rlfj: Blog

Now we get to see a totally different sort of police consulting. Do companies like this exist? You bet! Other than Miles & Madigan, the other companies are real. While researching this I went through their websites. Fascinating stuff.

The expensive dinner in Atlanta reminds me of a dinner I ‘hosted’ a dozen-and-a-half years ago or so. My son was stationed in Norfolk at the time, and we all went down to visit. It was my wife and eldest daughter and me, my youngest girl and her fiancé (now husband), and my son, his wife, and their baby daughter. Anyway, we decided to go to dinner in Virginia Beach, where I had never been before, and we parked near a place called Ruth’s Chris Steak House. I’d never really heard of it, just the name, and since Dumb Grandpa was paying, we went inside. I gulped when I saw the menu, but by then we were committed. At least we didn’t have to pay for the baby. For the seven adults the price was well over $500. At least we didn’t get the expensive stuff!

‘Be there with bells on’ has several possible sources. One is that medieval court jesters wore bells on their costumes. Most included the idea that it comes from the practice of putting bells on horse harnesses and straps, sometimes for parades and circuses, sometimes to pay off rescuers if your carriage or wagon went off the road. The expression itself dates back to at least the early 18th Century.

What I described in the M&M approach to Grim is pretty standard. I’ve worked with consultants and sold a business to another outfit, and this pretty much describes what happens. The same is true in chapter 18. I’ve been to corporate meetings and sales banquets like I wrote, and I’ve seen mouthy drunks at those meetings, too! Welcome to big business!

One of my police editors described a situation where his department in the Galveston area hired a consulting company. As he described it: “In the end, they gave us several really stupid recommendations that didn't fit what we did, and left us with a book of rules and regulations…it was printed front and back of each page and was about 2 inches thick…I managed not to run afoul of the injunction against wearing a sword on my uniform…and that is the story about how the Board of Trustees blew almost $100,000” There was a LOT more silly stuff he described. It’s like I’ve told my wife more than once about writing this story, I can’t make this shit up!

I’ve heard from numerous readers about wives and significant others having symptoms like what I wrote about and the results. I heard from people who had family members with ovarian cysts, torsions, fallopian tube problems, ectopic pregnancies, and all sorts of other things. These things are real and dangerous and require serious medical care. Many thanks to my medical editors. I think they gave me the info to get it right. The women’s clinic I mention is modelled after the Bellevue Women’s Center in Schenectady, where my youngest daughter had her daughters. Very good quality medical care but considering my daughter and my granddaughters, the results are questionable at best.

I got a lot of emails at the time on coronavirus. Even though the disease seemed to kill both Republicans and Democrats alike, not everybody believes that. I have been informed by conservatives that the death tolls were inflated because the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered doctors to report all deaths as Covid deaths. I found that curious, because the liberals informed me that the CDC ordered doctors to stop reporting Covid deaths in order to keep the death count low. I hope the guy at the CDC who gave the orders was keeping it straight! This gave me a headache. Oh, no! That’s a symptom!

Congratulations go out to Ursus32, who noted that Joe Scarborough talked about Grim ‘winning a chest full of medals including the Congressional Medal of Honor’ and how this was an error. Nobody wins medals, they are awarded, and it is actually the Medal of Honor and is simply presented in the name of Congress. They have nothing to do with it. I wrote this specifically that way. Does anybody out there think that an ex-politician reporter will understand his errors, or care? Or that Grim will correct him on Scarborough’s show when he is trying to get him to push his book and invite him back in the future?

Anyway, Grim is back to consulting. Let’s see where that goes. Enjoy!

FYI, Chapter 12 was the last chapter that could be considered political. Just remember, because a character says something, it doesn’t mean I am saying it. It’s fiction! That being said, I just can’t believe that some people think coronavirus is political! For all of you who think it’s faked, please feel free to take some hydroxychloroquine, wash it down with some disinfectant, and get in your tanning bed. Me, I’m going to listen to my doctor. Please don’t complain. I’ll just hit the Delete key.

