Jon gets shot

[Jon Eckart]

((OOC: Please note, that being that I cannot get ahold of Chase or any of the board or other long-time members to get permission to use their characters, I chose to use my own characters in their place.
For the time being, Assistant Director Kirk McDouglas from the Philadelphia branch office is filling in for Director Devineaux, being that Chase is on a personal leave.
The board is at a conference in Bern, Switzerland, and Assistant Director McDouglas is handling what the board handles.
Doctor Sophie Conrad is at a medical conference in London. Doctor Linda Collen is filling in for Sophie.
If anyone wants to use these characters for their own stories, go ahead. If you want to expand on them, go ahead.))

A shot in the kidney
Started: 9-18-22 Finished: 2-19-23
(Timeframe: Jon has been with the Agency for about a month and a half)
​

I was always glad that A.C.M.E did not have any real dress code, other than nothing offensive to anyone. Pretty much every day, I would wear shorts and a t-shirt, with a ball cap over my unruly hair, unless we actually got a cooler day, in which case it was jeans weather (usually cargo pants) (and my ratty leather coat if needed). About the only time I dressed nice was when the Agency had some sort of press conference or I was on a date with someone. I had been with the Agency as a Full Detective for about three months, and had helped other Agents with a few cases, and handled a couple on my own in that time. From what I had heard from other Agents, things had been fairly quiet recently, though that was never a guarantee that things would stay quiet.

It was Wednesday, and I was on my way home from the Agency. On the way, I stopped by a convenience store to get some smokes and pop and ended up deciding to get an order of fried chicken from the store’s deli (this particular store was known for having really great fried chicken… Kwik Trips had been springing up everywhere, it seemed). While waiting in line, a group of three people opened the door, and ran in; each of them was holding a gun (one had a 9mm semiautomatic, one had a shotgun, and the other had an Uzi) and they were all wearing ski masks. I had just a moment or three of full-on panic. I reached for my handgun, and then remembered that Agents never carry their Agency firearm when off duty, though they carry their own sidearm if they have one; all I had on me was my Gerber multi-tool, which wouldn’t do crap-all in this situation. They demanded all the money from the register and the cashier’s car keys, along with all the cigarettes and anything else they wanted to take.

As he was handing over the cigarettes, the robber in the front saw the cashier reach towards what they must have assumed to be the panic button, and raised his gun to shoot. I saw the robber aiming his gun at the cashier, and readied myself to try to stop him; as I jumped towards him, one of the other guys saw me heading towards the lead guy and aimed at me and fired. I managed to tackle the lead guy and brought him to the floor. Everything happened so fast that I didn’t notice the burning pain until I went to get up from tackling the lead guy. The three robbers grabbed everything they could and ran out the doors. Several of the other customers rushed to me, and I managed to hand them my ACME badge with instructions to call the number on the back before I passed out, and asked someone to get the car’s plate number.
I woke up in the hospital with a hazy memory of what happened.

Looking next to me, I found the bedside table had my glasses on it, and most every surface around the room that could be was covered with cards. Glancing at my wrist, after putting my glasses on, I found ACME’s logo on the ID bracelet and I breathed a sigh of relief; even if the robbers had identified me, they could never get inside the hospital. My Agency phone and communicator were on chargers next to the bed, and my ACME ID was clipped to the IV cart.

I tried sitting up, and immediately collapsed back from the pain in my side. Oh, yeah… I had been shot in the side in my right kidney, that sucked. Feeling around my side, I found both the front and back of my side had been bandaged; that meant the shot had been a through-and-through, that sucks even worse. Reaching over, I dug through the bedside table and found a notepad and a pen, and spent a couple hours jotting down everything I could remember about the incident; even going so far as to try to sketch what I could of the robbers.

At about four in the morning, a nurse came in to check on me. She checked my blood pressure, pain scale, changed the bandages, and gave me the medications that I was being given (Vicodin for pain, Penicillin to prevent infections, and a couple others I wasn’t familiar with). Before she left, I gave her the pages of notes about the incident with instructions to make sure they got to Director Devineaux through the inter-Agency mail.

Once she left, I settled back into bed and dozed off. At about ten in the morning, the Agency’s doctor came to check on me. Her name tag was the same as the other doctors, but she was not the familiar Doctor Sophie Conrad, who had trained us in first aid at the Academy.

“Agent Eckart, how are you feeling today?” She asked. Her ID said her name was Doctor Linda Collen.

“I’m sore as hell, but doing okay. Kind of a new experience being shot… any idea if they were caught?”

“I wouldn’t know… you can call the Assistant Director if you want.” She wrote down some notes on my chart. “I think you’ll be clear to head home in about three days, though depending on how you’re doing, I may recommend some time off from the Agency, or at least some time spent working at your desk. We weren’t able to save the kidney.” She explained, “For now, get some rest and we’ll check on you throughout your stay.”

“Thank you, Doctor Collen. Just out of curiosity, when are the meals here?” I asked, glancing at the clock and seeing it was about 10:20.

