Daniel Malvern

Daniel Malvern is a state policeman from Kent's Hill, Maine, who was brought to the Placerville High School hostage crisis as the best sharpshooter in the state. He was a small man with a crew cut, and he looked like an accountant. The police gave him a huge Mauser rifle with a telescopic sight. Before taking his position, Malvern drove to a gravel pit several miles away, test-fired the weapon, and then returned to the school. He walked down to one of the police cruisers parked on the lawn, concealing the rifle down his pants leg. He then took a prone position behind the front fender, in deep shadow, and gauged the windage with a wet thumb, finding it nil. Through the 30X cross-hatched lens of the telescopic sight, Decker must have looked as big as a bulldozer. There was no window glass to throw a glare, because Decker had earlier broken the windows when he fired his pistol to stop the police from using a bullhorn. It was an easy shot, but Malvern took his time, aware that this was probably the most important shot of his life. He waited for his opportunity. When Decker half-rose and half-leaned over Mrs. Underwood's desk, his body half-twisted toward the window, Malvern fired. The bullet struck Decker exactly where Malvern had hoped and expected: through his breast pocket, directly over his heart. But the bullet did not penetrate Decker's flesh. It struck the hard steel of Titus, the Helpful Padlock, which Decker had earlier rescued from a wastebasket and placed in his pocket. The impact of the slug knocked Decker backward against the blackboard, and he hit the floor. The bullet smashed through the hard, high-density plastic dial of the lock, sending high-speed bits of shrapnel out through his shirt, but not one of them touched his flesh. The steel behind the face caught the slug, turning it into a deadly lead blossom with three bright petals. The whole lock was twisted, as if by fire; the semi-circular lock bar had been pulled like taffy, and the back side of the lock bulged but did not break through. The padlock left an imprint on Decker's chest in angry purple, with the flesh mashed into an indentation that looked deep enough to hold water. Malvern's shot, though perfectly aimed, failed to end the standoff. Decker survived, and the crisis continued for nearly another hour. The shot did, however, have a profound effect on Decker's mental state. After the bullet was stopped by the lock, Decker's head felt very strange, as if his brains were running without coolant and overheating like a big hot rod engine in the desert. He felt a strange, almost tempted feeling that he was holding himself together by sheer willpower. The failed assassination attempt also hardened Decker's resolve. He screamed at Principal Denver over the intercom, telling him to tell the police that the minute anyone shot tear gas or anything else into the room, he would make them sorry. The shot, and its failure, became a turning point in the standoff, demonstrating that Decker was not invulnerable but that he was, for the moment, protected by an almost absurd piece of luck. Malvern himself is never seen again in the narrative; his single, decisive action is recounted by Decker in retrospect, after the crisis is over. The shot is a key fact revealed to the reader, changing their understanding of the story by showing that the police were willing to use lethal force and that Decker's survival was a matter of pure chance.