Chapter 5

Alan snapped awake hearing sirens in the distance, it was hard for him to breath, he opened his eyes and he was surrounded by thick black smoke, still face down in the bathroom, but he could feel the intense heat from the walls and ceiling above him engulfed in flames. Acting quickly, Alan rolled over to his hands and knees and began to scurry out of the bathroom into the living room, the flames were now completely covering the ceiling above him and creeping down and through the walls towards him. The smoke was smothering him, he could see the open front door just ahead of him, but the toxic smoke was weighing him down like a two ton weight. It was getting hotter and hotter as now all the furniture in the room began to catch fire, and burst into flames. Alan couldn't move anymore he had become overcome by the smoke and looked up to see hands grab his wrists and start dragging him to the door way. He was now outside in the fresh air laying on his back staring into the bright Texas sun. A voice asked him, "Officer, are you okay? I thought you was a goner." Alan sat up, and started coughing to clear his airways, the man who rescued him was the neighbor from the other side of the duplex, Alan cleared his throat, "You saved me. Thank you. The other officer that was with me, did you see where he went?" "Yes sir, Him and that other fella that lives here got in that Camero of his and took off." Both men stood up, Alan reached in his pocket, pulled out his wallet and pulled out Sergeant Harvey's card. He reached into his pocket for his cell phone, then remembered he was holding onto it as he fell, and undoubtedly it's now a pool of melted plastic on the bathroom floor. He then told the man, "Take this card, give it to the police who show up, and tell them to have him meet Wagner at Autumn Grove Apartments." Alan then ran to his truck, quickly started the ignition, and sped off passing a fire engine as he turned the corner. "Better late than never." He said under his breath.

The tires on Alan's truck screeched to a stop in front of the gate house, Susan and Brad ran out of the gate house, they saw Alan step out of his truck covered in soot, he reached behind the seat, and pulled out his Mossberg shot gun. Brad asked, "What happened?" Alan pumped a shell into the chamber and said calmly, "Ruben and his cousin just tried to kill me. If he shows up here, arrest him." At that time they could hear sirens in the distance rapidly getting closer, Susan stood there in shock of the whole situation, and Brad said, "I'm going to call Tommy." Then went back into the gate house, picked up the phone, and started to dial Tommy's cell phone as he read the number off a piece of paper posted on the bulletin board. Three police cars pulled into the parking lot and parked behind Alan's truck. Sergeant Harvey and another man in a suit got out of one car, and the other two had uniformed officers who Alan did not know. Harvey and the man in the suit walked up to Alan and Sergeant Harvey said, "Wagner, what the hell happened at that duplex?" Alan said, "I was knocked out and left for dead. I think I've found the rapist or rapists. Ruben Sanchez and his cousin Marcus." The man in the suit stepped closer to Aland and said, "Do you have any evidence? What do you know?" "We went into Marcus' duplex, I found a tank top splattered with blood, but before I could do do anything the lights went out and I woke up in the middle of a Barbecue." The man in the suit turned to Seargeant Harvey and said, "Call the boys down at the fire, and tell them I want them in there as soon as it's safe to investigate, and go over it as if their job depends on it." Seargeant Harvey nodded then walked back to his patrol car. At this time Brad came back out of the gate house and said, "Tommy's on his way down from Austin." The man in the suit then said, "I'm going to need all the information you have on Ruben." Alan then walked into the gate house with the man in the suit in tow. They walked over to the file cabinet where Alan unlocked the combination on the the locking latch rigged to the cabinet. He pulled the manila folder labeled Officer Ruben Sanchez, and handed it to the man in the suit. The man flipped through the pages in the folder, as Sergeant Harvey walked into the building, the man in the suit pulled the top sheet which had Ruben's photo and address and file photo on it, "Sergeant, Give this to those officers out there and have them en route to this address. I want this man in cuffs before I sit down for dinner tonight." Sergent Harvey took the page, and walked back outside to where the other officers were standing. The man then turned to Alan, "I'm Captain Everett, I need you to give Sergeant Harvey a statement on what happened, and sign it."

Lacy was standing in the office window watching confused as the events of the morning play out, she saw Alan covered in soot, and was very concerned. She didn't know if she should to run out to see him or stay out of the way. For the time being she stayed put watching Alan come out of the gate house and over to Sergeant Harvey and started to write on something on a clip board. Simmons walked up behind her and startled her when he began to speak, "What the hell is going on now. I swear I'm about to fire these clowns. It's parents weekend and the last thing I need is a S.W.A.T. team being seen at my front gate." He picked up his cell phone and dialed Tommy's number, walked into his office and shut the door. It was now Friday morning and parent's weekend was in full swing, the main building was crawling with students giving their parents tours of the complex, most tried to ignore the police presence, but there were quite a few watching curiously. Lacy turned and returned to her desk and began to file lease applications to try and take her mind off the conclusions it's jumping to from the events taking place in the parking lot. Sitting at her desk she could still see the mental image of Alan covered in soot like a fire fighter, and warm tears started to drip down her cheeks. Simmons walked out of his office as he ended the call on his cell phone, and said "Lacy cut a check for the week for Apostle Security, after tomorrow night they're out of here." Lacy began to sob hard now, Simmons asked, "Are you okay?" She dried her tears with the back of her hands, then answered, "Yes, I'm sorry I just got some bad news." "Well, try keep yourself together, I don't need to add an emotionally unstable leasing agent on top of the rest of the issues around here." He then walked back into his office and shut the door. "Asshole." Lacy said under her breath.

A few hours have passed Alan had just just finished scrubbing all the black soot from his skin, and was trying to get a couple of hours sleep before he had to go back to work again. Just as he was drifting off to sleep there was a knock at his apartment door. He rolled his eyes, threw the cover off of him and walked towards the door. Suddenly the events of the day had popped into his mind so he stopped at the kitchen counter for his Colt, pulled back on the slide to chamber a round, and called out, "Who is it?" The voice on the other side was Tommy, "It's Anderson." Alan lowered his weapon, unlocked, and opened the door. Tommy was in his Apostle Security uniform and said, "I tried calling your cell all afternoon." "Yeah, it umm, melted." "I read the police report, I was going to give you the night off, but it's going to be a little longer than a night." Alan looked confused then angry, "You're going to fire me?" Tommy sighed, "We lost the contract with Autumn Grove apartments. I have a few leads on new sites, but nothing as of right now." Alan turned and gestured for Tommy to come in, put his gun back on the counter, and took a seat on the futon and said, "This fucking sucks." Tommy sat down next to Alan and replied, "Yeah it does. As far as the other business, they haven't been able to find Ruben or his cousin yet. I still want you to take the night off, you have had a long day, I'm having Brad work the first half of the night and I'll take over. Tomorrow is our last night on site, but I'm not telling anyone else. I still want everyone to maintain a professional appearance." Alan nodded, then stood up and went to the kitchen to pour a drink. "If I'm not working tonight, then I might as well drink up." Tommy stood up, "I'd better get going, we'll meet up Sunday morning at 7A.M. I'll let everyone know then." Tommy showed himself out, Alan slammed two shots of Jack Daniels, then thought to himself, What I wouldn't do for a phone right about now. He started to think about the hassle of filing for unemployment, his brief brush with death earlier in the day, and Lacy. That's what he needed, he needed Lacy, to touch her, to kiss her, to hold her in his arms, and to make all his stress and worries disappear. He took another shot and again there was a knock at his door. This time he just opened the door and it was Lacy standing in front of him. She smiled at him and said, "I hope you don't mind. I had to see you." "Not at all, I was just thinking the same thing." Lacy stepped into Alan's apartment and as soon as the door latched shut she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a very deep kiss. She pulled back to look into his soft grey eyes, held him tighter, and started another passionate kiss. Alan lifted her up and carried her to his bedroom where he gently laid her on his bed. He asked, "By the way, how did you know where I lived." She giggled and answered, "Google."

Alan sat down on the bed beside Lacy, he softly ran his finger tips over her arms as she lifted her head for him to kiss her, and when their lips met Lacy wrapped her arms over his broad shoulders holding his head in place. He continued to kiss her as his hands moved from her arms to under her shirt, then crept slowly up her tight belly, under her bra to her her soft breast, and she let out a soft moan as his fingers began to massage her hard nipples. Lacy then pulled Alan's shirt over his head, then lightly ran her finger nails over his hairy chest, and ran her hands behind his back as she pulled him to her. Alan unbuttoned her top, starting from the bottom, and kissing each piece of skin as it was exposed, after he got to the top button Lacy sat up and removed her blouse and bra, unveiling her spectacular breast to Alan. He ran his hands down the curves of the sides of her body, then put his head between her breast and started to kiss her chest, working from side to side, gently sucking and licking each nipple. Lacy moaned again and said, "Oh yes, Alan." She then pushed him over on the bed, slowly pulling his shorts down lower and lower, until his fully erect member popped over the elastic waist band. She wrapped one of her hands around it, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Very nice.", then began to slowly run her tongue across the tip as she pumped up and down with her hand. Alan tilted his back and began to moan in pure ecstasy. Lacy then climbed up on him, still wearing her skirt she reached down to pull her panties to the side as she slowly lowered herself onto Alan's throbbing hard on, and Both moaned in pleasure as she adjusted herself on top of him. She arched herself back to take all of him inside her, Alan held on to her hips has she gyrated, she looked down into his face and winked seductively as she began to grind on him faster and harder. Beads of sweat began to appear on her fore head, her breathing started to become rapid, and her moaning louder. Alan lowered his hands to her butt cheeks, and pulled her down tighter onto him, she burst out with, "Oh Alan, I'm going to cum for you baby." She began to run her hands from her hips to her breast, then she felt Alan's hot ejaculant explode inside her, this in turn triggered her own orgasm, and she let the electric current flow from her body with a scream. She then leaned down to Alan's face, she traced his lips with her tongue, then pressed her lips hard against his kissing him with all the energy she had left in her. She rolled off the top of him and straddled him side ways. Alan turned to look her in the eyes, he could see so much in the look she was giving him that moment, everything felt perfect, and then she said it. The three words that mean the most to anyone in this world, when someone tells you this you feel as if you are lighter than air. She said, "I love you." And from the look in her eyes, she meant it, Alan looked back into her eyes and without a blink he said, "I love you." They exchanged smiles, Alan turned to put his arms around her, and the two began to kiss again.

After escorting Lacy to her car, they had made plans to go out for dinner after Alan had gotten a nap in, however, he had overslept, and when he happened to wake up he was three hours late. He dashed around his apartment, putting on cologne, deodorant, sliding his in the waist band holster in his jeans with his Colt .45 in it, and grabbing a dress shirt he was still buttoning up as he was making his way to his truck. He flew down the highway towards Autumn Grove apartments hoping lacy would forgive him, but kind of had a feeling after the afternoon they had together she would, or he could at least make it up to her. As he pulled into the parking lot he glanced into the gatehouse to give the officer on duty a wave, then slammed on his breaks because there was no officer to be seen in the gate house. He quickly leaped out of his truck flung the door to the gate house open and his eyes were immediately drawn to the pool of blood on the floor oozing from under the supply closet door. Reacting Alan quickly pulled his gun from his holster under his shirt and flipped the safety off. He got down low just in case he was being watched, crawled close to the door, turned the knob, and the as the light started to fill the closet he could see Dustin's life less body stuffed in the closet and retitled with gunshot wounds. "Damn it." Alan said to himself, then crawled over to the desk, and dialed 9-1-1. He explaned to the 9-1-1 operator what he had found, and in spite of her telling him to stay on the line and not to leave he had to check on Lacy. He stealthly and cauciously left the gate house, got back into his truck and proceeded to drive towards building two, as he go closer he could make out the next victim laying face down in front of the building was Tess. He quickly rushed out of the truck and knelt down beside Tess, and rolled her over checking for wounds, she opend her eyes and said, "I can't believe that mother fucker shot me." "Where'd you get hit?" "Fucker got me right in the side of my tit. Good thing Ruben can't shoot for shit. They tagged Brad and the new kid too." "Yeah Dustin's gone, they stuck him in the closet, but I didn't see Brad." "I think his was non fatal, Ruben got him standing outside, the other guy grabbed his piece and went trigger happy on the kid. I was able to sneak out he other side of the building and I was going to get the drop on them as they headed over here, but I wasn't as sneaky as I thought." Alan though, they're coming to building two for one reason, he said, "Stay here and if you see them again shoot don't think." Tess winced as she picked up her Baretta from the ground and held it up, "You got it Al."

