Page 10 of The Final Say

He fired the gun and she screamed with her right hand holding onto her ear.

“You are dangerously close to getting what you deserve. I won’t let you get the final word. Tell your boyfriend to come out. I’m not going to ask again,” Bryan implored using the gun to prompt a response from her.

She put her hands behind her back and took a few steps away from him. “I’m not going to do that. This is between you and me. Let’s stop pretending there’s anything left between us. The only thing I feel for you is pity. It’s what you must see in every woman’s eyes when you take off your pants. There’s very little that you can do to argue,” Julie emphasized the word little.

His hand without the gun in it swatted in the air barely missing her face by a fraction of an inch. She managed to predict what he was going to do and move her head.

I took a few steps out of the shadows but stayed hidden. This wasn’t my fight to finish.

She was getting a piece of herself back by standing up to him. It was better than therapy and years of debating the issue on the couch with a professional.

“You have always thought you were better than me. Let this be a lesson never to bite the hand that feeds you. I’ve learned the hard way lawyers can do miraculous things when you pay them through the nose. I will take my chances in court. I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t back up my thoughts with actions. You could stop me by sacrificing him to save your life,” Bryan suggested.

She slapped her forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that? It’s all about survival. He’s right behind you,” Julie revealed with him turning to face me.

Glass breaking made him turn instinctively to find a straight punch to his face. He stumbled back and fired wildly into the ceiling. The gun flew out of his hands, landing at my feet where I quickly picked it up and gave him little choice to raise his hands in surrender.

Flashlights appeared in the window until the police officers surrounded the place before entering. They didn’t have to ask me. I was already getting down on my knees and putting the gun in front of me, between us.

I did the smart thing, and put my hands in the air. They would undoubtedly have questions that would wait until we get down to the station under the glare of the lights.

Chapter Seven

Julie a.k.a. Constance

I was a little annoyed sitting in that room by myself listening to him praise his virtues. They just couldn’t wrap their head around the fact that he was a threat to himself and others. They tried unsuccessfully to dispute what they could hear with their own ears.

Experts were going over the recording to see if anything was manufactured and out of context.

“You have to understand his name is revered in the Academy. The things he has done make him like Teflon. Nothing sticks to him. Do you have any idea what assassinating his character is going to do? His stellar reputation will be ruined. His cases will fall under the microscope looking for any impropriety. This is your one chance to set the record straight by retracting your statement,” Detective Nicholas Riley stated with his hand on the table on top of the file folder.

“I’m through trying to protect him. The evidence speaks for itself. He was planning to kill me. I believe that is called premeditated. This time, he is not going to get away with it. I’m not retracting a damn word. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to let the wheels of justice work the way that they were intended,” I stammered with a little bit of figurative heartburn.

“I’m going to try this one last time. You make these allegations, and his life is ruined. He will never be able to be a cop again. Are you really this vindictive that you want to see his career flushed down the toilet? I’m sure these words recorded and sent to all of us was in the heat of the moment. He would never truly go through with it,” Detective Riley defended him, obviously in admiration of his career highlights.

The man was known to take risks in the field, and playing fast and loose with the rules. Bryan had been close to losing his life several times. It meant he either had a death wish or thought he was invincible. Either way, it made him walk a fine line balancing between good and evil.

The detective rolled up his sleeves on his white shirt showing a familiar sign of respect. He came from the same brotherhood in the military that Bryan served with distinction. It wasn’t just his police record but also his military background that made him less likely to fall victim to a woman’s accusations.

I placed my hand on the table with the chair squeaking in protest. “There is nothing you can say that will change my mind. Don’t you believe in the system? As much as it pains me to say this, he is just another criminal, hiding in plain sight, wearing the uniform,” I heard my voice speak the truth without trying to hide from the emotional bruises.

Cameron was down the hall making his own statement while the man responsible for all of this was cooling his heels in a lockup most likely alone, away from the riffraff.

“I’m going to suggest to the district attorney to drop all the charges against him. Character witnesses will come forward to speak on his behalf. Too many people owe their lives to him to ever believe this nonsense of him becoming a mad man stalking you. I think this is a case of sour grapes for him leaving you. This attempt to gaslight him isn’t going to work. I will make sure the jury knows that you are a disgruntled lover completely delusional with documents to back it up,” Detective Riley spouted, no longer using kid gloves to speak to me.

I leaned back against the chair feeling this urge to slap the taste out of his mouth.

“Do you think you’re the first one to protect him from himself? I did it all of those years living in fear of him. He can’t be allowed to do this to anybody else. They will hear my voice, and they will listen. You can try to sweep it under the rug, but it’s not going to work this time,” I argued without raising my voice.

I was keeping my tone neutral to really antagonize him further than he already was. Men like him can’t stand a reasonable woman with guts.

He moved his hand through his greasy black hair smiling beneath his cheesy caterpillar mustache. It was almost comical the way that he was first playing good cop and now the bad cop routine was putting the screws to me.

The door opened and a woman in a dark pantsuit wearing her blonde hair in a long ponytail stepped through the doors. Her hands were in her pockets and she leaned down to have a brief whispered conversation with Detective Riley.

He took a deep breath and was about to say something but thought better of it.

She motioned for him to leave and he only hesitated for one second before complying. It was obvious she was the one that wore the pants in the department. She was most likely listening in on the other side of the one-way glass right in front of me.