 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
| Page Five |
|
"Roy, just forget about that for a sec, you're forgetting we still have impressive collateral right at our fingertips.." he grinned. "Where?" "In that old engine we have fading in the sun out back. Kind of a shame we never found Mr. Kerner the buyer that day. Here's our opportunity to do a good deed with it." Roy's face started to smile even as the squad rounded into the gateway being opened for their vehicles onto the airport tarmack by LAX security. "What afterwards? Do you and Mr. Farley go into the stud business then?" "No man, nothing so selfish. I wish you'd just think for once. I'm talking about arranging all this for that young gal we worked on at the track. What was her name?" "Mary Kenner.." "Yeah, her. It just tears me up that her filly had to be destroyed. What would you think about us giving her and Jose Rivero all of Swale's ownership shares?" Gage asked. Roy blinked as he pulled up into the space reserved for fire vehicles along the marine jetty fence line. "Is Johnny Gage turning into a bonafide do gooder? I can't even begin to imagine that. But.. I have to admit.. I'm really warming up to the idea.." "Then sign.." Gage said, thrusting papers out at Roy that he had folded inside his shirt and shouting into the violent wind coming from the landing pad just in front of their bumper. "We're in the middle of responding to a run here!" Roy said incredulously, squealing to a halt and jamming the squad's transmission into park. "SoOoooo, the faster you sign the faster we can get out of here.." Gage countered over the roar of Helicopter 8's rotor wash as he opened the door and handed out the ownership signup form and his green pen out to his partner. Roy grabbed the sheet, John Handcocked it, and shoved it back inside the squad before closing the door. "What about Cap's signature?" "I got his after lunch in the only place where I could think of to corner him on equal ground. In the john.." "You haven't a shred of human decency, pally, you know that?" Roy DeSoto rolled his eyes. "Probably not. But I get results when I want em." They had grabbed all the gear into the squad stokes when another set of hands grabbed one end of the stretcher in their run towards the helicopter and the waiting coast guard pilots. "Detective Crockett.. What are you doing here?" Roy asked, as he almost dropped the stokes and the equipment in surprise. Gage double blinked, too. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Detective Crockett said. "Got word you fellas were on a run to the Windjammer. I've a vested interest in that ferry. I've been ordered to come along." "Oh, why?" Gage said as he and Roy slipped into lifevests and headsets in the belly of the coast guard bird. "Do you remember Dusty Shraeder at all? That fine upstanding gentleman your jockey friend from the track was dead set on chewing up and spitting out, despite his injuries?" he quipped sarcastically. "Oh, him.. " Gage said with displeasure, light bulb going off. "So that's his name. I remember now. He was kinda shady and slimy like, if I recall.." "In more ways than one. Not only is he dealing in gross negligent racehorse fraud, he's dabbling in a rundown ferry business, too. His company has been cited for five maintenance violations on that boat alone this season." Gage nodded. Then he toggled his headset to the pilots. "Helicopter 8, This is Squad 51. We're aboard. Dave, what do we got?" " Squad 51, We've a 250 passenger boat bound for Catalina. And her captain reports her engine's caught fire. The first responding Coast Guard cutter reports she's already nearly fully involved astern." "Was she at capacity?" Roy interceded into the radio frequency through his own radio set. "No, only to one third according to the Harbor Master." "Understood." DeSoto said. ::More than enough reason for the fire engine crews to come along with us..:: Roy glanced down out the window as the Coast Guard chopper lifted off the landing pad. He could see Cap, and the rest of the gang piling into Waterboat 245 along with Station 110's crack marine fire team. ::No doubt they'll be joining us on that fire boat for the secondary assignment once we've handled the main evacuation.:: --------------------------------------------- |
 |
 |
 |
|
Cap lifted his HT. "Engine 51 to Helicopter 8." ##Go ahead, Engine 51.## "Our ETA to site is thirty minutes." ## 10-4, 51. ## Cap grinned and patted each of his men on the back as they boarded the swift hulled coast guard cutter. "Time to get your feet wet, boys. " Chet eyed the big, bobbing red and white boat suspiciously. "Aw, Cap, do I have to? I just got done polishing my shoes." "Get in there.." Cap mock growled, giving Kelly a shove across the short plank leading from shore to the sleek rescue coast guard Crestliner. Marco strapped into the life vest a guardsman handed him and he asked. "Hey, Cap. Just how many oceanic runs have you logged in your day? I take it disaster calls like this aren't common." "You're right. I've only seen three. This is my third. Just consider it a four alarm, gang. The only difference is that any firefighting will be completely on a horizontal plane instead of a vertical one and the hosework will be trickier because the waves will be shifting us up and down on the boat's deck. We're only going to be cover for 110's marine firemen. Remember that. Do whatever they ask of you in full support." "Right, Cap." Soon, Waterboat 245, loaded with 110 and 51's firemen, sped out to sea after the disappearing Chopper 8. ------------------------------------------------------ |
