The Mole in His Bed novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Chief
They kept me in a holding room at headquarters from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning.
Then they walked me into the auditorium in handcuffs, with a deputy on each arm.
The chief had called the families together to see me.
Three hundred people sat in the rows, in black coats, with photographs of their dead in their laps.
I knew some of the faces from the vigil, and I knew some from the years I had worked beside their husbands.
None of them looked away.
On the stage stood the chief, in his dress uniform, with the flag behind him.
Beside him, in a chair, sat Paula in a pale blue suit with a white bandage taped to her temple.
She had her hands folded in her lap, and she was not smiling.
"This woman," the chief said into the microphone, "has come back from the dead to testify for a criminal."
A murmur went through the rows.
"She has also been shot at twice this week. Both times, people near her bled."
"Two of my officers have already told me she lured a sergeant to the wall on Saturday," he said. "I want every family in this room to see her face before she is charged."
Then they marched me down the center aisle, and the families hissed.
A woman in the third row stood and threw a folded program at my head.
It hit me in the cheek.
"Traitor," she screamed. "My son was twenty-six!"
"I'm sorry," I said, and meant it, and it made no difference.
I stopped at the foot of the stage because the deputies stopped.
I looked up at Paula, and she looked down at me, very sad, very gentle.
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