While working undercover
in narcotics I went to the county jail to interview a prisoner that wanted to
work. When I walked in I saw her sitting across the room. She had a look on
her face that I had seen in a hundred faces before. I found that she and her
boyfriend had a bad cocaine habit, they would spend hundreds of dollars a day
on their white lover.
Shelly decided that
when she got out of jail she was going to work with me and my partner to bust
her dealer. When she got out we talked daily on the phone. She would tell me
how she was keeping busy cleaning her house or she would tell me what she was
making her boyfriend for supper. She started rehab and would tell me how good
it was to be clean and sober for the first time in a long time. I met Shelly's
mother, she was a kind soft spoken lady.
When she spoke of her daughter her voice would quiver and tears would well up
in her eyes.
She wondered what had happened to her little girl, how had she turned into the
hard drug addicted woman she now was? Shelly's mother made plans to take her
little girl home with her and make everything O.K.. Shelly appeared to be doing
well. She was looking forward to making a clean break and starting her life
over. I thought the move would be good for her and looked forward to her success.
We had made a case against her dealer and he was on borrowed time. Her new life
was at hand. Then came the late night call...The voice on the phone was noticeably
stressed. I could tell this wasn't good. The voice on the line asked if I was
awake? Again I was asked if I was awake? I was now! Then the awful news...Shelly
was dead from a gun shot to the head. The caller didn't know anything else about
the death.
The warmth of my bed became ice cold, my palms began to sweat. I couldn't get
warm, I felt I was freezing to death. I called my partner who had already received
the news, neither of us were able to go back to sleep that night. Had my cover
been blown? Was my wife and children in danger? I spent the rest of the night
sitting in the dark locked and loaded in case the killer came to my house next.
We found later that next morning that Shelly had taken her life. She died in
the arms of her precious white lover. She couldn't walk away from her habit.
Now when I hear somebody say that drug use is a victimless crime and that drugs
should be legalized I think about Shelly. There were many victims that night...Shelly,
Shelly's mother, Shelly's boyfriend and in a strange way me and my partner Jason.
Every now and then my partner and I find ourselves talking about Shelly and
wondering why she chose her path of destruction.
Dear Lord why didn't she just try that new start?
By Sgt. D.J. Rogers
Cleburne, Tx. P.D.