Page 34 of JoyRide

We stood there with our guns levelled at the door of the trailer until Travis and Ted got there. Travis would suspend us if there was gunfire and we went in without waiting for backup. We’d been warned.

Tammy turned her head when she heard the siren coming. “Here they come. I’m going around behind the trailer to cover the back door. The fuckers are gonna run. That’s a for-sure.”

“Be careful.”

As soon as Travis and Ted bailed out of the Bronco and got their shotguns, we charged the trailer.

“Ted, cover Tammy at the back door,” said Travis.

“Copy.” He ran around the side of the trailer.

Max and Sarge ran behind me and Travis. They were anxious to see some action.

No knock.

Travis put his boot to the lock and the door flew off the hinges. “Sheriff coming in,” he hollered. “Lay your weapons down. Do it now.”

Bang. Bang.

Four guys inside the single-wide and one of them just shot my dad. I guess I went a little nuts and started blasting double ought buckshot at them.

Upper body. Head.

When they heard the shotgun blasts, Ted and Tammy ran in from the back and helped me out. We soon had all four of them laid out dead as dirt on the filthy floor of the trailer.

With the threat gone, Tammy screamed and dropped down beside Travis. I was on the phone calling an ambulance and I didn’t have a clue if there were more of the druggies running loose outside.

“Ted, check outside for runners and get the tags off all the pickups. Write them down.”

“Copy. Doing that. Better call Doc Olsen.”

“Yep. Doing that next.”

Tammy’s eyes were weird, and I knew what to look for. She was going into shock. I yelled at her to make her focus. “Tammy. Soak some cloths in hot water and clean Dad up for the ambulance guys. Hurry. Run to the bathroom.”

She stared straight at me, and I wasn’t sure she could hear me or process what I was saying. But then she snapped out of it and nodded. She jumped up and ran to get stuff to help Travis.

I checked him over and he was hit in the right side. His vest should be covering the area, but he might not have put it on if he figured he’d be in the bunkhouse all day collecting evidence and fingerprints.

With Travis down and Tammy half in shock, I tried to think of everything me and Ted had to do at the scene.

Ted came back inside. “Nobody else out there, kid.”

“Okay, good. Search for drugs and guns and bag everything you find. Mark the bags. I’ll pull the IDs from the bodies for the notifications.”

“Copy.”

Tammy sat on the floor beside Travis wiping the blood off him and trying to stop the bleeding in his side. Through her tears, she sobbed. “I can’t get this stopped, Harlan. Daddy’s gonna bleed to death.”

“Keep pressure on the wound. Press hard.”

A couple of minutes later, the paramedics came running in and rolled Travis onto a stretcher. I said, “Tam, go with Dad in the ambulance.”

“Copy. You coming later?”

“Soon as I’m done here, I’ll come to the hospital.”

“Okay.” She hugged me and sobbed tears onto my shirt, then she ran out the door behind the ambulance guys.

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