Alan Stood up and crept towards Lacy's door, again the door was busted from the frame, he pushed on, the living room and kitchen area was clear, and he slowly stepped into the apartment. He could hear voices coming from the bedroom, he turned the corner to hall and just outside the bedroom door way he could see Lacy laying face down on across the bed, Ruben standing on the other side with Brad's Desert Eagle pressed against the back of her head, and who apparently was his cousin Marcus raping her from behind on the side of the bed closet to him. Lacy was sobbing quietly but not enough to to give her attackers the satisfaction of seeing the pain they're putting her in. Alan felt a huge fit of rage boiling from the deepest parts of his body. As he carefully aimed his weapon at Ruben, his only draw back was if Ruben reacted to his shot with one of his own through the back of Lacy's head. As the sound of the police car sirens closed in Ruben looked up and saw Alan in the door way pointing his Colt .45 right at him. "Oh Fuck!" He screamed as he pulled the weapon from the back of Lacy's head and started to to fire towards Alan. Reacting quickly Alan dove into the bathroom as the bullets whizzed by him. He had missed his chance to take them out, and now could not return fire without risk of hitting Lacy. Ruben taunted him as he fired randomly into the hallway, "Hey C.W.P. What's the matter, you don't want to share?" "Yeah Homes this pussy is the shit!" Marcus added. He then heard the shattering of glass and Lacy scream, he reached up on the bathroom counter and found Lacy's make up compact, flipped it open and scooted over to the door where he could use the mirror to look into the bedroom. He couldn't see anyone, out of the corner of his left eye he could see Jameson knelt down and entering the living room with his side arm drawn. Jameson quickly dashed across the hallway and put his back against the wall next to where Alan was crouched down at. He slid down the wall and whispered to Alan, "What do you got?" "Two armed perps, and a hostage. I think they went out the window though." "Wow, you almost sounded like a real cop just then. Let's go clear the room. Watch my back." Jameson stayed low and exited the bathroom and Alan followed him out. They made their way into the bedroom, Jameson checked under the bed, looked at Alan and then pointed with a nod to check the walk in closet. Alan stood up and pulled on the door holding his gun in front of him, Brad was laying on the floor, facing the wall, bleeding from the shoulder and in a pair of hand cuffs. He rolled over to look and saw Alan, "God damn, I'm happy to see you Al. Get me out of here." Jameson walked into the closet and uncuffed Brad, then they heard gunshots outside, and all three raced to the front door. Tess was leaning against the wall on the opposite corner, the trio joined her, Jameson and Alan held their weapons ready as bullets ricocheted off the the corners of the building from the return fire. Brad started to back away from the group and go around the other side of the building. Sergeant Harvey walked up behind the group with his 357 revolver drawn, and asked "What's the situation Officers?" "Two armed perps with a hostage." Jameson answered as he nodded at Alan. "Definatly your rape suspects." Alan Added. Residents started to open their apartment doors to get a peek at the action, Sergent Harvey motioned with his had for them to go back inside and to get down. Seargent Harvey then said, "Here's the game plan, young lady, I want you to lay down some surpressing fire to distract them, don't aim at them at ris of hitting the hostage, aim low and let your bullets go into the ground, Jameson you go left with that big fellow over there. Wagner you come with me on the right. If anyone has a shot you take it." Brad then spoke up, "I'm unarmed." Sergeant Harvey wiped his brow, "Then I assume it's one of the weapons shooting back us, ok then you stay here and Jameson you're with Wagner and I'll go solo."

Tess opened fire as the Sergeant had instructed and they had made their move, Jameson and Alan dropped back and went around the left side of the builing and Sergeant Harvey went around the right. Brad said, "Fuck that." And followed Sergeant Harvey around the right. Jameson and Alan could see nothing on their sid as they ran from Building two to Building three, Harvey saw ruben knelt down beside the building waiting to return fire on Tess. He aimed his revolver, then Ruben caught the reflection of the moon from the Sergeant's badge, turned his weapon on Sergeant Harvey. He finished off the clip into the Sergeant's chest. Brad came up behind the fallen Seargent, and when he realized that the gun's magazine was empty he charged Ruben as fast as his legs could take him. Brad hit Ruben with so much force, it knocked him to the ground and knocked the Desert Eagle out of his hand, Brad began to pummel Ruben in the face with his fists mumbling, "You rotten son of bitch, I was a fucking brother to you and you Pearl harbored me!" Jameson and Alan ran to pull Brad off Ruben, who was now unconcious. Jameson rolled his limp body over to place hand cuffs on him. Alan ran over to Sergeant Harvey as he was sitting up, "Help me up Wagner, good thing I got the milatary rated vest, but those 50 cals sting like a bitch." Alan looked around, the complex was dead quiet and said, "Ok, one down where's the other and Lacy." Then they heard her scream, they turned to see Marcus stuffing her into Alan's truck witch was still running, and Alan fired two rounds into the radiator. White steam spewed from under the hood, Marcus could see Alan's shot gun sticking up from behind the seat, and Alan's attempt to disable the vehicle had given Marcus the perfect smoke screen. Lacey saw Marcus pull the shot gun out from behind the seat, and wrapped her hands around it trying to dislodge his grip from the weapon. Alan, Jameson, and Sergeant Harvey were all creeping up on the vehicle, Marcus quickly pulled up on the butt of the shot gun, stripping it from Lacy's grip, he then pointed the weapon in Lacy's face, she closed her eyes, and there was a bright flash. Alan saw the passenger window of his truck blow out as well as Lacy's limp body arched backwards through the window. Even from the distance they were at, it was obvious Lacy's wounds were fatal. Alan screamed "No!" And all three of them ran towards the pick up truck firing at Marcus, who crouched down behind the door and started to return fire with the shot gun, the first shot hit Jameson in the leg pretty much separating it from his body Sergeant Harvey dropped back to tend to his fallen officer, Alan kept running towards the truck, he fired another shot and missed, and his slide was locked back meaning he was out of bullets. Marcus also noticed this, and stepped out from behind the door pointing the shot gun directly at Alan's chest. Suddenly, there was a shot that echoed through the buildings and the shotgun fell from Marcus' hands to the ground. Marcus clinched his wrist and began to run, Alan chased after him, Tess holstered her weapon and said, "That's two you owe me for, cowboy."

Marcus ran out of the complex, across the street and over the fence that outlined a wooded area across from Autumn Grove apartments. Alan darted across the street after him, he heard the squealing of brakes as a car slid into him and the impact threw him onto the hood and he hit the wind shield cracking it. He rolled off the hood and onto the ground, he tried to stand up to continue the pursuit but his entire right side was is agonizing pain. He was finally able to get the strength to pull himself up as the driver of the car, leaped out of the car and yelled, "Hey mother fucker! Watch where you're going, you hit my mother fucking car!" Before Alan could respond the driver pushed Alan down off the car and into the ditch on the side of the road, and then proceeded to kick him in the right side of his body that was already bruised and beaten by the impact of the car. Alan started to cough up blood as the driver returned to his car and sped away from the accident. Alan laid in the ditch, broken, bleeding, he could hardly breath, and the only thing he could see over and over again was the image of Lacy's life less body flying out the passenger window of his truck. He could hear sirens, and managed to crawl back to the road He laid in the road watching the flashing lights of the ambulance come down the hill towards him, no matter if they saw him an stopped and picked him up, or just ran right over him, but he didn't care anymore, he just wanted this nightmare to be over. As he was blinded by the wig wags flashing in the ambulance's head lights, he could hear the brakes being applied to the dual wheels and the engine down sifting to compensate. The firemen rolled Alan over onto a back board, placed a C-collar around his neck, and started to strap him in with a spider restraint. His eyes swelled with tears as he was about to break down, Sergeant Harvey knelt down beside him and said, "Don't worry son, we're going to get that rat bastard. The girl didn't make it, she was gone as soon as he pulled the trigger, the rest should be okay, even Jameson, but he's not going to be running any marathons soon. You did good Wagner, real good, I'm proud to have a fine officer like you by my side during this tense situation." Sergeant Wagner then pulled the Junction City badge from his uniform and pinned it on Alan's shirt and said, "You've earned it son." The firemen lifted the back board up and carried Alan into the ambulance, He thought to himself, I earned nothing, Lacy is dead, and I broke my promise to keep her safe.

Chapter 4

It was the next night, police sergeant Harvey pulled his patrol car into the drive way of Savilla Court Apartments, he parked behind another police cruiser which was parked next to an ambulance. Jameson was streaming crime scene tape, he could see Williams in the doorway taking evidence photos with a digital camera, Sergeant Harvey then exited his vehicle and asked, "Jameson, how bad is it?" Jameson just looked down and shook his head. Sergeant walked through the door of the apartment and said, "Jesus." The furniture in the living room had revealed that there had been a struggle, on the couch there laid a young woman motion less, the lower half of her body was nude, she had a blouse on, but the top was ripped open as well as her bra. As Harvey got to her face he could see way she laid motionless, her mouth was open as if she were still screaming "No!", and on her fore head was a hole that appeared to be a bullet wound. The two paramedics were packing their jump kit, and one of them said, "Sorry Sarge, she was gone as soon the bullet hit. This one's not for us. You're going to need to get a Justice of the Peace out here." Sergeant Harvey nodded then walked out the door to Jameson and said, "Get on the radio and tell them we're going to need to get a J.P. out here to pronounce the victim." "Yes, Sarge." Jameson walked over to the cruiser and sat down inside to make the transmission, Williams walked out and said, "Sarge, looks like it's a wound from a .38, if I was a gambling man, I would guess this is our same suspect, and he picked up that missing revolver from Autumn Grove when he was there a couple of nights ago." "I think you hit the nail on the head, Williams, continue to gather the evidence. Twila's the J.P. on call tonight, she'll be hours getting out here. I'll have Myers come up here to help secure the scene, you're my best man when it comes to evidence. So I trust you'll do it by the book." "Yes, Sir." Williams answered as he returned to the living room of the apartment. Sergeant Harvey pulled his brief case from his patrol car and began to start his paper work.

Alan was showing Dustin how to work the golf cart, "Just like driving a car." "Well, I can't say I've ever driven a car." Alan looked at Dustin in disbelief, "Well then, think of it as a video game." "Now that I can do." "I figured as much. Just take it around the complex a few times, get used to it, and if you need anything or run into any problems, just pick up the radio and give me a call." Alan handed Dustin a hand held radio, Dustin then sat down inside the golf cart, switched the direction dial to reverse, turned the key to the "on" position, and started to press down on the acceleration pedal. The golf cart began to shutter, "Press a little harder.", Alan suggested. Dustin slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and the golf cart flew backwards backing all the way to the opposite curb, and actually running the rear wheels over the curb and into the grass, placing the cart at an angle. Dustin's face was red with embarrassment, he then put the cart in forward, slowly drove off the curb, and slowly into the complex. Alan watched him as he disappeared around a building, shook his head, then walked into the gate house. Tess asked, "Do you think that's wise, sending the boy out on the golf cart like that? He's going to end up fucking something up." "Maybe so, but I couldn't stand the smell anymore. Better him out there for the next three hours than in here with us." Tess rolled her eyes then looked up to see a police car pulling into the complex, she could see the silhouette of the man driving and said, "Looks like that's your boy, Jameson." Alan walked back outside to greet him, Jameson pulled his patrol car up along side Alan, and rolled down the window. Alan again knelt down beside his window and commented, "I thought you were just kidding about starting a patrol here." Jameson turned to Alan, his facial expression did not change from the serious look he had on it, "Yeah I was, Listen, whatever I tell you, I didn't tell you, you got that?" "Of course, Jameson." "I just spent the last four hours at the scene of a murder, I think it's our same guy, and we think the gun stolen from here was used." Alan's skin turned flush all he could say was, "Fuck." Jameson began again, "I don't know how the hell they're going to do it, but with parents weekend starting tomorrow they're trying to keep this under wraps. Some shit about an ongoing investigation going on and a press release would hamper the investigation." Alan nodded and said, "Thanks for the heads up." "What are you talking about, all I did was a drive through." Jameson said as he rolled up his window, turned his police cruiser around, and left the complex. Tess walked outside of the gate house to where Alan was standing, and asked, "What's up?" "Nothing much, he's just checking on things. I'm going to make a round on foot and see if I can't catch up with the newbie."

