Chapter 28

I woke before six and slipped from the warm bodies, slid into my peg, used the bathroom, put some clothes on, and went outside to the grassy area. I was just beginning when Lisa and Tina joined me. A few seconds later, Don, Jan, and Wanda joined in, and Brandy and Tiani soon were stretching with us.

All of us were soon bringing our last form to a close and taking our clothes off on the way to the pool. Some leisurely swam from end to end, and others powered our way back and forth until we had to stop to get our breath. You never know who might jump in when a big group is swimming. Peaches sometimes swims with us, often joined by Rags, as well as her girls. Aunt Etta is in the pool often with Marion and Virginia. Even Mesa and Giovanni join us sometimes. It is a very gentle family fun time that re-establishes our collective closeness.

When we were getting ready to go to the patio, Wanda asked Lisa and me if she could talk to us a few minutes before we went. We watched as the rest of the family left, and then sat at the counter with coffee.

Wanda told us, "You two are cleared by DC to go back on active duty. They, or rather, Sam has some places for you to go, supposedly for training purposes. Don't be surprised if you're in shit everywhere he sends you. We've had a rash of incidents that have taken our other two troubleshooter teams working full time to resolve. Sam created two teams to take your place, Chuck, and both of them seem to take a lot of time to resolve issues. The end results seem to be the same as when you were handling them, it just seems to take them a week to do what you often did in a day or two.

"Dress for the office and come in. Get a handle on your desk and get caught up with SOP changes and announcements. Sam has most of his directives in an audio file so you can listen to them on your smart phone. Go ahead, dress for the office, and take your car to the patio. I've been doing that and getting into the office as early as possible. There has been a lot of overnight activity lately that I need to review. Oh, you'll like how Dave has taken to the Station Chief's job. Sarah and Dave are really working well together, and have the station functioning like it should. Come in and see for yourself. You should probably bring all of your sidearms in for a barrel change, and swap out your magazines too. I know you've been on vacation, but you two have been busy. I want your equipment in perfect condition. I'd like to keep you two around."

Lisa smiled and told Wanda, "I hope Sam has saved some fun stuff for us and not some cream puff warrants. The boss and I need some excitement."

"Don't be too anxious to get into a lot of action," Wanda began telling us, "Or you two will be back on vacation with that DC shrink breathing down your necks again. See if you can bring some in alive and still keep your help safe."

Lisa and I dressed in business clothes as I put a suit and tie on for the first time in a long time. My partner came from the closet wearing a very professional looking skirt with a matching jacket, over a nice blouse and a matching scarf. We did look the part of a couple of office workers. Lisa lifted her skirt to show me her backup in a thigh holster as we checked each other out. She pointed at my leg with the prosthesis and I lifted the suit pant leg to show my backup. We were almost funny because of our dress today.

Our women at the patio thought we looked very nice. Gina cuddled up to me and said that I even looked better than an Italian man with a handmade suit. She said, "You're a man who attracts many women. We women should be jealous, but we have Lisa to watch out for you."

It was Steve who put everything in perspective. "I guess this means asking you to teach some lessons this morning or a charter this afternoon is out of the question?"

I laughed, "You could probably talk Lisa into it, but I do have a day job."

Tiny told me, "You have a lot of day jobs around here. You know there is some new property in Hawaii that is going to have to be watched while it's being developed. Steve said you were going to do that."

"Think again, Tiny; I have some dot.gov work to do for a change. I'm officially back on duty, so I will be busy. I'll do some thinking about how to handle the architecture and construction over there. I think I might know someone who can oversee the project if he wants to get involved."

Steve questioningly looked at me, and I softly said, "Katana." Steve smiled and began nodding his head as he sipped his coffee.

Lisa and I grabbed a couple of breakfast sandwiches, some covered cups of coffee, kissed the women goodbye, and left for the office.

We arrived at seven thirty, so we had time to take our equipment cases down to Cap at the range. He opens at seven to give the office staff opportunity to come in to get their required practice in. He welcomed Lisa and I back, but looked at our cases.

I told Cap, "It's been suggested that you check our equipment and change the barrels and magazines on our sidearms. My backup hasn't been used much, so it's probably fine. You know what to look for, so we're going to leave our equipment with you this morning. Let us know if you need them longer."

