Our backup came back for the woman about fifteen to twenty minutes later. The wait was relatively silent as she actually said very little. I figured that was mostly a result of the partnership gone wrong between the woman and man that our backup was taking down to the station. How they met and got started, I didn’t know, and it probably wasn’t my business. But the man’s temper had to be worse then mine, as he had gone completely off the handle at her over her use of drugs he had “saved” for himself.
I didn’t think my temper was quite that bad, but seeing this happen… analyzing the damage done to the trailer by these two… It was all a very clear picture of what could happen when one let tempers get out of control. Part of it was even a self-conscious wondering at how close I had come to going just as far against those who had gone after Molly.
“Troubles, George?” Officer Barnes asked when he noticed me half gazing off into space.
“Just thinking over things,” I commented as our “backup” returned to pick up the woman.
Officer Barnes and I moved her and placed her in the backseat and shut the door behind her. Officer Barnes then turned to address the backup officer.
“Let Officer Howard know that we’ll be picking up the drug paraphernalia before returning to the station,” Officer Barnes spoke to him.
Our “backup” nodded and moved off. Once that business was handled and we began to head back to the trailer for the evidence that we had stumbled on to, I resumed explaining my thoughts.
“Ignoring the fact that they’re drug dealers,” I sighed, “the reason we found them was because the boyfriend found that she’d smoked some of his drugs and blew his top, and in the resulting tantrum wrecked the entire trailer. It was only after we’d arrested the man for the domestic disturbance charges that we found out they are the drug dealers that had that Meth Lab on that ranch…”
The sentence had a lot of pronouns in it, and probably wasn’t easy to follow, but Officer Barnes seemed to, as he only nodded.
“Ever since we discovered that first lab, we hadn’t seen any sign of the dealers responsible,” I continued, “and now we find them when the guy gets pissed over what should be a trivial issue between partners.”
“Like I said,” Officer Barnes replied, “these guys always tend to make a mistake somewhere. And these two made theirs…”
I nodded, “I’m worried though.”
“How?” Officer Barnes asked, “we got the bad guys and the woman confessed after we’d given her her rights.”
“It’s nothing like that,” I replied, “it’s more along the lines of private worrying about my own temper. That’s all.”
“You still wondering about all that junk Patten accused you of being?” Officer Barnes asked as we stepped back into the trailer, “First, the guy was missing a lot of information on you… I don’t think you can judge anyone with only a quarter of the facts.”
“Yes,” I nodded, “but I know I have a temper and that I’ve struggled to control it. It’s what drove me to save Molly from Changes in the beginning, but the act itself constituted a crime… vigilantism… and that put me on thin ice at the academy here. I mean… if some crook does something… and I blow my top at him and maul him… the consequences would be proving R.A.M. right and would get me fired because by mauling that person, I would be removing the laws that we are supposed to enforce out of the equation.”
“That scenario isn’t likely,” Officer Barnes dismissed it, “you care too much about defending what is right to make such a mistake… and you’re also assuming that the guy is giving up. How many of the crooks you’ve been involved in bringing in have actually given up and confessed on the spot?”
I did think that over. The Smiths had been the quietest arrest made, but even they had been a problem. The son had fired on me as I got out to sort of further their scam that I or Molly had attacked one of their cattle. And when Officer Barnes and I did bring them in, the father, Ebenezer Smith had essentially claimed that I would be sorry for arresting them.
The Pit Bull gang were captured with speed and surprise, removing the possibility of a real fight in the arrest. The trouble in dealing with them came in the questioning. Outside of one member of the gang, the other two males refused to cooperate. That had proven frustrating and slowed down the questioning until the third gang member decided to cooperate.
That then led to the series of much more violent arrests. Beauregard seriously wounded Officer Barnes and used the shotgun he had as a blunt club-like weapon against me if only to get in some sort of psychological torture before finishing me off. He was only subdued when Frank Rhoer caught the man by surprise, knocking his gun away. I ended up dislocating one of his arms before he was subdued.