Walking through the parking lot, Alan turned a corner to find one of the custom made wooden direction signs in pieces, he knelt down to examine it when he heard a loud "smash", and looked up to see a large red haired boy in his early 20's with his back to Alan lifting up on another sign. Alan slowly started to walk up on the boy as he could see another sign in pieces, and the boy was pushing and pulling on another trying to loosen it from the ground. Alan crept up behind him, and in a calm voice asked, "Son, what the hell are you doing?" The boy was startled, turned to Alan and said, "I don't know, the sign made me mad." Alan shook his head, "Put your hands on the trunk of that car there." The boy slowly complied, put his hands on the trunk of the car nearest to him, and Alan began to pat him down. He pulled the boys cell phone, wallet, pocket knife out of the boy's pockets, and placed them on the trunk of the car. The boy smelled of sweat and alcohol, Alan opened the walled and pulled out the boy's ID, "Okay, Mr. Levy, since the signs made you mad, you'll be going to jail now for vandalism." Alan pulled the boy's hands one by one behind his back and snapped a pair of handcuffs on him. Alan lead the boy back to the sign he was attempting to pull out of the ground, sat him down against it, and pulled his radio off his belt, "Tess, can you get Junction City police out here, I'm out by building four, and I'm going to have one in custody for vandalism." "You got it." Tess answered over the radio.

A few moments later a patrol car had pulled up to where Alan was standing, the boy had not said a word, only sat against the sign with an empty look on his face, Alan helped the boy to his feet as Sergeant Harvey stepped out of the police car. "Hello Sergeant, I found this one pulling signs out of the ground and smashing them." Sergeant Harvey pulling his flashlight from his belt, and took a look at the boy's face, then reached for the wallet on the trunk of the car. He pulled the boy's I.D. card out of the wallet, and said, "Dexter Levy, just who I thought you were. Go ahead and un-cuff him Wagner. Dexter where are you staying?" Alan looked at the Sergeant in disbelief, but did as he was instructed. Dexter answered, "I'm staying at friend's apartment tonight." The Sergeant handed the boy his wallet, then replied, "Well I suggest you find it and don't leave for the rest of the night." "Yes sir." Dexter said as he gathered the rest of his things from the trunk of the call and walked towards building four. Sergeant Harvey turned to Alan, "Dexter Levy is the university's defensive line. A brush with the law would put him on the bench per university policy, and when you're in this town as long as I have been you know not to fuck with the university. It was a good catch, Wagner, just not the right guy." "So, he just walks, like he's got a get out of jail free card, and what about the damage, who's paying for that?" Alan asked irritated. "Well, don't worry about Greg Simmons, I'll have a talk with him tomorrow, just put in your report that you found them broken, called us out to investigate and It was probably just some juveniles. Trust me on this one, Wagner." Although Alan didn't agree with the method, everyone knows that Junction City revolves around the university, worship the college football team, and being responsible for benching one of their star players wouldn't really be a popular label for him. Sergeant Harvey then said, "However, if you're still interested in being a police officer, I may be abled to help, Jameson told me about your incident, and I did a little research. The facts all add up, I know a few people in Austin who I can talk to about getting your record expunged." Alan shook Sergeant Harvey's hand, "Thank you sir, that would be appreciated." "No promises, but I think you'd make a fine officer." Sergeant Harvy got into is patrol cruser and pulled off the property as Dustin came around the corner in the golf cart. He parked in front of Alan, and said, "What happened, I saw the cop car, but wasn't sure if I should come over or not." " Just some destruction of private property, but it looks like this one's going to get away. Hop off of there and help me get this wood off of the drive way." Both Alan and Dustin began picking up the broken shards of wood and nails and placing them in a pile on the grass.

Dustin and Alan returned to the gate house on the golf cart, luckily, Dustin's driving had improved, the two had plugged the cart into the charger for the night, and walked into the gate house. Tess turned in her chair to face them, "I thought you said you had one in custody, he left in an empty car, what happened?" Alan just shook his head and said, "Politics." The sun was starting to rise, it was only an hour before the end of the shift, Alan looked up from the paper work he was filling out about the night's events, and saw a pick up truck pulling into the parking lot with a custom pink and black paint job. "Christ." He said as he watched the truck ease into the parking lot and pull into a parking space. "What is it?" Tess asked. "Rachel. She's here." Rachel had pulled her truck right next to Alan's, there would be no way to avoid her on the way out, but that didn't appear to matter because Rachel was getting out of her truck and walking towards the gate house. Tess stood up and pulled her chemical spray from her duty belt, "Let me at her. I've been dreaming of this day for weeks." "Settle down, Tess, Let me see what she wants." Alan opened the door to the gate house, both Dustin and Tess followed him out, and stood behind him as Rachel stood up on the sidewalk. Acting professional, Alan asked, "May I help you ma'am?" Rachel crossed her arms and gave the trio a dirty look, and answered, "Cut the bull shit, Alan, why the hell won't you answer you fucking phone, and what was with that comment you made yesterday?" Alan shook his head and looked at Rachel as if she were crazy. "Listen, you have no business coming to my place of work, and starting a bunch of drama. Second, I was nothing to you, I mean, you wouldn't even acknowledge we were in a relationship after we were fucking. I've been driving myself insane over "us", and I don't want another thing to do with you." Rachel stood there for a second then said, "You're fucking pathetic, how can you expect any woman to be happy with you when you carry so much baggage, and don't even have the ambition to better yourself. I couldn't ever seriously be with you, the least you could do is accept a few of my pity fucks, and now you've blown that." She then pulled her hand back to slap Alan, he just closed his eyes to wait for the contact, but her hand was caught in mid air by Tess. Tess squeezed Rachel's fingers hard then twisted her arm around her back and started guiding Rachel back towards her truck. Rachel screamed, "What the fuck are you doing you crazy bitch?" Tess kept calm, "Ma'am, I'm escorting you back to your vehicle, and I'm going to advise you to leave the property, and on a personal note, if you ever show back up here again I won't be so nice." Tess released Rachel at the door of her truck, Rachel turned to face Tess, "Are you threatening me?" "No bitch, that's a promise, you leave Alan alone and go back to your skank ass life." Rachel Huffed, then got into her truck, revved the engine a few times, and sped out of the parking lot squealing her tires. Tess returned to where Alan and Dustin were standing, straightened her uniform in the window, "I think it's about time to go. You can thank me later, big guy." She said as she playfully punched Alan in the chin in slow motion.

Brad and Ruben showed up together as usual, Susan had not arrived yet, and Tess had already left and had given Dustin a ride home. Ruben was sitting at the desk starting the paper work for the day, Alan signaled Brad to follow him outside the gate house. They walked out into the parking lot and Alan started, "We're getting to the bottom of this card key business today. If I know Ruben, he's going to come find us pretty soon. When I signal you I want you to grab him and hold him." "Al, that's crazy, it's broad daylight." "Not in the maintenance room, it's at least an hour before one of those guys rolls over, scratches a nut, and looks at the clock." They walked over to the entrance of the maintenance building, and stood in the door way. Brad looked up and as if right on cue, Ruben had left the gate house and started walking towards them. "You called that one Al." Brad said as he started to breathe harder. "Calm down, all you got to do his hold him." Alan and Brad entered the maintenance office, soon Ruben followed, Alan shut the door behind Ruben, and when Ruben turned to Alan, Brad put Ruben in a full nelson hold. Alan pulled Ruben's Glock 9mm from his holster, Ruben squirmed but could not get out of Brad's hold, then said, "What the fuck is wrong with you two C.W.P.'s?" Alan took a few steps towards Ruben, "What's the truth behind the card key?" Ruben still squirming answered, "Fuck you, just because you got a hard on for the bitch in building two doesn't mean you're some mother fucking detective now. This ain't fucking legal." Alan said, "Yeah but we're not exactly the police now, are we." Ruben stopped trying to get out of the hold and relaxed his body, then said, "Okay, that card key I gave to my cousin. He wanted to get a gym membership, so I gave him the key to use ours for free." Alan shook his head and said, "That is by far the dumbest thing I've ever heard." "Well it's the fucking truth, we can go to his house right now." "We will, where's the card now?" "In my pocket, I picked it up so I could turn it in to Simmons." "Okay, Ruben you're coming with me, Brad hold on to his 9 until we get back." Brad released Ruben and took the handgun from Alan. Ruben turned and pushed Brad, "Mother fucker, I thought we were tight." Alan turned Ruben towards him so he was looking at him face to face and said, "This rape suspect killed someone last night." Rubens eyes got wide, "Oh hell no, you ain't thinking, no, I don't have shit to do with that guy." "Let's go talk to your cousin."

Alan pulled his truck up in front of a duplex in a part of the city where the pizza guy doesn't even deliver after sun down. The ride was quiet other than Ruben giving directions, but as Alan cut the engine he spoke, "Listen, say my cousin does have something to do with this. What are we going to do, we ain't real cops, we don't have a way to collect evidence, what will this prove?" Alan sat back against the seat, "Well as of right now you're the one who has something to do with it until we follow the key card, and do you think your cousin does have something to do with all this?" "I'm not going to say it's not possible. This part of my family isn't known for volunteer work and donations. We're pretty close, I just couldn't see him being a rapist or a murderer." "I never said it was him Rube, but he might know something, and I think as of now we're way farther than the cops have got." The two got out of Alan's truck, walked up trampled path in the overgrown yard and Ruben knocked on the door. There was no answer, Ruben started to now pound on the door, so loud that the person occupying the other side of the duplex came to the other door. Ruben then tried the knob and the door slowly opened, and light from the daylight started to feel the messy living room. Ruben stepped in as Alan followed, Alan didn't have his side arm drawn, but he had his hand wrapped around the butt of it every step of the way. Ruben called out, "Marcus! Where you at cuz?" The two stepped into the bathroom and what they saw stopped them both in their tracks. Hanging over the shower curtain rod was a tank top which appeared to have blood splattered on it. "I think we have a suspect." Alan said as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He dialed the numbers 9-1... Alan then got very dizzy, fell to the floor as he could hear two voices speaking in Spanish, and then everything went black.

Chapter 3

Alan was sitting on the bed lacing up his boots, all he wanted to do was fall backwards and go back to sleep, not only was he adjusting to twelve hour shifts, but the previous night's events and being fueled by adrenaline had left him feeling exhausted. It was nearing 5 P.M. and he needed to meet with the the people interviewing for the new guard positions. After he tied his boots, Alan snapped on his duty belt, pulled his Colt .45 from its holster and inspected it. He did not unload it from the night before, checked the chamber, and all appeared well so he returned his weapon to the holster on his right hip. He gave himself one last check in the mirror, walked to the kitchen, and pulled a Dr. Pepper from the refrigerator. He popped the can open and snapped awake after the first cold, sweet taste tingled it's way down his throat. He gave a refreshing, "Ahh.", after the first drink. Alan walked out of his apartment, locked the door behind him, and climbed into his truck for another trip to Autumn Grove Apartments.

Brad and Ruben were sitting in the gate house as Alan arrived, he could see them both through the window, both sitting relaxed, Ruben had his hands behind his head with his feet propped up on the desk, and Brad had his head down apparently doodling again. Alan parked his truck and walked into the gate house, Ruben opened his eyes and Brad looked up to see who it was, then turned to grab a clipboard from the desk, "Tommy said to give this to you when you got here, and this." Brad handed the clip board to Alan, and then tossed him a small white box. Opening the box, Alan found a gold Badge and two sets of large Captain bars. He swapped badges and tacked the Captain bars onto his collar. Ruben asked, "What the fuck is that C.W.P.?" "It means I'm your fucking supervisor, and get your God damn feet of the desk." He answered as he pushed Rubens feet from the desk. "Damn, give white folk a little power and goes to their head.", Ruben commented. Brad looked up at the badge, seemed a little irritated and said, "I didn't even know there was a supervisor position available, who's dick you been sucking?" "Fuck you Brad, I was put on the spot and it was take it or leave it, so yeah, I took it." Brad stood up and kicked his char away behind him and started to clinch his fists, "I bet you got a nice raise with it too, when I can't even afford to feed my kids!" At that moment Ruben grabbed Brad's shoulders with his large hands and pulled him back, "Shit, I'm going to have to call you both C.W.P., calm down man, it ain't no big thang, not mention this fucking job ain't worth it man." Brad unclenched his fists, "I'm sorry Al, just been fighting with the wife over money all week, and I just lost it." Ruben released his hold, Brad pulled his chair back to the desk, and sat back down. Alan just sighed and took a look at the the clip board that Tommy had left for him, and there was a note:

Wagner,
I need you to select two out of the five applicants who you interview today. The first one should get there about 5 and then I have them set to come in about every 15 minutes after that. Have them stay for our meeting tonight, and be sure to get their pant and shirt size for uniforms. All of them have no security experience, but we'll have to do the best we can with the holidays coming up. They'll be unarmed non-commissioned at first so be sure them the included paper work for the security board's web site so they can get tested A.S.A.P., and maybe after the holidays we can get them armed. Make sure they understand the pay is seven dollars an hour, that's not negotiable. Good luck, and I trust your judgement.

