Chapter 3

Thorn was the first to go. As I promised I wrote him a good recommendation for a job with the highway patrol. The state really seemed to be swimming in the Warren County labor pool. I really didn't mind Thorn leaving, even if it was on short notice. He left only two weeks after I took office. It just meant I had to find a detective willing to come to Warren County to live and work. Either that or I had to find someone worth a damn on the Department at that moment.

"Good morning Chief Deputy," I said as Eddie Simpson walked into the room. "As I remember you were a pretty good detective. I don't suppose you would like to get out of all this political bullshit, and go back to real police work?"

"That is actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I think I would like to be the detective, if I don't have to take a cut in pay to do it." he said.

"Can you start when Thorn leaves?" I asked.

"Oh yes, I definitely can," he said. "I'll fill my replacement in."

"There is not going to be a replacement. Instead of a chief deputy, I am going to have an administrative assistant." I suggested.

"And who do you have in mind for that job," he asked.

"Mrs. West of course. She will probably know where most of the bodies are buried." I said.

"Actually I think that is a good idea. You want me to solve those three murder cases first thing?" he asked.

"No, I'm going to solve those. You just keep the current stuff moving." I said.

"By the way, I would have spotted that hit and run as a phony," Simpson said.

"Funny, but I remember you were a hell of a detective back in the day," I said.

"I also want you to know this, the Thorn thing taught me a lesson. I want you to start mentoring your replacement. Whenever you need help, we will try to get him for you. Let me know who you choose and I'll get him assigned as your back up every time I can. He will do his regular job, when he isn't working for you."

"That sounds fair enough but I don't want a guy. I want a new deputy we hired about six months ago. She graduated first in her class of criminal justice. As a matter of fact she had the highest scores in the state for at least ten years." he said.

"This is strictly business, right Simpson?" I asked.

"Absolutely," he said.

"Your last act as chief deputy will be to explain it all to her. As you pass by send West into see me." I demanded.

"Yes Sheriff Porter," she asked. "Is everything alright?"

"Actually no it isn't. Chief Deputy Simpson will be leaving his post next week." I said.

"My God, what are you going to do to fill his slot," she asked.

"I'm not going to fill his slot. What I am going to do is create a new job, Administrative assistant. I need someone to take care of all the paper work of his job, but not be responsible for the personnel problems. So what do you say, would you like to be my administrative assistant? There is a little more money, but the hours might be longer now and then," I suggested.

The budget office was happy because there was a net savings of 5k a year. They called it a clean reorganization, but I called it getting good cops back in the field and off their asses playing paper pusher.

I bought the crime scene technician coffee and a biscuit every morning. He gave me lessons and tips. Even helped set up a new protocol about what crimes were investigated and which weren't. Lots of new categories of crimes were defined as forensic worthy. It was going to take a while, but I was certain we were going to remove our files from the state bureau investigation's lab.

Letter was working an informant. He promised to call me when he got the wire ready to go. I wanted to be there to make sure nobody cut these guys any slack. If they tried to trade on information about me, I wanted to be there to personally tell them to fuck off. We weren't making any deals period.

Every thing was working as it should for the first two weeks after I reorganized the department. While Letter worked on his drug case and Simpson worked anything more involved than the routine traffic stops, I continued my education, and read the files on those three murders.

"I did complete background checks on the men. One of them was a tow truck driver. He didn't have any other employees, and he was found dead in his truck. Just sitting there bent over the steering wheel.

He was a good family man with two kids in their early teens. Bert's towing's owner Bert Mathews was the most recent of the three Murders. It was three months old. I needed something new to get it back on track again. Okay let's get reasonable I thought. Of course I was pounding on the bag at 8PM, when I had time to really thing about it. I decided to take the file to breakfast with the older forensic man the next day.

I came in from my run at 11PM. I was exhausted, to exhausted to go into a chatroom. That had been happening lately.

The next morning I was sitting across from Wilson when he opened his biscuit. "So what do you know Wilson, about the Mathews murder?" I asked.

"I know they worked it hard. Lots of man hours were spent on Mr Mathews. They finally decided it was a random hit. Just some nut with a guy, who thought it was Saturday night and would be thrill to kill somebody."