22-08-2026, 03:46 PM
Delwin just shook his head.
“Why not,” Smith continued, answering Delwin’s comment, “There are 11 cops here, 12 counting me. You’re the leaders. If we stick together and give the same story, how are they ever going to break it? Is any jury in the world going to believe 12 cops lied?
“I’ve got a throw down that can’t be traced back to us. He came here to talk to you guys and when I showed up to try to talk sense to him he suddenly snapped and pulled it out and was going to shoot me. People will believe it. They know he’s crazy. Everybody at the courthouse knows about how he broke down. They know he’s been out of control since that slut wife of his dumped him.
“That’s why he tried to kill me. He told me in front of all of you that I was just another guy like the one who stole his wife. Only I stole the wife of a white man. That’s why he hated me, because I was another wife stealer. I tell you, people will believe it.”
Howser just shook his head and looked like he’d swallowed something sour. “No, Shawn. You’ve gone so far around the bend you don’t know how crazy
you are. It won’t work. Even if you kill Maitland and throw your gun down, none of us are going to let you walk or perjure ourselves to save your ass.”
The radios continued to crackle with messages ordering the holders of the radios to check in. No one moved to touch any of the radios.
Smith smiled. It was so confident it raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
“You’ll lie for me. Otherwise I’ll tell them that you let me walk in and shoot him and didn’t raise a hand to stop me. You can deny it, but there are 11 of you and one of me. Everyone is going to be asking, how could 11 armed cops not stop ONE man. You may not serve time, but you’re not going to be cops for that much longer and you may wind up serving time.”
He grinned again.
“Besides, you said it yourself. I’m crazy. At worst I’ll go to some nice mental hospital and after a few years I’ll be cured and get out. I might even meet some cute nurse while I’m being cured.”
“A good plan.”
Smith and everyone else looked at me.
“But it has a few...just. a few flaws the size of the Grand Canyon in it.”
Smith’s smile was frozen on his face.
“Tell us, Maitland, what are the flaws. You going to strike me down with your Angel of Death powers?”
“No, nothing like that, more down to earth. You mind if I take something out of my jacket pocket? I’ll do it slowly.”
“Why not. You’re about to die. The rest of you, keep your fucking hands away from your guns. I might only get a couple of you, but two of you at least are going to die. Get it out, Maitland.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a device the size of a cigarette lighter. I held it up very slowly, and as Smith watched I pressed a button. After a few seconds I hit another button.
“....I’ve got a throw down that can’t be traced back to us. He came here to talk to you guys and when I showed up to try to talk sense to him he suddenly snapped and pulled it out and was going to shoot me. People will believe it. They know he’s crazy ”
I stopped the recording and watched his face, then looked around at the others. Howser and a few others who were smart enough looked ahead, like a chess master planning out moves three or four steps in advance. They knew. Even if Smith had planted friends, they’d know.
“I hope you guys won’t take offense, but I always tape conversations like this. No one will ever hear it, unless they need to.”
“So fucking what? You’re going to give it to me or I’ll take it off your dead body and destroy it. No one will ever hear it.”
Moving very slowly and deliberately, holding the recorder in my left hand, I touched two small prongs on the end.
“This is the latest model, Shawn. Maybe you haven’t seen them. They’re great. It records but it also transmits. There’s a relay link in my car which boosts the message and sends it to a recorder in my office, in a locked desk.
“You can destroy this, but Monday morning there will be people listening to this conversation. It’s digital so it’s recorded everything since I walked in here. Unless you guys plan on raiding my office, and good luck with doing that without leaving so much evidence behind that Edwards and my guys won’t need the recording.”
The tone on the security officer radios had turned to desperation before the calls suddenly stopped. The place was very quiet all of a sudden.
I looked at Shawn directly and made myself smile.
“Oh, and by the way, I’m not giving you this. Shoot me and take it.” Before he could react I turned so my back was to him.
“Shoot me in the back, Shawn. You’ve had experience doing that so it should come easy. Try explaining to your fellow officers, and the guys from my office, how you happened to shoot me in the back as I was attacking you.”
“Turn around, goddammit. I will shoot you in the back if you don’t.”
“But that’s not the only flaw in your plan. Just the biggest. There are others.” “Maitland, turn around.”
“Shawn, dammit, don’t, don’t,” Howser shouted.
“Your finger gets one inch closer to that gun and I’m killing you, Howser. Don’t make me. Delwin, Belmont, keep your fucking hands clear of your guns.”
