First Posting

"You've already told me that. Don't worry, I have every reason to be careful, after all I've met this really nice girl who might get the idea that I'm a halfway decent sort of bloke. Who knows, it might get serious between us."

"I hope that this girl isn't a part of your pre-Brookman's copper life."

"Yes and no, I met her again yesterday, and we seem to have clicked. Previously felt urges have resurfaced."

"You think so?"

"Yep."

"Do I have any say in this matter?"

"Of course, nothing will happen unless you want it to."

"That's what I love about you, always considerate of others. That's such a change from he who shall remain nameless. I've got to get back to work and feed the masses."

"Come over after work and I'll feed you."

"I will if you promise not to poison me."

"I promise." She kissed me and left.

I spent the rest of the day going over the files to get an idea of what this town was like. Crime was low, even by small town standards, there were few break-ins, almost no neighbourhood disputes, and most domestic issues defused before reaching chargeable status. Motor traffic offences were mostly low level speeding fines, and the odd hoon driving offences. Accidents were few, and in most cases, minor. The only exception was that incidents of drunk and disorderly behaviour on Friday and Saturday nights were numerous. I guess that in a small town where not a lot happens, this sort of thing eases the boredom, but I would have to keep an eye on it.

I had locked the police station door and gone through to the residence to prepare a sumptuous meal for Judy, when there was a knock on the door. It was Judy. "I thought that I should come over and give you a hand, not that I don't trust your cooking you understand."

"No need to worry, I'm pretty good at this, if I may say so myself."

"Okay, I will reserve judgement."

As I stood to gather up the plates and cutlery she grabbed me. "I apologise for ever doubting your cooking abilities, that was marvellous, thank you." She tilted her head in invitation for me to kiss her. I obliged.

After breakfast and a heart starter, she left to open the café.

She had no sooner opened for the first flush of customers eager to ease their caffeine cravings, when Young George arrived in a foul mood and intent on making a scene. "Where the fuck were you last night? I called around to your place and you weren't home."

"If it is any business of yours, I was visiting a friend."

"I waited for at least an hour and you didn't come home."

The customers were waiting to be served. "If you don't mind, I have customers waiting for their coffee, would you please move to the end of the queue." He chose not to wait. "Well that's my excitement for today." She announced as she served the customers.

"Knowing him, there'll be more. It appears as if he's been kicked out of home." One of the customers said with a smile on his face.

"I heard that his new lady has given him the flick as well." Another customer added. "It looks as if you're next in line."

"If that's the case, he's out of luck."

"I do believe that you've set your sights on the new copper. I noticed the two of you slipping out of the pub the other night."

"Don't get ahead of yourselves, we are just old friends catching up, nothing more."

"Bullshit! If that's the case, how come your car has spent the night in the car park, you never went home, and were seen by me coming from the police station this morning. And don't try to tell me that you got untidy last night, and spent the night in the slammer sleeping it off."

"I say nothing." After they had left, she went about doing the prep work for the rest of the day.

Several times during the day she noticed George driving past, looking into the café, and once he parked over the road, just down from the police station, and sat in his car for at least an hour. He moved to intercept her as she walked across the road with my lunch. I was out front checking over the patrol car, and keeping an eye on him, and as soon as he saw where she was heading, he took off. "What was that all about?"

"He caused a bit of drama this morning demanding to know where I had spent the night."

"What business is it of his where you spend your free time?"

"I hate to tell you this, but we weren't careful enough, and it's only a matter of time before he finds out that I spent the night here. He seems to be still holding some resentment for his aching balls."

Some news that reached me during the afternoon went some way to explain young George's mood. If the rumours are to be believed, his wife de jour kicked him out and, to add insult to injury, invited his now pregnant girlfriend to move in with her, strictly in a non-platonic scenario, if that can be believed. He had gone scurrying home to Mummy, but Daddy stepped in and told him that it was about time that he sorted out his own messes, and that included future speeding fines. He didn't go so far as to cut him off without a dollar to his name, and he got to keep his job, but that was it.

