Unlike her partner, Deputy Sheriff Bradford Counter,131 Woman Deputy Alice Fayde entered the Rockabye County Sheriff’s office by conventional means. Prior to her appointment, she had served seven years in the Gusher City Police Department’s Bureau of Women Officers, rising through the ranks from walking a beat to becoming a sergeant in the Detective Bureau. She had served in such diverse divisions as Evans Park—the slum area known as the ‘Bad Bit’—and the high-rent Upton Heights. In addition, she had worked in various specialist divisions as Traffic, Juvenile and Narcotics. All of which had combined to give her a very thorough knowledge of law enforcement duties. Furthermore, she was an excellent shot with a handgun and skilled in unarmed combat. As a deputy, she had a rank equivalent to a lieutenant in the G.C.PJD.’s Patrol Bureau, or a detective sergeant.
In addition to their other duties, the Sheriff’s Office were responsible for the investigation of homicides and twenty-two other legal infractions—such as wife-beating, bigamy, train wrecking, assault—which might end in murder throughout Rockabye County. The idea of handling the latter crimes was so that, if death should result from their commission, the officers in charge would have knowledge of the facts leading up to it.
The Sheriff’s Office based in the Gusher Department of Public Safety Building worked a two-watch rota. The Day Watch commenced at eight in the morning and ended at four in the afternoon and the Night Watch continued from four until midnight. If deputies were required between midnight and eight in the morning, they would be called from their homes by the G.G.P.D.’s Business Office which was manned for twenty-four hours a day.