Крис Грабенштайн - Free Fall

people?” He wags a finger at all the cops who just helped save his life. “I’m going to sue you! All of you! And we’ve got money to hire a good lawyer!”

I remember that thing Christine said about mean people. How they shouldn’t get away with the horrible stuff they do.

But you know what?

Sometimes they just do.

Epilogue

I find out that administrative leave actually means I have to go to the police station five days a week and sit behind a desk shuffling papers.

I also replace toner cartridges and answer a ton of questions from Internal Affairs investigators about what happened in those split seconds when, going against Chief Roy Rossi’s direct order, I took personal initiative and discharged two deadly rounds.

I know I did the right thing.

Ceepak agrees.

Yeah, that’s the good news.

He’s going to be fine. He just added another ugly scar to the collection he picked up over in Iraq. In fact, he and Bill Botzong are right now piecing together enough forensic evidence on the cyanide purchase to put David Rosen away, even without the coerced confession. They might even get his wife, Judith, as a coconspirator. Good thing Little Arnie has all that money. He’s going to need it to pay his shrink bills.

But there’s more good news, too. Thankfully, Mrs. Ceepak is still in my corner. In fact, she’s paying for my lawyer. That’s right. Harvey Nussbaum, the Sea Haven pit bull, will be defending me at a hearing in front of the county prosecutor. According to Nussbaum, there’s no question I did what “any cop with half a brain would do.”

I don’t know if he meant that as an insult; that I’m a cop with half a brain. Frankly, I don’t care. I just want to be another one of those Wrongs that Harvey turns into a Right.

Christine Lemonopolous?

After accompanying Mrs. Ceepak to Mainland Medical and seeing her trauma team friends save Ceepak’s life, she felt ready to go back to her old job. She also found a pretty cute new apartment and had her new boyfriend come over to help her paint the place.

Yep. She and I are dating. Because I have decided to officially adopt Ceepak’s honor code as my new dating code.

If a girl won’t lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do, then she’s all right by me. Christine was telling the truth when she swore she didn’t do any of the horrible stuff other people kept saying she’d done.

Now I know exactly how she felt.

But just like Christine, I won’t let them tell me who I am or what I did. I won’t let them drag me down to their level.

Neither will Ceepak.

In fact, he keeps reminding me of what Bruce Springsteen sings in Ceepak’s favorite song, “Land Of Hope And Dreams”:

Yeah, leave behind your sorrows,

Let this day be the last

Well, tomorrow there’ll be sunshine

And all this darkness past

In other words, pretty soon, it’ll all be all good again.

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