Today’s
excerpt is from How ‘bout Both, Book #3 of the Bader Trilogy. Two terrorists killed, but Elmer puts out an
altered version of the shooting. Enjoy
and have a fantastic day.
m.j.
The turkeys
weren’t the only things deceased. As
Elmer was about to find out, a LAPD patrol unit spotted Lashkar Malik’s
car. They knew there was a want on
it—one carrying an advisory the occupants might be terrorists. The two officers used good sense. They called in the fact they were behind the
wanted car. Raymond Clayton was just
getting ready to go off duty when the call came in. He organized the requested back up
brilliantly. Two blocks later, the
intersection was blocked off with three more patrol cars, as two more came up
behind the unit that had called in the information the wanted car had been
found. The original unit was told to hit
their lights and siren. When they did,
the other five cars were told to hit their lights, also. The two would-be terrorists in the car didn’t
know exactly what to do, but decided they weren’t going to go down without a
fight, so the driver stopped the car. He
got out as his companion got out the other side.
Knowing what had
happened to their comrades in a similar situation, the officers in the original
unit to spot the terrorists, came out of their suddenly stopped patrol car,
with weapons at the ready. It was a good
thing they did. The two terrorists were
armed, ready to start a fire-fight, right on the streets of Los Angeles. They never got the chance. The other two patrol cars had also
stopped. All six uniformed officers cut
loose at once. The two terrorists died
without ever firing a shot. Better yet,
no bystanders were injured in the hail of bullets…most of which hit their
targets.
Raymond arrived
just as the last shot had been fired so took control of the situation. After giving his preliminary orders, he
called Elmer, knowing Elmer’s cell phone number, as it was one he kept in his
own cell phone. When Elmer saw who was
calling, he answered, “Hi, Ray. What’ve
you got?”
“Two dead
terrorists. The car you guys put out the
APB on was spotted. We surrounded
it. The bad guys got out, armed, and
ready to fight. Our guys never gave them
the chance to get off even a shot…thankfully.”
“Hot damn. Get me identification, then call back. I’ve got to call Homer Spradling, over at
FBI.”
“Got it. You want me to call in the brass?”
“Yeah, see
ya. Thanks…good work. Wait…where?”
Raymond told
him, then Elmer ended the call. He
didn’t even take time to tell the others what was going on as he called
Homer. “Got two guys in Malik’s
car…uniforms killed them. Don’t know who
they are. I’m way in the hell out at Red
Grassi’s ranch. You mind checking out
who they are?”
“Hell,
no…where.”
Elmer told him,
then said he’d get back to him as time allowed.
Next, he called Helen Bledsoe.
She answered, “If you’re calling about the shooting, I’m on my way with
a sound truck.”
Elmer laughed.
“Okay…may want you to fudge the report a bit.
Hope you get there first. The
dead guys are connected with Simmons—don’t want that put out yet. Want it to look like a routine traffic stop
gone haywire. Don’t want Simmons to know
we were looking for the car. I’ll
explain later. Gotta go for now.”
“Thanks for the
trust. It was a routine traffic stop…got
it. See ya.”
That call ended,
Elmer called Raymond, who answered, “Just got off the horn with the Chief. He’s sending the Chief of Detectives. Said something about keeping it under our
hat, about our officers were looking for the car.”
“Sharp cookie,
our Chief…exactly what I’m calling about.
Wonder how he knew we were looking for the car in connection with the
Simmons case? Oh, well—on this deal,
I’ve filled Helen Bledsoe in. Told her
that we’d appreciate her reporting the shooting was a result of a routine
traffic stop gone wrong. Talk to her,
feed her what you have—she knows what to report. All other news outlets get a vanilla version
of the same story…that it appears to be a routine traffic stop. We know the guys in the car—now dead—are
connected with Simmons. We’re laying a
trap for Simmons at the funerals Friday, so don’t want him scared off, wondering
how we knew the guys in the car were connected to him.”
“Got it. Want me to have our esteemed Chief of
Detectives call you when he gets here?”
“If I don’t get
through to Gordo in the meantime, yeah.
See you.”
“Right…so
long.”
Next, Elmer
called Gordon Bergmann. He gave him the
same story to be passed on to the media, and why. Gordon was already thinking along the same
lines. When he told Elmer so, Elmer
asked, “How come you and the Chief both know the details of what we wanted the
car for? I don’t mind—just curious how
we managed to get the right information to the right people for a change—since
dumb Elmer Bader totally forgot to inform you.”
Gordon
laughed. “You trained Alan well—he
called me. I called the Chief. Reggie also called me with it…after Alan had. Glad someone at my former command has a
brain, since it seems the crackerjack detective of the department may be
getting too old to think of everything.”
“Har, har,
har. Nice. Thank you, sir.”
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