Ice Hunter by Joseph Heywood

identifying weapons with silencers.”
    â€œSo you knew there was a silencer.”
    â€œI knew a firearm had been discharged and that the sound was muffled.”
    â€œWhat did you do after the shot?”
    â€œI went toward the sound. Below and to my left I saw the buck thrashing around on its side. In front of me there was a man with a weapon in the position of port arms. I asked him what he was doing.”
    â€œThen?”
    â€œHe turned in my direction and leveled the rifle at me.”
    â€œHow did you respond?”
    â€œI turned on my tape recorder.”
    â€œYour recorder?”
    â€œRight. It’s attached to my belt. It’s Swedish-made and can pick up the sound of a butterfly running into a tree fifty yards away.”
    â€œThat’s an exaggeration.”
    â€œNo, it’s fact.”
    Everybody in the courtroom laughed. Except the defendant and his attorney.
    â€œDo all officers carry recorders, Officer Service?”
    â€œI can’t speak for all my colleagues. I got the idea from videocams on state police cruisers. COs generally work alone and often among armed people. If something happens to me, I want there to be some record to give somebody a starting point.”
    â€œYou mean, if you were dead?”
    â€œOr too injured to keep going.”
    â€œIs it legal to record this way?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDoes the court have the tape?”
    â€œIt does,” Service said.
    â€œAre you paranoid, Officer Service?”
    â€œNo, I’m careful. I saw the shooter’s rifle pointed in my direction. So I turned on the recorder.”
    â€œDid you feel threatened?”
    â€œThe shooter told me to depart.”
    â€œWhat were his exact words, please?”
    â€œHe said, ‘Split, fuckstick.’ ”
    â€œWas there an ‘or else’?”
    â€œHe raised his weapon at me.”
    â€œAnd what was your response to this threat?”
    â€œI looked down toward the buck and yelled, ‘Run, deer, run.’ ”
    â€œRun . . . deer . . . run?”
    â€œI wanted to divert the shooter’s attention.”
    â€œDid it work?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œTell us what happened.”
    â€œHe looked away and I charged and tackled him high so as to get inside the rifle. That way he couldn’t use it. We collided pretty hard and we both tumbled down the embankment. The fall separated us, but it also separated him from his rifle.”
    â€œWhat happened next?”
    â€œHe pulled a knife.”
    â€œWhat did he say?”
    â€œHe said he was going to cut off my testicles and stuff them in my eye sockets.”
    â€œWere you afraid?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œHe was a yapper. I’m not afraid of people who start talking when they try to threaten you. The dangerous ones don’t say anything. Besides, if it looked like I couldn’t handle him, I could always run away.”
    â€œYou’d do that?” Doolin feigned surprise.
    â€œLickety split, if that’s what the situation dictated.”
    Observers in the courtroom laughed. Even Peltinen grinned.
    â€œWhere was your sidearm during all this?”
    â€œIn its holster.”
    â€œYou never pulled your sidearm?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œBut he was threatening you.”
    â€œDrawing my weapon is a last resort. We’re taught when we draw to shoot to kill. I didn’t think the situation required that. Besides, his leg was broken.”
    â€œFrom the fall?”
    â€œYes, I could see how it was bent. He was so jacked up on adrenaline that the pain hadn’t hit him yet. And he was still on the ground.”
    â€œWhat did you do?”
    â€œI told him to set the knife down and push it out of his reach.”
    â€œDid he comply?”
    â€œNo, he threw it.”
    â€œAt you?”
    â€œIt passed three feet to my right, chest high.”
    â€œIn other words, he was not complying with