Get caught up:
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He’d seen the reports; the ones referring to him as “justice.” The reports were wrong. Not only had he NOT committed some of the crimes they were crediting him with, he didn’t consider himself as a representative of justice in any way. As a career law enforcement officer he still held respect for the law enforcement profession and the court system. He still believed that in those courts was where justice was meted out. No, he didn’t consider himself a representative of justice anymore. He was more honest with himself than that. He was vengeance. It wasn’t targeted properly and he knew that. What he did was criminal and he was all too aware of that. He also believed, beyond a doubt, that the criminals were winning; the courts were overloaded; highly-paid greedy lawyers with no morals regularly got career criminals off due to minor technicalities or other legal games. What he was doing was necessary, he thought. It was time for the criminals to fear something again. They didn’t fear the law and they didn’t fear punishment. They no longer feared JUSTICE. Some of them… a few… had heard about the crazy guy who was going around either beating the snot out of some criminals or, in a smaller number of cases by far, killing them.
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Eddie was already at the podium as the squad started to stroll in. Since they were all early they weren’t in a hurry but when they saw that Sarge was already there and at the podium – obviously waiting for everyone else to arrive – then no matter how early they were, they still felt late. There was no need to feel that way. Eddie was always early if he could be. In his mind, “on time” was actually “late.” Early was on time. And when the shift was working overlap evening shifts, being the extra squad on the street and adjusting the hours back to a “power shift,” he was REALLY always early. He made sure of it because he never knew what the command structure was going to throw at his squad on those days. Coming in at 1900 and working until 0300 was just an adjustment of hours. But not knowing what duties would be assigned could make things a bit interesting. Eddie made sure he got in early enough to plan out and manage whatever the Lieutenant handed him.
In this case, they’d been handed traffic control assignments for one of the high school’s homecoming dances and a handful of “premise check” assignments. The only reason for the premise checks was because it was October and things tended to get a bit weird as Halloween approached. Some people seemed to look for an excuse to act… “abnormally” was the only word Eddie could come up with. The work load wasn’t exhaustive. It wasn’t anything the squad couldn’t handle. His squad was still short though. With Keith having passed and JP transferred to beach patrol (THAT had to be getting chilly, Eddie thought), his squad was down two members with no replacements in the near future that he was aware of. That meant Bill and Pete would be patrolling alone and, as much as it could be handled and had been done before, Eddie still didn’t like it. He thought about teaming them up but after weighing all the pros and cons decided to leave them in their individual units. Both were veteran officers with decent levels of common sense and excellent officer survival skills. They’d be fine.
When the squad was all present and settled Eddie reviewed the assignments for the evening. The good natured moans and groans about traffic direction duty at the homecoming dance were expected. The reminder to be alert for underage drinkers who ended up behind the wheel – doubly stupid – was given and noted. The premise checks were all divided up and handed out along with the requisite forms to be completed for each. Eddie knew that his squad did regular premise checks as part of their daily patrol routine but the agency was very proactive about checking residences and businesses if there was any request from the owner or expected uptick in potential criminal activity. The squad took them in stride; a few more sheets of paperwork to be completed and turned in.
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Read the rest of this episode, part of Season Three, in the anthology ebook available exclusively on Amazon for kindle: http://amzn.to/2jcbPVB
