January Gets Her Gunn

Chapter 7-2

“Yes.”

“Okay, drive down there. There are some things I need to show you.”

“Ten-Four.” January put the RPU in gear and pulled away from the curb.

At the railroad yards, January parked while Gunn checked them out with dispatch. Locking the car behind them, he took her up to the Yard Masters office. There he showed her the scheduling board where the yard crews got their instructions for making up trains or changing cars. He also showed her the Call Boards, where train and yard crews were scheduled, and explained them. She met the night Yard Master and was issued a Crummy Key, a skeleton key for all the “crummys” or cabooses used by the line.

There was a freight made up in the yard, awaiting the crew, who would take it to Los Angeles. Gunn gave her a complete tour from the first engine to the caboose. January unlocked the door to the caboose with her key. She learned the nomenclature of the cars and their parts, how to check seals. Above all, she learned how to tell a hobo to catch out, or be on the next freight leaving town.

Back in the car, Gunn opened his brief case and handed January a small manual, held together with a plastic comb. “You won’t learn this at ALETA and the department doesn’t provide any guidance, so I made up these manuals for the rookies I train.”

He watched as she looked at the cover. MAN TRACKING Thaddeus X.M. Gunn, Police Department, Riverton, Arizona. Flipping through the pages, she hesitated to scan some of the pen and ink line drawings. “Who did the art?”

“Me.” Gunn was smiling.

“Wow! You did this on your own?”

She’s impressed. “Aye, not wholly by myself. I had a lot of advice. But I did write it, executed the art, and did the binding.”

“But the expense. Is it all out of pocket?” January looked concerned.

Gunn fidgeted a moment. “Well, yes and no. In the beginning, I absorbed the cost. Then, after a few people saw it, I sold a few to older officers on the department, sheriff’s deputies, and about two hundred copies to the college book store. It’s now one of the required books for the Administration of Justice course on Technique of Patrol at the college now. I’ve actually made a little money on it, but for my rookies it is still free.”

“That’s amazing.” January opened the front cover again and paused to read the penned note there. “Wow, an autographed copy. I’ll treasure this. Thanks, Thad.” Her smile was genuine. “I need to put it in my brief case.”

“In a minute. This goes with it, but you should carry this with your note book.” It was a small square of plastic. He pointed to various holes, like stencils, in the square. “That’s a template of a man’s shoe print. It is to be used on Field Interrogation Cards and crime reports. It helps make things look neat. And this one is a woman’s high heel, broad heel and clog shoe print.” He handed her a second plastic square. “This should be in your trouser pocket. It has a yellow face with black numerals. It photographs well, even at night with flash.” He handed her a small twelve foot retractable tape measure. “You’ll get practice using these before you get assigned to your own car.”

“Wowee, zowee. Thanks.” She looked at Gunn for a moment. “If we weren’t in uniform, in a city car, and on duty, I’d kiss you, you big lug.” She laughed at Gunn’s woebegone look before getting out, opening the trunk, and putting the manual in her brief case.

Before they left the yard area, they made one more stop. “You need to see this too. You might never have to go up there, but if you did, you need to understand how the ice deck works.”

Jan nodded. “Oh yeah, I remember reading a report a few weeks back about a man being found dead up there. Just what is the ice deck?”

“It’s the facility where they ice the reefer cars to ship perishable produce to the major city markets.”

At the ice-deck, Gunn explained what was going on. He pointed out the big shredder/blower that ate one-hundred fifty pound blocks of ice and blew it into the ice-bunkers on top of each end of the refrigerated railway cars. The shredder/blower ran on small rails that straddled a conveyer belt bringing the ice blocks to the machine.

She studied the machinery. “As I recall, the report said the dead man was electrocuted by touching the third rail. I only see two for the conveyer. Is there a third one I’m not seeing?”

“No. You notice the crew is working on this side. The third rail is about half-way up on the far side. There’s no walkway on that side. If you ever have to go up there, stay on the walkway. If you get on the conveyor belt, you can be crushed by the ice, or it might throw you against the third rail.”

“So it’s pretty dangerous up there if you don’t know what you’re doing?”

Gunn nodded. “Yes. The ice-deck is an extremely dangerous place. There are a lot of serious accidents each year.”

January was quiet as they walked back to the car. When they got in, she put the RPU in gear and headed for the brighter lights in the center of town. “Thanks for showing me all this tonight. I feel like I really learned some significant things here.”

She noted he had nothing to say in response to that. Well, at least the hassles and our talk seem to have loosened up his flow of information a little bit.

The rest of the shift went fast. When they weren’t backing other units, Gunn was showing January how to do Field Interrogations and then letting her do some, while he watched.

“You know, I kept seeing those drawings of shoe prints on reports. I was curious. Nothing was really said about shoe prints and tracking at ALETA.” They sat in the Dining Car, an all-night restaurant near the railroad yards, having lunch. She’d been thinking and finally raised the subject.

“Right, but you heard about fingerprints enough.” Gunn paused with his coffee cup half raised. “We actually get as many convictions based of shoeprints as we do with fingerprints. I think most Arizona departments do.” He sipped his coffee and then sat the cup down.

“There’s a detective over in Yuma, with the Yuma SO, though he was a city detective before that. His name is Joe Wheeler and he is supposed to have a big cardboard box full of size fifteen shoes. They’re all taken from the same burglar and used in sending the burglar up. It seems that every time the burglar, who was called Big Tramp, was arrested, he would beg the officers not to tell Detective Wheeler. He didn’t want to lose another pair of expensive shoes. I understand that Wheeler can’t get rid of them, not even to the Salvation Army, as there just isn’t a demand for size fifteen E shoes.”

January laughed. “You’re kidding.”

