Chapter 2

The seasons turned and autumn finally came with cooler temperatures, trees changing colors, and shorter days. It was a brisk early evening when Maria Menendez left the office building with her friend Sally. The pair of women headed towards the parking lot. While they walked, Sally asked, “Did you get the restraining order?”

“Yes,” Maria answered in a tired voice. The past few months had aged her ten years.

“That’s good,” Sally said. She paused to light a cigarette while wondering if Maria would like to go to one of the local clubs for happy hour.

“It will just piss him off,” Maria said. She hoped that the restraining order worked, but she didn’t have faith in the system. The order to keep her ex-husband away only helped after he violated it. She was terrified that it would be too late by then.

Sally exhaled a cloud of smoke and then said, “Honey, you’ll get through this. Why don’t you go with me to the Black Hat Bar tonight?”

“I wouldn’t be good company,” Maria said.

“You need to get laid. That will get your mind off your pending divorce to that asshole,” Sally said. Her answer to all problems was to engage in no strings attached sex. It might not solve her problem, but she was usually a whole lot less stressed after a good time in bed with a well endowed man.

The friendly exchange came to an abrupt end when Maria reached her car. Her ex-husband, Victor, stood up from behind another car waving a pistol in her general direction. She screamed upon seeing the gun in his hand. All of her worst fears were coming true.

In a slurred voice, he said, “You slut. You tell everyone that I’m violent. I’ll show you violent.”

Sally took one look at the huge man standing in front of her. He looked small compared to the gun in his hand. If asked, she would have described it as being a cannon.

She turned and ran away from the scene shouting, “He’s got a gun!”

Standing a dozen cars away, Julia Powers had just finished searching through her purse for her car keys when she heard a woman scream. Startled by the scream she dropped her key ring.

Looking up, she saw a woman running in her direction shouting, “He’s got a gun!”

“Oh shit, Samuel Reynolds has finally flipped out,” Julia swore. Despite the passage of several months since meeting him she was unable to forget looking into those dead eyes of his. He had become the boogie man in her nightmares. She ducked behind her car and tried to look small while trying to locate her keys.

Samuel walked out to the parking lot having finished a long day of work. As usual, he walked along staring at the ground ten feet in front of him. He stopped when a woman screamed. Looking up, he heard another woman shout, “He’s got a gun.”

From a distance of less than twenty feet, Samuel saw a large man strike a Hispanic woman with the back of his left hand while waving a pistol in his right hand. The woman staggered back with an expression of terror on her face. One of her hands went to the side of her face where she had been struck. Her other hand was outstretched as if she could hold the huge man away from her. She kept backing away from him on legs that barely responded to her brain’s commands.

Taking a step forward, the man shouted, “I should kill you, bitch.”

Having heard the shouts, Jeff stood by his car dialing 911 on his cell phone. He knew that the police would arrive too late to prevent a disaster, but there was no way that he was going to take on a man carrying a gun.

Watching the disaster unfolding in front of him, he swore, “Answer the fucking phone.”

The operator came online just in time to hear Jeff mutter, “What in the name of hell is Samuel doing over there?”

“What is your emergency?” the operator asked.

The man reached back to strike the woman a second time. He was posed to backhand her with his pistol. He paused upon finding that he was facing a man all of a sudden.

He growled and said, “Get out of the way. This isn’t any of your business.”

Samuel didn’t say a word. He just stared the man in the eyes without blinking.

“Someone is about to die. We need police here right now,” Jeff said into the cell phone. He couldn’t believe that Samuel had intentionally stepped up to a man waving a gun.

The huge man looked in Samuel’s eyes and a chill went down his spine. The dull flat expression in those eyes did not demonstrate fear, confidence, or concern. The only thing he saw in those eyes was death. For a short time he was paralyzed on the spot until he remembered that he was the one with the gun. He started to point the pistol at the much smaller man. Without changing the passive expression on his face, Samuel exploded into action. Seconds later the large man was curled in the fetal position on ground with Samuel passively standing over him.

Samuel turned to the Hispanic woman and, in an emotionless voice, he said, “Leave.”

The single word from Samuel snapped Maria out of her terrified paralysis. After grabbing her purse from where she had dropped it, Maria ran to her car. There was a beep beep when the car door unlocked. She threw open the door and climbed into the driver’s seat. She fumbled with her keys for a moment to get the key in the ignition. Barely able to think, she managed to get the car started. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she drove away without looking back.

As a result of the cars between him and Samuel, Jeff could not see what had happened to the big man. All he could see was Samuel staring down at the ground. Shocked by the violence he had witnessed, he said, “I think Samuel killed him.”

“Would you repeat that?” the 911 operator said.

“I think Samuel killed him,” Jeff said.

He was still stunned by the speed and aggression of Samuel’s attack on the big man. Samuel had moved so fast that he hadn’t been able to see the moves.

The 911 operator said, “The police are almost there.”

The sound of sirens filled the air drowning out a long low moan uttered by the big man. His jaw was throbbing and there was a ringing in his ears. After a while his awareness of pain shifted to his right hand. He was able to open one eye and saw that his hand was a bloody mess. He had no idea what had happened to him.

Julia had finally found her keys and unlocked the door of her car. Not having heard any shots, she peered over the hood to see if the coast was clear. She spotted Samuel standing between two parked cars. He was just standing there looking down at the ground. Trying not to become a target, she opened the door to the car and climbed inside trying to keep low. She drove away feeling guilty about fleeing the scene. She pulled out her cell phone and made a call to the police that Samuel had a gun in the parking lot. She added in the fact that he was a convicted murderer out on parole.

Chuck Scherl was the security guard stationed at the employee entrance to the building that evening. It was his job to make sure that anyone who entered the building through the door was an employee. He was unarmed and had been spending most of his time telling people to have a good night while they were leaving. His attention had been diverted when Sally ran into the building shouting something about someone having a gun. He looked over at the surveillance cameras and couldn’t see anything happening.

Sally was quite hysterical and kept poking her cigarette in his face while explaining that Maria’s ex- husband was in the parking lot waving a gun around. Chuck kept glancing between her and the monitor failing to see anything that supported her story. He picked up his radio and called into the security center the story that there was a report of a gun in the parking lot. By this time, a police car was turning into the parking lot.

It took some time for the first two officers on the scene to locate Samuel. They found him standing over the battered man on the ground. They immediately took charge of the scene. Based on the 911 calls that had been received, the initial information clearly identified Samuel as the guilty party. Upon determining that Samuel was the man still standing, they searched him for weapons, cuffed his hands behind his back, and arrested him. More police cars arrived on the scene followed by an ambulance for the injured man.

Having been read his rights, Samuel sat in the rear seat of the police car with his hands cuffed behind his back. He stared out the window watching the activity without emotion. After ten minutes, two policemen got into the car and headed for the station. The officer riding shotgun turned in his seat and asked, “Did they read you your rights?”