Chapter 1

Dale Rogers the new chief.
Mayor Laura Jamison
Lester Haines Sightly heavy night officer.
Mike Simpson day officer. Gym rat also a short 5’4”
Lucy Kerby chubby young secretary.
Jim Sloan evening officer
Adams the realtor.
Wesley Brown handyman.
Andrew Rice my roof repairman and plumbing repairman
Betty Booth the Sergeant at arms of Happy Valley
Colonel Williams rep for Happy valley
Diane Rogers his ex wife
Sarah Rogers his daughter
Wilson Thomas Daine’s bf
Allison Dempsey lucy’s temp
Raul andrew rice helper
Juanita Rauls wife
Myra Rauls daughter and Sarah friend.
Randy Reynolds Sarah’s bf

Being a long time sergeant on a big city police department put me first in line for the small town police chief’s job. Since I had recently retired, I moved down south for the job. I relived the ups and downs of a thirty year career during my first work day’s drive to the station.

I had been a detective twenty of those years. The last ten years I had been working the wheel in homicide. The wheel was how plain clothes cops in Baltimore got assigned cases. Since our only option was to respond to the crime scene instantly, those of us in homicide called it being a slave to the wheel.

When I pulled into my reserved parking space, beside the police station and city office building, I took a look down the almost empty main street. Then I decided that I wasn’t going to miss the pace of the Baltimore Police Department one bit. Things in Ansonville moved at a snail’s pace in comparison.

I stepped from the brand new SUV marked the police paint scheme. It had been purchased by the city as a welcome aboard gift for me. It didn’t matter that most police brass rode in discrete unmarked cars, I had requested the gaudy marked car. When I showed up at a crime scene, or public event, I wanted it known that I was a working chief not a figure head. I had been a working cop my whole career, and I didn’t plan to change that so late in life.

I made it through the front door without help, despite my advanced age, I had turned fifty five years old the month before. I knew I could be sitting on my ass in Baltimore watching the Price Is Right on TV at my previous home. Instead I chose to pretend that I was still a cop. I liked the idea of having a place to go every day, and a job to do when I got there. I expected it to help in my fight to stay away from the booze. Like they said in those meetings, it was a day at a time but life long fight. I knew that I had to keep my mind occupied somehow. Yes, before they hired me, the made sure the city council was aware that I was I was a ‘Friend Of Bill’.

The drive from the old sixties motel would have taken about three minutes, if I hadn’t stopped at the Downtown Diner for breakfast. The Downtown was the only restaurant I had discovered so far. To be honest it was the only one I had looked for, since it suited me just fine.

I could easily walk the three long blocks to my motel room to the station. It wasn’t nearly a permanent residence at the moment, but I was negotiating on something more permanent. It was even more of an eye sore than the fifty year old concrete block two story motel, but it was of some historic significance.

The brick building had been built in the nineteen thirties as a retail clothing store. At least that is what I had been told by the Realtor. I had wanted to recondition a building from that era in Baltimore, but never had the time or the money. I hoped I could do better in Ansonville, North Carolina.

The Ansonville town limits covered an area of about thirty square miles. There was nothing square about the town. It was strung out along an old state highway. The highway once ran from the coast of North Carolina to the blue ridge mountains. It had very little traffic by the time I arrived on the scene. There was a patchwork quilt design of bypasses and interstate highways tangled together by the time I arrived. That network was chaotic but it managed to carry most of the traffic from the coast to the mountains.

My newly optioned semi-historic building was made of brick with a tar and gravel flat roof. The roof of course leaked but not badly enough to have damaged the structure. It was going to require immediate repair of course. The roof repair and the replacement of the broken window glass was my number one priority.

I had a meeting scheduled for noon with a hot tar roofer, and a handyman who said on the phone that he would be able to deal with the windows. Hopefully no perp would be thoughtless enough to commit a murder the morning of my first day as chief.

