Chapter 01

Changes

Helen and Lyn Davies are both smiling and chatting while walking past the end of the fountain in the mall. For the first time in some weeks both are smiling as neither has felt like smiling since Allyn Davies died a few weeks earlier. Helen lost a husband and Lyn lost a father when a building under construction collapsed while he was in it checking out some aspect of the internal build-out work. The investigation and court case is going to take many months, but it’s already clear someone was skimping on the structural materials required by the plans.

The two are discussing the writings of an author who sets a lot of his stories in this part of Tampa, Florida, USA, and they spent the morning going over the ground the stories are set in. They’ve found them to be accurate, even down to the layouts of the businesses mentioned, except for the few which have closed since the stories were written. Lyn grins while saying, “I agree, the details are exactly as stated in the stories, and they’re good. But his writing skills need improvement because he has a number of technical problems I find so annoying they detract a lot from the story by dumping me out of it while I try to work out the meaning of some parts of it!” Helen agrees, and they discuss the writer’s skills.

Lyn finished his high school studies two weeks before Allyn’s death, and after Allyn’s funeral neither felt they can continue in the family home. So they sold everything to move to live with Helen’s father who’s been alone since his wife died last year. They’re having a little holiday before getting serious about finalising Lyn’s college enrolment next year.

Mall Mess

The pair are just entering the short entrance area on their way out when six men charge in the doors with machine pistols firing. Neither mother nor son can see the weapons, but they both know the sound from hearing them on firing ranges. When she sees heads a few paces closer to the doorway dropping Helen grabs Lyn and spins around. She just has time to get her back to the entrance when she staggers forward due to bullets hitting her body. She falls down with Lyn under her. She’s unable to make a sound because of the damage to her lungs from several bullets striking her in the back. Lyn knows Helen is dead or dying due to the impact of the bullets being transmitted through her body while she fell, and Lyn is extremely angry when the gunfire ceases. The sound of the gunfire causes many people to scream and some to run away. When the screams move away Lyn hears, over the moans of the wounded, footsteps and laughter go by, along with the sound of a man speaking in Farsi - a language Lyn recognises.

A moment after the footsteps pass them Lyn moves out from under Helen. Lyn opens Helen’s purse to take out her semi-automatic pistol and her two spare fifteen round magazines. Lyn works the slide to put a round into the chamber while coming up to a kneeling position facing the backs of the gunmen walking down the short hallway.

A quick check of the situation shows only the six men in Lyn’s sight while they walk toward the main corridor to the side. Careful aim and six rapid-fire shots while saying a short prayer of thanks to Grandpa Richards for the training in the use of handguns. The six gunmen drop their weapons as they all fall to the ground while holding onto their mangled groins, which Lyn deliberately targeted to cause the maximum physical and psychological pain due to their suspected religious beliefs.

Lyn stands and walks up to the men. Wearing a wry grin Lyn grabs the first man’s hair and turns him around to say to his face, “Allāhu Akbar, arse hole! Yes, God is the greatest because He allows me to kill you,” before shooting him in chest at an angle to tear apart both lungs. The scene is repeated with each of the gunmen. When the last one is shot Lyn hears more shooting from elsewhere in the mall. After hitting the release button and removing the almost empty magazine Lyn slides a full magazine into place while racing toward the sounds of gunfire.

On reaching the court near the next entrance Lyn finds a group of hurt people on the ground while several more gunmen turn to shoot at more frightened shoppers. Lyn drops to a knee and opens fire on the gunmen; again deliberately targeting their groins. All seven are soon down, and Lyn moves forward to execute them in the same way as the first lot.

Lyn is speaking to the sixth member of this group when two police officers charge through the other mall entrance this group of killers came in. The cops have their guns out and in front of them. Lyn finishes talking and shoots this one before calmly walking over to the last one.

One of the police officers shouts, “Police, put the gun down!”

Lyn glances at the officer, grabs the head of the last killer, delivers the message, and shoots him. Lyn stands up and walks away toward the other entrance while slipping the gun into a pants pocket.

The other police officer shouts, “Halt, police!” Lyn just walks away.

