Detective Black returned to the hospital, “is he able to talk, yet?” “Yes, but only briefly”, the doctor answered.

“Good evening Mr. Beaudine, I’m Detective Black, I’m sorry about the handcuffs on your bed, but well, you tried to kill a man.” The detective then proceeded to read him his Miranda warning. “I want a lawyer”, Beaudine answered. “As I understand it you have the funds to hire one, since your victim gave you $200,000.” “So, you have your mouthpiece available tomorrow so that I can interview you”. “I’m not gonna answer any questions”, Beaudine responded. “Smart man”, the detective replied. “That will make it real easy to get your butt to jail for 25 to life. You have a nice day, now.”

December 15, 2010

No charges were brought against Jack Jenkins. Beau Beaudine was convicted of attempted murder after a long and rancorous trial. He was sentenced to 25 years to life. Sally got a divorce from Beau and of course custody of the children. Jack, Jr. received an interesting note in the mail. “You are hereby invited to the wedding of Jack Jenkins, Sr. and Sally Beaudine on January 1, 2011 at 12:30 a.m. at the Montgomery Golf and Country Club.”

“Okay, I need to hear your side of the story”, the Detective started. “I know this much,

you fired once at the victim and he fired at you, all the witnesses confirmed this. What I want to know from you is why did you shoot first?” Jack Jenkins didn’t squirm or even blink. “I didn’t shoot first, he shot at me from across the street and missed, I returned fire and hit him in the gut on the first shot. I have a carry permit, since Junior started trying to kill me.” The detective smiled, “that pretty much confirms things that I know, but don’t leave town. Now I just need to know what this is all about. Are you part feline? I swear you have nine lives.”

The Detective then went to the hospital, “is he able to speak yet?” “No” the doctor said, “come back tomorrow”.

March 3, 2010.

“How do you plead?” the judge asked Jack, Jr. “Guilty, your honor”. The judge then asked all the required questions before accepting the plea which Junior answered each one the proper way. “I am going to accept your plea and accept the recommendation of the state that you be sentenced to 20 years. You played a very dangerous game and had one or more of your intended victims died, you would have been facing the needle. So, I remand you to the State Department of Corrections for assignment.” That night Jack, Jr. got off the bus at the minimum security work camp. As he drove up, Jack, Jr. asked the corrections officer why he was going to a work camp instead of a minimum security prison. “Because, we own your ass, boy, for the next 20 years and your daddy was a hero to the Governor. The bargain was kept to the letter as I understand it. Go whine to your lawyer”. Junior gingerly approached the barracks and was immediately surrounded by tough looking men with the look of wolves seeing fresh game. “We got us a newbie here, Trustee” one of them remarked. Junior’s first night in prison was not a fun night to say the least.

Detective Black came to the hospital to pick up the bullet and deliver it to the crime lab. He spoke with the surgeon and got the details on the entry point of the bullet and where it was found. Next, he dropped off the bullet at the ballistics lab. “I want a rush to see if it matches the gun we seized at the scene. And did you get the other bullet?” “Yessir, we’ll rush on that and no we didn’t find the other bullet yet, but my lab folks are still out there lookin”, said the lab tech. The detective then went and spoke to Wil McGentry who was one of the witnesses to find out what happened. “Well Detective, Mr. Jenkins was walking into the apartment to pick up his lady friend, when I heard a gunshot from my right, so you know I dove to the ground and then I heard another gunshot and he was down. Not very courageous of me, huh?” “Don’t kick yourself to hard son, I’m pretty sure my first reaction would have been the same. Live first, then see what you can do and this time there was nothing to do because he was dead after the second shot was fired.”

After talking to Wil, the Detective then went to interview Sally before he interviewed the suspect in custody. “Did you see anything ma’am”, the detective asked? “No sir, I was on the other side of the house getting finished up because, as usual, I was running late. I just heard two shots and called 911 looked out and then run out the house and there he was on the ground and blood all over the place. It was a horrible sight to see. The shots were back to back, like bam and then two ticks and bam again. I was frightened.”