I had occupied my first two days in town making calls about the building. I had seen it during the interview phase of my employment. During those two days, I became a little more familiar with the layout of the town. I was going to be bored to tears now and then, but I planned to find some hobbies to pass the time. Converting the downtown clothing store to a dwelling was just the first of my plans.

Once I had the price for the new roof and the windows I would make a final decision. In the meantime I had a job to do, at least till noon. I took a long breath before opening the glass door with ‘police department’ written on it. Inside I saw the same desks and chairs I had seen during the interview two weeks previously. On that morning there were two uniformed officers leaning against the first desk in the line of three desks.

“Good morning Guys, I’m Dale Rogers, the new Chief. Before you ask. I don’t stand on formalities, so find a name you can feel comfortable with for me. Just make sure you are also comfortable with your mother hearing it,” I said shaking their hands.

“I’m Lester,” the heavier one said. “I work the night shift five nights a week. If there are any calls on my nights off the county 911 operator calls the county deputies.”

“I’m going to look into that. At least for a while I’m going to take the over flow personally. We want to carry our own water as soon as possible,” I said. “And you?” I asked turning to the much more fit officer. Even though he was fit he was short. I had a feeling it was an issue for him.

“I’m Mike Simpson. I work the day shift five days a week,” he explained.

“So Lester you are finished for the day, and Mike you are just starting?” I asked.

“Yes sir,” Lester said.

“Well Mike it looks like you and I are the day watch,” I said.

“Well there one other person on days. We share a clerk with city hall. She answers the phone and does some the typing,” Mike said. “Lucy comes in at nine, so I stay here and answer the phone till she comes in.”

“Yeah, so I was told,” I admitted. “Mike just continue doing what you have been doing until I get up to speed with the procedures here.”

“Sure thing boss,” he said.

“So, I have about an hour until Lucy arrives?” I asked.

“Yes you do. She usually is on time, but not a minute early,” Lester said.

I wondered how Lester knew that since he was finished an hour before she was due to arrive. I didn’t asked since I feared it might be too personal. I didn’t need to start anything so soon.

“Who has the combination to the armory door,” I asked when I stepped into my new office. The armory was a reinforced closet with a heavy combination lock.

“I think it’s just you and Lucy. Well Lucy right now,” Lester said.

“That’s cool,” I replied.

I sat behind the third desk in the open front office while I read the procedures handbook first, then I read the town ordinances. The state law violations were mostly the responsibility of the county sheriff and the State Bureau of Investigations. We were mostly a peace keeping and security force. That suited me fine, I told myself.

I had a meeting with the county attorney after lunch. I had agreed earlier to call for an appointment when I had time. I did that because of my meetings with the tradesmen were more important than the county attorney. He wasn’t likely to make an issue since he was on salary.

I was into reading the 911 procedures and protocols when Lucy arrived. “Hello I’m Lucy,” the chubby young woman said.

“Hello Lucy,” I said. “I’m Dale Rogers, the new chief.”

“I remember you from the day you were interviewed,” she said.

“Okay, so they tell me you have the combination to the armory door?” I asked.

“Yes sir,” she said writing it down for me.

“Who else has this?” I asked.

“The mayor and it’s in a file with the county attorney,” she informed me.

“Good, is there a form I need to complete if I remove a weapon from the armory?” I asked.

“Yes I have it in my desk,” Lucy said.

“Good, I’ll decide about that later. I don’t think I need one right now.”

“There is only a small part of the vault used for firearms, the rest is used for secure storage,” she informed me.

“Now for the most important thing. Do we have a coffee pot?” I asked.

“I don’t make coffee,” she said with just a hint of reproach.

“That’s fine, so I assume the answer is no?” I suggested.

“That’s right,” she said.

“Where is the closest Walmart store?” I asked.

“There is one in Kinston on highway 70,” she informed me.

“Okay, I’m going out for a coffee maker. I shouldn’t be too long,” I said.

The drive to Kinston NC was about twenty miles over a good federal highway. The Walmart store was the same as every other Walmart in the world. I swung by the downtown of the Kinston on the way in. It was a little more than four times the size of Ansonville.

