Lay it on the Line : Prodigal book one

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter 18

Letters from the sky

Police lights flashed and lite up the night sky. The blue lights bounced off the brick walls making a grim light show. The cars were all parked around a motel room as a yellow police line crossed between them. The motel's door was ajar as police responded to their greatest fear, Officer down. One patrol officer exited the room with his head hung low and grief written on his face as one of his brothers in arms were lying dead inside. He dug into his pocket for his phone as he stepped away to his unit. The Officer leaned against it and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

"hey, JJ. look man.... you need to come down here."

Ten minutes later a truck pulls up and JJ hops out. He walks over to the officer that called him with a concerned look.

"what is going on?" he looks from the officer to the open motel room. Camera flashes could be seen as forensic specialties walked in and out holding plastic evidence bags.

"what happened...." JJ looked and noticed his brother's unit parked across the street.

"Jackson, where is Sean?" he looked around for his brother and then back to Jackson, but Jackson couldn't answer him. JJ took off running past him and ducked under the tape. His heart was pounding so loud it throbbed in his ears and made every other sound obsolete.

He held his breath as his hair stood up in anticipation. "Where is Sean!?" he demanded. A couple other officers noticed JJ coming and they tried to stop him. "JJ," one officer caught JJ around his chest and tried to stop him from going inside but JJ's adrenaline was pumping so much he broke through him and the others, He stopped at the door's entrance as his eyes fell on the horrific scene. His brother, Sean sat in the corner with two gunshots in his chest and one in the head. JJ's heart sank to his feet. His mouth gasped has his eyes widen. He didn't want to believe what he was seeing. His little brother lay dead only a few feet from him. Sean had to work that night while JJ was off.

The two had been split up on separate shifts because of the homeless man incident. JJ didn't want to split up because he needed to look out for his brother, but his lieutenant and captain made them. Sean was a hothead and a bigger joker than JJ. He didn't think stuff through and would just react. Sean was the type to just bust open a door into a house or building and not clear it. JJ not only got a lot of heat from his superiors, but also their mother. She knew how Sean was and never wanted him to join the force in the first place. Sean always had to do what his older brother did even if it was dangerous. It was only a matter of time before the inevitable.

"No....NO, NO, NO, NO!" JJ screamed as three officers grabbed a hold of JJ. As they struggled to get him out of there, everything seemed to go in slow motion as his rage took over. He wanted to kill the person who did this to his brother. The officers finally got JJ away from the scene, but just barely. They stuck him in the back of one of the patrol cars to get him to calm down. The whole time JJ cursed and punched the glass divider letting out. After a while a few of the officers broke away and drove Johnny down to the station while another drove his truck. They parked at the back of the station and the officer opened the door just barely enough. JJ came barreling out and ran into the station straight into in superior's office.

"If you hadn't separated us... Who did this!?" he yelled not caring who he was yelling at. His captain stood up.

"JJ calm down." The captain tried to ease JJ down, but he just made it worse.

" Calm down!! It is your fault! I should have been there to help my brother! Tell me what happened!" JJ paced back and forth the captain's office glaring at him, the captain just stared at him not wanting to inform Johnny of what happened. The other officer grew tired of the silence of his captain and spoke up.