The Grim ReaperChapter 27 Returning Home
- 4 years ago
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
It was time to go home for good. I was still the responsibility of the Army, so they had to provide me with a ticket home. Most of my gear was being shipped via UPS, so I simply packed a few things in a rucksack, put on a clean ACU, and caught a shuttle van to Dulles Airport. (I hadn’t wanted to wear a uniform, but the WTU informed me that my return home was still considered a military movement and required my wearing a uniform.) With a little luck I would make it home by noon.
I got lucky. We landed at about 1145 and I hustled out, carrying only my rucksack. I was tempted to call my family, but that wasn’t a good idea. I think everybody had used up all their days off visiting me at Walter Reed. Instead, I made my way towards the exit, and rode the MARTA bus into Atlanta, where I was able to transfer to a Greyhound to Matucket. That would drop me off at the bus station downtown. From there I could walk over to either the hospital or the County Office Building and get a lift home with one of my parents.
I arrived back in Matucket about 1430. Actually, I arrived back at 2:30 in the afternoon. I had to get used to being a civilian and keeping civilian time. As I got off the bus, I realized just how nice a day it was. It was in the high seventies or low eighties, bright and sunny, and not too humid. I decided to walk home. I was all healed up and could be there in a couple of hours. That would make for a nice surprise when my parents showed up.
I got to the house a couple of hours later and discovered a problem - Bobbie Joe wasn’t home! My Subaru was missing, as were Mom’s and Dad’s cars, and when I knocked on the door, the only sound I heard was Rex barking. I probably still had a key to the house, but it was undoubtedly in my stuff, which was either in the house or out at the apartment in West Springs. I could probably just sit there on the front steps until somebody came home, but that might not be for a few hours. That wasn’t quite the surprise I had in mind. There was, however, a second method to get in. The back door had both a tricky latch and a deadbolt, but the deadbolt usually wasn’t locked. If the deadbolt wasn’t latched, then if you jiggered the handle just right, and then leaned against the door frame just so, you could get inside. We weren’t exactly high security. I grabbed my rucksack and headed around to the back door.
We didn’t have a back gate, just a split-rail fence that had a few gaps in it. I went to the back door and grabbed the doorknob. Inside I heard a scrabbling sound as Rex figured out somebody was at the back door, and he began barking again. I wasn’t too worried, though; he had met me before and wasn’t all that vicious. I expected that he would try to knock me down and then lick me to death. I started jiggling the doorknob and pushing against the door frame. If I got inside, then the deadbolt wasn’t latched. If it was latched, I wasn’t getting in there short of a battering ram.
I thought I had it for a second, so I took a breath and started jiggling the handle again, when I heard a sudden deep voice behind me. “Stop right there, buddy!”
I turned around to find a fat cop looking at me. He was dressed in the standard blue uniform of the Matucket Police Department. I stared at him for a second and said, “I can explain...”
“Shut up! Don’t move!”
“Officer, this is my house!”
“I told you to shut up. Now turn around and face the wall!”
“What?”
“FACE THE WALL!”
“Jesus Christ!” I muttered to myself. This was ludicrous. My parents were going to be surprised, all right, surprised at having to get me out of jail for trying to come home. I turned around and faced the wall and put my hands on the door frame, just like on the cop shows on television. The fat cop started frisking me, then he jerked my hands back behind me painfully and put handcuffs on me tightly. Then he grabbed my right arm and twisted me around to face him. He was smiling now. “Officer...” I read his nametag. “ ... Dubois, you’ve made a mistake,” I said.
Dubois smiled at that, but then, faster than I thought the fat fucker could move, punched me in the stomach, hard enough to knock the wind out of me and bend me over. Then he pushed me back up against the door, slamming my head into the door frame. “I didn’t say you could talk, so keep your mouth shut.”
“But this is my house!” I protested.
“Yeah? You always try to break into your house? You got any proof this is your house?”
I was on the verge of telling him yes, but I realized suddenly that I didn’t. When I was released from Walter Reed, I had my military identification and a partial pay, but that was it. My wallet with my driver’s license was probably inside the house. “If you call my mother, she’ll tell you who I am!”
“Yeah, I thought so. Shut up, we’re going down to the station.”
“Officer!” I protested.
I didn’t get any further, because the son of a bitch slammed his right fist into my gut, doubling me over again. Then it got worse. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his left hand balled up and swinging towards my face. I twisted as quickly as I could, but that simply reduced a broken jaw to a split lip. After that I got slammed back upright against the door frame. “Maybe you need to stop talking now.”
