Heroes Often Fail

NINETEEN

Saturday, March 18, 2005

Day Shift

0712 hours

Katie rose early, which for her was around one in the afternoon. She’d slept hard and soundly, but couldn’t sleep any more.

Now that she’d decided what to do for herself, thoughts of Kopriva filled her mind. She didn’t want to give up on him. She lay in bed for a long while trying to decide how she could best help him through this tough time.

Just be there for him, she thought. And even though it was a trite expression, she agreed with the sentiment. He would get through this. She’d be there for him. Others, like the chaplain, would help him through it, too. In time, both his emotional and his physical wounds would heal. He’d come back to patrol and things would go back to the way they were. They’d be together.

She picked up the phone next to her bed and dialed his number. The phone rang.

And rang.

And rang.

There was no answer.

She listened to the lonely tones of the telephone ring for a long time before she finally hung up.

0823 hours

Captain Michael Reott sat in the small booth of the coffee shop across from Crawford. The two men regarded each other in silence. Crawford noticed the lines in the captain’s face, the dark bags under his eyes, the hard, haunted look in the eyes themselves. It was like looking into a mirror and was not a vision he wanted to see.

“Goddamn shame,” Reott muttered.

Crawford nodded as he sipped his coffee. The brew was harsh, but he didn’t mind. Not today.

“Did we do everything we could do?” Reott asked.

Crawford considered answering for a moment. Then he realized that Reott wasn’t really asking him. He was just thinking out loud.

I think we did, he answered silently.

Reott reached out and tapped his finger on the newspaper next to him on the table. “The paper skewered us on this one.”

“Yep.”

“Maybe I should give Pam Lincoln a call. Give her an interview.”

“Why?”

Reott glanced up at him. “What do you mean?”

“She’ll write the truth, you figure?”

Reott nodded. “Yeah, I think she would.”

Crawford shook his head and sighed. “If that is the case, what is she going to write that’s any different than what’s already out there?”

Reott lowered his eyes, seeming to stare into his coffee cup, not answering.

“Truth is,” Crawford said, “we failed.”