’t. She didn’t want any advice from that S.O.B. He had a new life filled with promise.

All Mary had was Billy.