Break Away
Book One of the Jordan Rose Duology
By J. Michael Favreau
For Megan and Lily.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 1
Jordan Rose loved evenings like these: a soft warm breeze blowing through the trees,a lazy sun slinking down on the horizon sending golden streams of light in every direction, and the casual recap of a previous nights’ events while patrolling for drunks on the midnight shift.
“No way Rose, no frickin way. He was so hammered, he just passed out into the side of the car and left that huge dent with his head!” said Andy Lawson, Rose’s best friend and partner in blue. Rose might as well have been her only name, no one ever called her Jordan at the Green Forks Police Department or pretty much anywhere else.
“Bullshit. He was punching the cars, that’s where the dents came from,” Rose said with a sly grin pointing a bottle of water at Andy for emphasis. She loved these types of arguments.
“Not a chance. Sure he was punching cars, but that big dent came from his big fat head,” said Andy shaking his own head, stubbornly sure he was in the right.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re probably right,” said Rose sarcastically. Andy probably was. He had always been better at remembering the details of the dunks they dealt with on the midnight shift. Putting those details on paper in a report was something completely different though. Andy, the only child of a law enforcement family, was an intimidating guy. Built like a linebacker who had gone to seed, like so many non-professional athletes do, he was as strong as a bull, but Rose was more of the thinker while Andy was more of the brute force and brawn.
Ever since the police academy, just over two years ago, they’d become fast friends. They’d both been lucky that Green Forks Police Department in northwestern Maine had been hiring for two open positions. Coming from opposite ends of the state, they’d not met before that first day at the academy but they’d been inseparable ever since. Being assigned to midnight shift together had cemented their friendship.
“You two are so cute when you argue,” said a light and silky female voice from inside the screened side door to Rose’s house. “I sometimes forget that Jordan and I are the married couple, not you and Andy.” The voice belonged to Rose’s wife Kate. Soft and sweet, she exited their house with Rose’s lunch in a bag. Kate was the only one that called her “Jordan.” Kate had always prefered to call her Jordan and frankly, Kate could call Rose whatever she wanted. Rose had been completely enamored with Kate right from their first meeting and if Kate liked something some way, that was usually the way it went. It never went to Kate’s head though, she was content filling the traditional wife role and the love between them was deep. “I wonder if one day you’ll remember to bring your lunch instead of having to buy it,” Kate said sweetly as she kissed Rose on the cheek, the smell of perfume intoxicating.
Rose and Andy typically met up before their shift to hang out at Rose’s house before heading into town to work for the night. It gave them a chance to hang out, swap stories, and joke around without having to worry about being called away by dispatch sending them to a call. The tradition had started before Rose and Kate had been married, and Kate seemed to enjoy it as much as they did. Whenever Andy had a rendezvous with a lady-friend, which happened quite frequently, it gave Andy the perfect forum to give Rose and Kate all the details. But recalling the most absolutely ridiculous drunks, that was Rose’s favorite.
“We were just discussing the finer points of Andy’s arrest last night,” said Rose taking her lunch from her wife, and returning the kiss. She had really gotten lucky when she’d met Kate in college. Both had gone to the University of Maine at Fort Kent, Rose as a Criminal Justice major and Kate as a Nursing major. They’d both been part of the same group of friends and their friendship had just evolved from there. By junior year of college, they were dating and Rose had never looked back. Kate was physically fit and smart with dirty blonde hair and big brown eyes Rose never gotten tired of losing herself in.
“Oh great! Please regale me with stories of your bravery!” Kate said laughing as she slid herself up onto the hood of Rose’s truck. Rose couldn’t help but stare as Kate lounged on the hood of the truck with her short shorts, tight shirt, and end-of-summer bronzed skin. With the setting sun behind Kate, her shirt revealed the all the hidden curves normally sheltered beneath it making the whole scene like something straight out of a movie. Little of Kate’s anatomy was left to the imagination.
If Andy had noticed, he didn’t seem to show it continuing on into the story. “So we got a call about this drunk asshole down at the City Limit Saloon...you know that bar that’s right near the outskirts of town on the main drag? Well we get called to the bar because some idiot had gotten super drunk and then kicked out after a disagreement with the bouncers. The guy then decided it was a good idea to go over to the parking lot and start punching random cars as revenge for getting kicked out of the bar.”
“As you can imagine, people didn’t appreciate their cars being punched, hence the call to the police,” added Rose.
