Unit 538 parked, shakily gathered her metal clipboard, wondering if she could just leave, and deciding probably not.
Hammer went out on the porch to reassure her people.
“Everything is under control,” she spoke to them.
“Then you’re not injured,” said a sergeant whose name she did not recall.
“My husband is injured. We don’t think it’s serious,” she said.
“So everything’s okay.”
“Man, what a scare.”
“We’re so relieved. Chief Hammer.”
“See you in the morning.” Hammer dismissed them with a wave.
That was all they needed to hear. Each officer secretly keyed his mike, broadcasting several clicks over the air, signaling comrades everywhere that all was ten-four.
Only Unit 538 had unfinished business, and she followed Hammer into the rich, old house. They sat in the living room.
“Before you even start,” Hammer said, “I’m going to tell you how this is going to be done.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“There will be no implication that the right thing was not done here, that exceptions were made, because the subject involved happens to be married to me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“This is routine and will be worked according to the book.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“My husband should be charged with reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm in the city limits,” Hammer went on.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Unit 538’s handwriting was unsteady as she began filling out the accidental shooting report. This was amazing. Hammer must not like her husband much. Hammer was nailing him with the maximum charge, locking him up and throwing away the key. It just proved Unit 538’s theory that women like Hammer got where they were by being aggressive hard asses They were men poured into the wrong form at the factory.
Hammer recited all the necessary information. She answered Unit 538’s banal questions, and got the cop out as fast as possible.
Brazil remained seated at the kitchen table in Chief Hammer’s house, wondering if anyone might have recognized his distinctive BMW parked out front. If the cops ran his tag, what would they think? Who was he here to see? He remembered with a sinking feeling that the condominiums Axel and friends lived in were just around the corner.
Cops with their suspicious minds might think Brazil had parked a street away, trying to fool everybody.
If word got back to Axel, he’d believe Brazil was stalking him, had a thing for him.
“Andy, let’s wind this up.” Hammer walked in.
“I sup pose it’s too late to get this in the paper for tomorrow.”
“Yes, chief. The city edition deadline was hours ago,” Brazil replied, glancing at his watch, and startled that she would want a word of this in the paper.
“I’m going to need you to help me, and have to trust that you will, even after what happened with Channel Three,” she said.
There was no one Brazil would rather assist.
Hammer looked at the clock on the wall, in despair. It was almost three a. m. She had to get to the hospital, whether Seth liked it or not, and she needed to be up in three hours. Hammer’s body did not appreciate all-nighters anymore, but she would make it. She always did. Her plan was the best she could devise under circumstances which were truly extreme and upsetting. She knew tomorrow’s news would bristle with Seth’s bizarre shooting and what it might imply. She could not preempt the television and radio stations, but she could at least straighten out the facts the following day with a true, detailed account by Brazil.
Brazil was silent and stunned as he sat in the passenger’s seat of Hammer’s impeccable Crown Victoria. He took notes while she talked.
She told him all about her early life and why she had gone into law enforcement She talked about Seth, about what a support he had been as she was fighting her way through the ranks of what was truly a male militia. Hammer was exhausted and vulnerable, her personal life in shambles, and she had not been to a therapist in two years. Brazil had caught her at a remarkable time, and he was moved and honored by her trust. He would not let her down.
“It’s a perfect example of the world not allowing powerful people to have problems,” Hammer was explaining as she drove along Queens Road West, beneath a canopy of great oak trees.