Plans Change A Story 8

My health too a turn for the worse as I lay in the hospital.  A doctor who had taken over my care who had been brought in by my mentor wrote and order that I was not to be disturbed during my recovery no exceptions. With that as I was stabilized I was moved not once during the interim had I received any visitors that I remember and that included my wife.  I had been left with my thoughts which thankfully because of my more or less medically imposed sleep state were few.  In the facility I was moved to I was surrounded by old soldiers who I knew were here to end out their lives among comrades, I was an odd one out, being from what I could ascertain the youngest man in residence I also had no visitors ever and was never included in their meal times.  As well other than the checkups by the doctor and the nurse I was left alone and allowed to gain back my strength on my own.  I spent hours in the small gym and when I was finally allowed beyond the walls, I took up running again something I had not done in years.

The area we were in was high desert and I had assumed we were still in California.  It was the night I was returning from just such a run through the scrub pine dusted with snow that it hit me I was not in California  I guessed Arizona or Nevada. I found out as I returned that I was in Utah and that only because of the numerous law enforcement vehicles with lights spinning holding back the large crowd of reporters and what looked like hundreds of college students.  I stayed at the back of the crowd to listen in order to find out what was going on.  It took only a matter of minutes to realize this had to do with me and apparently no one was supposed to know I was here.  I had been in mob scenes before in countries all over the world where being blue eyed with sandy blond hair now turning gray was more or less a death sentence the last of which had been the nail in the coffin which made me decide it was time to come home.  This group though was no mob but none the less I had grown comfortable in my anonymity so I quietly walked away and when I was out of sight I started jogging into the high desert heading west.

With some distance between me and the throng of media, law enforcement and who knows who else I slowed.  It was that night when I saw the helicopters up with search lights on; I made the decision to turn myself in.  To who was the question and where.  I needed information so when I came to a highway I caught a ride with a trucker and listened to the news radio he had on.  I was now wanted in California on just more than assault charges.  The driver asked where I was headed and I told him California seemed like a good place to get a story.  I ended up explaining I was a screenwriter always looking for my next big break and this story about the guy they were looking for might be a good one.  Thankfully the old driver was not a talkative soul and headed with a load of animal feed to California.  The first town we came to with a highway patrol detachment once we crossed the border, I thanked him for the ride told him if he was ever in need of work to call Field Engineering Services and gave him the number.  When he asked who I should say sent him i told him to tell whoever picked up the phone that Mr. C sent him,  Jogging from the truck stop to the small highway patrol station felt good after sitting for the last who knows how many hours.  There was a television on that at the moment was covering the story on the man hunt.  The desk officer after buzzing me in asked very politely and cheerfully to get it out as he was very busy.  Smiling I told him then I just made his day because the guy they were looking for on the television was standing right in front of him.

Shaking his head he told me I did not look armed and did not seem dangerous.  I shrugged held out my hands and told him all the same he  may want to put cuffs on me, read me my rights and find me a secure place to sit so he would not have to lie on his report.  He started for his gun and told him if he liked I would strip to show I had no weapons; he told me to just stand and wait where I was. His superior a tall well endowed blond walked in behind me and asked how things were at the fort.  He told her that I was claiming to be the guy they were looking for and was turning myself in.  Stepping around me so she could see me as other officers rolled into the office she looked me over and asked if I was really him.  I nodded and she asked if I minded if she searched me; smiling I told her she had to do her job.  Having only a sweat suit on over my t shirt and boxers with no ID or anything in my pockets meant that during her overly thorough search she only found me.  After she cuffed me and led me to a interview room she explained they did not have a holding cell so this would have to work and if I needed anything to just holler.  Smiling I asked if that was it, no water boarding or electrical shock therapy or brutish men to beat a confession out of me.  Shaking her head she asked where I had been as this was America.  Why I told her I still am not sure but I told her that the last time it was the Americans who treated me to that two weeks of spa therapy.

With a quizzical look on her face she left me alone; time ticked by slowly letting me think through what I had not concerning my marriage.  My wife had admitted she had been cheating on me for the last fifteen years, I had to ask myself if I still wanted to remain married and the only answer I could reach was yes, though that might have to wait until the legal battles were over and other than knowing that there was a DA who seemed to have it in for me I was not sure what was going on with any of the cases as I had not been allowed any kind of outside information.during my recent stay in the hospital. Sitting in the small highway patrol office was a waiting game. When I was brought a meal the Lieutenant asked me how I made it to California when a day ago it was reported I was hiding out in Utah.  I shrugged and told her I was quick like that and regardless of how I traveled I was turning myself in.  Shaking her head she told me to get comfortable as her boss, the governor of the state was wanting to know what was really going on.  I told her thanks but I would be the wrong person to ask and she should tell him that herself.

