Joe Victim: A Thriller

“You’re probably right.”


“I know I’m right. Come on, Carl. We’re almost there. If you end up shooting somebody we’ll probably both go to jail.”

“They’re armed,” Schroder says. “It’s only fair that I’m armed too.”

“You think she’s still alive?” Hutton asks. “Sally?”

“No.”

“Nothing I can say to get that gun back from you?”

“Nothing.”

“Just don’t fuck up. Promise me that, okay?”

“You have my word.”

“And don’t tell anybody I knew you had it.”

Town races by. The neighborhoods race by. Schroder doesn’t take any of it in. Six minutes later they’re pulling into her street. They watch the numbers on the letterboxes, but then stop watching when they see the blue van up a driveway six houses ahead, exactly where the numbers were going to line up. The houses are all pretty small and look like they’ve spent thirty years being blasted by bad weather and no love. Hutton does a U-turn and drives back to the start of the block. He takes out his cell phone and reports in. Backup is still four minutes away. He tells Schroder this when he hangs up.

“A lot can happen in four minutes,” Schroder says.

“And a lot can happen for the worse if we go in there.”

“We opened the ambulance before, right?” Schroder asks. This isn’t any different from that.”

“It’s a lot different,” Hutton says, and Schroder knows it. “We knew that thing was going to be empty. Whereas this time we know they’re in there. If only we had Jonas Jones along with us. He’d be able to tell us what’s going on inside.”

“Funny. Look, they wouldn’t have come here if Sally was dead,” Schroder says. “They’ve come here for her help. Most likely for her medical skills. I say we go in. We have to. We owe it to Sally.”

“We owe it to Sally to give her the best chance we can, and her best chance is if we wait for backup, and nobody from backup is going to have a busted arm. Three minutes, that’s all,” Hutton says, and Schroder knows he’s right, and in Hutton’s position he’d be making the same decision. So then why does the right thing to do feel so very, very wrong?

He opens the car door and steps outside.

“Jesus, Carl,” Hutton says, and he does the same. Schroder starts walking. “Have you forgotten you’re not even a cop anymore?”

“We have to do something, Wilson.”

“Don’t make me arrest you.”

“And what? Cause a scene?”

“You’re going to get me fired.”

“And you’re thinking of your job over saving Sally’s life.”

“That’s a really shitty thing to say, Carl,” Hutton says.

“I know. You’re right, and I’m sorry. But we can’t just stand by and wait.”

“Two minutes,” Hutton says. “Just two minutes now.”

“Then that’s less time for us to fuck up.”

Schroder keeps walking to the house. He can do this. He can save Sally and Hutton can arrest Joe and Melissa. It’s what they’re trained for. Only it’s not. They’re trained to investigate. And they’re trained to stand back and send in the AOS team in these situations. Melissa is armed. She’s already killed one policeman today. No reason to make it easy for her to kill a second. He stops walking.

“Okay,” he says.

So they wait twenty more seconds and then Schroder decides twenty seconds is long enough. The thing is, a lot can happen in two minutes. People can die. Joe and Melissa can hear the police arrive and cut their losses and kill whoever they have in there with them. So he takes a few steps toward the house. There’s a throbbing in his head, a pound-pound-pounding, and he realizes it’s the sound of his footsteps on the pavement as he runs toward the house.

“Goddamn it,” Hutton says, but Hutton is overweight and hasn’t seen the inside of a gym in years, and all that extra eating holds him back. Even with a broken arm Schroder outruns him.