The Night Sniper Chapter 1: on the Beat

Ralph Brandt on May 12, 2009

Tags: accident, afro american, amputation, amputee, braces, bullets, casts, Christian, city, crutches, death, doctors, family, Fiction, fracture, God, Hispanic, hospital, Life, love, marriage Novel, nurses, pain, police, prosthetics, pylo

Officers Merris and Donnley are on foot patrol in the city. A shot rings out in the night and lives change. This is chapter one of a novel that is being segmented and posted. About a third of it is on the web at this time. To make it easier to read the chapter list with links to each chapter is included at the end of this chapter and each chapter has links to the first, next and previous. Also links are supplied to other novels by Ralph Brandt.

Officer Penny Merris looked over at her partner and pointed to the dashboard clock. “Eleven thirty PM, time to get out in the cold and get some exercise.”

Her partner simply grunted out what sounded almost like a yes. He knew the value of these foot patrols but that did not increase his enthusiasm for getting out of the car in the twenty degree weather.

“It’s good for you, helps you keep you weight down.” He had learned to not answer when the answer might not be considered constructive. He grunted again and swung the car to a spot along the street. As he did Penny picked up the microphone.

“Dispatch. Unit 27 going on foot at King and George.”

The response came back almost immediately, “10-4 Unit 27. We put you on foot at King and George.”

Penny opened the right door, slipped out of the car and stood up. Meanwhile, Officer Donnely was getting out on the other side. He smiled as he looked over at her. She was a very good officer but there were things that male and female cops did the same and things that they did different, no matter what. With few exceptions a guy would get out of the car and adjust his clothes and hair on the move. A woman, that was different. No matter what was happening she would stand there for a few seconds and adjust everything, her hair, clothes, attitude, before she would move one inch off the spot. He knew this all too well. He often wondered if she would do that if she was under fire.

The last five of Bart Donnely’s partners were women, all of them new officers, all young and very pretty, all of them good officers. In the last four years it seemed that the youngest and prettiest new officers were assigned to him. It was a matter of frequent discussion around the station. When a pretty, young officer came on the shift unless he had not been with his current partner long everyone knew Donnely would get a new partner. Merris and Donnely had been together now for nearly eight months. Everyone knew she was about to move on. He was about due to get a new partner. It was just a matter of time till another woman came on the shift and Penny would move on to another partner. The other men envied him. They sometimes made jokes about it. Bart saw it differently than most of the others. Sure it was nice to have a pretty, young partner. Compared to most of the guys she smelled good when she got into the car, brought good baked things along every couple of weeks, had a warm smile, a nice voice and didn’t belch and pass gas all night. On the average they were better educated than the guys and could help pass the night with conversation that was above a 90 IQ level. But with Bart that was as far as it went. That was the limit of the perks of having a woman for a partner. Donnely was content to enjoy the scenery, the baked goodies and the nicer environment without being obtrusive. After all, small things made the job a lot better. Touching, gawking and off color remarks were not part of his style. Donnely considered the legal perks more than enough to like having a woman for a partner. But there were other reasons he liked the female partners. Most of the women he had ridden with knew the book better than most of the guys, followed it better, were more aware of their surroundings and got distracted less by things that didn’t matter. Most typed better and had better clerical skills. They pulled their share or more of the paper work. Often he had to pull rank to be sure he wasn’t abusing their good nature.

Some of the guys berated the females because they felt a 130 pound girl would not be as capable to handle a fight as a 200 pound guy. To that Bart retorted. “The idea is to not get into a fight. And after a couple months on the street the young women are generally more aware of things turning sour before I am and she is generally better at cooling the situation.” When one of the guys remarked he would like to find out if the female officer Bart was riding with was as good as she looked Bart responded, “Why do you always want to screw up a good thing? Is that worth the damage to your marriage and career?”

Donnely was nearing 45 years old and was considered a strong contender for shift supervisor the next time a position opened. He had all of the bookwork done. He was an excellent officer. He record showed thirty one commendations. In his twenty three years on the force only one had passed without his receiving at least one commendation, the following year he had three, the previous two. No other current officer with twenty or more years had such a record. Although he never considered it a race and had never done the math to see if he was on track to break the record, only one officer had ever had a record like it. That was a retired officer, the legendary Charlie Merris, Penny’s uncle. His record stood at the impressive figure of fifty three commendations in forty years on the force. Donnely had only fired his gun on three occasions, a total of six shots in the line of duty, two each in three incidents. He disabled and badly wounded the three men in these actions. All three shoots were squeaky clean and passed IAD inspection without any concerns. All three men were armed and had fired shots at the police before he fired. He had never been wounded on duty and had only once been treated for an injury, an ankle sprain while patrolling in icy weather. His partners also seemed to live a charmed life. No Donnely partner had ever been wounded or treated for an injury requiring more than a large Band aid. If there was a model officer on the force he was certainly one of no more than three candidates and the hands down favorite. But the reason he was given the new officers was very simple. Over the last eight years he had taken charge of one rookie after another and made them into police officers. No matter what he got to start with they got better under his guidance. He salvaged at least two male officers who were in trouble. He also had a reputation for shunning sexual jokes and was considered totally faithful to his marriage and children. With him, a young officer, male or female was in a safe place to learn and grow and got near perfect mentoring.

When Donnely came to the force there were no female officers. The only women in the department were meter maids and clerical support. As Sergeant Friday put it in a very old Dragnet episode put it, “The women filled these positions to free men for the more demanding police work.” But the times they were a’changing and women were accepted as regular officers. The first female officer started about three years after Donnely. Over the next twelve years over twenty three female candidates were accepted as part of the affirmative action plan. Every one of them quit the force within three years. When Chief Barley was brought in from the outside to take over the force that had earned some really bad press he looked at its deplorable condition. The newspapers didn’t have to invent anything. It was there. Corruption was rampant in the force. He first took steps to stop the kickbacks from tow truck operators. This resulted in eleven disciplinary discharges and ten demotions. One person in five on the force was effected by position action. Many others were probably dirty but squeaked by. The corruption was even more widespread than he imagined. At his first anniversary he even often wondered if he had made a mistake in taking the job. The force was one mess on top of another, the result of the three corrupt political appointees who preceded him.

The Night Sniper Chapter 1: on the Beat

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