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  BACKUP

  A Short Story

  RICK MOFINA

  Copyright © 2012 by Rick Mofina

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the creation of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Backup

  Rick Mofina

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright © 2012 Rick Mofina

  Copyright © 2009 Rick Mofina

  ISBN 978-1-927114-28-8

  e-Formatting provided by Carrick Publishing

  "Backup" Cover photo Copyright © 2009 © 2012 Rémi Thériault

  This e-book is intended for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be sold or given away to other people. If you’re reading this e-book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  BACKUP

  by Rick Mofina

  know what I did was wrong and I’m really sorry.

  It started when I was home with my mom watching SpongeBob SquarePants. Then right in the middle the TV news comes on with a helicopter flying in circles over police cars with their doors open and a news guy talking all serious about a police officer who had been shot. Mom tried not to let me see.

  She is always telling dad how bad it is for me to see violence and stuff. “Tim, he’s just turned eleven.” And dad would be like “Connie, sooner or later he’s got to learn about the world. He already knows more than you think, especially after Jack.”

  Jack Brady was a police officer who got killed last summer. His son Cody is the same age as me and is my friend. A week ago we were at a police kids’ party and when we were alone on the swings far away from the dorks I asked Cody how he was doing since his dad got shot.

  He just stared at his shoes for long time. Then he said “I don’t cry much anymore, but my mom still does. She cries in her room at night. I hear her and get mad.”

  I asked him, “Mad at who?”

  He said, “God, maybe, for letting my dad die and making me wish that I could go back in time and stop him from going to work that day.”

  What happened was Cody’s dad was on patrol when two robbers jumped him and knocked his gun away. Cody said his dad didn’t have a backup gun on him. His partner was sick that day and he needed help and there was no backup. Then he said “They didn’t catch the guys who did it, and that makes me so mad.”

  That got me thinking about my dad as soon as I saw the TV news about the police officer getting shot. And I got real scared because what was happening live was freaking me right out.

  So I was sitting there watching it and then my mom told me to go to my room. Then she started to phone people asking them what division and what district was the shooting in and if they knew anything. She sounded afraid. I peeked out and she told me to stay in my room.

  But I couldn’t.

  It was getting worse. The news said now they had learned that it was a “botched armored car robbery” and maybe two officers had been shot and it was real bad and I kept thinking about Cody’s dad and I was freaking out and there was no way I could just sit there thinking how Cody’s dad died on the street because he didn’t have backup because he couldn’t get his gun and they never got the guys who killed him and now there’s this shooting in the parking lot of the Market River Mall.

  I knew that mall was in my dad’s zone and my mom had to know too but maybe she was hoping it was happening someplace else. The scary part was my dad was on duty.

  When he finished his shift he was supposed to take me to my soccer game. But now from my room I could see mom with her hand over her mouth talking to the wives of other police officers. And she sounded so scared. Then I looked out my window because I was getting real scared and I didn’t know what to do so I looked out as if I could see what was going on because the mall is pretty close to our house.

  I couldn’t see anything except our neighbour Mrs. Hamill’s old Lab dog sleeping on her porch. Then I looked back at my mom and now she looked like she was crying and I could see the TV and it was all shaky like looking down from a helicopter. And I was freaking out because a voice in my head was shouting at me like “Do something!”

  Mom didn’t see me go down the hall to her and dad’s bedroom. I went to my dad’s side of the bed and lifted the corner of his nightstand to the spot where he hid a key. I had found this hiding spot when I was hunting for where mom hid the small Christmas presents.

  I took dad’s key and went into mom and dad’s closet. I piled the suitcases so I could reach to the back of the top shelf for the heavy steel box where dad kept his off-duty gun is what he called it. I slid the key in the lock and opened the box and took the gun.

  My heart started beating faster because I heard the TV news getting louder and I knew the shooting stuff was for sure in dad’s zone. I set the gun on the floor then reached in for the two things I think they’re called magazine clips with the bullets.

  Dad showed me the gun once before. He said “This is so you know what it’s like if you ever find one. Now you know so there’s no need to be curious.” And showed me there were no bullets in it and let me hold it for a bit. Then he said that if I ever found one or my friends did I had to stop anybody from touching it. “If that ever happens. If you ever find one, you be my partner son. You call it in and I’ll be your backup.”

  I stood there in mom and dad’s closet holding my dad’s gun and freaking out. It was almost like it was burning in my hands because I knew it could kill you and I was trying not to be a baby and I’m hearing the TV news and I’m thinking police officers have been shot in my dad’s zone and maybe like Cody’s dad my dad needs backup and this voice is telling me to do something and I’m thinking that sometimes you have to break the rules to do what you think you have to.