I had programed the local contact numbers into my phone, so I called the police non emergence number from the police car. “Lucy I have a meeting at noon, so I won’t have time to stop by the office first is there anything pending?” I asked.

“Just your meeting with the County Attorney his office is in Kinston,” she said.

“Call him back and tell him we will have to do it another day. Let his office pick the day,” I suggested.

“Not a problem,” she suggested.

“Good, if there is a problem call me,” I demanded.

I called the roofer whose office was also in Kinston. I arranged to stop by during his office hours, to get the results of his inspection of the roof. He also had an estimate of the repair work which was needed.

I picked up the written report from the secretary. I didn’t bother to open it. I just stuffed the envelope inside my belt while promising to call the next morning. From the roofer’s officer I drove straight to the Downtown Diner in Ansonville. I managed a cup of coffee before Wesley Brown arrived.

“Well Chief how how’s your first impression of smallville?” he asked.

“Hell, I’ve been here less than a week. Ask me in a month,” I suggested smiling. “So have you got a price to replace the glass in the windows?”

“You mean replace all the windows. I looked and it will be cheaper to replace the second story windows completely with modern thermal-pane windows. You have ten windows and they will be $2,500 total. The bill to replace the broken plate glass window display window will be $800. Let’s just say $3500 to be on the safe side.

“I’m not willing to do that much for just windows. How about metal storm windows for the second floor. You can replace the broken glass with regular glass there is only a couple of panes to be done. Caulk and paint the frames and be done with it,” I suggested.

“Okay I can do that for under a grand, You still are going to need something for that plate glass window,” he said.

“I’m thinking scrap the store front and turn it into a house entry with a large front door and some kind of decorative space filler. I can spring for a grand maybe.”

“$1,800 for it all,” he said.

“Let me see what I can work out with the owners and I’ll get back with you,” I promised. I took a look at the roofing estimate before I returned to the office.

I had a meeting with the mayor that afternoon. Mayor Jamison wanted to explain about my new duties. One of them was to be in the delegation representing the town at the local festivals. The next one would be held in the late spring only a couple of months in the future.

“As long a don’t have to ride a jackass or eat twenty hot dogs, I’m good with it,” I promised.

“Good, then welcome to town,” she said rising to dismiss me.

“Before I leave I want to ask you something. If I decide to convert one of the empty stores on main street into a dwelling, can I get a zoning exemption?” I asked.

“I have absolutely no doubt that you can. You will need to draw up some plans for the board to examine, but I can rush it through,” she said.

“I’ll have you some rough plans to look at in a day or so,” I said. “If I can get the Realtor to cooperate,” I agreed.

The repair estimates were in line, so I planned to negotiate in good faith with the owner. I knew I had to get out of the motel before the end of the Baltimore school term. I couldn’t ask my 15 year old daughter to live in the one star motel that I called home at the moment.

During the afternoon I made my decision. If I could get financing, I was going to buy the old clothing store. I made the call just before five. I spoke to the owner’s realtor. The owner was the grandson of the structures builder, he had explained when he showed it to me the first time.

“Adams, I want to put and offer in on the 513 Main Street building,” I said. Adams was a woman who dressed too upscale for the small town. It was filled with farmers and beach employees who needed a cheap place to live.

“So give me the bad news,” she suggested. She knew I was not going to be a push over. She also knew the building had been on the market for several years. Not only that the Real Estate market was depressed in general.

“You have it listed for seventy five K. I’m not in a position to pay that kind of money. Especially since the loan value is less than fifty k at the moment and likely to drop further,” I said.

“Since I have to take any offer to the owner just get on to it,” she said shortly.

“Okay, it needs at least twenty grand of work just to stabilize it, so taking that into account the best I would consider is forty k. Even then I’m going to regret it,” I said.

“I’ll take it to him. I don’t know what he will say,” she suggested.

