Black Tie Event

Chapter Twenty Nine

I never thought I'd see the day that I actually returned to my own police department. It almost seemed surreal, walking through the double glass doors and not seeing any of the Green Falls detectives, but rather, the old familiars from my past who had since become more distant.

I took a deep breath as Allison and I pushed through the precinct, giving some greetings where they were due but keeping mostly to ourselves. This had to be brief, we knew; Collin Shaw was going to be arraigned later that afternoon, and we had every intention of being there.

We found Harwood's office by muscle memory and knocked once before being let in.

"Look who it is," he commented, apparently not having expected us. "Sit."

We did so, nervously, looking back at him from across the desk.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, sensing the tension in the room.

I looked down at the floor before placing my badge and gun on his desk, wordlessly.

"You're resigning?"

"No," I quickly said. "No, it's not that. I..." I swallowed. This was harder than I thought it would be. "I killed someone."

He just stared back, his face emoting confusion, anger, and shock, simultaneously. Obviously, I'd been a little blunt in my delivery, but I saw it better to just rip the proverbial Band-Aid off all at once.

"She was defending me, sir," Allison quickly covered. To punctuate her point, she stood up and revealed her wound.

That was the first time I'd seen it too. It was actually kind of gross; I was used to my own bullet wound, which has by now healed far more nicely than this one.

"Kim saved my life," Allison explained.

"Only after she saved mine," I reminded her. "We ran into someone who I apparently had a history with in Green Falls. He shot, Beckett took it, and I shot him. He was dead before he got to the hospital."

Harwood sighed, taking in so much information in such a short expanse of time.

"Are we going to be able to prove this?"

I nodded. "Beckett's physical evidence illustrates the self defense. The Green Falls police can make statements. His bullet was a through-and-through, and it was recovered. They bagged the gun for evidence, too. Ballistics will support our story."

He just exhaled once again. "God, I hope so. No more police work for you then, until this clears out. And you," he said in Beckett's direction. "You're on disability, starting now."

We nodded, having anticipated as much.

"How are things with Shaw?" he asked.

I looked at Allison, and she just looked back at me. Now this was something we weren't afraid to talk about.

"Being arraigned this afternoon," I said proudly. Harwood just looked back at me inquisitively. The next half hour or so was spent telling our story, refusing to skip details, as we wanted the opportunity to paint ourselves as heroes. We told it as an epic, hitting on all the drama, but not straying from the truth.

"So it has enough evidence to stand up in trial, then?" Harwood asked, hitting more on his major concerns than our dramatic accounts.

"We think so," Allison said ambivalently.

"And who's prosecuting it?"

"An ADA from Green Falls," I explained. "She's been working the case for a while now."