Cop Out

By Diem Burden

Officer Burden finally passes his drawn-out promotion exams and gets bumped up to sergeant, a job he's been chasing after for a number of years. On receiving his stripes, he is told that he has to decide if he is 'on the Chief Constable's train, or not ...' At the time, he had absolutely no idea of where that particular train might be heading ...

Meanwhile, after a beautiful woman walks into his jacuzzi at the local gym, things begin to heat up rapidly, resulting in a completely new and unexpected path opening up before him. Yet again ...

This is the fifth and final part of The Rozzers series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diem Burden
• Release date: Feb 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463868119

Diem Burden

Award-winning author Diem Burden (DM Burden) grew up the middle of five sons to a working class family in the north Midlands, UK. Childhood was extremely hard and money was scarce.From an early age, he showed an artistic talent in painting and drawing, so much so that one of his drawings mysteriously disappeared from his school foyer (last seen at the home of a teacher, allegedly...)Destined for art college, Diem grew so frustrated with further education that one day he got up and walked out of college, and joined the army for six years. After his military service, he became a police officer in Cambridge, UK. He left that job as a sergeant after 12 years walking the beat.By then, he was on his second marriage, and moved to Spain to teach English in 2002. He helped to set up a highly successful language school in Spain before semi-retiring in 2020 to focus on his new passion: writing.He published five short stories of his time as a cop in Cambridge, and wrote an additional (free) ebook available to people who sign up to his newsletter, which is a humorous look at his tough childhood, and perhaps implies he should never have become a cop all those years later!At the end of the year of Covid (2020), his life was rocked when he suddenly lost his eldest brother to cancer. His marriage ended at the same time and he found himself alone in Spain at 55 years of age.Over the next six months, Diem fell into a deep and dark depression, struggling to get out of bed most days. He just opted out of life, giving up on writing altogether.In mid-2021, a stranger walked into his local café and led him on a three-month journey he could never have expected: the ardent and highly opinionated atheist subsequently found Jesus, who changed his life around instantly.The story of that miracle is told in his book, Come to the Table.Now, unless God has any other plans for him, he is finishing his series of books (Get up and Walk) of his pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in Spain, walking each stage with a different action plan with God.

Book preview

Cop Out

Part five of

THE ROZZERS

By

Diem Burden

LEGAL

Published by Shriven Books

Copyright 2020 © Diem Burden

Smashwords Edition

Copy-edited by Jan Marshall

Cover design © Jan Marshall

Cop’s face: © Smikey26 | iStockPhoto

Cop’s eye: © Diem Burden | Shriven Books

All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author.

DISCLAIMER

This short story is based, in part, upon actual events and persons. I have tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from my memories of them. In order to maintain their anonymity in all instances, I have changed the names of individuals and places. I may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence, as well as other descriptive details. Some of the events and characters are also composites of several individual events or persons.

Throughout this book I generally refer to police officers in the male form. This is not meant as disrespect to the many female officers doing the same job: it is purely for ease of writing. I have nothing but admiration for all police officers, male and female, who do an amazing job fighting both the criminal, and the bureaucracy dumped on them from above.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all of the young police officers across the world, as the commitment of such untarnished and idealistic young men and women never ceases to amaze me. It is their resilience, unending motivation and relentless drive to do the job and to do it well that keeps the police service afloat, and carries the burden for all the officers above them, despite the constant crap dumped on them on a daily basis by those very same supervisors.

Lions, each and every one of you, led by donkeys.

Thank you for your unswerving devotion to duty.

I salute you all!

ALSO BY DIEM BURDEN

End of the Road

Part one of

THE ROZZERS

FREE!

"Great! Loved it. Everyone loves to read about cops, even cops themselves."

Jonathan Nicholas, Author

"… Lots of humanity and humility shows that Mr Burden appears to be able to relate true life to a serious subject …"

Mr P Turnbull

ALSO BY DIEM BURDEN

Cops Don’t Run

Part two of

THE ROZZERS

0.99 (+ taxes)

"You could feel the passion when needed and you could feel the fear when such a situation arose … his writing style allowed for him to show the audience what he experienced with vivid detail in as little words as possible; a quick, fun, easy and thrilling read overall." K Verderosajf

"… If you read one book you will go on to read them all …" LarKottery

ALSO BY DIEM BURDEN

One for the Road

Part three of

THE ROZZERS

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"Great book and series. Easy to read. Excited for the last two books. Would like to read more from this author." Pen Name

"… Having served for 30 years it is a near honest story as you could get ..." Robert Stewart

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Thief Taker

Part four of

THE ROZZERS

0.99 (+ taxes)

"… Well written and totally captivating!! ..." Scott Speckhart

CHAPTER ONE

It’s never wise to feel invincible, but I did, and I was loving every minute of it. I had recently been awarded a brown belt in martial arts and was ambitiously working towards my black. I was a tutor-constable training new staff, and I had become one of the most experienced officers on my shift. This was the most satisfying and enjoyable time for me as a cop. It was a period when I felt there were no limits to what I could do, that I could be who I wanted to be, and achieve whatever I wanted to achieve.