“Well Adams, I am not accepting any counter offers. It’s going to take all my savings just to stabilize it, so there is nothing left,” I said.

Once I hung up I saw the young man in a police uniform standing at Lucy’s desk. He had been standing there during my conversation with Adams.

“Chief this is Jim Sloan. He is the evening patrolman,” Lucy informed me.

“Sloan I thought your shift started at four,” I commented.

“It does sir, but I stop by the County High School to help with the traffic. Since it’s inside the city limits we have always helped with traffic control,” Sloan said.

“I wasn’t aware of that. It sounds like good time management. I’m just about to make a pot of coffee, why don’t you hang around and have a cup,” I suggested.

The kid and I hung out for about two hours and discussed the job. He got into it because he did a couple of years in the Army. He wanted to stay in town, but didn’t want to be a farmer. According to him for some personal reason he didn’t care much for the Sheriff’s office. I didn’t pry I just accepted his feelings.

“You know I’m going to make some changes. You are the newest patrolman and shit rolls downhill,” I said seriously.

“Long as I keep my job, I’m good with it,” he said.

“Okay, I’m going home to make the hard decisions that have to be made,” I said. “I was hoping we would get a call, so I could do a ride along.”

“Maybe next time, or not. There are hardly ever any calls,” he said.

“That believe it or not is a good thing,” I said placing the coffee cups into a plastic dish pan. After Jim left, I walked them to the janitor’s closet. I used the mop sink to wash everything so that it was ready for the next day.

I stopped by the Downtown Diner for a burger and fries before returning to the Motel. Since I had some paperwork to complete that evening, I carried it with me. I honestly tried to think of something other than the Main Street building, but I failed miserably. That being the case I worked on the blue prints the Realtor had placed on line for prospective buyers.

I left the downstairs as one large room. I did make changes to the space along the east wall for a kitchen. The rest of the plan was to use a long display counter for a kitchen and dining bar. I had to think about the appliances. I could use either gas or electric. I wanted to make a decision and use it throughout the unit. That would require a thorough survey of the heating system. I already knew there was no working air conditioner in the place.

Upstairs the plans showed three large office spaces and one bathroom with attached Janitor closet. My sketch showed removal of the non load bearing walls between the bathroom and the closet. That would give me a larger bathroom with a wall of storage shelves removed from the stockroom. Even if I stayed with basic renovation, it was not going to be cheap.

The building needed the windows and roof repairs immediately, then I could give it a good cleaning and move in. When that was completed, the other repairs and renovations could be prioritized.

When I arrived at the office, I found that there had been one traffic stop over night. Lester found a local resident parked on the side of the road with the engine running. The driver had passed out drunk. Since there was a heavy smell of alcohol at the scene, Lester decided to call the Sheriff’s deputy to get a Breathalyzer. The county also gave our unconscious resident a bed for the night.

It was the right call. The local man wouldn’t think so, but Lester had done the right thing for everyone.

“Good job Lester,” I said. “How often do you call the Sheriff for a Breathalyzer.

“Once a month or so. I think Jim might have about the same number of drunk driving arrests,” he said.

“Okay, I’ll take a look at that, and factor it into our cooperating agreement with the Sheriff,” I said.

When I checked the agreement, I found that the Sheriff’s office charged us for every time their people were called by our people. The fee was well over the Sheriff’s cost. It was also not at a father son rate. It was more a monopoly vender’s rate.

I looked up the cost of a new style Breathalyzer machine that was acceptable to the court system. It could be administered by a certified operator as long as the perp was read his right to have a blood test administered on his dime instead. I figured to get myself certified as the on call operator. Hell I had no home life at the moment anyway.

The sample taking machine would pay for itself in less than a year. It could be attached to any computer for the analysis. It was definitely a win for the department’s budget.

I also devised a ‘time for double time’ swap to be use for weekend call outs. Since there were four of us, and the call outs were few, it should work out fine. An hour on a call out would earn you two extra hours time off that month. It took me the whole rest of the week to get it written up. Well there were two days of rewrites so that it passed Lucy’s editing programs.

