Mind Switch (27 page)

The chief started the meeting by saying, “Let me say that I’m proud of all of you for the effort you have each put into apprehending those responsible for the multiple murders. I want to go over the evidence we have against Shepard so far and determine what additional evidence we need to gather prior to his trial.”

Jim noticed that Paul was no longer looking at the chief, but was glaring directly at Fred.

Paul’s face revealed a deep uncontrollable hatred which seemed to be building by the second as the chief spoke. The chief said, “What we now have is eyewitness identification, a false alibi from Mr. Shepard, and a cardboard flower box which contained the murder weapon which is at this stage only potentially linked to Mr. Shepard. What we need now is proof of a link from Shepard to the murder weapon. I believe that would seal our case, even considering the high octane legal support Shepard is already receiving for his defense.”

Paul was infuriated. He was the one to first apprehend Shepard; but most likely based on Fred’s petition, the chief had him released. Then Fred arrested Shepard for the second time, and was now getting all the credit.
I should have been promoted
, Paul said to himself for the hundredth time. His anger had reached the boiling point. Looking at Fred during the meeting caused his anger to feed on itself. He could not stand looking at him or working for him another minute. He slowly withdrew his gun from its holster. The chief continued to pontificate, totally unmindful of what was happening in the back of the room.
 

Jim had observed that Paul had been unable to focus on the chief’s ruminations and had become more and more agitated. By the time Paul had drawn his weapon and pointed it at Fred, Jim was already quickly moving toward Paul. He released a sharp karate chop to the center of Paul’s arm just as he was starting to fire. Paul’s arm moved slightly from the force of the blow but the gun did not dislodge. Paul pulled the trigger.

The few seconds that were consumed while Paul was pulling out his weapon seemed like an eternity to Fred. He realized what was coming, but with a distance of only ten feet between him and Paul, he could not get away. The bullet struck and Fred immediately went down. The chief turned toward the sound, not realizing what was happening before him. Fred had fallen down below the ancient mahogany desk out of sight from Paul. Paul had recovered from Jim’s karate chop and fired two more shots through the desk angled in the direction where Fred had fallen. Mustering all his strength, Jim hit Paul in the side. Air rushed out of Paul’s lungs as his weapon fell to the floor. Within an instant, Jim had Paul subdued.

The chief rushed over to determine Fred’s condition. The first bullet had struck Fred, but not in the chest as Paul had intended; Jim’s effort had shifted the position of the gun and diverted the direction of the bullet downward to Fred’s leg. The other two shots had penetrated the desk, the speed undiminished as they passed through the desk’s plywood back and the back of the 3/4 inch pine drawer. Both bullets had finally stopped as they reached the “Y” section of the yellow pages. A rapidly expanding Sarasota community had become unexpected good news for Fred.

* * *

Fred was rushed by police car to the Sarasota Memorial Hospital for the third time in less than two weeks. The bullet had entered the fleshy part of Fred’s thigh breaking off a quarter-inch portion of the bone. Fortunately, it had missed all major arteries, so his blood loss had been minimal. Dr. Stanton, who had seen him for each of his emergency trips to the hospital, determined that it would be best not to operate and to simply leave the small bone fragments in Fred’s body where they eventually would work their way out. After he finished with Fred he said, “Look, Lieutenant, why don’t you just take a permanent room in the hospital? After all, you seem to be spending more time here than in your home or work place! With your wife’s help we could procure some nice manly curtains and paint your room in any color you desire.”

Fred said only, “No more humor, please, can I go home now?”

Having known in advance his admonition would be ignored, Dr. Stanton said, “You have just encountered a traumatic injury and that’s in addition to the series of blows you have already absorbed. You’re not the biggest guy in the world, and your body can only take so much. I would recommend that you at least spend a night with us. If nothing else it will keep you off the streets; and frankly the streets seem a bit too dangerous for you lately.”

“Thanks, Doc, but I think I’ll go back to those streets. At any rate it doesn’t seem as if I’m safe anywhere anymore.”

Chapter 47

When Fred returned to the station, the chief said, “I don’t know what has gotten into Paul lately. But don’t worry; I’ll make sure Paul won’t be a danger to you anymore.”

Fred said, “Chief, I really don’t think Paul is responsible for his actions, I believe it is some type of force working on him.”

“Well, that may be true; Paul hasn’t been the same lately. I understand he’s having marriage problems.”

Fred’s idea of a force was one that was much more of a satanic nature than what the chief was talking about; but he decided not to press the issue. It was obvious the chief wasn’t going to listen anyway.

The chief said, “By the way, Fred, before I was rudely interrupted in our morning meeting, I was suggesting that we try to gather more evidence against Mr. Shepard. The next step is to directly link the murder weapon to him.”

Fred nodded yes. “And I guess our first effort would be to contact the same group of gun dealers who sold the gun to Slivers to see if they can identify Shepard. We now have the weapon and a photograph of Shepard to provide to the gun dealers, which is a lot more than we had a short time ago.” The chief said, “I agree. After that we need to examine his motive. We haven’t even found a good motive for Slivers at this point.”

“Chief, do you mind if I put Jim on this assignment?”

“Of course not, you had a rough day. Go home to your wife.”

The chief had no idea that Maureen was not home and had not been for three long days.

“Thanks, chief, but I have one more errand to accomplish before I go home.”

* * *

Jim was assigned to locate the roaming gun show. He brought with him the weapon that Shepard had allegedly used in hopes that it could be linked to a purchase. Unfortunately, the serial number had been filed off; even under microscopic examination no traces of the original number could be found.

