DAY SEVENTY SIX

Penny looked at the list of sixty-seven names on charts on the walls.  The charts were her handiwork, her connection with the effort to stop the shooting.  Each name was lettered on a piece of poster-board two inches high and eighteen inches wide.  There were column headings around the room.  Nine of the names were in a column headed “Confirmed Deceased”.   Four more names were below under a heading, “Believed Deceased”.  Seventeen of the names were in a column labeled “Too Tall” meaning the subject was over five feet eleven.  These would be investigated if nothing else turned up.  Five more were headed, “Not Capable” which included the man who was now a DAK and confined to a wheelchair and one that was in a home with a spinal injury from a motorcycle accident.  New names were added nearly every week as other leads came to light.  But not one concrete lead had been turned; in fact, they were excluding more and more of the suspects each day. 

She picked up the FAXes from the night before.  There was one of interest.  It was the death certificate for Josh King.  She crutched over to the wall and moved his name from “Believed Deceased” to Confirmed Deceased”.  Then she crutched to the filing cabinet and filed the death certificate in his folder.  That done she moved the folder to the bottom drawer.   The top drawer was less than a third full.  She could hardly get the folder in the bottom one.  They were burning old leads without getting any new ones.

She stood for nearly ten more minutes looking at the list.  There was clearly something they were missing but she had no idea what it was.

NIGHT EIGHTY FIVE

The evening patrol list showed some changes.  Paul Merris was teamed with Jack Farley.  It was unusual to team a rookie with a guy like Jack but the chief hoped Paul could keep Jack in check.  Paul wasn’t any rookie, he was Charlie’s grandson.  He grew up knowing about Police work.  In his opinion Jack was an incident waiting to happen and the best he could do is delay that till Jack retired.  The police force was increasingly under fire.  In the community the question was being asked, “If he police could not protect its officers how could it protect the community?”  The last thing they needed now was another bad shoot and it seemed that Jack was the primary threat.  Paul was not really with it when they went out.  He was thinking about Felicia.  She was just starting to be able to start living again.  For him it was his sister Penny again.  He stood there next to her unable to do anything but be sympathetic.  His mind kept going back to the day after she was shot.  He kept assuring her that this made no difference he loved her.  And he did, he was sure of that but he wasn’t sure she could accept it.  What if she…  His mind raced.