They were keeping him occupied so I continued.
“Actually, the biggest hole in your plan is the simplest and it’s the one that could send every one of you to prison, or jail, or just to another job.
“Say you destroy the recorder, or maybe it malfunctioned tonight and there is no record in my office. Then all of you have to decide if you’re going to lie for Smith.
“If you lie and agree with Smith that I pulled out his throw down piece, the first question from everybody is going to be – why did I pull out a throw down that NOBODY knows anything about when I’ve got a perfectly usable Glock that everybody at my office knows I’m carrying and which I’ve been trained by our people how to use? Maybe you can explain how I pulled out a hidden throw down, but it’s going to stink to high heaven.
“Of course, you could forget about his throw down and fire my Glock after I’m dead and that would make for a simpler story. Of course, that still leaves you with the question of how I got shot in the back while attacking Smith
“But that’s not your REALLY big problem. Suppose you decide to hang together and lie for Smith.
“Get real. Twelve men are going to keep a secret that could send people to prison.
“You’re cops. You know that’s not going to happen. Someone will get drunk, or get an attack of conscience.
“And then it won’t be just being kicked off the force. It will be conspiracy to aid and abet first degree murder. It will be being an accessory after the fact, and they’ll probably nail you for accessory before the fact because they won’t believe a word you guys say.
“All of you, every one, will spend ten, maybe twenty years in prison because Edwards will make an example of you.”
I stopped and took a deep breath, wondering if my world would end in the next second.
“And even if you tell the truth and they don’t charge you for letting a man be murdered in front of you, like Smith said, you’re going to be laughing stocks in your own world. No cop is going to respect 11 guys that let one guy with a gun buffalo them.
“The story ever gets on the street, and it will, expect to find a lot of bad guys trying you. But you won’t be on the street.
“Dallas Edwards doesn’t love me, but you can’t let cops go around killing prosecutors. Bad for business. He’ll pressure Knight and before too long you guys will be gone.”
It was so quiet I could hear men shifting positions in their chairs, their asses stuck by sweat to the plastic. I could them breathing. Smith sounded like he had asthma, couldn’t catch his breath.
“I’ve been on your side, but it’s just crazy, man. No way can you get away with it.”
The security officer radio Howser carried crackled and voices came out of it at the same time that the radios carried by Martin and Meyers did.
“Howser, come back. Answer please.” Smith looked around the room.
“Turn the radios off.” Nobody did.
“Why not,” Smith continued, answering Delwin’s comment, “There are 11 cops here, 12 counting me. You’re the leaders. If we stick together and give the same story, how are they ever going to break it? Is any jury in the world going to believe 12 cops lied?
“I’ve got a throw down that can’t be traced back to us. He came here to talk to you guys and when I showed up to try to talk sense to him he suddenly snapped and pulled it out and was going to shoot me. People will believe it. They know he’s crazy. Everybody at the courthouse knows about how he broke down. They know he’s been out of control since that slut wife of his dumped him.
“That’s why he tried to kill me. He told me in front of all of you that I was just another guy like the one who stole his wife. Only I stole the wife of a white man. That’s why he hated me, because I was another wife stealer. I tell you, people will believe it.”
Howser just shook his head and looked like he’d swallowed something sour. “No, Shawn. You’ve gone so far around the bend you don’t know how crazy
you are. It won’t work. Even if you kill Maitland and throw your gun down, none of us are going to let you walk or perjure ourselves to save your ass.”
The radios continued to crackle with messages ordering the holders of the radios to check in. No one moved to touch any of the radios.
Smith smiled. It was so confident it raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
“You’ll lie for me. Otherwise I’ll tell them that you let me walk in and shoot him and didn’t raise a hand to stop me. You can deny it, but there are 11 of you and one of me. Everyone is going to be asking, how could 11 armed cops not stop ONE man. You may not serve time, but you’re not going to be cops for that much longer and you may wind up serving time.”
He grinned again.
“Besides, you said it yourself. I’m crazy. At worst I’ll go to some nice mental hospital and after a few years I’ll be cured and get out. I might even meet some cute nurse while I’m being cured.”
“A good plan.”
Smith and everyone else looked at me.
“But it has a few...just. a few flaws the size of the Grand Canyon in it.”
Smith’s smile was frozen on his face.
“Tell us, Maitland, what are the flaws. You going to strike me down with your Angel of Death powers?”
“No, nothing like that, more down to earth. You mind if I take something out of my jacket pocket? I’ll do it slowly.”
