Season 2, Episode 1 can be read here.
Max had to admit, there was something convenient about having a two car garage, especially one with a refrigerator full of cold drinks in it as he and Eddie worked on their cruiser. When Max had been in the Navy, it had been a regular event to inventory equipment, clean weapons, inspect gear, etc. With the police department, this was the first time Max had had to do so with a cruiser. It was Eddie’s assigned patrol vehicle and since he was Max’s Field Training Officer (FTO), it was also – to some extent – Max’s cruiser. They both had to know where everything was so that they could find it quickly if they needed it in an emergency. The patrol vehicle had to remain reasonably clean and it was in their own best interest to have the passenger compartment free of items that might become missiles in a traffic accident.
As part of the maintenance process, Eddie had invited Max over so that they could clean out, inventory and reload the cruiser together. Eddie had put his and Ann’s personal vehicles at the curb so that the garage was empty. Then he pulled in the cruiser and together, he and Max emptied the cruiser. They took everything that wasn’t physically mounted to the vehicle out of the vehicle and placed it around the car in various places on the garage floor – mostly segregated by category of item. The two long guns – Eddie’s shotgun and Max’s rifle – were inside the house in Eddie’s gun safe.
With everything unloaded Eddie had backed the cruiser out into his driveway where they washed, dried and waxed it. Then they pulled it back into the garage and thoroughly vacuumed it. After vacuuming it they got out sterile wipes and dust rags and set about cleaning every inside surface. Because it was a police car, there was no leather… no cloth. Everything was “pleather” and plastic or rubber. The windows were cleaned with windex. The bolts on the gun rack were checked as were all of the bolts on the center console. The plastic lenses covering all of their emergency lights were taken off and cleaned (Eddie showed Max the old trick of using Brasso to polish plastic).
By the time they’d finished cleaning the cruiser it was lunch time. Ann had gone out and grabbed a bucket of fried chicken along with several large sides of mashed potatoes, coleslaw and baked beans. Eddie drank his down with a cold beer while Max enjoyed a sweet tea. He watched as Ann drank a glass of Pinot Grigio to wash down her chicken and mashed potatoes. He’d never seen anyone drink wine with fried chicken before but Ann did it like it was an everyday occurrence.
- - - - - - - - - - -
All of Season 2 of The Oceanside Chronicles, including officer survival notes and an alphabetical list of characters can be purchased as an anthology on Amazon.com via Amazon Prime.
http://amzn.to/2duah34
