Falling for the Law Ch. 11-17

Allison slowly started down the hall, the alarm drowning out any sounds that came from that direction. She'd taken two steps when a figure lurched drunkenly from the entrance to Marley's room.

Allison instantly recognized the lanky figure of Travis Lucas, and what a sight he was. The area around his eyes was a mask of pain, his flesh torn and his right eye clearly missing. Blood still leaked from his nose, his mouth and chin covered in the life-giving, red liquid. Lucas's shirt was a mess; the brown uniform top he wore almost gone almost black from the combination of the cloth's color and the blood that saturated it. He held his right hand to his upper chest, and in his left, Allison saw a knife, the sight of it making her blood run cold.

"FREEZE, LUCAS!" Allison yelled over the din of the alarm while centering the sights of her weapon between Lucas's breastbones. She saw his good eye come into focus as he recognized her, the empty look on his face dissipating instantly, his features hardening as his lips curled into a scowl.

Recognizing his intent from the way his body seemed to coil, Allison screamed, 'DON'T DO IT."

The chief knew instantly that the perp wouldn't heed her call. Even before Lucas began to lunge forward, her finger went to the trigger in anticipation. There was only a short distance between the pair, twelve feet at most. Allison knew that a healthy man could cover that distance in two seconds or less. And even with Lucas's apparent injuries, Allison knew she would have little time to take a shot before he was on her with the knife.

Lucas bared his teeth and lunged forward, raising the knife in his hand, his intent clear. His choice to end Allison's life was written all over Lucas's countenance, a murderous rage present in his good eye.

The meth dealer managed one step before Allison fired a double-tap, both bullets finding their mark barely an inch apart in his chest. The inertia of the shots slammed into him and instantly stopped his progress, the criminal dropping into a heap in his tracks, his eyes still staring blankly up towards Allison where he lay. Blood seeped from the wounds in his chest, Allison held the gun on her target for several seconds as her heart pounded in her chest. The chief had never killed anyone before, but even with that inexperience, it was obvious to her that Travis Lucas was dead, his body well on its way to assuming room temperature.

Shaking off what she'd just been forced to do, Allison stepped over the drug dealer's corpse and closed the distance to Marley's bedroom. She instantly took in the scene, seeing blood covering the expensive comforter on Marley's bed. There was no sign of her girlfriend, but a clear blood trail ended at Marley's panic room door, telling Allison that her girlfriend had been injured but had made her way to safety.

Trying to remember the security code to the door, Allison quickly punched it in, her excited fingers mistyping the numbers and forcing Allison to begin again. Taking a deep breath, the chief forced herself to enter the numbers more carefully before finally saying a brief prayer and hitting enter.

The alarm immediately went silent, Allison's ears still ringing despite the silence. There was a heavy thunk as the lock to the barrier in front of her released, the metal door sliding back into its pocket and revealing the room's contents.

Allison's heart sunk. Marley lay on the bathroom floor on her left side, her skin tone ashen and gray. She was clearly unconscious, or worse, her hand still holding a plush bath towel soaked with her blood against her left side.

Allison dropped to her knees, the first two fingers of her right hand going to Marley's neck to feel for a pulse. She found one, but it felt light and thready. Allison pressed down on the towel with her left hand and keyed the microphone on her shoulder.

"Dispatch, where in the hell is my ambulance?" Marley spoke into the receiver, her voice sounding panicked despite her best efforts to remain calm. "I've got shots fired, one suspect down, and Marley will bleed out if they don't get here really fucking quick!"

The response returned quickly, the dispatcher's voice sounding eerily calm considering Marley's need. "Bus is ten-seventeen and close, their ETA in three minutes."

Allison gritted her teeth and groaned; that short amount of time seemed an eternity. Tears beginning to stream down her cheeks; she leaned down and kissed the woman she loved before bringing her lips to the blonde's ear and whispering, "Hold on, baby. Please don't leave me. I don't know if I can go on without you."

Allison heard approaching sirens somewhere in the distance, her lips starting to work in a silent prayer for Marley...

