Josie sat in the passenger seat of the black and white while Bender drove at a snail’s pace. Traffic was heavy on the boulevard bordering the Cal State Northridge campus.
Right out of roll call, he took her to a local donut shop to grab a cup of coffee.
There were two other LAPD units in the same strip mall. Someone had burglarized a flower shop next to the donut joint.
One of the training officers barked at his probationary partner. “Tully, show this officer where the burglar got inside, and what they did while in there.”
As soon as they were out of earshot of the other cops, the probationer said, “First day?”
She nodded. “Is it that obvious?”
He chuckled. “No. When you arrived at the station, someone on morning watch saw a hot, new female going inside. That kind of info spreads like butter on hotcakes. I just put two and two together.”
Josie refrained from making a face. “You’re a P-1, too?”
“Yeah, I’m Jim Tully.” He stuck his hand out for a quick handshake. “I’ve been out of the academy five months. I started working on mornings this deployment period.”
“How do you like the job?”
He laughed. “Other than the fact I can’t sleep during the day, it’s hard to believe I’m getting paid to do it.”
“Have you had good training officers?”
“Some are better than others. I take the best of what I learn from each one and forget the crap I think they’re lousy at.
“It’s too bad your first TO is Bender. He’s not a hard-charger. I’ve heard he likes to drive around and talk about his glory days in the NFL. Someone told me he didn’t even complete his first season.”
He motioned for her to walk to the back of the strip mall.
She was dying to know more about Lieutenant Mancuso and how he shot his sister. She wondered if she could ask Tully, or would that seem too nosy?
Behind the flower shop, he showed her how the burglar had broken through the rear wall.
“They broke down the wall?”
He nodded. “Probably to avoid the alarm going off.”
Josie glanced around the top of the building. “They don’t have cameras back here?”
He pointed to the corner of the building. “See the mounting they had for cameras? My partner said they were stolen years ago, and after replacing them a couple of times, the building owners decided it wasn’t worth the effort.”
They walked around to the front of the shop, and he took her through the entrance.
A man stood in a side office with a glass window facing the front of the store.
“That’s the shop owner,” Tully said. He gave the owner a quick wave. Walking her to the rear of the store, she could see the hole in the back wall.
“Hard to believe a person could fit through that opening.”
Tully shrugged. “He came in through here, then went up to the front counter, ransacked the cash register, and took a couple of iPads they use for orders.” He pointed at an empty display. “He left the way he came.”
“Is it common in burglaries for the suspect to break out a wall?”
“I’ve never seen it before.” He grinned. “But then I’m still new too.”
The radio came to life. “Tully, where are you?”
He looked at her and sighed. “We’re overtime and my partner’s cranky.”
“How is it that he can talk so casually on the radio?”
Tully laughed. “He’s on another channel where we can talk to each other without the dispatcher and others listening in.”
“Right. I remember. We learned that in the academy. Thanks for the reminder.”
Josie followed him out of the flower shop to join the more tenured officers. “Come on, Price,” said Bender. “These guys need to go home, and we need to get back on the streets.”