Chapter 1: As a young rookie I'd been told about it. I trained for it. I expected it. It never happened. I started to doubt the stories from the experienced veterans of the street. Then, one day, I received a not-so-welcome visit from every cop's enemy...Complacency.
What had been a "routine" shift suddenly turned into a nightmare I can hardly describe. Shortly after dropping a drunk off at detox, I decided to take a quick 10-7.
Although the headlights of my cruiser illuminated the interior of the Dunkin Donuts there was no way the halogen beams could fully illuminate the horror that waited inside.
I called out my 7 to dispatch, put a couple of notes on a report and walked inside. My first inclination something might be wrong manifested itself in the portly shape behind the counter. It wasn't Lou. Lou was the regular guy at Dunkin's...hadn't missed a day in as long as I could remember. You could count on Lou as surely as you could count on some scumbag calling in a complaint because you didn't use a turn signal for a lane change while responding to a hot call and simultaneously trying to drive, look up the address in the mapbook (no...we didn't have GPS back then) and talk to dispatch on the radio.
But this wasn't Lou. Even though the hairs on the back of my neck were standing out Mr Complacency assured me it was just because it was 0400 and I was tired. I couldn't have been more wrong. Terribly wrong.
"Hey, man...how's it going this mornin'? Where's Lou?", I asked. If looks could kill, I'd be one dead cop.
"How the fuck should I know where Lou is? Do you see Lou? Lou ain't here, Boss. You got me. Now do you want a frickin' do-nut and some coffee or do just wanna bust my balls about whereda fuck is Lou?"
I didn't have time to think. I didn't have time to respond. This was it...what I'd heard about. What I'd trained for but never faced. And now I was caught off guard...with my pants down, so to speak. I was finally face to face with...an agressive doughnut seller.
It's hard for me to even talk about what happened next.
To be continued...that's all I have.