Bear was sitting on a chair in the small lounge, flirting with the marshal’s assistant and, from her weary expression of forbearance, doing a bad job of it. He stood quickly when Tim entered and ushered him into the hall.
“I’ve got to make a statement in three minutes, Bear.”
“I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“We had to take the phones off the hook. Too many-”
“I drove over to your house two nights ago. Dray said you were out shooting.” Bear studied Tim’s face. “She didn’t tell you I stopped by?”
“We haven’t been talking so much lately.”
“Jesus Christ, Rack. Why the hell not?”
A flare of anger that Tim smothered. “Look, I need to focus on my shooting statement right now.”
“That’s why I’m here.” Bear took a deep breath, held it for a moment. “You’re getting ambushed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you been watching the news?”
“No, Bear. I’ve been dealing with more important stuff. Like burying my daughter.” Bear took a step back, and Tim inhaled deeply, then squeezed his eyes hard with his thumb and index finger. “I didn’t mean it to come out that way.”
“The coverage has been pretty ugly. There’s this high-five picture-”
“I saw it.”
Bear lowered his voice as a couple of DOJ suits walked by. “It’s getting play like the shot of the INS agent with the MP-5 in Elian Gonzalez’s face. On top of that, some Mexican Al Sharpton out of Texas has been beating the drum-”
“That’s ridiculous. Heidel was white, and half our team was Hispanic.”
“But the photograph is of Denley and Maybeck, and they’re both white. And all that matters is that fucking photo, not the facts behind it.”
Tim held up his hands, a gesture of patience and capitulation. “I can’t control press coverage.”
“Well, you’re not just repeating your statement in there. A few shooting review board members flew out from HQ. You’re gonna get the full-court press.”
“Fair enough. It was a high-profile shooting. There’s a process. I get it.”
“Listen, Rack, this thing gets out of hand, goes civil or criminal, I’m gonna represent you. I don’t care if I have to resign-I got your back.”
“I knew law school would turn you paranoid.”
“This is serious stuff, Rack. Now, I know I’m just a dumb-ass who took a few night classes, but I can rep you for free and get you a real attorney to cover the hard shit.”
“I appreciate that, Bear. Thank you. But it’s gonna be fine.”
The marshal’s assistant stuck her head into the hall. “They’re ready for you, Deputy Rackley.” She withdrew without acknowledging Bear.
“‘Deputy Rackley,’” Tim repeated, troubled by her formality.
“I just wanted to warn you.”
“Thank you.” Tim tapped Bear on the ribs. “How’s the bruising?”
Bear tried not to wince. “Don’t hurt at all.”
Tim started back for the lounge. When he turned around, Bear was still watching him.
The big brick of a tape recorder shushed hypnotically in the center of the elongated table. Tim’s chair, with its middling size and cheap upholstery, was no match for the high-backed black leather numbers his interviewers commanded on the opposing side. Tim jiggled the handle beneath his seat inconspicuously, trying to elevate it.
With painstaking detail they’d covered every inch of Tim’s account of his shooting of Gary Heidel and Lydia Ramirez. The Internal Affairs guy wasn’t so bad, but the woman from Investigative Services and the gunner from Legal were attack dogs in knockoff suits. Tim’s forehead felt moist, but he refrained from wiping it.
The woman uncrossed her legs and leaned forward, her finger tracing something in the file before her. “You claim you emerged from the alley and saw Carlos Mendez reaching for his weapon?”
“Yes.”
“Did you issue a warning to Mr. Mendez?”
“The firing of warning shots is against agency regulation.”
“As is firing at fleeing suspects, Deputy Rackley.”
The Internal Affairs inspector shot her a look of irritation. He was an older guy, probably switched over to IA to log a few more years of service before retirement. Tim remembered he’d introduced himself as Dennis Reed. “This was not merely a fleeing suspect, Deborah. He was armed and intent on firing.”
She made a calming gesture with her hands. “Did you issue an oral warning to Mr. Mendez?”
“We’d been issuing oral warnings for the preceding seven minutes to no avail. Two people were already dead as a result of the fugitives’ failure to heed those warnings.”
“Did you issue another oral warning immediately before you fired on Mr. Mendez?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“There was no time.”
“There was no time for you to issue a final command of any sort?”
“I believe that’s what I just said.”
“But there was enough time for you to draw your weapon and fire three shots?”
“The final two shots were irrelevant.”
If Reed’s smirk was any indication, he liked Tim’s answer.
“Let me rephrase my question. There was enough time for you to draw your weapon and fire the first shot but not to issue an oral warning of any kind?”
“Yes.”
She feigned immense puzzlement. “How is that possible, Deputy Rackley?”
“I’m a very quick draw, ma’am.”
“I see. And were you concerned that Mr. Mendez was going to fire at you?”
“My primary concern was for the safety of others. We were on a street filled with civilians.”
“So I can take that to mean that you weren’t concerned he was going to fire at you?”
“I thought he was probably going to shoot one of the police officers in front of him.”
“‘Thought,’” the lawyer said. “‘Probably.’”
“That’s right,” Tim said. “Only I used them in a complete sentence.”
“There’s no need to get defensive, Deputy Rackley. We’re all on the same side here.”
“Right,” Tim said.
The woman flipped through the file, then frowned, as if she’d just discovered something. “The crime-scene report indicates that Mr. Mendez’s weapon was still tucked into the back of his jeans when they assessed the body.”
“Then we should be grateful he wasn’t given the opportunity to draw it.”
“So he wasn’t trying to draw the weapon?”
Tim watched the wheels of the tape recorder spin their lethargic circles. “I said he wasn’t given the opportunity to draw it. He was, in fact, attempting to draw it.”
“We have mixed eyewitness reports regarding that fact.”
“I was the only one behind him.”
“Uh-huh. On the alley side.”
“That’s right.” Tim let out his breath through his teeth. “As I said, he was a clear-”
“Threat to the safety of others,” she said. His textbook recitation of the deadly-force policy inspired a note of disdain, almost parody.
The lawyer perked up in his chair, evidently sighting a lead-in. “Let’s talk about the ‘safety of others.’ Did you have target acquisition?”
Reed grimaced. “I’d say from the looks of the body, he had pretty damn good target acquisition, Pat.”
Pat ignored him, continuing to address Tim. “Are you aware that there were civilians in the backdrop when you took that shot? A whole crowd, in fact?”
“Yes. Those civilians were my concern. That’s why I elected to use deadly force.”
“If you had missed, your round would almost definitely have struck one of those civilians.”
“That’s highly debatable.”
“But what if you had missed?”
“Our pre-op briefing made clear the fugitives had nothing to lose, as it made clear their unwillingness to be taken alive. Mendez’s behavior, from the time he aided in taking me hostage, only reinforced this intel. He, like Heidel and Ramirez, was willing to kill any number of people to evade capture. It was a clear calculation: My chances of taking him out were vastly greater than the chances of his not killing someone once he got his weapon free and clear.”