"Point is," he hurried to finish,"he's gone and off to start on a clean slate at another precinct. He'll behappier there."
"And how do you know that?" She tiltedher head in a smirk.
"I don't and I honestly don’t care whathappens to him. It's you I care about—you're all I ever cared about."
Shaking her head, Maritzia glared at him withoutany malice as a smile threatened at the edge of her lips. "You're asmooth-talking devil, you know that?"
Not giving him time to say something clever inreturn, she pushed at his chest. Complying to her demands, Cade let himself bepushed back against the wall, letting out a deep animalistic sound ofsatisfaction as she pressed her lips against his.
~*~
"Breaking news. We have live footage oftwo police officers fighting off an attacking man wielding a knife in a park,"the female news anchor announced. "Two detectives arrived at the Bronxpark to question a person of interest in an ongoing case when they areapproached by this individual. As you can see officer DeLeon spots the mancircling them in the distance and leans over to inform her partner, OfficerScanlon. Officer Scanlon observes the man but remains talking with the personof interest while Officer DeLeon turns her focus to the other man. As the manapproaches, both officers shift their attention to the man and call out to himasking him what purpose he has being there. Shouting something that was notpicked up by the witness's phone, the man starts running over to them whilereaching behind his back. Officer Scanlon reaches for his weapon and backs up,however in a daring turn of events Officer DeLeon runs towards the man. Pullingout a concealed knife the man slashes towards the female officer, but withquick thinking and even quicker reflexes she disarms the attacker."
Playing on loop the footage of Maritzia runningtowards the attacker played on every TV within the precinct. Huddled arounddesks and standing in groups in the break rooms, officers watched as she pulledout her telescoping baton as she purposely put herself in striking distance ofthe bowie knife. The heavy, metal bar flicked out as the man jabbed the knifeupward towards Maritzia. Meeting the man's thrust, her baton cracked audiblyagainst his arm stopping the strike before she arced it up to the man's face.With two heavy-handed strikes of the baton, the man was disarmed and dazed,allowing Scanlon to subdue the man.
Maritzia had seen the video at least five timesnow as she waited in the offices of Internal Integrity and Affairs. Lookingover to the older female officer, a Lieutenant Bishops, sitting across themeeting table, Maritzia watched as the woman scribbled down some notes onto hersmall stack of papers. With her dark hair pulled back into a tight chignon atthe back of her head, the officer finally looked to Maritzia and gave her atight, professional smile.
"Ok, let's go over it once more,"Lieutenant Bishops said.
Maritzia wanted to groan. This would be the thirdtime she repeated this.
"You engaged the suspect because…"Lieutenant Bishops let the words hang purposely in the air between them.
Sitting up straight in the mesh office chair thatwas becoming increasingly uncomfortable by the hour, Maritzia took a deepbreath and explained her motive again. "I saw the suspect watching myselfand Officer Scanlon as we tried to take a statement from the person of interestin our ongoing case. I noticed that the man was very fixated on us and hismovements were becoming increasingly agitated as he circled us. When Scanlonand I decided to verbally confront the individual, he began to run towards uswhile reaching into his clothes to obtain what I presumed was a weapon,"Maritzia paused and reached for her bottle of water, taking a quick drink towet her lips. "Since there were still people in the park and some furtherbehind the suspect, I knew drawing my firearm was out of the question. I alsomade the decision that using my taser would not be the best course ofaction."
"And why is that?" Lieutenant Bishopsasked, tilting her head in question. "Officer Scanlon pulled his taserout."
"Yes, however, I felt that the man was too fastfor us to gain enough ground and to have time to properly aim. I also observedhim muttering to himself earlier as he was circling us, which you will see inthe video in one frame, and I thought he may be on some sort of drug, thusreducing some of the taser's effect."
Lieutenant Bishops nodded to herself beforewriting something down. Setting her pen down, she fixed Maritzia with a levelstare that made her gut clench in fear.
"Although the media and the public find theevents that transpired today heroic, it should be no surprise to you that theNew York Police Department does not view this event as such."
"Yes, ma'am," Maritzia forced herselfto keep her voice from wavering.
"Despite your assessment of the situation,your actions were incorrect. You could have been seriously hurt, thusendangering the life of your partner."
"Yes, ma'am." Maritzia noddedrespectfully. Each word from the Lieutenant felt like a hammer hitting the headof a nail directly into her soul. All she could think of was that she fucked upbad and now she was going to get fired. Fabricated images of her having to takea walk of shame through the station as her fellow officers laughed at her whileCade and her uncle looked at her in disgust played through her head. Thethought made her want to vomit.
"During this current climate,"Lieutenant Bishops continued, completely unaware of Maritzia's mental turmoil,"it is imperative that all of our officers follow set standards andprocedures in hostile situations such as these. Your decision to use your batonhas caused the suspect multiple fractures along his jaw from your finalblow."
"Yes, ma'am, I understand," shereplied, using every ounce of strength not to hang her head.
There was a moment of silence between them thatalmost seemed cruelly intentional. For every second it continued, Maritzia felther organs just stop functioning one by one.
"However," Lieutenant Bishops said,finally unknowingly allowing Maritzia to take a much-needed breath to activateher stopped lungs, "taking your statement into account, your thinking wasnot completely out of line. Using a firearm in such a public setting would havebeen disastrous. In reviewing the footage now in a much calmer setting, can youtell me, Officer DeLeon, what you would have done differently?"
"Yes, ma'am." Maritzia straightened herdeflated body and answered as concisely as possible. "I would haveverbally engaged the suspect earlier when I noticed his attention set directlyon us and pulled out my taser, allowing me to have the time and the distance tosafely put the suspect down without jeopardizing myself and my partner'ssafety."
Lieutenant Bishops nodded. "Yes, that wouldhave been a correct course of action," she said with a faint smile."I will advise your commanding officer that you are to receive thestandard few weeks of desk duty and a five-day course in defensive tactic usingyour taser."
Maritzia let out a breath she had been holding.
"Oh, don't sigh in relief yet,"Lieutenant Bishops added with a feline smile as she produced two folded piecesof paper from her manila folder. "I was given these before we began togive to you after our meeting. Without needing to read them, I was able to getthe gist of it from their expressions."
Expressions? Confused she took the slips of paperand unfolded the first one and blanched at its contents.
Written on the chief's letterhead, the notecontained a simple message."You are most certainly in trouble. Come tomy office when you're done."
