Writing for Fun
January 2017
Ice Cold - Bob Wendelkin
‘If this was my last day on the Job, I don’t think I would want to spend it walking around the streets on a freezing cold night like this. How did you persuade the Super to let you do it, when today it’s all in cars,’ asked the Constable of his Sergeant.
‘He and I go back a long time and he knows that when we started in the Police Force we had patrols where we walked the beat, so I wanted my last day to be on the beat. In those days people were less mobile so we didn’t have to be so mobile all our villains were all from a small area. They knew us and we knew them. We were lucky here we didn’t have any really nasty people, just those who decided to make their livings in a criminal manner. Going inside was just part of the job, the disgrace to the family was being caught not going to prison,’ replied his Sergeant.
It was a very cold frosty night and the stars were very bright shining out in a clear sky. The two pulled their coats even tighter around themselves to try to keep the cold out.
‘When we get to the end of this street there is an alleyway that leads through to the park. We sometimes used to get some of our customers down there, mainly young girls who were plying their trade, if we got one of their pimps, let’s say they were booked for resisting arrest and possibly taken off to the hospital for some treatment for their bruises. But that was in the olden days, now we have too many ‘Do Gooders’ looking over our shoulders. They are missing the point that from the society from which our customers come if you don’t get thumped you have got away with it, just being talked to means nothing,’ said the Sergeant.
The two walked up the alleyway only to find a body lying on the ground. The two of them went over to where it lay to see if it was still in the land of the living. The Constable gave the body a gentle shake with his foot while the Sergeant shone his light onto its face.
‘Oh my God!’ exclaimed the Sergeant
‘Do you know him? Is he one of the regulars? Anyway he is freezing cold and he’s unconscious but he is still with us,’ said the Constable.
‘Yes I bloody well know him, it’s Jim Connell he used to be one of us, he was a bloody good copper.’
‘You mean he was a Copper?’ asked the Constable as the knowledge that man had been a policeman made him to take more care as he tried to revive him.
‘Ho yes I know him! We started our training at the same time and we both served at the same station for quite a time and we became good friends. Then I lost touch with him as our careers took different paths. He wanted to get the real nasty guys I just wanted to look after the good guys. I liked to be in contact with people was all that I wanted. Him he was driven by a different need.’
‘We had better call for assistance to get him into somewhere safe and out of this icy cold weather or he won’t be with us in the morning,’ said the Sergeant.
The young Constable got on the radio to call for an ambulance to pick him.
‘They are on their way but it may take a while as they are working up to their necks because of this cold,’ said the Constable.
‘How did he come to this, do you know?’ asked the Constable.
‘Well as I said we had different ambitions, he wanted the really nasty guys. There was a drugs ring operation in our area. We thought they were just small time operators pushing drugs in the local area. We wanted to stop them, but we didn’t know then how big they really were. They were bigger than the Krays or Richardsons of former times. You wouldn’t know of them you are too young.’
‘I’ve heard of them, we studied them at the police college,’ replied the Constable.
‘Well this gang was as big or perhaps even bigger than those characters, later because of him we found out that they were massive, they were like the Mafia. The leaders kept their heads down and used small pockets of unrelated groups to ply their trade. That way if we managed to break one group we couldn’t bring down the whole gang. I think their mastermind had read up about how some of the resistance groups operated in the war against the Germans. Each group being isolated and only made contact via one person, who only knew one or two groups. That way the system was less vulnerable should the Germans capture a group.’
‘How was he involved?’ asked the Constable.
‘That’s simple, he volunteered to go under cover and infiltrate the gang. It was from his actions that we found out how big they were. Over a period of time he gradually made his way up in the gang, he could because he was a very bright boy. Over a period of time we managed to shut off some of their drug suppliers and close down some of their operational groups. So much so their leaders began to become suspicious that someone was giving information to the police. They let it be known that they were willing to give a large reward to anyone who could give them the name of the informer.’
‘Go on,’ said the Constable.
‘This is where he had some bad luck. Although he operated many miles away from this area as the gang’s leaders lived in very up town areas. One of the gang decided that he would get himself a Chauffeur as he was going up in the world. Being a good citizen he decided that he would give an ex con a job as his driver. This is where Jim was unlucky. The ex con only happened to be one of the villains who Jim had put away when he was on the beat. As soon as he saw Jim he recognized him as a Cop and the S**t hit the fan.’
‘Why didn’t they just shoot him and dump his body out to sea?’ asked the Constable.
‘As I have said this gang was quite sophisticated they wanted to present the police with a warning not to trespass into their business domain again. So they worked out a plan whereby they would basically destroy him without killing him and in a manner that would be a warning to others who wanted to go undercover,’ replied the Sergeant.
‘How did they do that and how does that bring him to this alleyway tonight.’
‘They locked him away in a room and they kept feeding him with drugs until he became a hopeless junky. They would load him up then they would deprive him of drugs, then load him up again until he was completely destroyed as a person. Then they dumped him on the steps of a police station.’
‘Didn’t we try to help him and get him off drugs and rehabilitated, it’s the least we could do for one of our number,’ asked the Constable.
‘We tried but they had done their work too well he was destroyed by the drugs and what we would now days call PTDS. We were never able to get him back and able to look after himself. He became a down and out and for the last few decades or so he has live on skid row begging and sleeping rough. He is a lost cause.’
‘Did we get the gang that did this to him?’ asked the Constable.
‘What do you think, are there drugs still being sold on the street? They did a good job, the volunteers to go undercover to get them just disappeared. The Police Bigwigs have tried to keep it quiet what happened to Jim so that people would still go undercover, that’s why you didn’t know anything about Jim.’
‘What will happen to him now?’
‘We will get him fit and he will probably return to the streets.’
Just then the sound of the Ambulance arriving at the end of the Alleyway sounded and two Ambulance men came down the alley towards them.
‘Alright we will take care of him now,’ said one of the ambulance men.
‘Please take special care of him, he was once one of us but circumstances destroyed him,’ said the Sergeant.
‘What time is it?’ asked the Sergeant.
‘Just gone mid-night,’ replied the Constable.
‘Well that’s it, for the last few minutes I’ve been a Pensioner. Constable you are now in charge, I’m going off with Jim to the Hospital. It’s all yours.’