Fuzzy Navel

6:49 P.M.
JACK

MY PARTNER’S LEG crumples beneath him when the bullet hits. He cries out, pitching forward, the rifle slipping from his grasp and taking flight.

Herb tumbles to the floor. The gun remains airborne, spinning like a Frisbee, the barrel aiming my way.

I bunch up my shoulders and cover my face – not much protection against a dropped weapon, but a reflex action.

The rifle bounces onto the floor without going off. But it’s ten feet away from me, directly in the line of fire.

So is Herb.

I tug out my.38, aim where I’d seen the muzzle flash over a hundred yards away, and fire twice.

My bullets won’t hit the mark. A snub-nose revolver isn’t accurate beyond twenty feet. But Herb needs time to crawl back into hiding, assuming he can still move.

I press my back against the wall again, not wanting to leave my head exposed longer than necessary, and see Herb dashing across the carpet on all fours like a coked-up squirrel. Maybe those power bars have something to them after all. He makes it back through the doorway, leaving a spotty trail of blood.

“How bad?” I call to him.

“Calf! I’ll be okay! Did you get the rifle?”

I stare at the weapon. Ten feet away might as well be a hundred.

“I’m working on it!”

I survey the room. Other than the injured techie, who is rapidly bleeding out, only four people are still alive: two uniforms, two plainclothes. I’m ranking officer, but I’m not about to order any of them to go after the rifle. Especially since I’m the closest one to it.

I imagine the sniper. Probably crouching in a bush, as the other had. Peering through a scope, his sites locked onto the fallen rifle, waiting for someone to try for it.

I’ve used scopes before. At distances longer than fifty yards, the slightest movement by the shooter throws them off target. If I distract him, then move quickly, I’ll have two or three seconds before he finds me again.

Theoretically at least.

Or I can sit tight and wait for the cavalry to arrive. But I don’t know if the injured cop can last that long. And I’ve had enough of people dying on my watch.

I look to my left, see a small end table. Metal, solid, manageable. I kick off my heels and holster my gun. Then I lift the table above my head, aim at the window where the last bullet went through, and heave it hard as I can.

Before it hits the glass I’m in motion… bending down for the rifle… hearing the window shatter… grabbing the barrel and hugging it to my chest… digging my bare heels into the carpet to change direction in case the sniper was tracking me… skidding…

Falling onto my ass.

The pain travels from my coccyx straight up to my neck like a lightning bolt, prompting instant tears and an immediate surge of panic.

I’m sitting directly in the sniper’s sights. And he has an even clearer view of me now, because the window sports a large hole where the table broke though.

Though I don’t remain still for longer than a second, it feels like a week, and my ears burn and my forehead gets hot where I imagine a bull’s-eye to be, where the shot is going to hit.

The shot doesn’t come.

I pull the gun closer to my body, drop my right shoulder, and quickly roll back to my original hiding spot alongside the window.

Herb says, “I had seven heart attacks watching you do that.”

I look down the hallway, lock eyes with Herb in the mirror reflection of a music CD he’s holding out the doorway. He’s using it like I’d used the lipstick, to see around the corner.

Rather than respond, I do a quick inspection of the weapon. A Dakota rifle. Fixed sights. A twenty-four-inch barrel. Bolt action. I check the magazine. Three.458 rounds, plus one already chambered. I tuck the butt into my armpit and sight through the scope, aiming at the ceiling.

The lens is cracked, and bent to the left side.

“Scope’s dead,” I call to Herb. “Any more back there?”

A pause. Then, “No.”

“Bullets?”

“I didn’t see-”

The crack of the shot makes me flinch, and the CD disintegrates in Herb’s hand. I look around the room at my men. They’re hunkered down, terrified. I need to get them out of here. But I can’t if they’re too scared to move.

“Looks like our sniper isn’t a music fan,” I say. The joke sounds forced, mostly because it is.

“I can’t blame him,” Herb says. “I don’t like John Denver either.”

I unscrew the scope from its mount and toss it aside. Then I swing the barrel around, toward the street.

“Hold up another one.”

“I could only find his greatest hits album.”

I suck in air, blow it out hard, my cheeks billowing.

“How about Neil Diamond?” I yell.

I rest the tip of the barrel on the windowsill, an inch away from the glass. Not the best way to steady a rifle, but all I can manage given the situation.

“No Neil. Is Jim Croce okay?”

“That’s fine.”

“Time in a Bottle, or You Don’t Mess Around With Jim?”

I’m about to tell Herb I don’t care, but I reconsider. “Time in a Bottle,” I yell.

I was never a fan of sappy love songs.

I stare down the street, waiting for it. The sniper’s muzzle flashes before I hear the shot. The CD explodes.

“I couldn’t save Time in a Bottle,” Herb says.

I line up the sights, fixing them slightly above my target, knowing the bullet will travel in a parabolic arc.

“I’m going to fire four shots, four seconds apart,” I tell the room. “So you have between twelve and sixteen seconds to get the injured, and yourselves, out of the house. There’s an ambulance on the corner of Leavitt and Leland. You can get there using parked cars for cover. Understood?”

I count five yeses, including a weak moan from the injured techie. One voice is conspicuous in its absence.

“You too Herb.”

“No way. I’m liking this CD collection too much. When was the last time you heard the Kingston Trio?”

“That’s an order, Herb.”

“I’m not leaving.”

Goddammit. If Herb died his wife would kill me.

“Fine. Hold up the other Croce CD, then stay hidden. We go after I fire my first round. Everyone get ready.”

I hold the rifle tight against my armpit and rest my chin on the stock, sighting down the barrel. I test the trigger pull, apply enough pressure to barely move it. Then I wait, breathing slow and easy so it doesn’t throw off my aim.

It doesn’t take long. The killer can’t resist showing off his marksman skills, and he blows away the second Croce CD.

“Go!” I tell the room.

Then I squeeze the trigger.