Gerty was reading, “10 Ways to Tell if He Will Cheat,” when the phone rang.
When she said,”911 Dispatch” a little boy’s voice answered, “a man with a gun is hurting my Mommy and Daddy, Mommy is crying.”
She instantly turned on the P.A. speakers in the room, a signal to everyone in the room of a hot call.
She asked, “Is anyone with you?”
“My Sister”
“How old are you?”
“Five”
“How old is your Sister?”
“Three”
“Where are you?”
“In Mommy and Daddy’s room.”
“Can you still hear them?”
“Yes, he is hurting Mommy and she is crying.”
Gerty looked up as she disabled the P.A. in the room. As she looked around, the Sheriff said, “Freddy and Russell are the closest to that address, and they are on their way. Two other cars are 10 minutes behind.”
The Sheriff turned the P.A back on.
“Tell those morons to use their right feet, sirens, and lights”, Gerty said.
Gerty could hear the screams and shouts from the little boys’ phone. It all sounded terrifying.
She asked them. “Can you take the pillows off your Mommy’s bed and hide in her closet? Tell your sister she has to stay quiet, Honey, this is so so important. Do you understand why?”
“Yes”
“OK, be as quiet as you can and hide in the closet. Quietly shut the door and lay down on the pillows.”
“OK”, he whispered.
“Put the phone on the pillow and lay your head on top of it. We don’t want him to be able to hear me talking to you.”
“OK”
The entire room was focused on every sound from the speakers in the ceiling. That crack that was the beginning of every sound from the phone shook them all to the core. It took a fraction of a second to recognize if the noise brought hope or terror. The only dry eyes in the room belonged to Gerty.
“OK,” Gerty said, “We are going to play Secret Agent. Instead of you talking to me and making noise. I want you to scratch the bottom of the phone with your fingernail. Two times for yes and one time for no. Do you understand?”
“scratch scratch”
The kid’s a quick study. He was smart and their chances of helping him and his sister just increased. The room was in the grip of every little sound from the P.A. speakers. The volume was turned up as loud as it could without distortion. Everybody’s job is to listen for clues from that phone. Murmurs of prayers of thanks went through the room.
They could hear the shouts over the phone as they got louder and louder. Something was about to happen over there. Then two shots rang out in quick succession. A man was heard screaming “You killed my wife!”
Gertrude said, “Are you alright?
“What about your sister?”
“Are you OK?”
“Are you OK?”
“Are you OK?”
“scratch scratch”
The room let out a loud gasp and shouts of “Praise Jesus” were heard. Gerty looked around the room with the coldest stare. One of those, shut the fuck up or get out, looks that everyone understood immediately.
Freddy was driving unit #11, he called, “Dispatch, unit 11 is on its way and about 5 minutes out.”
Dispatch, “Stand on it, we have two children in danger and shots have been fired, there is one intruder. Unit 24 do you copy?”
Russell said, “Copy, and I have unit 11 insight, just ahead. On my way.”
Freddy and Russell knew they were going to a trailer house at the end of Timber Lane with one armed intruder. The little boy had made a mistake. There were two intruders with pump shotguns.
Inside the trailer the men let it be known they were here to collect the money their boss was owed. They introduced themselves as Mr. Broken and Mr. Bones.
“You can refer to us as ‘Broken Bones’. That is our nom de guerre.” Mr. Broken said with a smile.
The couple was selling meth and their accounting showed a twenty-thousand-dollar shortfall. They had thought that since they were moving so much product. No one would notice a little off the top here and there. They had spent the money as soon as they stole it. Dopers never realize that their suppliers aren’t dopers too. These men were sent with the instructions, “Get the money or make an example of them.”
They pleaded with the men, saying that someone must have taken it when the money was turned in. They didn’t have the money. Mr. Broken took the butt of his shotgun and drove in into the husband’s face, shattering his nose. Blood flowed everywhere. He still said he didn’t have the cash. The gunman turned his attention to the wife and said to the husband, “Maybe we should take it out in trade from this bitch. Is that OK?”
The husband said, “Sure”. He even bragged on how good she was in bed. That’s when he knew they didn’t have the money. He backed away from the sofa she was sitting on and shot her twice. Once in the side of the stomach and another in the throat. Her intestines fell out of the hole in her side. Her head was severed by the second shot except for a flap of skin on the right side of her neck. Her head rested upside down between and below her breasts facing to her left.
