DAY FIFTY SEVEN

Barb, Margie and Penny went for their final fitting of the articulated leg with a cosmetic cover. As they were getting ready to leave the shop Cliff handed Penny a package.  “Here is a notebook and four video tapes.  The tape has about twenty five people with various limitations, we added a few.  It shows them walking, standing, pushing, lifting, reaching.  I got both front and back views.  It took some time to get them accumulated.  It is hard to find guys that will help with something like this we had to promise to fuzz out the faces.  I put all of them in fatigues and photographed them first then I had them dress in three other outfits and put them on other tapes.  I figured while we had them and all of the approvals we had better get the maximum mileage.  Maybe you may need this again.  They thanked him and left.

They went back to the station wearing their new legs.  All three were very disappointed.  Sure they had seen people use them effectively, Ann for example, but they had just begun to appreciate the work she had done to be so comfortable on her prosthesis.  They called the parking garage to get the attendant to come in to look at the tape.  A call to his home got an answering machine.  The lineup would have to wait.

NIGHT FIFTY SEVEN

Dean Waltz and Jan King were on the streets together checking out a report of a disturbance near the YMCA.  They got out of the unit and started on patrol on foot.  After about ten minutes of fruitless search they decided to return to the unit.  Jan was just reaching for the car door handle when they heard a noise at the end of the block.  Two youths were yelling at each other.  Jan called to Dean.  He was at the back of the unit, ready to go to the driver’s door.  He turned to Jan to see what she wanted.  As he did he saw what looked like a gun barrel pointed at them in the shadows of alley behind Jan. He yelled and she started to move just as the rifle fired.  Dean saw Jan fall.  She was hit and needed help.  But something more important had to be done in the next couple of seconds.  Then he would attend to her.  He drew his weapon and turned toward the rifle crack.  He fired three times before the rifle cracked again.  Dean felt an intense pain in his belly and realized he was falling.  He passed out before he hit the pavement.  Jan was on the radio calling for help.  When others arrived Jan had put a tourniquet on her leg and crawled to Dean.  She tore his shirt to make a pad to hold on the wound in at his pubic bone.  Her right leg was on the pavement nearly fifteen feet from where she was when help arrived.  She had crawled that distance to help him.