 |
 |
|
Kel Brackett helped Dusty Schraeder out to open air and he shouted to the panicking, singed people around him, handing out lifevests from inside the railing benches, when he saw the ferry's employees doing the same. "Everybody, get set to jump overboard! The beach is right there.." Casting his eyes around the milling crowd, Kel fought through them as best he could, spitting out the blood in his mouth while he searched for any sign of either of his parents while he put on a life vest and found three others. "You rest there.. I'll be back for you.." Kel gasped through the smoke at Dusty, whom he parked onto a deck chair reluctantly. Giving the dazed man another glance, Dr. Brackett fought his instincts to stay and help the injured around him and he forced himself to listen to the new ones of panic he felt growing inside of him about his family. "Mom! Dad!! Can you hear me?!" A thick oily curtain of burning haze swept over the deck and felled seven in a suffocating grip. Kel stumbled, choking on the stench in his throat and he crawled over to the nearest body and pulled it to the windward side of the deck by feel alone. On the fourth trip with a victim, his seeking hand found his father, unconscious and face down. "Dad..!!" His fingers found that he had a pulse and that he was still breathing. Immediately Kel's head shot up. ::She would never leave his side like this..:: "Mom!" "Kel?" she gasped from very nearby. "Over here.." he coughed. "Put this on.." he handed Anna Rose one of the three life vests he still had with him and quickly tied one around his father. He dragged Brent over to where he could hear the ferry personnel helping people into the water for the desperate swim to the wave dashed shoreline of Catalina Island. He snapped out an order. "Don't send a swimmer with this man until I get back.." he ordered one lieutenant, pointing down to his father. "I am going to go get a victim with a head injury. Then we'll leave." Kel took a breath of the relatively clean air by the railing on the island side of the burning ferry and turned to go back to Dusty Schraeder whom he had left behind. Anna Rose stopped him. "No, Kel. Don't leave us! You'll never make it out again.." she sobbed. "I'll be fine. He's not that far away." Dr. Brackett said as he looked up and saw the fast approaching outline of a coast guard cutter making a rapid headway from the island's small resort jetty over to their ferry. "Just stay with dad." Kel disappeared, crawling back into the dark smoke of the inner deck. ------------------------------------------------- |
 |
 |
|
Roy and Johnny couldn't see the ferry. Just a column of black greasy smoke coming from the wounded boat almost hugging the shoreline. Roy thought, ::The engineer's must have shifted the rudders to allow her to drift towards shore. Smart thinking.:: Then John saw startling colored dots floating in the water. He tapped his partner on the shoulder. "Roy, they're already abandoning ship!" Roy spoke calmly into his radio headset. "Most look ok. I'm just concerned about the ones who are hurt and not able to swim away from that boat.." Gage didn't say anything more and both paramedics and Detective Crockett were silenced by the horrifying drama unfolding like a silent movie, before them. ##Squad 51, we are touching down. You are to disembark with your equipment and report to Cutter 27 docked starboard on the jetty for your rendevous to the Windjammer. ## "10-4, Chopper Eight." The massive Coast Guard helicopter hovered only inches from the rough stoney pier that was already jammed with newly responding fireboats taking in sea water into their bilges to combat the ferry's burgeoning fire. Two minutes later, Roy and Johnny were fast footing it with the gear laden stokes between them down the rocky pier towards the landing set aside for Coast Guard's slips at the very end. Crockett had donned a coastguard jumpsuit, complete with his fire arm, and was running close after them. Johnny could see two vessels were waiting and idling with their prows aimed seaward. Gage immediately turned for the sixty foot fireboat. A shout stopped him. "51. Over here.." came a voice. Roy and Johnny turned. A guardsman on an eighteen foot red painted outboard was gesturing for them to come over to him. Gage's eyes got real big. "Oh, man.. Roy.. We're going on THAT thing?" Roy cracked a grin. "Still don't trust yourself from the last time out at sea?" "Hardly." "Well, you might not get seasick this time, pally. There'll be no masts for us to climb." Ferrys don't have any." Roy said. "Hope you're right.." Johnny groaned. Soon, DeSoto and Gage were heading out in the speedy outboard towards the column of rising soot marking the place of the sea ferry's self consuming fire. ------------------------------------------------ |
