It was mid-winter and cold, very cold. I had some bad food the night before and felt my stomach doing flips as I tried to focus on the job. I had not missed a day on the force since I started fifteen years ago and I wasn’t about to let a little stomach bug ruin my record.
My small town of Campton, GA, just outside of Atlanta, promoted me, Johnson Carter, to Sergeant of our 25-man police force. Everyone in our small town knew me as plain old Carter. Campton is a small town with big city politics because of the influence of our main city – Atlanta. Our city council members all had their eye on moving up into State government which made our council meetings interesting. The members were quite proud of themselves and their position, which made the locals laugh at their self-importance.
Claire Carter, my wife, found the political arena interesting and enjoyed spending time around these people. Claire was a middle-aged hottie that always turned heads in town, but being Sgt. Carter’s wife left her safe around the predators. I found it a little funny but didn’t object or make a joke when she said she was going to volunteer a few days a week. I had no objection as she was probably a little bored from being a stay-at-home mom now that our daughter Kaylee was sixteen and in her senior year of high school and didn’t need supervision when she came home from school in the afternoon.
Looking back now, If I had known that Wilbur Montague, the new City Councilman, had his eyes on Claire, I would have had a short conversation with old Wilbur had I met him, but that would come later.
Wednesday
It was just after 10 a.m. on that fateful Wednesday morning when my stomach betrayed me and my record of never missing a day of work. After twenty minutes in the precinct bathroom, I walked over to my assistant and told her I was heading home and to have Smitty cover for me for the rest of the day. I took my squad car home and pulled into my driveway at 10:45. I was a little surprised to see my wife’s car in the driveway when I parked behind her but didn’t think too much about it as I staggered out of the car needing to get to my bathroom once again.
I walked quickly into the house and up to our bedroom. I heard the shower running and waited for Claire to finish before I barged in. My stomach problem eased up a little as I sat on the edge of the bed. I sat there patiently, still in full uniform waiting to take over the bathroom. I knew she would be surprised when she came down the hallway and saw me sitting there, and I was about to call out once she opened the door, but my plans had suddenly changed.
That’s when I heard some sounds that were totally out of place, and my stomach started reacting, but not from the bad food, no, it was giving me signals of caution, and intuition, that was part of my training when danger was suspected.
As it always does during time like this on the job, time seemed to have slowed down when I heard the bathroom door open and the shower still running. When I heard Claire’s voice speaking to someone still in the shower, my fight or flight mode kicked in. My professional training quickly assessed the situation and I had a plan already mapped out if things went south.