Chapter One

James Hayes got off the guy he finally managed to tackle after five blocks of dodging cars and things being tipped over to slow him down. The guy lay face down on the ground unconscious from the blow. Hayes took a few deep breaths and wiped sweat from his brow. He looked at the guy and sneered,” I wasn’t speaking to myself when I said ‘Freeze.’”

            At that moment a police cruiser pulled up next to Hayes and a female officer got out of the driver’s seat.” Damn, Hayes. What’d you do to the guy?” She said with slight smile on her face.

            Hayes just smiled still trying to catch his breath,” Oh, shut it Bennett and open the back seat for this guy would you?”  He grabbed the guy by the collar of his shirt and pulled him up then threw him against the hood of the cruiser. Silently, he placed cuffs over the man’s wrist and struggled as he carried him to the open car door. He shoved him inside,” Last time this guy’s going to beat his girlfriend, I’ll make sure of it.” He slammed the door as the guy inside started to move.

            He looked at Jessica Bennett, his partner of the Los Angeles Police Department. He held out his hand,” I’m driving.” Bennett was silent as he handed him the keys. She knew how emotional he got when cases like assault came up. And beating on a female AND their kid wasn’t going to get Hayes in a good mood; in fact you’d be lucky to make it to jail without being knocked out after you woke up from the arrest.

            Hayes got into the drivers seat and drove off as soon as Bennett sat down in the passenger’s seat. As they left the parking lot of a grocery store the criminal in the back started to groan. The vehicle’s speed increased from 30 to 40. Hayes’ face turned from neutral to the side of angry, though it was hard to tell.

            A voice from the backseat,” Ugh, what the hell happened? Where am I?” He started to talk faster as he started to become alert.” Hey…HEY! Let me out of these cuffs, pig! I want my lawyer! I wasn’t read my rights, I’ll sue!” All randomness and it meant nothing to Hayes.

            Hayes spoke loudly at first to make the guy shut up,” Shut it! Good, now that you’re silent. First of all, I did read you your rights while you were knocked out.” He didn’t but it wouldn’t matter because the guy didn’t remember a thing. The guy didn’t deserve rights in Hayes opinion, so he skipped a little procedure.” Secondly, you’re under arrest because you think it’s ok to abuse women AND their children. And finally, if you don’t shut up, I’ll be forced to beat the hell out of you.” Hayes gripped the wheel until his knuckles turned white. He hated scumbags like these.

            “I want to see "“ He started. Hayes put his foot down on the brakes hard. Luckily, Bennett and Hayes were wearing their seatbelts though the guy in the back wasn’t lucky. His body came forward and his head connected with the glass. Some blood stuck to the glass but the guy’s body came back and fell over the seat. He was knocked out again. Hayes sighed with relief.

            “Damn, that felt good.” He looked over at Bennett who couldn’t exactly say the same.

            “What the hell was that, James? You’re not suppose to retaliate once you have a suspect in cuffs,” she shouted.

            “It was necessary to get him to shut up. He didn’t follow instructions so I retaliated. And if it makes you feel any better, he’s not dead.” Hayes sneered back at her. They always had some sort of argument after each arrest, especially when he caught the bad guy. He was always a little rough when it came to taking down the suspects and it made him, by Chief Rauling’s term, dangerous.

 

            They pulled up to the Emergency Room and a stretcher came out with two nurses with it. “Who’d you beat up this time, James?” Nurse Jackie said with slight weariness in her voice.

            “This guy thought it was OK to beat up his girlfriend and her 7 year old kid.” Hayes struggled to keep control.

            Nurse Jackie saw this,” Let me get him from the back seat. Jessica, do you mind helping me?”

            “Sure, I’ll be glad to.” Bennett said. Jackie and Jessica were sort of best friends. And it happened due to all the visits from hurt suspects. Together they pulled the unconscious guy out of the back seat and Jackie made a disgusted face.” James, you defiantly did damage to this one.” They ran inside where a doctor waited to administer treatment.

            Hayes saw a janitor cleaning out a trashcan nearby, he ran up to him.” Do you have window cleaner on you? I have a little mess on the window in the backseat of the cruiser. “ He said kind of shyly.

            The janitor smiled,” I’ll take care of it, Officer.”

            Hayes smiled,” Thanks. It’s just over there. Thanks so much.” He backtracked to the cruiser and went inside the E.R doors. He grabbed the handcuff keys from the side of his belt and waited for thirty seconds. Just then, Jessica ran up.