 |
 |
|
Kelly Brackett found the large Texan coughing on the deck chair. "Mister.. Let's go. I've got a life vest here for you. Easy.." he said as he flung one of the groggy man's arms over his shoulder to help him gain his feet. "This way.." The wind shifted mercifully, showing the doctor that the Windjammer's decks were now empty of people except for a few near the gap in the railing where his father lay. Dr. Brackett and Dusty Schraeder had covered half the distance to the opening in the railing when the Windjammer's fuel tanks compromised. A great force lifted both men up and flung them outwards from the main bulk of the boat as a massive exploding fireball signalled the beginning of the end for the hull breached ferry. The Windjammer listed twenty degrees to her side, towards land, and Dusty and Kel Brackett slid struggling, across the oily deck, each partially stunned by the blast. Rushing towards the ferry, Roy and John and Crockett winced as the Windjammer blew herself apart. On the front of the flying debris, a body was hurtled into the sea. "Move it move it!! To portside. Ten o'clock!! Someone just landed in the water!! " Gage shouted. Cutter 27 knifed through the waves to where the paramedics had last seen the man go down. The boat circled the area once,and the impact rings were fast fading in the ocean's regular toss and turn. "Where is he?!" Roy shouted. "There. There. Right there!" Crockett said, pointing suddenly to the left. Gage and DeSoto jumped feet first into the water from the cutter with the empty stokes. They swam rapidly to the slowly sinking man and hauled his face out of the water. |
 |
 |
 |
|
They struggled to pull their victim into the stokes long enough for the rescue boat to come forward for a pickup. Crockett and the guardsmen had only just hauled the sodden man aboard and had rolled him over when the detective exclaimed. "Schraeder!!" Gage, regained his footing on the boat's rear loading platform, and was helped on board. "Who?" A low moan came from the cut riddled Texan in the stokes as Roy bent down to check the injured man's mental status. "It's Dusty Schraeder from the horse track. My team and I got enough evidence to arrest this guy this morning on charges of animal cruelty and reckless endangerment." Crockett said. "THIS is the guy our jockey was so keen on taking out?" Gage asked. "Yeah.. Walter Farley tipped us off on his Lasix misusage and led us to some eyewitnesses who saw exactly what Dusty and a groom named Manuel did to Charismatic, the colt that caused the pileup. A little dumpster diving found the missing unused Lasix syringes they had been throwing away and their barn's ID serial number was labelled all over them." "Means and motive.." Roy sighed. "He's ok, Johnny. A bump on the head and no signs of aspiration." DeSoto said, lifting his stethoscope from the man's chest. "I'll get him on some O2." Right then, Dusty Schraeder groaned and started stirring. He awoke to a grinning Crockett's face. "Whaa? What are you doing here? Didn't you get enough of me investigating my horse barn?" the angry man asked of the detective. "More than enough. You're under arrest, Mr. Schraeder.." and he slapped on handcuffs around Dusty's wrists. "I'll say, your racing days are over.." Dusty Schraeder promptly passed out. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Johnny happened to glance up back then to a commotion from the Windjammer. Anna Rose Brackett and a ferry worker was crouched over two soot stained figures lying on the deck. "Johnny ! Roy! Over here.. My husband and son! They're hurt!" The cutter crew swiftly darted the remaining distance to the gutted Windjammer whose fire had blown itself mostly out. Roy and Gage quickly accepted pulling hands to come on board and their gear quickly followed. Roy knelt by Kel Brackett and began to check him out even as Gage did the same thing for the unconscious Brent Brackett. Johnny glanced up at Anna Rose. "You ok, Mrs. Brackett?" "Y- Yes.. The guardsman shoved me down and the explosion went over our heads. H-how are they?" Roy spoke up. "I've got a good carotid." "Same over here." Johnny said, bending down to check Brent's pupils for reaction time. "So far so good." Right then, Brent and Kel both groaned and started to awaken. "Easy, doc.." Gage said. "Docs.." he amended with a grin. "Just lie still, both of ya, and let Roy and I check ya out." Kel Brackett winced and rolled over to spit out the blood pooling in his mouth. "What about the fire..?" Gage turned and glanced over his shoulder. "That last explosion sure did a little number. Blew out the fire and exposed a wanted criminal to the local authorities as well." Johnny quipped. "Huh?" Brent Brackett grunted. "Never mind. It would take too long to explain it to ya." Roy said, getting two cannulas of 02 set for their patients. "But I can tell ya that it's all for the good." |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|