Saturday, October 15, 2016

Officer Sean's Case



Officer Sean's Case
by
Hannah Aldrich
(age 13) 


I close the door behind me as I exit the police station. 'Whew!' another tough day at work. I stopped four speeders, and stopped two robbers, I stopped a fight. "Sigh" I also took a lost boy to his house and got yelled at by my boss-the sheriff. "Man,I really need a nap!" I head for my cruiser, open the driver's-side-door, and then I hear a voice behind me.

Officer, Sean! Wait!”

Ugh!' I turned around to find Officer Dave waving something in the air. 
"What is that?”

Here. It's a file on this man who has been stealing and breaking and entering.” “The boss wants you to look into him,” Dave said as he handed me the file.

Thank you, David. Have a good evening. Give the wife my regards,” I said as I shook his hand.

You too.” And with that he turned around and got in his cruiser and drove away.

I peeked into the file to see the name of the criminal - Merdock Cole. Hmm... I tossed the file into the passenger seat, got into my cruiser, and drove off for home.

When I pulled into the driveway of my home. I saw my wife Jane standing by the garage, holding our month-old baby, Anna, waiting for me. I got out of my police car and picked up my file on Cole."Hi Jane, what's up? How'd your day go?” I asked my wife.

Great. How did your day go?” she asked.

It was a long one, but better than others,” I said, rubbing my hands on my face in drowsiness.

For dinner we had mashed potatoes, corn, turkey and iced -tea. Then I was off to my office to do research on Merdock Cole. "This guy's got quite the record!" The list goes on and on and on-stealing, murder, hit and runs, speeding. Wow! He was last sighted at the gas- station in Austin, Texas."Man, that's close to where we live!"

I went to bed early that night- not that it did me any good. I didn’t fall asleep until late that night. I was thinking about what I was going to do the next day. “Was I going to search for him?” Or maybe just keep my eyes peeled and my ears opened and run into him eventually?

My alarm started to blare at 4:00 AM. I groaned. Uuuuggggh! I didn't want to get up, but I knew I had to. The sun was still sleeping. I almost fell on the floor when my foot caught on the top sheet when I tried to get up. I luckily caught myself with the coffee table.

Standing up I stretched, then whacked my hand on the ceiling-fan. Uhh! That really hurt. I moved my fingers to make sure they weren’t broken. I quickly got on my police uniform and went down-stairs. I tripped on the last step, falling on my face. The baby began to cry. “No! I woke up the baby!” I picked myself up off the floor and tip-toed up the stairs. I cradled the baby in my arms. "Shhh. It's okay." Jane woke up too. I set baby Anna next to her mother."Sorry," I shrugged. Okay, so now let's try this again. I got down-stairs and got some coffee.

Then I finally got to my cruiser. “Pull yourself together, Sean!” I told myself. I didn't have time to put ice on my hand. I was late as it is. I pulled into the police station parking lot. I had my file with me. I opened the door. I had a problem on my mind again. ”Murdock Cole.” I was very frustrated still from my morning.

Good morning, Officer Sean. Did you work on that case about Cole for me?" asked the sheriff.

I nodded slowly, too tired and angry to talk right now.

"You don't look so good, officer," said the sheriff.

"Just a hectic mornin', boss," I said quietly.

"Hmm," responded the sheriff.

I was kind of snappy towards my co-workers. More so to our new recruit Sam. He just graduated law school and joined our station. He was 20 years old. Not far from my age. I think I may have offended him. I was worried that I may have damaged our friendship.

About an hour later, I was rolling around town in my cruiser. My mind was busy thinking of my yelling at Sam for accidentally knocking my file on the floor. I stopped everywhere there had been a sighting of Cole. I had gone through the Dunkin' Donuts drive-through to get an iced-coffee, two sugars, and one cream. I was driving downtown when something caught my eye.

A young man about 19 years of age was running down an alley, looking behind him every few seconds, as though something was chasing him. I was instantly brought back to the present. I pulled over, and burrowed out of my cruiser, and ran down the alley after the man.

Hey! Stop!” I yelled after him. He quickened his pace and so I did too. “This is the police! Stop!” I caught up with him, and grabbed his left arm. He stopped and tried to escape my grasp. “What are you doing?” “Why did you resist an officer?” I asked.

"Let go of me!" he yelled.

"Tell me what you were doing!" I said rather harshly.

The young man looked past my shoulder and stopped struggling. Then he looked at me and smiled.

"What is it?" I said confused.

"Look behind you," said the young man.

Hesitantly I looked behind me. It was Murdock Cole, standing about ten feet behind me with a 9 millimeter pointed right at me.

Let the boy go, Officer,” said Cole. Guessing this was his son, I let go of the young man.

Cole, put your gun down and no one has to get hurt.” I tried to convince him to lower his gun, so I could pull mine out and call for backup, but I didn’t tell this to him. “There are officers watching you all over this place right now, Cole,” I lied to him. I was thinking of what to say next when Cole pulled the trigger. He got me in the left shoulder.

I let out a yell. I pulled my pistol from it's sheath and fired in his direction but missed. Then I called the station. "I need some backup now!" I yelled into the phone.

"Are you all right? Where are you?"

I told the person on the other end of the phone where I was. An officer down the road heard the gunshots and called for backup unaware I already had, then came over to investigate. I was losing a lot of blood and began to feel dizzy. The phone fell to the ground. Officers were showing up. Everything went blurry. I fell to my knees. I heard my name called once or twice. Then I blacked out.

When I came to, Sheriff John was standing over me.

"Hold still, Sean.” “You were shot in the left shoulder. You’re in an ambulance.” Medics were changing an IV. “We got Cole. Good work.”

I was confused. How did I do a good job? I . . . I was shot and the criminal almost got away? I just looked at my boss without words.

I guess he saw the question on my face because he said, "When you shot at him, you probably thought you missed, but you got him in the foot. He couldn't escape. You did good." I began to feel dizzy again."Close you're eyes, Sean. We're almost there."

To be continued....

(Assignment for Lesson #8 - Conflict)

If you are between the ages of 13 -18,
(or know someone who likes to write stories)
I would like to post your story here.
Send me an email. I'd love to read your story!

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