Hero To Zero 2nd edition Read Online Free PDF Page B

I was generally viewed as paranoid and seeing conspiracies where there were none, so I did not comment. I filed the incident away mentally as noteworthy and continued to watch.
    One night I was on a call and Webster showed up. He was usually calm and cool; even during his wife’s affair, very few people knew what was going on. That night, however, I could see that he was noticeably shaken.
    Something had him worried, and I asked him about it. He said that I was seeing things and that I was paranoid (yeah, yeah—I heard that my whole career). I replied, “Yep, it’s me, seeing things again, sure. That’s why you’re shitting yourself with fear.”
    Webster didn’t respond. Another sergeant showed up and they dismissed me, basically telling me to leave while they discussed sergeant matters.
    I was not about to be dismissed by anyone. I was on a call. I said, “Hey, this is my call—you showed up, you leave!”
    Normally that would not have floated past two veteran sergeants. It was a test, and they failed. I should have had my ass kicked on the spot for being insubordinate. Instead, they shrugged and walked about fifty feet away to talk.
    Later I found out, after bugging Webster about the incident, that he was being investigated. The rumors about his ties to the towing company were flying again. The other sergeant who had shown up was involved in the investigation, and Webster had asked him off the record how serious the charges were. Webster told me the other sergeant had said that they would “take care of it,” and not to worry. Webster was noticeably relieved.
    A week later, he was relieved of duty while the investigation blossomed. Several of Webster’s friends were then also relieved of duty, and they and Webster were eventually fired. All were accused of violating the department’s policy on tow trucks being called to car crashes. They were never formally charged, however; Webster was a force to be reckoned with on the streets of our city—street wise, smart, and tough.
    But his career was over.
    Many years later I would talk to Ray Fossum about the tow truck incident involving Webster. He said that Webster offered him an opportunity to make money by taking kickbacks of cash from his best friend’s towing company in exchange for directing tows to them. He said Webster had been doing it for years, and that in exchange for the information Fossum had on Webster, the county attorney had offered to reduce Fossum’s prescription drug charges.
    Fossum refused to tell what he knew about his friend, and went over to Webster’s home to tell him what had happened. He said that when he arrived, Webster took him into the garage and turned up a stereo as loud as it would go. While the sound was echoing off the walls, Webster said, “Go ahead, talk now!”
    Fossum was devastated. Webster evidently didn’t trust him, and thought that he was wearing a wire; the music would have made it impossible for any wire to pick up the conversation they had. Fossum said that he told Webster, “Fuck you, man!” and left.
    They were two of the best cops I would ever meet. Each had his demons. Each went painfully down in flames.

 
     

     
     
    WE’D HIRED A LOT OF new guys to deal with the turnover created by the hiring of a new chief. He was hell-bent on making his mark on the department’s culture and getting rid of what he considered deadwood. He defined “deadwood” as anyone nearing retirement.
    Personally, I think that the veterans threatened him. They knew who he really was, since he, too, had risen through the ranks. They all knew his public face nowhere near matched the reality of the prick he really was. He was busy pushing them out, and replacing them with new hires.
    That was when Lance Edwards came to be a patrolman in our department.
    He was a former MP, and came to the department with a wealth of experience in the military police environment. He had travelled the world, enforcing military laws. He retired from