The Lesson of Her Death

real unprofessional situations that way. From now on we’re going to be using the Associated Public Safety Communications Officers’ Codes. That’s like you see on TV. Ten-four. Ten-thirteen. All that. There are thirty-four of them and you’ll have to learn them all. Oh and I don’t want you to say A, B, C, you know. I want Adam, Boy, Charles and so on. We’re not going to use the military ones. I know some of you boys learned Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta. We’re civilian and there’s no reason for us to be ashamed of it.”
    Two deputies nodded to show that they weren’t ashamed.
    God bless you but
… Bill Corde shifted his weight and crossed his arms.
    Slocum said, “Ten-four?”
    The deputies smiled politely.
    “Another thing, I don’t want you to worry about calling me by my first name. I’ve been Jim to you for years and I don’t want you all going grandiose on me and calling me ‘Sheriff’ or especially ‘sir’ or anything. Promise me that?”
    “Yessir!” one of the deputies saluted sharply, and they all laughed.
    “I’ve also been seeing about getting you boys walkie-talkies. Mayor Cooper thinks it’s a good idea but where the money’s going to come from is a whole ’nother thing so you may have to wait a while on those. But I just want you to know they’re on our wish list. Now let’s get down to brass tacks.”
    Over the next ten minutes Corde tried his best to pay attention as Slocum described his plans for dividing New Lebanon into precincts and the special drug task force he was going to establish.
    One deputy frowned and said, “I don’t think I ever arrested anybody for real drugs, Jim. Not more’n a little pot. Or coke at Auden.” He turned to another deputy. “Anybody?”
    The other deputies said they rarely had.
    “Ain’t been don’t mean won’t be,” Slocum said and held up a
Time
magazine cover about crack in small towns.
    It was then that Corde, mentally, left the room.
    A half hour later the deputies departed, carrying their photocopies of the new radio codes that they’d be quizzed on next week. Corde scooted his chair closer to the desk.
    “Glad you stayed, Bill. There’s some things I wanted to talk to you about.”
    “Me too.”
    Slocum said, “I’ve been doing some thinking and I’d like to tell you what I’ve decided. This is a pretty odd situation, you being senior to me and me getting the job. So I’ve come up with something I think you’re going to be pretty pleased with.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “I’m going to create a new job here. It’ll be called vice sheriff.” Slocum paused and let Corde taste the full flavor of the words. When he didn’t respond Slocum said, “And guess who’s going to be appointed it? … You bet.” Slocum beamed. “Sounds real nice, don’t you think?”
    “What exactly does it mean?”
    “Oh, don’t think I’m doing you a favor. No sir. The fact is you’re going to work for it. I’ve been thinking about where your talents are, Bill. And it’s pretty easy to see you’re a better administrator than me. I’m going to throw a lot of stuff at you. Scheduling, overtime, personnel problems, payroll. So what do you say to that, Mr. Vice Sheriff?”
    Corde got up and closed the door then returned to the chair. He easily held Slocum’s eye. “Jim, you’re the sheriff now and I think you’ll probably run the department pretty good. But I’m doing one thing and one thing only and that’s tracking down Jennie Gebben’s killer. I’m finding him whether he’s in New Lebanon or Fredericksberg or Chicago or Mexico City and I’m bringinghim back for trial. Now, tell me, what’s the budget for deputies?”
    “What?” Slocum was too surprised to frown.
    “The budget?” Corde asked impatiently. “Didn’t Steve show you the department budget?”
    “Yeah, somewhere.…” He inspected the desk for a moment, looking for something he had no desire to find. “But, Bill, the thing is I don’t know I can have you assigned to just one case. We’re down one man already, what with Lance’s broken ribs and all. This’s a pretty big request. I’ll have to think about it.”
    “I believe that’s it there, that computer printout.”
    Slocum pulled it out and opened it up. “What, is it this column? It says ‘Personnel.’”
    Corde said, “That’s actual. I need to know budgeted.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Here, gimme.” Corde scowled. “That’s what I was afraid of. We’ve hardly got enough left