The officer is raising his arms to get better aim when the first one puts a hand on the man’s gun and pushes it down while saying, “Forget it, Joe, she’s not hearing you. Take charge here, I’ll deal with her.” The younger officer nods yes then he starts talking on his radio while he walks around to move the weapons away from the downed killers.

While slowly shaking his head Police Sergeant Browning walks after Lyn to see what’s going on. He knows Lyn isn’t a threat to any shoppers.

Peter Browning watches when Lyn sits on the floor beside Helen to roll her over and pull her up into a cuddle. Stroking Helen’s hair Lyn quietly says, “Oh, Momma, I so wish we’d never stopped here.”

The Sergeant moves around to be in front of Lyn before walking up close. He squats down. Catching the movement nearby Lyn looks up at him, and then goes back to looking down at Helen. Peter catches his breath at the total lack of expression on Lyn’s face. Slowly he reaches forward to take the cell phone clipped to the waist of Lyn’s pants. He gets another blank stare when Lyn reacts to the light contact.

Browning opens the phone and he scrolls through the contact list. He ignores the one labelled ‘Mum’ due to what he’s heard, not seeing one for ‘Dad’ he clicks on the one marked ‘Gramps’ with a Georgia number.

The phone rings and a man asks, “What’s up, Lyn?”

Peter replies, “Excuse me, Sir, is the person you expect to be on this phone about five foot four or five inches tall, slight to medium build, well tanned, and with collar length mousy brown hair.”

A very concerned voice says, “Yes! That’s Lyn Davies.”

“This is Sergeant Peter Browning of the Tampa Police Department. Lyn isn’t physically hurt, but she’s in severe shock and cuddling a dead blond woman I think is her mother. She was shot by some gunmen here in a mall.” There’s a very large intake of breath on the other end.

The man asks, “Sergeant, why do you think Lyn is in shock?”

“Sir, are you familiar with the expression ‘Thousand yard stare?’ I ask, because that’s what I see when she looks at me. I’m the first officer on the scene and I saw Lyn execute two of the gunmen. There’s about a dozen of them, all appear to be shot in the groin and the chest. I suspect Lyn took them all out after her mother was shot and is now in shock from the combined effect of both events.”

“Damn! Yes, Sergeant, I know what you mean about the stare. Even seen it a few times myself. Look, Lyn is my grandson and knows...”

Peter interrupts, “Excuse me, Sir, wait a moment.” While he puts the phone down he reaches out with his left hand to grab Lyn’s right hand when it comes out of the pocket with the pistol, “I’ll take that, Lyn.”

For a moment Lyn resists, but Peter is stronger and in a position to apply more leverage. After a few seconds Lyn surrenders and lets him have the pistol when he looks up at Peter while saying, “Bastard,” before starting to cry while stroking his mother’s hair again.

Browning picks up the phone again, “Sorry, Sir, but I had to take the pistol off Lyn. I was concerned he was going to use it again.”

“Sergeant, can you see to it Lyn is placed under medical supervision with a suicide watch, please? His father died just a few weeks ago and he’s still grieving about that, and now you say my daughter’s dead. He may very well be suicidal at the moment.”

“Yeah, that’s why I had to put the phone down. When the kid pulled out the gun again it looked to me like he wanted to eat it, so I took it.”

“Sergeant, how come Lyn still had the gun?”

“It was clear to me the kid wasn’t going to shoot any of the innocent people, so I wasn’t in a rush about forcing him to hand it over.”

“Two other things, Sergeant. Lyn is a few weeks shy of eighteen and is also a high IQ; high enough for there to be some emotional stability issues at this time. I’m heading that way as soon as I can. Please see he’s looked after and cared for until I can get there.”

“Will do, Sir. I’ll...”

He breaks off talking due to Lyn waving a hand. Peter looks at Lyn and tilts his head. Lyn says, “Tell Gramps he should bring Aunt Dorie.”

Peter nods acknowledgement then says into the phone, “Lyn says you should bring his Aunt Dorie. Also, I’m assuming you’re now his next of kin and adult authority, so I’ll use this phone call to place him in protective custody in response to your request to look after him.”

