Chapter 5

As the pistol came up, mine did, too, but I fired first, three times, before I got any results.

He fell backwards, away from my vehicle, right in the middle of the highway, but I could tell he wasn’t down for the count. He raised his head, almost laughing, then as he raised his hand, he coughed, the impact of my rounds against his vest enough to shake his lungs up a little, but not enough to end the threat. I quickly aimed and fired two more times, this time aiming for the point just above where I hoped the vest stopped, just below his head.

I created a God-awful mess. Both rounds impacted just about where I pointed them. The first one opened the top of his head and the second one, I guess, pushed all the muck out onto the street.

I dialed 911, shaking like a leaf, then called Sam and Sandy, in that order. I told Sam what happened and asked him if he could make some phone calls. I was going to need help. He assured me he would have one of his people with me in minutes, and he’d do what he could.

The call to Sandy was different, in that I tried to use humor. I probably failed. She answered. “Hey, baby, how’s everything?” I asked.

“We’re fine. A bit of homework we’re trying to get out of the way. What’s up?”

“Well, baby, I just shot my shopping buddy, as you called him.”

“WHAT? ARE YOU OKAY? OH MY GOD...”

“Baby, baby, hush, doll. Please call Allison Valente for me and let her know what happened. Have her call me, maybe. Anyway, I’m out here on Highway Thirty, and he pulled me over, then pulled up behind me, pulled a gun, and I killed him. I’m not saying anything to anyone else, so just let her know I need her, okay, honey?”

“Yes, yes. Oh, God, I’m so scared. I’ll call her and have her call you.”

“Thanks, baby. One of Sam’s guys will be here in a bit. Hopefully this will all work out.”

“Hang up and don’t say anything until Allison is there for you, Charlie. Please, please be okay.” Click.

Wow. She actually handled it better than I thought she would.

How he did it, I have no idea, but within 6 minutes, Mike Thomas, one of Sam Travis’ operatives was on the scene. I really have no idea how that can even happen. I’d find out later it was not a coincidence. He parked in front of my car, putting on his flashers, and staying at his vehicle, identified himself.

“Charlie, just stay there. Don’t move and don’t say anything except that you were afraid for your life. Cooperate and give them your ID and such, but don’t say anything else.” He answered his phone, then looked over at me until he put it in his pocket. “You know Miss Valente?”

“Yes.”

“She’s on the way. We’ll stall as much as we can. Oh, and Sam is calling some friends of his, so we are probably going to get you some help. UT UT, here come da fuzz, here come da fuzz.”

Two patrol cars came up to the scene, one on each side of the road behind the fired cop’s old Ford sedan. More on why I knew he was up to no good in a minute.

“You, against the Mercedes. Turn away from us and raise your hands. You with the Jeep. Same thing. Just cooperate, please.”

Mike and I followed instructions letting the cops feel good about checking out the sedan, then my car, then me. Two of the police officers questioned me while the third, a Sergeant went up to talk to Mike. I heard Mike identify himself and heard the two chat for a minute. Mike, as succinctly as I’d ever heard anyone talk, told the sergeant two years worth of facts in thirty seconds. The Sergeant made a call then after about thirty more seconds, told the other two officers to move me to the rear of my car, and keep an eye on me but to stand down and let me be.

Mike asked if he could talk to me. The sergeant allowed it. I was home free, if they’d let us do that. It meant I wasn’t going to be charged right away, if ever, or they’d never let a non-badged person speak to me.

After that, the sergeant was on the phone for at least four or five minutes, long enough for Allison to show up, identify herself, and ask to speak to me. How my help was showing up in under fifteen minutes was absolutely beyond me. Mike came to be a non-question. They’d been watching my house and another, at Sam’s request ever since my shopping buddy gave me the stink eye at the supermarket that day. He had another client as well, in the same neighborhood and was kind of splitting his resources.

Allison was just closing up her office after a long evening at work, writing up a case, when the call from a frantic young redhead came in. She dropped her pen and hauled ass, not even thinking to call me, and knowing the scene wouldn’t change for at least a half hour.

The ambulance pulled up right behind her. She had parked, but the ambulance was waved up.

