The Hammer

By Scott Shepherd

Aiden devoted thirty years of his life to the NYPD wherein he worked aggressively as a street cop and homicide detective. Friends and colleagues affectionately dubbed him ‘The Hammer’. His retirement from the NYPD was a bittersweet turning point in his life. In 2015, Aiden decided to retire and live a quiet life with his wife, Alexis, in the fictional small town of Hill Valley, Tennessee. What began as a quiet and seemingly perfect retirement quickly turns into a world filled with rage and grief as a result of the brutal murder of Aiden’s wife by his neighbour’s son, Taylor. Aiden soon discovers that Taylor, a convicted felon and drug dealer, murdered Alexis. Aiden also learns about Taylor’s best friend, Grant Seaton, the corrupt sheriff of Hill Valley, having tampered with evidence at the crime scene. Aiden secures the assistance of his old friend and cherished former partner, Patrick Feeley. The two men reunite and combine forces to seek vengeance against Taylor and Seaton. Aiden takes extreme risks along with Feeley to execute his brilliant plan.
The conflict in Aiden’s life finds no end as he is later faced with combating drug trafficking in Hill Valley. Making matters worse is the fact that two new enemies, a convicted felon from his past and the head of a local drug cartel, set their sights on Aiden. As a result, Aiden is forced to make life-and-death decisions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Apr 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781398416055

Scott Shepherd

Scott Shepherd has worked in television as a writer and producer for over twenty-five years. While studying as an undergraduate at Stanford, he developed one of the first courses on mystery and detective novels, which remains part of the curriculum. His television credits include The Equalizer, Miami Vice, The Dead Zone, Quantum Leap, for which he received an Emmy nomination, and The Outer Limits, for which he received a Cable Ace Award. Scott has collaborated with numerous best-selling novelists including Karin Slaughter, Harlan Coben, and Stephen King, whose novel The Colorado Kid was the basis for the current SyFy hit Haven. In addition to his television work, Scott teaches writing at the prestigious graduate program of University of Texas, Austin. Scott lives in Los Angeles with his wife Holly.

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About the Author

Scott Shepherd retired at the rank of Detective-III from the Los Angeles Police Department after a thirty-five-year-long career. He worked on a variety of assignments, which ranged from a street cop to investigating narcotics-related crimes, murders, gang-related crimes, as well as a detective supervisor in the risk management/legal affairs division. These amazing opportunities inspired him to write The Hammer.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my wife, Surekha Shepherd.

Copyright Information ©

Scott Shepherd (2021)

The right of Scott Shepherd to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398410824 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398410831 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781398416055 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2021)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

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E14 5LQ

Chapter 1

After Shelby’s only two neighbours, Aiden and Alexis left town, Sheriff Seaton used a drone to watch Shelby’s house. One day, while watching the house with the drone, Seaton watched Shelby as he fired several of his firearms on his shooting range behind his house. Seaton saw that amongst other guns, Shelby was shooting a revolver that was either a .357 calibre or .38 calibre. Seaton noted that Shelby was shooting right-handed. Seaton saw Shelby finish shooting and take his firearms into the barn.

Seaton knew that .38 calibre ammunition could also be fired out of a .357 calibre revolver. Seaton obtained a couple boxes of .38 calibre ammunition. He put on some gloves and emptied the boxes of .38 calibre cartridges into a paper bag. Seaton removed one of the cartridges from the bag and placed it in his pocket. Seaton then headed for Shelby’s house.

Shelby was inside his barn, cleaning his guns. It was 5:30 pm and it was starting to get dark outside. Shelby saw Seaton drive up in his police car. Shelby was seated on a stool in front of his workbench. The guns that Shelby just fired were organised on the workbench in perfect symmetry. Shelby didn’t stand to greet Seaton.

Seaton walked into the barn, and stated, Hello Shelby. I know you don’t like me, but I wanted to talk with you about something. Seaton then walked over to the workbench and leaned his back against it. Seaton stood on the right side of Shelby, brushing his right arm. Seaton wore rubber gloves underneath his leather gloves.

Shelby sarcastically stated, We don’t have anything to talk about. Don’t you have something else to do, like help criminals get out of trouble?

You’re awful cocky and rude for an old man. Seaton could see that Shelby’s gun safe was behind him and it was open.

Well, when you get to be my age, you can say things that you probably wouldn’t have gotten away with when you were younger.

Seaton then picked up the .357 calibre revolver that was on top of the workbench in front of Shelby. Seaton took the .38 cartridge out of his pocket and put it in the cylinder and closed it. Seaton moved the cylinder to the position where the .38 cartridge would fire if the trigger were pulled. Seaton laid the revolver on the table, pointing it away from Shelby. I came here to tell you that Taylor will be released from prison in a couple of weeks and he will need a place to stay.

