“An unexpected second chance”

Brian Johnson did not feel well that day. It was a rainy afternoon and he only wanted to go back home, take off his shoes, take a beer and enjoy the NBA play offs. He had wasted long hours inside that old car watching a possible suspect. After a few minutes, the rookie, as they called his partner, brought his favorite pizza with double cheese and pepperoni. He remembered his doctor telling him:-Brian cut down on fats. You are near retirement. You need to feel good, to enjoy your pension and take Martha to the cruise she always wanted. “Ok, I’ll try. But you know that is kind of tough to eat healthy.” He always carried with him the antiacids that his lovely wife bought for him. As soon as he remembered he took them out of his pocket, dissolved them in the glass of water he had and drank it all. The relief was instant. He sighed, thinking that in two hours he would be in the safety of his home, relaxed at last.
-“Brian, we lost him!” The tone of his partner’s voice brought him back to reality. Ok, now he has to connect again and follow the suspect. The siren of the car was very loud. His partner drove very fast trying to follow the black Cadillac’s light, but the suspect suddenly disappeared. “We lost him.” Brian thought. They kept driving just in case the suspect was trying to confuse them. Twenty minutes later, their radio announced they had to go to an alley nearby because a young man had been shot and they had to investigate the case. When he got out of the car he recognized his son’s red jacket, the jacket that he had bought him for his birthday the year before. He could not see his face; just black hair coming out of an L.A. Lakers cap. He began to shout. It couldn’t be his son. His boy, only seventeen, lying on the floor, all covered in blood. How could he call Martha and tell her this news? He felt on his knees thinking what to do next. He only felt hate and wanted revenge. He needed to find his son’s killer. “Nothing is going to be the same” he thought. He would spend the rest of his life looking for him. His only pleasure was to have the killer in front of his target and shoot the bastard the same way as his only boy had been executed, merciless, without any defense.
From that unforgettable moment things changed. There was no coming back. He couldn’t sleep a whole night. He felt that the killer had a connection with him but he had to find it. Why his boy? There are a lot of criminals out there, why him?
He had to leave his emotions aside if he was going to find the killer. “Emotions are dangerous; they block your power of thinking.” He told himself. “Come on Brian, think.” After many days and nights searching he found something. He came across the photo of a young man who was a corner drug dealer. He instantly remembered those eyes. Deep black eyes, with no feelings. But instead of getting the evidence to make him go to prison, he had helped him go free. The boy had hugged and told him that he would never forget him.
At that point Brian recognized those eyes. Those black eyes were the same: deep and without emotions. The photos of the suspects he had been choosing the evening before his son’s murder, which had been appearing on his desk, were the possible solution for his boy’s mysterious murder. He discovered that his son had been selling drugs for this guy and he had given this criminal a second opportunity some time before. He sat in front of his computer, paralyzed. He could not move a finger. The boy he had helped releasing ten years ago was his main suspect of his son’s murder. He could only cry in agony for the hugest mistake in his whole life.

Pen-name: Veto Nahh