“Exactly,” continued Andy. “So Rose and I get there and we see a group of people gathered around a few cars in the middle of the lot. So we go over to them and they part like the fucking Black Sea or something.”
“I think it was the Red Sea,” corrected Rose.
“Whatever color, you know what I mean,” said Andy cutting him off. “So anyway, this fucking guy who was punching all the cars passed out in between two cars in the lot. Right next to his head was a huge dent in one of the cars.”
“Wait, so he passed out and put a huge dent in the side of the car with his head?” exclaimed Kate giggling.
“See! She agrees with me!” said Andy, “It was that fucker’s head!”
“No way! The witnesses said that he was punching the cars then just passed out, no one said that he headbutted a car or hit one with his head,” explained Rose, smiling.
“Well then they didn’t fucking see it, I don’t know. The witnesses were drunk too. Whatever...that part isn’t important anyway,” said Andy pressing on. “So Rose and I drag this guy’s fat ass out from between the two cars and over to my cruiser parked right near by.”
“Now if you think that was the hard part,” Rose said to Kate, “keep in mind we still needed to get this whale into the back seat of the cruiser.”
“Luckily we had a few bouncers from the bar to help us,” said Andy, “otherwise, we’d probably still be there moving him.” Andy got up and began to stretch out his back, continuing. “So with the help of the bouncers, we get this guy’s fat ass into the cruiser...well mostly.”
“So Andy was on one side of the car and I was one the other,” said Rose picking up the story. “Unfortunately, I had the head side which was, of course, still sticking out the side of the car because he was a fat asshole.”
“Also, there is no fucking way you can sleep through being heaved into the back of a police car being that fat by the way,” Andy added cracking open a bottle of water and taking a gulp.
“So I gave the guy fair warning that I needed to close the door before we could drive him off,” said Rose. “I said, ‘Hey guy, move your head,’ and he didn’t. So I tried to close the door but it just bounced off
his fat head,” said Rose as Andy burst out laughing. Kate stared at them with a smirk on her face shaking her head, feigning disapproval.
“So I gave him one more chance. I said, ‘Hey guy, you better move your head or this is really going to fucking hurt.’ But this guy was very persistent he was still passed out and unconscious. So, I fucking made that door close wedging his fat head into his fat body,” said Rose, barely able to contain her laughter. “I’m sure he was quite comfy,” she managed between laughs.
“You guys are terrible!” said Kate laughing with Rose.
“Oh, that’s not even the best part,” said Rose giggling.
“Well then please, continue,” said Kate, still smirking.
“So I now have this fat piece of shit in my cruiser and I gotta bring him to the drunk tank at the PD,” continued Andy. “So I make my way through town and I hear this guy start coughing. I go to myself, ‘oh shit.’”
Andy looked over his shoulder and yelled “Don’t you fucking puke in my cruiser!”
“Let me guess…” started Kate.
“You got it!" confirmed Andy. “Once I told that fucker not to puke, he of course did...all over the back seat of my cruiser.”
“Oh, but it still gets better,” said Rose with an evil grin on her face.
“I thought we were never going to talk about that ever again,” said Andy feigning embarrassment.
“Do I want to hear this?” asked Kate, wincing.
“We’ll see,” said Andy continuing immediately. “So I get back to the PD and Rose is right behind me. Now me, Rose, and another guy on duty, Gregg, have to help me drag this guy into the drunk tank at the police department. Rose, who was being completely unhelpful...”
“Fuck you, it was your arrest,” quipped Rose, grinning.
“Whatever, so Rose was pushing this guy by his feet and me and Gregg were pulling him out of the car by his shoulders. We finally got him out far enough and I grabbed him by the back of the pants. Once we got him out of the car, we dragged, pulled and pushed his fat ass down the hall into the drunk tank.”
“Wait for it…” said Rose expectedly.
“It wasn’t until after we got him into the cell did I realize that my gloves were completely covered in shit. The guy had shit himself at some point during the ride back to the PD,” said Andy, utterly defeated.
Rose burst out laughing and Kate couldn't longer contain her amusement, equal parts laughter and disgust. Andy, unable to resist the laughter, quickly joined them.
“Thank God for those gloves, that’s all I have to say,” said Rose continuing to laugh, now supporting herself with her truck.
“Yes, they made the ultimate sacrifice,” said Andy, saluting in a faux-tribute to his fallen gloves. “You will be avenged!” was all Andy could get out before dissolving into more laughter.
