Chapter 1
He was actually a cop. A real, bona fide police officer.
Luca Fierro walked out of the precinct wearing his new BPD uniform as a Boston patrolman trainee. As the new guy, he would be on the graveyard shift for a while with his more experienced field training officer, Joe.
Luca had already taken plenty of ribbing from the guys during roll call. They all knew the Fierro name because his family were legendary firefighters.
“Hey, Fierro, aren’t you wearing the wrong uniform?”
He just smiled or said, “Very funny, guys.”
“So how does it feel to be a genuine cop, not a cadet?” Joe asked.
“You don’t remember? How long have you been on the job?”
Joe laughed. “Fifteen fun-filled years.” They paused a moment to get into their cruiser. Joe took the driver’s seat. He may have carried an extra twenty or thirty pounds, but he seemed agile enough.
“Did you have a difficult adjustment?” Luca asked as he buckled his seat belt.
“Not really. My dad was a cop, so that may have helped me ease into the job.”
Luca couldn’t help being uncomfortable. Some cops had real problems with firefighters. They called them “hose draggers” and didn’t like being accused of “pillow envy,” because firefighters were allowed to sleep on the night shift.
Similarly, the firefighters weren’t always fond of cops. His own family called him the “blue sheep.”
Luca answered the original question. “I feel good about finally getting started on the job. I’ve trained long and hard for this.”
Joe was quiet as he pulled out of the station’s parking lot, so Luca continued. “My folks weren’t in favor of my going into law enforcement, but they were okay with my studying criminal justice at Northeastern University. They thought I’d change my mind after learning what was involved. If anything, studying the subject made me want it even more.”
“Oh, shit,” Joe said. “You’re a college grad? You know why it’s called a BS degree, right? You know too much to be clueless but not enough to deal with those weird situations they didn’t prepare you for.” He smirked.
“In other words, you think I know just enough to be dangerous?”
“Maybe. What did they teach you there?”
“All kinds of things. Ethics, courtroom procedures, criminal law, corrections, crime scene management, computer investigation, domestic and international terrorism… I want to be a detective someday.”
Joe nodded.
Luca had to get used to one of the aspects of being a cop, and that was not giving too much away. Just answer the questions you’re asked and no more. Sometimes volunteering information got you into hot water.
He’d have to guard his family’s secrets even more carefully.
Joe turned onto a busy street. Luca wondered how long it would be before Joe felt comfortable trading off driving duties.
“So, fifteen years… You must’ve seen it all.”
“You’ve never seen it all, kid. You might hear about some crazy stuff at the bar though. If it doesn’t happen to you, it’s happened to someone else.”
Patrolling the city was sometimes tedious and sometimes terrifying. It was that on-and-off pace and the fact of never knowing what was around the corner that both intrigued and made most first-years anxious, to say the least.
It wasn’t long before they came across a car speeding and driving erratically. “Shit,” Joe said. “I might chalk that up to a typical Boston driver, but the damn car almost sideswiped us.”
Luca made a quick call to dispatch, notifying them of the ten code, the vehicle’s description, and their approximate location. They turned on the lights and took off after it, spotting the car climbing the ramp onto the Southeast Expressway.
“Dammit,” Joe swore. “I hate stopping drivers on the expressway.”
“Can’t you get them to pull off at the next exit?”