Cap opened my large case and looked at the equipment. The big disassembled 50 took up the bottom slots. Next up was my special 308. On top of that were my collapsible MP5, and another Glock 22 with the new short silencer. A variety of magazines were arranged between weapons. I pointed out to Cap that several magazines were empty, and asked if he could fill us up. Even my spares at the house were depleted.

Lisa and I used a couple of range magazines with range loads, put some eye and ear protection on, and went to a stand. Both of us put our targets at 25 meters for a full magazine. We then replaced the targets and placed them at 50 meters and used the second magazine. I looked at Lisa's and she looked at mine. Lisa said, "I think I matched you at 25 meters, but you were extremely accurate at 50."

I told Lisa, "You would have put a target down at 50, so I wouldn't worry about it. We'll have to come down and do some competition rounds. I'll bet Jan has been practicing and can probably beat me now."

Cap had heard that and said, "You should give her a chance to show off for you. You know she just won the FBI competition. She blew off those guys from DC who are actually showpieces for weapons competition. She beat all four of those goons. I heard that they are determined to beat her next time. If they do, it'll only be because she's been too busy to practice."

"That's neat, Cap. You can take some credit for that too because she has to have a perfect weapon. You're the guy to give it to her."

Cap grinned and said, "I do give her weapons some special work. I'll work on your stuff this morning and see what needs to be done. Keep your backups and I'll exchange your magazines for new rebuilt ones with the new springs later."

Lisa and I went upstairs in the elevator and stopped in the station to say hi to Sarah and Dave. They had just finished their morning briefings and were handing out various warrants to teams. Dave gave me a handshake and man hug, while Sarah was giving Lisa a hug. Sarah turned to me and gave me a real lip kiss and hug before saying, "You really are a sight for sore eyes. It seems like we've been waiting forever for your return. I know you stopped in before now, but you haven't even dropped by for a jelly donut and coffee. Have a donut with us and tell us what you'll be doing."

I watched Dave as we all poured coffee and selected a genuine law enforcement donut. I was watching closely to make sure his overall motion and movement was good. He didn't seem to have any restrictions. We sat at the central conference table with some other Deputies and just shot the shit. I told Dave that I was to be in some form of training mode to help out where needed and to assist in bringing stations up to date on procedures."

Dave laughed and said, "Yeah, right. You'll be training some men while you're taking down whoever the problem is at the time. Be sure to let the men with you do the shooting for a change, and see if you can bring some in alive. I think they would rather see a Deputy get shot than a fleeing felon. We've had a couple of terminal incidents, and they send these shrinks from DC to make sure we're not bloodthirsty. There is one lady who comes who wants all of the facts before she interviews, and is really interested that we were able to complete our task without injury to any of our men. I think she's the one who worked on you. What did you do, Chuck; how did you get her on our side?"

"It was easy. I had her out at Park Place when she was interviewing me here, and we stumbled into an armed robbery where a guy shot a victim. She witnessed the guy trying to grab an officer's weapon and another officer shoot him. I didn't do it. She saw how fast everything happens, and now knows how fast someone has to make life and death decisions. I think that she wants to make sure she has all of the information before she begins counseling since then."

"Well," Dave mused, "That's good, but I hope she goes back to DC and teaches that to the other shrinks up there. The guys are a little gun shy, ha, ha, ha, ha about using their gun to end a confrontation. I don't want them hesitating to protect themselves or each other."

"That's the problem, Dave. You and I were trained to disable the enemy any way we could, as fast as possible. The men are now told to change the enemy's diapers and make sure their belly is full before we challenge them.

Dave smiled and said, "We'll learn to write reports that show any terminal incidents sound like last resort actions. You know they will watch any video we have and give us a gold star."

"Just do it by the numbers and you'll be fine, Dave. I wanted to tell you how proud I am to know you. The way you have run the station is among the best. Just keep doing what you and your men do."

Dave smiled and pointed at Sarah's office. He softly said, "There's the reason for our success. That woman always makes good decisions."

Lisa and I went down the hall to our office. I said hi to the two girls in the secretarial area, and then went into Wanda's office. There had been some remodeling done. Wanda pointed at a door that led into an office that reminded you of the stations with the glass windowed offices. Wanda's office had been reduced by half, but it was still very large. The door to my office was still next to the doorway from the entrance area.

Wanda said, "Go right through that door, Lisa, and your office is right there. You now have three doors into your office, Chuck; one for Lisa, one for me, and one from reception. I had to reduce the size of your personal bar that you don't use, but it will work out well."

