Roy Freeman’s Beretta Tomcat .32 Pistol

Roy Freeman’s Beretta Tomcat .32 Pistol shifts from an unused retirement gift to a concealed threat when Roy takes it to confront Derek Simmons. Its physical presence sharpens the danger of the meeting: Roy carries a weapon he has never fired into a conversation he cannot be sure will remain peaceful, then leaves with the gun still unused. The pistol marks the point where his investigation becomes a personal risk, and its eventual return to the glove box closes that threat without a shot.

Provenance and Condition

The pistol had been given to Roy by the department as a leaving present when he retired. He had never used it and kept it in a box in the downstairs closet, where it remained until his investigation brought him to the decision to approach Derek. The gun was therefore not a habitual part of his daily life or an instrument he had previously used in the line of duty; it was a dormant object from his former career, kept out of sight and untouched.

Before leaving, Roy took it from the box, checked its safety and trigger, and inserted a clip holding seven rounds. He wiped the oil from it with a rag and put it in his jacket pocket. These careful preparations are concrete and deliberate, but they do not establish that Roy had decided to shoot Derek. The pistol’s condition and ammunition make the danger real; Roy’s later hesitation, and the fact that he never fires it, keep that danger distinct from an actual act of violence.

The Decision to Carry It

Roy’s decision comes after he connects details in the Simmons and Wieder cases, discusses them with an assistant at the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, and has the assistant confirm the account with Chief Brocato. Even after this consultation, Roy does not simply proceed. He parks near the police station and waits behind the wheel for ten minutes, telling himself he can still change his mind. He has dinner plans with Diana for later that evening, a reminder that the confrontation is not the only future awaiting him.

He goes anyway, unable to let the case rest. On the walk toward the house, the gun knocks against his hip with every step. The remembered song The Dark End of the Street accompanies his approach, while the repeated impact of the pistol makes his decision physically present rather than merely investigative. The object is concealed, but it cannot be forgotten: it moves with him and gives the walk a foreboding charge. Roy is a retired cop who has carried a gun from the department for years without using it; now, for the first time, he brings it into a private encounter with a person at the center of his inquiry.

The Pistol in the Workshop

At the house, Roy and Derek talk before Derek goes into the workshop. When Derek wonders whether Roy is considering doing something foolish, he laughs and says there are no guns there and that he has never held one. Roy, meanwhile, puts his hand in his pocket, releases the safety with his thumb, cocks the pistol, and keeps it gripped in his hand. He has been a police officer for more than forty years, but has never had to shoot anyone. The concealed preparation makes his experience a source of restraint as well as capability: he knows how to ready the weapon, yet his own history remains one of not using it.

Through the workshop’s grimy glass, Roy watches Derek rummage among objects on the workbench and inside a box. Derek returns holding a pack of Camels. He then tells Roy, “You can take your hand out of your pocket. You’ve got a gun in there, haven’t you?” Roy answers, “Yes, I do.” Derek has recognized the pistol even though Roy brought it concealed, changing the encounter from a secret armed approach into an acknowledged danger. The exchange is brief and direct; neither man needs to mistake the situation for an ordinary visit after that point.

The pistol also frames the contrast between Roy’s suspicion and Derek’s apparent composure. Earlier, when Roy asks whether he can check, Derek says, “Let me show you I’m clean.” He stands, turns back his jacket lapels, unbuttons his shirt, and turns around so Roy can see that he is not wearing wires. Roy’s own concealed weapon remains hidden during this inspection. The two gestures—Derek displaying an unarmed body and Roy holding a gun in his pocket—make the imbalance and mistrust visible without establishing that either man has yet acted violently.

The Unused Weapon and Its Ending

A couple of minutes after leaving, Roy hears police sirens as he pulls out of Witherspoon Street. The narrative does not say that he fired the pistol, nor does it identify it as the source of the sirens. On the drive to the airport, he remembers the gun, takes it from his pocket, engages the safety, and hides it in the glove box. The sequence matters: the weapon that had been prepared, concealed, and then held ready is deliberately made safe and put away.

Roy reflects that he has finished his life as a cop without having to use a gun on anyone and considers it a good thing that the encounter has ended that way. The pistol thus carries both the possibility of violence and the weight of a professional identity Roy is leaving behind. Its final place in the glove box does not erase the risk he chose to bring to Derek’s workshop, but it records his decision not to let that risk become a shooting. As Roy continues toward the airport and his reunion with Diana, the unused gun recedes from the immediate scene, while the restraint it demanded remains part of the case’s ending.