Tommy

Alan stood in front of the main building looking at his watch, it was already ten minutes after five, the next applicant would be arriving shortly, and the first interview hadn't taken place. A car pulled into the parking lot shortly followed by another. The first vehicle pulled into a parking spot in front of Alan, and the second pulled in the spot beside it. Both doors opened and the single occupants of both vehicles stepped out. One was a heavy set Hispanic woman, and the other was a slim Caucasian woman. Alan spoke, "Okay, looking for Tina." The Hispanic woman raised her hand in the air, "I'm Tina." "Sorry Tina, but your interview time has come and gone, and you are disqualified from the position." Tina frowned as she sat back down into her car, started the ignition, and sped off exclaiming, "Fuck you! Fucking flashlight cop!" Alan shook his head as he turned to the other applicant, "That must make you Susan?" "Yes, I'm Susan Keen, and that hardly looks like a flashlight on your right hip."

Alan escorted Susan to one of the open study rooms in the main building, and motioned for her to have a seat as he took a seat opposite of her. Alan began the interview, "So Susan, why are you interested in working with Apostle Security?" Susan took a deep breath, and leaned back in her chair, "Well, I've been out of work for a while as house wife, then about a month ago, my husband decides he wants to trade me in for a younger model. She's a student at the university, with a nice tight little ass, and perky tits." Alan could see he struck a nerve by the way Susan's cuticles were turning white as she was gripping the arm rests of the chair, and she relaxed her hands and started again, "But anyway, I was looking for something to get me out of the house and maybe turn my brain off for a while." Alan understood, the only time he could turn his brain off Rachel was when he was working, however, a new name was now constantly on Alan's mind. He then began to drift of and think about Lacy, if she was alright, where was she? Noticing the blank, zoned out look on Alan's face, Susan asked, "Are you alright?" Alan blinked his eyes and continued the interview, "Sorry about that, I see on your application you've first aid and C.P.R. certified from volunteering to life guard at a community pool." "Yes, that's right, I keep my certs up every year." "Well that's important to have here, a lot of times we're first responders to accidents and medical emergencies around the complex, it's only a few minutes before the fire department gets here, but seconds is all it takes to save or lose a life." Alan continued with the interview asking basic personality questions, and judging by her answers he had a very good feeling that Susan would make an excellent officer. At the end of the interview Alan made the offer, "Well, at this time I'd like to go ahead and offer you a position with us here at Apostle Security. Just fill this out with your uniform size and I'll get you set up with a duty belt." He passed her a piece of paper with a drawing of a uniform on it, with spaces to put in her sizes. "Of course I'll take it." She said as she began to fill the paper out. "Also here's the paper work for the Security Board's web site, there's a test you need to take on there and bring back the results so we can send off for your security license. We're having a meeting tonight at Seven, do you think you can make it?" "Yes, I'll be here." Susan slid the completed form across the table to Alan. "Well we're done, and I'll see you in a couple of hours." "Okay, thank you..." "Oh I'm sorry, I'm Wagner, but you can call me Alan." "Thank you, Alan." Susan returned to her car and left the complex, it was nearing 5:30, and the next interview hasn't shown up yet.

The 5:30 interview was a no show, he thumbed through the paper work, and pulled up the paper work for the interview at 6. Dustin Thompson, the handwriting on the application was hardly legible,and there were five pages of work experience stapled to it. Alan shook his head, and thought, this should be a quick disqualification. A beat up old car pulled into the parking lot, with an older woman driving, and the passenger stepped out, he was a short, grungy looking guy wearing glasses and baggie jeans with a dress shirt, and a tie terribly tied and crooked. He waived at the car and said, "Thanks, Mom." Alan couldn't believe the fuck up that was walking his way, "Hi, I'm Dustin." And he reached to out to shake Alan's hand. Alan examined the dirty hand that was extended towards him, and thought twice before reaching for it, "I'm Wagner, come with me Mr. Thompson." Alan lead Dustin into the same study room in the main building where he interviewed Susan. The interview began with the same question even though Alan had no desire to hire Dustin, he had to remain fair, and Dustin answered, "Well, I've had a lot of jobs, but this is a field I've always been interested in and I figured I'd give it a shot." Alan nodded, and then continued to question Dustin. His answers were better than Alan had expected, but still wasn't thrilled about offering him a position. He decided to let it ride on the last interview. "Well I have one more interview to go, but would you mind waiting across the hall until I meet with him?" Dustin shrugged his shoulders at the request and said, "Why not, I've got nothing better to do." Alan showed Dustin across the hall to the big screen theater, turned on the television and gave the remote to Dustin, "This should just take a few minutes."

As Alan walked out of the theater he could see through the window that his final interview had shown up early, it was a large muscular man, with a crew cut, and wearing an Army shirt with jeans. Alan said under his breath, "Well Dust Ball, looks like your chances went from slim to none." He walked out of the double glass doors of the main building to greet the applicant. He extended his hand to the man and said, "Joe? I'm Alan, how are you today?" The man did not reach out to accept Alan's hand shake. He said, "Listen, I just showed up this because the unemployment office sent me to this interview to keep my money coming. I have no desire to be a rent a cop, I have a violent temper, and a meth addiction." Alan looked at the man puzzled and said, "Well, okay, thanks for your time sir." The man turned, got back into his vehicle, and drove away. Alan pulled the uniform size form and Security Board information from the clip board, and returned to the theater. He opened the door with his key card, and found Dustin in a laughing fit from watching cartoon network, "Good news, you're hired, fill this out, go take care of this stuff on the Internet, and be back here in an hour." He handed the paper work to Dustin, who answered with, "Cool."

It was now about time to start the meeting, Alan and Tommy had set the theater with a few folding chairs near the fire place in the rear of the room, and so far Tess and Susan were the only ones there. Tommy approached Tess and asked, "Why don't you go over to the gate house and tell the twins we're ready to get started." Tess walked out as Dustin was trying to get in, "Can I help you?" She asked. Alan looked up, "It's okay Tess, he's one of the newbies." Tess stepped aside to allow Dustin to pass then gave Alan a What the Fuck? face, and Alan just shook his head in response. Dustin handed Alan a crumpled piece of paper, which was his uniform paper, "I tried to get online to do that security stuff, but I have shitty dial up and wasn't able to use the site without getting kicked off." Tommy took the form from Alan and stepped into the conversation, "Well, son, welcome aboard, I'm sure after the meeting Wagner can take you over to the high speed computer lab and get you taken care of." Alan nodded his head in agreement even though he didn't want to have to spend anymore time with Dustin than he had to. There was a knock at the door, and Alan turned to see Lacy through the glass door holding three large pizzas. He quickly went to the door to and opened it, "Lacy, how are you, I've been worried about you all day. I was hoping to see you when I got here but the other girl said you had class." "Yeah, I had to go meet with one of my profs, but I was in this morning and saw in an e-mail that you guys had this room reserved for a meeting. I picked up a few pizzas for you, just to thank you again." Alan took the pizzas from Lacy and put them on a table in the center of the room. Dustin, who overheard the pizzas were for them, had already opened the top box and grabbed two slices. Alan pulled Lacy to the side as Tess returned with Ruben and Brad. Lacy had her back to the trio as they arrive, but Alan could see Ruben and Brad gawking at her. Brad mouthed the words, "God Damn, Look at that ass." As Ruben made groping gestures with his hands. Alan tried to hide the smirk on his face from watching those two clowns, but Lacy caught the half smile, "What is it?" She looked over her shoulder and caught Ruben still making the groping gesture. She whispered, "God, those jerks." Alan started again, "So are you okay today? How's your apartment." "Yes, I'm fine, and the new door is up, with an entirely new lock that not even the master keys will open, only the one in my pocket." "That's good, I'll stop by and check on you tonight before it gets too late." Lacy smiled at Alan's statement, and asked, "So, is going to be a profession or personal visit?" "Always professional, Miss Coulter." Alan answered with a wink. Lacy had turned to walk away, then turned back, "I don't want to leave you without a hug." She wrapped her arms around Alan, and whispered into his ear, "Thank you for making me feel so safe." She kissed him on the cheek again, then started to blush ans she realized all eyes in the room were on them, and walked out the door. As soon as the door latched, Brad and Ruben started started to applaud, "Way to go C.W.P.!" Ruben shouted. Tommy then stepped up to the front of the room and cut them off, "Alright you two, knock it off, it's time to get serious."

Tommy began the meeting, "First off we have two new faces, Susan Keen and Dustin Thompson have joined the company, so I want you all to welcome them to the family, and I've promoted Wagner to site site supervisor." Tess started clapping, but her clapping slowed then stopped as she was the only one in the group. Tommy started again, "As far as this complex goes there's going to be a few changes going on in the next few weeks. First there's going to be a camera system installed to help monitor things, it's going to be recorded daily, but at night I'm going to want someone here watching them. When they're installed we may hire more staff to help keep an eye on them for us." Alan rolled his eyes, because of the wonderful crop he had to choose from this time around. Tommy continued, "And someone should be coming next week to finally fix that gate. If we can get that booger working then there will be no reason to have a guard constantly at the gate house screening people. As far as training, I want to keep you guys on twelves for a week, Susan has expressed she wants to work days, and Dustin nights so I'll need Miss keen to show up tomorrow at 7 A.M. and Mr. Thompson at 7 P.M." This just keeps getting better, Alan thought to himself. "One more thing," Tommy added, "This weekend is parents weekend at the college so the parking lot is going to be full of guests, the tow trucks are going to be on the prowl for any cars not in the visitor section without a permit, so be sure when they run out of parking spaces to direct them to park on the street in front of the complex, and if they get towed, just give them one of the wrecker company's cards. Do not, do not, tell anyone it's okay to park anywhere else other than the visitor spaces or the street without a permit, I'm not paying to get any one's car released, and if you're on patrol and happen to notice someone parking where they shouldn't, save yourself a head ache and tell them to move it. Ladies and gentlemen that's all I have for you, Sanchez and Stokes I need to see you before you go, Tess set Miss Keen up with a duty belt, and Wagner take Thompson to the computer lab and help him with the security site." Alan nodded, then walked Dustin out of the room to the computer lab. Tess led Susan out of the main building and they made their way to the gate house.

Ruben and Brad approached Tommy who was leaning onto the back of a couch, both looking at him confused, Tommy cleared his throat, "I've already ruled out Tess and Wagner, so which one of you can tell me about a missing key card?" Both Brad and Ruben looked at each other waiting for the other to speak. Tommy's tone changed, "I'm only going to ask one more time. What happened to the other key card?" Ruben started, "One of the maintenance guys got it from us yesterday." Tommy then said, "Well then, as soon as you get here in the morning, come wake me up, and we're going to pay this maintenance man a little visit." Ruben nodded, Brad hesitated, then nodded too. Tommy left the theater and walked towards the computer lab, as soon as the door to the lab was closed behind Tommy, Brad turned to Ruben and said, "What the fuck are you talking about Rube? Where they hell was I when this maintenance guy was there?" "Yeah man, you were in the shitter, and I just forgot to to tell you. I thought he'd bring it back like they always do." After saying that Ruben walked out of the building, as Brad watched him with a bit of distrust in his eyes, and then followed him out.

