To Know A Man

Part 7

Tom undid the Velcro straps of the bulletproof vest. "Do you want me to stick around?" Jackson said, watching as the detective removed the heavy black fabric shield.

"Nope. Don't need to. I'm going to be sitting at my desk the rest of the day. In fact, I'd prefer if you stick with Cassy. She's the one out in the open right now."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely. I'm going to be entertaining myself by going through a load of files. Nothing else. I'll even be ordering lunch in." Tom answered.

"Okay. We'll go back to the hospital and wait there until Sgt. St. John is ready to leave."

"Good man," Tom responded. "Thanks for the assist," he acknowledged as the young officer left the room.

Tom readjusted his shirt, inspecting his appearance in the mirror. He picked up the bulletproof vest and slung it over his right shoulder, making his way back to his locker. He had dutifully worn the protection while he was outside the police station. But once inside the confines of the building, he had made a beeline for the locker room to pull it off. He hated wearing the thing and there was no way he was going to keep it on while searching through Harry's office.

He returned to his locker and stored the vest inside. Slamming the door shut, he made his way out of the locker room and into the hallway.

"Tom, how's Harry?" District Attorney Craig Alexander shouted from the opposite end of the hallway. Tom stopped before entering the squad room and faced the attorney.

"You heard?"

"Of course. I would have been at the hospital last night but I was out of town until this morning. Larkin asked to meet with me first thing to prepare my office for any press calls that might come in. So, how is he?"

"The doctor says he's stable for now, but he still has the bullet in his chest." Tom pushed his way through the squad room doors, but Alexander grabbed his arm, halting his progress.

"I want to hear about this, but I have a meeting. Can you walk with me." Tom nodded, following the man back down the hallway.

"Why haven't they taken the bullet out?" Craig asked as the men descended the steps to the main atrium.

"It was too dangerous to take it out at the time. They're going to try to take it out tomorrow, after his body has had a little time to recover."

"How's Frannie holding up?" Craig held the door open for Tom as they made their way down the steps towards the back entrance to the building.

"She's doing okay. Cassy's staying with her now. Her sister will be in later today."

"Any leads on the shooter."

Tom shook his head, "None that I know of."

"Larkin says Gibson and O'Malley have the case. They're good. They'll make sure all the bases are covered."

Tom nodded in agreement, "Yeah. They are." He paused for a moment and then looked Craig in the eyes, "Do you have any idea who would want Harry dead?" He reached forward to push the door open which would lead the two to the parking lot.

The DA stopped walking, smiled and tilted his head, "I thought this was Gibson and O'Malley's case."

Tom shook his head, "Well, it may be their case officially, but Cassy and I intend to help out where we can. They've asked us to go through Harry's files and see if we can pick up on a potential lead. I figure you know about other things that he's been involved in that we may not be privy to. Now, I ask again, any ideas?"

Craig thought before answering. He then shook his head, "No. Nothing that I'm aware of."

Tom closed his eyes, "Damn. I don't think this is going to be easy. Neither Cassy nor I are aware of any other cases that he's involved in either. That means that if he's the target, it's probably somebody in his past. That's a lot of time to cover."

Craig stepped through the door and onto the outside steps of the building, "What do you mean 'if he's the target.' There's doubt?"

Tom shrugged his shoulders, following him out the door, "Gibson and O'Malley seem to think so." Tom was pensive for a short time, "Hell, it's possible."

"Why?"

"I saw Harry's face right before the gun went off. There was fear. . .recognition. He knew what was about to happen. He pushed us down. It's possible that he knew that either Cassy or I were in danger and he took the bullet for us."

"So looking through Harry's history may be a waste of time," Alexander concluded.

Tom nodded, "But, we don't have any place else to start. The fact of the matter is that Harry's the one in the hospital, not us. We have no choice but to start with him."

"Agreed," Alexander led Tom to his car. "If you need access to our files, let me know. The District Attorney's office is prepared to help any way legally possible."

Tom caught the implication of the man's offer. "Thank you, Craig."

It suddenly dawned on Tom that he was standing outside the building. Pushing down a brief surge of panic, he chuckled, "Well, Cassy would kill me about now."

Craig gave him a confused look and then understanding crossed his features, "You shouldn't be out here if you could be a target."

Tom started to nod in agreement when a travelling red dot of light struck his eye, drawing his attention away from the district attorney. With a sinking feeling, Tom knew what the light meant and he dove forward grabbing for a suddenly startled Craig Alexander, shoving the large man to the ground. There was an explosion of noise followed by shards of glass raining down on the men as the glass on the driver's side door burst into a thousand pieces. Tom pushed Craig forward, "MOVE! MOVE!" Crawling frantically, the two men made their way to the back of the car. A second explosion shook the car as a bullet impacted in the side panel, only inches from Tom's legs. Rapidly, the men found their way to the opposite side and huddled down, using the car for cover. Another bullet's impact shook the car. Then another.

"Who's shooting at us!" Craig yelled.

Tom pulled out his gun, "Don't have a clue. Whoever it is has a laser sight. . .a sniper's rifle. My gun's not going to reach them." Tom debated what to do. The car was their only cover and they were a long way away from the safety of the building.

Suddenly there were shouts coming from the building and Tom knew that reinforcements from inside had heard the shot and were coming outside to help. At the top of his lungs he yelled, "Stay back. . .sniper!"

He heard a deep voice from the building shout back "Where?"

"Don't know!" Tom responded. "From the south somewhere."

"Get over here," the voice ordered. "We'll cover you."

Taking a deep breath, Tom started to move from the protection of the car.

Craig reached out to stop him, "Where are you going?"

"Well, we can't sit here all day."

The district attorney nodded in agreement and started to shift position. "Okay. Let's do it." The two men rose, half expecting to hear the sound of bullets and feel the pain of them slicing through their bodies.

But there was nothing. . .no sound at all. The two men ran to the building and found several officers with bulletproof vests surrounding them. Standing in the doorway was the now armed Chief Larkin.

Once Tom and Craig had entered the safety of the building, Chief Larkin shouted out to his officers, "Search the area. Find the shooter."

Responding immediately, the men left the grounds. "What happened?" Larkin bellowed, turning to Tom for an answer.

"Someone's taking pot shots at us," Tom responded, slightly out of breath.

"Any idea who?"

Tom shook his head. Craig took a deep breath, calming his nerves, "Well, Sergeant, we know one thing. We know you're the target."

End Part 7