Oceanside Chronicles – PD: Season 3, Episode 4

Oct. 31, 2015
The squad was on a regular evening shift but it was the week of Halloween and "regular evening shift" usually meant something weird was going on.

Get caught up:

Season 3, Episode 1

Season 3, Episode 2

Season 3, Episode 3

 

It was one of those evenings.  It had been cloudy all day and by late afternoon the fall sun had started to set.  It seemed like it was dusk at four p.m. and dark by six.  The squad was on a regular evening shift but it was the week of Halloween and "regular evening shift" usually meant something weird was going on somewhere.  This particular year Halloween actually fell on a Saturday and the squad was all happy NOT to be working.  They'd be switching shifts and coming on duty that Sunday morning after.  That meant cleaning up some problems that would inevitably occur or exist, but at least they wouldn't be dealing with the insanity of Halloween stupidity.

Eddie wasn't really happy about having Keith alone in a patrol car still, but there was nothing to be done about it.  Those who could stay close to his patrol area did so as much as possible.  If he requested backup - or even just called out with anything - backup was quick to arrive.  Everyone else was in their regular pairs.

Nothing special had been announced in roll call.  There were no known specific threats or concerns.  But the whole squad felt as if something was just around the corner that they couldn't see; as if the weight of the cloudy sky was bearing down on them.  It was one of those evenings.

Dinner came and went and the shift had been quiet to that point.  Typically the squad ate together when they could and this evening provided a nice opportunity for that.  They didn't even get a call interrupting their meal.

After dinner Eddie and Max were back in their patrol car and Max realized he felt like he had on the occasions when he was in the Navy, assigned to a Marine Corps Expeditionary Unit, and they were on convoy.  Every eye was busy.  Every sense alert.  Everyone was just waiting for the first shot, an IED explosion... something that took them completely by surprise and ruined their day.  If they were lucky it never happened; but that didn't mean they weren't on frayed nerves waiting for it, alert to avoid it, every second of the mission until it was over.  It was one of those evenings.

Eddie didn't even pull a traffic stop through the course of the shift.  He was sure that if he did they'd either miss something important because they were tied up on the stop or something unusual would occur with the stop itself.  It wasn't that he was trying to avoid work; just unnecessary surprises that would keep them from whatever was going to happen when it finally went down.  Eddie could tell Max felt the same way just by seeing his body language.  Neither of them knew or could foresee what was going to happen but both of them felt like SOMETHING was looming.  It was just one of those evenings.  Eddie almost felt like screaming the phrase.

The radio was even quiet; so much so that they'd both checked to make sure it was working properly.  Every hour the dispatcher would chirp up to do a roll call of sorts.  "Unit 1095; just checking your status.  You Ocean King?"

She'd go through the squad list of unit numbers and check each patrol team.  Every reply was - or equivalent t0 - "Roger that ma'am. Ocean King. Thanks for checking."  She did those checks at the top of each hour and it seemed like the radio was dead all the other times... until 2255 when the radio squawked.  "Unit 1095."

Max picked up the mic and keyed it up. "Unit 1095. Go ahead, ma'am."

"Unit 1095, 1096 to backup, call for weird lights at the old barracks on South Atlantic. Complainant states flickering red, orange and yellow lights from the second floor windows, ocean side of the structure. No flames. The fire department is short and no smoke is showing so we've been asked to check and advise the situation.  Unit 1095."

Even as he keyed up the mic and replied Max's eyes met Eddie's.  "Unit 1095, ten four. En route."

- - - - - - -

Read the rest of this episode, part of Season Three, in the anthology ebook available exclusively on Amazon for kindle: http://amzn.to/2jcbPVB

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