Despite absolutely loving going to work each day, I was sensible enough to also be planning ahead. I began to study criminal law in my spare time so that, if and when I decided I needed a new challenge, I could sit the sergeants’ exam and put myself up for promotion. I’d always considered it an option, but only when the time was right. I didn’t agree with young, inexperienced officers becoming sergeants, so I wanted to have the relevant experience to bring to the new position.

I was being routinely allocated the shift transit van to drive at briefing – a position only allotted to the most experienced and capable officers available, and for good reason. The van was intentionally left out of any prolonged enquiries such as sudden deaths, and generally kept central, so that it was ready to assist with whatever was needed. Its principal role was prisoner transport, but crews were also available to give advice at scenes to less experienced officers, and, reassuringly, as the van was routinely double-crewed, to back up at violent incidents. Officers always prayed that the van was nearby when going to such incidents.

One day, when I went down to briefing, I was introduced to a new face – a guy called Neil, who was a transferee from another force. I was asked to show him around Cambridge and to get him accustomed to the different procedures used by our force, so the van was an ideal starting point for him due to its flexible roles.

We hit it off straight away. Neil was as experienced as I was, was preparing for the sergeants’ exam, and had a great sense of humour. Over the next few months, we were constantly crewed together and, with our combined experience and knowledge of law from our studies, along with my local knowledge, we made the perfect van crew, and I loved going out on patrol with him.

Supporting less experienced officers was one of our tasks, and our deeper understanding of the law, which we had gained through our studies, was invaluable. Whilst out and about, we often bounced legal or procedural questions off each other, which helped us both prepare for the impending exam. In many ways, we were able to take work off the shift sergeant, as we often attended an incident in support, and advised the newer officers.

One afternoon briefing, our shift were asked to look out for Jamie, an escaped prisoner. He was a lad of about nineteen years old and already a prolific criminal in the city, so much so that most officers knew his face, full name and date of birth by rote. Information had been received that, whilst absconding, he had been seen at his girlfriend’s house in the city, and intelligence suggested he was staying there.

I volunteered to do a knock-and-see, so, after briefing, I headed across town to the house in question, to introduce Neil to Wendy, Jamie’s girlfriend. I parked up short and walked in, so as to arrive unannounced. It was a nice-sized, semi-detached house in a quiet cul-de-sac in the middle of a council estate. I knocked on the front door to silence.

I smiled at Neil, rolled my eyes, and banged again, shouting, Wendy, it’s the police!

Still no response, but this time, with my good ear pressed against the door, I could hear a couple of voices murmuring on the other side.

I stepped to the side and looked through the net-curtained window into the lounge. Pressed up against the wall was a young woman I assumed to be Wendy, and next to her was the unmistakable face of Jamie, the escapee. They were whispering urgently in hushed tones, trying not to be seen from the front door.

Got you.

I slowly stepped back out of sight. Neil, I hissed, he’s in there! Cover the back! I didn’t need to add quickly. Neil knew his job and instantly flew down the side passage into the back garden to cut off any escape.

As I turned back to the window, I came face to face with Wendy. She was drawing the curtains, but pretended not to notice the cop standing just outside of her window, looking in. This action prevented me from seeing inside the house further, but, just before the curtains were fully closed, I was able to see the absconder, still in the lounge behind her.

OK, time to let them know that we know. I banged on the front door more forcibly.

Wendy! I shouted, I know Jamie’s in there. I’ve just seen him through the window. Now, I need you to open the door for me. Understand?

Silence.

I was fully aware that, having confirmed that Jamie was on the premises, we had a power to enter and search the property to locate the escaped prisoner, using as much force as was necessary under the circumstances. This meant that I knew I was going to break that front door down if Wendy continued to refuse to open. We had the kit in the van for such an eventuality.

I called for further units to assist, as it seemed that we were going to have to do just that, and drag Jamie out screaming. As we waited, I continuously tried to engage Wendy in conversation. After a while, she came to the closed door and spoke to me through it.

What do you want? she asked, in an innocent voice.

Jamie, obviously, I said, He’s got to go back to prison, and I know he’s in your house, so if you don’t open the door to me, you know what’s gonna happen, don’t you?

Silence.

"Wendy, if you don’t open the door