I know you are trying to scare me with that revolver. But I’m not scared, and Taylor will never be welcome in my house again. I’m done trying to help him. He has screwed me over too many times in the past.

I thought you were going to say that. Seaton then held the revolver in front of Shelby’s chest, pointing the barrel at an upwards angle at Shelby’s face. The end of the barrel was about eight inches away from Shelby’s face. Seaton then pulled the trigger.

The bullet pierced through one of Shelby’s eyes and into his brain. Shelby fell off the stool and onto the ground. Seaton felt Shelby’s carotid artery and determined that he was dead.

Seaton then took the revolver outside of the barn to his car, where he obtained the bag containing the two boxes of .38 cartridges. Seaton took twelve .38 cartridges from the bag and fired them down range. He then took the twelve empty .38 cartridges back inside the barn and placed them inside a can that was on top of the workbench. Seaton then put the bag containing the rest of the .38 calibre cartridges inside Shelby’s safe, with the rest of his ammo. Seaton then placed the revolver in Shelby’s right hand to make it look like he accidentally shot himself.

Seaton then walked out of the barn to the trunk of his car. Seaton had some minor blood spattered on his tan-coloured uniform shirt. He also had a little bit of blood spattered on his face and arms. Seaton removed his uniform shirt and placed it in a bag, which he placed in his trunk. Seaton wiped his face, arms and hands with wet camping towels from his trunk. He then put on a new uniform shirt, which he kept in his car. Seaton’s pants were a dark brown colour and no blood could be seen on them. He then put his rubber gloves, leather gloves and wipes in the evidence bag, with his uniform shirt. Sheriff Seaton then drove away from Shelby’s house and there were no other cars on the road that lead to Shelby’s house. Luckily, it was a long dead-end road with only two houses. Unless one made a wrong turn onto that road or lived in one of the homes, there was no reason to drive the distance.

After leaving Shelby’s house, Seaton drove to an old abandoned house that was in a remote area outside of town. Seaton used an old incinerator on the property to burn the bag of evidence he removed from Shelby’s body.

A couple of days after Seaton murdered Shelby, he drove out to Shelby’s house alone. It was in the summertime and Shelby’s body was badly decomposed. Seaton called his daytime deputy (Brigham Gruber), telling him he just discovered what appeared to be Shelby’s dead body when he arrived at Shelby’s house to talk with him. Seaton instructed Deputy Gruber to respond to assist him with the investigation. Seaton told Gruber to bring the car from the station, which was required with a homicide kit in the trunk. Seaton told Gruber not to drive onto the property when he arrived. Seaton told Gruber he would meet him on the street in front of the house.

Gruber was straight as an arrow and not the least bit corrupt. Gruber was a devout Mormon who had integrity. He didn’t cuss or drink.

Gruber had only been on the sheriff’s department for two years. Gruber didn’t know anything about Seaton’s corruption. He was very naïve and just wanted to learn to be a good cop, and one day, a detective.

When Gruber arrived on scene, he parked in front of Shelby’s house, as instructed. Seaton stood there, waiting for him.

This is what we have. I came out here to tell Shelby that his son Taylor was going to be released from prison in a couple of weeks. I have known Taylor since high school, and he contacted me a couple of days ago. Taylor asked me to tell his dad when he was getting out of prison, because his dad wouldn’t talk to him and he returned all of his letters. Shelby cut off contact with Taylor ever since he went to prison. When I arrived here, there was no answer at the front door, so I walked around to the back of the house to see if Shelby was home. When I got to the back of the house, I smelled the familiar odour of a person or an animal that was dead and decomposing. That’s when I found Shelby’s body on the floor of the barn. It looks to me like Shelby accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun. Grab the camera out of the homicide kit, some rubber gloves, evidence bags and follow me. Always assume you are investigating a murder, even though you may already think it’s a suicide or an accident.

Yes, sir, Gruber responded.

Seaton and Gruber started walking up the driveway. Now, as we walk slowly towards the house, take some distance photos of what we are walking up to and some close-up photos as we get closer. Be careful where you walk and if you see any possible evidence on the ground, point it out to me. Seaton and Gruber first walked through the unlocked house as Gruber continually took photos. As you can see nothing in the house looks disturbed, so let’s go outside.

As Seaton and Gruber walked outside the house, they could only see tire tracks that appeared to have been made by Shelby’s truck and Seaton’s Sheriff’s car. They could see no expended ammo cartridges on the ground at Shelby’s shooting range next to the barn. Shelby and Gruber then walked inside the barn.

