No Alibi

I never had an alibi. When the cops arrived I was having tea in my pajamas. Sportscenter was on and I was watching it and reading the news. The sun was pouring through the trees and shades. Three solid knocks, on the front door. Three more, I opened the door. “James Bryant?” One said. The other had a letter. “Yeah” I said. “We have a warrant to search this property.” The cop with the warrant said. “A warrant! Why? What the fuck is this!”

“Step aside now! If you do not comply you will be placed under arrest!” One threatened. I let them in, what else could I do? I didn’t want to stay inside, but they made me.

They searched the bedroom first and told me to stay in there. I heard them tear my house apart; I heard my drawers emptied onto the floor, I heard my couch flipped and my chairs kicked over. I sat and I listened through my paper thin walls and then I heard them bring the dog in. I thought for drugs so I had little fear. But it barked, It barked and it barked and it ran- faster than a man can- straight at the grave. The cop dropped the leash and caught chase. The barking fading was all I could hear. Something to save for my nightmares.

I sat on my bed in my room and thought goodbye. Soon I would be dead, I knew it then. No, I would not survive. The cops were outside, I could hear them. I got off my bed and put on my favorite flannel jeans. I stepped into my hunting boots and pulled over my sweater. I took my gun out from under the floorboards, a .38, and took my knife in its sheath. Then I got the money.
I hadn’t decided yet where to run to; just into the cold and the dark and the wood. I would stay low in the house and work towards the back door. I would go silently out and hide in the shadows. Maybe I would steal a cop car. Maybe I wouldn’t hurt anyone- but I had to escape.

The second stair of five, off the driveway to the door, squeaks and it roared. It was not a warning to be ignored and I didn’t. I sat on my bed. A cop opened the door. I heard his boots slam on the floor. The hallways greeted him with silence. So did I. Just before he reached my door. Just before, just three steps more. He turned the door. I saw him. I watched his eyes widen. I felt his heart beating. Then I pulled the trigger.

After the roar and the ring, quiet, for once more there was silence. Peace in the midst of violence. I called it the end before but I was mistaken. I was going to stay calm, to keep a clear head. This didn’t feel wrong. The next cop ran through the front door, I heard him. He crept down the hall then silence, but the shadow on the floor. I aimed through the wall and fired. I heard his body thud and then quiet. I looked out the door. There was blood on the walls and it dripped from the ceiling. Puddles had formed and were gleaming. The final embers of the fallen. I ran past them down the hall. My hands were clean but my footsteps printed blood down the hall. I ran out the back door. There were three cops, no more. I searched for the lost one and found him.

He was talking on his radio and his dog was barking. He never heard me coming but the dog did. It ran straight for me, foaming. Blood was in his eyes, as it was in mine. He ran without fear. He ran and he barked and he lunged, and I stuck him. I drove my knife through the top of his head and I heard a final whimper before he died. Then again the quiet. I felt bad about the dog. He didn't pick this fight. Yet death for man and beast the same. The cop must have moved and I lost him. I began to search the wood but thought better of it. I moved in the shade to the front of my house. Two cars were there but I couldn’t take them. Nowhere to run down only one road- just onward until the end. The cop had been silent but I heard him in the yard. He had been following behind me but was some distance away. I never turned around. I took a left and walked into the forest. The cop was quick to find me so I started running. I let him choose his destiny and he choose me. I killed his friends and so he hunted. Into the forest- into the dark and the wild. A shadow of his man, he hunted. He yelled: “Coward! Your gonna die! I’m gonna kill you! I’m gonna enjoy killing you! Coward! Fuck you! Fuck you!” like a savage. He lost sight of me but never slowed, and never stopped yelling. I sat in the branches of a tree high above him. I watched the forest still around him. I let him live and he lost himself. He walked straight into the dark. I don’t know what he found in that unknown. I went the other way. Soon again it was quiet.