Chapter 26

So I talked to the bitch from ABC new's affiliate in Capitol City. I gave her the official story with a few extra statements, like how I felt while it was happening thrown in.

Then she asked, "Can you get me an interview with the two men who came from Swamp Dog?"

"Not in a million years. You feel free to call them, I expect you can find the phone number." I replied.

I got back to the office at 5PM. According to my arrangement with the patrol commander, I rode with one of his officers on the swing shift twice a week, and took call on any serious crimes the other swing shifts. He took call on all the after midnight serious shit. He put in for overtime for all the times he was called out, but not for phone calls. Again the budget office loved me.

Malissa Osborn was gone for the day, when I rode through the downtown. Someone had been cleaning out a building near the Pub and the Cafe On the Square all week. The day before they had carried kitchen equipment into the building. Oh shit, I thought more competition for the Cafe on the Square and The Pub. They didn't need more competition. The Brit had not known what was going into the building and of course I never thought to ask the planning and zoning office.

Then when I saw the kitchen equipment, I turned around and drove back to the courthouse. I went to the planning office. "So hello there," I said to the almost old matronly woman behind the counter.

"Hello Sheriff, what can I do for you," she asked.

"Frankly I'm wondering what the new business on the square is going to be," I asked. "Surely, we don't need another restaurant there."

"No we don't and it isn't a restaurant. It's a bakery specializing in Donuts," she said. I laughed hard. "What is so funny?"

"You don't see the humor in a donut shop three doors down from a cop shop?" I asked.

"It most likely will fail in a month or two at the most. A very nice oriental couple owns it, but they speak limited English. Even that is heavily accented.

"Well I'll try to help them out," I said. Why not, I thought. It wasn't like they would be taking money from the Cafe on the Square or The Pub. I still ate lunch at the cafe on the square at least once a week. Usually on Friday, they had meatloaf as the special on Fridays.

Well it was good to know that someone else was opening up a shop on the square. Hell, compared to other small mountain towns County Seat was thriving. Rita even had an office two blocks off the square, in what had once been a small locksmith's office.

I finished my musings and returned to the truck to meet up with the swing shift night Deputy. The dispatcher told him to meet me at the plaza. He pulled into the plaza and knew I would be in the parking lot of the Hardee's with two cups of coffee.

"Best damn coffee in town," I said as I sat down beside him in the passenger side of the cruiser.

"No my wife makes the best. So how goes it Sheriff?" he asked.

"Same shit different day," I said.

"Ain't that God's own truth. Not much ever happens on patrol, except for the excitement out at the school last week," he said.

"Yeah that was a trip alright," I agreed.

"Sheriff were you scared in that classroom alone with the gunman," the deputy asked.

"I really was at first, but when he made me strip and took the transmitter away, I knew it was going to be okay. At least for me it would be." I said. "I don't know why I felt that way, but I did."

"Who were those two men?" he asked. At the time we were driving though a little community off the main roads call Cromwell. I had no idea why it was called that.

"They were two friends who live around here. They are special deputies. They are like our own swat team without all the fuss. They can get here in an half hour not half a day. If you get to a problem early, you can be proactive not reactive. The dynamics of a situation set themselves in motion early. The sooner you can resolve it the better. Everything is fluid at first you just have to learn to work within that dynamic." I said.

"So they will be around now and then?" he asked.

"You might see them again yes. Just to change the subject stop that car up there with no license plate on it. He most likely won't be doing anything wrong. Only an idiot would be hauling illegal shit in a car with no tag." I said.

Sure enough he just bought the truck and had the plate on the seat beside him. He didn't have any nuts and bolts for the tag. "Where did you get the truck," I asked.

"Down at the auction. I kinda stopped by my girlfriend's place before I went home with it. I'm sorry about the plates Sheriff." he said. His paper work was in order so we wished him a good night and got back in the car.

That was typical of a night on patrol in Warren County. I drove my candy cane truck to Hardee's for coffee while I checked out the webcams. Everything looked clean except for the station wagon with an ABC news logo sitting on the side of the road across from my drive.

"Damn," I said under my breath. I either had to go home or call the deputy back and ride in the patrol car all night. "Screw it," I said aloud as I drove to the house. I expected the news camera in my face but was surprised to fine Wendy Roberts without her camera man or her microphone.