“We as in all of you?” Everyone nodded. I hated their uniforms, too. The shirts were a puke green, the pants a muddy brown. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to wear that uniform. “That’s on my list. I can’t promise you how soon it will happen, or if it even will, but I’m working on it.”
“Thank you, Chief.”
“Anything else?” Tommy raised his hand. “Tommy?”
Officer Kim Payton scrunched her eyebrows together, giving Tommy a quick glance when I called him by his first name. I gave her a point for being observant.
“I’d like to propose a rotation schedule for cleaning the break room. Right now it’s up to Sarah and Kim…I mean Officers Griffin and Payton to do it. I don’t think that’s fair.”
“They do it ’cause they’re the only women we got,” Moody said.
Sexist pig. I took fifty points away from him—no, make that a hundred. Ignoring Moody, I said, “First, you’re free to use each others’ first names. Second, work out a rotation schedule, Tommy, then post it.”
The two women exchanged grins. I figured with that one act alone, I’d won their loyalty. “If that’s all, you’re dismissed. For those going on duty, be careful out there.” I loved that line from the old cop show,Hill Street Blues.
For the rest of the day I spent my time in the office, getting it organized. Moody had been the interim chief for six months, and the place was a mess. What a surprise. By six I had everything organized the way I wanted it and, when my stomach growled, decided to call it quits for the day. Someone from the Ladies Auxiliary had dropped off a large pan of lasagna to welcome me aboard, so I hadn’t even left for lunch. I’d carved out a chunk for myself and then gave the rest to my cops.
Vincennes was closed on Mondays or I would have had dinner there, but instead I grabbed a burger at a drive-through and, after wolfing it down, made a few more stops around town to introduce myself. I wanted the people in Blue Ridge Valley to know their new police chief was interested in them and their well-being.
Tomorrow I’d have a police radio installed in my car, but for now I was using a handheld. When it crackled to life, reporting a fight at Hideouts, the honky-tonk bar, I headed there.
The first thing I saw when I pulled into the parking lot was Jansen beating on a guy half his size. I assumed the guy trying to pull them apart was the bouncer. A siren sounded, and moments later a police cruiser raced up.
“Tommy,” I said when he exited the patrol car, “come help me pull Jansen off that dude before someone gets hurt.”
“You got it, Chief.”
Between the two of us and the bouncer, we separated Jansen and the other man, but Jansen was an idiot—which I already knew—and he tried to break away and go after the man again. Jansen was beyond reasoning with.
“Give me your handcuffs,” I said, talking to Tommy behind Jansen’s back. He slipped them to me, and I clamped one on Jansen’s arm, then realized there was no way I’d get his fat arms behind his back and be able to cuff him without another pair, maybe two more.
“Help me push him to the cruiser.” Between the two of us, Tommy and I managed to get him next to the back door. Jansen was still spitting mad, and the fool hadn’t even realized I’d cuffed him to the door handle of the cruiser until he tried to go after the other man again and was jerked back.
“The fuck?” Jansen said, trying to tug his arm free.
I didn’t bother deducting points because as of now, the man was no longer one of my cops. “What’s this all about?” I asked the man I took to be the bouncer.
“John Mackey,” he said, holding out his hand, which I shook. “You’re the new police chief, right?”
I nodded. “Dylan Conrad.”
“Thought so. So, your cop comes in on occasion. Don’t know what started it, but he followed Jordy out and tried to beat the shit out of him.” He glanced at Jordy. “Sorry, don’t know your last name.”
“Neiman, Jordy Neiman. I bumped into the dude, apologized, but he didn’t want my apology.”
“Asshole stepped on my foot.”
I walked back to Jansen. “Not another word.” He spit on my shoe, and I grabbed his earlobe and twisted it until he squealed. “You do that again, I’m going to throw you in a cell and lose the key.”
Returning to Neiman, I said, “Do you want to press charges?”
“No, man. I just want to leave. That was what I was trying to do when he tackled me.”
That wasn’t the answer I wanted, but I let it go. I did get John Mackey to agree to give a statement to Tommy tomorrow, which would still suit my purpose. “I want you to write out what you saw from the time you arrived, Tommy. I’ll do the same.”
“You gonna fire Jansen?”
I eyed Tommy. “Would you?”
