Frank Zafiro - Under a Raging Moon

“You belong in prison!” Julie piped up from the bedroom doorway. “Faggot woman-beater.”

“Be quiet!” Katie told her.

“Don’t tell me what to do in my own house, you dyke!” Julie shot back.

Katie turned away from her. “Steve, listen. I know you’re not a criminal. Don’t be one now.”

“I’m not. I’m not a criminal,” Steve said, his voice tight. He stood up straight, his arms rigid.

Oh, Jesus, Katie thought. He’s getting ready to fight.

“I know you’re not,” she kept trying. “You were only defending yourself six years ago. And tonight, you just lost your temper for a minute.”

“I can’t go back,” Steve said, not listening to her. He swayed slightly with adrenaline. Katie could sense Chisolm moving forward slowly. She dropped her hand to her side, wrapping her fingers around her baton.

“Steve, listen to me. You can’t win-”

“You can never win!” Julie yelled. “You’re a goddamn loser, and you belong in prison, faggot!”

Katie shifted her legs as casually as she could, assuming a defensive stance and hoping it wasn’t obvious. She didn’t take her eyes off of Steve. His jaw clenched and his eyes darted from Julie to Chisolm to Katie and back to Julie again. His hands balled into fists. His breath came in ragged, whistling gasps. Katie wondered briefly if they would have to kill him.

“You.” Chisolm’s deep voice was deadly as he spoke to Julie. “Be quiet.”

Katie blinked, surprised when Julie obeyed. She didn’t have time to marvel at that, though. “Steve,” she said, trying to keep her voice even, “you can’t win here if you fight. We have a dozen cops on the way. We have mace, nightsticks, and guns. One way or another, you will be arrested. Then your parole officer will get a report that you resisted arrest, maybe even assaulted an officer, and he will definitely revoke you.”

Katie swallowed. If he planned to fight, she only had a few seconds left to talk him out of it. Chisolm stood beside her, silent. She pushed ahead, keeping her voice reasonable and soothing.

“If you go willingly, Steve, I can write in my report that you were not only honest, but entirely cooperative. When your P.O. reads that and you explain the rest of the circumstances, he might not revoke you.”

“He will. He hates me.”

“He might not.”

“He will.” Steve’s voice sounded flat and dead now. “I’m not going back.”

“Steve, I will even call him and explain things on your behalf. That might sway him, right?”

Steve studied her, his eyes softening slightly.

Katie continued. “Look at the situation. You’re working hard, you work out, you don’t drink, right? She is the one who is treating you like hell. She cheated on you. Anyone would get mad. It’s understandable. It wasn’t right to hit her. You know that and so do I, but it isn’t something that you should go back to prison for. If you fight us, though, that is definitely where you will go. If you cooperate here, I can put all that in my report. I can call your P.O. We can work things out.”

She watched him carefully.

“It’s your only chance, Steve.”

Steve stared at her intently throughout her entire speech. A long, tense moment of silence followed.

It didn’t work. He’s going to fight and someone is going to die here tonight.

When he spoke, he spoke carefully, the edge out of his voice. “You’d really call him and explain?”

Katie let out an inward sigh. “Yes. Absolutely.”

Steve sighed, then nodded slowly. “Okay. What do you want me to do?”

Katie directed him to turn around and quickly handcuffed him. It required two pairs of handcuffs linked together because of his size and broad back. The small, silver cuffs looked frail on his large wrists. Katie imagined that he could snap them if he wished.

“Steve, you made the right decision,” she told him.

“I hope so.”

“Is that how it works?” Julie chirped at Katie. “You are all willing to go to bat for a woman-beater?”

“Did you ever hit her before tonight, Steve?” Katie asked him quietly.

“No. Never.”

Katie turned to Julie. “He said you hit him tonight, too, Julie.”

“I did not. He’s a lying ex-con.”

“Has he ever hit you before, Julie?”

“Yes. All the time. I’m a battered woman.”

“What you are is a cheater who got caught,” Katie told her stiffly.

“We’re not married!”

Katie stared at her, disbelieving.

Steve spoke up, his voice neutral again. “Officer, can we go? I’d like to leave and never come back here again.”

“Sure.” Katie led him toward the door.

“YOU FAGGOT!” Julie screamed.

Steve stopped, turned his head slightly and said in the same even voice, “My mother was right about you, Julie. You’re just a little bitch.”

Julie gave a shocked sound.

“I agree,” Katie said, and led Steve out the door.

“I heard that, you dyke!” Julie screamed after her. “I am going to file a complaint! What’s your badge number?” She tried to follow them, but Chisolm stopped her.

“Ma’am,” he said in the same flat voice he had used before. “You might want to shut that sewer of yours, or I will take his word for it and arrest you for assault. Then you can make that complaint from jail. You understand me?”

Katie grinned at Julie’s silence.

“Good,” Chisolm said. “Now go back inside and close your door.”

Katie heard a moment of silence, the scuffle of feet, then a loud slam.

“I’m glad someone can shut her up,” Steve muttered.

Katie struggled not to laugh. Not only was the situation perversely funny to her, but the relief of stress from a few moments ago made her giddy. She barely managed to hold her laughter inside.

She reached her patrol car, searched Steve and put him in the back seat. When she closed the door, Chisolm appeared beside her again.

“Jesus, Tom, will you stop sneaking up on me?” she joked.

Chisolm grinned for a moment, then turned serious. “Well done,” he said with a nod. “Very well done.” Then he turned and walked toward his car.

“Thanks,” Katie said. She watched him go and felt a flush of pride. Chisolm was one of the most respected street officers on the department, if not the most. He didn’t throw compliments around lightly.

Katie slid into the driver’s seat of her patrol car. She felt good.

“Officer?”

Katie glanced at Steve in the rear-view mirror. “Yes?”

“Thanks.”

Katie nodded. “Okay, Steve. We’ll work it out.”

Steve nodded, then stared out the window.

Katie started the car and headed toward the jail. She felt a pang of guilt, because she knew that even with her phone call to Steve’s probation officer, he was almost certainly going to be revoked. She hadn’t lied to him exactly, but she’d sold him a false bill of goods. Was that all right? Did her half-lie serve a greater good, protecting her and Chisolm, not to mention Steve himself, from a dangerous confrontation?

She knew the answer was yes, but she couldn’t shake that small sense of guilt. Despite her elation at the success of the call and Chisolm’s compliment, it ranked as quite possibly the longest trip to jail she’d ever made.

2210 hours

Kopriva waited restlessly for the data channel to return his driver’s check. The car in front of him wasn’t a maggot car, but the woman blew through the light at Division and Indiana right in front of him, so he stopped her. Usually, he would have let her go with a warning.

Usually.

But tonight he was grumpy.

Katie had not even looked his way all through roll call. He watched for her down in the sally-port as he waited for a car, hoping to make a plan to get coffee at two or three in the morning, once things slowed down, but she didn’t show up before he had to leave.