“Good thinking, Sergeant. I’ll contact your HQ and send them a fax about that. You’ll probably be off shift before I get there, but I’ll see you as soon as I can in the morning. Thank you for calling.”

“Goodbye, Sir.”

While he’s on the phone a veritable horde of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and police arrive to check on people. The EMTs are checking each person on the ground. They smile when they find people who are still alive. By the time they finish checking all of the people they know only six shoppers are dead with forty-seven wounded, plus the thirteen dead gunmen. The wounded are soon treated and are rushed off to hospital by the dozens of responding EMTs and ambulances.

When the Crime Scene Analysis Unit (CSAU) starts processing the scene Peter asks for an evidence bag, then he places the pistol in it after he unloads it. Lyn voluntarily hands over the other magazines.

Peter’s partner arrives a little later and says, “The detectives are here and taking over. We need to get back to write our reports.”

Browning nods agreement and replies, “Get me a blanket from the car as we need to take this one with us.” Although this isn’t the way it should be done Joe simply nods yes before he goes off for the blanket. Peter turns to Lyn and asks, “Have you got a change of clothes nearby?”

Lyn looks up, “Yeah. In the rental car outside. All packed to head to Georgia when we finished here. We were walking out when...”

The Sergeant turns to a nearby CSAU person to say, “The kid needs to change, can you get some large evidence bags and come with us?” The woman nods yes, and she goes outside to the CSAU van for some bags.

Lyn gently lays his mother down and stands up to go with Peter. Lyn stops only to take Helen’s purse off her shoulder to put it on his shoulder.

A few minutes later Lyn is in clean clothes while the CSAU woman puts the blood stained clothes in an evidence bag with his name on it.

“Sergeant, I suppose we best return the car to the agency, there’s a branch just up the road,” is Lyn’s statement while closing the car boot.

Car Capers

Peter drives the car two blocks down the street to the rental agency while Joe follows in their police cruiser. They park side by side and transfer the luggage to the boot of the police car before going inside.

Lyn places the paperwork on the counter as he says, “I’d like to hand in this car, please.”

The clerk checks the paperwork, goes out to check the car, takes it over to refill the tank, and returns to enter figures into the computer. A chime sounds and the clerk looks up before going into the back office. A woman walks out and asks, “Excuse me, why are you returning this car here and now? The system has it down to be returned in Atlanta!”

Sergeant Browning responds, “The woman who hired the car,” as he places a hand on Lyn’s shoulder, “this one’s mother, was killed a little while ago and another family member is coming down for the kid. I see no point in locking it up in our impound if you can take it back.”

“We have a problem, Sergeant. Because the car was hired with an intent to return it interstate we insisted on a large deposit. Our rules are to return the deposit only to the person we got it from, so we can’t just process it like a normal hire return.”

Lyn says, “Mother paid for it on her debit card. I have a card on that account, is it OK to just deposit it back to that account?”

“I’m sorry, it has to be on the same card it came out of.”

Lyn is about to speak again when Peter asks, “Do you need the same signature for the refund to that card?”

She replies, “Usually we do, but I think I can get away with the kid’s if you’ll counter sign it, Sergeant.”

Peter turns to Lyn, and says nothing because Lyn is already going through his mother’s purse. He pulls out a card folder, extracts a card, and hands it over. The woman checks it against the computer record, smiles, and runs it through the machine while typing commands into the computer. In a moment a slip is produced for Lyn’s signature. Peter also signs it as well as adding his name and police badge number. All is done and all are happy when the card plus the papers are handed to Lyn.

They return to the police car and drive off. Ten minutes later they’re parking outside a major hospital and the three of them get out of the car. After a few more minutes they enter the hospital with Lyn carrying a small bag with a couple of changes of clothes and toiletries for him.

Atlanta, Georgia

In a house on the southern outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, an elderly man is still coming to grips with the death of his eldest daughter while he packs a bag to travel to Tampa, Florida. The bag is soon in the car, and he sips a hot coffee while waiting for his other daughter to arrive. He’s already sent a fax to the Tampa Police HQ about Lyn’s care. His thoughts are a little morbid because he realises he now has only one living child. Also, Doreen and Lyn are all the family he has left since both his wife and brother died during the last year, and his brother never married or had any children.

