Just another day at work

Just another day at work

By Tange Cox

Marie left the house for the 2nd time that day. Every time she got in the car she would remember something else. Before she left the house she tried to see if there was anything else she could be missing. Once she got into the car and looked at the clock she realized she had 45 minutes before work. She had just enough time to stop by the convenient store and grab a couple scratch-offs. She decided to splurge today and pick an $20 and $30. She felt positive about these scratch-offs probably because she had a dream about winning. She pulled into the police station with 10 minutes to spare. Enough time to scratch them off. She scratched off the first one and it gave her $20 back, when she scratched off the 2nd one she did it with her eyes closed. When she opened them she realized she had missed scratching one of the areas. She scratched the bonus area and it said $20,000 winner. She couldn’t believe it. She wanted to scream but didn’t want to draw attention to herself. She put it inside her extra black notebook she kept in her car. She got out of the car with a smile on her face. Her shift started in less than 5 minutes. She hoped she didn’t get partnered with Pierce because he would talk her ear off.

As she pulled into the Police station lot, she saw that everyone’s car was there which did not leave any spots so she had to park further out. Just one more thing to make her even later. Damn, she also forgot her coffee that was in the kitchen. It was just the way she liked it too.

She hurried to park and get inside. When she got to the roll call, she had walked in just before it started. She saw there was only one seat left next to Pierce. Damn.

Sergeant Malone went down the roster and when he got to her he looked up and said she would be partnered with Samuel. The breath she released could be heard. Her friend Candy looked back at her and smiled because she knew how Marie felt about Pierce.

Samuel had been on the force for a while and would take things as they came. He would not be running through the streets trying to chase any and every speeding car hoping they had something that would make him look good to the senior brass.

Although the tensions in Columbus had simmered some, the people in Columbus still didn’t feel completely at ease with the police. As a black woman she tried to be mindful of all of the perceptions people had about the police. She tried not to jump to conclusions. She looked at what was in front of her and followed the clues if there were any.

Sergeant Malone called everyone’s attention forward and he let us know that there were some major drugs and guns that were supposed to be coming through the city. They didn’t have a lot of information. They knew it was coming from Detroit. They also knew that it would be carried in a semi truck. They were hoping that they would actually come through the city which would make the arrest easier if we could catch them. All surrounding jurisdictions were aware. Marie grabbed her trusty little black notebook from her front pocket. She kept it handy at all times. It had saved her more than once and this was going to be important information.

Someone in the front asked if we knew which cartel or gang maybe pushing the drugs but the Sergeant said he wasn’t completely sure but he thought it was the collaboration between a couple of them which was not surprising because we had heard the gangs figured it was better to work together than apart. The Sergeant wrapped up the meeting and we headed out to the cruisers.

Once they were all set in the cruiser, Samuel said he wanted to stop by a place to see if they saw any sign of the semi. Marie was actually shocked. As they pulled up to the rear of an abandoned warehouse she could see what looked like a couple of cars in a far off lot.

“That’s what I thought”, Samuel said.

“Apparently, someone knows something because the gangs second in command meet here anytime something big is going to happen we just haven’t been able to make anything stick. “, Samuel said.

“So what now ? This cruiser is going to stick out here especially in broad daylight”, she said.

“Since we know that it is probably going to be coming around here, to any one of these abandoned warehouses, it will be on one of the main streets first”

“Ok, let’s hope nothing comes up that takes us to far off”

Just then we got a call of 2 cars versus a semi accident. Samuel radioed they would take it.

As soon as they pulled they noticed the cab to the semi was empty but the 2 people were still inside their cars. As they got out of the police car one of the people that was in the accident got out as well and said that the driver and passenger took off running. The semi was still running, Samuel cut off the semi and started talking to the victims. They said the driver of the semi realized they had cut the turn too short and decided to back up but they hit the first person’s car. As they tried to pull forward and get away the light had changed and the other car started moving from the other direction, the semi tried to continue to go but it broadsided the car. That is when the 2 people in the semi jumped out and ran. Samuel and Marie got a description of them and called it in to dispatch who put an alert out. Once they took each person’s statement and got a tow truck for the 2nd car, on a hunch Samuel broke the security band on the semi and unlocked the doors.

What greeted them was an old junk car. They looked at each other and couldn’t believe it. Samuel hopped in the trailer and looked inside the car, what he brought back out was a brick of pure white powder. We knew why they ran and we knew we needed to get this called in and ask for backup because the gangs would want these drugs back.

We called it in and cars from every direction and jurisdiction came in red lights and sirens. We need to show we were ready to do battle if needed to get these drugs off the streets.

Samuel looked at me and said “it’s just another day at work” .

Marie grinned back and said “You're right but hopefully it’s a little better now than yesterday.”

The end