            She held out her hands,” We need the "“ Hayes put the keys in her hand and nodded with no sense of happiness or sadness to what he did.  She ran back down the hallway and disappeared around the corner. Hayes turned and walked outside where the Janitor just finished cleaning the window on the inside of the cruiser. He smiled and nodded his head at him and walked off.

            Hayes sat against the cruiser’s hood with his arms folded across his chest. At that moment his cell rang and Hayes looked at it to find that the Chief was calling him. No surprise there, he was expecting it. He cleared his throat and pressed the talk button.

            “Go ahead.” He said as if expecting to hear yelling.

            “I’m not going to yell, I’m not going to sound pissed off, I’m not going to suspend you….yet. I just want to know your side of the story before I finally lose my temper and explode.” His deep, angry voice said everything he said he wasn’t going to do.

            “I tackled him when he tried running and I slammed on the brakes to shut him up while we were on our way to the hospital. That’s about it.” Hayes said in a low voice. He ended the call before the Chief could make a response and sighed. All these rules, boundaries… just nonsense surrounded him. These so called rules stopped the police from catching the real criminals. Taggers, J-Walkers, teens skateboarding on ‘private’ property. Those were not crimes, not ENDANGERING crimes anyway.

            James Hayes joined the force to catch the people that put others in danger. Child abuse, assault, rape, and murder… things that Hayes devoted his life to stop. And he wasn’t about to let boundaries restrict him from doing his job. No matter what the punishment might be.

            Jessica Bennett walked out of the hospital and stood in front of him with a serious face and her arms crossed. Here we go. Bennett is going to yell at me and then the Chief will get his turn. Hayes thought to him.

            She took a breath and sighed.” I called the station, a police officer is going to come by and pick him up tomorrow. His girlfriend is going to charge him with assault & battery AND child abuse. Turns out that this isn’t this guy’s first charge with abuse or assault charges. According to his records he has had two cases of attempted robbery, both at the same 7-11. One charge of theft and two charges of assault & battery, but this will be his first case of child abuse. So good news for you, he won’t see freedom for a very long time.” She smiled weakly. Her brown eyes showed some sorrow and confusion.” Chief says he’s not going to be nice this time. You shouldn’t have done that, James.” Her voice softened as she went on.

            Hayes sighed and nodded. He looked away and walked to the other side of the car. He stood at the door with his finger on the handle,” Yeah, well I did it anyway. Crimes like that deserve no mercy… not from me anyway.” He said and quickly got into the driver’s seat.

 

            They pulled up in front of the police station that was right in the middle of downtown L.A. Bennett started to get out when she noticed that Hayes had yet to get his hands off the wheel. She looked down at her dress pants deep in thought.” The guy is in jail, James. Get over it.” She said with a slight smile across her red lips. Hayes blinked and looked at her.

            “I’m sorry. What? I was sort of spaced out. Long day and I’m sort of out of it.” He said with a smirk. Then he gave a deep breath.” Ok, let’s get this over with. I wanna go back to my crappy apartment to sleep.” He turned off the cruiser and got out before Bennett could say anything else on the matter. James Hayes wasn’t the sort of guy that liked therapy sessions and anything involving him opening up was a therapy session.

            Exactly five seconds had gone by since they entered the front door and Chief Raulings was already walking towards him. Not as much walking as quickly storming in their direction.” Hayes, in my office…now!” He yelled from across the room. A few of Hayes’s fellow officers who knew him looked in his direction with a smirk. Some even remarked to the situation.

            “Someone’s in trouble.” They would say mockingly. There were of other comments from his colleagues, even some he didn’t know.

“Take it like a man!”

“ What’d you do this time, Hayes?”

 And of course Hayes’s favorite,” Whose head did you bash in?”

Hayes nodded at Bennett and walked across the lobby following the Chief, who went into an elevator. Chief Raulings was waiting inside the elevator. When Hayes reached it, he hesitated, and then got inside next to the Chief.

“That little stunt you pulled in the parking lot got the State Officials up my a*s. Saying that we’re not ‘Safe’ enough to protect a city.         Some citizens are calling for your resignation, if not you being fired,” he said with slight anger in his deep voice. Even redness could be seen through his dark skin.

“I did what I had to do to get my man, sir,” Hayes said while he looked down at his feet. Chief Raulings was a good guy and the best Chief this city had seen in a while. Hayes felt kind of bad that he had put him in this situation. Chief Raulings put a hand over his baldhead thinking.

