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Fly
“Paramedics and additional units.”
Pike keyed his rover, sending a request for paramedics and additional units to the dispatcher. Pike saw Fly
“I want you to get him! You have to go get him. He went to his fucking slut girlfriend-”
The girl was growing more agitated and Fly
“Let’s take care of that baby first, all right, hon? Nothing’s more important than your baby.”
Fly
“He’s going to get away-”
“Shh. He won’t get away.”
Fly
“You have to sit down first, hon. Let’s get some ice on that nose. I’m going to take care of you.”
Fly
“I’m okay here. You good with getting the back?”
Pike nodded.
“Be careful.”
Pike moved past with no great feeling of apprehension. He glanced in the kitchen, then stepped into the hall. The bathroom door was open, showing a sink mottled with built-up soap film, a tiny tub, and a toilet. Pike turned to the bedroom. The door was half open and the light was on. Pike remembered Fly
Pike listened, but the girl was at it again, telling Fly
Pike wanted to get back to the living room, but kept his eyes on the closet. He moved quickly and silently the way he had in the woods as a boy, hiding from his father. Silence was everything. Speed was life. He dropped to a knee, then jerked the tumbled sheets up and glanced under the bed. Nothing. He looked back to the closet.
Pike didn’t believe anyone would be in the closet, but he had to check. The girl was louder and even more insistent, and Pike wanted to give Fly
The closet door was open about six inches. The bedroom was lit but inside the closet was dark and impenetrable. Pike stood as far to the side as possible, then jerked open the door, letting light flood the dark space behind. Nothing.
They had been in the apartment for less than two minutes.
In the moment Pike saw the closet was empty, a loud crash came from the living room, riding on top of the thuds of men moving hard as a voice grunted-
“Kill’m.”
Pike moved fast across the bed, into the hall, then into the doorway. The closet door off the entry had been thrown open. Candace Stanik’s boyfriend, who would later be identified as one David Lee Elish, had one arm hooked around Fly
Over and over, Elish was grunting, “Kill’m.”
Pike brought his 9mm up without hesitation and shot Fabrocini in the head. Pike would have shot Elish, too, but the angle was bad. Pike was moving before Fabrocini’s body hit the floor.
Pike drove hard directly into Fly
Only after Elish and the knife were secure did Pike turn back to Fly
Pike said, “Officer Fly
Fly
“Fucking vest. Fucking vest stopped the knife.”
Pike thought Fly
Three hours later, they were released to leave. A shooting team had come out, along with the evening shift commander, two Rampart captains, and two use-of-force detectives from Parker Center. Pike and Fly
Fly
Fly
“You okay?”
“Yes, sir.”
Fly
“Listen, I want to go over what happened in there-you saved me. Thank you for that.”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“I know, but there it is. I want you to know I appreciate what you did. You saw those two guys on me, you saw the knife, you made a fast call. I’m not saying you did anything wrong. I just want you to think about what you did. Sometimes we have to kill people, but our job out here isn’t to kill people.”
“Yes, sir. I know that.”
“What happened in there was my fault, not clearing that closet. I saw that damned door.”
“We were clearing the apartment when it happened. No one’s fault.”
“You’re a boot. Your first day on the job, and you sure as hell saved my butt.”
Fly
Fly
“You’re calm as a stone. Me, I’m shaking like a leaf-”
Pike felt it in Bud Fly
Bud suddenly pulled back his hand as if he had read Pike’s thoughts and was embarrassed. Officer-involved shootings were rare, but gunfights had been part of Pike’s life since he left home, and home, in those rare moments when he thought about it, had been worse-his father’s rage; fists and belts and steel-toed work boots falling like rain in a strangely painless way; his mother, screaming; Pike, screaming. Combat was nothing. Pike remembered a kind of intellectual acceptance that he had to kill other men so they couldn’t kill him. Like when he finally grew big enough to choke out his father. Once his father feared him, his father stopped beating him and his mother. Simple. Pike’s only concerns now were in following the rules of the Los Angeles Police Department. He had. He had made a clean shoot. Bud was alive. Pike was alive. Simple.
Pike touched Bud’s hand. He wanted to help.
Pike said, “We’re okay.”