The noise from the television fell silent. Sally awoke to the silence of the darkness. The lights in the family room were out. Only the emergency lights were lit in each room for easy maneuverability. The only other moving creature in the family room was Jimmy, an American Mastiff. Jimmy weighed one hundred seventy pounds and stood three feet tall.
Jimmy was nudging Sally’s leg, warning her. He knew something was different. “What’s wrong Jimmy?” Sally whispered as she patted Jimmy’s head, and reached for her 9mm Glock which she had lodged between the cushions of the sofa.
Jimmy gave a whimper and tried to get closer in order to protect Sally. “Jimmy lay.” Jimmy positioned himself closer to the sofa, not making any noise.
Sally rose from the sofa and chambered a round, “Jimmy stay,” Sally moved away from the sofa in her stocking feet towards the hallway.
The emergency lights which plugged into the electrical wall outlets were lit providing easy passage down the long dark hallway.
A noise was heard from one of the rooms at the end of the hallway. As Sally passed by the emergency hallway lights, she unplugged the lights from the wall outlets and continued to move to the end of the hallway.
Coming to the end of the hallway, Sally peered into the bedroom which was on the left side of the hallway. Clear. A light beam flashed from the office on her right. Okay. Sally smiled pumping her head up and down.
She pulled a mirror from her pants pocket to scout the room. Aha. There he is. Sally smiled watching and waiting for the right moment so she could enter the room and catch the intruder in a compromised position.
Sally stood five feet, ten inches tall. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled back into a short seven inch long pony tail. Her feminine body style hid her hard rock body physique.
Within thirty seconds the intruder bent over her desk to look at something of interest when she stepped through the door and pushed him onto the desk with her foot.
Ben Depew caught himself from falling face first onto the desk by dropping what he was looking at and landing with hands flat on the top of the desk.
“Stay. Don’t move,” Sally commanded. Depew obeyed.
“Now stand up slowly. Put your hands where I can see them. Spread your legs apart…slowly,” Sally pressed her Glock into Depew’s lower back.
Without hesitation, Depew did exactly as directed hoping his partner, Mike Draper, would soon enter the room and take control of the situation.
Depew was six feet tall, with a red Mohawk style haircut. His ‘low-rise’ pants hung low on his body exposing his plaid boxer shorts. He wore tattoos on his head, neck and arms. His tattoos had the appearance of being gang related.
“What are you looking for, asshole?” Sally pressed her weapon a little harder into the Depew’s back to accent her demands.
“Nutin,” muttered Depew.
“What’s that? Speak clearly,” She pressed harder on the Depew’s back. “Nothing.” he said more clearly.
“Then what are you doing in my house if you’re looking for nothing, asshole?” Sally pushed Depew forward with her Glock until he fell across her desk, face down. “Hands behind your back, moron and don’t move,” Sally stepped back and to her right where she had some cable tie handcuffs. She applied the cuffs to Depew’s wrist and cinched them down tight against his wrist. Sally walked over to the cabinet and pulled out her emergency lantern placing it on her desk to light up the room and dialed 911 to report the home invasion.
Jimmy was lying on the floor in the family room near the sofa where he was commanded to stay. Being the obedient dog that Jimmy was, he waited for his next command when he detected a strange scent and sound from the other side of the sofa. Jimmy sniffed the air to determine if the scent was a foreign odor or a familiar one. Unable to place the scent as familiar, he crawled around the sofa to see where the strange odor and sound was coming from. At the edge of the sofa, he sampled the air one more time. Still unable to identify the scent as familiar, he began to follow the odor down the hallway towards the bedroom and office to where Sally was with the Depew.
Jimmy rounded the hallway corner towards the bedroom when he heard an unfamiliar command from the stranger standing inside of the office doorway. “Put the phone down. Now,” Draper commanded. Sally’s head snapped back and her mouth fell open at Draper’s words. She cautiously laid the phone receiver on the desk with an open connection to 911 Emergency.
“Now the gun. Put your weapon on the floor and kick it over here to me.”
Sally saw Jimmy quietly standing outside of the office behind Draper. Sally looked at Jimmy as she was placing her weapon on the floor and gave him a head command to attack by lifting her head up slightly and then down as if she were looking at Draper and then placed her weapon on the floor.
Draper stood six feet, three inches tall. He had a shaved head with a beard that looked like a six day growth. His physique indicated that he was a weight lifter from the way he wore his clothes.
Jimmy waited for his command from Sally and then he leaped forward onto the back of the Draper knocking him forward towards the desk and Depew.
Sally with a leaping karate kick knocked the gun out of the Draper’s hand as he fell forward and then she flipped around to give an elbow thrust to Depew’s face as he stood up from the desk.
Jimmy jumped onto the back of the Draper who was now face down on the floor and stood on his back to keep him pinned down as Sally stomped on the wrist joint, breaking his left wrist.
Outside of Sally’s house, the Las Vegas SWAT team was preparing to storm her house. SWAT Team Boy Two leader Robert Bowans was standing at the ready by the front door with his point man Brian Dabney while SWAT Team Edward Five leader Greg Eades was standing by the rear door with his point man Dwight Hitner waiting for the command to be given to enter.
Simultaneously receiving the command from the SWAT Team Commander Nathan Walters, Team Boy Two and Team Edward Five smashed their respective doors open and rushed into the house with shields at the ready in case of assault weapons fire.
The SWAT teams snaked their way into each room on the first floor and assumed their SWAT positions as they cleared each room. Team Edward Five then snaked its way up the stairway to the second floor of the house and cleared each of the rooms accordingly. Team Boy Two stayed on the first floor as guard for Team Edward Five.