While he waits Dave makes a phone call to book a hotel in Tampa. They have about a seven hour drive to cover the almost four hundred and sixty miles down Interstate 75 to get there. It’s just going on noon now and it’ll be about nine tonight before they arrive, after a few pit stops along the way for food, fuel, and the like.

Ten minutes later a car pulls up and Doreen Grey, nee Richards, gets out of the car after saying goodbye to her husband. Dave Richards locks the door behind him as he walks to the car while Doreen puts her bag in the back then she gets into the passenger seat. By twelve fifteen they’re on the road driving to Tampa and a very troubled Lyn Davies.

Doreen is going because she’s a trained psychiatrist and she’s also the senior counsellor at the college Lyn will be going to. She’s already been helping Lyn with his father’s death and now she’ll be helping with this.

After a worry filled drive they arrive at the hotel at nine thirty that night. They sign in and go to bed for some sleep while knowing there’s little they can do at the police station until the next day.

At the Hospital

Peter says, “Don’t worry about the other gear, Lyn. I’ll look after it myself. It’ll be safe.” Lyn nods yes while the hospital front doors open as the three of them walk in. After a few words with the receptionist it’s up to the police ward where they check Lyn in while the officer on ward duty checks the bag for contraband material. Since he’s in protective custody Lyn can keep and wear his own clothes, but he will be kept in a locked room and under observation by trained medical staff due to the reason for Lyn’s stay in the hospital being a mental health concern.

A doctor examines Lyn prior to signing off on the admission papers after noting on them Lyn is admitted for protective custody as a witness who is on a suicide watch. Which means the nursing staff will be checking on him all of the time. The doctor asks, “Will the police psychiatrist being doing the evaluation or do you want ours to do it?”

Lyn responds, “I’m already under the care of Doctor Doreen Grey and she’s on her way here. Can you please wait until she arrives to do that. Then you may want both, since you may need three for the court.”

Sergeant Browning nods to agree and says, “I think we can wait until tomorrow for the full evaluation. I also suspect we will need a full court level evaluation before we’re finished. In the meantime, can you please witness Lyn giving a statement of the events today. I won’t go beyond that until after the evaluation, due to the mental health concerns.”

Both Lyn and the doctor nod agreement. A few minutes of Lyn talking while he tells what he saw and his actions while Peter writes, and then Lyn signs the written statement of events. The doctor makes several copies so all of them have copies. Peter and Joe leave Lyn with the doctor and head off for their station to do their reports on the events of today.

A few minutes after the police leave them Lyn is locked into a plain hospital room with a camera in the corner watching him. He turns the television on then he flicks through channels until he finds an old movie he likes, and he’s soon settled down watching television while eating the simple lunch the nurse organised when he asked for something to eat.

Police Reports

On reaching their station the first thing Sergeant Browning does is to move the rest of Lyn’s luggage to the boot of his personal car because it’s very likely the cruiser will go out again before he finishes his paperwork. A few minutes later he and Joe are typing up the relevant reports on their morning activities: their daily logs and the incident reports.

They check each other’s reports to make sure they both included all of the relevant information, make copies, and put them on the proper files before taking copies to their shift commander and the detectives.

When they reach their commander’s office to leave the reports the commander calls them in, and the lead detective for the mall shooting is also there. When they walk in the door the detective, Lieutenant Harris, demands, “Where’s the murdering kid you spirited out of the mall?”

Joe looks at Peter who simply shrugs while he hands the papers to Captain Harry Miller while he says, “Here’s our reports, Captain. There’s even copies there for the detectives, if you can find one that can read multi-syllable words.”

The Captain tries hard not to smile while he accepts the papers then reads them. He splits them into two groups and passes one set to Harris while asking, “I see the doctor’s seen this kid. What’s your take on him?”

“It was touch and go getting the doctor to approve me getting just a basic statement today. But no questioning of the kid until after they do a full psych examination tomorrow. Our psych, theirs, and a specialist being called in by the kid’s guardian. He’s not eighteen, so we have to wait until the guardian arrives, anyway. The guardian should arrive late tonight and will call in tomorrow morning.”