Chapter Seventeen

Allison came awake all at once in the dark of the hospital room, unsure of what it was that had awakened her. Her eyes struggled into focus in the lowlight and came to rest on the form of the woman she loved, Marley's prone body sleeping in the hospital bed.

Allison stood, her back aching and her legs creaking stiffly as she took one step towards the bed and allowed her hand to rest on Marley's ample breasts, the steady rise and fall of the blonde's chest bringing Allison instant comfort.

It had been a near thing for Marley, the ambulance arriving just in time, the skilled EMTs instantly going to work accessing her injuries and situation. As bad as Lucas had looked, Marley had been relatively unscathed outside of the blood leaking from the small knife wound on her left side. They'd quickly managed to stifle the flow of blood from the injury. But Allison had watched in horror as one of them had palpitated Marley's abdomen and announced that she was bleeding internally.

They'd quickly loaded Marley on a gurney and carefully carried her out of the room and into the hall. Allison had followed on the heels and watched as the EMTs stepped over the corpse of Travis Lucas while trying to be careful not to disturb the evidence below them. They'd quickly beared her outside the house and down the steps, wasting no time before loading her into the back of the ambulance.

"Are you alright, Chief," came the sound of Ted Olsen's voice, startling Allison momentarily. She hadn't even realized the officer was there. Allison watched as a pair of the EMTs began to work on Marley in the back of the truck, one of them inserting a needle in her arm and running a line as the other listened to her heart and took her blood pressure.

"Chief?"

"Lucas is inside, "Allison said without taking her eyes off the action in the back of the ambulance. "He's dead. I shot him."

A bag of clear liquid now hung over Marley's prone form and feeding into the tubing running down into her arm; the other paramedic slid into the opening up front and into the driver's seat as the other made to close the ambulance's rear doors.

"You're in charge of the scene until county investigators arrive," Allison proclaimed, as she hurriedly jumped into the ambulance's rear before its doors could close on her.

The vehicle had begun to move then, though Allison was hardly aware as she took a seat on the opposite side of the paramedic working on Marley. She watched intently as he did his job, her eyes occasionally fluttering to Marley's ashen face, the gray look of her skin breaking Allison's heart.

The ride to the hospital seemed to have taken an age for Allison, the paramedic communicating Marley's stats to the hospital emergency unit as they went. Allison took her lover's hand and again began to pray, tiny shivers of adrenaline starting to leak through her body as shock set in.

Allison was barely cognizant of their arrival at the hospital before the vehicle came to a stop, the rear doors of the ambulance flying open, medical professionals there waiting to take charge of their patient. Marley was quickly unloaded, Allison practically tumbling down out of the vehicle to follow along behind them.

She listened as the paramedics relayed all they had done to the doctors and nurses at Marley's side. Allison followed along as they hurriedly led Marley through the emergency room and through a set of double doors. She heard one of the doctors mention something about preparing an OR and listened to the name of another doctor being paged over the intercom to surgical services stat.

That had been as far as Allison had made it, though, an orderly stepping in her way, his large hands coming to her shoulders. Allison had begun to argue as she watched Marley disappear through another set of doors, the chief's heart going with her.

Allison had then collapsed down into the hospital floor unconscious.

She'd come to lying on a gurney sometime later in the hospital corridor. A blanket lay on top of her, but Allison was otherwise unimpeded from sitting up. She rose into a sitting position, her head swimming slightly as she gripped the side of the gurney. A nurse had stepped up and told her to take it slow. She'd explained that Allison had fainted, likely due to shock. The nurse had told her to sit still and walked away, returning moments later with a cold bottle of water.

She'd been informed that Marley was still in surgery and had been for more than an hour. There had been no word, but the nurse had assured Allison that the doctors were doing all they could.

Molly and her husband Thomas had arrived at the hospital about a half-hour later. Allison had passed on what she knew about Marley's condition, her voice flat and without effect, as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Allison had listened with sparse concentration as Molly had calmly filled her in on all that had happened since Jackson Perry had found her inside the police station. Sheriff's deputies had been able to find two witnesses to the drive-by shootings on the western side of town. They'd been able to give a description of a Nissan Pathfinder, the man riding in the bed of the truck being the one who'd fired into the homes. Molly had informed the sheriff that a similar vehicle was described sitting roadside by a witness at the location where Anna Marie Stallworth's body had been found. She also clued them in on the likely owner, Isley Otis, who owned just such a truck.