  And this was a real emergency.

  This is what I did.

  I snapped in the magazine thing with the bullets the way I saw them do in movies and I pushed the safety switch dad showed me. My hands started to shake but I was sure it was loaded and ready to shoot. Then I found one of dad’s old T-shirts that said “Police Academy” and wrapped the gun with it and snuck back to my room.

  I put the gun in my old school bag. The one with a rocket on it.

  Then I went to my jar with all my birthday money from grandpa and grabbed as much as I could then snuck out the back door of our house and started running down the street as fast as I could.

  I had to give my dad his gun.

  I couldn’t tell mom that this was the only way to make sure that what happened to Cody’s dad didn’t happen to my dad. As I ran I was telling God to make sure my dad was not one of the guys who’d already been shot because I was my dad’s backup and I was coming.

  I ran and ran until my side hurt. I cut through the park and went down the bike path slope to the main street to the bus stop for the bus that went right to the mall. Maria the lady my mom knew from the school took me there a couple of times when she watched me the days my mom had to go to the hospital to look after my grandpa who’s still pretty sick.

  I needed bus Number 57.

  Some people were already standing at the stop because it was a Saturday. I saw this mom standing with two boys and a little girl. One of the boys was smaller than me and one looked my age. I stood close to them and no one seemed to care when I got on
with them and dropped a bunch of change in the money box next to the driver who wasn’t watching me so much because he was talking to this old man sitting up close.

  The driver said he couldn’t stop right at the mall because police “shut every damn thing down.”

  The old man said “I heard two cops were dead.”

  I was begging for the bus to go faster and sat up at the front looking way down the street and pretty soon I could see all the traffic and all kinds of police cars and flashing lights. When I got off I ran so fast I could feel the gun banging against my back as I looked in every police car I saw for my dad. He came by my school last week and was driving car number 5219 which was marked on it. He said he liked that one because it had new tires and gave a smooth ride and I figured he would have it today.

  But I couldn’t find him so I kept going.

  I could see the helicopter so close and so loud it was like the air was being pounded. There were all kinds of news cars and trucks and ambulances and fire trucks and all kinds of police code talk on radios everywhere. I saw yellow tape and crowds of people and the news reporters with serious faces were standing in bright lights talking to TV cameras. I saw other reporters all crunched together kind of shouting questions at a police officer about what was going on with “the standoff with the gun man” or something like that.

  But I couldn’t see anything else there and I had to find my dad.

  So I kept moving through the crowd along the tape line and I saw some ambulances and more police cars and saw in the back of one a woman in a blanket crying and telling a police lady with a notebook about how “It all happened so fast.”

  I still couldn’t see what was going on so I kept going. Then I saw these two news guys with cameras with long lenses like the photographers I see when dad and I go to the ball games. Only these guys were like hiding behind big steel garbage cans and I looked where the cameras were pointing.

  Down the back of the mall there were the police cars parked all different ways with the doors open like they had blocked the armored car that was also there. And there was no one else around I could see. It was like this whole area was a ghost town and everything was still and quiet except for the helicopter. Then I could see these big police SWAT guys all ducked down by some parked cars like they were waiting like the whole place was the most dangerous area like something big and bad was hiding somewhere.

  I looked down at the police cars. I looked real hard and then I saw legs of someone lying on the ground next to a police car and not moving and then my stomach flip-flopped when I could tell the car number.

  It was 5219.

  My dad’s car.

  I freaked out.

  I started running to the car.

  My heart was going inside me like it was exploding and this noise was blasting in my ears and everything was a blur and I think I was shouting for my dad even though I couldn’t see him or tell who was lying on the ground.

  Then people were shouting and swearing “Get that f-ing kid outta there!”

  I kept running and taking off my bag and pulling out my dad’s gun and shouting and shouting as I got closer to my dad’s car.

  Then there was popping like firecrackers and lightning flashes and shouting and everything suddenly went dark and something big had knocked me to the ground and was covering me while I heard more shouting and swearing and something strong grabbed the gun from my hand and it hurt a little and then I smelled cologne the same kind my dad has.

  Then me and the person who jumped on me were sitting up on the ground and I saw my dad’s face. It was blurry because I was crying but he was all right and I was so happy and hugging him but he was so worried and he kept looking at me and hugging me and saying my name and stuff like “How in the hell!” and “What the hell!” and some other words.