A few hours had passed since the meeting ended, Alan and Tommy helped Dustin with his security test, and both Dustin and Susan were issued a temporary uniform and duty belt. It was now back to just Tess and Alan for the remainder of the night. Alan stood up out of his chair, "I think I'm going go a patrol." He reached for one of the hand held radios from the charger on the desk, and on his way out Tess said, "Just remember there's other apartments in this complex besides building two." Alan rolled his eyes as he walked out of the building, yet she was right, and the first place he went to was building two. All of the crime scene tape had been removed and he walked up to Lacy's door, and stood in front of it debating weather to knock or not. Then door slowly opened, Lacy was standing in front of him in a silk and lace red teddy and said, "Hey, I was watching for you. Why don't you come inside?" Alan took a step forward, then stopped, as much as he wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to do it, "Lacy, trust me, I want to, God knows I want to, but I just can't right now. I'm on duty, and that guy that attacked you last night is still out there. Maybe, we can get together in the next couple of days if I can get some time off?" "I understand, I just got caught up in the moment, and wanted to surprise you. At least take this with you." She said as she flung her arms around Alan and gave him a long, passionate, deep kiss. Alan closed his eyes, he could feel every moment of her kiss, from her soft thin lips pressed against his, to her warm, gentle tongue massaging his own, and he started to breathe heavy. Lacy pulled away slowly, "Good night, Alan, be safe." She closed the door and Alan stood there without moving a muscle and said quietly, "Damn, that was probably a stupid move on my part." Lacy walked through her apartment and into her bedroom, she took a seat on her bed, sighed, opened her night stand drawer, and pulled out a large purple vibrator. "Looks like it's me and you tonight mister."

Alan continued on his foot patrol of the complex, as he got to the rear of the complex, he could hear shouting from the basket ball court. He approached the corner of the building he was near slowly, and peeked around the corner to where he could get a full view of the court. He could see two tall Caucasian boys playing one on one basket ball, and a third was sitting on the corner of the court with his arm around a young girl, and they appeared to be smoking something. As the wind shifted in his direction he could clearly smell the scent of the marijuana joint the couple were sharing. He quietly strolled from his position on the corner of the building to standing right beside the couple who were giggling intoxicated. Alan cleared his throat, the couple looked up, and the male flicked the joint away, stood up and started to beg, "Oh man, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." At this time the two guys playing basket ball had stopped and walked to where everyone else was now standing. Alan held up his hand, "Calm down. I don't care about the weed, but it's too late to be here making all the noise on the court. Someone complains, they have a bad day, I have a bad day, and then you have a bad day. Take it inside." One of the other men spoke up, "I'm sorry officer, I didn't know it was so late." And the other three also apologized, as they walked off the court and into an apartment. Take it inside, could be Alan's catch phrase as many times as he's used it, from kids in the pool after hours to people getting drunk and rowdy on their balconies, and this case was an easy one because nine times out of ten when Alan has to use that line he gets static from the tenants.

Alan returned to the gate house to find Tess reading a cooking magazine, cooking was one her favorite hobbies, and often she would make something creative for them to try for their dinner. He said, "Hi honey, I'm home. Any calls or messages?" Tess giggled at Alan's entrance, "No dear, only a noise complaint at the basket ball court but the caller said you were out there as soon as she called." "Good deal." Alan said as he sat in the chair beside Tess. He picked up a Galls catalog from the desk and started to thumb through it. Tess turned to Alan, "So, boss man, how about a raise?" Alan chuckled, "I'm not that much in charge." The phone started to ring, Alan and Tess looked at each other, and Tess Reached for it, "Security... Yes sir... Yes sir... An officer will be out there shortly." Tess put the phone back on the receiver, "A guy in 604 says he thinks someone stole a gun out of his truck." Alan slapped his fore head, "These damn students are going to be the death of me. Call Junction City P.D., and have them send and officer out to 604 to meet with the complainant. I'll head over there and see what's going on." Alan walked out of the gate house, and this time he decided to take the golf cart.

He arrived at the parking lot to find a young man digging through a truck with two young girls standing behind him, he pulled his flash light, and shined it on the man, who said, "Hello officer, I called it in." Alan asked, "And do you live hear Mr...?" "Andrews, No sir, this is my girlfriend's place." "Why don't you jump down out of there and not touch anything until the cops get here." And as if on cue a patrol car pulled up behind him, Officer Jameson stepped out, and joined the group. "Wagner, am I going to have to set up a patrol through this complex to lower the crime rate?" Jameson said sarcastically, then added, "Nice Captain bars by the way, what's that mean in the security guard world?" Alan then answered irritated by Jameson's tone, "Thanks, I'm the site supervisor now." Jameson then turned his attention to Andrews and the two young women, "So what do we have here?" Andrews spoke up, "Well I left my truck here for a couple of days and we just got back into town, and I noticed my passenger door wasn't closed all the way." Jameson began to inspect the passenger door, "Was it locked?" "I can't remember, but I opened it and checked under the seat where I kept my .38 revolver and it's gone." Jameson walked back to his patrol car, opened the trunk, and began to sort through the evidence collection kit. One of the girls watching commented, "Man, he looks really pissed off." Alan turned to her and said, "Well, there's possibly another gun on the streets in the hands of someone who probably wasn't supposed to have one." Jameson returned to the truck and began to dust it for prints, then asked, "Do you have a serial number for that weapon?" Andrews answered, "Yeah but it's back at my apartment." Jameson said, "Well the good news is there's a ton of prints on this door, so we may be able to get a hit, If I were you I'd check the pawn shops in the next few days because most of the time that's where they all end up." Jameson, secured the evidence, and handed Andrews a business card with the case number on it, "Now when you get that serial number, call here, and refer to this case number with your information." "Thank you, sir." Andrews said as he took the card from Jameson and began to secure his truck. Jameson looked over at the security golf cart, "So, wanna race back?" Both Alan and Jameson chuckled. "Yeah I hate that damn thing, I mostly get around here on foot." "Well, Wagner, I hope tomorrow night's not three in a row, stay safe.", Jameson said as he sat in his patrol car, and drove off towards the front gate.

Alan climbed back into the golf cart, and followed Jameson to the gate. Jameson stopped at the gate house and parked his car, Alan pulled the golf cart back into it's parking spot, and Jameson called him over to his patrol car. Alan walked up to the window and knelt down to where he was eye level with Jameson, "What's up?" "Listen, Wagner, I know you're better than this place, and I think you'd be an awesome cop, I was going to run out here tonight anyway to give you this." He handed Alan a brochure for the Junction City Police Academy, and Jameson added, "I talked it over with the Sarge last night, and he told me to be sure and bring this to you." "I appreciate the gesture, Jameson, but it's not that I don't want to, it's that legally I can't, I've got a weapons charge from eight years ago, I'm not even eligible for another two years unless they change the state laws, or I get a pardon from the governor. I don't really see either of those happening." "Damn, that sucks, what was the weapon's charge?" "Don't laugh, but it was Halloween the year I turned eighteen, I was dressed as a police officer. I had gone to a party, it got out of hand, the cops show up, see my uniform, and arrest me for impersonating a public official." "You have to be kidding me, on Halloween, what happened did you have a beef with the cop?" "No, I'm not kidding, and I never met the officer before in my life. Maybe he didn't like the fact I looked better in uniform than he did?" They both laughed and Jameson asked, "Why don't you scribble down your driver's license number and date of birth for me." Alan thought, it couldn't hurt to try. So he pulled the note pad from his breast pocket and scribbled down the numbers Jameson had requested. Jameson folded the paper up and put it his pocket, "I'll talk to the Sarge. In the mean time, try and keep this place out of trouble. It's been hard enough trying to keep last night's incident out of the news." He then started the patrol car and pulled off onto the street. Alan had always wanted to be a police officer, and had felt this was as close as it was going to be to becoming possible.

It was now morning, Ruben and Brad were in early, and Tess had already left. Tommy walked into the gate house a few minutes before seven, followed by Susan, "Wagner, will you take Miss Keen around the complex and show her the ropes? I'm taking these two with me." Alan nodded in agreement with Tommy. Ruben and Brad followed Tommy into the main building where the maintenance office is located. As they walked in Ruben started speaking to one of the Hispanic maintenance workers in Spanish, very rapidly, then turned to Tommy and Said, "That's him. He doesn't speak English so I'll have to translate." Ruben and the maintenance worker continued dialogue in Spanish. Tommy said, "Ask him why he needed the card, and where is it now?" Ruben again spoke in Spanish and the worker responded in Spanish. "He said he needed for one of the buildings they're painting in the back, and he gave it to Mr. Simmons when he was done." Tommy said, "Christ, that's all I need is Simmons knowing we're handing out our master card keys. I've got to go back to Austin, Sanchez, you handed out that card. You go to Simmons and get it back." Ruben nodded, "Yes sir." They walked out of the building, Alan was giving a tour of the main building to Susan, Tommy continued to his car in the parking lot, and Brad said, "I think, I'm going to go check out the new chick with Al." Ruben rubbed his hands together, "Going after some of that M.I.L.F. stuff?" Brad smiled and shook his head, as Ruben turned to go back to the gate house, Brads face quickly changed from a smile to a very serious look as he walked to catch up with Alan.

Alan was showing Susan the computer lab when Brad tapped him on his shoulder, "Hey Al, can I get a word with you?" "What's up Brad?" He looked over at Susan and said, "Not here." Alan excused himself from Susan as they walked into one of the study rooms and closed the door. Brad walked over to the blinds to make sure Ruben was still in the gate house, then started, "Listen Al, there's some shit not adding up with Ruben and that missing key card. First last night he said some maintenance guy came to pick it up while I was in the can, and none of these lazy fools up in here would have got in and out of that gate house in the time it takes me to take a piss. Then, this morning when we met with this maintenance man, I don't speak much Spanish, but my wife's Mexican, so I know enough that they weren't talking about what Rube was translating." "So what are you saying? Rube's the rapist?" "I just don't know what the fuck's going on, we worked the night the first rape took place at Campus View Villas, and he wasn't out of my sight all night." "Well I'm with you on the card key, there's more to it, because every one of those maintenance men know that if they need a new card just to go to the leasing office." "Yeah, last night Rube was talking about they always use it, and I was giving him the biggest what the fuck are you talking about look. He's my home boy and all, but if he's doing some shady shit..." "I don't know, Brad, but keep an ear out and an eye open, if you catch anything else let me know." Brad opened the door to the study room and Ruben was standing in front of him, "What's up, you guys having a meeting or some shit?" Brad thinking quick answered, "Naw, I was just going to see if Al could talk to Tommy for me about getting a payday advance. Since he's all tight with him now and all." Ruben answered, "Pst, you C.W.P.'s and your money problems." Alan continued the tour with Susan as Brand and Ruben returned to the gate house.

Alan returned to his apartment, exhausted again, and his mind wondering on the discoveries that Brad had made. He started his morning routine of mixing a drink, unloading his gun, and sitting in front of Fox news. He reached into his wallet and pulled out Sergeant Harvey's card, debating on if he should call him with this new found information about the card key or not, but then slid the card back into his wallet. "Damn it, Rube." He said to himself. At that moment his cell phone began to ring. He looked on the screen and it was Rachel. "Well howdy fucking do.", He said as he guzzled his Jack and Coke down, then answered, "Well, hello stranger." "Hi baby, what are you doing tonight." Rachel said in a cheerful voice. "Working." he answered. "That's too bad, I was thinking maybe I could come by for a little while." Alan thought to himself, this woman hasn't seen me in a month, and now all of the sudden wants a booty call? "No Rachel, I don't think that would be a good idea. In fact, I don't think you should call me anymore either." Rachel huffed, then answered, "Well fine, just remember when you're jacking off tonight, you could have had some of this golden pussy." "Baby, that pussy ain't even worth another minute on my phone bill." He hung up the phone and tossed it on the other end of his futon. It began to ring again, yet, Alan just stood up, walked into his bedroom, and slid between his sheets.