"It's amazing how you are able to get so much done in so little time, Wanda. I know you've entertained Sam at least once, and probably several times, to resolve the station problems, so you've been busy."

Wanda said, "Sam wants your job with your office. He says his office isn't nearly as plush as yours. I thought he was going to get mad when he found the TV behind the doors on the unit in front of your desk. He said it was only reasonable that you had all of the communications available to you. He said he was going back to DC and have his office rebuilt to resemble yours."

"Well good, Wanda. Let me go through my E-mails and reading before you fill me in on what I'm needed to do."

"Not a chance, Chuck. You need to have Lisa go through the warrants that DC wants you to help on and then go through the warrants the two teams are working on to see if you can help resolve them easier. The two teams are working hard, but they aren't making good progress. I think Sam thinks they can be faster if you help them. Let Lisa go through the warrants and you check out what the two teams have done. That might give you an idea how to speed them up."

"Okay, Wanda, lead on. I'll work on the guys' reports and you give Lisa what's pending."

My office is so beautiful that I'm in awe of how nice it is every time I enter. A stack of papers and files were on my desk, so I sat and began going through the files. There was a common denominator to all the actions I reviewed. There was a hesitation to confront the perpetrators for some unknown reason. These were Deputy Marshals with warrants to pick up bad guys. It becomes a war if they show guns. If they shoot, we shoot back. It's really simple, but it is dangerous, and I know how the men think. They don't want to look like the aggressor. I called Wanda in after the fourth file. She walked into my office and said, "You know we do have telephones with intercom. You could also shut the door to reception so the girls don't hear you yelling for me. Come on, Boss, be professional in your fancy suit."

I waved at Wanda to shut the door to the reception area and told her to sit. "There is a common problem, Wanda. The men are all too hesitant to act. They're going to get killed if they keep letting the subject of the warrant shoot at them or so easily confront them. Do I need to take the teams into the field myself and show them how to do this? Should we show them some video of past captures or could we just direct them from here?"

"You're going to have to show them, Chuck. The team members are good men, but they are hesitant. Even the truly bad warrant take downs with terminations have them spooked. They don't want to lose their jobs, so they hesitate."

"That's terrible, Wanda. They won't lose their jobs, but they will lose their lives if they continue this way. We need to get these guys on the right track and make sure they don't let these bad guys shoot first. We warn and we capture. That's what we do. We offer the warrant a safe return, we warn him that resistance could be terminal, and then we take the man down. It's simple but I suppose not what the big shots in DC want to hear."

I sat back in my chair, and then rocked forward as I said, "Can you get me a list of those raising the most fuss in DC. I'm going to take them with me to serve some warrants and see what they think. None will get dead hopefully, but I think they'll change their minds when they have rounds whizzing past their heads."

"Be careful, Chuck. DOJ or Homeland are going to be tougher than ever to deal with if you begin to use some of their hotshots for target practice. Make sure you have one of the shrinks with you to witness everything. Something like that will be talked about for a long time."

I called Sam. "Nightfox."

"Hey, Sam, Chuck here. I want to take a few DOJ guys with us to serve a few warrants. I really think it's time the complainers know exactly what they are complaining about. I'll protect them and keep them safe, but they need to see some of this stuff in person and in real time. They only read what we've done, and any video we have is usually edited and not in a Deputy's favor. Do you think I could get a couple of DOJ bleeding hearts to witness a take down or two?"

"Do you really want them to see what happens out on the front line? Christ, Chuck, you could have a dead legal eagle on your hands."

"I plan to keep them under cover and in a protected vehicle whenever possible. They really need to see what we do. They need to feel the fear the men feel and see how decisions to terminate someone have to be made so fast that there isn't time for consideration of many outside factors."

I'll talk it up to see if there are any volunteers or if they are all blowhards. I've suggested it in the past, but some upper echelon folks put a stop to it every time I do. Your idea of keeping them in a protected vehicle might get the approval, but you have to promise me that you won't let them get hurt, Chuck."

"How can I promise something like that, Sam? I could take them on cream puff warrant service or do as I want to do and take them on a few really bad guy take downs. You know the drill; the real bad guys fight back and rounds may be hitting their vehicle, but shouldn't get to them. I will promise to keep it as safe as possible, Sam."