“Why not. You’re about to die. The rest of you, keep your fucking hands away from your guns. I might only get a couple of you, but two of you at least are going to die. Get it out, Maitland.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a device the size of a cigarette lighter. I held it up very slowly, and as Smith watched I pressed a button. After a few seconds I hit another button.
“....I’ve got a throw down that can’t be traced back to us. He came here to talk to you guys and when I showed up to try to talk sense to him he suddenly snapped and pulled it out and was going to shoot me. People will believe it. They know he’s crazy ”
I stopped the recording and watched his face, then looked around at the others. Howser and a few others who were smart enough looked ahead, like a chess master planning out moves three or four steps in advance. They knew. Even if Smith had planted friends, they’d know.
“I hope you guys won’t take offense, but I always tape conversations like this. No one will ever hear it, unless they need to.”
“So fucking what? You’re going to give it to me or I’ll take it off your dead body and destroy it. No one will ever hear it.”
Moving very slowly and deliberately, holding the recorder in my left hand, I touched two small prongs on the end.
“This is the latest model, Shawn. Maybe you haven’t seen them. They’re great. It records but it also transmits. There’s a relay link in my car which boosts the message and sends it to a recorder in my office, in a locked desk.
“You can destroy this, but Monday morning there will be people listening to this conversation. It’s digital so it’s recorded everything since I walked in here. Unless you guys plan on raiding my office, and good luck with doing that without leaving so much evidence behind that Edwards and my guys won’t need the recording.”
The tone on the security officer radios had turned to desperation before the calls suddenly stopped. The place was very quiet all of a sudden.
I looked at Shawn directly and made myself smile.
“Oh, and by the way, I’m not giving you this. Shoot me and take it.” Before he could react I turned so my back was to him.
“Shoot me in the back, Shawn. You’ve had experience doing that so it should come easy. Try explaining to your fellow officers, and the guys from my office, how you happened to shoot me in the back as I was attacking you.”
“Turn around, goddammit. I will shoot you in the back if you don’t.”
“But that’s not the only flaw in your plan. Just the biggest. There are others.” “Maitland, turn around.”
“Shawn, dammit, don’t, don’t,” Howser shouted.
“Your finger gets one inch closer to that gun and I’m killing you, Howser. Don’t make me. Delwin, Belmont, keep your fucking hands clear of your guns.”
They were keeping him occupied so I continued.
“Actually, the biggest hole in your plan is the simplest and it’s the one that could send every one of you to prison, or jail, or just to another job.
“Say you destroy the recorder, or maybe it malfunctioned tonight and there is no record in my office. Then all of you have to decide if you’re going to lie for Smith.
“If you lie and agree with Smith that I pulled out his throw down piece, the first question from everybody is going to be – why did I pull out a throw down that NOBODY knows anything about when I’ve got a perfectly usable Glock that everybody at my office knows I’m carrying and which I’ve been trained by our people how to use? Maybe you can explain how I pulled out a hidden throw down, but it’s going to stink to high heaven.
“Of course, you could forget about his throw down and fire my Glock after I’m dead and that would make for a simpler story. Of course, that still leaves you with the question of how I got shot in the back while attacking Smith
“But that’s not your REALLY big problem. Suppose you decide to hang together and lie for Smith.
“Get real. Twelve men are going to keep a secret that could send people to prison.
“You’re cops. You know that’s not going to happen. Someone will get drunk, or get an attack of conscience.
“And then it won’t be just being kicked off the force. It will be conspiracy to aid and abet first degree murder. It will be being an accessory after the fact, and they’ll probably nail you for accessory before the fact because they won’t believe a word you guys say.
“All of you, every one, will spend ten, maybe twenty years in prison because Edwards will make an example of you.”
I stopped and took a deep breath, wondering if my world would end in the next second.
“And even if you tell the truth and they don’t charge you for letting a man be murdered in front of you, like Smith said, you’re going to be laughing stocks in your own world. No cop is going to respect 11 guys that let one guy with a gun buffalo them.
“The story ever gets on the street, and it will, expect to find a lot of bad guys trying you. But you won’t be on the street.
“Dallas Edwards doesn’t love me, but you can’t let cops go around killing prosecutors. Bad for business. He’ll pressure Knight and before too long you guys will be gone.”
It was so quiet I could hear men shifting positions in their chairs, their asses stuck by sweat to the plastic. I could them breathing. Smith sounded like he had asthma, couldn’t catch his breath.
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