She looked over at the body, walked toward it, then put her hand over her mouth and came back over to me. She almost collapsed and threw up, but I caught her and patted her back and held her in my arms for a bit.

“I never expected a client to have to take care of me. Of course, I never expected to see you again after we got those thugs fired. Sandy is scared. I called Sharon on the way over and told her to calm her down. Herbal tea, neck rub, whatever, but to keep her calm. I called Sam, too, and he’s working on calling some friends to keep this contained.”

“I would say that’s already happened. The officers were told to lighten up, have me stay here and even let Mike talk to me.”

“That’s a good sign, Mr. Carter.”

“Charlie, Allison, just Charlie, for now, okay?”

She nodded. “Okay, Charlie, then I’m Alli.” I nodded. “You been doin’ okay? Your head, your leg, all that?”

“Yeah, Alli. Been doing pretty good. I get headaches every few months, but they can’t tell whether they’re something they can fix, or if it’s just something I’ll have to live with. They aren’t that bad, really.”

“The leg?”

“The pain and torture lady told us that if we followed instructions carefully,” Allison was cute when she giggled, “I’d be back to normal in a few months. She was right. It’s fine. Just like it never even happened.” I got her to smile.

“Good to hear. Okay, Charlie, now for the now. When they question you, at this point, just mention what he did, and that you were in fear of being killed. Leave the details to me and we’ll see what we can do to keep you out of jail tonight and back home with your ladies.” I nodded at her instructions.

The sergeant approached us and asked me what happened, step by step, as the ambulance crew was cleaning the body off the street. The road had been closed down and traffic detoured around the scene. It was pretty gross, what with blood and chunks and all under the streetlight. I was hoping something would help me. That was probably it, come to think of it.

“OK, well, I’m on the way home and an older sedan, that Crown Victoria, was behind me. I saw the single flashing blue light over the driver and started pulling over. As I did so, I realized it was an old cop car.”

“How did you know that, considering you were in the dark, Mr. Carter?”

“The spotlight on the driver’s side windshield pillar. I mean that meant it was a cop car at one point, or at least something similar. The old part came from the fact that there isn’t a jurisdiction within two hundred miles of us that still uses the Crown Vickies as patrol or detail vehicles. I know a lot of cops around here, and we’ve even had that discussion.”

“Okay, I can understand that. Then what happened?”

“He got out of his vehicle right away. Normally cops wait a few seconds until anything on the stopped vehicle comes back from their dispatch people.”

“You ever been a cop?” he asked me. I noticed the nametag. ‘FINN’

“No, Sergeant Finn, but I can be observant at times.” He rolled his hand as if to tell me to continue. “The guy got out, and in one hand, the one toward the car, he had a gun. I could see it plain as day.” I looked up at the streetlight.” He nodded. “I pulled my firearm out of its holder under the seat, because I knew something bad might just come to happen. As he got close to the car, he yelled, ‘Carter, get out’ really loudly. I told him I wasn’t going to do that, then his gun came up and was pointed straight at me. I raised mine up the inch or so over the window and fired three times. It knocked him down but didn’t stop him. As he laid there, he laughed, and coughed a couple of times, then raised the gun again pointing it at me. That’s when I fired the last two shots, trying to miss the vest he was obviously wearing.”

“You knew he had a vest?”

“As I said, obvious. That’s a forty-five, Finn, I saw the impacts on his torso. Vest,” I told him, not wanting to take any shit at this point, but keeping as calm as I could. Allison reached out and held my wrist. It was in a comforting, not controlling, touch.

“Yeah. You know the deceased, don’t you?” Finn asked. I looked at Allison. She took over.

“Sergeant Finn, a man that worked for the people that were paying that slug under the table, and yes, we know he was on the take, damn near broke a steel pipe over Mr. Carter’s head a couple years back. I was present when said slug offered a veiled threat to drop the charges against the assailant. The slug in question and a sergeant friend of his were both fired from the force after being found guilty of misconduct, not only for that confrontation, but other situations they had found themselves in and for which they were under investigation. Mr. Carter saw him about three weeks back, possibly tailing him, but all he did was give Mr. Carter what could be called a dirty look. Since the slug in question lives at least eighteen miles from here, on the other side of the city, we don’t believe either of these contacts was coincidental.”

