Falling On the Sword Read Online Free Page B

job.”
    “ Why are you fighting me on this? We have a confession. We have a gun registered to one Jerry Rakowski. We have his prints on it. His GSR test will come up positive. Why do you want to go after the girl, too? Hell, she’s the real victim in this.”
    “ Why? Because she pulled the trigger. You can’t call them back after they’re fired. She broke the law, now she’s going to have to man up to it. What? Are we just going to start making up the law as we go along, now? This guy here’s guilty, but not that guy over there. We’re going to start picking and choosing who we arrest? Handing out warnings for homicide?”
    Carter rubbed his chin. “Please don’t do this.”
    She threw her arms out to her sides. “Why do you care?”
    “ I made a promise.”
    “ To who?”
    “ I owe Rak my life. He’s calling in the favor.”
    “ You know these people?” Locke put both her hands over her head. “Christ, that’s ethically wrong on so many levels. They could have your badge for this. Hell, you’d probably be sharing a cell with him.”
    “ I want you to listen to something, okay? Those people out there are practically-no, they are my family. We don’t share any blood, but we’re kin. That old man in there he was natural fucking police. Natural.”
    “ So where do you come into this?”
    “ He was my TO. We partnered up after that. One day, we chase this fucking clocker doing a re-up into an abandoned walkup on Freemont. We split up and I was able to corner the prick on the second floor. Kid takes the G-pack and tosses it at me. I don’t know why, but I catch it. And when I look back, he’s pointing a goddamn Mac-11 at me. I freeze up. I see his finger tense up. I’m thinking I’m dead. Game over, man. But just as he points and sprays, Rak comes out of nowhere and pushes my ass out of the way. He takes five to the stomach. The piece of shit fucking vest only stops one of them. Rak spends the next three months in ICU at University. Almost a year pissing and shitting in a bag after that before they can fix his bowels completely. I failed him once, I ain’t gonna do it again.”
    Carter sighed. “The Councilman doesn’t need both of them. All we need to do is have Alisa wash her hands. There’ll be no evidence tying her to the crime.”
    Locke put her hands on the door handle. “You know what my TO told me,” she said, not looking at Carter. “No matter what you do, never compromise your ethics, always do the right thing.”
    “ Sometimes doing the right thing, ain’t doing the right thing.”
    “ What? That’s your logic in this? That’s what you think is going to change my mind? Fuck you for asking me that.”
    She exited the bathroom.
    Carter called out after her. “You think this is easy for me?”
    She made a beeline right toward interrogation room one. Jerry Rakowski looked disappointed to see her.
    “ Okay, Mr. Rakowski, you want to confess?”
    “ Yep. I did it.”
    Locke leaned in closer. “We both know that’s bullshit. And while I commend you for what you’re trying to do, your daughter’s still the shooter. The only thing you’re doing is setting the both of you up to take the fall. There’s nothing I can do. You were a police; you should be able to understand that.”
    “ I could still be a police, you know? I chose not to after I got shot because of that little girl in the next room. I don’t remember much from my time in intensive care, but I remember this. This was like right after the second surgery. The doctors still think it’s a coin toss to see if I’d live. So Carter and Beth, Carter’s ex, brought Alisa to see me, thinking that seeing her would give me something to fight for. I couldn’t help it when I saw her. I cried. I didn’t want her to seem me like that, but she saw me.” And Rakowski broke into tears himself. “And she says to me ‘Don’t worry, daddy. It’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna take care of you now.’ And he grabs my hand as tight