After an afternoon where my most taxing business was trying to find something to do to keep from dying of boredom, I strolled across the road just before Judy's closing time. He was back, just sitting there in his car watching for her to close up shop. I tapped on his car window. "Don't you have something better to do than to sit here waiting for Judy to close?"

"Is it against the law to park here?"

"It is a one hour parking zone and your hour is well and truly up. I must ask you to move or I'll have to give you a parking ticket."

"I'll only be here for a minute or two, I've come to pick Judy up to take her to dinner."

"Does she know about this?"

"What do you mean? Of course she knows about it, we've been going together for some time, you could say that we're an item, and I intend to marry her as soon as my divorce comes through."

"Sounds fair enough except for one minor detail. I happen to be taking her to dinner tonight. Now move along."

"You bastard! Who do you think you are? You'll do well to remember just who runs this town."

"By the sounds of things I could be your worst nightmare. If you really must know, Judy and I go way back to our high school days, and we have a lot to catch up on, and, surprise, surprise, you will not even rate a mention in the course of our catching up." I was about to add that he would be a source of derision, but thought better of it, for now that is.

"But I was at school with her, I don't remember you."

"Of course not, I was one of the poor kids, too low down the food chain to interest you. You were in the year ahead of Judy and I. The girls interested you, particularly the good looking ones like her, but us boys were beneath you. Now I must ask you to move along, and if I catch you hanging around Judy, I'll charge you with stalking."

"You haven't heard the end of this."

"Your choice, but I won't tell you again."

He left. I walked into the café. "I have to do a couple of things before we go out to dinner. I think it will be safe enough for you to wander over when to close up."

"I notice that you got rid of him. I was beginning to worry about that. I'll see you in ten."

The couple of things I had to do was to redirect incoming calls to my mobile and pair it to the Bluetooth on my aftermarket satnav in my unremarkable car.

I closed and locked the station door after, and we kissed. "Where are you taking me?"

"It will be a drive, but I thought that we should go over to Foreston, I hear that there's a pretty good pub there that serves up good food. We wouldn't get any peace if we ate locally."

"Sounds good to me." We slipped out through the back door and I held the door open for her. She showed a goodly amount of slender leg as she slid in.

We had only been on the road for fifteen minutes when my phone rang. "Sergeant Reynolds, how can I help?"

"I just passed the Paragon Café, its alarm is sounding." A male voice said.

"Is it the fire alarm or the burglar alarm?"

"I don't know, I think it must be the burglar alarm, I can't see any smoke."

"Okay, I'm about fifteen minutes away, can you stay there and keep an eye on the place until I get there? Be careful, if it is a burglar, don't do anything stupid like try to apprehend him."

"Okay."

"Duty calls I guess. From the records this will be the first burglary in years."

"I can't work out what they think they'll find there, apart from the float, there's no money kept on the premises. Unless it's my famous cheesecake he's after. Even so he's out of luck, all the food left at the end of the day goes to my regular hard up people who can't afford food for whatever reason."

"You give it away?"

"Sure, I don't keep perishable foods, and these people are only too glad of a steady supply of decent leftover food."

Being the only cop in town I didn't worry too much about the speed limit as we headed back to town. My unremarkable car might be just that, but that wasn't to say that I couldn't push it when necessary.

There was a man standing outside the café when we got there. "Are you the guy who called about the alarm?" I asked him.

"Alarm, what alarm. I was passing by and I noticed a car parked here and when I got close it drove off."

"This car, did you recognise it?"

"Yeah sure, I see it around all the time, it was young Brookman's Porsche."

"I thought as much."

Judy checked her alarm. It hadn't been tripped, there was no break-in. I turned around and headed back to Foreston.

We never made it. Halfway there, bright high beam headlights approached from behind at speed. He was flying as he came passed and, just as he got in front of me, he brake-checked me, swerving in front of me and slamming on his brakes. I stood on my brakes and swerved onto the wrong side of the road, my unremarkable car not having the same brakes that the Porsche had. He accelerated away from us, leaving me sitting on the wrong side of the road seething. "Fucking idiot!"