It would be another few hours before the states bureau of investigations showed up to ask some questions, I answered none of their questions as none of them pertained to the original incident as they seamed more interested in how I got back to California.  I finally asked what exactly were they fishing for.  That is when they asked what I originally came to the state.  I asked what their file said and one of the detectives asked why I was being uncooperative.  Shaking my head I said I was not being uncooperative but unless I knew what  they were after I could not help them and if they were their on some kind of witch hunt I guess it was time for me to lawyer up.  I was told my lawyer was on her way.  I was curious at the moment who she was so I nodded.  I asked the investigators why exactly they were there. The lead asked if I minded if he smoked and i said as long as he was outside he could smoke where he wanted.  He ignored my hint and never been one to stomach cigarette smoke and not having been around it much lately what I had to eat came back up rather quickly bringing the highway patrol boss lady in asking what they were doing to me.  I told her her boyfriend asked if I minded if he smoked and told him to go outside and he chose to ignore me and what little food I had had in the last day being what she gave me well it did not sit well with his blowing smoke.  Looking at me she told me I needed to clean up before my lawyer showed up with the press and pointing to the investigator she told him it looked like he had a mess to clean up.  When he stood up and walked out she asked if that was how it was going to be; the man just kept walking.

Apparently my lawyer was to be my ride; I did not show my surprise when it was the tallest of the seven or the fact with her was my eldest daughter who was carrying a change of clothes.  The first question asked of me was where I had been and why was I sick.  I was lead to a small locker room to shower, all the while having an officer watching me.  When I was done I threw the soiled clothes in the laundry basket, when I was asked if I was taking my clothes I shrugged and said they were not mine they were provided to me so I could jog while at that nursing home in Utah.  My daughter was furious asking why I went to Utah.  The lawyer had to put a hand on her shoulder and told her to calm down as they had a few hours to find out answers to their many questions.  After signing some paperwork I was on my way to a large stretch SUV.  Inside the back was my wife our other two children and a couple of the seven and a certain model who was sitting next to my wife along with the wife of the church pastor from Colorado.  My wife was mad i could tell and was the first to break the silence and asked me where I had been.  Looking at her I told her first I was in the hospital for i do not know how long, then I was moved to retirement facility for old soldiers so I could go through my rehabilitation and when I came back from a jog to find it surrounded by law enforcement I headed back to California on the way I heard their were warrants out for my arrest and I at the moment I was wondering why I was not in custody of that sheriff and why we were in a Limo.  Looking around and seeing how well dressed everyone was, I did not let her answer and said it appeared i was interrupting something.  Christina said as a matter of fact they had been headed to the premier of Cynthia's latest movie and since they were the closest they had to detour.  I told her my apologies for disrupting her night out with her girlfriend.  I turned to look out the window.  When we did stop so I could get something to eat I apologized to my wife for putting her through this and got out.  It did not take long for my mentor to show up, with my wife begging me to get back into the car I told her to go enjoy her night out on the town.  I climbed in with my mentor and my old handler and they drove me back to the desert where he brought me to the sheriff station

He asked if I was ready for this and I asked him that depended what this was but let me see I had been treated worse than most of those terrorists by not being allowed visitors and then kept incognito for what had to be months and my guess was I missed yet another season of holidays with my family.  My old mentor said I might as well know she had filed for divorce during my absence. Shrugging I told her it was probably for the best and looking at my mentor I told him absolutely no.  Smiling he said he had not yet asked me anything other than if I was ready for what was going to happen next.  I told him it was like I said that depended on what happened next.  Stepping out just after my handler I saw the movement in the gathered crowd and shoved her out of the way and took the bullet in the side which more or less was just a grazing wound, a bloody one but none the less a grazing wound and one that would not kill me.  The deputies were slower than I to react and I was already running after the man who had taken a shot.  He was trying to get another bead on me when I tackled him knocking the gun free of his hand.  When I stood yanking him up behind me I decided I hated California.  Again I was back in the ER getting patched up.

Upon my return to the sheriff department I was led next door to the city hall where I met with the governor and in front of the cameras he apologized on behalf of the state for putting me through this ordeal, next up to the podium was the DA who said all charges against me had been dropped and I was free to go.  With his stepping back I thought it was over but everyone looked at me.  Shrugging I left the room back down the hallway back to the sheriffs station.  When the officials came in with both my lawyers he told me I was supposed to say thank you and I told him for what as if I remembered I had done nothing wrong in the first place except maybe thinking I might want to move here and had come looking for a job.  That shocked him and it took longer for him to put that mask of control  back on.  The DA told my lawyer if there was nothing else he had to go make his resignation official.  The sheriff asked why I was not out celebrating and I told him I figured I would wait until I had my personals and then I would go find who ordered that hit on me.  The governor said they had the man in custody, nodding I told him they did but I doubt he would live long enough to tell them anything useful.  Just then the call came over the radio system.  The Sheriff looked at me reached out his hand and asked if there were no hard feelings.  I shook it and told him he needed to clean house as I knew what that call was about which meant he had some rotten apples still in the basket.