Then came MacClure’s case as R.A.M. began to crumble away with the arrest of its leader. He tried to tackle Officer Jenkins when he learned he was to be arrested. She ended up kneeing him in the groin, and he was down before the fight even began. And the last was the attack by Bill Williams, easily the most violent of the cases I’d been involved in. In one day, he blew up a portion of the police station, killing two officers, shot a federal agent dead, murdered a school secretary, wounded the new principal and two students before being taken down by his own weapon. All before any police could stop him.
In none of these cases had the “bad guy” really given up. And in Williams’ case, he was killed before the option of giving up could be given to him. Still though, my private concerns about whether or not I’d always be able to control my temper were there.
“None… but that wouldn’t change things if I flip over a much smaller issue,” I answered.
“I’m still certain that won’t happen,” Officer Barnes answered.
Officer Barnes was heavily optimistic and I hoped he was right as we began looking around the rest of the trailer for all the pieces of drug and drug making paraphernalia. The living room was a mess with things laying about all over the floor, including furniture. The kitchen wasn’t any better. The table was overturned, three of its legs broken at different lengths. The chairs were all smashed completely. The oven door was dented in and a couple of cabinets had their doors knocked off. All that we managed to find in all that mess was a Marijuana pipe and presumably the plastic bag the pot had come in.
It was one of the two bedrooms in the trailer that had the real stockpile of things we were looking for. It was the room that had the door shut when the male of the two suspects was apprehended.
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrroowwwww!” I grunted as Officer Barnes and I entered the room.
It was the exact same smell as the mixed scents at the Meth Lab we had uncovered earlier. Only this was worse as the scents were trapped in the room. It made me dizzy just standing in the doorway.
“It’s too much,” I said weakly as Officer Barnes began to collect what was there.
“The fumes bothering you?” he asked back.
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” I answered, “I’ll guard the car while you bring all that stuff out. It’ll kill me if I stay in here.”
Officer Barnes nodded as I made my way back out. It took another ten minutes for Officer Barnes to get all of the drug paraphernalia into the trunk of our car. Once that was done, we closed the door to the trailer and then drove back to the station.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We returned to the station to find that there was a bit of hub-bub going on outside the station as we returned. There was a large van parked in front of the station as Officer Barnes brought our vehicle back into the station. We parked the car in the normal spot that our car was supposed to be and then began moving the evidence in through the back door.
Officer Jenkins was at her improvised post as Officer Barnes and I made our way in to place what we had collected in our station’s “evidence room”.
“Boy, we’ve had some interesting excitement while you guys were off chasing drug dealers,” Officer Jenkins commented as we reached where she was seated.
“Excitement?” Officer Barnes asked.
“Yeah,” Officer Jenkins nodded, “A couple of TV guys showed up and asked about talking with Officer Howard.”
I gave a heavy sigh, wondering if the “Fatal Attractions” TV crew had come to try and get some coverage on the town’s Tiger-People to embarrass Molly and I.
“Do you know who they are? Or what channel they’re working for?” I asked.
“I think they said they were with the National Geographic Channel,” Officer Jenkins replied.
That left me puzzled, but we still had to put all the evidence away. Officer Barnes functioned on finishing that work. I figured we’d learn more about what these guys were selling in due time. As we finished doing that, we came across Officer Howard came out of his office.
“Good work with those two drug dealers,” Officer Howard spoke, “Bryan brought in the woman before a couple “reporters” showed up.”
“News reporters?” Officer Barnes asked.
“In a way,” Officer Howard answered, “they want to give our department some special coverage and came to me to make their pitch. I’ve heard it, found no major problem with it, and figured it would be best if you heard their pitch before any final decision is made on the issue.”
Officer Barnes and I nodded to each other and then followed Officer Howard into his office. Waiting there were a couple of men in semi-formal attire. One was likely a camera man and the other was the main commentator. Or at least that was the way I thought the way they were working. The first of the two men stepped forward as we entered and offered me his hand.