Chapter 2

It was now 6 P.M., Lacy was locking the leasing offices in the main building of Autumn Grove apartments, she had worked as a leasing agent for the complex for free rent during the day since her classes at the community college were in the evenings, and this was not an uncommon arrangement for college students and apartment complexes in Junction City. She had returned to the window one last time, as she had paced between her office and the front window, watching the gate house, looking for Alan's red Silverado to return. Unfortunately only the two jerks are still there, she always felt uncomfortable dealing with Ruben and Brad, they were very impolite, and she could always feel them undressing her with their eyes. One night while they were working she had accidentally locked herself out of her apartment, which was a regular problem because the entire complex used a card key system like most hotels, mostly the cards would malfunction and cause the tenant to be locked out, and she had to have one of them unlock her door for her. She felt so uncomfortable dealing with them that she made three extra key cards the next day at work. She had seen Alan a few times around the complex, but last night was the first time she had ever spoken with him. He made her feel safe, she was sure the other guards had been just as well trained, but something about Alan had really caught her attention and she couldn't wait to see him again.

She walked out the side entrance of the building, glanced over at the gate house, and Brad and Ruben were watching her. She walked towards building two, she could feel their eyes watching her ass with each step she took, and it felt like the building wasn't getting any closer. There was a sound of an engine coming up behind her, she saw a red fender out of the corner of her eye, and looked over to see Alan driving up beside her, rolling down his passenger window, "Hey there Miss Coulter, I didn't hear back from you last night, so I trust you didn't have anymore problems." "Oh no, he was as quiet as a church mouse, and thanks again for coming out." "Can I give you a ride to your apartment?" Even though it was a silly request considering now they were only about fifty yards away, Lacy opened the door, and stepped inside Alan's truck. "I know it's close, but those two co-workers of yours were making me feel uncomfortable." "Yeah they have that effect on women, but they're really okay guys when you get to know them." "Well, trust me, I have no intention to get to know them." They both chuckled as Alan pulled his truck into a parking spot in front of building two. Lacy opened the passenger door, looked back and said, "So I guess this means you're working tonight?" "Naa, I just like to drive around town in this uniform, It makes me feel important, and I look dead sexy." She laughed, "You're funny guy, but you're right about the sexy part." Alan was crimson red red from blushing at Lacy's comment, watched her as she fumbled through her purse to get her card key, and swiped it multiple times before the door lock would release. She poked her head out of her front door to wave at Alan one last time as he was backing out.

Alan parked his truck, walked into the gate house and both Ruben and Brad stood up and started clapping, Ruben put his hand on Alan's shoulder and said, "Damn, C.W.P. got some game." Brad then added, "Yeah, that's the finest bitch up in here. I wouldn't mind those sloppy seconds when you're done, bro." Alan just shook his head, "Yeah, she's pretty nice, but girls like that don't go for guys like me." Brad slapped his fore head, "Balls man, grow some fucking balls." Ruben slid a stack the rapist sketch across the table towards Alan, "C.W.P., can you put these up tonight, we were suppose to but got busy." Alan picked them up then dropped them back on the table, "Yeah right, I know better than that, but don't worry, it's already just like everywhere else, the night shift has to pick up the slack from the day shift." "Well it's be a long fucking day, I wasn't expecting to be up here all damn day, let's roll Rube.", Brad said as he gathered his things. "Catch you in the A.M., C.W.P." Ruben said as he closed the door behind them.

It was now several hours later into the evening, just after midnight, and Lacy had just switched her television off and made her way to her bathroom. She had lounged around her apartment after work, and hadn't really gotten comfortable for the night. She walked into her bedroom , and stood at the mirror over her dresser as she started to unbutton her blouse. Then she heard a tapping at her bedroom window, the noise startled her, and she stood as still as a statue not even removing her hands from the button she was working loose. The room was dead silent now, Lacy started to shake it of to imagination or maybe an animal, she continued to unbutton her shirt, sliding it off over her shoulders, and then she heard a noise coming from the front door. The noise was a familiar sound, and it was the sound of the card reader making the access denied beep. Slowly she walked out of her bedroom into the living room taking soft steps as not to make any noise, she stared at the door, then hear the access granted beep, and the door handle began to turn. She then ran to the front door as it began to open slamming it shut, she then turned the dead bolt lock, turned and ran towards the bathroom. She swooped up her cellular phone from the coffee table as she ran into the bathroom, locked the door, and sat the the floor pressing the full weight of her body against the door. She dialed 9-1-1, "9-1-1, what is your emergency?" "Yeah I live at Autumn Grove apartments number 201 and I think someones trying to break into my apartment." "Okay ma'am we'll have an officer in route, please stay on the phone with me until they arrive." Lacy then heard a crash from the living room, "Oh my God, I think he's in my apartment." Thinking the hell with the police I need My security guard. She hung up on the 9-1-1 operator and called the security number, there was a knock on the bathroom door, and the door knob began to jiggle. Tess answered, "Security." "Yes this is Lacy in 201 there's someone in my apartment trying to get me! I'm locked in the bathroom please hurry!"

Alan could hear every word Lacy screamed over the phone loud and clear, he leaped out his chair flung the door open, and ran as fast as he could towards building two as Tess dialed 9-1-1. As soon as he got to the breezeway of building two he could see Lacy's door had been forced open. He slowly pulled his Colt from his holster, flipped the safety off, and slowly started to walk into the apartment while attempting to calm his heavy breathing from the sprint he just made. Slowly getting closer to the bathroom he could hear Lacy sobbing, but didn't say anything yet. He first checked the living room, living room closet, kitchen, utility closet, bedroom then bedroom closet, and after the rest of the apartment he called into Lacy, "Miss Coulter, it's Alan with Apostle Security, are you okay in there? The rest of your apartment appears to be clear and safe." He could hear the lock on the bathroom door click as Lacy opened the door. She grabbed a shirt hanging on the back of the bathroom door, slid it on, then ran to Alan and wrapped her arms around him, "Oh my God, I was so scared, thank you, thank you thank you!", She held him tighter and began to bawl into his shoulder. They could hear sirens in the distance start to get closer. Two Junction City police cruisers pulled up in front of building two and all four officers occupying both vehicles ran into Lacy's apartment with their side arms drawn.

"It's clear." Alan stated. One of the officers holstered his weapon, and Alan who was holding his at his side as Lacy held him tight holstered his as Lacy finally let go and took a step back. Tommy was now walking through the front door of the apartment, sleepy eyed, and still adjusting his uniform. The police officer began to speak, "Are you okay ma'am? I'm Sergent Harvey." Lacy replied, "Yes I'm okay he wasn't able to get to me." "Did you get a look at him?" "No, but I think he had a card key I could hear the lock beeping while he was trying to get in." One of the other officers starts to visually examining the door locking system, as the Sergent warns, "Be sure not to touch anything Jameson, we don't need to contaminate the crime scene, if everyone can make their way outside, Williams, interview the wittiness, and you two guards pair up with Jameson and myself and we'll sweep the complex. Myers I want you with that guard at the front gate don't let anyone in or out. You two got names?" "I'm Anderson, I own the security company and this is Wagner, my best man." The Sergent looked Alan up and down, "Okay you're with me and Wagner you're with Jameson, we'll check the east side of the complex, you check the west, we'll meet at the back gate, if you find anything, I mean anything pick up that radio, and for God's sake don't touch anything." "You got it Sarge." Jameson confirmed. Myers sped off in one of the patrol cars towards the front gate as Williams pulled a brief case out of the other cruiser and began to interrogate Lacy over the events that just transpired.

Jameson was a tall, skinny officer with very pale skin, freckles, and short dark red hair. He even to appeared to look a few years younger than Alan. They began to walk the fence line on the west side of the complex, and Jameson asked, "So, you look like you'd make a good officer. Why are you running around with this rag tag operation?" "It's a long story." Alan left it at that as they continued searching. They had walked up on a section of fence that changed from the large iron fence that lined the front of the complex to the chain linked fence that protected the rear, and noticed the fencing was cut and rolled back, which caused about a four foot high three foot wide opening. Jameson spoke into his hand held radio, "14-42 to 14-04, I think we have something over here where there the fence changes." "10-4, 14-42, we'll be en route to your location."

A few moments later Tommy and Sergent Harvey walked around the corner to join Alan and Jameson, they were followed by a police cruiser, it was Williams, he parked and popped the trunk. Sergent Harvey examined the break in the fence, Williams joined the group with a large box he had retrieved from the trunk of the car. Alan asked, "Aren't you going to call C.S.I.?" Sergent Harvey put his hand on Alan's shoulder, "Son, this ain't T.V., in the real world it's part of the investigating officer's job to handle the evidence gathering and not the guys in lab coats." Williams pulled the tweezers from the crime scene investigation kit that he had pulled from the trunk, "Sarge, I found something." The group gathered around as Williams pulled a piece of material off the lower section of the fence with the tweezers, it was a dark blue silk like material, and he placed the fabric in a plastic container. "Could be from jogging pants, that would match the rape suspect's attire." Jameson commented. "Yeah, if the suspect hasn't changed his clothes or has the urge to stop off from his nightly run to rape the nearest coed.", Sergent Harvey added. "14-30 to 14-04." The officer's radios crackled, the Sergent turned his head, then tilted his radio's shoulder microphone towards his mouth, "Go for radio traffic for 14-04." "Sarge, are we clear to let these people in yet? They're backed up into the street." Sergent Harvey shook his head, "Go ahead 14-30, get down to the crime scene, tape it off and I'll have 14-36 wrap up the investigation." "10-4.", Myers answered. Sergent Harvey turned to Jameson, "Okay, let's mount up and take this cruiser back to the station so I can start my paper work, Williams, meet Myers over at the crime scene, dust those doors for prints on that door, and if anything else looks out of place tag it and bag it. Anderson, Wagner thanks for your help, if you find anything else or have another incident here's my direct line.", and he handed them both cards with his name, rank and telephone number printed on them.

Tommy and Alan walked towards the gate house, dodging the flood of traffic from the cars that were detained on both sides of the front gate as they searched for the break in suspect, and ignoring everyone who stopped to ask what what going on. They just motioned to the cars to move along until the drive way was clear of traffic. Alan opened the door to the gate house followed by Tommy, Tess was working on her report of the night's incident, and Lacy was seated beside her. Lacy looked up and sighed in relief as Alan walked in and said, "I can't believe this happened to me." Tommy knelt down beside her and pulled a card key out of his pocket, "You're going to be alright, Miss, take this key and stay in in 804, it's the furnished show model where I've been staying. I'm going to have Alan stay outside your door for the rest of the night." Lacy took the key card from Tommy's hand, "Thank you, I'm so glad you were here, I think he would have got into the bathroom if I waited for the police." Lacy began to sob again. Tommy put his arms around Lacy, he had three daughters of his own, and his fatherly instinct took over to comfort her. Tommy eased Lacy out of the chair she was sitting in and walked her over to Alan. She then stood on her own and said, "I'm okay, I'm sorry." Alan took her hand and started to lead her to his truck. Tommy turned to Tess, "She said who ever broke down her door first tried to unlock it with a card key, I'm going to need you to stick around and help me inventory every master card key from maintenance to management." "There will be no need to, Tommy.", Tess answered as she held up the security master key ring which normally held two card keys was now only holding one.

Alan pulled his truck into a parking spot just outside the breeze way of building eight, Lacy opened the door and walked towards 804, Alan pushed the seat forward reaching behind the seat and pulling out a nickel plated, six shot, Mossberg shotgun, and a box of shells. He slid six shots down the tube, and then pumped a shell into the chamber. "I'll stay at your door all night, Lacy, don't worry, I'll keep you safe." Lacy opened the door to 804, and instantly had a flash back to her own apartment door being kicked in while she was screaming in terror. Her eyes began to tear up again, "Alan, would you please come inside? I'd feel better if you were in here with me." It was normally against policy for the guards to enter an apartment unless it was an emergency, however, Alan was more than certain that tonight constitutes an emergency. He followed Lacy into the apartment, and took a seat on the couch leaning his shot gun against the wall beside him. Lacy took a seat on the couch beside him, "So, do you get any hazard pay for this?" Alan chuckled at her question, "Nope, the same old $8.50 an hour just as any other night." "Damn, that sucks considering what you do and have to put up with. I've seen how these students treat you guys." "Yeah, but it pays the bills, barely, but it pays the bills." Lacy curled up on the couch resting her head on the armrest, the time was nearing 3 A.M., and she was dead tired between the long work day and the exhaustion from crying. She began to drift off to sleep, knowing Alan was right beside her for the rest of the night made her feel the safest she's felt her entire life, and then she started to dream.