“I can see that. Here’s the deal. The DA already knows about this whole sordid affair. To be honest, I was told that if your story checked out, I was to turn you loose and if anything came up later, we’d take care of it later. I remember the whole sordid affair, and to tell you the truth, it made me kind of sick. The sergeant, Glenn Soto, that went down with Barrett, the slug in question, as you called him, ma’am, he and I went through the academy together and have known each other for twenty years. I had no idea he was dirty, but he was, in spades. In any case, I don’t have any reason to believe you pulled him over in a little sports car, had him stop behind you, lured him out into the street and shot him in cold blood. It just doesn’t look that way, so I’m cutting you loose. Please don’t use your passport to leave the country until you are cleared by the state’s attorney to do so, okay?”

Allison nodded to him and squeezed my wrist gently. “Yes, sir. I understand. Thank you for being decent about the incident.”

“Sarge, you might want to see this,” one of the officers said.

“We’re not all assholes, Carter. Hang on here just a bit longer, then I’ll turn you loose. If Mike needs to run, he can leave. You aren’t going to be arrested tonight.”

He walked over to the other officer who had picked up the gun and placed it in an evidence bag. He talked to the guy, then nodded and walked back over to us.

He came back over, smiled at us, told his guys to meet him back at their cars and told me, “The crime scene guys will be here in a bit. The gun is in a bag but placed where it was found. Best Jonesy can tell, it has at least one round missing, one piece of his brass was about even with the back of your car on the center line, and one round stove piped. Jammed up tight. It’s an old Taurus nine mil. You have a forty-five. He shot at you, Mr. Carter. Do you remember hearing five shots or six?”

“Sergeant Finn,” Allison broke in. “I need to get Mr. Carter to the hospital to check his ears and make sure he’s OK, then we’ll fill in the blanks later. I doubt under that stress he remembers how many rounds he heard ignited.”

“I understand Counselor. The crime scene guys will get it all down and if we need more info, we’ll contact you. Remember, please don’t leave the country until you are contacted by a state’s attorney at some level and given a pass. Try to have an uneventful rest of the night, folks, but hang in here until I say you can leave,” he told us, then he walked away.

I nodded and waved Mike over. “I heard. Here’s a card. That is the twenty-four-hour number. She can get to one of us at any time. Sam will be calling you, so keep your phone on and close. You did good, Mr. Carter. Real good. Better than some of us might have done under the circumstances. I don’t know your background, but ... Anyway, you did good. See you later.” He looked at Allison and touched his right index finger to his brow. “Ma’am.” He walked away, got in his Jeep and took off.

“Holy shit, Charlie, that guy looks like he eats kittens. Live ones.”

“I know, but all of Sam’s guys are true professionals. That one is just a teddy bear, but his looks and the way he carries himself don’t lend themselves to public discourse. I was afraid of him, too, until he was on a stakeout watching over me and we started talking about gardening. He’s a class act.”

She nodded and asked me, “You okay about all this?”

“Yes, Alli. I didn’t have many choices. He wanted to kill me. I was first. I was lucky. If he hadn’t blustered, I’d be dead. He let his emotions about me taint his actions. In order to get the last word, he didn’t. Sorry, that didn’t make sense.”

“The hell it doesn’t. That’s exactly what gets people killed. Emotions. He had to take two seconds to display his displeasure with you before he shot. You took one second to shoot back. It makes perfect sense. Stop trying to be so philosophical. It’ll eat you alive from the inside out. You did what you needed to do.”

“Yeah, I guess. Thanks, Alli.” The sergeant walked back over to us and asked about times and such. I had him subtract about one minute from my 911 call and write that down as the time of the shooting. I was shaking pretty badly, so I remember it took me several seconds to get the phone out and get it dialed.

He came back over, turned us loose, again asking me not to leave the country, and Allison followed me home to make sure I got there in one piece. I told her I didn’t need the hospital tonight. It was a good tactic for a shooting, but if there was any damage, it couldn’t be worked on until Monday at the absolute earliest. It was only a mile or so from the scene of the shooting to our house, so it wasn’t far. I was glad to have her behind me, though.

