A Dallas Suite

Chapter Fifty

Two weeks later I had finally turned in the last of the paperwork from the case. I adjusted the sling holding my right arm and leaned back in my chair, taking a deep breath of relief. Jeff and I had pulled our triggers at the same time. His shot caught me in the right shoulder, rendering my dominant hand useless for a few days. But the bullet went straight through and missed any bones. I'd be wearing a sling for a month or so, but I'd regain full strength and mobility when it was all said and done.

My shot caught Jeff in his head, just above his right eye. He was dead the moment the bullet bored through his skull and hit his brain. I know that shot was more luck than anything. I could hardly see at the time, and I was thankful it worked out the way it did. If I had missed, I'm sure his second shot would have killed me.

SWAT kicked in the door seconds later and pulled me out of the room. I was in pretty bad shape, but Jeff wasn't going to kill anyone else and that's all that mattered. Knight also became one of the biggest benefactors to the department the city had ever seen. When he wasn't drunk out of his mind to take his thoughts off of being a possible murder victim, he actually wasn't that bad of a guy. Even though the department insurance covered it, he met me at the hospital the next day and swore to pay for all of my medical bills.

Moore stayed true to his character and rode with me in the back of the ambulance to the hospital. He made fun of me the whole way there, asking how I let the same guy kick my ass twice.

The department wanted to retire my duty weapon that Jeff had used to shoot me, but I convinced the commander to allow me to carry it on the job again. Not many cops can say they've been shot by their own gun. Everything was back to normal again. My desk was finally cleared from the piles of paperwork and I knew Moore would be miserable having to approve and sign all the reports.

Hope walked up behind me and roughed up my hair. "Are you finally finished with it all? I know you're a hotshot on the streets, but you take forever on paperwork."

"Hey I don't care how long it took, I'm done now and that's all that matters."

"That was a crazy case. But hey you're a hero now. That was two weeks ago and you're still making the front page of the paper," she threw the city newspaper on my desk. There I was on the front cover. Granted it was a tiny picture in the bottom left corner, but it was still there. "Hero detective finally speaks out about the Millionaire Massacre," they didn't give Jeff a cool serial killer name, but they had nicknamed the event. Five dead millionaires in a few days made for a story they'd be able to sell for months.

"You think we'll ever have another case this exciting again?"

"I wish I could say no, but I don't think we'll be bored for too long."