  Then so many police guys were everywhere and I saw them arrest two guys who looked real mean — one had like tattoos all over his face — and put them in a police truck and take them away. I heard all kinds of sirens and stuff and they told me that I had distracted the bad guys so the police could arrest them and that the guys who got shot were an armored car guy and a police officer and they were hurt but were going to be all right.

  The ambulance guys checked me too but I said I was okay. Then my dad called mom and I heard her crying on the phone. Then they put me in my dad’s police car and he drove me to the police station where they put me in here in this room.

  That’s when you came in and said to tell you everything.

  That’s pretty much how it happened and all I can remember.

  I’m really sorry for what happened and really happy my dad’s okay.

  About Backup

  The story "Backup" first appeared in Ottawa Magazine. It was later selected as a finalist for Best Short Story Awards by The International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers of Canada.

  It is included in my e-anthology, Three to the Heart, my second small collection of short stories which is the follow up to my first anthology, Dangerous Women and Desperate Men.

  I regard the stories collected in Three to the Heart to be among the best of my short crime fiction.

  Rick Mofina

  Rmofina @ gmail.com

  Buy THREE TO THE HEART, the Anthology

  If you liked this short story, I invite you to drop me a line.

  Rick Mofina, Rmofina @ gmail.com

  Please visit by my official FaceBook page and let us know if you like it.

  You can also follow me on Twitter @RickMofina

  or at my Website http://www.rickmofina.com

  Of course, please consider these other short stories by Rick Mofina that are also available online to add to your e-Library:

  From the anthology

  Dangerous Women & Desperate Men

  Blood Red Rings

  Lightning Rider

  As Long As We Both Shall Live

  Three Bullets to Queensland

  Buy DANGEROUS WOMEN & DESPERATE MEN

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

  Rick Mofina is a former journalist and an award-winning author of several acclaimed thrillers. His reporting has put him face-to-face with murderers on death row in Montana and Texas. He has covered a horrific serial-killing case in California and an armored car-heist in Las Vegas, flown over Los Angeles with the LAPD Air Support Division and gone on patrol with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He has reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait’s border with Iraq.

  Rick’s true-crime articles have appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Reader’s Digest and Penthouse while his thrillers have been published in 21 countries and praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, Peter Robinson, Allison Brennan, David Morrell, Linwood Barclay and Kay Hooper.

  Rick is a two-time winner of The Arthur Ellis Award and the International Thriller Writers, Private Eye Writers of America and The Crime Writers of Canada have listed his crime fiction as being among the very best in the genre. For more information visit:

  http://www.rickmofina.com

  http://www.facebook.com/rickmofina

  http://twitter.com/#!/RickMofina

  Also by Rick Mofina

  THREE TO THE HEART (Anthology)

  DANGEROUS WOMEN & DESPERATE MEN (Anthology)

  THEY DISAPPEARED

  THE BURNING EDGE

  IN DESPERATION

  THE PANIC ZONE

  VENGEANCE ROAD

  SIX SECONDS

  A PERFECT GRAVE

  EVERY FEAR

  THE DYING HOUR

  BE MINE

  NO WAY BACK

  BLOOD OF OTHERS

  COLD FEAR

  IF ANGELS FALL

  Praise for Rick Mofina’s books

  In Desperation

  "A blisteringly paced story that cuts to the bone. It left me ripping through pages deep into the night." -- James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author


  "Hell hath no fury like a mother wronged. In Desperation is a "A superbly written thriller that plumbs the depths of every parent's nightmare. Timely, tense, and terrifying, this book is sure to be a big hit!" -- Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  The Panic Zone

  "The Panic Zone is a headlong rush toward Armageddon. It's brisk pace and tight focus remind me of early Michael Crichton." -- Dean Koontz #1 New York Times bestselling author

  Vengeance Road

  "Vengeance Road is a thriller with no speed limit! It's a great read!" -- Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  "A gripping no-holds barred mystery ... lightning paced ... with enough twists to keep you turning pages well into the wee hours." -- Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author

  Six Seconds

  "Six Seconds should be Rick Mofina's breakout thriller. It moves like a tornado." -- James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  "Six Seconds is a great read. Echoing Ludlum and Forsythe, author Mofina has penned a big, solid international thriller that grabs your gut -- and your heart -- in the opening scenes and never lets go." -- Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author

  "Everything we need from a great thriller." -- Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author

  "A perfect thriller in every way. Very powerful and very very clever." -- Nick Stone, international acclaimed bestselling author

  "Filled with chills and thrills ... don't miss it." Heather Graham, New York Times bestselling author

  "An essential read for thriller fans." -- Library Journal, Starred Review

  "Suspense-packed rush." -- Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review