Molly then took Allison's hand and told her that there had been a fatality at the diner. Sam, the owner and long-time cook of the establishment, had been in the rear of the restaurant manning the grill when a truck had crashed through its rear block wall. An explosion had followed, with several in the dining room being injured along with Mary, who'd been waiting tables at the time.

The fire chief wasn't yet sure of the cause of the explosion but suspected that the vehicle had taken out the propane tank at the establishment's rear. All indications were that Sam had died instantly, the rest of the incident's injuries being relatively minor in comparison.

The couple had sat with Allison in the waiting room for nearly two more hours before a surgeon had finally appeared. He'd asked for her family, Allison explaining that she was Marley's girlfriend. The doctor had then taken the Chief's hand and told her that the knife blade had penetrated Marley's liver. The surgeon had been forced to remove the injured portion, saying that the remaining part seemed viable. He'd told them that Marley was in stable condition and in intensive care, the danger now that the knife was dirty. There was always the chance of sepsis, a threat they were countering with broad-spectrum antibiotics. He'd explained that Marley had received nearly three liters of blood during the transfusion, pointing out how close she'd been to death when the paramedics had reached her.

Once the doctor was gone, Molly and Thomas had both hugged Allison. That's when something the doctor had said triggered a thought in her mind.

"Oh, God, Marley's parents. Somebody has to let them know," Allison said.

"I could call them if you have their contact number," Molly offered.

Shaking her head, Allison said, "I don't, but I bet it's in her cell phone contacts. Can you get ahold of Ted and see if he found it at the scene. Let him know that he needs to call her parents and tell them what happened and that she's in the hospital."

Allison had given the name of Marley's parents to Molly, her portly best friend hustling outside as she pulled the cell phone from her purse.

Allison had been allowed back to sit with her and hadn't left her side since. Marley had seemed to sleep deeply, never moving even when the ICU nurses had come in and out of the room, poking and prodding her as they did their jobs. Allison had held her hand most of the night, only letting go of it when she'd dozed off, frequently coming to and instantly reaching for Marley's fingers again without thought.

"How's she doing?" a nurse asked, as she entered the room.

"Still sleeping," Allison replied, her voice sounding weary and tired to her own ears.

The nurse studied the monitor hooked to the gaggle of wires attached to Marley's body. "Probably not for much longer."

"What makes you say that?" Allison asked, suddenly feeling much more alert.

"Well, her blood pressure looks good, but the telling thing is her heart rate has come up almost ten points in the last hour," the nurse said, pointing to the monitor. "That typically means a patient is getting close to coming out of that deep, post-surgical sleep."

Allison watched expectantly as if she expected Marley's eyes to open at any moment. The nurse finished her work and left the pair alone again in dark silence, Marley continuing to snooze away.

Her legs tiring, Allison pulled her chair closer to the bed and took a seat. She lowered the bed's rail and grasped Marley's hand, laying her head over on the soft mattress.

At some point, the auburn-haired beauty dozed. In the chief's slumber, Allison dreamed. She and Marley were sitting at an outdoor table at a small cafe near a river. They held each other's hands, their fingers interlaced, and a gleaming gold band and diamond twinkled on the ring finger of Marley's left hand. Allison didn't recognize the city, its architecture, and stone buildings foreign to the structures the chief was used to seeing. She was just about to speak and ask her new bride where they were when suddenly the scene was gone, and Allison came to.

Fingers were softly stroking her cheek, a familiar touch that suddenly had Allison alert instantly.

"Hey, you," Marley said in almost a whisper, her voice sounding hoarse, a weak smile on her face.

"Baby, oh thank, God," Allison remarked with excitement, as she raised her head, feeling a broad smile blossom on her face. She instantly stood and reached out to Marley, cupping her cheek. Bending down, Allison tenderly brushed her lips against Marley's, their kiss not much more than a peck but oh, so sweet.

"Lucas?" Marley asked, her voice cracking. "Did I kill him?"