I don’t see any unusual footprints. The body is pretty badly decomposed, but it looks like Shelby to me and he is the only person who lives here. The coroner will identify the body for us later. As you can see, Shelby’s gun safe is open with a large collection of guns inside. There are also some guns on the workbench in front of Shelby’s body and the revolver in Shelby’s hands. You would assume that if it were a robbery/murder, the suspects would have taken the guns, or at least some of them. We will book all of the guns and then use the computer at the station to obtain a list of the guns registered to Shelby. Then we will see if all of Shelby’s guns are still here. It is possible that the suspect(s) killed Shelby and were then scared away by someone before they took any of his guns. But the only neighbours who live nearby are Aiden and Alexis and they are out of town on vacation, so that’s unlikely.

Seaton and Gruber observed some guns on top of the workbench in front of Shelby’s body. Some of Shelby’s gun cleaning products were on top of the bench next to the guns. While wearing rubber gloves, Seaton picked up a couple of the guns lying on the workbench and he examined them. Yeah, they’re dirty, all right. Gruber continued taking photos as Seaton continued with the investigation.

Seaton then removed the revolver from Shelby’s right hand. First, let’s be sure this gun is safe for us. Seaton popped out the cylinder of the revolver. Just one discharged .38 calibre casing in the chamber. Federal .38 calibre. Looks like the round went through Shelby’s eye and into his brain. No exit wound. It was probably a low velocity target round. The medical examiner will likely recover the round during the autopsy and then give it to us. We will run ballistics to ensure the round in Shelby’s brain was fired from this revolver.

There’s a bag of .38 calibre Federal ammo live cartridges in Shelby’s safe here. I also see some expended .38 calibre Federal cartridges here in a can on top of the workbench. I see Shelby’s ammo reloading equipment here, so it’s obvious he liked to reload his own ammo. Gruber was impressed with Seaton’s knowledge of ballistics and the crime scene. Yeah, looks to me like Shelby was in front of his workbench, probably sitting on this stool here, cleaning some guns. He forgot to take one of the live cartridges out of the revolver he was cleaning. He was probably looking down the barrel of the revolver to see if he cleaned it properly when it went off. I’ve seen it before and when people are younger, they may have been completely safe with guns. But when they get old, they start making mistakes.

The coroner then responded and removed Shelby’s body to the morgue. Seaton and Gruber recovered all of Shelby’s guns and ammo for booking. Seaton had Gruber obtain many fingerprint lifts from the house and barn. Seaton and Gruber then locked Shelby’s house and barn and drove to the station.

At the Sheriff’s station, Gruber used the computer to obtain a list of all firearms owned by Shelby. The list revealed that Seaton and Gruber had recovered all of Shelby’s firearms from his barn.

The following day, Seaton and Gruber attended the autopsy of Shelby. The medical examiner recovered the expended slug from Shelby’s brain and gave it to Seaton for analysis. The medical examiner determined that the round had entered one of Shelby’s eyes and then lodged in his brain, which was the cause of death.

Sheriff Seaton didn’t have the resources at his department to analyse the evidence that was collected at the crime scene. The state’s crime lab, however, could perform the analysis.

When Aiden and Alexis returned home from vacation, some friends in town told them about Shelby’s accident. They learned Shelby was cleaning one of his firearms in his barn and he failed to unload the gun before he started cleaning it. They were told that while cleaning the gun, Shelby accidentally shot himself in his head and died.

Aiden didn’t believe it was an accident. Aiden spent a lot of time with Shelby, shooting and cleaning many guns from both of their firearm collections. Shelby was one of the most cautious people he ever observed. Aiden prided himself as safety conscious around firearms, but Shelby would always remind him about the importance of safety precautions. Shelby insisted that Aiden keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction at all times. When Aiden and Shelby were cleaning their guns together, they would both check them before cleaning, to ensure they were unloaded. Shelby told Aiden that he never accidentally shot a firearm. Aiden believed him, so he refused to accept the suicide story.

Aiden also knew that it was rather difficult for an experienced shooter to have such an accident. It was possible, but unlikely based on what he knew about Shelby. Aiden wanted to know more details about the accident, but he didn’t trust Sheriff Seaton and was unaware that Gruber was part of the investigation. Aiden suspected that any reports generated or approved by Sheriff Seaton would be bogus.

Aiden couldn’t prove it, but his instincts told him that someone murdered Shelby, but why? The only items of value that Shelby possessed were his firearms and all of them were accounted for, according to the rumour mill. Shelby never said anything to Aiden about having any enemies. The only problems Shelby talked about with Aiden revolved around Taylor. What would someone have to gain by killing Shelby? he wondered.

Aiden thought he was done dealing with murder and now someone killed his cherished neighbour and good friend, Shelby. Aiden reminisced to the time at the end of his NYPD career, when he supervised detectives who investigated murders. He recalled when he first retired, and he and Alexis chose to retire in Hill Valley. He remembered when Shelby was alive and what a great neighbour he was to him and Alexis.

