Happy Halloween, all. Since I'm on the road, I thought I'd share one of Homicide Hussey's previous posts -- his encounter with the paranormal. I originally ran it in two posts, so it's longer than my usual posts. Hope you enjoy. (And don't forget my first giveaway deadline is tomorrow!)
Here, Detective Hussey is training a new rookie partner, Vlad. They're finishing dinner when they get a call...
“I’ve got a suspicious incident call at the Carpenter’s Home on North. 98. Meet with the security guard who heard noises upstairs.”
Vlad responded, “Fifty-one from Florida and the Boulevard.”
In training new recruits, I always try to encourage them to formulate a plan in their minds. To visualize what they might find when they get to the call. I then caution them not to get tunnel vision. In other words, to develop several scenarios in their minds just in case.
This call, for instance, could be a burglar, a prowler, kids playing where they don’t belong, or just the wind blowing against a loose shutter. It would be our job to investigate, search and locate the source of the noise, or to determine if the security guard was a little stir crazy.
When we arrived, I might have voted for the latter. Twenty-year-old security officer Luther Parton was about 5’3” tall and weighed about a hundred pounds.
His black leather belt was cinched so tightly around his waist, with the uniform shirt and trousers two sizes too large, that he looked like a tube of toothpaste, squeezed in the middle. Luther wore those black rimmed “Buddy Holly” glasses with real thick lenses. He seemed a little breathless when he ran up to the cruiser.
“I heard someone upstairs” he panted. “Then I was going up to take a look, my flashlight just quit.”
“What did you hear?” I asked.
“It sounded like voices,” the kid said. “Third floor of A wing.”
“Any other ways into this place?” my partner asked.
“No, they’re all locked and barred, just the front door, I checked them myself.”
When we entered the lobby area of the building I could see that at one time this was a grand architectural work of art. The exposed beams and huge wooden doors gave it an almost medieval look. “When's the last time the upstairs were checked?” I asked.
"This morning by the day shift,” the guard answered. “What’re you guys carryin' there?” He pointed to the gun on my right side.
“It’s a model 64 Smith, 38 special,” I replied matter-of-factly.
“Ever shoot anybody?”
Jesus I knew that question was coming. It was always easier to say no.
“Oh.” He sounded disappointed.
I let the rookie go up the stairs first, because I didn’t think we would find any bad guys and he needed the experience of searching buildings. This one would give him plenty. The interior of the building was 180,000 square feet. We checked the first floor together, tediously looking into every room. Opening the room doors first, then looking cautiously into the bathrooms and closets. The electricity was off in the building, and thus the air conditioner was off. All the windows had been boarded up. The hot, stagnant air inside the building made it difficult to breathe. Vlad and I began to sweat profusely.
