"You don't want the rest?" the suspended officer asked with a slightly confused voice, making Tom, the reporter, stop as he had actually turned to leave.
"The rest?" Tom asked.
"Yeah, you asked on Lionel Ulysses capture," the suspended officer answered, "and while that has a whole bunch of weird shit in in it... that WASN'T all of it. It wasn't why I was suspended."
Tom looked over to the man, looking very intrigued. This had to relate to Lionel Ulysses death and the man that assassinated him. He had not initially figured to ask questions on that, because he didn't know if the Seattle Police didn't want the officer discussing that due to whatever internal investigation they might be running and the fact that the hospital's security camera footage did show the attack that the assassin made that had taken the officer out.
"I take it this relates to Lionel Ulysses' death?" Tom asked, keeping his tape recorder running.
"Yeah," the officer said slowly, "I can't talk about everything... because there are some specifics that need to be discussed... but there are some things that still need to be "finished," but yeah this will relate to Ulysses' death."
Tom nodded and moved to sit back down across from the officer. He had some curiosity regarding the attack at the hospital that all related his story, especially as they would all help to make his main story a bit easier to tell.
"So... you were part of the teams deployed for the capture of Ulysses and then transferred straight to guarding him?"
"Yeah, they had to as the day's missions was stretching everything fairly thin, so I had to go from the arrest teams to guard duty," the suspended officer answered.
"From what the police have have stated... and based on the security footage showed, you weren't exactly vigilant in the guarding of Ulysses," Tom questioned, "by which point Ulysses wasn't a threat to anyone..."
"Yeah... that was the reason for the suspension, but it's really more a minor disciplinary action," the suspended officer, "I'll admit that I could have been a bit more vigilant in making sure that nothing happened, but I didn't deliberately neglect in guarding him and our prime concern was to make sure that Ulysses didn't escape again. As the guy was as slippery as a fish according to some of the stories that got down to us."
"The initial reports says he was wounded," Tom commented as he looked to the suspended officer.
The man looked calm and rather fit. He had a black eye from the blow that the assassin had given him, but other than that he did look like was capable of handling himself in most situations. There was also something in his eye that indicated to Tom that he wanted some vindication with regard to his own personal record. Tom watched as the man did nod.
"Did you or anyone else in the police or FBI have reason to suspect that Ulysses would be able to escape, even after being shot?" Tom asked.
"There was some concern and the Feds wanted to be ready to move Ulysses to face trial as quickly as possible," the suspended officer answered, "I think their leader in this case actually left for Washington DC to try and expedite that process... but I can't say for certain."
"But do you think that Ulysses could have escaped custody?" Tom asked, "You personally."
"Maybe, odd things happen like that," the suspend officer shrugged, "but I would have heard the commotion if he tried to break free of the bed and would have been able to deal with him if Ulysses tried that."
"But instead some guy came in, knocked you out and then killed Ulysses," Tom surmised.
"Yes," the suspended officer nodded, "I was a bit bored with some things and decided to check things on my phone while things were quiet."
"And that's when the assassin got you," Tom commented.
The suspended officer nodded, "I'd just finished and looked up to see the guy strike me. Floored be before I could do anything."
"Even if you were vigilant, do you think you could have stopped him?" Tom asked.
"Not really without risking a shootout in the hospital, which no one wanted either," the suspended officer answered, "the guy came up quick and I barely got a look at him before he knocked me out."
"Did you...?" Tom inquired.
"I gave my fellow officers the best description I could," the suspended officer stated, "looked dark haired... white... but, it all happened too fast to really tell."
"Who do you think he was?" Tom asked, "a gang member? A member of the mob?"
"He didn't look like no street thug," the suspended officer answered, "that I do know. Looked like he was in a suit."
"So a big cartel man or a professional assassin," Tom commented, "did he say anything to you, or did he just knock you out?"
"He just knocked me out," the suspended officer answered, "I didn't even know what the guy did until after I came to in a different hospital room."
"By which point you knew that Ulysses was dead and your fellow officers wanted to know how the guy got past you," Tom summarized.
The suspended officer nodded. Tom gave a slow and heavy sigh. The description the guy had was fairly general, which likely wouldn't help either Tom or the Seattle police, but was still more than enough to get into any more leads about who Lionel Ulysses was and whether or not the tail was a costume or not. The officer had given him some insight on the assassination of Lionel Ulysses, but not enough to get the concrete evidence his editor wanted to publish his story. That might mean that he might not need to find out more about Lionel Ulysses in the sense of his past and where he came from. As Tom thanked the suspended officer again, he contemplated what would be his next move and that would be likely to find out more about Lionel Ulysses' past, which would mean talking with the Seattle police.