CHAPTER 64

The night was silent then even though I called out several times. There was only one way to be sure. I called Max and I pulled four leather "booties" from my jacket pocket. These went onto his paws to protect them from the broken glass. Together, we snuck in the few shadows toward the house. The screen door had been destroyed and the wooden door behind it was nothing more than splinters as Max and I crept forward. Turning left brought us to the parlor where we found two dead Bloods on the floor, their weapons close by. I checked for a pulse, but found none in either.

There were three in the next room and Max found that one of them was alive. Using my radio I told the EMT's to be ready, but not to enter until I had cleared the house. He was one of three I found alive, but those in the house were either dead or severely injured and incapable of resisting. The crime scene technicians found six AK-47's and five 9mm semi-automatic pistols. On the floors they found 837 brass casings—proof that they had fired on us. Our vehicles had been struck more than four hundred times. My officers suffered four wounds—two had been struck in the arm by bullets, but not seriously; one had a sprained ankle from tripping over a root in the woods behind the house; and one had tripped and fallen into the branches of a pine tree resulting in several nasty scratches on his shoulders, neck, and head.

Inside the house and in their other vehicle we found several kilos of cocaine, hundreds of various opioid capsules, and seventy-eight pounds of marijuana. We also found enough ammunition to supply the entire department for a month at the firing range.

We were exhausted when we walked into the station house at 10:00 that morning. Ten minutes later, after completing some reports, I left for the day, much looking forward to seeing my wife and daughter. Lucy stripped my clothes off and led me into the shower where she washed my filthy and tired body then she dried me and put me to bed. After a long loving kiss she walked out and closed the door. I was asleep seconds later.

I slept well, but only for a few hours. I had scheduled a press conference for 3:00 in the afternoon and I had to prepare for it. A quick shave and shower refreshed me and Lucy had a soda and sandwich ready for me as soon as I walked downstairs in my crisp ironed uniform. I kissed Lucy then thanked Ingrid for her efforts and sat down to eat. I pretty much told Lucy about the operation and how I was so disappointed in the results. Yes, we had confiscated more than $50,000 worth of drugs and had eliminated a gang presence in our community, but we had also killed six human beings. Criminals they were, but they were also sons and grandsons and brothers. Innocent people were impacted and hurt—emotionally, if not physically.

I walked into Police Headquarters with Max to find that Sgt. Ed Sulkowitz had taken the initiative to set up the conference room for the press conference. Daryl had beaten me to the station by less than ten minutes. He, Dan, and I reviewed the operation and the photos that the crime scene technicians from the county had taken. They were black and white for the most part because they were taken at night when black and white photos are much clearer. Only in the house were they in color. Several of the most critical were those that showed most of the broken glass on the front porch and on the ground on the other sides of the house. That showed clearly that they had shot first. We also had an audio tape and we could hear the rapid fire of the AK's for several minutes before the first thunderous boom of the twelve gauge shotguns responded.

We strode into the room to find newspaper and TV reporters waiting there for us. I gave a brief—very brief—statement about gathering intelligence about drug sales and arresting the four en route to the high school before attempting to arrest those in the house. I described the audio tapes and played snippets that we felt were significant before answering questions.

"Chief Cahill, how did you gather those conversations? Weren't they inside the house?"

"We had a set of hidden microphones nearby. I won't tell you where, but I will tell you that everything we recorded could be easily heard from outside the house. Many of the conversations occurred on the front porch where any passerby could hear what was being said. They weren't exactly hiding their intentions."

"Chief, would you say that this was one of your most successful operations?"

"No…I wouldn't. I never feel that a raid or other operation that results in the death of even one person is successful. We arrested four gang members who were on their way to the high school to sell drugs without a shot fired and without even a single injury. That was a success. I tried to get the remaining gang members to surrender, but instead they started shooting. More than 800 shell casings were retrieved from the house and you heard that we waited for several minutes before returning fire. I know that I shot my shotgun exactly six times and I doubt that any of the men shot much more. Of course, we practice regularly at the county range while I doubt that gang members ever practice."

"Chief Cahill, is this the end of gang activity in your city?"

"I hope so, but one never knows. I don't pretend that I can read the future. Bascomb's Landing is a wonderful small city and we encourage people of all races and religions to live here, but we have no tolerance of gangs or any of their activities."

There were a few more questions, but they were more about our procedures than anything directly involved in the raid on the gang's house. Later in the day we did hear from the man who owned the house, complaining about the damage that had been done. "Okay, so sue the Bloods. They started the shooting. Maybe next time you'll think twice before renting to a gang." I stood to indicate that our meeting was over and he reluctantly left the building as I eagerly returned to my wife and daughter, even though I thought that Melody was happier to see Max than she was me. Lucy welcomed me by taking me upstairs for what started out to be a quickie, but wound up taking almost an hour. We never worried about our daughter knowing that Max was there and would protect her. We walked back down hand in hand, stopping every few steps to hold and kiss each other and express our love.

I almost laughed when we walked into the living room. There in the middle of the room lay Max with Melody lying on his chest sound asleep. Max raised his huge head, but lay back down until I leaned over and picked Melody up to my shoulder. She started to cry until she realized it was me and then her arms went around my neck as I kissed her cheek. I didn't think that life could possibly be better than this.