Adrenaline Response

A warm wind blew in through the window on what seemed to be a calm day. The sweating silence was then broken by the ring of a telephone. Shawn reached over and answered it in a lazy tone.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Shawn Rohbetie?"
"Speaking."
"This is Officer Kent of the Regional Police calling about an apparent theft at a company that you had worked for..."
Shawn could feel his heart sink as his mind raced to think of what company it might be and why they would call him.
"...soon after you had finished there."
"Wait, what company?"
"Deanne Saunders Corporate Accounting." Replied the Officer in a smug voice as though Shawn should have known.
"Oh."
"Anyway, we were wondering if we could bring you down to the station for questioning?"
"Uhmmm, sure," fell from Shawn's mouth as though he had no idea what else to say.
"Good, I'll send over an Officer to pick you up tomorrow afternoon."
"Ok, that's fine."
"We'll see you later then. Thank you."
"Ok, bye."
Hanging up the phone, Shawn's eyes widened as the adrenaline pumped. His mind raced to think of what could have happened and what made them think he was involved. Every detail of his time with the company raced through his mind. Nothing he could remember indicated that anything unusual had occurred.
The night was long. Tossing and turning, he couldn't keep his mind from thinking about what would be asked and what might be linking him to the theft. All the while coming up with more and more unanswered questions. Soon his mind tired and he was sleeping.


* * * * * * * * * *


Shawn arrived home after the questioning. He had been detained for over four hours and they grilled him pretty hard. He forgot about the extra security card that had disappeared from his boss's desk a few days before he had finished and that he knew the security code to the front door from when they had gone in after hours, to work on a Sunday, but he had remembered that code from working there about a month previous to the time he was being questioned about.
'They let me go so I guess everything that I said checked out. It had to - I didn't do anything - unless someone was framing me - but who and why?'
Now his mind was racing again and Shawn thought of the suspicious behaviour of Eldrich Von Hieroch, one of the employees in the finance department, while he was there. Many days that Shawn had worked late, Eldrich came back to the office later in the evening, while Shawn was still working. Eldrich would roam around the floor of the building into some of the offices. Even on the Sunday Shawn and his boss had worked, Eldrich arrived after Shawn's boss had to leave early, bringing his son in and taking him to several offices on that floor including the old office which Eldrich had vacated several days before.
'Maybe it was him - but why?'
Several days passed and Shawn thought that everything was done with. He gave his story and that was going to be it. While watching TV, the door bell rang. Standing up from his chair, he noticed that two patrol cars were parked out front of his house. He froze staring at the cars. His eyes widened and the adrenaline pumped again.
'Something's wrong - they don't have anything on me - I didn't do it.'
Turning around he could see through the curtains on the back windows to the deck where an officer walked up and tried to look inside through the drapes. The adrenaline pumped ever faster. The officer at the back of the house apparently spotted him looking through the curtains and was calling on his radio to the other officers that Shawn was in the house. Shawn bolted to the entrance hall and saw the faces of two officers trying to see through the curtains on the front door. Shawn dashed down the stairs into the basement. Grabbing a baseball bat, he passed through a door into the second half of the basement. He just stood to the side of the door in the dark panting and waiting.
The officers opened the screen door and kicked in the front door, not bothering to check if it was even locked. Two officers entered and took to a standard cover pattern in the entry hall.
"He went down to the basement," echoed over the radio from the officer in the backyard.
Still in a one-by-one standard cover, they moved to the stairs with their guns drawn. At the bottom of the stairs, they turned on the lights and started into the basement.
When the lights came on, Shawn blinked as his grip tightened on the bat and his ears perked to every sound of movement. Holding his breath he waited.
The first officer went to the end of the first room in the basement as the second officer went to pass through the door to the second room. Gun poised in front of him he approached the doorway. The door was slightly inset and Shawn was standing just back from the door. He saw the officers gun enter the room first. As the upper arm became visible, Shawn jumped out swinging the bat at the gun catching the officers hand, shattering his wrist. The gun flung across the room and the officer dropped to his knees screaming. The second officer was back from the other end of the first room just in time to see Shawn's second swing of the bat come crashing down on the injured officer's head. A deadened crunch echoed through the basement and the officer's body dropped and wriggled in spasms on the floor while red and yellow fluid oozed out of several lacerations in the scalp and carried some pieces of the officers shattered cranium along the floor. The second officer seemed in shock. His gun hand shook and he kept looking between Shawn and his dead partner in disbelief.
"Drop the bat!" yelled the second officer, now holding the gun with both hands, still shaking.
Shawn looked up from the officer he just killed to the second officer holding the gun. "I didn't steal anything," came his voice innocently.
"Drop the fucking bat!!" he screamed again.
Shawn's hand released the bat which clanged down on the concrete floor and rolled slightly away from him.
"Now move back..."
Shawn took several steps away from the dead body and the bat.
"...Lay down and put your hands over your head!" The officers voice cracked with every emphasized word and tears rolled down his face. When Shawn had complied, the officer stepped over the dead body and the puddle of blood, fluids and bone chips that grew larger on the floor. Pulling out his hand cuffs, he grabbed Shawn's right hand, and pulled it from his head to his lower back while clicking on the first cuff. Then, grabbing Shawn's left hand, he pulled it down to Shawn's right and clicked on the second cuff. The officer read Shawn his rights, and pulled out his radio.
"This is Regis - Kent is down - call for an ambulance. The suspect has been neutralized."
With that, the footsteps of two other officers entered the house and came down to the basement. Stepping over the dead body of officer Kent, with looks of shock, they stumbled toward Shawn. Picking Shawn up by both arms, they walked him out of the basement and left officer Regis to tend to the body of officer Kent. Once outside, Shawn noticed how several of the neighbours had collected at a distance to see what was going on. The same warm breeze blew in his face, and the officers pushed Shawn into the back of a squad car, banging his head on the door frame. They left the scene just as the Coroner and an Ambulance arrived.
The adrenaline in Shawn subsided, and was soon resurrected by the thoughts of vengeance he had scored.
'Hah - showed them - now they have something on me - wait -this is going to be serious shit - I don't just have the theft thing against me anymore - wrong time to take a stand - fuck time - totally wrong way.'
Again the adrenaline subsided and they arrived at the jail. Shawn was booked, finger printed, and photographed. They took his statement, then put him in cell 9D with a few other people.
Shawn sat down on the empty bench, and started to realize what he had done. Everything happened so fast. He wished for redemption - forgiveness - time to be reversed - or anything that would just let him wake up and realize that this was all a bad dream and he fell asleep on his hammock in the back yard. With a glazed expression staring into space, his trance was broken by a deep husky voice across the cell from him.
"Hey buddy!"
Shawn shook his head slightly with the wisdom that he wasn't dreaming and asked, "What?"
"What-cha in 'ere for?"
"I murdered an officer and a few other things like resisting arrest and theft or something."
"You offed a fucking pig man?!?"
"It was kind of an accident - I'm not really sure I knew what I was doing."
"Holy fuck man, you're in deep shit. They fry cop-killers these days." The man turned to the door of the cell and yelled out, "Hey everyone we got ourselves a cop-killer here." Cheers echoed from the other cells.
Turning back to Shawn, he leaned forward with his eyes full of excitement, "so how'dya do it, man?"
"I kinda shattered his skull with a baseball bat."
"Fuckin'eh man, that's amazing!" His two week beard shifted as his lips stretched into a smile. He leaned back against the wall and looked as though he was trying to picture what had happened.
Shawn just looked down to the floor and tried to forget that this could be his last few weeks alive.

