You'd Have to Ask - 27. Chapter 27

Dayshift

Cole struggles out of bed and gets ready for work. He loves his job but Dayshifts really suck. No matter how long he sleeps he is always beat.

He gets to the Station and sits down for Role Call. Kelly shows up she is spry as a spring chicken. She seems to radiate with excitement. “Oh joy!” he thinks, “and I haven’t even had coffee yet!”

As they sit through the meeting it becomes apparent that Cole and Kelly will be riding the desk today. The Sergeant wants to do evaluations with the two of them.

Cole shows Kelly to the front desk, they do shift change there. The Night Officer relays information form his shift. Cole checks the detainees report, it shows their buddy is still there. Cole decides he better go in and see him later.

The first couple of hours on the desk are really busy. People come in and file statements on vandalism and thefts. It seems there was a lot of activity on the weekend. Cole shows Kelly the ropes, file creation, reviewing the statements and putting them in the right slots for referral to the investigators.

Kelly assures Cole she has worked a desk before and says there doesn’t seem to be much difference in procedures.

“So what’s the Sergeant like?” Kelly asks Cole.

“Mmm Sergeant George Williams. He is a straight forward by the book kind of guy. He isn’t a stiff neck though and he will back his Officers up to the end. Provided you give him all the facts.”

“Well that’s good to hear, we had a Sergeant that was biding time till pensioning out. If there was a problem he didn’t want to hear about it.” Kelly says.

“Well there was a guy like that here when I started. I have been working with Williams for the past eight years.”

“Hey men!” Sergeant Williams says as he comes out of his office. He winks at Kelly to show it was just a joke.

“Good day, Sergeant.” Kelly says as she offers her hand. The Sergeant smiles as he shakes it.

The Sergeant joins them at the desk. They discuss various cases that Cole has worked on. Cole asks what’s going on with the car thief.

“Well it seems he’d rather wait here for his date in court.” The Sergeant says.

“Why is that? No one to bail him out?” Cole asks.
“I guess not, he didn’t even want a bail hearing. He did want to see you again though.”

“Has he got a complaint?’

“Nah, I don’t think it’s that, I think the guy is a little light in the loafers.” The Sergeant smiles.

“Really?” Cole asks inside he can feel anxiety building.

“Yeah, he keeps calling you ‘The Hunk’!” he watches Kelly for reaction as he timed it to when she was taking a drink of coffee.

Kelly chokes and sputters coffee as she tries to control her laughter.

“Geez Sarge, she has only been in for an hour and you got her!” Cole says as he hands a napkin to Kelly.

“Timing is everything! You are officially welcomed to Lacombe Officer Pritchard!” the Sergeant says.

“The Sarge likes to baptize all the Officers, so to speak. It used to be worse in the old days!”

“Yeah, those were the days remember when we used to…”

“Stop right there Sarge, I don’t want my partner thinking she is getting special treatment.”

“Hey Cole, you think your charge can handle the desk by herself?”

Cole looks to Kelly, she nods. “Yeah, I think she can, besides we won’t be too far away.”

“Well actually I was thinking of heading out for coffee to do this, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, I could use multiple cups of good coffee, let’s go!”

Cole and the Sergeant get their coats and start to head out the door, Cole turns to Kelly, “What do you take?”

“Double, double!” Kelly says.

Cole cringes, “Do you want coffee in there too?” He waves to her and follows the Sergeant to the car.

They get to the coffee shop and find a secluded table, which is hard since it appears that the whole town has decided to have a break.

The Sergeant fills out the forms as he asks Cole the questions. It takes about half an hour.

“So is there anything else?”

“I guess you are asking if I want to keep her as my partner?”

“Yeah, I am. She seems to like you and I’d like to keep you together. But if you have other plans let me know.”

“Well Mark and I were partners for a long time.” Cole says. The Sergeant has opened the door and Cole is deciding whether he wants to go there.

“Well think about it.”

“Well I guess we should get back and let her have a break.”

“Yeah and I have a mountain of paper on my desk that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.”

Cole stops at the counter and gets a coffee to go for Kelly.

When they arrive back at the station they see that Kelly has managed to clean up the area.
Cole has never seen it looked so organized.

“Good job Pritchard!” The Sergeant says, “I may have to keep you so that you can show the others how to keep this place organized.”

“Thanks Sergeant!” Kelly says, “and thanks for the coffee Cole.”