“It is an honor to meet you, sir,” the man spoke.
“Huh?” I wondered in surprise.
“You’re the only Animal Person in Law Enforcement,” the man answered, “and from all the news reports that have gone through local news to national news… you’ve put up with a lot.”
“Yes,” I nodded, still unsure as what these two men were selling.
“It is an honor to meet someone who’s triumphed over those odds,” the man finished.
“Oh… thank you,” I spoke and shook the man’s hand. His partner shook my hand next, “I hope you haven’t come out here just to meet me.”
“Meeting you was part of it,” the first man spoke, “but it’s a work assignment for us. If my partner and I could essentially ride along with you.”
I glanced to Officer Barnes, who shrugged in response. The first man then went into his formal introduction.
“My name Ronald Jay, this my “partner” Robert Reynolds,” the first man, Ronald spoke, “or R&R if you wish. We are working with the National Geographic Channel’s Frontier Force.”
That got my attention. The National Geographic Channel was a cable channel, and one that Molly and I obviously didn’t get, but I had seen some of their programs while in College. They seemed fairly interesting, and covered a lot of things. I had, however found that the Channel also broadcast a lot of specialized “ride along” programs in which they documented the day to day life among various law enforcement officers. They’d done coverage in Alaska with Alaskan State Troopers and with Game, Fish, and Parks officials in California in policing poaching related charges. “Frontier Force” supposedly followed law enforcement officers in the state of Montana. Much of this coverage came from the popularity of shows like COPS, which still aired on FOX.
“And because you, Officer Wayne, have overcome a lot in your service,” Robert continued, “we wanted to spend one week with you. Sort of as a “tiger’s interest” story to show the world how good an officer that you are.”
“A lot of what I do isn’t any different then any other officer,” I told him.
“Yes, but most other officers haven’t had to overcome as much,” Ronald replied, “our produces want to balance the episode we’re to be taping for between someone who’s had no real struggles… personal or career related… with someone like you, who’s overcome great adversity to do just as well.”
“Overcoming the adversity was mostly my wife’s successes,” I commented, “Her saving a kid’s life from a Mountain Lion got the city government to realize that R.A.M.’s earlier actions weren’t in the best interests of the town. I merely got the benefit of her actions.”
“Does she work with you?” Robert wondered.
“She’s a teacher,” I answered him.
“All the same…” Ronald replied, “You’re the only Animal-Person in law enforcement. And we’d like to film with you over the course of the next week. It might even give a lot of other Animal-People some help… I mean, a lot of Animal People face some of the same problems you’ve fought against… even though the Animatrix Serum is legally sold and a surprising number of people have been taking it since it’s gone legal.”
Clemens’ story of getting attacked by a mob in Florida flashed through my mind.
“Showing that you can succeed as an officer, where the worst of the Anti-Animal-Person sentiment began,” Ronald continued, “would give the others hope, I would think.”
“Well…” I mused, “I guess it couldn’t hurt… although, you’ll have to work my partner, Officer Barnes, here.”
“Partner?” Robert wondered, “most of the officers we’ve followed worked on their own.”
“Most of the officers you’ve followed fit in the cars Detroit makes,” I answered, “I don’t. I have to lay across the back seat in order to fit.”
“Oh.”
“So, what is your schedule for these ride alongs with us, Mr. Jay?” Officer Barnes asked.
“We can start filming tomorrow,” Ronald answered, “although Robert and I will alternate. One of us will ride along with the two of you while the other can properly edit the tapes. Most of it is making digital marks as to where they can cut out to go to one of the other crew’s tapes.”
“Unless one of the State Troopers assigned to this county or someone from the Parks Service in Glacier agrees to let one of us ride along,” Robert spoke, “but we won’t know about that till later this evening.”
“I see,” Officer Barnes commented, “I don’t suppose it’d be too big of a problem. Though you’ll have to be ready early. Officer Wayne and I run the day shift.”
“Don’t worry,” Ronald chuckled, “Rob and I are used to getting up before the crack of dawn.”