He still needed to pass all his physicals and qualify at the shooting range.
I bounced my head against the back of my chair then pushed myself up. I didn’t bother with my vest since I wasn’t on patrol this morning. I clipped my holster to my belt and logged out.
August came in with a break in the humidity. The temperatures were still soaring, but the heaviness had finally lessened. I headed out to the edge of town where the warehouseswere located. I frowned at the full parking lot. Mostly trucks with a few cars I recognized from town.
Music hit me as soon as I opened my door. Four large dumpsters were lined up near the biggest building. All of them full.
Gus Murdock waved, a load of broken pallet slats balanced on his shoulder. “Hey, Chief.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, stop with the Chief.”
He threw the boards in the dumpster. “Can’t believe Parker Olsen is now head of our fair town.”
I laughed and hugged him. “Nora said you’ve been down in Costa Rica since January. Nice to see you home again.”
“Hey, you were the one gone for years. What brought you back?”
I shrugged. “I was tired of the big city. So now, here I am.”
“Here you are, making my brother nuts.”
I hooked my thumb on my belt. “Which brother?”
He gave me a hard stare. “You know which one.”
I peeredaround him, ignoring the comment. “What’s going on?”
“Come see.”
I followed him down the alley. All the garbage had been cleared leaving cracked cement and dust behind. I got to the opening of the shared space between all the buildings.
A half dozen teenagers were stacking pallets, sweeping, and filling garbage bags with the leftover ashes and old food containers. A recycling bin was filled with empty bottles and cans.
I recognized a few of them from the party that started this mess. They wouldn’t look at me, but they were all working and that was enough for me.
Cam and Sully were breaking down the unusable pallets making more stacks like Gus had brought out.
The whole area was swept, and trash bags lined the building waiting to go out to the dumpsters.
Nora and Lexi had overalls on and were following the kids with brooms to make more piles behind them.
Even Mayor Finley was sort of helping.
I wasn’t aware she knew how to use a broom, but she was trying.
Kai and Ripley were stacking the rusted-out barrels onto the flatbed of Ripley’s tow truck. Cash came around with massive straps to tie them down.
All of them had come and taken this off my hands.
Cash looked up and spotted me, a grin on his face. “Hi, Chief.”
Everyone turned to where I was standing. Gus nudged me then went to help his brothers.
“I can’t believe you did all this.”
Cash pulled off his work gloves and stuffed them in his pocket as he walked toward me. He wore dusty coveralls like the rest of his brothers. “The mayor offered to take off a few hundred of my community service hours if I got my brothers and a few friends to help clear out the fire hazard.”
“Did she?” I glanced over at the mayor who was leaning on her broom with a grin.