Harris is angry when he says, “If you hadn’t spirited the kid away I could have done the questioning before the doctors got involved.”

Browning turns to him, smiles, and says, “Yes, you could have. And in doing so you would’ve made anything he said totally useless due to the major violation of the kids rights. This way it’s all legal.”

Harris turns and storms out of the office.

Peter turns to the Captain, “I’m not sorry, Sir. The kid had watched a bunch of assholes murder his mother and then he had the gumption to take them down with the mother’s gun. But it had a severe impact on his psyche. I wasn’t going to let another asshole harass him.”

The Captain takes a deep breath before saying, “OK! I know you did what’s right. But I can’t help thinking it may have been best to let Harris at the kid in the mall. Then everything he has against the kid is tainted and useless in court.”

“I thought of that, Sir. But I also thought of the effect on the kid and how he was likely to react. I don’t think it would have gone down well with the media or the general public to have a detective severely injured by an enraged kid being harassed by the detective while the kid’s standing beside his dead mother.”

The Captain raises his eyebrows as he looks hard at Browning. Silence reigns for a moment. After a short wait he waves the two officers out of his office. So they leave while Miller goes back to his paperwork.

Two floors below them Detective Harris is working hard while he puts together a case to charge a juvenile with the murder of thirteen armed gunmen because of his excessive use of force. His sole concern is his arrest and conviction record with no concern for what is fair or right. A pile of already dead criminals doesn’t help his personal record or career in any way.

Thursday’s Turmoil

Dave Richards and Doreen Grey are up very early this Thursday morning. After a filling breakfast they’re off to the police station Peter told Dave he works out of. They arrive there at seven fifteen in the morning and Dave asks for Sergeant Peter Browning. They’re told to wait a moment because the shift is still in their morning briefing. So they take a seat and sit down to wait for him to finish with the briefing.

At twenty past seven Sergeant Browning walks up to the counter and he’s directed toward them. Dave holds out his hand when he stands and says, “Sergeant Browning, I’m Dave Richards, Lyn’s grandfather. This is Doreen Grey, my other daughter and Lyn’s psychiatric counsellor.” They all shake hands and Peter leads them to the Commander’s office.

The Captain looks up when they approach his office, and Peter is surprised to see the Captain rocket to his feet to salute while saying, “Colonel Richards, what brings you here?”

Dave returns the salute, holds his hand out, and says, “Captain Miller, I expected you to be a major or colonel by now. I’m here about my grandson, Lyn Davies! Also, this is Doreen Grey, his shrink.”

Miller half grins while he slaps his left leg, “Had to change services and that’s slowed me down a bit. But the authority levels of a Police Captain are about that of a Marine Major.” He frowns while his memory works. He has so many cases he sees and he’s not tracking this one yet.

Peter says, “The kid from the mall in protective custody Harris is upset about not being allowed to interview yet.”

“Oh, is that the kid’s name. I thought that’s a boy!”

Dave grins, “It is. His father was Welsh and Lyn is named after his paternal grandfather, as per the family tradition. Over there Lyn is used for both genders, but the girls usually get an extra ‘N’ on the end.”

“OK. Let’s go down to the incident room and see what they have.”

Arriving in the incident room the Captain doesn’t introduce Dave or Doreen. He just goes about showing them what they have. Doreen asks for a copy of the map and the video footage when they get to the map of the mall showing where everyone fell and the cameras. One officer is very quick to copy it all for her and also places the video on a CD. She puts it all in her large shoulder strap handbag. They also get a copy of the work Harris has done to lay charges against Lyn, which makes the four of them very angry.

Miller asks, “Where’s Harris?”

One of the officers replies, “He left for the hospital just before you arrived, Captain. He said something about getting an interview. I don’t know who from, because we’ve interviewed everyone who survived.”

Miller replies, “Except the boy who took the gunmen down!”

“But we can’t interview him until after the psych gives the OK.”

“It appears Harris has other thoughts on the matter.”

