Chapter 227

We followed Ty and the troopers outside and I headed to Jenny's car with her. Ty intercepted us and said, "You are riding with me," leaving Jenny and my other mates to drive over in her car.

Ty said little on the ride over. The only thing he did say was, "Be ready for the questions. There are going to be a lot," and then he took a phone call and was still on it when we parked.

We were met by several dozen officers before the car stopped moving. The media was everywhere. There must have been a dozen trucks with camera towers high in the air. I heard Marley yelling my name. All I could do was just wave.

We were then led inside by one of the side doors and then down the corridor. The bodies were still on the floor where they had fallen, partially covered with a cloth. The heavy coats they had worn were beside them. The walls were covered with blood and body parts from the head shots. The head - when impacted with a large caliber round, especially as close as I was - explodes outward like a dropped watermelon.

FBI personal were carefully photographing the explosive vests that the experts had disarmed and were disassembling one step at a time. There were photographers from several agencies taking pictures as others were placing markers by the bullet holes in the concrete wall and all the shell casings on the floor.

Eric walked to me and asked for my weapon. I handed him my Glock, "Be careful, it is loaded," I said with a little smile.

"I have your gun, but you are just as deadly without it from what I have heard. Ah, you don't have a knife on you, do you?" he asked. Then he laughed, "I guess that would not matter - you would still have your hands,"

He pulled the clip out of my Glock and the round out of the chamber and counted them. Before he finished I said, "Four." I knew there were four left - I always counted my shots - something I had learned the hard way in the sand box.

"No misses. How did you know they were terrorists?" he asked.

"I did not know for sure until the "Allah" shouts and they started shooting. I suspected by the way they were dressed and acting all nervous," I replied.

"As soon as they finish, we want you to walk us through what you did and we are going to film it," Eric replied.

"How are the two officers?" I asked.

"The rifle rounds in the vest that close hurt them - cracked some ribs, but they will be OK. They may not do any deep breathing for a while. They did give us a pretty good description of you and said to tell you 'Thanks' if we found you."

A half an hour later the disposal guys were done and with the girls off to the side, I explained what I had seen, what I had heard and then what I had done while they filmed it from several angles. I answered questions for another hour from four agencies.

Then there was the news conference that the agencies did to go through the motions. All the national media got the prime spots to the front with the local people shuffled to the far back.

The girls and I stood behind all the dignitaries as far back as we could get while they made speeches. Then I listened to the questions from the prime time media.

Was this attack tied to the Middle East? Where did they get the funds to carry it out? How long had these people been in the US, were they citizens? Where did they get the explosives? Where did the guns come from? Would this have happened if we had gun ban? How long had they been planning the attack? How did they carry out the attack with so much surveillance on the public and in the area? Would there be more attacks in the area? Were there any more of this group that had escaped? It went on for more than an hour.

Like someone rang a bell, the prime timers departed to the sides in little groups with their camera person to make their reports for their news desk.

So far I had escaped without answering a question. As the dignitaries slowly made an exit I asked Eric for my Glock back. "You know who did the shooting, you know where to find me and you do have spent rounds on file with the state." He made a nod to another agent who disappeared to get it.

The agent returned with it and handed me the four loose rounds and the empty clip. Just to piss them off I dropped the four rounds and the clip in my pocket, placed my spare clip from its pouch into the Glock and chambered a round before returning the Glock to my holster.