I didn’t say anything, but just glared at him. Then I turned my head to one side and spit out the blood in my mouth. That must have seemed disrespectful or something because that got me another punch to the belly and another haymaker to the face. Again, I twisted away, but I knew my right eye was going to be black and blue. He grabbed my arm and dragged me around the fence and put me in the back of a patrol car. You know how on the television shows they always put a hand on the prisoner’s head to push him inside? That must be only on television, because he managed to slam my head into the door frame as I got thrown in.
This was all simply unbelievable to me. I was a soldier in the United States Army, a Sergeant, and in uniform! Most people, whenever I traveled, smiled and thanked me for my service. I had been bought beers in airport waiting areas by people I had never met before, and had my hand shaken by others who simply said, ‘Thank you and God bless you.’ What the fuck was going on here? I kept my mouth shut. If I left it up to this guy, one more word was going to get me dumped in a quarry outside of town.
We drove back downtown, pretty much to within a few blocks of where I started out that afternoon. Officer Dubois parked the cruiser and then yanked me out roughly. I was dragged inside through a back entrance and then hauled around to a lobby sort of area. I was pushed onto a long wooden bench that was bolted to the floor. “You stay there and keep your mouth shut.” Dubois went over to the counter and began chatting with another cop. I didn’t know the ranks in the police department, but Dubois had the two chevrons that in the Army would be considered Corporal’s stripes, and the guy at the desk was a Sergeant.
I sat there around twenty minutes or so, blood from my split lip dripping down onto my uniform. I still had faith I’d get out of this at some point, but I’d never live it down! Maybe I could sue the bastard! Meanwhile, people came in and out of the lobby area, a mix of cops in blue uniforms and guys in civilian clothing. Most of them looked at me curiously but didn’t say anything. One or two did look like they wanted to say something, but Dubois ordered them to leave me alone.
My thoughts became increasingly darker and nasty as time progressed. At some point they were going to have to process me into the system, and at some point, I was going to be given a phone call or be arraigned or something. At that point I could demand a lawyer, and somebody was going to be in big trouble.
That didn’t happen, though. I was just sitting there, my tongue exploring the inside of my swollen lips, when a tall and thin man with thinning hair, dressed in a suit, came through and looked at me. He looked confused and curious, and he came over. For once Dubois didn’t warn him away. “What’s this?” he asked.
“I caught him breaking into a house over in Pine Glens. I’ve got him on breaking and entering, assault on a police officer, and resisting arrest,” reported Dubois, sneering at me.
The first man looked back at me. For some reason he looked awfully familiar. He came closer to me. “What’s your name, son?”
“Reaper, Graham W., Sergeant, United States Army. You want my social security number, too?” I asked.
“Reaper? Why does that ring a bell?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Who are you?”
“My name’s Crowley. Captain Crowley. I’m the Patrol Commander.”
I gave him a hard look. For some reason he looked very familiar to me, but it just wasn’t clicking. “I don’t know why, but you look familiar to me, too.”
“Those are some pretty serious charges, Sergeant Reaper. You want to explain them?”
“Captain, I need to process this guy in!” protested Dubois. I think he wanted me dead and buried before somebody obviously higher up the food chain talked to me.
Crowley looked over at him. “You can wait, Dubois, just like you’ve been waiting for the last half hour.” He turned back to me and raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner.
“There was no breaking and entering. I was just trying to get into my house without a key. The resisting arrest part must have been when my face resisted this asshole’s fist. The assault must have been when I bled on him.” I turned to Dubois. “Take the cuffs off, asshole, and try it again! I didn’t just spend four years in combat so some fat fuck back home could use me as a punching bag!”
Dubois came over and drew a hand back to hit me again, but Crowley ordered him away. “What’s the address where you arrested Sergeant Reaper?” he asked.
The guy at the counter gave the address, 640 Piney Terrace, and Crowley stood up and went to the counter. “Give me the phone book.”
“Sir?”
“Give me the goddamned phone book or you’re on report along with Dubois!” That got some action, and Crowley leafed through the Matucket phone book until he found the page he wanted. “John Reaper, 640 Piney Terrace,” he announced disgustingly, slamming the phone book down on the counter. “Cut him loose!”
“No way! I had a legitimate citizen complaint about a guy sneaking around and robbing houses!” protested Dubois.
