Placing Herself In Danger
HeartinBayCity (ChelleBee)
Summary:
Josie places herself in danger.
Joe is furious, but not with Josie.
Notes:
“Are you out of your mind?” Josie demanded. “You know Joe doesn’t allow us to carry pepper spray!”
“Sometimes you have to use it when the perp is out of control,” said Officer Grayson.
“She’s a child and she’s upset! You’re not using pepper spray on her!”
“She was caught shoplifting!” Sergeant Tompkins said. He took out his stun gun and said to the screaming child, “You shut up and come with us or you get this and the pepper spray.”
“Tompkins, Grayson, put those things away right now!”Josie ordered. “You are not using them on a child!”
“Try and stop us,” Tompkins defied her.
He and Grayson pointed the pepper spray and the taser directly at the hysterical little girl, and fired. Quickly, before the pepper and the dart could hit the child, Josie
moved into the line of fire. The pepper went into Josie’s eyes, and the dart into her arm.
She fell. She lay there, writhing.
Grayson and Tompkins ran off, leaving Josie writhing on the ground.
By a fortunate chance, Adams and Tibbs had just been investigating a robbery on the same block. They found Josie, now unconscious, and the little girl, shocked out of her hysteria, crying.
“I’ll call an ambulance,” said Tibbs. “You call Joe.”
After the calls were made, Adams asked the child, “Can you tell us what happened?”
“The other two cops shot at me with a taser and pepper spray, and this lady cop got in front of me so she got hit instead,” she answered. “And she fell and those other cops ran off.”
“You mean they didn’t even try to help her?” Tibbs asked.
“No. They just left. She’s not… she’s not gonna die, is she?”
Neither Tibbs nor Adams knew the answer, but finally Adams said, “Let’s hope not. Now, do you know the names the other two cops, so we can report them to our captain?”
“The lady cop called them Tompkins and Grayson.”
Joe arrived ten minutes later.
“You did the right thing, calling the ambulance,” he said.
“If we hadn’t been investigating that robbery,” Adams said, “we might not even have found Josie.”
“Thank God you did find her,” Joe said.
“I still can’t believe Tompkins and Grayson just took off like that,” Tibbs added.
Joe, looking grim, said, “That’s the last thing they did as cops.”
A slightly overweight woman came panting up to the little girl.
“Mommy, I”
“I know what you did, Mindy Jones,” her mother said angrily. “You tried to steal a comic book. Mr. Wilson called me after he called the cops.
(Joe, Adams, and Tibbs wished that Mr. Wilson had called Mindy’s mother instead of calling the cops.)
Now, since when does anybody in our family steal?”
“Lottie Williams dared me to,” Mindy said.
“That’s no excuse. I’m calling her parents, and I hope she gets as hard a spanking as you’re getting when we get home.”
Joe put his hand on her arm.
“Mindy’s had a very bad experience,” he said. “I don’t think you need to punish her.”
“What bad experience?” Mrs. Jones demanded.
Quickly, Joe told her everything he knew about the incident with the pepper spray and the taser.
“Well, if she hadn’t tried to steal, none of this would have happened.”
Mindy covered her face with her hands.
“No,” Joe said quietly to the mother. “If two over-zealous cops hadn’t used extreme methods, none of this would have happened.”
Mrs. Tompkins turned on Adams and Tibbs.
“You” she began.
“Not them. Two others,” Joe said.
“Oh. Sorry,” said Mrs. Jones. She turned to Mindy. “I won’t spank you after all, but you’re spending the rest of the day in bed.”
“Good idea,” Joe thought. “Bed’s the best place for her after what she’s been through.” Mrs. Jones took Mindy home.
Joe phoned Gary and, as gently as he could, told him what had happened. Then he phoned Toni, who was off that day.
Gary said that he would call Sharlene.
They couldn’t call Cameron, because he and Amanda were vacationing in Paris.
Fifteen minutes later, Toni, Adams, and Tibbs were sitting together in the waiting room. Joe and Gary were in the hall, talking with the doctor.
