Friday
1946 Local

The chaos swirled around her. Flashing police lights cut across her vision every few seconds, and the detective was barking questions at her. The rain misted down gently in the parking lot of the convenience store. The lights that had been flashing Joe’s Quick Stop were out, but the lights from the police cruisers cast an eerie other-world feel to the rather isolated convenience store.

Through it all, she sat quietly in the back seat of the police cruiser, holding little AJ tightly in her lap. At the moment, he was her sole focus, and she whispered soothing words to him constantly. Occasionally she shifted her attention to the young girl huddled next to her, giving comfort as best she could.

Little AJ clung to her just as tightly, his blonde head resting against her shoulder, his thumb in his mouth. Every few minutes he would give a little hiccup, the leftovers of crying. But he was calming down and feeling safer by the minute. The young girl was quiet as well.

A minivan pulled into the convenience store parking lot and stopped with a screech of brakes. Bud and Harriet emerged, looking frantically around. Mac looked up at the sound of Harriet’s voice calling for her son.

“AJ! There he is, Bud!” Harriet’s voice was almost hysterical as she tried to push past the policeman blocking her way. Bud followed her, his artificial leg slowing him down.

“Ma’am, sir, I’m afraid no one can go in there right now.” The uniformed policeman was kind, but firm. The entire building was cordoned off with yellow police tape. The one entry was guarded.

Mac stood and walked the few steps to them, still holding AJ. “It’s okay, Officer, they’re his parents.”

As if on cue, AJ held out his arms to his parents and started crying again. This time, the Officer didn’t attempt to stop Harriet from getting to her son. “AJ, honey, it’s okay. Mommy and Daddy are here, honey.” Harriet took Little AJ from Mac and cuddled her sobbing son close, then walked off towards the minivan.

Mac didn’t say anything, just stood there looking after them.

“Colonel, are you all right?” Bud’s concerned voice startled her for some reason, and she shifted her gaze over to him. She looked disheveled and was sporting a bruise on her cheek. There was an emptiness in her expression that troubled him, and there was a large spot of blood on the front of her white shirt that troubled him more.

“I’m fine, Bud. And I think AJ will be, too.” She shivered even though the night was warm and she had on a light jacket thrown over her shoulders to protect her from the rain. She was afraid she wouldn’t ever feel warm again. She tried for a smile, but gave up the attempt after a moment.

“Miss Mackenzie, I really need to get your statement now.” Detective Bigalow tried to convey patience, but his was wearing thin. A large balding man in his late fifties dressed in the requisite old suit with scuffed shoes, he displayed a lack of sensitivity that also bothered Bud. It was obvious this man’s vocabulary did not include the word “empathy”.

Noting the Colonel’s blank stare, Bud felt a strong urge to protect her wash over him. He didn’t know what was wrong with her, but he was damn sure not going to let this detective bully her when she couldn’t defend herself. “I don’t think so, Detective…Bigalow?” He squinted at the ID tag on the man’s suit jacket, then looked over at Mac again, once again taking in her pale features and drawn countenance. “This can wait till morning. I’ll bring her down to the station myself.”

Bigalow’s eyes narrowed as he answered Bud nastily. “Look buddy, I don’t know who you are, but there has been a shooting here, and two men are dead. I can’t just let her go.” Turning back to Mac, he gestured roughly for her to precede him back to the cruiser.

Bud borrowed a page from his mentor, Rabb, and stiffened his spine. Giving the detective what he hoped was a hard look, he replied, “I’m an attorney with JAG, and so is Colonel Mackenzie.” He emphasized the Colonel for good measure. “We’re both well aware of her rights and I’m telling you-”

“It’s all right, Bud.” Mac’s voice interrupted his tirade. “Go ahead and take Harriet and AJ home. They need you. Wrapping her arms around herself, she continued. “I’ll give him his statement and see you in the morning.” Her second attempt at a smile failed utterly. “I’ll be okay, don’t worry.”

It was true Harriet and AJ needed him, but they would be okay without him for a little while. He thought back to the day of his injury, when his friends risked a DDO charge to support him. There was no way he would abandon her, not with that look in her eyes.

