Oh, God! You Devil

‘Wait for my signal,’ said Joe on his walkie-talkie attached to his left shoulder strap. He was in his car as signaled his partner and detective Louis as they were waiting for a suspect who has gone into a convenience store. The man was a primary suspect in the murder of three girls who were teenagers only in the last month and has not been spotted anywhere in the city until that day. Joe kept a keen eye on the store’s entrance from his car while Louis waited on the other side of the road holding a phone to his ear pretending to be a normal citizen. Joe’s eyes lit up as soon as he saw the man open the store’s door. ‘We follow him now,’ said Joe to his partner.

Wayne, the suspect who just came out of the store got a glimpse of Louis’s badge as he opened his coat to keep his cell phone inside his pocket. He knew the next moment that the man inside the car watching him must also be a detective. Wayne started walking faster as he wanted to evade them.

‘I think he spotted us, we need to catch him,’ said Louis on his walkie-talkie and he crossed the road that was filled with a busy Monday traffic.

Joe got out of his car and started walking behind Wayne as he had more chances of catching him. The very next moment Wayne dropped the bag that he was carrying in a garbage can and took to his heels as he turned right on the next street. Joe started chasing Wayne but he was far ahead enough to get lost in the crowd.

Louis came the other way and tried to close in on Wayne as he caught the sight of him walking behind a man in a grey suit. ‘Hey!’ he called out to Wayne and drew his gun out of his holster. Wayne pushed the man in the suit and made the crowd panic as they started screaming and running and it distracted Louis.

‘He is on the fifth street partner,’ he said on his walkie-talkie in a loud voice.

‘Yeah I got sight, I’ll follow him,’ replied Joe affirmatively.

He caught sight of Wayne jumping off a metallic gate and entering the back alley of a building. ‘Police, stop right there or I’ll shoot,’ shouted Joe as he jumped off the gate in pursuit.

Wayne opened the door that was next to him and he entered inside a house. Joe ran behind him and he tried to open the door but it was locked from the inside. He pushed the door with his shoulders and he forced it open with a kick off his strong foot.

‘We are the police, I suggest you surrender and this will end quietly,’ said Joe as he held his gun pointed on Wayne but he had a knife to the throat of a girl who appeared to be a teenager as well. Joe knew that she was his next target.

‘I like it rough, Sir! I suggest you drop your gun and get the hell out of here or I’ll slit the throat of this little peach right in front of your eyes,’ said Wayne comically as he pushed the knife closer to her pale skin and a drop of blood trickled down the throat of the girl who was trembling with fear right to her knees.

‘Okay, here, let her go,’ said Joe as he placed the gun on the ground slowly.

‘Drop it!’ said Louis as he came into the room suddenly.

‘Ask him to drop his gun or she dies!’ yelled Wayne to Joe.

‘No he is fine. Louis it is all right, drop your gun,’ said Joe. As Louis bent down slowly to drop his gun down, Joe knew that he would kill that girl anyway that night, he wanted to take his chances, and he took the gun on the ground and shot at Wayne. But he was a little late as the knife cut the girl a tad and blood started oozing out of her throat. The bullet that Joe shot went right through Wayne’s forehead as he fell down.

Joe rushed to the girl, with a towel that was lying on the table next to him he pushed the cut on the throat to try and stop the bleeding. ‘Call an ambulance, right now,’ yelled Joe and Louis took his cell phone and started dialing for the ambulance.

‘Partner, I think we got another one, I just got a message of a possible gunshot nearby,’ said Joe as he listened to his transceiver on his car.

‘No partner, patrol will take care of it, I think you need some rest with the things going on lately and the considering the kind of the day we had,’ said Louis.

‘But even last week we left a case like this one and it turned out to be important,’ said Joe.

‘You can’t save everyone partner, you need to keep things from getting into your head, let’s go to the precinct,’ said Louis. Joe agreed half-heartedly as he started the car and drove to the precinct.

‘I just received a call from the hospital, the girl is safe. You did it man, you saved her,’ said Louis as he punched Joe on his stomach.

‘I also got a call that the other message that we received was actually a gunshot and a man died Louis,’ said Joe.

‘I’m sorry Joe, I didn’t know. It’s not your fault man, as I told you, you can’t save everyone but you are a hero, you know that right?’ said Louis in a lower tone to console a worried Joe.