After several phone calls Jim located the gun show. In the last couple of days it had moved further north to Jacksonville. Taking the weapon with him, he headed north.

* * *

Meanwhile, Fred visited Paul who was now confined to the county jail. Paul was sitting in his undersized bunk bed with his head between his knees.

Fred said, “Paul, how are you holding up?”

Paul did not shift from his position. His voice was uncharacteristically low; he spoke just above a harsh whisper. “Not too well. I apologize for what I did to you; are you all right?”

Fred recognized true concern in Paul’s words. “Yes, Paul, I’m fine.” Ignoring the throbbing pain in his thigh, he responded, “Your bullet only grazed me. I guess you’re not as good a shot as you think you are.”

“Well, I’m glad about that.” Then with his head rising and tears in his eyes, he said, “Fred, for the life of me I don’t know what got into me. I was suddenly overcome with an overpowering hatred of you. I will admit you were never on the top of my list, especially after you were promoted to lieutenant. But my emotions never reached the level that it did during our meeting with the chief. Some overwhelming force told me to kill you. I know that’s no excuse, but that’s exactly how I felt.”

“Believe it or not, Paul, I do understand,” said Fred. He left Paul, not finding it the least bit strange that he felt sorry for a man who less than three hours ago had tried to end his life.

* * *

Jim returned that evening from his trip to Jacksonville. He advised Fred that he had only limited success. “None of the gun dealers recognized Shepard, and no one had records of selling such a weapon to him. I did receive limited information on the background of the weapon by a dealer who knew quite a few details about its manufacture. The manufacturer is located in Rochester, Minnesota. According to the dealer, the company does all of its business by mail.”

While Fred listened on another line, Jim placed a call to the CEO of the company. He requested details on all weapons of the general configuration mailed to any Sarasota address in the past year. The CEO, James Dunn, stated that he was eager to provide full cooperation and would have his ADP people work on it that same day. “All the information we have will be available by tomorrow noon,” he added.

As Jim dropped the receiver, Fred said, “You know, Jim, they just might be able to provide us with information that will lock up this case. How about taking a plane out there, so you can talk to them in person?”

Jim said “Oh, great! Minnesota in the winter! I can’t wait to get there. Hell, I don’t even own a winter coat. When my wife and I left for Florida over fifteen years ago, we gave all our winter things to the Salvation Army.

Fred laughed, “You’ve been treated too well for too many years in this Florida climate, it’s about time you understand how the rest of the country lives. Have a great trip and don’t forget the suntan lotion.”

At times Jim failed to appreciate Fred’s warped sense of humor. He put on his wrinkled unlined raincoat, which he kept in the office and headed to the airport looking very much like Detective Colombo on the hunt.

Chapter 48

Fred decided to continue his discussions with personnel from AU. Mr. Schultz had effectively greased the skids for his return. When Fred arrived, he was pleasantly greeted by the receptionist, and on this bright sunny day even the grumpy security guard smiled. The receptionist told him Mr. Schultz authorized him to speak to whomever he pleased and a conference room would be available as long as he wanted for his interviews.

“How is Mr. Schultz doing?” he asked.

“Not too well, we’re not sure when he will be back. We all are praying for his rapid recovery.”

Fred had Flynn from the Matter Division join him in the conference room. Fred determined that he would not be diverted from the purpose of his visit, no matter how intriguing the nature of the work was that was being conducted by the company.

His first question was a repeat, “Mr. Flynn, let me ask you once again, can you think of any reason, any reason at all that your supervisor was killed?”

“I still don’t entirely understand your question, I thought he was killed as part of some random killing—was there something else?”

“Well, let’s just say that my investigation requires that I look at every possibility.”

“I understand, but, no, I can’t think of any reason. As I told you previously, he was certainly well liked by all of us and I really don’t see how anyone would gain by his death.”

Fred believed if you go down the same trail more than once, you will always wind up at the same destination. Yet, his lack of insight into the killings seemed to force him to ask the same questions. He was going nowhere in this investigation and he knew it
.

“How about his marriage, were there any problems there?”

“No, Sally was dedicated to John. They just recently celebrated their tenth anniversary, and he couldn’t stop talking about her in the most positive way. I am sure it was a strong marriage from the perspective of both of them.”

Fred asked a pivotal question, “You are now in charge of your division. Are you next in line for promotion?”

“I see where you’re going with this but I really don’t know who is in line for promotion. Mr. Schultz applies his own criteria to select the best candidate. The only thing I know is that he looks for a person that can best execute the broad talents we seek as a company. In fact, he had indicated he will make future promotions based on our demonstration of multi-talents in the whole array of the paranormal. To me, that doesn’t mean that the person with the greatest seniority will necessarily be promoted. The truth is anyone, even those from other divisions, could be advanced to the division’s head position. The single exception might be the Science Division.”

“Why would that be an exception?” Fred asked.

“The Science Division is somewhat unique to our company’s operations. Historically, Mr. Schultz has promoted from within in that division, because in that special case he wants people with the exact formal educational background and experience who fit the needs of our customers. The Science Division is the glue that holds all the components of our company together. Our customers require that scientific methods be employed across all parts of our organization to provide proof of concept. Correspondingly, no person in the Science Division will ever be promoted to another division. That is Mr. Schultz’s strict rule. Our paranormal talents, of course, have not been formed from the basis of a formal education. In fact, few of us have a college education. Most of us were born with our special talents. This company helps us strengthen, modulate, mold and expand them.”

Fred made a mental note that he would check out the accuracy of Flynn’s statements the next time he talked to Schultz.