I carried the flash drive and the hard copy to the mayor Friday afternoon. I also found that I had a variance approval of the Main Street building. The city inspector passed my provisional alteration plans. He also gave me permission to live in the building while making the changes. That news was worth the damn paperwork on the new weekend coverage plan. I just needed an approval from the owner and a closing date.

The mayor had assured me the state credit union would be happy to approve a mortgage on the building. I looked forward to doing the deal quickly to save the sleazy motel charges. I admit that I am a miser at heart.

I was in the motel another week while the people got together and we closed on the Main Street building. During that time I also advised the Sheriff’s office of our plan to renegotiate our cooperation contract. They were not happy with our plan, but had no choice. Everything I left in the cooperation contract was dictated by law, the optional things were cut from the contract.

The criminal investigations were handled by the SBI or the Sheriff but routine calls would come to us day or night. We would no longer send traffic stop detainees to county jail until they were bound over by the judge. Then they became legal detainees and had to be housed by the judicial system. My plan was to house them in the police station. If it became necessary, I would go sit with them myself.

On the same day that I signed the papers for the Main Street building, the mayor signed the new cooperation contract with the Sheriff himself. I was happy even though it added to my work load. I hoped we would save enough money to hire a new employee before the end of the calendar year. I put the mayor on notice that I wanted one more patrolman. The increase in staff was duly noted, then we both ignored my suggestion.

I checked out of the sleazy motel on a Thursday morning. Then by dropping my duffel bag in the downstairs space I was all moved into the Main Street building. I had the key to the front door padlock. The rear door had a metal bar across the door. There was no lock of any kind on that door. The upstairs had a required fire exit which passed inspection temporarily. It was a larger window with a metal ladder attached to the outside wall. The last eight feet of the ladder was elevated so that access by it was almost impossible, but evacuation was doable for even a child. At the rear of he building there were also a couple of paralell parking spaces in the alley.

I left the building that first day while I arranged the roof patch. It would be considerably less than the re-roofing would have been. That was because a friend of Lester’s planned to do it in his spare time. The method of repair was a coating of a liquid cold patch with fibers suspended in it. It was used on Mobil home roofs to seal the metal joints. It sounded okay to me, but I had no factual knowledge about it.

Lester’s friend guaranteed the roof would not leak for five years. I trusted Lester on that, even though we both knew the deal was with his friend not Lester. I still maintained some hope for the repair.

The handyman didn’t want to work on Saturday so I planned to check out the windows and made a detailed list of the minimum amount of repairs I could live with. I also planned to go to Walmart in Kinston for cleaning equipment and supplies. I thought I might end up working all night to clean at least a little of the Main Street building before the weekend.

I tried to work all night, but I just gave out at 2AM. I did manage to get all the crap that was salvageable into the alley. The items I deemed reusable I moved to the downstairs great room. It was truly a great room. The room was 28’ bye 38’. Large enough to fit a small house inside. I wasn’t sure how it would end up being separated into different areas, but I knew something would come along.

I knew Friday morning that I was not going to be able to clean the place myself. I at least needed help with the cleanup before I could even consider starting the renovations.

I asked at the Downtown Diner for a referral but the waitress didn’t have any ideas. From there I moved on to the police station and city hall. I seemed to strike out there as well. I expected that I would be working alone that Friday night. It wasn’t exactly how I wanted to spend my time, but I knew I could do it. I got the first load of the ground floor trash into bags and into the alley that night. I knew there would be more first floor, and all the second floor trash to collect before I could declare the place clean, but it was a start. It was also 2AM when I got into bed.

After lunch on Friday the electrician recommended by Lucy Kerby called. He met me at the building and began work. When he called again at the end of the day, I had power and the minimum additions had been installed. I was also three hundred bucks and change lighter in my savings account. I had planned to spend all my profit from the sale of my Baltimore condo on the renovations. Even so it made me wince.

