A sign went up in the ready room.  “The R’s of Improvement”, Reorient, retrain, replace.”  Most of the force got the message.  The chief was serious.

The following week Samantha Keys was assigned to ride with Bart Donnely.  Every female officer with less than a year received an assignment change as did some others.  Art Simpson had been riding with the very attractive blond Susan Delaney, the next night he was riding with Dennis Menges.  Dennis, an extremely good officer and one considered commander material was well known as the most straight-laced Baptist on the force.  He was five years younger than Donnley and considered one of the best on the force.  He did not smoke, drink, curse, chase skirts, feel up secretaries, ogle the female officers or even listen to dirty jokes.  Nearly every bust he made was by the book and they stuck like glue because they were good.  The prosecutors liked his cases.  They were easy to try, if that became necessary.  Art, sometimes called Rambo, was now not the senior officer in the car and he personally knew his life had gotten suddenly worse.  The first night Mengis informed Art that he would be doing equal portions of the paperwork, a function he had passed off on the newer officer.

When Samantha saw the posting changes she went to her watch commander.  “Did I do something wrong?”  She had only been with Kevin Sharp a few weeks and knew that new officers usually stayed with a mentor for months.  He was known as a guy with roving hands.

“No, Samantha, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then why the change in partners?”

“To give you a better chance to learn.  You will make a very good officer but you need the right environment to grow.”

She walked to the car unsure of what was happening or why.  Within three days she knew.  Kevin was complaining around the station that he was called in and reprimanded for his activities.

The Night Sniper Chapter One: On the Beat

The Night Sniper: Ch. 002 Cleaning Up the Force

The Night Sniper – Ch. 004 A Bullet From the Dark