I no sooner had the car in the garage with the door coming down behind Allison when I was accosted by my wife and my girlfriends. They’ve both used the term concubines, but I think that’s a technicality from an ancient age. In any case, two of them were in tears. Sharon was close, but not crying openly.

Allison did her best to calm them and pushed them all inside. We sat at the kitchen table and talked about the incident and the ramifications, but Allison’s main point was to all of them that it’s over. I wasn’t going to jail, and I was probably in the clear. “Listen ladies! Please. Let it go for now and just enjoy your lives. IF there is a hearing, and there may be, I’ll be there, Charlie will tell the truth, and all will be well. Please relax and just go about your normal lives.”

“Normal? I’m gonna screw his brains out tonight just in case he gets in trouble again.”

The good news was that I could hear almost every sound in the room. The better news was those sounds and the women making them.

“Good point, Valerie, is it?” Valerie nodded. “Live every day like it’s your last. It just may be. Don’t let opportunities go to waste and be happy. And, by all means, fuck his lights out, excuse my language, if that’s what you feel you need to do.”

Valerie grinned and pulled my arm to her bosom. Sharon smiled. Sandy wasn’t able to, at least not quite yet. She just held me, melted into my chest. There has never been a doubt in my mind that I did the right thing claiming her as my wife, but she just kept proving, and still keeps proving me right.

“Charlie, I have you safe at home. Take the weekend, and if you have any trouble sleeping, take Monday off as well. Call me Monday if you need to talk. I’ll be here as soon as possible. If I come out, it may not be as your lawyer. It may just be as your friend. You may just need to talk to someone whose life doesn’t revolve around you yet.” I nodded. “Okay, peeps, I’m going home. Take it easy.”

She leaned down to kiss Sandy’s forehead and got a tight hug as well. She did the same for Valerie, then Sharon. Sharon and she shared their kiss, then a hug, then some whispers. They both smiled little smiles, then Allison started to walk out. “Oops. Missed one.” She walked back, leaned over Valerie, and kissed me on the lips, not lightly, but nothing lascivious. “Be strong. You’re fine. By the way, five or six?”

“Five, but the third one was louder.”

“Makes sense. He missed, though. Thank God.” She shared another nice kiss, smiled at me and walked out.

When the door closed behind her, Sandy and Sharon both said, “YET?” simultaneously.

Valerie questioned what they were so excited about. “What’s the big deal? What did she say?”

“She said she was coming out to talk to Charlie as someone whose life didn’t revolve around him YET. Sounded pretty clear to me, Charlie. I think Allison is getting on the Charlie Carter train. Next stop, number four,” Sharon shared, easily.

“Oh, fuck. I wasn’t used to having three, yet.” That made Sandy smile. She’s so much prettier when she smiles.

She slept on my chest again that Friday night. Saturday morning, I reminded the girls to keep clothes handy in case we had any visitors. We didn’t, until Monday morning. They called very early and asked if I could take time to stay home. They could speak to me in private in a relaxed, personal setting.

I was with Sharon, finishing a small late breakfast when they arrived. The ‘they’ I am referring to wound up being the State Attorney General, his chief of staff from the capital, and a local county district attorney. The fact that they were here at nine-thirty in the morning told me this was either something special, or they were already in town for something else this morning. They went on to explain that this was something special.

“Mr. Carter, we’re here to talk about your incident on Friday. Well, let me rephrase that. Not your incident, exactly, but more so THE incident. The fact that you eliminated one of the most notorious and yet untouchable mob characters in the region, speaks volumes to the extent of the problem. We have informants. Deep seated informants that tell us you hit them pretty hard, but that it was an unsanctioned attack. He was good at his job, knew the right people and went from dirty cop to wealthy capo in a very short period of time. You are not in any danger from the locals, nor the mob, as far as we can tell. The only other person who was personally involved, Glenn Soto, might still be interested in you, but there is no one in any responsible position that feels he is a threat to you anymore. He doesn’t seem to have the same drive and irresponsible attitude as Barrett. He also moved to Florida with all his ill-found gains. His wife and children stayed here, by the way. We doubt he’s holding a grudge, but there is always the minute chance he is.