“Well try not to wear it!” Cole laughs, “Why don’t you go back to the ready room and have a break, I think I can handle this.”

“You sure Wheeler?” the Sergeant asks, “You have managed to skip Days for a long time, and I might have to have you re-trained.”

“It’s nothing Sarge.” Cole says as Kelly makes her escape to the back of the station.

Cole answers the phone a couple of times but other than that there is not much to do.

Kelly comes back and tells Cole to go check on their guest.

“I checked in on him while you were out!”

“Why’d you do that?” Cole asks and acts pissed off, “Now he will be calling to see me,”

“Yeah, he has been!”

“Well I guess I better go back and see what’s so important.” Cole says as he goes to the cells.

Cole enters the cell area near the back of the station. He says Hi to the jail guard. Bart Smith, the guy has been with the department for 22 years. He is close to retirement and actually volunteered to do lockup duty.

“Hey Cole, long time!”

“How is it going Bart, natives behaving themselves?”

“Yeah nothing I can’t handle. By the way the one you dragged in has been hot to see you.” Bart says and winks.

“I heard that, I came back to see what’s up. Can you buzz me in?”

Cole hears the door buzz and he pulls it open and enters. He walks past several cells and sees his guy in the last one. The guy looks like shit.

“Hey there Officer!”

“How you doing John, they treating you OK?”

“Fucking great man!” John Stevens says, “Three squares a day and they even let me shower!”

“I guess that’s good, you must like it here.”

“Well I’d rather not be here, but since you busted me, I guess I got no choice.”

“No I guess you don’t” Cole says, regretting his grammar. “So tell me John, for a smooth talking guy like you, why are you still in here?”

“Got nothing better to do.”

“I think there is more to it than that.” Cole says. “I hear you have been asking for me. What’s that about?”

“Well I was hoping you had time to think about our little discussion.” John says, ”I been fair I ain’t outed you, I figured one favour deserves another.”

“You haven’t outed me!” Cole is amazed.

“Well look I saw you with the owner of the Hawk.”

“Last I heard we have freedom of association.” Cole says calmly.

“But you know, I figure that cops sorta don’t” John says, “I don’t think your fellow Officers are the most tolerant.”

“If it was true, how would you know about the other Officer’s tolerance levels?”

“Well, I do have some experience with that.” John winks.

“OK, I guess I have to listen to this.”

“Well I sorta have a hobby.” John says, “I case out cops and try to get a hold on ‘em.”

“So is that so you can be above the law? So to speak.”

“Yeah, that’s it!” John manages a big grin.

“Well you haven’t got anything on me, so I can’t see what game you are playing.”

“Ah, but I do, you see.” John says in a low voice, “I wasn’t following you to that restaurant, I was following an Edmonton Cop.” John pauses.

“You mean the cops Mike and I said hi to at Denny’s”

“Yeah one of them, I had been following him for a couple of weeks after I saw him and your buddy making out at the Eagle.”

“So you have a hard-on for this cop?”

“Well I did and I was planning something to get the goods on him.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Well two things, first you don’t fuck with Mike, learned that the hard way and secondly I took one look at you and decided you were a better target. You’re hot man!”

Cole is startled the guy is hitting on him. “Er thanks, I think!”

“Well at first I was nervous as Mike was involved, but I overheard that you were a cop down here. So here I am, besides I think Mike is fucking that other cop so he isn’t gonna worry about you”

“Well if you knew about this past weekend, you wouldn’t be so cocky” Cole says to himself. “I wonder why he is afraid of Mike though, is there more too this?”

“So Officer, Wheeler” John says as he reads Cole’s nametag. “What’s it going to be?”

“Nothing John, I figure you are here till the court decides what to do with you.”

“So I guess I have your permission to start singing then.”
“Chirp away!” Cole says, “Well I gotta get back to work, see if we can get some company in here for you.”

Cole turns and heads back to the holding cell door. Bart buzzes him through.

“That was longer than I though it would be.” Bart says.

“I just him rant, I guess he is lonely.”

“He say why he hasn’t tried to get bail yet?”

“Nope, tell me though has he even made any phone calls?”

“Yeah, he did make one call it was to an Edmonton number.”

“Did you get the number by chance?”
Bart smiles, “Would you be asking for it?”

“Nah, its not my business.” Cole says. “See ya later Bart.”