“Lunch is at 11AM, though I recommend you take it easy for a while. The wound is healing okay, and was a clean through-and-through, but I wouldn’t push it too far.” I waited until after lunch, which was better than normal hospital food, to take a nap, and rested and caught up on the news and a couple TV shows when I could. Three days later, when I was discharged from the hospital, I headed home to rest for a few days before I reported back to the office.

On returning to ACME on March 20th, I was greeted with lots of handshakes and ‘welcome backs’, and after clocking in, I sat down at my desk. Waiting on my keyboard was a half-page printout. ACME didn’t deal with a lot of hardcopies, especially for interoffice memos. I picked it up and read it;
“To: all ACME staff,
Effective immediately, as of Noon on March 18th, 2022, Director Chase Devineaux will be taking a personal leave for several weeks. During his absence, Assistant Director Kirk McDouglas, from the Philadelphia ACME office will be filling in. Any questions may be directed to Assistant Director McDouglas at extension #73226.
Thank you,
Brenda
Secretary, Director’s office”

And, under that one, there was one dated for today (not sure why they were stacked that way);
“To: all ACME staff,
Effective immediately, as of March 20th, Chief Weller and the rest of the board are out of country at a Law Enforcement Agency conference in Bern, Switzerland. Until their return, Assistant Director McDouglas will be handing the Board’s responsibilities. Please direct any business that the board would oversee to Director McDouglas at extension #73226.
Thank you,
Brenda
Secretary, Director’s office”

As soon as my laptop booted, it right away opened an e-mail from Assistant Director McDouglas. The e-mail stated that I was being called into a meeting with him as soon as I got in.

“Agent Eckart, good to see you back here and doing better. While you were recovering, the Agency gathered all the evidence we could, and the local police still have an APB out for the vehicle and the three robbers based on your sketches. One of the customers only got a partial plate number.” Assistant Director McDouglas handed me copies of the APBs, “We are working with the local and state law enforcement to apprehend them. There is some back-and-forth between all three groups over who will handle prosecution and the legal aspects of the case. The Council and the Chief, via conference call from Bern, requested some additional training for you regarding your decision and the danger you put yourself in in order to save the store clerk… but, I think you learned your lesson, and being that you had very little time to decide how to respond, I don’t think you need the additional training. I will remind you, though, that every Agent’s life is valuable, and while acting in a situation like that might be a good decision, remember your training, and use the environment if possible.”

“I will keep that in mind, Director McDouglas, and thank you.” I responded as I shook hands with Director McDouglas.

“Also, I sent you a copy of the criminal database matches from the sketches for you to go through when you have time. Take a look and see if you can help locate the criminals… also, their profiles link to the car registration database, so maybe we can pinpoint them. I’ll clear you for active duty today, also. Have a good first day back, Agent Eckart.”

I went back to my desk, and got started going through the database after I uploaded the sketches. After lunch, I had the search narrowed down to about a dozen for each person, and began looking through the car database for each of the three-dozen people. After a quick cigarette, I got back to going through the pictures, and ended up heading home with the list narrowed down to two or three for each person. Before leaving, I made sure to send an e-mail to the Assistant Director letting him know I should have it finished by tomorrow. As I headed out the door, a few of the other Agents met me and invited me to O’Sullivan’s; it had been a while since I’ve been there, so we headed there and had a good meal and a few drinks. Turned out, since the incident at the store, I had become the talk of the office. Once we wrapped up at our hangout spot, I headed back to my apartment. Once there, I took care of watering my plants that hadn’t been taken care of since the incident, and quickly washed the few dishes that had been sitting in the sink, went downstairs to have a smoke and check the mail, before heading to bed after setting the alarms.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Two days later, I was called into Director McDouglas’ office.

On getting there, I was led into the main conference room and Director McDouglas and his secretary, Brenda were waiting. There was a video file opened on the massive screen on the wall.

“Please have a seat, Jon.” The Director motioned towards an open chair. “In investigating your case, we found there were several security cameras watching the area. The sequence of events in your statement is slightly different from what is seen on the camera footage, so we would like to hear what you have to say before the police see this.” Thinking back, I ran everything through my head again, and nothing jumped out at me as being questionable or fuzzy.

“Thank you for giving me this chance to see this footage and clear things up if needed.” I replied after quickly shaking hands with them. Everyone took their seats and doled out coffee before the video was played.

“The footage was pulled from several cameras around the convenience store you were shot in, including two ATM machines. We have edited it together for ease of watching.” Brenda stated, before clicking a button on a remote control and the video started.

The video started with a camera looking at the parking lot from about eye level; after about fifteen seconds, a car pulls in and parks. There are three people sitting in the car, talking amongst themselves. About ten seconds later, I walked into frame, glanced at the car, opened the door, and entered the store. The camera changed to show me shopping, though the car was still visible in that cameras view. After I had been shopping for about a minute, the camera view showed the three people get out of the car, already wearing masks and enter the doors. The camera view changed to follow them from entering the store until they left after I got shot.