"It's okay, you were brilliant. I probably would have rear-ended him."

"That's what he hoped would happen. What he must have done was to make that call to see what car we were using. If we had been in the squad car he wouldn't have tried that because of the car cam. What he doesn't know is that unremarkable car has an after-market dash-cam fitted. He will get a big surprise tomorrow."

I followed him at a distance until he turned into the driveway of the Brookman house.

While the evening didn't quite go as planned, the contingency plan was nothing short of amazing. I was rapidly forming the opinion that Judy was the person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But there were some things that I had to do before I could think about that part of my future.

On my way to the Brookman mansion I swung past my ancestral home to see what it looked like. My disappointment was palpable. The grounds were overgrown, the fruit trees had not been pruned for years, and the house had not been visited by the business end of a paint brush for even longer. Disappointment turned to anger. The bank had forced my parents from there house because they wanted the land, but for what? My thoughts were that Brookman did not like Father giving fruit and vegetables to those in need, thereby undermining Brookman's General Store's business. He couldn't legally prevent these gifts, so he had to find some way to get my parents off the property.

I rang the front door bell and waited for an answer. It arrived eventually in the form of Mrs Brookman. "Well Scott Reynolds, how are you?"

"Fine Mrs Brookman, just fine. Is your son at home?"

"Why, what has he done wrong now?"

"He was seen driving in a dangerous manner and speeding last night. I have come to issue him this infringement notice. Is he at home?"

"I am supposed to tell you that he isn't, that's the usual story."

"It doesn't matter, I can give it to you to pass on to him, I just have to write on the notice that he refused acceptance, and I had to serve it on a respected member of his family. I consider you to fit that description, and that constitutes legal service for our records." I handed her the citation. "If he wants to fight it, he has thirty days to lodge a defence at the courthouse, if he doesn't pay or lodge a defence in that time I will get a warrant for his arrest."

"Do you consider me to be a respected member of this family?"

"Probably the only one, but don't tell anyone that I said that."

"Your secret's safe with me. You take good care of yourself Scott. Oh by the way, rumour has it that you have become very friendly with young Judy Stevens. You could do worse, she had the smarts to tell my wastrel son to fuck off, her words, not mine, I'm just repeating what I've been told."

Now this was a turn-up for the books. Dare I accept that I have a friend in the enemy camp?

On my way back into town I dropped into a Real Estate office. I got to speak with the boss. "My name is Scott Reynolds. I was brought up in this town and my parents owned a property on Canning Road until they had to sell. Brookman foreclosed on a loan and bought it at a ridiculously low price. He said that he needed the property for a 'future project'. I drove past it this morning and it looks as if nothing has been done to the property since he bought it. I have a mind to advise that local council that the long, dry grass poses a significant fire hazard, and should be cleared up immediately. If the grass catches fire the house will go up with it, because it's growing right up to the walls. I would like to make him an offer to buy the place, but if I do that he'll decide not to sell. Is there a way that I can make the offer without him realising that it is me?"

"There are several ways that can be achieved, some I will discount immediately because you're a policeman and they aren't entirely legal. Leave it with me and I'll get back to you on this."

It was time for lunch, so I called in to the Paragon Café for a good feed and to see Judy. The looks that I got from the other customers told me that we could no longer keep our romantic status a secret. Judy came around the counter and grabbed me in a huge hug and planted a kiss on my lips that was anything but platonic. A loud cheer erupted from the customers and we were surrounded by people offering us their congratulations.

The joyous occasion was cut short by the arrival of Brookman Senior. "Sergeant, a word." He left, assuming that I would follow. I did. "What is the meaning of this?" He held the citation in his hand.

