A Case For Conners

Chapter 20

Chapter 19: Dishonorable Discharge

Conners was having a very fun evening. He was currently examining a man who had died only an hour ago and was trying to measure the amount of saliva in the man's mouth. Right as he was plotting another point on his graph, his cell phone went off.

Irritated that someone had interrupted his experiments, he decided to check caller ID. The lieutenant's personal cell number lit up in the dim room. At first, he was inclined to ignore any caller that wasn't Lawrence, but he figured it had been a staggering four hours since his last case, and flipped open the phone.

"'ello," he said, adopting a thick cockney accent. "What can I do ya for taday govena'?"

"Conners, it's Guston!"

"I know," said Conners, dropping his accent when the man didn't respond to it. "Amazing what technology can do isn't it?"

"Quit being a wise-ass and listen to me."

"We both know I can multitask."

"Dammit Conners, a veteran just snapped and started shooting and taking people hostage… He's got Lawrence. I know my boys can't get him without someone dying. Please… help."

Conners sprinted out of the morgue, double time. The lieutenant gave him the address, and in only a few minutes, he was at the roadblock.

"Where?" he shouted at the officer.

"End of the block, large red house. You can't go through, though. He's shooting at anyone who comes up the street."

Conners looked around and spotted a manhole cover.

"No problem." he said. "But I am going to need your handcuffs and some rope."

A few minutes later Conners was wading his way through the stinking, disgusting sewers. He felt as though he was going to puke, but held back. Above him, he could hear the negotiator trying and failing to convince the veteran to relax. Between the screaming and occasional gunfire, Conners navigated his way to the red house the man was living in.

When he reached a ladder, he climbed it slowly to peek up and see where he was on the street. Wrong spot. He'd be too visible from here. He moved on to another ladder… and another… At the fifth ladder, he saw police cars lined up outside a house and heard gunfire coming from the far side. Slowly, he climbed out of the stinking tunnel. The house was only a few feet away.

He moved quickly, and placed his long coat over the window before smashing it in. The sound was still loud, but covered by the gunfire. Conners slipped in leaving the coat behind and tied his hands in front of him using the rope. He carefully climbed up the stairs of the house and saw a room containing about ten people, including Lawrence. A double-check confirmed the shooter was in another room.

He slipped in among the hostages and sat next to Lawrence.

"You smell like s**t," she whispered. "What have you been doing?"

"Hello darling," he responded, quietly. "It's good to see you too, how was your night?"

"Conners," she said, seriously. "Do you have a plan for getting us out of here?"

"Yep," he replied. "Knock out the guy, arrest him. Ass is kicked, Conners gets money and Conners goes home."

"Cute," she said sarcastically. "And exactly how is Conners going to knock out our war veteran?"

He paused for a moment.

"I think I have a plan for that."

He quickly pulled a jolly rancher out of his pocket and resisted the urge to actually eat it as the gunfire stopped. Soon, the man came into the room to check on his hostages. Conners examined him as his mind took a snapshot.

His white hair and wrinkled face showed age, so he was from the Vietnam wars; that meant he was a hardened soldier. However, he clearly had snapped. He hated the government and system that had made him go through his hell, most likely. The gun he held was a standard AK-47. So, he had access to some sort of black market. Conners also caught the knife stuffed in his belt.

The man had no ring on his hand, but the rope around his neck held a wedding band several times too small for him. So he was divorced or widowed… divorced was more likely. Was he crippled? If he was, it didn't show. He'd have to make a shot in the dark there. It was time to act.

"You giving up yet?" asked Conners.

Lawrence kicked him but he ignored it.

"Shut up you fucker," said the man, "I ain't dying alone!"

"You already will," said Conners. "Seeing as your wife left you. Was it because of your injury, or were you just bad in bed? Granted, the lunatic thing doesn't help you much."

The man ran up to him, putting his face only a few inches in front of Conners. Then, he let out an ear-splitting roar and Conners took his chance. Steeling himself, he spit his treat down the man's open mouth. His pure shock stopped him from reacting for just a second.

Conners used that second to smash both hands into the man's temple with all the strength he could muster. It wasn't enough to knock him out, but it did bring him to the ground. While the man was stunned, Conners stood and jumped on to the arm holding the gun. A sickening crack hit the air as the bone broke and he dropped the gun in pain.

Conners reached down and pulled out the man's knife: A long bowie knife. Quickly, he cut himself free and went for the gun, covering the man.

Lawrence was up now, and she grabbed the knife and began cutting the others free before returning to Conners, who was still covering the injured man.

"Just kill me!" he shouted at Conners. "Don't throw me back in a stinking hole, just put a bullet in me. It's kinder."

"Kinder?" asked Conners. "You just kidnapped several innocent people and held them in your house at gun point while shooting at cops! Excuse me if I'm not feeling kind!"

He tossed the cuffs to Lawrence and she read him his rights while placing the cuffs on him. Conners noticed she was gentle with the injured arm and he thought that was odd. After all, the man had kidnapped her, and probably threatened to kill her. Why spare him any pain?

He dismissed the thought and walked the man outside, tossing the gun to an officer. Only then did he turn to Lawrence.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "Are you hurt?"

"No," she said. "No, I'm okay."

They looked at each other for a moment before she hugged him tightly around the waist. He smiled at her and returned the gesture. It felt good to hug her. After a moment she spoke.

"Conners?"

"Yes?"

"You really do stink."

"Sorry," he said lightly. "Had to climb through a sewer to get here, you know?"

"Course you did," she said, rolling her eyes at him.

Just then the lieutenant came running up to them.

"Conners! I can't believe it! That was amazing. How did you do it? No, tell me later. Will your usual cover any expenses?"

"Add the price of dry cleaning these clothes and my coat. You'd better hope I don't have to replace them."

The three of them laughed as they walked back to the station.

"Seriously though, these need cleaning."