Heroes Often Fail

EIGHTEEN

Friday, March 17, 2005

Day Shift

0640 hours

Kopriva showed the orderly his badge. The skinny man looked at it suspiciously.

“You sure you can’t come back after eight?” he asked Kopriva. “The Medical Examiner will be in by then.”

Kopriva shook his head. “I only need a minute.”

The man bit his lip, chewing absently. “The thing is, I’m not supposed to let people in outside of business hours.”

“I’m not people,” Kopriva said. “I’m the police.”

The man sighed. “I’m pretty sure the rules mean all people.”

“You want to talk about this at jail?” Kopriva asked him.

His eyes widened, then narrowed. “I’m just trying to do my job,” he muttered, reaching for a ring of keys at his belt.

“And I’m just trying to do mine.”

The orderly unlocked the door and held it open. “I don’t understand why you can’t do it after eight, when the M.E. is here.”

Kopriva stepped through the door, ignoring his statement. “Which one is she in?” he asked, gesturing toward the wall of refrigerated compartments.

“Three-A,” the orderly said. He walked directly to it and slid it open.

Kopriva stepped toward the long drawer. Someone had folded the black body bag almost in half and tucked the excess under the covered legs. A lump rose in Kopriva’s throat when he saw how tiny the body was.

“Unzip it,” he told the man.

The orderly didn’t argue, having already capitulated to this point. He took hold of the oversize zipper and slid it down to Amy’s navel, then pushed the bag aside.

Kopriva stared down at the body. Her bruised and battered face was cleaned of any blood. Her long, dark hair was combed straight back almost lovingly. Her eyes were closed peacefully.

“You the detective on this case?” the orderly asked.

Kopriva shook his head, staring down at Amy. The black dashes of sutures dotted her body where the Medical Examiner had cut her open for the autopsy.

“You know the funeral home is coming for her later today, right?”

Kopriva opened his mouth. He wanted to say something, but the words stuck in his throat. He gazed down on the little girl’s still face. He imagined that her eyes were about to fly open and bore into him.

“Hey, man, are you okay?”

Stefan Kopriva couldn’t answer.

0911 hours

Browning read through the last of the report and nodded in satisfaction. He signed his name next to his typed name and badge number.

Tower sat at Billing’s old desk, absently tapping a pen.

After signing his report, Browning looked up at him. “Were you a drummer in high school?” he asked.

“Huh?” Tower asked. “Oh, yeah. The pen. Sorry, nervous habit.”

He put the pen down.

“You okay, John?”

Tower nodded. “I’m good. It’s just a shame, that’s all. Beautiful little girl like that…”

“We did our best,” Browning said.

Their eyes met, but neither man mentioned Kopriva.

Tower sighed and stood. “Nice working with you on this one, Ray. I hate that we had to work on it, but it was nice that it was with you.”

Browning held out his hand. “Same here.”

Tower took his hand and shook it. “Well,” he said, “back to the land of sex perverts and freaks.”

He walked slowly away.

Browning watched him go, then closed the file and put it in his outbox. He closed his eyes and he burned the picture of Amy Dugger’s face into his memory. He tried as hard as he could for the image to be the one that her parents had provided from her Kindergarten school photo. But he couldn’t completely banish the images of her lying in a field inside a black plastic garbage bag. In the end, that was the image that stuck.

Browning sighed and turned back to his active case drawer. He stared at the labels with the names of victims and the police report numbers. When the black print on the white labels blurred, he blinked in surprise and wiped away his tears.

A moment later, he reached up and turned off his desk lamp. His keys were in the desk drawer. He picked them up and headed for the door.

0922 hours

Chaplain Marshall spotted Stefan Kopriva in the officer’s parking lot at the station. The young man sat slumped forward in the driver’s seat of his truck, his forehead resting on the steering wheel.

He looks terrible, the chaplain thought. Katie was right.

He tapped lightly on the glass of the driver’s window.

Kopriva shot upright, a wild look in his red-rimmed eyes. He stared at the chaplain for a moment without recognition. Chaplain Marshall’s concern grew.

After a few seconds, Kopriva seemed to recognize him. He started to roll down the window, then stopped and rolled it back up. Chaplain Marshall frowned slightly, but forced himself to put an open expression back on his face.