“An interesting fact, Mr. Carter, is that his gun was used in at least one other killing and maybe more, but we tested it Saturday against something local and came up roses. No way to tell if it was him, but we have reason to believe it was.” How many rounds did you hear, by the way. Oh, and you don’t need an attorney. It’s just for the report.” I looked at him funny. “Scout’s honor, Mr. Carter.” I was a boy scout for a while, so...

“Only five, but I remember the third one being louder somehow. Sir, I was an Air Force pilot, and we can be pretty observational, I mean observant, in our lives.”

“That makes sense. He was probably light handing the gun when it was fired, as he was falling backwards, the gun moved backwards since it was not being held well, misfed the second round, and the rest is history. In any case, he had fired one round, it appears, and while falling backwards was not holding the gun correctly, so the next round misfed, what gun people call stove pipe or some such, so he was out of the picture at that point. I think I just repeated myself, but that’s what the crime scene guys told us they believed. It all hinged on how many shots people heard, but one of the witnesses is dead, and the other, well, never mind. You’re fine. That fact changes nothing. You had no idea that his gun was jammed since he was falling at the time. It changes nothing about your story, or the crime itself.

“The reason for my visit, Mr. Carter, is to let you know that we are not pursuing charges for this incident. No how, no way. We are also, with your permission, actually, not going to publicize the shooting. We would like to low key your involvement in it, just in case, hoping to keep the threat level that we DON’T know about to an absolute minimum. Lone wolves trying to make a name for themselves, minor figures trying to work up the ladder, and those types would be the issue.

“To that end, we would ask you, please, if you hear, see, come to know, or in any other way have any information about these people, we’d appreciate a heads up.” His chief of staff offered me a business card. “This card has a number at which we can be reached without going through a lot of scheduling and that type of thing. It’s manned by our own people, twenty-four seven, in a state command post. We’re not hiding anything, we just want you to know if you come to trust us, and you can, there won’t be any repercussions for using that number. We have some pretty strict personnel requirements. We don’t like dirty public servants in our organization, Mr. Carter. If you watch the national news, understand that is not us. In no way. We’d just like your help if you hear or see anything. Your action set them back quite a bit. They may contact you in some way, but we don’t think that will be in a threatening manner. Note I say, ‘we don’t think’. We’re good, but we’re not perfect. Any questions?”

“More than I can list, or remember, and it’s only been ten minutes. I’ll write them down as they come to me and call someone to get answers.”

“Perfect. Don’t hesitate to reach out, and someone who can help will return your call. So, you’re good with keeping this on the down low, so to speak?”

“Absolutely. I don’t need any surprises. One thing, what did you mean by ‘region’, sir.”

“Thank you for that. We appreciate it, and we know you will. The region, ah, yes. He has been tracked up in Chicago and Milwaukee, down in Memphis, over into Kansas City, both sides, and back to Indianapolis. That is sort of an upper Mississippi Valley region, if you will. He was quickly working his way up in the organized crime business, being a very, very bad boy. Mr. Carter, you killed a very bad man. No question, you killed a killer.” I nodded. “Thank you for your time, folks.”

We shook, and they left, nodding to Sharon on the way out. The AG was the only one who spoke the entire time, the other two men standing behind him. Very formal, yet very casual. Hard to imagine, but that’s what it looked like, formal, and yet felt like, casual.

We discussed the visit over dinner, and I made sure the ladies all knew, if they saw anything or felt that anything was going awry, they needed to talk about it. Final answer. They all agreed to keep an eye out and think about things like that often.

Very thankfully, that was the last we heard about Detective Barrett, Sergeant Soto, or the mob. They weren’t upset with us for self-defense, evidently, and thankfully. The local DA touched base with us a year later or so and told us we weren’t even on the radar. As advantageous as it was to have Barrett in the organization, evidently, he wasn’t worth reprisal. Again, thankfully.