“Ma’am, either I stay, or I call Commander Turner or the Admiral for you.” Commander Rabb was conducting an investigation on a carrier halfway around the world.

“NO!” His jump at her sharp tone made her take a deep breath and start over. “No, thank you Bud, but I can handle it. There’s no sense in ruining their night as well. Go, your family needs you.”

This time when he met her eyes there was a spark of fear in hers, only hardening his resolve. He didn’t understand what was going on in her head, but that didn’t matter. Turning to Bigalow, he continued, “I’m her attorney, no questions until I’m present.”

Bigalow merely rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

Mac interjected with a protest. “Bud, you don’t have to-”

This time it was his turn to cut her off. “Yes I do, ma’am. I don’t abandon friends anymore than you do.” And with that he made his way across the parking lot to confer with Harriet and send her home with Little AJ.

Bigalow didn’t say a word as they waited for his return, his irritation palpable. Mac was quiet as well.

The minivan pulled out and Bud walked back over to them. “Okay, Detective. Ma’am, do you want to do this here, or down at the station?”

Mac shot him a tired glance. “Here, Bud. Let’s just get this over with.” Turning from the two men, she went back to the police cruiser and leaned inside. “Casey, come on, honey. You stay with me until your parents get here, okay?”

To Bud’s surprise, a young brunette girl in jeans and a T-shirt about 16 years old climbed out of the back of the cruiser and stood next to Mac. “This is Casey, Bud. She was in the store with us. She’s having a difficult time reaching her parents.”

The girl was obviously shaken, and was looking to Mac for protection, but she managed to say a few words. “They’re coming. They’ll be here in a few minutes.” Mac put a steadying arm around the girl’s shoulders.

Casey had barely finished the sentence when an expensive looking SUV roared into the parking lot with a harried looking couple inside.

Mac looked over to Bigelow, her first real emotion showing. “Look, she’s underage and scared. Can’t you question her tomorrow? I can give you everything you need to know.” She watched as Casey ran to her parents, the tears starting to flow again. The woman gave her a comforting hug as the man continued in their direction.

One look at the obviously wealthy man coming his way caused Bigelow to cave. “OK.” Grumpily he walked over and met Casey’s father to make the arrangements.

“Ma’am? Do we need to talk alone before you tell them what happened?” Bud asked gently as he still didn’t know what happened in the store. Mac’s call to him had been brief and to the point. They had stumbled on an attempted robbery, but Little AJ was fine, they needed to come and get him. But he was banking on Mac’s legal knowledge to let him protect her if she needed it.

Mac shook her head wearily. “No Bud, it’s okay. I really just want to get this over with.” There was a tired slump in her shoulders that normally wasn’t there.

“OK then, let’s get you comfortable.” Hesitantly he put an arm around her to guide her to the cruiser, but she pulled away sharply.

At his surprised look she shot him an apologetic look. “Sorry Bud, I’m just jumpy. I had to…I…” To her horror she felt tears welling up and desperately choked them down. Taking a deep breath, she continued in an almost desperate tone. “I had to kill them both. I had no choice.”

Shocked, Bud could only stare at her.

Finally he voiced the question. “What happened exactly?” He was aware that Bigelow had returned and was standing next to him, but the detective didn’t interrupt. Bud had asked the question Bigelow would have asked anyway.

Mac directed her answer to both of them, but looked away across the neighboring field as she answered. “I stopped to pick up some coffee, that’s all. I was running Little AJ home, and just stopped for a minute for some coffee.” Pausing for a moment, she drew a shaky breath before continuing.

“When I went in, Casey was there. She was filling cokes in the cooler. She told me she’d be right out, so I went to find the coffee and then waited for her at the counter.”

“Two men came in then.” Meeting Bigelow’s gaze was difficult, but she forced herself. “I didn’t like the look of them…I had a bad feeling. They looked around the store, then came up to me. One, the younger one, pulled a gun and told me to keep quiet.”