After a restless night of sleep that seemed to last for days, the lights were finally turned back up in the cells and he opened his eyes. His cell mates were still snoring and flopped out on their bunks. Shawn sat up and got out of his bunk. Rubbing his hands over his face, Footsteps grew louder as they approached his cell. Shawn's mind raced as the footsteps grew louder and he saw himself back in the basement with the footsteps of Police coming in for him. The adrenaline started to push into his blood.
"Rohbetie..." shouted a detective.
Shawn jumped and spun around to the gate of the cell. The detective and two officers stood at the gate waiting for him.
"We're taking you to the Arraignment."
"So Soon?"
"Ohh, we don't waste time with guys like you. You're in real fuckin' trouble kid."
The officers secured shackles on Shawn's wrists and ankles with about two feet of chain between them.
Nervous tension started to build within Shawn. They walked out of the cell block and through part of the Police station. They escorted him through a door to a long narrow hallway that had a door at the other end labeled "COURT 3". Walking down the hall, Shawn could only see visions of the electric chair and thoughts of high voltage passing through his body. The adrenaline flowed as the door came closer.
Shawn broke from the two officers grasp about ten feet from the courtroom door. Swinging around, he snagged the head of the detective with the two feet of chain between the shackles on his wrists. Choking the detective, Shawn turned to put the detective between him and the two officers.
"This is all wrong!!!" shouted Shawn.
Shawn pulled tight on the chain. The detective grabbed for it, but it was sinking into the soft flesh of his neck.
"I want you to let me outta here and nobody else will get hurt."
The two officers pulled their guns. The detective's face turned blue. Shawn kept pulling tighter, and the detective's body soon fell limp. Shawn started to move back towards the door they had entered, still pulling tighter on the chains and dragging the limp body.
"It's OK. We will help you. Just let the detective go and we will work it out."
"You're lying! You think I'm stupid, you fuckin pigs!!"
Blood was noticeably running down from the detective's throat. Adrenaline still pumped as Shawn tried to figure a way out of this situation. As Shawn backed into the door, blood was everywhere. Now he had to open the door. He couldn't without dropping the body. Then the body dropped and the head fell soon after it as Shawn's reefing on the chain finally severed the detective's neck.
The two officers were in shock. One officer advanced and Shawn lunged. A gun shot exploded through Shawn's shoulder and embedded itself in the door. Shawn dropped to his knees as another shot tore into his chest. His body fell backwards to the floor.
Both officers rushed over to see if he was still alive. One officer raised Shawn's head
"None of this was supposed to happen," Shawn murmured
The door burst open as several more officers entered the hallway with their guns at the ready.
"It's okay, he's been neutralized."
Shawn coughed and sputtered blood onto his chin.
"None of this..."
Shawn issued a last cough of thick blood from his lungs and died.
The officer put Shawn's head back to the floor and looked up at his partner.
"Dumb shit..."
A team of paramedics entered the room to check the body. The police officers dispersed.
Later the Coroner reported that the body had an abnormally high adrenaline content possibly from a defect and could have been controlled or even cured if it had been diagnosed by a doctor.