Badges

and headed out the door. He still had to clean off the car before he could leave the driveway.

    Once the car was ready to go, he started the engine, and as procedure dictated, he got on the radio.

    “Dispatch, this is car two-twenty-one, going ten-eight from home headed into my office.”

    “Ten-four, two-two-one.”

    The first of the day-shift patrol officers of the Bedford Vermont Police Department were now in service and headed into police headquarters. The roads were as bad as he expected, and it took a little longer to get in than it normally would, but finally he eased into a parking spot and headed into the office.

    “Well, good morning, sunshine!” called out his shift sergeant.

    “Morning. Lovely weather… for polar bears.”

    “That it is, my friend, that it is. We’ve only got four cars on the road today, and backup from neighboring jurisdictions is going to be a problem because of the roads. So if the shit hits the fan, it’s just us, amigo.”

    “Well, we’ve never had a problem yet that we couldn’t handle ourselves,” Dale replied.

    “Oh, now you went and did it. Now we’ll have a triple bank robbery or some shit. If it happens, everyone be sure to thank Officer Macho here!”

    The officers from the night shift who were going off duty and the day shift who were coming on duty booed Dale, who just laughed and went into the locker room to grab his paperwork for the shift. From there, he went into a small room that was used for roll call and sat down among the other cops still grinning at him.

    Sergeant Drummond came in and began his shift talk. “Okay, you all just drove in here, and you know how bad the roads are, so be careful out there. The last thing I wanna have to do today is write up the paperwork on a crashed cruiser. I’m sure we can expect accident calls, and remember that you are in danger out there when at the scene of a crash in this weather. Cars can’t stop quickly; they’ll be sliding, and if they aren’t paying attention, drivers will realize too late that there’s a wreck. If you’re out walking around, you could get injured or killed. Get the cars off the roadway. Get the information you need. Issue any citations that should be issued and clear the scene as quickly as possible.

    “Last night before it began to snow, night shift had a burglary in the Plankton area, so be on the lookout today for anyone that doesn’t belong in that area. We didn’t get much from the scene, so unless we get a break on this one, it’ll probably go unsolved. Any questions? ’Cause that’s all I got.”

    Sam Dunfeld spoke up. “Just one, Sarge: if this shit ices over, can we either return to station or park it somewhere? I don’t relish driving on ice.”

    “We need to try the best we can to have at least one car mobile as long as the banks are open. If we have to, we’ll call in two cars and double up the remaining cars.”

    “Maybe we should do that from the start, Sarge, rather than having to come all the way back to here to park two and go back out,” Dale suggested.

    “I don’t know; you guys think that would be better?”

    After agreement from everyone, the four cars were reduced to two two-man units. Dale grabbed his coffee and headed out to the cruiser area.

    “You want me to drive?” asked an officer named Rob.

    “Hell no! I’ve seen you drive when it’s sunny and eighty degrees out; I’m not riding with you in this weather. You park your young ass in my cruiser,” Dale said as he laughed.

    “Okay, gramps,” Rob responded.

    Dale shot Rob a “go fuck yourself” look and managed to open the car after trying a couple of times to get the key in the frozen slot.

    Once they got settled into the cruiser, Dale set out on a modified patrol route that took the pair near the businesses that were open and away from the more hilly residential areas.

    “So, where do you get off calling me gramps? I’m not that much older than you. Just how old are you, anyway?”

    “I’m a nice young twenty-four, which makes you older than me,” Rob responded with a smile.

    “Yeah, well, I’m not worried about a mere four years, dude. Besides, that also means I’ve got more seniority on the job than you do, rookie.”

    Rob laughed as the radio came alive. “Car two-two-one, three-car accident at Fifth and Hauser, no injuries.”

    Rob acknowledged the call.

    “Well, if there are no injuries, I’m not busting my ass to get there in this shit,”