'Your son, despite the caution that I issued to him not two days ago, was driving in a manner that could only be described as very dangerous, he deliberately tried to run me off the road and was driving at a very high speed. He also did not lower his beams as he came up behind me, I was momentarily blinded. He could have caused an accident and I will not stand for this recklessness."

"How do you know that he was driving the car, he tells me that he loaned the car to a friend."

"That old excuse. I'm afraid that it will not cut it this time. If he knows what is good for him, he'll pay the fine and cop the suspension of his licence. If not, it will go before the Magistrate who may not be quite as lenient when he sees the evidence that I have."

"What evidence?"

"Dashcam footage and the corroborating evidence of a witness."

"I hope that you are not relying on the evidence of that slut in there?" He nodded his head towards the Paragon Café, and my intended. "She cannot be trusted to tell the truth." With that, he stormed off.

"Nice." I said to myself before turning to re-join the celebrations.

"What did he want?" Judy asked.

"It would appear that the excrement has made contact with the rotary ventilator. He is most displeased that I have issued a citation to George Junior."

"What can they do, he doesn't have a leg to stand on?"

"I have a feeling that he will be on the phone to his mate the local MP (Member of Parliament), to impress on him that I am the wrong policeman for this town. That will not work, because he was instrumental in my posting here."

The first shots of the war began the next evening when the Brookmans held a dinner party. Their guests had one thing in common, they were all very wealthy friends of the Brookmans, and in different ways, very influential in this town.

Following this gathering, Judy noticed a drop in her usual customers of a certain demographic. It would seem that their loyalty to Brookman had overridden their caffeine cravings.

Trudy had several cancellations of her regular bookings, all of them from wealthy women.

A hasty meeting was called by the small traders in town. A decision was made to fight fire with fire. The first salvo was the wholesale closing of bank accounts. Money was withdrawn from the Brookman branch of the major bank and transferred to the Foreston branch of the same bank. Outstanding loans held by the Brookman bank were renegotiated with more favourable terms than Brookman had offered. When news of this reached the head office of Brookman's bank a hasty visit was arranged by the CEO to find out what was going on. An audit was called for and this showed that Brookman's friends received much better than standard terms on all transactions from the bank.

At a board meeting in head office, the bank's CFO advised that business of the Brookman bank did not warrant having a branch there. It was decided to give the bank three months to regain its lost business. Failing an improvement, the decision was taken to close the bank.

Unaware of this decision, Brookman attempted to carry on business as usual, but it soon became obvious that there was insufficient business to keep it viable. He resorted to attempting to sell off some of his property holdings, and this was where I stepped in. At the auction held for the sale of my family's former property, there were a few half-hearted bids, and the Auctioneer was just about to call the whole thing off because bidding had not reached the reserve price, when another bidder entered the fray. After some spirited negotiation Brookman agreed to sell at a price below the reserve and not much higher than the rate valuation set by the Council. What Brookman did not know was that the agent who bought the property was acting on my behalf. If he had known that, I never would have got it.

The transaction made a large hole in my investment account, and I had to accept the fact that finances would be somewhat tight for some time.

At around this time Junior's case was scheduled for a hearing. There was some less than subtle pressure from the senior Brookman to have me drop the charges, to no avail. The trial did not go well for Junior. A Barrister had been engaged by Brookman to fight the charges, his fee would have been more than any fine levied by the court, but that was his decision.

There were several interjections (unsuccessful) about the admissibility of the evidence that I was presenting.

"Your honour," I addressed the Magistrate. "The evidence that you are about to see was taken by the dash cam that I have fitted to my private car. This dash cam has both a forward facing and rear facing camera." I had my dash cam hooked into my laptop computer which was linked by HDMI cable to a projector. The image was shown on a large screen. "As you will see, the vision from the rear facing camera, the defendant's vehicle had his headlights on low beam as he approached mine. When he was some fifty meters behind my car, he switched them onto high beam. While my car has a glare reduction setting on its interior rear view mirror, and I was able to reduce the glare, the same cannot be said for the exterior mirrors, and the glare from those mirrors was blinding, dangerously so."