It was then she looked at Bud apologetically. “I didn’t put up a fight. I did as he asked for Little AJ’s sake, Bud. I wouldn’t have endangered him for anything.” She seemed to be almost pleading with him to believe her.

He nodded, shaken at her story. “I know, ma’am.”

Another ragged breath was drawn. “Anyway, the other one went to the door where Casey would come out. As soon as she did, he grabbed her and pushed a gun to her side. He forced her back up to the counter and demanded the keys. She did everything right, gave him the keys without a fight.”

The pause this time was longer, as if she was gathering strength. “Go on, Colonel.” Bigelow’s voice was still impatient, and Bud shot him an angry look. Bigelow had the grace to look slightly ashamed of himself. Mac took no notice of the exchange.

“They locked the doors then, and shut off the lights outside to make it look like the store was closed, I guess.” Staring at the ground now, she visibly braced herself to continue. “They told us to get in the back…in the store room. One of them, I think his name was Tom, emptied the cash register as we went to the back.”

Suddenly she looked up. “Please, I’ve got to sit down.” Her hands were trembling, and Bud could see the toll this was taking on her and was infinitely glad he had stayed. Bigelow finally acted like a human being and pointed to the cruiser. “Why don’t you sit there, Colonel? We’ll try to finish this quickly.”

She clutched her hands together to hide the tremor after she sat down and faced out towards them as both of the men stayed near the open door. “When we got there…to the store room…they…the 2 men…decided they wanted something more.”

‘Oh God’, thought Bud, ‘Please don’t let this have happened.’

“I convinced them to let Casey alone. She was too young…I…I…” This time she couldn’t choke back the sob. Both her hands were over her face, but she gathered herself together and continued the story. “They wanted to do it right there, but I begged them not to. Not in front of AJ and Casey. I promised I wouldn’t fight.”

A bleak stillness came over her. It was chilling. “Tom and I went into the manager’s office. He closed the door, but didn’t lock it. He came over to me and pushed me against the desk.” She stopped and looked at Bigelow. “I had promised not to fight, but when he started to grope me, something just snapped, and I…I…pushed him away. He got mad then, and punched me.” One slender hand touched the bruise on her cheek in remembrance. “I just lost it then, and we grappled for the gun. While we were struggling, it went off.”

She stopped, seemingly lost in memories. Bud asked this time, as gently as he could. “And then?”

“He died.” This was said flatly, in a monotone. Shaking her head as if to wake herself up, she continued.

“And then the other one, I never heard his name, burst in through the door. I still had the gun in my hand, so I shot him too. It was a reflex, really. I didn’t stop to think.”

She stopped again, then added as an afterthought. “Casey and AJ were naturally upset, but I managed to calm them down and call 911. We waited for the police to show up.”

“Did either one of them…” Bud hesitated to ask, but wanted make sure, “hurt you?”

Once again she touched the bruise on her cheek, but didn’t meet his eyes. “Except for this, I’m fine.”

Bud couldn’t help feeling there was more, but he didn’t want to push her, especially in front of Bigelow. He turned to the detective. “Anything else you need?” He hoped not. It was obvious Mac had been through enough for the evening.

“Just a couple of questions. Have you ever seen either of those two men before?”

Mutely, Mac shook her head.

“Do you know why…” He checked his notes briefly. “Casey was in the store by herself?”

“She said her manager had an emergency…a sick kid. He was supposed to be back in a little while.”

Bigelow thumbed through his notebook, and then sighed. “Okay, that’s it for now. As long as the kid backs up your story, we shouldn’t have a problem. And the security tapes.”

Mac’s head jerked around in alarm. “Security tapes?”

Suspiciously Bigelow eyed her and nodded. “Yeah, security monitors the entire merchandise area. No sound, just video. Why?”

Bud broke in before it went any further. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll just see the Colonel home.”

There was a short silence as Bigelow considered this. Mac looked visibly shaken, but that could have been the result of the whole night, not the last question.

Finally, Bigelow acquiesced. “All right. But don’t leave town, we might have questions.”

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