Chapter 2

In 2015, fifteen months before Shelby’s murder, Aiden Hammill had been on the New York Police Department (NYPD) for thirty years. During his career, Aiden worked a variety of details in uniform, in plain clothes and as a detective. Aiden promoted to the rank of lieutenant and supervised a detective unit. His detective unit investigated a variety of crimes, ranging from thefts to murders.

In Aiden’s early years, people said hello to him as he walked the beat. The majority of the public no longer supported the police. In fact, even in situations where the police did everything right, the public would still criticise the police. Aiden admitted that some officers made mistakes. But in the overall scheme of things, not that many officers screwed up when you consider how many police contacts and arrests occurred in his city. In all professions, you had sub-standard personnel. Aiden would always say, You could have a room full of priests and one of them could be a thief, or worse.

The life of an officer just seemed to get worse every week. Whenever police officers became involved in a use of force, someone almost always videotaped the incident. All too often, the force used by an officer didn’t look good to the public, even when justified. People didn’t have cell phone cameras when Aiden worked the street and a camera never caught Aiden’s use of force, for which he was grateful.

Towards the end of Aiden’s career, he became disgusted by lower hiring standards in all police agencies. Aiden knew that this trend led to an increase in police corruption, including his own department.

In addition to crime being out of control, citizens unjustly filed many civil lawsuits against police officers. When Aiden worked the streets, people only filed civil lawsuits on rare occasions, and he wasn’t afraid to do aggressive police work. Later in his career, citizens filed numerous civil lawsuits against police officers. Street cops in all agencies had pretty much shut down and they no longer practiced aggressive police work. This resulted in a dramatic increase in crime.

Juries troubled Aiden because often times they reached the wrong verdicts. The juries in the city often found criminals not guilty even though they clearly committed the crime. Juries in the city wouldn’t believe witnesses who testified and many times they thought the police planted the physical evidence. Aiden assumed the juries outside of the city reached equally biased conclusions against law enforcement.

Aiden endured significant stress supervising a group of detectives. Although the majority of Aiden’s detectives didn’t amount to a supervisory challenge, some of them made his job miserable. Over the years, the department promoted many incompetent officers, who never completed aggressive patrol work or investigative work during their careers and there were many of those types of officers on the department. Those types of officers just had a ‘yes’ attitude and only cared about promoting. In the past, the department put the incompetent leaders in less important units like the Jail or Property Division, where they could do less damage. But now, there were so many incompetent command officers and they were in specialised units like detectives. One of those idiots was Aiden’s captain, John Gilligan, who never worked as a detective and couldn’t investigate his way out of a paper bag.

Recently, one of Aiden’s detective teams obtained a filing on a murder suspect. Aiden reviewed and approved all of the related reports. His detective’s performance was outstanding. Eyewitnesses saw the suspect shoot the victim, in addition to some physical evidence that incriminated the suspect.

The murder case resulted in three trials. The first two juries hung, because they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. The third jury found the defendant not guilty, so he couldn’t be tried again. The defendant got away with murder. When the case ended, Captain Gilligan called Aiden into his office.

Captain Gilligan told Aiden, I want you to give the investigating detectives who got the not guilty verdict yearly performance evaluations that reflect their work is substandard.

I’m not going to do that. They are outstanding detectives and I am not going to write performance evaluations which are false, replied Aiden.

If they had put the case together better, the district attorney would have obtained a conviction, said Gilligan.

Not true, said Aiden. The jury got it wrong. It’s a sign of the times that the jurors didn’t like the police. You’re just worried about your conviction rate so you can promote, Aiden sternly told Captain Gilligan.

I don’t like it any more than you do but the press is up in arms about the not guilty verdict. The phone is ringing off the hook with all of the calls from neighbourhood watch leaders, Gilligan told Aiden.

I don’t care about that crap. It’s your job to deal with that and to support the detectives. That’s what I’m going to do. You were promoted to captain so don’t complain to me about having to do your job. By the way, have you ever investigated a murder? Aiden asked Gilligan, even though he already knew the answer.

I never worked an investigative unit before making captain. I promoted through the uniform ranks. But I know substandard detective work when I see it, Gilligan angrily told Aiden.

You know, just because you were promoted, it doesn’t mean you’re smarter than the people below you. It just means that you were promoted. You still have to be a good supervisor and a good leader, Aiden sarcastically told Gilligan as he walked out of his office.

Aiden ultimately wrote glowing evaluations for both of the detectives who investigated the murder. After Aiden completed the evaluations, he turned them into Captain Gilligan. After Gilligan reviewed the evaluations, he called Aiden into his office.

Gilligan held the evaluations in his hand and shook them as