Page 133 of Left Behind

“Poor little girl. I didn’t know that,” Cameron said.

B.J. nodded. “The stories Wiley has shared with us would curl your hair. That child is lucky to be alive, and luckier still that Wiley got full custody of her. He is now her legal guardian.”

“Thanks for the info,” Cameron said. “Now I have to run Wiley down and see what he has to say.”

“He won’t make a decision like that without Linette present. I think this is her day off, and Wiley will clock out around five.”

Cameron glanced at his watch. It was a quarter to four. “Thanks, B.J. I’ll make some calls,” he said and stood up. “Good to see you again. You’re the only Pope on the mountain I can look up to.”

They both grinned. B.J.’s height was a constant topic of conversation within the family.

“I wonder how big Brendan was,” B.J. said.

“We’ll never know for sure, but he had to be something big for that gene to stay so strong within us,” Cameron said.

Watching Cameron walking away left B.J. with a pang of regret. But what he wanted and what he needed were two different things.

***

Wiley and Doug were headed to Trapper’s Bar and Grill with their siren blasting and lights flashing. Another patrol car with two officers was right behind them. They came to a flying stop in the parking lot, entered the building on the run, and headed for the fight in progress.

Three men were trading punches, and Louis, the bartender, had a cut under his eye and a stream of blood running down his cheek. He was coming out from behind the bar with a baseball bat when they arrived. When Louis saw the officers, he breathed a quick sigh of relief and backed off.

Wiley grabbed the first one from behind and yanked him backward so hard he hit the floor on his butt, while Doug headed for the two rolling on the floor.

The other two officers were coming in the door on the run as Wiley rolled his drunk facedown on the floor and cuffed his hands behind him so fast he never knew it was happening, then leaped toward the third one, who was about to punch Doug in the back of the head.

“No sir!” Wiley said. “Facedown! Now!” When the man protested, Wiley just rolled him over and straddled him like a riding horse as Aaron and Yancy ran up. “Hey, Yancy! I need another pair of cuffs. This dude thinks he’s Muhammed Ali.”

Aaron had already seen the blood on Louis’s face and radioed for an ambulance, before helping Doug cuff his perp.

Wiley stood up, then looked at Louis. “Are these the only three?”

Louis had a bar towel pressed against the cut on his face. “Yes. They came in drunk. I didn’t let them get like this in here.”

Wiley frowned. “You mean they were together?”

“They walked in together, sat down at the bar together, and began arguing about whose turn it was to buy a round. But they were obviously very drunk, and when I wouldn’t serve them, one of them grabbed a beer mug from the hands of the customer beside him and threw it in my face,” he said.

Wiley pivoted, then walked to where the three men were lying.

“Which one of you threw the mug at your bartender?”

They said nothing.

“Fine. Then all three of you will be charged with assault, drunk and disorderly, and liable for the damages you caused.”

At that point, the skinny man with the bad comb-over hanging down the left side of his face started talking.

“Frank threw the mug. Ronnie punched Frank for doing it. I punched Ronnie for hitting Frank, because Frank’s my brother-in-law, but I’m not taking the blame for his bad temper.”

Aaron looked at Wiley and grinned. “Brotherly love.”

Wiley rolled his eyes.

The ambulance arrived, and as soon as they began tending to Louis, the officers hauled the drunks out to their cruisers and took them to jail, while the employees started cleaning up the mess. It was just another day in paradise.

By the time they got the men booked and jailed, and then wrote up their reports, it was after five o’clock, and the next shift was already on duty.

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