“Okay, Jon, do you have anything you want to add to your statement?” Director McDouglas asked me, steepling his fingers.

“I’m not sure what I can add that I didn’t include in my report already, unless there’s something I’m missing here.” I answered, looking back over my copy of my statement. The Director cleared his throat,

“In your statement, you stated that you didn’t see the suspects before, though in the video, you are clearly seen looking at them before you entered the store, and in court they could argue that you saw them before, which could be used to invalidate your statement. Also, we know that the police and the district attorney will have a copy of the camera footage, though theirs won’t be as clear as our copy.” I wracked my brain,

“You are right, is it too late to add anything to my statement?” I asked, and I was handed a sheet of paper, with the same notary stamp for the same date and time on it while the old one was torn up. I wrote down everything from memory, making sure to include the detail about seeing them in the parking lot on my way into the store.
“Thank you, Jon, for answering our questions. Once the court sets a date, your lawyer will be in touch with you. Just make sure to keep yourself available.” Brenda said, looking over my revised statement.

“Jon, thank you for coming in today, we really appreciate it. We’ll be in touch in a day or two once the court date is set.”

And, that was that… all I could do was sit and wait.

The wait wasn’t long… I got a call from the court administrator the next morning, and I was due in court 4 hours later at noon. I quickly shaved, showered and got dressed in my best clothes, before realizing I hadn’t eaten anything or even had any coffee. On my way to the courtroom at ACME, I made sure to stop by a gas station near the campus and get a couple doughnuts and a double cappuccino. By the time I got to the courtroom, I was ready for whatever they could throw at me. I pulled up to the parking lot in front of the Agency’s courtroom with The Lonely Island’s song Trouble on Dookie Island cranked on my car’s stereo.

I walked into the courtroom. Dressed in my best (and only) suit (I had to borrow an iron from Chase’s secretary), freshly shaved, and showered, and took my seat next to the Agencies attorney. We made small talk and discussed strategy quietly while waiting for the defendants to arrive. When the three robbers arrived with their attorney, I heard my attorney mutter a quiet, “Ah, dammit” under his breath. He leaned close to me and whispered,

“This might get interesting… somehow, they got Raoul Severo… he’s got a long history of winning his cases, so be ready for your case to be picked apart.” At exactly noon (down to the second), the Judge walked in. The judge that handled cases in the Agency’s courtroom was a regular judge from the surrounding area, not someone who worked specifically at the Agency.

The day in court ended up taking the whole day. I was questioned by both sides for a total of near three hours. My lawyer questioned Eric Mandelheim, Jason Williams, and Randal Jameson, in turn for over two hours, there were a couple breaks taken for snacks and bathroom breaks and coffee; at each break, both lawyers were called into the Judge’s chambers for over fifteen minutes. There were plenty of objections from both sides throughout the day on both sides, and the main thing that was brought up by the Defense was about me having seen them before they entered the store to rob it; the Agency played their cleaned-up video, and the Defense played their lower-quality but better angles copy.

I had to explain that I noticed them, but didn’t see anything suspicious about them before they came into the store. After some enhanced zooming in of the video from the various cameras, it was proven that I did notice them in the car before they entered, and there was nothing suspicious about them that would cause me to give them a second thought.

Also, somehow, don’t know how it was dug up, my past of being adopted and treated badly, was brought up, as was my running from their house and stealing the car. Being that the Agency knew about that, and I was underage when it happened, that was ignored by the Judge.

It was agreed that with my training at ACME, I or another Agent would have noticed anything noteworthy about them, and I or we would have responded accordingly. One thing that was brought up by my lawyer was the quality of the weapons that they were found to have in their possession when they robbed the store; they had the same weapons in their shared house when they were arrested while I was in the hospital.

In the end, they were charged; attempted murder (for Eric, who fired at me), robbery (for each), terroristic threats (for each), attempted murder accomplice (for the other two, who didn’t fire at me), firearms possession (for each, turned out they had felonies in other states). Not that there was anything to charge me with, but my record both at the Agency and with the state was cleared of anything.

Even after we won in court that night at 8:15PM, I couldn’t help but wonder if this incident of someone shooting an ACME agent would end up greenlighting ‘open season’ on Agents. Director McDouglas walked with me back to Accolade Tower, and talked to me as we walked.

“This isn’t the first time someone has shot an Agent, and unfortunately, it probably won’t be the last. What we do is what we always do; try our best to put away as many criminals as possible, keep the streets crime-free, and stay on our toes. What happened could have happened to anyone, including me and the board; nobody could predict it, and even if you were ready for that particular thing to happen, something else could have happened instead.”

“I’ll remember to keep on my toes, and keep an eye on my six o’clock whenever possible. Thank you, Director McDouglas.” We shook hands, and went our separate ways in the Agency; him back to his office to (I imagined) deal with the stack of files waiting for him on his desk, and me back to my desk to see what my next case would be.