After Detective Black got back to the police station and went back to the crime lab. “We found the other bullet, it burrowed into the ground, but it matches the other gun, and the bullet pulled from the victim matches the gun of the man in holding”, the lab director told the detective. “Thanks”, and with that information, Black turned to go interview the suspect.

March 2, 2010

“How much blood did he lose? Do you think he’s going to make it?” The nurse asked the doctor. “Let’s see, gunshot to the chest two centimeters from the heart and the bullet appears to be small calibre and still in the body”, the doctor intoned. An X-ray showed the bullet perilously close to the heart and lots of blood loss, but his patient was still breathing. “Get him up to the OR stat, a team is waiting to remove the bullet and sew up this chest wound”, the doctor told the orderly. “And by all means, be careful moving him, if he’s jostled too bad the bullet may move and cause more damage.”

The surgeon looked at the bloody incision in front of him. At that moment, the anaesthesiologist shouted, “blood pressure dropping rapidly”. “More plasma”, yelled the surgeron. He quickly started to put retractors everywhere inside the fileted body in front of him. The blood flow stopped. One by one he removed each retractor until he found leaky vessels and one by one repaired each one. And slowly the patient’s blood pressure rose. Later on as he felt around inside of the body, he found the bullet and pulled it out and put it in a dish to send along to the police. “The cops will want this. Put it in a plastic bag and seal it and mark it with the patient’s name on it and have the Surgical secretary call the police to pick it up”, the surgeon barked. “Okay, let’s close this fellow up.”

March 1, 2010.

“Hey, buddy, what are you doing in the evidence room?”, the sergent asked Marco.

Marco started to run, but ran into another officer emerging from the bathroom and fell to his face. At that point, the baggie he was carrying fell to the floor. “Hmm, taking evidence from the Jenkins case file, the screws to the motor mounts and the photos of the motor mounts. Looks like you’re going to be doin’ some time.” Marco was led to an interrogation room and handcuffed to the chair. After sitting there about an hour stewing, when Detective Black ambled in. “Well son, you’re in a whole lot of trouble. Let’s see attempted theft of government property, and carrying a concealed weapon in a police station, for starters. I understand you were told your rights before you got put in here. That you’re under arrest and your right to counsel and to keep your trap shut. Is that right, son?” “Yeah, but I got a permit for that gun”, Marco replied. The detective chuckled, “I know, but it still doesn’t allow you to carry it concealed into a police station. Now, I suspect if I start digging around in your finances and start digging around in your life, that I’ll find enough connections between you and the younger Mr. Jenkins that I’ll be able to add the charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice and accessory to attempted murder. That means about 25 years in prison instead of five unless you want to play ball and tell me who put you up to this little game.” Marco looked at the ground for a moment, “no, I’ll tell you what I know about Jenkins and about his wanting to kill his old man, too, if you’ll cut me some slack.” The detective smiled the slid a yellow pad across the table, “write it up for me to show the D.A.” After meeting with the D.A., they decided to let him plead to simple petty theft and thirty days in jail if he gave truthful testimony against Junior.

Later that afternoon, Detective Black, the D.A. and the lawyer for Junior met. Your client stepped in it big time and gave the statement from Marco to the attorney. “Look, we can try this and send your guy up for 50 years to life. But, your father has asked us to give your client some leniency and he was the target. So, we have a one time thirty minute offer for you. 20 years at a minimum security prison.”

About twenty minutes later the lawyer emerged and said, ‘we have a deal”.

March 2, 2010.

Jack, Sr. had put Sally and her kids up in a nice condo in the same school district so that they would not have the trauma of changing schools mid year. It also allowed Sally to be sure that a life with Jack is what she wanted and what her kids wanted, and allowed Jack some time to make sure that he wanted Sally. They had continued to see each other every day and he got to know her kids. At first they were a bit skiddish about this new man. But after several candy bribes, and several trips to the ice cream parlor, they came around. They clearly saw that he was not mean like their daddy. As Jack pulled up to Sally’s condo, two shots rang out.