Off the Grid

Jodie was speaking with uniform officers and the crime scene crew when she heard the call about the shotgun man. They were standing in the shade of a tree. Sweat collected under her vest and was aggravating the cuts along her ribs. Her head throbbed and her hand ached. She was amazed at her own resiliency. Getting shot at twice in a twenty-four hour period was nerve-wracking, of course it was, but here she was giving instructions to the officers who arrived to help after and chugging a bottle of water from a case of them the crime scene crew seemed to carry with them everywhere. Graham sucked a water bottle back as well and retreated behind her, keeping the brim of his hat low after drawing the curious stares of the arriving police.

The shotgun slug had turned the bark into dust. The sharp wood pieces surprisingly didn’t cut or scratch Jodie or Graham. It scared the hell out of them, that’s for sure, but no new injuries. Jodie had dropped and dragged Graham down with her. Another two shots buzzed over them and then Jodie, more than pissed off at all the shots flying at her recently, emptied a magazine of her rounds into the area where the shots had come from. She slammed in a new magazine and waited. Her ears were ringing and the smell of cordite hung heavy in the still air. After a time, she heard the sound of an engine starting. The noise receded and she knew the bad guy had gotten away…again.

Talking to the crime scene tech, she told them where the gunfight was, how to get to the cave and what to expect. One uniform officer was tasked to go the entrance of the cave and guard it until the crime scene people could get there. They had to process where the gunfight took place and see if the shooter had left any evidence behind. They were discussing all this and they were teasing Jodie about all the paperwork she would have to do for all the crap she had gone through and although Jodie played along and smiled and laughed, she was pretty damned annoyed by the whole situation and was having a real hard time finding anything funny about it. One crime scene tech asked who Graham was and Jodie said, “A witness.” She hoped they would leave it at that but it looked like they wouldn’t. Before she had to answer their follow-up questions, the dispatcher called her on her portable radio.

Jodie said, “Reyes here. Go ahead.”

“Surveillance team said an angry man riding a motorcycle and carrying a shotgun on his back was headed into town.”

Jodie turned to Graham and said, “That’s our guy. The one who shot at us.” Into the portable, Jodie said, “Send every officer you can spare. I think he might be the guy who shot at me. Tell everyone to be very, very careful. I’m on my way.”

The two uniform officers moved close to Jodie. The one officer, a young woman whose name tag read Grover, said, “We’re going. We can’t sit here and guard a scene with that going on.”