The only area left to check was a long dark hallway on the first floor. Hallways are considered a dead man’s trap, because there’s no escape route as there is within a room. Carefully Team Boy Two and Team Edward Five slid down the walls of the dark hallway to the end and stopped at the intersection of the bedroom and office. Rear guards Beverly Holt and Jay Davenport stayed at the entry point of the hallway to protect the rear of the SWAT teams. The bedroom on the left side of the hallway was cleared by team leader Bowans. Team leader Eades spotted one female with a weapon in the office on the right side of the hallway and signaled Bowans of what he had seen.
Bowans pulled a tactical mirror out of his cargo pants to survey the room. The mirror showed one male on the floor with a dog standing on his back and one male lying across the desk, face down with a female holding a gun.
Bowans and two of his officers, marksman Charles Calhoun and negotiator Lee Roy Baker rushed into the office and was followed by two officers from SWAT team Edward Five, point man Dwight Hitner and explosive expert Glen Hinkle.
“Police, drop your weapon. Do it now,” Bowans shouted as they rushed through the doorway.
Sally dropped her weapon onto her desk and raised her hands above her head at the surprise entry of the SWAT team.
“Move away from the men. Do it now,” Bowans motioned Sally with his left hand as he pointed his weapon at her.
“Now order your dog off this guy,” Bowans pointed to the male laying on the floor. “Do it now.”
Jimmy’s high-set rounded ears moved back and forth when he heard key words spoken by Bowans. Jimmy then curled his upper lip showing his white canine teeth through his black facial mask and gave a defensive growl. Bowans immediately took a step back at Jimmy’s disagreeing tone.
Bowans stood six feet tall, and had a well defined muscular body which was slightly detectable behind his SWAT gear.
“Call your dog off or I’ll shoot him where he stands.” Bowans said through clenched teeth.
“Apparently you don’t know anything about this dog breed, now do you?” Sally said with a smirk.
“What are you talking about?” Bowans’ face wore a frowned.
“This dog breed is always in charge and rules his domain and this home is his domain. He’ll die defending his turf no matter who you are; friend or foe,” Sally’s face showed a victory smile.
“I don’t give a damn, because he’ll die first if he’s not off that guy when I count to three.”
“One!” The silence was heavy with the pause for the dog to retreat.
“Two!” Bowans began to move his gun from Sally to Jimmy.
Jimmy’s one hundred seventy pound body immediately leaped forward onto Bowans forcing him backwards into his four teammates making him lose control of his weapon and knocking his team off balance and out of control.
Jimmy stood over Bowans’ gun and looked directly into Bowans’ eyes daring him to move. Bowans did not move as he glanced at Jimmy and then quickly looked away.
Sally grabbed her weapon from the desk as SWAT team Edward Five came running into the office from the hallway with their guns at the ready for the kill.
“Stop and don’t shoot or most of you will die here for nothing,” Sally stood her ground in a defensive stance with her Glock’s red laser sight dead center on Eades’ forehead.
Jimmy automatically assumed his new assignment of defense against the intruding SWAT team as he saw Sally move into her position; a defensive move they both trained for should the need arise.
Seeing both Jimmy and Sally ready for battle, the rushing SWAT team stopped and lowered their guns in a sign of compromise surrender.
“Good,” Sally began, “These two men broke into my home and I don’t know who they are or why.”
“Okay, let’s start at the beginning and tell me what’s happening here,” SWAT team negotiator Earnest Berg looked directly in Sally’s eyes as he stepped in front of his teammates with both hands raised in a surrender position.
Berg stood six feet tall, with an athletic build and a thick neck that accented his square jaw.
Sally ordered Depew and Draper to sit on the floor to her left with their backs against the wall and put Jimmy in charge of them.
Both Depew and Draper obeyed without hesitation because of what they had witnessed between Jimmy and SWAT teams.
Jimmy obeyed walking over with a demeanor of being in charge and instinctively sat to the left of the Depew and Draper and watched both of them and the SWAT teams as he guarded his domain.
“Okay,” Sally continued after Jimmy assumed his position. “My name is Sally Jacobson. I am going to be the new SWAT team Director here in Las Vegas.”
The faces of both SWAT teams dropped and silence filled the room for what seemed like an hour. No one dared to speak or move out of shock until Sally broke the silence.
“Okay everyone, let’s take these two men down town and book them on burglary and tomorrow we’ll talk further about them and what’s going to happen in the department.”
“But what about having an officer come in and take a report before we move them, Director?” SWAT team leader Eades said.
Eades stood six feet, five inches tall with a Mesomorph rectangular shaped muscular body.
“Good idea. I’m still a little shaken from what has happened here and I’m running off my adrenaline rush,” Sally shook her head as she lowered her weapon.
Sally ordered Jimmy to stand down and moved him to her side as she walked behind her desk. The SWAT team took control of the prisoners and updated SWAT Team Commander Walters of what had happened. A detective from the Command vehicle called in the Las Vegas Crime Scene Investigation Team and then came inside the house and informed everyone what was about to happen.
Thirty minutes later the CSI team arrived and took control of the scene. Photos of Draper and Depew were taken by CSI. The two prisoners were then released to North Las Vegas Police Sergeant Kerry Woods who took them down town and booked them on burglary.
Two and one half hours later, Las Vegas CSI had finished their investigation and left Sally’s house with all of the information they needed for the District Attorney to charge Draper and Depew with one count each of breaking and entering and one count each of burglary and assault.
© Herb Reed 2013
American Phoenix Rising Interview Room 