BOOK CLUB FRIDAY - GUEST AUTHOR KATHY BENNETT

Our Book Club Friday guest today is Kathy Bennett, a woman who is no stranger to murder and mayhem. A retired twenty-one-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, her authentic crime experience results in arresting stories. Learn more about Kathy at her website.   http://www.KathyBennett.com

Kathy has generously offered an electronic copy of A Deadly Blessing to one of our readers who posts a comment. -- AP

Authentic Crime…Arresting Stories

I'm thrilled to be a guest here on the Killer Crafts  & Crafty Killers blog. When pondering what I'd blog about, I considered discussing all the wonderful crafts I make and the clever tips I could offer about making a microwave oven out of plastic grocery bags. The only problem is, that once I became a police officer and subsequently retired from that career and became a novelist, I don't have time to do crafts anymore. And to set the record straight, I never knew how to make a microwave oven out of plastic grocery bags. I made that up.

When I was doing crafts, I used to like to paint ceramics, sew, and make latch-hook rugs. Okay, this was way back in the 1980's. Since I'm obviously out of the 'crafty loop,' I've decided I'll have to talk about Crafty Killers instead. The only problem is, I don't think I've run into a 'crafty killer.' Dumb killers, yes. Crafty? No.

But today I'll talk about a surprising killing I ran across when working as a police officer.

It was about nine at night when my partner Kathy and I, (yes, two Kathy's in a black and white police car…affectionately known as the 'K' car) got a radio call of a shooting that had just occurred at a gas station in a questionable part of our division. The call was assigned as 'Code 3,' which meant we were to utilize our lights and sirens while responding. There was only one problem. Although we'd done the mandatory lights and siren check prior to leaving the station, when we flipped on the siren, it didn't work. The lights were functioning, but the siren was dead.

So with Kathy driving at break-neck speed, I had our public address system (microphone) in the police car activated. Yes, I made loud wailing siren-like noises into the mic as we weaved in and out of traffic. Luckily, we met up with another officer working by himself who was responding to our call and we explained our situation to him and he took the lead with his working siren. 

While en route to the scene, we got the information that the suspect in the shooting was a female wearing brown pants and a tan top. When we arrived at the scene, there was our suspect standing outside of a pick-up truck. Kathy and I, along with the other officer, took the female into custody. As soon as she was handcuffed, I went into the mini-mart attached to the gas station to find our victim.

Paramedics were already working on him. The man had been shot in the chest, and I remember thinking it must have been a very small caliber gun because the hole wasn't that big and there was almost no blood. The victim was crying and sobbing that he was dying. I was kneeling by his head trying to comfort him and telling him not to worry, that he'd be fine.  Before long, the paramedics took him away and Kathy and I set up a crime scene as a precautionary measure, although both the paramedics and Kathy and I thought our victim was going to live…except he didn't.

About thirty minutes after the ambulance left, the lieutenant in charge of detectives showed up and commended Kathy and me for our foresight into setting up the crime scene and getting there so quickly in time to arrest the suspect.

Yeah, if he only knew that we'd made good speed with me howling into the P.A. system in our police car and the crime scene was set up more as following procedure than our thoughts the victim would die. We took his compliment and never said a word. We may not have been crafty, but we weren't dumb either.

LOL, Kathy! I'll bet you have hundreds of stories just like that. Readers, would you like to ask Kathy a question? Or leave a comment? If you do, you'll enter the drawing for a chance to win an e-copy of A Deadly Blessing. And don't forget to check back on Sunday to learn if you're the winner. -- AP