“Well, you got him. So why go the extra mile to slam on your brakes and cause a fracture of the skull? And I don’t care if he was bugging you. Scumbags like that spend their life trying to make a bad name out of us. It’s our job to not let them get to us while we’re doing what we’re supposed to do. And that’s to protect the citizens of Los Angeles. Do I make myself clear?”

They finally stopped on the fourth floor and stepped out onto a red carpet that had golden squares dancing around the floor.  They walked along the rows of desks that took up most of the space on the floor. Finally, they reached a corner office that was a bit bigger than the others. The office overlooked the activities of everyone outside the front of the building. White walls filled with newspaper articles of past arrests that Chief Raulings had made during his time on the force, then his diplomas and awards hung perfectly straight next to his desk.

Chief Raulings walked behind his desk that was stacked with paper and a barely visible desktop. He sat down and leaned back comfortably looking up at the ceiling. He brought up his feet and placed them on the edge of the desk.

“Well,” he started slowly,” considering the fact that you have a very nice pile of complaints and enough rule breaking in the past to make a book. This one might be the final straw; the board is sick of excuses and will probably take action this time. So either you take my punishment or you take it to them to try to get around me. But I doubt they’ll be as tolerant of you as I am. They’ll probably demand you hand over your badge, if not fine you. You’ll be lucky if they didn’t want to have you serve time yourself.”

            Hayes opened his mouth to say something but the Chief put up a finger for silence. His eyes still staring at the ceiling in thought.” Hear me out before you start whining. It’s either that OR you can take my punishment. My punishment is... let’s see… a month suspension without pay. I also suggest some anger management courses or therapy. Seem reasonable?” His brown eyes rested upon Hayes who sat down on one of two red cushioned chairs. His mouth was slightly ajar and he didn’t know what to say.

            “ A month? Therapy and anger management?” Hayes really couldn’t say anything else. He expected the damage to be bad but bad enough to have a whole month of doing nothing? It was of course reasonable; he just couldn’t believe he’d be doing nothing for a month.

            “I say this is more than reasonable, Hayes. Truth is that the board will probably want someone to blame and all your suspects you caught have had… injuries to say the least.” The phone rang from somewhere and Chief Raulings cursed as he tossed papers to the side to get to the phone. He picked it up.” This is Chief Raulings…” He glared at me then responded.” Yeah. I know. All right. Yes, sir.” He hung up.” That was the Mayor. A local news program WBZR just discussed this incident live.” Hayes closed his eyes and sighed deeply then he slowly glanced at his watch lazily, it was midnight. He brought his hands up to his temple and rubbed gently. So much time has gone by. He got the guy around 9 o’clock that evening, which meant he just spent three whole hours in a blur. The local news always aired at 11 pm.” He wants someone punished for it so he can reassure the city that steps have been taken to ‘not let this happen again’. He’s going on air tomorrow to address it.” He held out his hand.” Sorry, Hayes. I’m not letting you go to the Board because I can’t lose the best I have. But punishment has to be given. I want your badge and gun.” Hayes didn’t protest, he simply got up and reached behind him. He pulled the gun from his jeans and then lifted his left hand and grabbed his badge that was attached to his belt in the front. Hayes placed them on the desk and walked towards the door.

            Chief Raulings grabbed his gun and badge and placed it in a drawer in front of him.” Hayes.” Hayes turned to face the Chief.” See you in a month.” Chief Raulings didn’t know exactly what else to say.

            Hayes nodded slowly,” Same to you, sir.” He turned and walked out of the office.

            He walked back to the elevator and pressed the button that took him to the second floor. When he got out he walked over to his desk and grabbed his sweater that read ‘South Carolina’. He went across the room and walked across a bridge that went over the street and into the garage. When he reached the very top, he got into his black 2001 Nissan Skyline GTR.  He drove in silence until he got to his apartment on West Jefferson Boulevard. He got out and climbed a flight of stairs until he reached a door that said 201.

            James Hayes entered his bedroom and tossed his jacket to the side. He spent the next several minutes changing into his sweatpants and t-shirt. Then he brushed his teeth and went to bed. Most of the night he spent just staring at nothing, unable to sleep. A whole month away from his job… his life. There was a reason his life was his work. Now he had nothing to do for a whole month.