She dreamed she was back in her own apartment, her door swings open, and the wind is blowing then lightning flashes, and she sees the outline of a man. Not any man, but the man who's ugly sketch had been plastered all over the the local T.V., news papers, and bulletin boards. He's looking right at her, she tries to run but can't move. She can't move and she's completely naked, and all of the sudden now laying in her bed. Lightning flashes again, she can hear the wind roaring and whipping around the building, and now he's in her bedroom door way. She tries to scream but can't make a sound. Again, the lightning flashes and now the beast is in front of her face, staring her eye to eye, it feels so real that she can feel the pressure of his body on top of her, and she can't breathe. Staring into his eyes all she could see was pitch black, no colored iris, no white sclera, just a black abyss as if the beast had no soul. Then in a deep, almost demonic voice it spoke, "Kiss me." The figure leaned forward towards Lacy's face, she snapped awake and sat strait up. Alan was standing in the window watching the sun rise with his shot gun resiting on his shoulder, startled by Lacy's sudden movement he turned to her, "Bad dream?" She nodded as she wiped a tear from her eye, "Yeah, talk about a life changing moment." Alan returned to the couch beside Lacy, again resting his shot gun against the wall, "I can't tell you it's going to be better, or you're not going to be living in fear forever, but what I can tell you is I promise I will never let anything happen to you." He then handed her cell phone to her, "I programmed myself in, if you are ever in trouble, or just don't want to be alone, call me, anytime day or night, and I will be here." Lacy grinned at the kind gesture, took her phone, opened her contacts, and found Alan at the top of the list. "Thank you, I do appreciate everything you've done for me. Do you think it's safe to back to my apartment yet?" "I don't know, let's take a little stroll, and see what's up."

Alan parked his truck just off the drive way near building two, there was yellow crime scene tape streamed between the corner of the breeze way and the stairs leading to the upper apartments, but they could see maintenance men working to repair the broken door as Greg Simmons, the Complex owner, supervised. The two ducked under the police tape and joined Simmons on the other side, who turned to them and said, "Ahh Lacy, I trust you're alright." Lacy nodded and asked, "Do you think it would be alright if I got a few of my things?" Simmons answered, "Yes dear, of course the police have released this scene a couple of hours ago and by this afternoon you should have a new door up better than new." Lacy smiled at Simmons and walked past the two maintenance men changing the door locking mechanism. Simmons leaned towards Alan and whispered, "I'm still trying to fill this place with residents, if anyone from the press contacts you the answer is "No Comment", and I will have a chat with Lacy about it at the office." Then added sarcastically, "We don't want to give anyone the impression that our security isn't up to par." Simmons then turned and walked towards the main building, Alan just clamped his jaw down and ground his teeth so he wouldn't say anything to endanger his job, but Simmons had a point. This man did get past security, managed to break into a building not even a football's field length from the security office, and he didn't have a clue of anything until it was almost too late. At this time Lacy had returned with an outfit folded across her arm, with what appeared to be under garments in her hand, tucked under the folded clothes, and body soap and shampoo in her opposite hand. "I think I'm going to drive back to building eight, take a shower and head to work. Thank you Alan for last night, I have never felt more safe in my life than I did with you last night." She then leaned up and gave Alan a small kiss on the cheek. Alan tried to keep from smiling but turned red from blushing.

Alan waved at Lacy as she drove off into the complex, then he could hear the whine of the electric motor from the security golf cart, and it came around the corner of the building with Ruben on it. Ruben pulled into a parking space quickly and slammed on the breaks locking up the tires, and sliding the cart into the space. There was nothing to be alarmed about, however, because this was the way Ruben always drove the golf cart, and then Ruben asked, "Yo C.W.P., what happened last night?" Alan just shook his head and said, "No Comment." "Damn dude, why you gotta be like that? Anyways, Tommy said to call his cell, and be sure to write a detailed report of last night before you leave the property." The one thing any officer hates is when you put paper work in their life. Alan climbed into the golf cart next to Ruben and said, "Home, James." Ruben smirked then answered, "Yessa Massa." He then sped the little golf cart up the hill from building two, through the front gate, and into the parking spot next to the gate house where the security golf cart was kept. Brad was sitting at the desk doodling when the two walked in and asked, "What the fuck happened last night, dude? No one's saying shit, Tess hauled balls out of here without saying a word, and the cops where pulling out when we got here." Alan looked around, "There was a break in last night and they think it might be that same guy from Campus View Villas." Brad just shook his head and Ruben said, "Damn, that's some crazy shit." Alan sat down beside Brad and started filling out his incident report.

On the way home Alan remembered that Ruben told him to call Tommy's cell phone number. He dialed the number from his contacts and Tommy picked up, "Hey Tommy, It's Wagner, Rube said you needed me to call you." "Yeah, a couple of things," Alan could tell he just woke Tommy up from the groggy tone in his voice, "The first thing is, did you get your report written and dropped into the lock box." "Yes sir, I did." "Okay second thing is we're going to have another meeting tonight when you and Tess get in, and good job last night on the response to that incident and taking care of Miss Coulter." "Thank you sir." "And there is another thing, I'm hiring two more guards and will need a Supervisor there full time. The job is yours if you want it, there's a small bump in pay, but remember we're a small company." Alan thought, Yeah with bosses who ride around in brand new Crystler sedans. "Thank you sir, I'll let you know." "Well it's more like a take it or leave it." "In that case I'll take it." "Good because I'm going to need you down there early tonight, around five-ish to interview a few candidates." Alan then though, What the fuck did I just get myself into, I've never interviewed anyone before, and I'm sure they're going to be a bunch of flunkies. "Thank you sir, I'll see you tonight." "Alright, Wagner, You get you some sleep now." Alan ended the call as he pulled into his own apartment complex, It was now nearing 10A.M., and way past his bed time. No Jack this morning just a quick strip down as he dove into his soft, comfortable, sheets, and was snoring before he even got settled onto his pillow.

Chapter 1

The alarm clock starts buzzing, Alan rolls over to slap the snooze button at the top of the clock as he can make out the bright, fuzzy LCD numbers of 11:00 P.M., only an hour until his shift starts, and he reaches for his cellular phone. No calls, no voice mails, "Damn it Rachel, what the hell is going on in that head of yours?", He thinks to himself as he eases out of bed and makes his way to the bathroom of his one bedroom apartment. Alan is of average build, dark brown hair, however it's so thin he's almost balding, light blue eyes, and has what some refer to as a baby face. Starting his before work routine by brushing his teeth, Alan began remembering the day he met Rachel by chance, picking up a few necessities from the local 24 hour super center in the middle of the night about a month ago to avoid the crowds, they were just about the only two people in the store, and kept bumping into each other on every isle of the store. Somewhere between the tortilla chips and the Salsa Alan was able to force himself to ask, "So, come here often?" Rachel answered with a smile and a wink, for the next two hours they carried on a conversation about nothing at all in the center of the empty super market, and Alan felt like he was in heaven. Alan was recently divorced, Rachel was the first woman he had even attempted to flirt with since his divorce was final six months ago, but between the coincidence of them being there in the middle of the night, her beautiful red hair, cute freckled face, and goddess like body it didn't hurt to take a chance with a lame line. Even if he struck out it's not like the overnight stock boy is going to say anything.



Alan didn't strike out though, or so he thought, it seemed like a home run, here this beautiful woman was hanging on his every word, and on the way out of the super market she shoved a note with her phone number in his shirt breast pocket. The little cartoon hearts were a nice touch, he had laid in bed as the sun was coming up with his eyes wide with excitement about his new found love interest, and as soon as he woke up the next day he pulled out Rachel's number and put it to use. That night they had a very romantic evening, Alan had gone all out, this was his first date since before he was married, and he wanted everything perfect. The night out town was followed by hours of amazing sex, then they held each other until sunrise, talking about a future together as they drifted off to sleep, and that was the last time Alan had seen or spoken to Rachel. Two weeks earlier Alan had received a text message on his phone that stating she had some things she needs to think about, give her some time, but not to give up on her.



Turning off autopilot and stepping out of the shower, Alan shakes the thoughts of Rachel out of his mind, and starts to slide his black uniform on. Standing in front of the mirror, Alan adjusts the tuck of his shirt, places his name tag "Wagner" on over his right shirt pocket, and places his badge on over his left pocket. As much as he would like the badge to have Junction City Police Officer written on it, the badge reads Security Enforcement Officer, an incident from when he was eighteen had prevented Alan from being a certified peace officer in the state of Texas until ten years after his arrest. However, enough time had passed to where he could be an armed security guard, and even obtain the state's concealed handgun license. He dusts off his arm patch which reads Apostle Security, sprays a mist of CK one cologne, and fastens his duty belt around his waist. Still looking in mirror, Alan does a quick inventory of his duty belt, from left to right, his Surefire flashlight, Smith and Wesson hinged handcuffs, 3 oz. can of Fox defense spray and a government model Colt 1911 .45 caliber pistol. Alan drew his firearm from its holster, pulled back on the slide, chambered a round, he flipped the safety on, and holstered his weapon as he walked out his front door on the way to work.



Autumn Grove Apartments was only a few minutes drive from Alan's apartment, the complex was only completed three months ago, and was slowly starting to fill up with next semester's college students. Junction City is a college town, with one major state university and a large community college, every year the population swells by the thousands when school is in session, and it seems every year the number of students enrolling are more and more. Apostle Security was a new company in the area, it was owned by a man named Tommy Anderson who lived in the Austin area, but would make the two hour drive to Junction City weekly to check on the guards and deliver payroll. Tommy had known the owner of the apartment complex, Greg Simmons, and had worked some sort of deal with the creation of a security company, because of an insurance break due to having armed guards on site at night. The day the first tenant moved into the 15 building gated complex, there were four guards hired on the spot, they may have been the first for interviews or just the only four in Junction City to apply for the job. The risk was too high to deal college kids and guard their expensive furniture that will all be stacked by a dumpster at the end of the school year for most people to even consider the job. Alan had taken the job because his previous job at the university had been dissolved due to budget cuts, he had always had an interest in getting into law enforcement, and he thought it would be a step in the right direction.



Alan parked his single cab pick up truck outside the large main building of the complex, which housed the leasing offices, weight room, computer lab, study room, and big screen television theater, and every section of the building requires a tenant's card key to gain access. The entire apartment complex is fairly secure without the need of armed guards. The air was still very hot and humid, even at night, the season was about to change from summer to fall, but for Alan the change couldn't happen soon enough, they were provided a golf cart to perform patrols of the complex, but Alan preferred to do foot patrols to maintain the element of surprise over the whine of the electric motor in the golf cart. The security office was located in the gate house in front of the entrance to the compound, a small building with a restroom on one side, a supply closet on the other, and controls to manually work the gates, when they are finally operational. The gates seem to have a bug with them that forces the gates to slam closed early, after paying for body work on the 3rd damaged vehicle Simmons had the gates disabled, and that means and switched from one guard on duty to two. One guard to check in tenants and visitors at the front gate and one to patrol the complex and assist with complaints and resident lock outs.



Tess Grant was Alan's partner, they had met at their interviews, she had moved to Junction City from the coast a month before she applied for the job with Apostle Security. She had relocated with her ex husband from Hawaii to the Texas coast as he had gotten a job with one of the many oil companies that litter the Texas coast, however, the more he worked the more they grew apart and the marriage began to fail. In spite of Tess' best efforts to rekindle the spark they once had as lovers, her husband had become married to his career now, and after the divorce Tess decided to move to Junction City to attend the university there and follow her dream of being an elementary school teacher. She was a short woman of Filipino and Hispanic decent, she had long black hair, dark brown eyes, and no matter what the situation arose she would always be positive and handle it with a smile. Yet, when it's time to go to work, Alan wouldn't trust his life to anyone else in the company, and the feeling from Tess was mutual they had formed a tight bond since the first day they had met. The two of them would often meet for lunch during the day and challenge each other to a friendly target shooting competition at the local handgun range. Even though their relationship was strictly friendship, they often flirted with each other, and got a lot of pleasure out of being in each other's company.