“No, I met Wheeler once and asked him about it. He said, ‘I wish people would forget about that. At least once a week, my wife asks when I’m getting rid of that box of shoes sitting in my garage.” Gunn grinned as he watched January throw back her head and laugh. How, I would love to kiss that neck. Abruptly, he bent his concentration on his food, hoping she wouldn’t notice his yearning.

* * * *

19 Aug 1982: 0640:

It was almost a quarter to seven when January took her now-customary seat at the Chuck Wagon. They were discussing the burglary Carlos Perez had discovered late in the shift. January and Gunn had backed on the call. It was in a warehouse, a peel job on an old floor safe. The fire brick insulation had turned to powder and spilled on the floor. The burglars had ignored the white powder and left a lot of shoe prints. January got a first class lesson in tracking. Detective Shapiro was still at the scene and Carlos was still at the station typing reports. January was tired, but elated about what she had learned.

“You look beat, Jan,” Ray Goldman said, smiling as she sat down.

“Yeah, we were pretty busy. I don’t know where the time went.” She smiled up as Maye Potter poured her a cup of coffee. “Maye, you won’t believe it, but Gunn acted human all night.”

“I believe it. Just watch your back.” Maye sat the pot down and took out her order book from her apron pocket. January gave her order and Maye picked up the pot. She laid her hand on January’s shoulder, “Girl, you might be the one that melts the iceman.” With a smile and a pat, Maye went to turn in the order.

“Jan, did Manny talk to you last night?” Phil Hunt asked, as he set his coffee cup down.

“No, I didn’t see Manny all night.”

“He’s pretty upset about Wednesday night.”

“Wednesday night? What happened?”

“Jan, you might as well know, everybody knows you and Gunn went out to the Rio Vista Park that night. No, it wasn’t Chappo who talked. It was somebody in our department, probably the same person who called the SO.” Phil looked embarrassed, turning his cup around and around.

“Chappo’s madder than hell. He thinks someone is out to get Gunn.”

January’s face blazed, but she wasn’t embarrassed. She was angry enough to explode. “Okay, guys, I’ll tell it once and that’s it, okay?” She looked around the table.

“You don’t have to say a word, Jan.” Andre Banks’s deep voice was a rumble. “We don’t have much love for Gunn, but we know him. He’s there when we need him and he’s always straight with us. There isn’t one of us sitting here at this table who wouldn’t go to the wall with him. And that includes you, Officer Farrell.” He, too, was angry. His normally mild brown eyes had turned maroon. There were nods from the other officers.

“That isn’t what I meant. I want to tell you the truth so you can say whatever different you hear is bullshit.” Jan lit a cigarette. “We went out to the park to talk our differences out. Gunn bought a six pack. We talked for about two hours, mostly about our pasts and families. We even threw rocks in the river. We walked. We went back and I sat on the table with my feet on the bench. Both of us had our guards down emotionally. We kissed and it started heating up. Thad got a conscience attack and that was it. We both were aroused, but Thaddeus Gunn is such a principled big lug, that neither of us had a button undone. Right after that Chappo showed up. He wasn’t happy about it, no more than we were. Nothing happened, except that Chappo handed Thad his friendship.”

January stopped while Maye set her breakfast on the table. “Thanks.” She smiled at the waitress, trusting in the other woman’s friendship and discretion, whatever she heard.

“Okay, guys, one other thing happened. Thaddeus X.M. Gunn got a big hole kicked into his brass plated armor.” She took a moment to pour syrup over her eggs and pancakes and then busted the yokes with her fork. “I think I need to say something else. I was in the Marines, I’m now a graduate of ALETA and a rookie cop. I wear a blue suit and carry a nine millimeter just like you guys. I’m sure you’ve noticed that there are some physical differences between me and you. And I’m not talking about complexion, Andre.” That got a laugh. “I don’t shave my face like you and you don’t shave where I do.” Another laugh as January took a bite of her food. “But I am a normal, healthy human being. I get urges, just like you. I like watching good looking men and speculating. I think that’s familiar to you guys, only a different gender. Right?”

She smiled at their abashed grins. “From a female point of view, Thad Gunn is a hunk. I don’t have hair on my chest, but I’m a big girl and I know what I’m doing most of the time. I was about to rip his clothes off and see if he really is all man. If there was any seduction at the park that night, it was me doing the seducing. Any questions?” She dug into her food.

“No questions, Jan. We all understand.” Andre took a sip of orange juice. “What you just said is proof that Gunn has his own honor. Just as you and I and possibly Dan, here. We’re not WASP males, so our sense of honor is slightly skewed to Ray’s and Phil’s. As long as we stick with our principles, nobody can question us. Like you said, Jan, nothing happened. Right guys?” Andre looked around the table. Every one of the officers nodded.

“Thanks guys, I could kiss you all.” January was smiling, but she knew there were tears in her eyes. God, what a great bunch these guys are!

Andre laughed. “You can start with Ray, he’s the least experienced. Phil better be next, before Willie gets here, then Dan. I want to be last so I can take my time.” He grinned, sending her a slow, deliberate wink.

“You’re a rascal, Andre.”

“Sure, but I’m good at it.”

“You sound just like Paco.” January pointed her finger at Andre.

“Who do you think taught him?”

“Carlos Jesus Perez.”

Jan jumped at the unexpected voice almost in her ear. She looked up to see Carlos standing there with his hand on the back of her chair.

“Jan, that was a good supplemental report. I knew Gunn didn’t write it, because my name was spelled correctly.” He drug up a chair and sat down.

Maye came over with her coffee pot and started filling cups. Willie Hunt showed up and sat down. Phil leaned over to kiss her cheek and then whispered in her ear. She nodded, looked at Jan, and winked. Conversation turned to other things.