Free Rise of The Iron Eagle (The Iron Eagle Series Book 1) by Roy A. Teel Jr. Page A

“True dat.” He was just getting into the car when both his and Steve’s cell phones went off simultaneously. They both answered and said the same thing when they hung up, “Coston Middle School!”

    Steve and his team arrived on scene at the same time as Jim’s. The school was abuzz with police, state, federal, and county law enforcement. Police and news choppers flew overhead. Police choppers shined nightsun lights down on the school and its surrounding neighborhood. Steve and Jim walked into the main entrance and asked for the first officers on scene. One pointed to three men off in the corner; there was a paramedic attending to one of them. As Steve and Jim approached, they could see that they were two WCPD officers and what looked like a school security guard. The medic was attending to the guard’s head. The reason for Steve’s presence was obvious; he was wearing his blue windbreaker with bright yellow FBI letters on it. Jim was in street clothes; however, he had his badge on his belt clip and his gun in a holster over his shoulder. Steve asked who found the body. The guard raised his hand, his head still down with a compress on the back of it. He asked what happened. “To tell you the truth, I don’t really know. I had just come back from doing my rounds when I saw a shadow behind me, and the next thing I know I come to, and I’m in Mr. Roskowski’s office, and Mr. Roskowski…or what’s left of him… is sitting in his chair.” Jim asked the direction to the office. The guard pointed behind him, and both men told him to stay put. They would need to interview him.
    The two men entered, and, there, sitting behind his desk, was Stewart Roskowski. He was nude, eyes wide open in a look of sheer panic. His mouth was open and blood had been dripping down onto his chest. Both of his arms had been skinned, and as Jim and Steve moved around to the back of the desk they could see that he was impaled on some type of long instrument, but they couldn’t tell what. Burned deep into the middle of his chest was an eagle. “Well, we don’t have to look too far to see who did this, huh?” Steve just stared at Jim. “Well…it’s true!” Jim asked if the coroner had been called and was told someone was en route. Steve instructed his team to start investigating. “This is federal jurisdiction now. We take the lead; all reports to me and cc other parties as needed.” “Well, a cause of death is going to be a tough one,” Jim said in a serious tone. “What? No smart ass comments? You were so certain on Barry’s cause of death. This one has you confused?” Steve was looking at Roskowski’s face. He studied it for a few seconds and then said, “He died from suffocation.” “How the hell did you come up with that one?” He pointed to his mouth and the blood that had dripped onto his chest. Upon closer examination, the two men could see that there was an object inserted into his throat. Steve chimed in this time, “It would seem that The Eagle forced him to ‘deep throat’ his own junk.” Jim saw it, too, “Oh man…so all the rest of this shit is premortem. Mother fucker!”
    They walked back out to the security guard who was now sitting up with no paramedic in sight. Jim asked if he wanted to go to the hospital. The guard shook his head no. “Tell us what you saw, heard, anything.” He went to stand but was still a little light-headed, so he sat back down. “There’s not much to tell. I finished my rounds and bent over because my pepper spray had fallen to the ground, and when I came to I was in Mr. Roskowski’s office.” “You said that just before you went out you saw a shadow behind you.” “Yea. I never saw anyone, and then I saw a shadow come up from behind me. A big-ass shadow, but I never got the chance to turn around.” “Be glad you didn’t,” said Jim. The kid was startled. “You think if I had seen him I would end up like Mr. Roskowski?” Steve interjected, “No…but there’s