"Okay, Chuck, when?"

"As soon as you have a couple of volunteers. There have to be a few cowboys who are staffed in the oversight group."

Sam told me, "I'll get them together today and you figure on who you want to go get. Just make it a middle of the road guy, and not a hotshot trying to make a name for himself."

Sam actually said goodbye before hanging up. He's getting soft.

Lisa and Wanda were listening to the conversation, and Wanda said, "I'm going to bring Jim Blake in to help. He's team leader on the team with the most successful warrant captures, but he's still taking a lot of time. Pick a few tough ones and be ready, because Sam is tired of hearing about Deputies' abuse of power. You and I know better, but now we can convince one of the oversight staff."

Around noon, Wanda asked, "Since you've been gone so long, how about taking your staff to lunch in the executive dining room down the block? I'll bet we'll run into some of our friends, plus we'll all get some good food."

Lisa nudged me and softly said, "Just what I need, an afternooner with Zena. I must be close to having my period by the way I can't think of anything except for shooting and fooling around."

Wanda has excellent hearing and softly commented, "You can't be any worse than me. I constantly think about bringing one of the girls in here and having them for a snack. Chuck could fuck us both to take the edge off if we didn't make so much noise."

I had to laugh at that as Wanda is such a stickler about no sexy stuff on duty. She just winked at me and asked if we should advise the station that we were taking a long lunch.

I advised the two women, "We'll do our best to keep our lunch within the prescribed timetable. I need to take care of business if I'm on duty."

Wanda whispered, "I'm business; you need to take care of me."

This was a losing battle, so I called the restaurant to make sure they had a table for five.

We walked up to the Maître D's desk, and met Tom and Zena Parks there. Tom was excited to see us and said, "You have to join us today. Zena's uncle is coming, and I think you know Ms. Highsmith. This is great. I've wanted to see you guys for so long, but I heard you were on tour with the Expedition. You and Lisa are so talented that you constantly surprise us, Chuck. Shannon was just asking about you and when you were coming out to visit with us."

Lisa told Tom and Zena, "It will be soon. The ladies love to come out there, and they will enjoy having the little ones play the way nature meant it now that they are walking."

Zena said, "That's so true. Tom is stuck with Shannon and me. Neither one of us are able to conceive for whatever reason, so Tom will have to enjoy others' children. I'm lucky to have such an understanding man who continues to love me although I can't give him a son or daughter to raise."

Lisa told Zena, "We'll send you one of ours if you guys want someone to grow a little Tom or Zena. I think Maria would like to have another, but she is hesitant to have another in our household. She thinks that another man would never look twice at her if she had two with Chuck."

I didn't know this. I know Maria is a little strange about some things, but she will usually talk to me about everything. I'll have to get her away from everyone and have a discussion with her.

Zena said, "Wow; that would work, a proxy mother for our babies. You may have something going there, Chuck. You have all of those women having babies and you obviously have at least one who is looking for more than your family. We'll have to see how compatible we might be with Maria. Shannon and I could use some help with the stud here sometimes."

Ms. Highsmith said to the table, "The girls may need help, but they never call on me to give them some. My toys and I are always available to give pleasure to a man such as Tom. Do you need some extra help with Chuck sometimes, Lisa? You know of my toys and know how much they want to please."

"Ha, ha, ha, Ms. Highsmith, I think the women at home would get ugly if they thought another woman was getting something they weren't. Chuck keeps up with all of us, but we all wish he was Superman and could handle us more than twice a night."

"Oh my, Chuck has that many women and he handles them twice a night? Oh my!"

I nudged Lisa for embellishing my abilities and she whispered back, "You know you do us all twice very often. It all depends on how we keep you going."

My office staff enjoyed our lunch and were entertained by the conversation. I would be embarrassed if the two weren't friends, as well as co-workers. On the way back to the office, Conish said, "You must do something special to these women from the way they speak of you, Chuck. I know some of your ladies, but not all of them. You'll have to invite me to your home one of these evenings. I promise to be gentle and never say a word."

My mind was yelling 'No way, Jose' while I considered everything they wanted.

Back at the office, I looked through the problem warrants and picked out three that had 'danger' in bright flashing lights. I figured that these three would be nearby and the type we wanted. I called the station and asked Dave to visit with me. He walked into my office a few minutes later, closing the door to the reception area behind him.