Another complaint, of sorts, has been about the lack of action in this story. Where’s the ‘trigger time’? Sorry about that. Grim’s no longer in Iraq at the height of the war or serving on a SWAT team. He’s a civilian. As a general rule, civilians are discouraged from running around shooting people. Then again, his name is the Grim Reaper. We’ll just have to see how that works out.

We have seen PTSD rising among the doctors, nurses, EMTs, and paramedics who responded to coronavirus victims. Several have committed suicide and many others stopped working in the health field. I hate to say this, but I wasn’t surprised. We’ve seen it happen before.

I was hoping that there might be some suspense as to who the bad guy was, but that just didn’t work. Practically everybody figured it was Hamilton. The second choices were fascinating, though! I got suggestions ranging from the idiot lieutenant in Honduras to the three guys in the Bahamas and going all the way back to the three guys he beat up on the school bus in 1968. I had never thought of any of them.

I can also say that very few of you predicted what Carl would do about it. There was a lot of stuff about capturing him, or beating him up, or letting him escape and calling the cops. Not too many figured Carl would just blow him away.

Hamilton may be gone, but he will never be forgotten. He leaves a legacy that will be bugging Carl for years to come. More on that in future chapters.

I had some interesting comments regarding ‘The People’s Republic of Maryland’. The situation in Maryland can be quite extreme at times. I had one response from an ex-Maryland cop stating that there was actually a definite possibility that Carl would be arrested and charged with murder, since some Maryland jurisdictions hold that shooting somebody, even if they have invaded your home, requires that you first attempt to retreat out of the home. The simple act of picking up a loaded gun indicates intent and since Hamilton is crazy, then he must be innocent, etc., etc., etc. A number of people have gone to jail after pleading to lesser charges to get it behind them.

On a personal note, although we don’t own any guns (my wife and I agree we’d probably just shoot each other) we don’t have any problems with them, either. Most of our friends and neighbors have them, and we just don’t care. My father had two guns from when he was young and after he passed, my brother took the.22 single shot rifle and a 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun went to a cousin.

I was surprised by the number of people who though that Hamilton’s comment, “You’re not supposed to be here!” meant something special. Quite a few thought that meant that Hamilton had figured out Carl was from a different time/dimension/existence/whatever. Some of you are over-thinking things! It’s like I said in the story. Carl was setting Hamilton up by swapping cars. Hamilton thought it was Marilyn and Charlie at home. He even complained that they weren’t there.

There was one comment that it would be impossible for a bullet to nail the sternum, heart, and spine. Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe the first shot moved things around. Maybe it just nicked everything. Maybe I’m not going to rewrite that line. There’s a really big fucking hole in the middle of Hamilton’s chest, that’s for sure!

We’re taking a break for a few days from Carl Buckman and returning to Grim Reaper. I’ll start that up again in a few days. Enjoy!

There have been a lot of comments over the last few chapters. Carl needs to watch for his brother. Carl needs to watch for his mother or his father. Carl needs to hire security (preferably ex-Mossad/Secret Service/Spetznatz types, only meaner). Carl is naïve and stupid.

Carl is neither naïve nor stupid. However, Carl has consistently shown that he doesn’t think like a zillionaire. He still thinks he can live like a normal suburban dad. Chapter 80 shows that is no longer the case. More on this in the near future.

One interesting, and probably accurate, complaint was about cops responding to a suspicious vehicle complaint. The response, by a cop, was that it would be unusual to respond with the lights flashing, and unusual to leave them flashing while talking to people. That sounds realistic, but I think I am going to claim artistic license on this one. It would screw up the cliffhanger, wouldn’t it?

While researching this chapter I learned just how difficult it is to get a carry permit in Maryland. Maryland is one of a handful of ‘may issue’ states, where the state may issue you a permit if they decide you have a reason to carry. This is opposed to the ‘shall issue’ states, where they automatically issue the permit unless they can find a reason not to (you’re a felon, you’re crazy, etc.) This isn’t just about the law in 1983. This is current Maryland law as well. Maryland carry permits expire after 2 years and then must be renewed. If they feel you are no longer in danger, they will yank your permit. Also, Maryland does not recognize other states’ permits.