The look of concern on Marley's face at first threw Allison. But then it occurred to the chief that her girlfriend didn't want to be responsible for a man's death. Despite all he'd put her through, Marley was still a good enough person to not want his death on her conscience.

"No, baby," Allison said tenderly. "You didn't kill him. But I can assure you that you'll never have to worry about Travis Lucas again."

Allison didn't want to bring up the shooting. She didn't want to worry Marley. The chief had already turned over her weapon to county investigators and written a statement for them as she sat by Marley's bedside. Allison knew that the shooting was righteous and had little doubt that she would be cleared in the pending use of deadly force investigation.

"I was so scared," Marley said weakly, her eyes slightly fluttering. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"I was too, Marley," Allison replied, her voice full of emotion. "But I was so proud of how hard you fought, baby. You really messed Lucas up."

"I love you, Allie," Marley said, her eyes welling with tears.

"I love you, too, Marley, now and forever."

EPILOGUE

As far as the remaining members of Lucas's crowd were concerned, the search went on for the first week that Marley was hospitalized. Jackson Perry had surrendered himself and was locked up in the county jail that first night. While he had warned Allison of the threat towards Marley and hadn't taken part in the conspiracy, there was still some uncertainty about whether he'd played a role in Anna Marie's abduction or death.

The Otis brothers were finally located a week after the events in Camden. They'd gone to ground, hiding in a remote hunting cabin well outside the city. Their choice of hiding places had proven a good one, no one having any clue where they'd gone. But things had gone badly for the pair when they'd run out of food. Derrick had thought himself safe going to a small country store on top of the mountain. But he'd been recognized, the faces of the men being hunted having been plastered all over broadcast media.

After he'd left the store, the owner had called the sheriff's office and reported his sighting. Deputies had swarmed the mountain then, the lawmen combing through every home and hunting cabin until they'd located the pair the following morning. The hapless brothers had still been sleeping when deputies had broken down the door to the wood cabin and taken them into custody.

Jeffery Parker had proven far more elusive. He'd managed to elude police for the next month. It wasn't until an alert deputy in Dekalb County, Alabama, had noticed a man sleeping in a Camaro in the parking lot of a Piggly Wiggly grocery store that Parker had been captured. When his car was searched, over a pound of meth was located along with nearly forty thousand dollars in cash.

Jackson Perry had broken down Lucas's plan to Allison and the sheriff. Travis Lucas had apparently waited until late that afternoon before gathering his crew together. He'd ordered the Otis brothers to carry out the drive-by shootings. Parker had been in charge of taking care of the diner. The plan was that he would take the stolen Ford pickup they'd taken the night before and park it at the top of the hill directly behind the diner. After that, it had simply been a matter of jamming a long stick between the bench seat and the truck's accelerator before throwing the vehicle into gear. Gravity and the motor of the truck had done the rest.

Parker had been charged with the meth along with first-degree manslaughter in the death of Sam. He's also been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the attack on Marley. Much to her disgust, Allison had been unable to tie him to Anna Marie's kidnapping and murder.

The onus for that crime had fallen directly on the Otis brothers. Both of their DNA from sperm found on discarded clothing at the scene had been a direct match. DNA from the urine matched Travis Lucas and Derrick, and Isley Otis. Along with the drive-by, the brothers were eventually charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the attempt on Marley and kidnapping and first-degree murder in the death of Anna Marie Stallworth.

Allison went to bat for Jackson Perry once the investigation was complete. There was no indication that he'd been a part of Anna Marie's abduction or murder, and though he had technically been a part of the conspiracy in the attack on Marley, he'd done the right thing and come to Allison in time to save her. The DA had agreed to plea him down to a lesser charge and release the teen on time served. Allie had even secured the young man a job in town. She'd also got together with the local churches and convinced them to help supplement the cost of his mother's medications.

Their trials were still to come, but the county DA had felt comfortable enough in achieving convictions that she'd rebuffed any talk so far of plea bargains. Of course, her decision-making on that account might have slightly been influenced by Allison's assurances that any attempts to lessen their punishments would be remembered by voters come the next election.