Read Online Lizardskin by Carsten Stroud - Free Book Online Page A

slipped away? You mean, while you were drilling Joe Bell a new asshole?”
    “That’s not how it went, Vanessa.”
    “Okay.” She set her Pearlcorder up on the desk and punched the button. “Let’s see how it did go. My name is Vanessa Ballard, assistant district attorney for the counties of Yellowstone, Big Horn, Powder River, Treasure, Custer, and Rosebud. In connection with the wounding by gunfire of one Joseph Bell, a citizen of Yellowstone County, this day and date, in Yellowstone County, we are questioning the officer of the Montana Highway Patrol who answered the emergency call. Please identify yourself.”
    “Staff Sergeant Beauregard McAllister, shield number 2211, District Four of the Montana Highway Patrol.”
    “Staff Sergeant McAllister, did you have occasion to make entries in your notes concerning the events of this date as they affect the matter in question?”
    “I did.”
    “Would you feel it necessary to refer directly to your notes as they concern this matter, should you be required to testify in court or in a pretrial hearing or in an examination for discovery, Sergeant McAllister?”
    “I would.”
    “Duly noted. Now … are you prepared to answer direct questions in this matter at this time, if such questions fall within your area of knowledge as they affect the discharge of your firearm while responding to this ten-seventy call?”
    “I am.”
    “And do you wish to have legal representation as is your right under the terms of the police act and the Escobedo decision?”
    “Are formal charges being considered against me?”
    “Not at this time, Sergeant McAllister.”
    “Then I do not wish to have legal representation.”
    “You agree to make this statement of your own free will. No one has made threats or offered you inducements or guarantees?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    “Very well. Can you tell us in your own words what you know of the events under investigation?”
    Beau flipped out his notebook, ran a thick forefinger down the pages. “Okay. Got the radio call at sixteen-thirteen hours this date, a ten-seventy, an armed robbery in progress, at Bell’s Oasis. I attend scene accompanied by a Four car, the dog car, Trooper Thornton, and that wild-assed mutt he lives with—”
    “You have that phrase in your notes, Sergeant?”
    Beau grinned and kept reading in an official monotone.
    “—and as we arrive at the scene we become aware of gunfire coming from the direction of the pump island. Trooper Thornton and I acquire tactical defense positions—”
    “I beg your pardon, Sergeant?”
    “Positions out of the line of fire, possessing sufficient material obstruction as to deflect or absorb such lethal ballistic energy as may be directed at the officers, Ms. Ballard. Tactical defense positions. We reconnoiter the scene. We observe citizensin various positions of hiding, having taken cover from the line of fire. We also observe one white male in possession of Winchester semiautomatic twelve-gauge shotgun. White male known to this officer as Joseph Arnold Bell, D.O.B. the eleventh of the seventh 1939. Mr. Bell is the owner of Bell’s Oasis, at Pompeys Pillar in Yellowstone County in the sovereign State of Montana. Upon attempting to identify ourselves to Mr. Bell, these officers received immediate return fire from Mr. Bell.”
    “Let me understand you there. Mr. Bell
shot
at you?”
    “Yeah. Didn’t I mention that?” Beau’s smile was guileless and sweet. “Anyway, the officers received immediate return
shotgun
fire from Mr. Bell, whereupon the responding officers returned to their defensive positions and another attempt was made to identify ourselves to Mr. Bell. This attempt was successful, and Mr. Bell informed us that there was an attempted robbery in progress at his place of business.”
    “That would be the Shell gas station known as Bell’s Oasis?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Please continue.”
    “Yes, ma’am. An attempted robbery in progress. At that time I