Dave smiles as he asks, “Anyone got the hospital number?” When he’s given it he punches the number into a phone while telling Doreen, “Tell them who you are and convince them to be extremely reluctant while they let the son of a bitch interview Lyn. Also have them tell Lyn to use the Mine Protocol.” While giving him an odd look Doreen takes the phone while all of the police around them half smile and half frown at once.

After identifying herself and passing on the instructions she hangs up to ask Miller and her father, “OK, what have I missed out on?”

Miller answers her, “An interview without the approval of his legal guardian and against medical advice. It means anything he gets from Lyn or from other sources arising from the interview is not legal to use in the court. He wants to charge Lyn for killing the killers, this means his whole case is totally destroyed. But what’s that Protocol, Colonel?”

“It’s for Lyn to know I want him to string him along while giving him the shaft, big time. He’ll bury the guy in total bullshit.”

All present laugh, making it clear none of the other cops like Harris.

Miller goes back over everything while he makes sure Doreen and Dave have copies of everything about the case, including copies of all the statements and the forensic reports so far.

They leave the station in two vehicles. Sergeant Browning takes Dave to the morgue to formally identify Helen while Captain Miller takes Doreen to the hospital. The police psychiatrist will meet them there because he’s based at the main police headquarters offices in another part of the city.

Hospital Interview

Harris enters the police ward at the hospital soon after Doreen’s call to alert them. He signs in and he has the duty nurse send for the doctor in charge of this ward because she has a number of wards under her direct control and she’s in one of the other wards at the moment. The doctor arrives and Harris hands her a court order while saying, “I’m here to interview Lyn Davies about yesterday.”

Doctor Jefferson examines the court order while saying, “Lyn needs to be examined by a panel of psychiatrists before you do anything.”

“Forget it, Doc! That court order says I can do it now!”

“Until Lyn is properly examined I can’t be sure anything said will make sense or even be the truth. Right now Lyn’s mental state is fragile and Lyn is not fully with us due to the shock from yesterday.” She sees Harris is about to interrupt, and adds, “I know I have to obey the court order and I will. But I’m doing so with great reluctance and I’m telling you Lyn is not fit to be interviewed at this time.”

Harris ignores the advice and is soon shown into the room with Lyn. When he goes to take Lyn out of the room he’s angry when told, “The court order requires I allow the interview, it doesn’t require I let you take my patient away. You can interview Lyn here where I can maintain my medical supervision of this suicidal patient via the monitors that have repeaters at the nursing station.”

Harris looks at the various monitors Lyn is hooked up to. There are several on the two mobile racks beside Lyn that display his heart rate, pulse, and brain activity, as well as many other functions. The nurse set it all up after the phone call, including a camera for recording the meeting hidden in the gear. They intend to get a good record of the interview.

He’s not happy about this, but Harris nods yes, waves the doctor out, and says, “Since you have him on remote monitoring you can leave and let me get on with my interview now.” Dr Jefferson nods yes and leaves.

While placing a tape recorder on the small rolling table at the bed Harris says, “I’m Detective Lieutenant Harris of the Tampa Police Department. I’m here to do a formal interview of you about the incident in the mall yesterday morning. What is your full name?”

Lyn replies, “I’m Lyn Davies and I want to see Doctor Grey and my lawyer right now.”

“I’ve a court order saying I can interview you right now, so I am.”

“Last I heard the laws say I don’t have to answer a thing without my lawyer being present, if I want them. So fuck you, arse hole. Why don’t you drop your pants and bend over so I can fuck your arse hole?”

The monitors show Lyn is angry, and it’s easy to see Harris is too.

Harris presses on, and he gets answers to a few more of his questions to establish Lyn was in the mall before they go over the statement he gave Sergeant Browning yesterday. With that out of the way he asks, “How well can you use a handgun?”

Lyn gives him a grin as he says, “Not as good as Mum as I don’t rate marksman yet. But well enough to blow those bastards’ balls off at that range. I believe in gun control, and I controlled that gun real well. I hit exactly where I aimed when I shot them. Then I went up and executed the scum since I didn’t want any idiot prosecutor letting them off easy. The buggers murdered my Mum so I killed them to end their killing.”