Theo grunted acknowledgment before asking, “Any idea what kind of weapons he’s got in there?”
“No.” Lines of displeasure creased the skin between Blessard’s bushy gray brows. “We’ve gotten some unreliable witness accounts that claim his collection is anywhere from a couple of shotguns all the way to a fully stocked armory. Best guess is that it’s somewhere in the middle-to-arsenal range. We’ve been trying to find a way in for months. Schwartz is teetering on the edge of crazy, and I’d rather know what he’s got stockpiled before we’re involved in a standoff.”
Theo made a wordless sound of agreement as they approached the closed compound gates.
“You’re not coming in!” yelled a short, stocky man on the inside of the gate. Theo had seen him enough times to recognize the man as Gordon Schwartz. “This is my home! You can’t come inside my house without my consent. If you try to break in here, you fascist bastards will be trampling my constitutional rights!”
Hugh, the closest officer to the fence, raised a hand in a placating gesture even as his posture stayed alert. “You’re not in trouble, Gordon. We just need to come inside to talk to Romanowski.”
“He’s coming out.” Schwartz glanced over his shoulder, the tension on his face belying the certainty in his voice. “Give me a little more time. I’ll keep talking to him, and he’ll come out.”
Blessard strode forward until he was standing next to Hugh. As Theo stopped well back from the gates, Viggy slunk to the end of his leash and sat as far from the compound as he could get, his ears flat and unhappy.
“Fuck your warrant!” The yell from Schwartz drew Theo’s full attention, and a tense readiness rippled through the crowd of cops. With a whine, Viggy leaned against Theo’s hold on the leash, his tail curled between his hind legs. Theo knew that if Viggy wasn’t restrained, he’d be running back to the safety of the car. It hurt to see how timid the formerly confident dog had become. “It’s nothing! It’s a piece of paper. You know what piece of paper trumps your search warrant? The Constitution of the United States! And that constitution states that I have the right to protect my home.”
A year ago—hell, even two months ago—Theo would’ve been buzzing with adrenaline, alert and ready for whatever was going to happen. Now, he just felt a heavy wave of weariness press down on him. It was just another day, another call, another rotation of the hamster wheel, another chance for one of his fellow cops to get hurt or killed or messed up in the head. His muscles ached with the pressure of his resignation.
“Gordon,” Hugh soothed, shifting so he blocked an impatient-looking Blessard from Schwartz’s view. Theo marveled at Hugh’s seemingly endless supply of patience. “We don’t want to step on your rights. All we need to do is to go in, get Romanowski, and then we’ll be off your property. Mrs. Lee was injured in that robbery. Now, with the suspect walking free, she’s terrified all the time. We need to bring in the guy who hurt her, so she can sleep at night. Don’t you think Mrs. Lee deserves that?”
Schwartz’s rigid posture softened slightly, and Theo felt everyone’s tension ease. “Yeah,” Schwartz mumbled. “I barely know the guy. I’d never hurt an innocent like that, not for money.”
“We know, Gordon.” Hugh reached through the gate and squeezed Schwartz’s rounded shoulder. “We’re on the same side—the side of justice.”
Theo clenched his jaw, holding back a sardonic snort at the cheesy graphic-novel dialogue. “The side of justice?” He was going to give Hugh so much shit for that later.
“You’re just going to go in, grab Romanowski, and leave?” Schwartz repeated, still sounding wary but much more compliant than he had just a few short minutes before. Cheesy or not, Hugh’s superhero speech was working.
“That’s it.” With a solemn nod, Hugh held Schwartz’s gaze steadily. “First, though, would you agree to us letting our explosives dog take a sniff around, just for the safety of our officers?”
His shoulders jerking back into his earlier tense posture, Schwartz shot a furious glare toward Viggy and snarled, “No dog. No way. I know how you people work. You’ll come in here, into my house, and plant evidence against me. No one’s coming in.” His hand jerked slightly, and Theo had his gun holster unsnapped before he even paused to think. He wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the threat. Theo saw that Blessard had his TASER drawn, holding it behind his left hip, out of Schwartz’s view.