As Tess opened the door to the gate house she greeted Alan with, "Aloha, Chico." "Hiya, Toots, are you going to speak to me in Hawaiian or Spanish?", Alan answered. "Just be lucky I'm talking to you at all after last night's five hour conversation about Rachel. I love you to death but if you bring up that girl's name again I'm going to pepper spray you." Tess then pulls her can of pepper spray from it's holster and begins to shake it. "Okay, okay, I get it down girl." "Next time it will be the Beretta." "Well until you start carrying something bigger than 9mm you won't see me quiver." They began to sort papers for their nightly reports as the phone on the desk lit up and rang. Tess answered, "Security....okay what apartment...someone will be there shortly." "Noise complaint?", Alan guessed. "You got it, do you want to take this one, it's pretty close, building two says it's coming from one of the upstairs apartments, the complainant is at 201," Tess thumbs through the tenant list, "Lacy Coulter." "Ohhh, it's a lady, I'm on it." "I kind of figured you would be." They both laughed as Alan exited the gate house and walked into the front gate towards building two.



As Alan approached building two he could hear the bass from a stereo system rattling the windows from the 2nd story of the building. He went over the same speach he's given hundreds of times in his head as he walked up the stairs towards apartment 205. He clinched a fist and pounded on the door, the music instantly went silent, Alan again pounded on the door, and this time he was answerd by a stocky young male student, "Yo, rent a cop, banging like that I thought you were the real police." "Listen, we have recieved a noise complaint about your apartment, if we're called again the real police will be here and serve you with a noise citation that comes with a large fine, and after three noise citations we issues an eviction." "Oh, my bad, I'm sorry dude I'll keep it down." "Thank you, and have a nice night, sir" Alan walks down the stairs and the door to apartment 201 slowly opens, and a thin, young, woman stepped out into the breeze way wearing a tank top and shorts. She had dark black hair and emerald green eyes, very pale skin, the sight of her alone was enough to make Alan think, Rachel who? She spoke in a quiet almost whisper, "Thank you officer, I didn't want to call, but he's been blaring that radio every night this week and enough was enough." "It's alright ma'am, that's what we're here for, give us a call any time there's a problem." "I'm very glad you guys are here at night especially after what happened last night." Alan looked at the girl puzzled, "What do you mean?" "It's been all over campus and the news all day, a girl was raped last night at Campus View Villas. She just woke up in the middle of the night and there was a man in her bed." "Jesus." "Yeah, I can't believe you guys don't know anything about it since those apartments are only a few blocks from here." She was right this was very close, and other than the key card system and guards at Autumn Grove, the Campus View Villas was a fairly safe complex. "Thanks for the info Lacy, don't worry this is the safest complex in Junction City." "How did you know my name." "Because, we know everything." "Except when there's a rapist on the loose.", Lacy answered sarcastically. "Touchier. Have a good night Miss Coulter, you'll be safe I can guarantee it.", Alan answered as he walked back towards the gate house. Lacy smiled at him as she watched him make his journey back to the gate house, she closed the door to her apartment, and returned to her studying.

Alan quickly opened the door and started, "Have you heard anything about a rapist?" Tess handed Alan a paper with a sketch on it, "Yeah, this was mixed in with the spam in the fax machine, from Junction City P.D." Alan studied the paper in his hand it was a police sketch of a Hispanic man in his late 20s early 30s wearing a dew rag, tank top and jogging pants. "Also, while you were playing hero, Tommy called and is going to be here in the morning to talk about the up coming holiday schedule, and this incident. Apparently Simmons called him and wanted to have him talk to us." "Christ, what the fuck haven't we been doing right this time?" Tess just shook her head in response to Alan's outburst. The remainder of the night went by quiet, Alan and Tess alternated complex patrols, but nothing other than a few raccoons in the dumpster had gotten their attention.

As the sun began to rise two vehicles pulled into the the parking lot, a tricked out 90's model Nissan Sentra, and a brand new Crystler sedan, the Nissan belonged to Brad Stokes who was another one of the original four guards, and the Crystler belong the security company's owner, Tommy Anderson. Both Brad and the final security guard, Ruben Sanchez, exited the Brad's car, and Tommy was still sitting his car talking on his cell phone. Brad was a little overweight, but very muscular, he kept his hair short like Alan's but his neck and arms were covered in tattoos. Ruben was part Mexican part Itialian, he was also a large framed man, and over six feet tall. Both men were in full uniform, which seemed odd to Tess and Alan, the complex only requested security during the night, Ruben opened the door to the gate house and looked at Alan, "C.W.P., what's up?" C.W.P. is what Ruben always called Alan, it stands for crazy white person, it was a joke between to two from when they were at the range qualifying to get their armed security officer licenses, the whole group had gone to class together after they were hired, and after Alan had accidentally shot his target off the track at the range Ruben had called him C.W.P. every since.

"So why are guys all geared up?" Brad answered, "Don't know, Tommy called us both last night and said be here at seven and ready to work." As if on cue Tommy walked in, also in uniform, which was rare, usually Tommy donned a suit or polo and slacks when he came to Junction City, Tommy was a dark skinned African American, ex police and military, at lest twenty years older than the rest of the group, but was very good at his job and took care of his employees. Tommy began to speak, "I've been asked by Greg to have you all on staff twenty-four seven throughout the holidays, so starting to today, Brad and Ruben are the day shift, and Alan and Tess are the night shift, until I can hire on some more help you all will be working 12 hour shifts, and I'll fill in this week to give you some time off." "Good bye social life.", Brad remarks. "Yeah we're going to be clockin' them hours and making them Benji's.", Ruben adds as he rubs his fingers together. Tommy picks up the sketch of the rapist from the desk, "And be sure to keep your eyes out for this guy, I'm going to make some copies and have them put around the complex, from what I was told this Campus View place is close." Tommy then took the sketch, left the gate house and walked towards the main complex of the building, the complex was now buzzing with the tenants heading to work and class, "Well I guess I'll see you boys tonight." Tess said as she gathered her belongings and walked out the door to her car.

After the door shut, Brad asked Alan, "So you hittin' that?" Alan smirked, "It's not like that and you know it." Then Ruben added, "Yeah you know C.W.P. can't pull no hos." Brad began again, "Yeah, you need to come out with us one weekend, and we'll school ya." Alan then answered, "Yeah I might just take you up on that, by the way if you get a chance check out 201, wow." "By the way," Brad began again, "Take a look at my new baby." Brad pulled the largest hand gun out if his holster that Alan had ever seen, and could make out the lettering across the side of the weapon Desert Eagle .50. "Jesus, Brad that's a fucking cannon, " Alan commented then added, "At least you got rid of that Glock, and got a real weapon." "Hey now don't be hatin'," Ruben interjected, "There ain't nothing wrong with Glocks, just C.W.P. s using them." Brad holstered his firearm, and Alan grabbed his things, and opened his cell phone to check if he missed any calls. "Damn fool, don't tell me you still haven't heard from that one chick?" Ruben asked. "Yeah, she said she needed some time to think." Both Ruben and Brad looked at each other and erupted with laughter. "What the fuck's so funny about that?" Brad answered, "Dude, for real she's got another man or something, you need to let that chick go, it's been like a month and she's blowing you off like you're the land lord and rent's due." Then Ruben said, "Yeah you need to go get you a moped." "Moped?" "Yeah a lot of fun to ride, but you wouldn't want your friends to see you on it." Alan chuckled, "No, I'm looking for something serious, I don't need to get laid, I need to find the love of my life." Brad starts to bat his eyes, "Okay Romeo, why don't get the fuck out of here and go home before you make me sick." "Yeah, C.W.P., Brad's right that bitch ain't worth it you should just forget her and move on." As bluntly as Ruben and Brad had put it, they were both right, Rachel really wasn't worth waiting for, they had only a few hours to contribute to their entire relationship, and in reality could be in the arms of another man as they spoke. Alan had left the gate house, sat down in his truck, and looked up to see Lacy staring at him through an open window from just inside the main building, she smiled and waived, then Alan reciprocated with a smile and wave, and he could see her mouth the words, "Thank you." He gave a wink and a not, then pulled out of the parking spot he was in, then it hit him, Damn, twelve hour shifts, it's going to be a long week, then looked back at Lacy still watching his truck, and thought This job does have it's perks though.

Alan walked into his apartment, removed his side arm, ejected the magazine, pulled back on the slide and unchambered the loaded round onto his kitchen counter. He slid the bullet back onto the top of the magazine, and slid it back inside the Colt .45. He turned to the cabinet over the stove, and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels. Then he proceeded to pour a mixed drink of Jack and Coke, remove his duty belt, and peel his uniform shirt off. Each sip burning less than the last as his mouth and throat became numbed by the alcohol, took a seat on the wooden futon, and turned on Fox news channel. He took one last look at his phone and shook his head, sat his drink down beside him, closed his eyes, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Prologue

Brandy's ice blue eyes opened wide as she could feel the pressure and shifting of something sliding into bed next to her, she didn't dare look, she'd always been a believer in the paranormal, but the thoughts of sharing her apartment with a ghost would have been a blessing compared to what happened next. She often slept in only a pair of panties and a worn out tee shirt that she had gotten her freshmen year of high school, even though that had only been six years ago, the shirt had seen it's last pep rally and it's only use now was only a comfortable shirt to lounge around her apartment in. Now the thoughts of the paranormal had vanished as Brandy now felt warm finger tips start to caress and run up her thigh. Now she had built up the courage to see what was going on, as she turned her head a hand quickly covered her mouth as the body next to her suddenly became the body on top of her. Brandy's eyes began to well with tears as she was trying to put together what had happened and who this man is on top of her. The room was dark but she could make out the muscular outline of her assailant, he appeared to be wearing sunglasses and a dew rag on top of his head, by reach out with her arms trying to force the man off of her she could tell that he was wearing a tank top and could feel the silk like material of jogging pants pressed against her nude legs.

Then she felt something hard against her inner thigh, at first she though it was a firearm, but then she realized it was an even more dangerous weapon. She tried her hardest to struggle and make scream as the large man held her in place and muffled her sounds with a firm palm over her lips. He starts to kiss her fore head and tried to calm her her down with a soft "shhh", she stops struggling and lets her tears flow down the sides of her face onto her ears. She can feel his hand going up her shirt, massaging her breasts, and pinching her nipples. She does not react to his touch because her body is now numb with the realization that she is about to be raped. "Moan for me, Bitch!", the man bellows out in a deep voice with a Hispanic accent. She begins to sob, the man removes his hand from her mouth and slaps her across her face, but before she could make a noise his hand is again pressed against her mouth. She's now helpless, thinking beyond the rape, "Is he going to kill me when this is over?" With a quick motion of his free hand the man rips her underwear right off her body, forcing Brandy to start crying harder now, she can now start to feel his warm skin pressed against hers as he shimmies the jogging pants down from his waist to his knees, and tries one last effort to stop him by closing her legs and crossing them at the ankles.

The rapist easily over powers her legs with his own just as he had been handling her as if she was his own little Brandy doll throughout the whole ordeal. He was now forcing himself inside of her, the friction pain was almost unbearable for Brandy to stand, other than a handful of times with her high school sweetheart and a drunken night after a frat party, the entire concept of intercourse was fairly new to Brandy, and it was always with protection. Except this time, however, the thoughts of disease and pregnancy are the last things she should be thinking about but for some reason are the thoughts that are running back and forth as her rapist grinds away at her faster and faster. They are both fairly silent now other than a few grunts from the rapist, it only takes a few minutes until she feels a flood of juices trickling from inside to out, and the rapist removes his hand from her mouth, and she can see his silhouette arching back. There's a bright flash, everything she sees has a red tint to it now, there's another flash, and everything is black.

"I'm hooked and I can't stop staring, oh baby I want to get with ya, and take your picture, my home boys tried to warn me, but with that butt you got me so horny." "I can hear", Brandy thinks to herself as the ring tone on her cellular phone starts again, "If I can hear then I must be alive." She attempts to open her eyes, but can only get her right eye partially open. She can see it's now daytime by the her room filled with light, and she can faintly hear the birds chirping outside. Her phone has now stopped ringing, slowly she sits up in the bed, the only time she had been this sore in her life was when she had been in a car accident when she was fifteen, but this was worse, her face was burning and every move she made instantly irritated her face. She turned her head to glance into the mirror across from her bed, the left side of her face was bruised and swollen, her left eye was swollen shut, and there was a cut above her eyebrow filled with dried blood. She started to think about what had happened during the night, she had been violated, beaten and raped. She began to sob again as she reached for her cell phone and dialed 9-1-1.