I also made the final arrangement for the roof patch that evening. It would be considerably less expensive than the re-roofing would have been. That was because the friend of Lester’s planned to do it between other jobs. Since he was a full time handyman, I had some faith in him. The repair was a stop gap repair at best, so I didn’t plan to hold anyone to high expectations if it failed.

The handyman didn’t want to work on Saturday, so I planned to check out the windows and made a detailed list of the repairs I could live with. I also planned to go to the Walmart in Kinston for additional cleaning equipment and supplies. I had run through black plastic bags by that time. I was also out of Comet and I needed an upstairs scrub brush. I might end up working late into the night again while trying to clean the building at 513 Main Street before the weekend ended.

The Electrician’s assessment of the wiring conditions had worried me. It left a lot to be desired, but I didn’t rush into the additional repairs. The plan was to sleep in one of the upstairs offices for a while before I continued the electrical and other inside renovations.

Saturday morning Lester’s friend came by to patch the roof. His repair was less than five hundred dollars. It was a damn sight less than the roofers from Kinston wanted for the new roof cover.

When he arrived I noticed he had a Mexican helper. I took a chance and asked the boss, “Do you know anyone who might like a job cleaning this place. I need it in better shape so I can get a thorough inspection.”

He held his hand up then went into a discussion with his helper. “Since you are Lester’s boss, I talked to may man Raul. His wife and two daughters would be glad to get the work. I suggest twenty dollars an hour for all of them.”

“I will pay them in cash but I don’t want to know any more about them,” I said.

“If you pick them up they can start at noon,” he suggested.

“Give me the address,” I demanded.

When the roof patch was completed by 1PM, the woman and her two teen aged daughters were hard at work. I couldn’t see much progress during that first hour, but after that thing took off. The kids were put to work scrubbing the pealing walls while mom worked on the floors. By 8PM the family had the upstairs walls scrubbed and the upstairs floor washed.

“Do you want us to come back tomorrow and finish the downstairs. If so, we can get papa to bring a ladder so we can clean the ceiling,” the older daughter suggested.

I handed her mother eight twenty dollar bills before I spoke, “I would be most grateful if you could return tomorrow. What time could you make it.”

They held a discussion in Spanish before the daughter said, “1PM if that would be satisfactory?”

“That would be fine. Do you need more cleaning supplies?” I asked.

After consulting with her mother in Spanish the daughter reeled off a list of cleaning products. She also mentioned more loose sponges, as well as another sponge mop and two extra mop heads. They planned to use them on the ceilings.

I drove the family home, then drove directly to the Walmart super store in Kinston. When I arrived home, I had to make two trips from my car to get everything inside the Main Street building. I worked on into the night using tools brought from my Baltimore home. I used a salvaged shelving unity from an upstairs storeroom to make a counter top for the kitchen area. The two 4’x2’ open shelving unit would work as a dry sink and counter for a while, I decided.

There was also room for the large toaster oven, the small microwave, and the apartment size refrigerator. It made for a small and inefficient but workable kitchen.

By the time I had the two shelving units screwed together, and everything in place I was ready for bed. Bed was a sleeping bag on a two inch foam mattress from a box. Even so it was surprisingly comfortable.

The next morning I couldn’t get a shower, but I managed a pretty thorough washing from the mop sink. After my half ass whore’s bath I went to breakfast at the Downtown Diner. The diner was one and a half blocks from my Main Street building. The people had gotten to know me at the Diner, so when the waitress asked about all the work at the vacant store. I had to explain that it was no longer vacant. I was forced to explain that I was living in the old clothing store.

“I swear Chief Rogers you are either crazy or brilliant,” she said.

“Let’s not give anyone the choice. Let’s just tell them all I’m brilliant,” I suggested. “Tell you what I do need a plumber though. Do you know a good one who works cheap?”

“Plumber and cheap don’t belong in the same breath,” she said with a laugh.

“I thought as much,” I replied.

Monday afternoon I met the roofing helper with his wife in tow. Since there were no daughters, I expected a problem.