‘Detectives! I got a report in my hand that includes all of the crimes that we solved in the last six months, I’m not sure if it is a thing to be celebrated or a thing to be mourned for but we have solved a hundred and fifty cases just in the last six months and a hundred of them were solved by detective Joe including the one today, congratulations Joe,’ announced the captain of the precinct, Mark, who started clapping his hands along with everyone looking at Joe.

Joe stood up and bowed his head and smiled at everyone and said ‘Thank you, thank you Captain,’ and he walked towards the captain as everybody got on with their works.

‘Captain, I’d like to ask you a favor, can I get a copy of the report you have got there?’ asked Joe to the captain.

‘Of course, you can have this, as a souvenir I hope. Well done Joe, keep it up, you will someday make a wonderful captain,’ said Mark as he smiled.

‘Thank you captain, I really hope so,’ said Joe as he received the report.

Joe and his partner took off in their car to a bar nearby as their shift got over. ‘What are you looking at?’ asked Louis as he saw that Joe was worried and was looking for something in the report.

‘Do you notice anything strange about this report partner?’ asked Joe as he showed Louis the report.

‘I see it, you have got more busts than me,’ said Louis as he showed a sly smile.

‘I’m being serious Louis, can’t you see it?’ asked Joe.

‘Oh I just tried to make a joke that’s all, I don’t see anything, what is it?’ asked Louis.

‘Look at every case that has been solved by me, and look at the cases next to them, even before you became my partner, there has been incidents involving a murder in the neighborhood right at the same time that I saved someone,’ said Joe.

‘Man, you are creeping me out, this is just coincidence,’ said Louis.

‘One time it is, or two times, it’s been like this a hundred times partner, I’ve saved a hundred lives and I’ve killed another hundred,’ said Joe.

‘Hey, watch it Joe, you are acting like it is your fault, what can you call it if not a coincidence?’ asked Louis firmly.

‘A curse?’ asked Joe.

‘Are you crazy? Am I too drunk that I’m hearing things or are you too drunk to talk like this?’ asked Louis.

‘No partner, I am not kidding here, this is something serious, I have been having these hard feelings and bad dreams lately, this might be the cause,’ said Joe.

‘If you are that mad, then let’s do something, we’ll monitor the area on our next bust and see what happens, all right?’ said Louis convincingly.

‘All right,’ replied Joe with a sigh.

The very next day, Joe and Louis went on field for investigating possible homicide information. ‘The road is clear,’ said Joe.

‘Yeah looks like our killer got away,’ replied Louis.

‘There,’ said Joe as he spotted a man, running on the sidewalk with a hood on and they started chasing the man.

‘Police, stop or I’ll shoot,’ yelled Joe.

The man didn’t listen, he started running wildly. Joe opened fire and shot the man on his left leg below his knees. The man tripped and fell on an old woman who was pushed on to the road and a bus with high speed crashed into the old woman. The woman was thrown three feet ahead on the road. Joe couldn’t believe what he saw, he couldn’t process what had just happened.

‘I’ll take care of the suspect, get her to a hospital partner,’ said Louis as he caught the man with the hood.

Joe ran towards the old woman and called an ambulance for her.

Joe was waiting eagerly for a good news outside the hospital’s intensive care unit as he saw Louis who came to him. ‘What happened Joe? Is she going to pull through?’ asked Louis nervously.

‘Did you see what happened? Do you really call that a coincidence now? I killed that poor woman,’ said Joe as a tear drop trickled down from his weary eyes.

‘We don’t know that yet right? Don’t jump into conclusions Joe,’ said Louis as he patted his partner on his shoulder.

As they were talking a doctor came out of the unit, and Joe got right on his foot and asked ‘What happened doctor? How is she?’

‘We are sorry detective, we tried our best but we couldn’t save her, I’ll get the reports ready,’ said the Doctor as he walked down the hallway.

Joe stood there broken, he couldn’t hear what Louis was talking, and he couldn’t hear the sound of anything. He couldn’t see anything but the blank wall in front of him, his vision became blurry. He didn’t know where he was going but he walked down the hallway. He walked out of the hospital like a man who has lost everything.

He asked himself the questions, ‘What power does a man like me have against the world? What am I called if I save a life every day and take one away at the same time? Should I live to see another day for the people that I’m saving or die not to see another day for the people that I’m killing? Am I the God? Or Am I the devil?’