Then he turned his attention to the husband and asked about the money again. The man was wailing and still said he didn’t have any money. He decided to shoot him in the groin to keep him alive a little longer. The double-ought buck shattered the pelvic bone and severed the femoral arteries. Mercifully he bled out almost instantly. Their ears were still ringing from the gunfire when they thought they heard some noise. It was sirens. How could that be? They were half a mile from the main road.
As Mr. Broken was reloading his shotgun, Mr. Bones started to look around the room. On the bar, there was a cordless phone in its’ base. He noticed an amber light that was labeled, “line in use”. “Shit” he yelled there is someone else in this trailer using the phone. They both started to look everywhere for the other phone. They went in different directions in the trailer to check every possible hiding place. Mr. Bones went to the large bedroom and yelled, “Who’s in here?” The little girl whimpered. He immediately opened the closet door and saw two little pairs of legs sticking out. Holding the gun in his right hand. He used his left to pull the kids out of the closet by their ankles. Both little babies were screaming uncontrollably. He aimed the gun at the little girl to kill her first, she was the noisiest.
At the dispatch office, Gert heard it all. After another shot, the husband quit screaming.
“Are you OK?” she asked.
“scratch scratch”
She then heard a man scream, “Who’s in here” and the little girl whimpered. There was a rustling sound and the sound of the door opening. The kids were screaming. As they were drug away from the phone their screams got a little quieter. Then there was a crashing sound of metal against metal.
Many of the people in the room started to cry.
Freddy took them at their word. He was hauling ass as he has never driven before. Russell was right behind him. Freddy was too late in trying to slow to a stop. It had rained the night before and the ground was wet and slick. The patrol car started to slide sideways and went through the fence and slammed into the trailer. The first shooter was in the middle of the trailer going to help kill the kids when the car struck the trailer with such force that he lost his footing. He then ran to the door and went outside. The car was to his left and he took aim and fired. The front post on the squad car deflected most of the buckshot, but a few balls hit his left arm and shoulder. The gunman went down the steps to finish the job when Russell started firing. His second shot hit him and when the gunman turned to return fire with Russell. He was hit in the chest two more times. He fell to the ground dead. Russell ran to Freddy to help him. Just as he got to the car, the second gunman appeared with the shotgun aimed at him. He was smiling with a big “Your Ass is Mine” grin on his face. Another shot rang out. It was Freddy firing from the front seat of his car through the hole in the windshield. He hit the gunman above his left eye blowing a big hole in the back of his head. Gravity finished the job.
After checking that Freddy would be OK, Russell went inside to see if there was anyone alive. He was shocked at the carnage he saw. It took him a little time to recognize that the body on the sofa was a woman’s. A man’s body was sitting in a pool of blood that looked to cover the entire floor around his chair. Russell heard screams and followed the sound to the back bedroom. There he found the kids who were sobbing uncontrollably. He told them that they would be OK now and he would protect them. They were happy to hug his neck. He grabbed a blanket off the bed and covered the kids and put them on his shoulder. He didn’t want them to see what had happened to their parents as he carried them out of the trailer.
The entire office listened to the gunfire after the crashing sound. They knew the kids were alive because they still heard their screaming. It wasn’t until they heard Russell’s voice telling the kids that they would be OK, did they know for sure that the kids would make it out alive. The room erupted into shouts of joy and tears of gratitude. Then they fell silent. That silence was broken by the sound of someone throwing up in the trash can, then within 10 seconds, someone else joined in. When the gravity of what had happened began to sink in. Gerty dug through her purse to get a cigarette. Her hands were shaking. One of the deputies said, “Hey, no one smokes in here.” The Sheriff responded, “You’re right. Why don’t you go and find her something she can use as an ashtray.” Point taken.
The third and fourth patrol cars arrived to find the four of them huddled in a tight mass on the ground. All were crying and holding each other tightly. The fact that Freddy had urinated on himself during the shootout. Didn’t seem to bother anybody. All four had looked over the edge into the abyss. The darkness they saw in that crevasse will forever haunt their lives. They hugged each other in the hope of making the memory of that fear go away.
They were informed that more deputies, highway patrol, and an ambulance would be arriving soon.
When the ambulance arrived, they immediately went to work tending Freddy’s wounds. They even had some scrubs for him to wear so he could get out of those wet pants. His arm and shoulder had just started to hurt, and he was grateful for the aid.
He thanked them and then offered them some donuts. “They are fresh, just made today,” he said. They demurred.