Sharon and Doris pulled off a teamwork effort to show and convince a couple, after a lengthy real estate style courtship, that they needed a home in a very high-end ritzy part of town. It was worth millions of dollars and therefore the commission was worth several tens of thousands of dollars. He golfed and she socialized quite a bit. This house was on the course, next to a tee, and not in much danger of getting hit by a stray ball from the previous green. Right across the street was the community center slash clubhouse used for the neighborhood’s social events AND the golf clubhouse. They liked the layout of the home and the surrounding landscaping so much the girls were able to talk them into buying it. They split the one hundred- and eighty-thousand-dollar commission and after banking it and having discussions with all concerned, asked if we could run away from the world.

That’s how it came to be that the eight of us invited Allison Valente on a Christmas in Caribe’ Vacation to Belize, specifically the little island of Caye Caulker and a fancy little hotel there with excellent ratings and amenities.

Sharon and Doris were in charge of the entire operation, short of transportation. Naturally, that was on me. My beautiful little wife made sure to check their choices for air facilities. We had three choices for our destination, the closest of which was within taxicab distance to the resort. It was cutting the requirements for takeoff quite close, but what the heck, we could UPS our luggage home and let someone else worry about getting their plane off the deck.

I was in the room the night the phone call was made to Allison. Sharon was the inviter. “Allison, Sharon Carter. How’s things?” She looked at me, then Sandy, smiling. “No, he’s fine. I think it affected her more than him, but they’re fine. They have each other, and that’s probably enough to handle just about anything.” She was nodding, subconsciously, certainly, and smiling, looking around the room. “Allison ... Okay, Alli, I have a question for you. Do you have plans over the holiday?” There was a pause during which she was looking straight at me. “Great. Since you don’t really want to do that, we have another option for you. A Caribbean vacation?” She was nodding again. “No, all we need, really, is you. Charlie is flying us, and Doris and I are paying for everything else...” She giggled a bit when she was interrupted. “Something very similar. We teamed up on closing a house sale and made a bundle. It was a lot of work, unlike the lottery, but it paid off very well. Point is, we’re going, and we’d like you to come along.” She looked at me, then at Sandy. “No, actually, it was my idea, but Sandy and I talked a lot about it, and we think it may be the right answer.” She looked at Valerie, then Sandy, then me again. “Allison, I think we can talk more about the specifics down there, or on the plane on the way, but trust me, hon, you won’t be in the way.” She was nodding and smiling then put her thumb up to signal success. “Okay, Alli. I’ll call you later in the week with exact times and such, but please make sure you have the entire time between the holidays open. We really want you with us. We don’t need to change anything if you can’t make it, but ... We want you there.” She smiled again just listening. “Okay, hon. We’ll talk then. Bye.” She pushed the screen on her phone and laid it on the bar.

“She thinks she can go. Her parents are going to be with some friends in Mexico and she felt she’d just be in the way there, too, so maybe less in the way with us. She wants to talk to Sandy and me about you, Charlie.”

“Oh, jeez. It’s happening again. Y’all warned me, I guess.”

A week or so later, it was time to muster for departure. It was the day before Christmas, with a Christmas day departure planned. Allison came out early in the day when her office closed down. She was the junior partner of four in an office of ten litigators and about fifteen office staff. It wasn’t a big law firm, but it was by no means small. I always thought she just worked on her own, but she didn’t. She did tell us, though, that she made her own schedule, received no complaints about her hours, nor her record in court.

We had a nice Christmas Eve, sharing presents between the mess of us. After a nice, simple meal of ham and fixings, we were sitting in the hot tub, just the five of us, since Matt, Doris, Patty, and Jenny were inside watching Hallmark movie, when Sharon and Allison started talking about their phone conversation, we all listened in on.

“When she told me they were paying for a Caribbean vacation for your group, I thought maybe she won the lottery, but selling a house is big money, I guess.” We all laughed at that then Sharon talked about the deal and the trouble they had getting the people to pull the trigger and sign. The conversation went on for a full half hour and two rounds of drinks before we took it inside. Pruning skin isn’t desirable for anyone, especially three women trying to seduce one of their own into the fold.

The movie inside was over, and after an hour of all nine of us chatting about a multitude of subjects from cars to high heels, Doris dragged Matt off to bed and Patty did the same with Jenny. They had been separated for several weeks, again, and wanted some alone time to prepare for Christmas Day, and the flight we were taking down south.