Lines and shadows by Joseph Wambaugh Read Free Book Online Page A

the first time, but the old man died just before the planned visit, cheating Carlos to the end.
    They fantasized: Michael about going to law school and being a judge, Carlos about becoming a police chief.
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    Michael also loved the .357 Colt Python and Carlos let him dry fire it whenever he liked. The action on the .357 magnum was satin-smooth. Carlos ordinarily opened the cylinder and threw the rounds into a box just before the dry firing sessions. There is controversy as to how it happened. Young men playing quick draw? Carlos said he was dry firing. If so, he obviously didn't look at his target, only at the beautiful Python. He squeezed off an imaginary round. A real round exploded from the Python's muzzle. Carlos Chacon remembers the next part vividly. Michael fell to his knees, his chest smashed open. He wasn't making any noise at first.
    "I'm sorry!" Carlos Chacon cried to his friend. "I'm sorry!" Michael never answered. Finally he started moaning. The moaning sound is what made Carlos run to a telephone.
    "He's dead," a deputy sheriff said to Carlos Chacon at the hospital. And that was it. An accidental shooting.
    Carlos went with the coroner to the home of the dead boy who had dreamed of being a judge. Carlos insisted on telling Michael's mother himself. He kept saying, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" until the black woman swept him into her arms and then they both held each other and cried.
    Carlos Chacon had another dream, It was a straightforward dream, virtually devoid of symbol. In the dream Carlos sits on the edge of very dark woods. Michael comes out of the woods to greet his friend. He says, "How you doin? Everything's great with me!" They talk about trivial things and Michael goes back into the woods. The dream is not unpleasant, but it recurs. It is always exactly the same.
    Despite the accidental shooting of Michael Clarence Jackson, Carlos Chacon was accepted by the San Diego Police Department two years later. He was still a rookie when asked by Dick Snider and Manny Lopez to join the border squad. He enthusiastically accepted. Carlos Chacon would name his first son Michael, for his slain friend. But he still loved guns. And Carlos Chacon still had lots of violent dreams.

CHAPTER THREE
    THE OUTSIDERS
    ROBBIE HURT WAS TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OLD, STILL A probationary policeman with less than a year on the department. At first he hadn't known if he'd like it when he was assigned to Southern Division. It was isolated, geographically cut from uptown San Diego file://C:\Documents and Settings\tim\Desktop\books to read\Wambaugh, Joseph - Lines a... 11/20/2009
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    by the towns of National City and Chula Vista. On the other hand there were only eight to twelve men on a shift. This meant he wasn't just a badge number, as some of his academy classmates complained of being, those who were assigned uptown at central headquarters. There were certainly no lieutenants like Dick Snider uptown.
    "He was very easy to be around if you were a working cop," Robbie Hurt said. "Uptown you didn't talk to supervisors like you could talk to him. And then he asked me to take a little walk with him."
    One night before the task force was formed, Robbie Hurt and Dick Snider took off their uniform shirts and Sam Brownes, and with their service revolvers tucked in their belts they took a stroll up to Deadman's Canyon.
    Dick Snider was very outspoken, Robbie Hurt remembered. He was opinionated; he was frustrated. The rookie cop stood with his tall lieutenant and watched him gazing off at the Tijuana night lights and listened to him talk about his obsessive dream of ridding the canyons of bandits.
    "The aliens have no one in their corner," his lieutenant told him. "Imagine these peaceful people coming through these canyons. They only wanna feed their families. Imagine the fear and the abuse they suffer down