 

The next morning, Hayes woke up around 10 am and slowly got out of his bed. He stumbled into the kitchen and made himself some pancakes with eggs and syrup. After he had finished he checked his phone and realized that he got a phone call from Bennett. He listened to the voicemail.” Hey, James. Just calling to see where you’re at since you’re not at work like you’re supposed to be. Call me back.” Her voice was soft and sooth enough to put him back to sleep.

He called her back and after two rings, Bennett picked up breathless.” Hello?”

Hayes smiled,” Hey. How you doing this morning?”

“Oh my god, James. Where are you?” She sounded worried.

“Relax. I just got suspended for a few days.” Her breathing stopped for a second.

“ How long is a ‘few’, James?” Hayes could tell by her tone that she was getting irritated now.

“Oh, not very long… just a week or two… or four.” He said with confession.

“James…” she started complaining.

“ Before you start, Bennett, let me say that it was either this or being fired. And I didn’t exactly want to spend a month trying to find another job because I tackled a guy,” he said in defense.

“ I should come over there and slap you silly for being so stupid, James.” She said with complaint and anger in her voice.

Hayes laughed.” You can’t. You have to work, remember?”

This caused Bennett to laugh softly,” Ok, fine. But you better hope I’m busy all month cause if I get a minute’s break, I’m going to go over there and beat you senseless, got me?” She said with slight seriousness. Hayes couldn’t help but smile; Bennett had a way with words after all.

“Looking forward to it, Bennett.” He said softly and hung up before she could respond.

Most of the day went by in a blur, it was Wednesday and all Hayes could think about was when the four weeks of torture end. By the time it was nightfall, Hayes was about to lose it. I can’t even go a day without being a work. He thought menacingly to himself. And it was true; he took after his dad in the sense of being major workaholics.

The next morning, he woke up around 8 am and decided to get out of the apartment and do something. He pulled on his Nickelback T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans and grabbed his leather jacket on the way out. He walked silently down the street and took a left until he came to a bar. He walked in and ordered some chicken wings, he wasn’t a alcoholic drinker but the bars always had some nice food. After ordering some to go he walked out and back tracked to his apartment where he hopped in his car and drive off down the street. Finally, after a few minutes he reached the beach, which wasn’t as bad as it was in the summer when people crowded the place. But it was early fall and activity slowly declined.

Hayes found a parking space about a block away from the beach and slowly walked towards it. The beach was always a getaway spot for him, the sound and view gave him some sort of peace. Slowly, he ate his chicken wings as he sat on the sand looking out into the ocean, then his attention focused on the people around him. A couple was walking and laughing along the edge of the shore where the waves reached. Six guys played volleyball to Hayes’s left and finally the people trying to get a last minute tan before winter. The temperature was well into its 60s which was perfect for just laying around under the sun.

The ocean’s waves crashed into the beach, the guys laughed and cursed as they played volleyball. Music played next to the tanners that lay nearby, nothing really out of the ordinary as far as Hayes could tell. Suddenly a scream arose from close to the ocean, his focus scanned for the source. The couples that were walking along the ocean were now yelling and arguing at each other.

            Hayes slowly put down his chicken wings and focused all his attention on the situation. The woman pushed the guy and another woman around her 20s was standing close and just watched with her arms crossed. Hayes smiled as he figured it out. The guy is cheating on his girlfriend with another woman. And guess who found out? He glanced down at his empty tray of chicken wings; he got up and turned away. At that moment his cell rang, he reached in his back pocket and pulled it out. It was Chief Raulings calling. He cleared his throat nervously and answered. “Hey, Chief.”

“Hayes, we need you back at the Police Station right now.” He said with slight panic in his voice.

“Chief, what’s going "“ He started

“I said now, damn it!” He screamed and hung up.

Hayes immediately stood up and ran off towards his car, leaving behind his chicken wings and drink he bought at a nearby stand. He jumped into his car and drove off doing 60 MPH on a 30 MPH street.

Author's Note

Here is the screwed up first chapter

Reviews

[Jazique]

Okay language wise your first chapter is not bad as for vocabulary is spot on but, you may want to go back and fix some grammar issues by seeing how everything sound and how its read to see if it all makes sense. As for the enjoyment of the reader I must say your first chapter was interesting. I's say Hayes has a sense of humor when it comes to certain things and he's serious about his job but, yeah he can definitely be blinded by anger at times. Can't wait to read the next chapter to see what reason the Chief may want him to return to the station. Anyways your first chapter wasn't too screwed up I mean you had the readers attention and still hanging on the last word wanting to know more. So excellent job and keep it up.