“Detective Sinclair’s eyes are going to be all right,” the doctor said, “but we found some chemicals in her blood that were much stronger than
those normally used in a taser.”
“How dangerous were they?” Joe asked her.
“Let me put it this way. Detective Sinclair saved that little girl’s life. A child that age could not have tolerated those chemicals.”
“Is she… is Josie going to be all right?” Gary asked, barely able to get the words out.
“Truthfully, it’s too soon to tell, but the fact that she was found when she was is in her favor.”
“If Josie doesn’t make it,” Gary choked out, “I swear I’m going to kill those bastards.”
He broke down.
Joe put his arm around Gary’s shoulder and said, “Josie is strong. You know she is. I’m not giving up on her, and neither should you.”
Ten minutes later, Joe and Gary walked into the waiting room.
Toni, Adams, and Tibbs looked up.
“Josie isn’t out of the woods yet,” Joe said. “But like I told Gary, she’s strong, and I’m not giving up on her.”
“They won’t let me see her,” Gary said bitterly. “They won’t let anyone in the room except the doctors and nurses.”
“Gary,” Joe said, “let’s let them do their job. You know this is a good hospital, and Josie is getting the best of care.”
“Grayson and Tompkins should have to pay all her medical expenses,” Toni said.
Gary turned to Adams and Tibbs.
“I can’t thank you enough for what you did for Josie.”
“All we did was call for an ambulance,” Tibbs said.
“If we hadn’t done that,” Adams added, “we’d be pretty lousy cops.”
“Not as lousy as Grayson and Tompkins,” Toni said.
“Cops like them are a disgrace to the uniform,” Joe said, “and traitors to good cops and to all the people who should be able to trust the police.”
Adams, Tibbs, and Toni nodded in grim agreement.
Sharlene came into the room. She and Gary hugged,clinging to each other without a word.
Joe filled Sharlene in.
“But you know Josie is strong…like her Mom.”
They talked for awhile, and then Joe said that he had to get back to the police station.
But before he returned to the 2-3, Joe went to the hospital’s Catholic chapel, lit a candle, knelt in a front pew, and prayed that Josie would be all right, and that Gary wouldn’t start drinking again.
Half an hour later, Joe was in his office with Tompkins and Grayson. The door was locked and the blinds were closed.
“I’m not going to waste my time with a speech. I’ll just say that you two are no longer members of the Bay City Police Department.”
“Because of Josie? She didn’t have to get in the way,” Tompkins broke in.
“That’s right,” said Grayson. “Her injuries are her own fault.”
“I don’t believe you guys!” Joe said. “You almost killed that little girl, and you’re blaming Josie for saving her? Get out of here, because right now I can’t stand to look at you.”
Tompkins and Grayson walked out of the 2-3, accompanied by dirty looks and angry mutterings from everyone in the squad room.
Josie remained unconscious for a week, a week of blood tests and IV drips, a week of every treatment the doctors could give to save her life.
A week when everything was touch and go.
A week in which Gary and Sharlene spent every moment they were allowed to in Josie’s room.
A week when there were always some cops from the 2-3 at the hospital.
A week that ended with the news that Josie was sleeping normally, and would make
a full recovery.
“But she’ll need to stay here for awhile.” the doctor said.
A few days later, Josie was fully awake, and Joe came into her room, bent down, and kissed her.
“Josie, you saved that little girl’s life. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am to be your captain. Now, how are you feeling?”
“Hungry,” Josie answered.
“I’m sure you are, but because you weren’t able to have any solid food all week, you’ll have to have small, light meals for a few days. It’s for your own good.”
Josie smiled at hearing the words it’s for your own good unaccompanied, for once, by a lecture and a punishment.
“When can I come back to work, Joe?”
That’s not up to me,” Joe said. “It’s up to the doctors. But when you do come back, you’re getting a medal.” He added silently, “And thank God it’s not posthumous.”
Josie’s Medal Ceremony was held eleven days later, but Joe did not present Josie with her medal.
He let little Mindy Jones do it.
Series this work belongs to:
- ← Previous Work Part 42 of the Josie In Trouble series
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