Cole heads back to the front desk. Kelly is still there nothing appears to be happening.

“How’d it go?” She asks, “Learn anything?”

“Not much, is the Sarge still in his office?”

“Yeah, he came out and muttered something about being hungry and then went back in.”

Cole heads over to the open door. He sees the Sergeant busy reviewing cases. Cole knocks on the doorframe.

“Hey Wheeler come on in give me a break from this shit!”

Cole enters and closes the door, “You mind?”

“Nah, sit down take a load off what’s up?”

“Well I went down and spoke to our guest.”

“Well that’s good, so what have you got?”

“Well he seems to think he can blackmail me into dropping the charges.” Cole says solemnly.

“How is he going to do that, I read the arrest no obvious abuse of force?”

“Well it’s not that but it may prove to be worse.”

The Sergeant closes the folder, which is open on his desk, as he wants nothing to distract him.

Cole drums up the courage and blurts it out. “He saw me with a guy in Edmonton with a guy that owns…” Cole pauses this moment could affect his career and his life.

“Come on Wheeler spit it out!”

“A Gay bar.” Cole sits and waits for the Sergeant to digest the information.

“Is it true?”

“Yeah, it is the guy, Mike owns the Hawk. It’s a bar in Edmonton.”

“So you were meeting with a guy that owns a Gay bar, what’s the big deal?” The Sergeant resists the urge to ask his Officer why.

“Well the guy in lockup seems to think that if he lets it out it will cause me problems, so he figures he can get off or force me to change my statement.”

“Sounds like something a guy that has that kind of information would use. But it could only affect you if there is something you are trying to hide.”

“Well, that’s the thing.” Cole says and looks down.

“What’s that, you gonna tell me you’re a fag?”

Looking back up at the Sergeant, Cole nods.

“Jesus Christ Wheeler!” the Sergeant screams, loud enough so that anyone outside the office can hear him. Then he stares at all the work on his desk, “Fucking Mondays!”

Cole sits and waits for the Sergeant to calm down.

“Fuck I don’t know what to do, never had this problem before and never though I ever would have it.”

“It’s not a problem Sergeant.”

“It’s my job to keep some semblance of order among you guys.” He pauses, “It’s hard enough dealing with who won’t work with whom without throwing this into the mix!”

“Well, I have told Mark, I mean Officer Comry, he said he’d be my partner if all hell broke loose.”

“So I guess that answers that question from earlier, you wanna be parts with Comry?”

“Yeah I do, we have been friends for years and I know he will back me up.”
“What about Officer Pritchard?”

“Well I will continue as her TO, if you want, but I am not sure how she is going to take it. At least with Mark I know.”

“Is there a reason she wouldn’t?”

“I think I’d prefer to work with a known quantity at least until we see how the rest of the guys take it.”

“What’s the game plan if they don’t take it well, have you thought of that?’

“I guess I will have to consider my options. I don’t want to cause a rift in the department or to effect Mark in anyway.”

“So I guess we’ll have to formalize this, it means the Captain is going to have to know.”
The Sergeant pauses, “How long have we got?”

“I figure Bart is gonna be the first to know, the guy said drop the charges or he starts to sing.”

“Bart, the man does a great job but he is also the biggest source of information in the Station.” The Sergeant says, “Nothing seems to go on in here without him knowing about it.”

“Hey can’t fault the guy, he works Days all the time, interacts with all the guys.” Cole says, “Lets face it its not the most challenging job in the world.”

“That’s very understanding of you, Wheeler, especially since he is going to be the guy spreading the news.”

The Sergeant gets a new file folder and puts it together and he eyes Cole while doing this.

“Well Cole, I am going to discuss this with the Captain to see what happens next. Till then not much I can do, you’ll have to finish out the week with Pritchard until I can get a new shift schedule up.”

“Thanks Sergeant.” Cole says as he gets up to leave.

“Cole, one other thing.”

“Yes Sergeant?”

“Good luck, you are a damned fine Officer.”

Cole nods and then salutes the Sergeant. He turns and leaves the office closing the door behind him.

“Hey Cole, what was that about?” Kelly asks.

“Just something personal.”

“Wasn’t about me was it? Sarge got pretty excited.”

“Nah nothing about you, hey Kelly I need to go out for about an hour, ok with you?’

“Sure Cole, it hasn’t been too busy here.”

“Thanks I owe you one.” Cole says as he head to the door.