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The memory rushed forward unexpectedly. Jenny hadn’t paid much attention at the time, too consumed with catching Faith Cole, the escaped prisoner who had apparently just pushed her hostage out a third floor window, to register the edge in Beau’s voice as he shouted after her.
Just minutes before, they had been having an amusing conversation about friendships and Beau awkwardly trying to convince her to join in on a movie night with Cassie. Then the hostage bounced off the hood of her truck.
After calling for an ambulance, Jenny had drawn her sidearm, stated her intentions to go into the building, and then left him there to tend to the civilian as she barged into the apartment complex alone.
You need back up!
She never let herself think about the possible consequences even though she had come out on the wrong side of those statistics in the past. Sometimes life and death counted on the seconds in between going in alone or waiting. If she was quick enough, she could intercept Faith Cole before she could make a second escape. Besides, she had been watching her own back for a while now and didn’t need Beau to clear this building.
She made her way to the apartment and found it empty with clear signs of a struggle. The small bedroom rife with stuffed animals and pink clothing raised new alarms for the possibility of a new hostage in the equation. Jenny turned, grabbed the small stuffed moose that bore a remarkable resemblance to the novelties from the store and rushed back out of the apartment. The clock was running and those life and death seconds began to slip away. When she finally made it down to Beau outside, she was fully in there’s no time to waste mode. She was a freight train picking up speed. They had to find this woman quickly.
So she missed the subtle emotion lacing Beau’s annoyed retort after she had informed him the apartment was empty, “Okay, well that’s good, ‘cause you went in there without any backup. Do you have any police training whatsoever?”
Jenny ignored the rebuke and launched into her theory which seemed to derail Beau from gathering any steam on the breach in protocol. Her tone left no other options. Either get on board or get out of the way.
He agreed to pull in more manpower.
She headed back to her truck without looking back at him. They needed to get back to the station to do some deeper background. Maybe she could get Pop on it ASAP and pulled out her phone to call in.
And then Beau was behind her again, wrapping up his own conversion setting up a BOLO and a perimeter and climbing back into the passenger seat. Jenny did have to give him credit for just trusting her instincts and her deductive reasoning.
Jenny blinked and the memory faded. Sitting across from her, Beau’s ex-wife Carla had been recounting a story about an undercover operation gone bad and a chain reaction of mistakes that had ultimately killed Beau’s partner and tangentially ended their marriage.
Jenny had not realized the scope and depth of the tragedy she was now hearing. She had no idea there was even something like this involved and she would never have pried into the matter if she had known. This should have been Beau’s story to tell. She should have started this questioning with something less painful, Like maybe an amputation, Jenny thought.
Interrogation 101, get the subject to talk about anything safe or unimportant: sports, the weather, favorite foods. Or maybe an ex-spouse, Jenny thought again, sarcastically. The more a subject talked, the more they would continue to talk and the more information they would ultimately give up that would potentially be useful for the investigation or cornering a suspect. Carla was a successful defense attorney. She had to know this herself and that Jenny was using this tactic.
Jenny had been initially surprised that Carla was willing to even go there voluntarily but, as she talked, Jenny realized the woman really just needed someone to talk to and surprised, but not really surprised, that Beau had not said anything about it himself.
Carla paused, lost in her own thoughts.
You went in there without any backup.
Now it made sense. Beau’s partner had been alone, without backup and died as a result.
“...and he just blamed himself. Just checked out,” Carla continued. “Of everything. Some very dark days.”
Jenny’s heart twisted in sympathy for this man who was swiftly becoming more than a partner. Worse still, that she hadn’t really given him a choice. Priority of Life required that he stay with the downed hostage until help arrived. She had been the one to break protocol. Determined to catch the escapee and damn the consequences, Jenny had left Beau to what must have been an agony. Now all she could hear was the tone he had in his voice.
Jenny frowned and glanced down at her hands, “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Carla nodded, regret in her eyes. “He’s a good man.”
“Yes. Yes, he is.” Jenny responded immediately, Beau’s voice still echoing in her head.
end.