Crowley looked at me.
“Mrs. Hunsacker lives across the street, is senile, and is half blind. When I was in school, she’d get loose about once a month and call something in to the police. I bet she got her hands on a phone,” I said.
Crowley glanced at the guy at the counter, who simply nodded. Crowley rolled his eyes and said, “For the love of God, cut him loose.”
“You can’t do that, Crowley!” protested Dubois.
“I said to cut him loose! You’re already on report, Dubois. You delay any longer and I’ll let the Sergeant here use you for a punching bag! Now, CUT HIM LOOSE!”
Dubois came over, a mulish look on his face, and uncuffed me. Once my hands were free, I brought them around to my front and started rubbing the painful red marks on my wrist. I looked over at Dubois in disgust; once I was loose, he had backed up and now had his hand on his holstered pistol. Christ, what an asshole!
“Knock it off, Dubois, and go find yourself a lawyer. You’re suspended, effective immediately!” ordered Crowley. That diverted my attention off the fat cop. I looked over at Crowley. He looked back. “Now I remember you. You’re the kid who got into it with the Holden boy years ago when he tried to grab that girl. I remember going over to that address to talk to you and your folks.”
“That’s right. But you were a detective then, weren’t you?” I asked, the memories coming back.
“It’s been a few years. I’ve moved up in the world. So have you, Graham.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you. Now I just need to explain to my family why the Matucket Police Department decided to beat the crap out of me as a welcome home party.”
He sighed. “Yes, that will be awkward, indeed. Come on down to my office. Let’s talk.” He motioned for me to follow, and I followed Captain Crowley out of the lobby and down a hallway, leaving a bunch of cops staring at me from behind. I felt like flipping them off but decided that wouldn’t be all that productive. I was planning on living in Matucket.
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Thursday morning was an exercise in controlled chaos. I had time to do a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon, which could be a bit of a luxury. I tried to cook a nice family breakfast on weekends but shift work with the MPD meant I frequently missed weekends. At least three of us ate well. Seamus only ate Froot Loops; he was almost three and was still a knucklehead in the Terrible Twos. After breakfast Kelly put Riley and me to work cleaning the house. Seamus, on the other...
Captain Crowley simply congratulated me on making it through SWAT and then told me that I needed to call CBS in New York. He gave me a phone number and told me to let him know what was going on. For my mind, I was basically done with publicity. The Army had mustered me out a second time, so they couldn’t order me back to New York, and if 60 Minutes wanted to do something on the MPD, they had to come to us in any case. The call went smoothly. Now that I was home from the Academy, CBS felt...
Mom went back to work down in the ER the next morning, which I found a blessing. I mean, I loved my mother, but she was driving me completely nuts hanging around the room with me. She still dropped in at lunchtime, but I could handle that. Otherwise, I had her bring in a few books from home that I could read holding up with my left hand. Kelly came over after school on Tuesday. She had worked out an arrangement to take a different bus over to the hospital, and then either Mom would take her...
Friday started out like most other days. We got Riley off to school on the bus, and Kelly loaded Seamus in the Sienna to take to day care at Matucket State. The big difference was that we dug out all the luggage. While she was at class, I packed all my formal stuff in a hanging bag, with the rest in a suitcase. As soon as Kelly and Seamus came home, she grabbed her stuff out of the closet and told me to start packing, while she packed everything for the kids. It became a mad rush, since I...
Friday, February 16, 2001 School had just started again after the winter break. I was hanging out after lunch with some friends near the south stairwell lockers, with Tilly next to me, when Terry Watson muttered, “Holy shit!” as he looked at something behind me. I turned around and didn’t see anything unusual, at least not at first. What I did see looked like a bunch of girls hugging. Then I saw one of the girls turn around and come over towards us. She was slim, about my height, with...
Jack managed to finagle a ride home with a couple of cheerleaders who were juniors. I have no idea if he got anything more from them than a lift home, and I didn’t want to know. One of these days my brother’s love life was going to bite him in the ass. Some girl was going to find him with another girl, and there would be hell to pay. Hopefully she wouldn’t be carrying a weapon when that happened. The Sports Section headline Saturday morning was “UNDERDOG PIONEERS CRUSH WARRIORS!” I had no...
I knew what the citation said; whether I believed it was a different question. It didn’t matter much. I stood there, kept my mouth shut, and looked straight ahead. The President put the ribbon around my neck, and everybody saluted and applauded. He gave me a whispered, ‘At ease.’, and I was able to break position and shake his hand in thanks. That was the end of the official ceremony, and it was time for a meet-and-greet. Mister and Mrs. Obama escorted me down off the stage and over to where...