Kopriva opened the door and got out of the truck, a light jacket in his hand. The smell of booze wafted off him.

“Good morning,” the chaplain said.

Kopriva grunted back to him.

The chaplain noticed the officer’s badge clipped to his belt. His gun hung on his right hip. Both were in stark contrast to his disheveled clothing and sleep-tousled hair. “I was planning on coming to see you today, if that’s all right.”

Kopriva shrugged himself into the jacket. “Don’t bother.”

“It’s no bother,” Chaplain Marshall said.

“Then just don’t,” Kopriva snapped and walked past him.

“Stef!” Chaplain Marshall turned and trotted next to him. “I just want to make sure you’re okay. Maybe you’d like to talk about things.”

“I don’t.”

“Then we don’t have to. But I’d like come by and see you anyway.”

Kopriva stopped suddenly. He turned to face the chaplain. “I don’t want to talk about this with you or anyone else. Just leave me alone.”

The chaplain raised his hands in a calming gesture. “All right. I understand. But if you need to talk, you can call me. Anytime at all.”

Kopriva stared at him for another moment, then shook his head. “I have a meeting with the Chief,” he said, and turned to go.

Chaplain Marshall watched him limp away. He could sense the man’s pain but also his walls. He knew he couldn’t push him, but he hoped Kopriva would call.

0926 hours

Detective Ray Browning sat in the driveway of his house. He stared at the red door to the little rancher for a long time after he shut off the engine. Finally, certain he’d left as much of Amy Dugger behind as he ever would, he got out of the car and went inside.

Veronica sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. She looked up in alarm at Browning’s sudden appearance. “Everything all right?”

Browning nodded. He dropped his keys onto the table and draped his jacket across the back of the kitchen chair.

Veronica looked at him in surprise. “You okay, baby?”

Browning leaned down and kissed her softly. He tasted the coffee on her tongue. The scent of her hair and skin filled his nostrils and he breathed it in. After a moment, Veronica’s hands came up to his face. She ran her fingers across the back of his neck.

When he broke away, he rested his forehead against hers.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” she whispered.

“Thank you,” he whispered back.

She kissed him again, this time on both eyes and then the corners of his mouth. He surrendered himself to her softness, her goodness.

“I love you, Vee,” he told her.

She kissed him full on the lips again. Then she rose from the table and took his hand. “I love you, too, baby,” she said, and led him down the hallway.

0928 hours

Officer Stefan Kopriva laid the badge on the desk. The Chief of Police looked down at it and back up at Kopriva’s face. The officer’s hair was tousled from sleep and he reeked of vomit and alcohol. Even so, the man’s voice had been even and his speech was not slurred. The Chief didn’t think he was intoxicated.

“Are you sure you don’t want some union representation, Officer Kopriva?” The Chief asked. “I’m pretty sure Detective Pond is on duty down in the investigative division.”

“No,” the officer said. He unbuckled his belt and pulled the black holster off, laying the gun next to the badge. “The rest is in my locker.”

The Chief stared at the gun and badge on his desk. He realized that in his six years as Chief, no one had ever acted out what amounted to a movie cliche. However, the officer in front of him was entirely serious.

“It’s your decision,” The Chief said. “But why don’t you take some time to think about things first?”

“There’s nothing to think about,” Kopriva said. “I quit.”

“Son, everyone makes mistakes. You didn’t-“

“I’m not your son,” Kopriva said coldly.

The Chief’s eyebrows went up. He wasn’t accustomed to being spoken to like that. A small flare of anger shot through his chest, but he suppressed it.

“All right,” he said evenly. “Either way, officer, you made a mistake. You didn’t do it maliciously. I haven’t considered yet whether there would be any punishment or not. But I can tell you that even if there was some sort of sanction, it wouldn’t result in you being fired.”

“It doesn’t matter. I quit.”

“Well, I don’t accept your resignation,” The Chief said. “I want you to wait a week before you decide. Then, if you’re going to quit, at least consider taking a medical retirement. Your injuries from the shooting last year should qualify you for-“

“I don’t care what you want,” Kopriva said. He stood up, his expression full of resolve. “And I don’t care if you accept my resignation or not. I quit. Take your week and shove it up your ass.”

The Chief’s eyes flew open wide. Before he could reply, the officer turned and limped out of his office.