Police work was vastly different from military life. One of the biggest differences was that the U.S. Army was quite monolithic, in the sense that everybody trained and fought the same way. Every infantryman trained at Fort Benning. Every helicopter crewman trained at Fort Rucker. Every medic trained at Fort Sam Houston. You get the idea. The same could be said at any camp or fort in the country. Everybody did things the same. There’s a reason they called it the ‘big green machine.’ It made...
Saturday, October 24, 2009 My schedule that week was the night shift, Tuesday to Friday, and then I would have off, Saturday to Tuesday. That worked out well, since Saturday was my parents’ anniversary, and both Kelly and I would have the day off. I would be able to sleep late and then we could go over to the house later. Since it was their Silver Anniversary, the plan was for Bobbie Joe, Kelly, and me to take the parental units out to a nice dinner. Jack and Teresa couldn’t be there, of...
It looked like almost the entire platoon had arrived, led by Lieutenant Southerland. They rolled up to the front gate, actually driving over various body parts as they did so and stopped. The crashed Apache blocked the way in. The first guys to come inside the compound simply stood there and stared at the carnage, though a couple of guys tossed their cookies. Eventually somebody noticed I was standing there and Southerland and another couple of guys ran over to me. “Sergeant Reaper! Sergeant...
Our first game of the season was at the end of the month, the last Friday of August, the 30th. It was a home game with North Cobb High, from up in Kennesaw. They were from a wealthy suburb of Atlanta, and North Cobb was a big school, certainly bigger than us. That was important in high school football, since the more students you had, the more likely you’ll be able to find better players. I commented on that to Kelly once, and she said something about Gaussian distributions and standard...
Things moved along through the summer. At times it seemed as if for every step we took forward we were taking two steps back. Still, some good things happened. Our new Auto Theft Division made a major arrest mid-June. They grabbed a few cars out of the impound yard and fitted them with GPS trackers and allowed them to be stolen. That generated enough information to get warrants on a pair of ‘chop shops’, garages where stolen cars could be taken and stripped for parts. Lieutenant Dupree of...
October 2007 - December 2007 Mid-October, about when it became obvious that I was going to stick it out and go to the academy, Tim Hungerford showed up at the rickety-bench-with-delusions-of-grandeur that I called my desk. He had a packet of paperwork with him. “Take a break,” he ordered. “You need to look this stuff over.” I looked at him. “Why? What is it?” “It’s the packet from the academy.” “Ah!” I nodded at that. “Let’s take a look. You’ve been through this, right?” Tim nodded....
January 2008 - March 2008 When I went back to work, I let Captain Carson know about meeting the Gorsky family, and that I was sure that a lawsuit was on the way. Both he and Lieutenant Brownell quizzed me on what I had told the Gorskys and I swore six ways from Sunday that I hadn’t said anything that could be construed as an admission of guilt. Their general feeling was that we would be named in the suit, but we could dump any responsibility onto the Sheriff’s office, since they ran the jail...
March to May, 2002 Mom was not at all amused by my thinking. All through dinner, which Kelly and I nuked in the microwave to warm up, she badgered me about why I was joining the Army. I pretty much gave her the same reasons as I gave my girlfriend. Dad mostly just sat there and listened. He insisted that they had to meet Sergeant Donaldson, and that I was not doing anything until after I got out of school. Eventually I could escape, and I took Kelly out and we went over to the mall, to do...
Friday, September 1, 2017 “Gentlemen, I have had it. I hereby resign my position as a member of the human race. There is no possible way I share any genetic material with what I had to put up with today.” So saying, I settled myself onto a barstool in the center of the bar at the Cherokee Grill. Around me my fellow police officers laughed. Mack Waterhouse, the owner of the bar and a former MPD lieutenant, came over and smiled. “Feel free to tell your friendly bartender what your problem is,...
We slept in the next morning, and I informed Kelly that she needed to pass an audition like I had done with her. How was I to know that she wasn’t a demanding wife? What if she was only interested in me for my body, and not my mind? That got me a smart-ass comment from her, “Really? You want to go there? Grim, you need to stick with your body! Your mind ain’t going to cut it!” That earned her a sharp smack on the ass, and I tickled her until she shrieked and begged me to stop. That led to her...