Kate, the first to recover from the laughter, glanced at her watch. “Hey you guys better take off or you’re going to be late for work.”
“Back to the grind,” said Andy still chuckling from his story. "See you at work Rose," Andy yelled while jumping into his green Ford Explorer. It was the typical New England rust bucket with large spots and bad attempts at patched holes. He headed off down the road into Green Forks and was gone quickly.
Rose, still giggling from Andy’s story, leaned in and gave Kate a kiss, Kate’s lips soft and moist from laughter. “So what time will you be back from the hospital tomorrow?” she asked Kate.
“Well it’s an overtime shift. One of the other nurses is still out and I’m covering for her. I should be home from work around the same time as you, assuming its not a busy night,” said Kate snuggling into Rose’s neck.
Rose, after a few seconds of snuggling, leaned over to Kate’s ear and whispered softly, “You know this cul de sac has no other houses on it and the chances of someone driving down here are nonexistent. You want to have a little fun real quick?” said Rose as she slipped one hand around to Kate’s back and another up her inner thigh.
“Jordan, you’re going to be late for work…”
“Come on...real quick.”
“How about...when we both get home from work...and really, really slowly,” said Kate seductively in Rose’s ear.
Rose weighed her chances of still getting some action now, but decided later would probably be a better idea. “Okay, deal,” she said reluctantly giving Kate’s butt a squeeze.
Rose picked up Kate off the hood of her truck and placed her on the ground giving her a kiss on her lips. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“See ya,” said Kate, walking back toward the house and flashing sultry smile.
Rose grabbed her lunch off the hood of the truck, jumped in, and fired it up. She backed out the gravel driveway to the circle of the cul de sac. If it’d been up to Rose, the driveway would be paved. Shoveling in a Maine winter is bad enough without having to deal with gravel, but the house was just a rental. Built by a building company as a showhouse before the housing market tanked, it was the only house on a road of “soon-to-be-built-on” lots on the outskirts of town. It could be lonely, but Rose figured there would be other neighbors eventually.
Thinking back to the vision in gold that had been Kate on the front of her truck, Rose fought the urge to drive right back up the driveway and call in sick to work. Hopefully her shift would go by quickly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The drive from Rose’s house into the town of Green Forks wasn’t a long one but it was very scenic. This part of northwestern Maine was hilly and wooded without much outside of the town lines, almost as if someone had plopped a fully formed town down in the middle of the wilderness. The downtown area and the surrounding suburbs were pretty much the extent of the town. The town itself was about a three hour drive south of the Canadian border and the closest major city was Caribou, which was pretty comparable in size. The downtown area that Rose drove through on her way to work most days was quaint with a very New England feel. Small shops with big front windows, brick buildings and rutted roads. They had a central main street with several main arteries off of it which constituted the “business district” of the city. Beyond that, the city was encircled with clusters of residential areas. The Green Forks Hospital was on the far side of town from the police department and it wasn’t much more than an urgent care facility, barely a hospital by modern hospital standards.
Rose, a self-described aficionado of classic rock, had her smart phone plugged into the radio as she rolled through town in evening traffic on the warm, dry, late-summer evening. Windows down, a breeze blowing through her hair and Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” pouring out into the gathering dusk was a much better alternative to the endless string of news broadcasts that seemed to be dominating every radio station. Rose wasn’t the type of person who’d sit at home and watch the 24 hour news channels, but she did catch bits of news here and there. Music never seemed to be on the radio anymore, which annoyed Rose to no end, hence her taking matters into her own hands with her phone. All there seemed to be lately was talk and speculation about this new infection story which had started a few months ago. Rose didn’t know much about it, and frankly, could care less. There were talk that people infected with this new disease in New York City were supposedly attacking other people, but that seemed more like exaggeration and hype than real and reliable news. New York City had been completely quarantined by the US Government and the Centers for Disease Control, which probably perpetuated all the talk, but New York City was pretty far away from Green Forks and the government likely had that situation under control. If the media couldn’t stick their noses in there and get the real scoop, then there probably wasn’t anything to report. Having been a police officer for only a couple years, Rose already knew full-well how hard the media would work for a story and they wouldn’t be able to resist a story this big. If they weren’t reporting those details, Rose was pretty confident it was because it just wasn’t happening.
Taking a turn off the main ro
ad through town brought Rose by the front entrance of the Green Forks Police Department. What used to be the old City Hall now housed the GFPD as the City Hall had gotten a new building several years back. Fully staffed, GFPD had twenty officers not including the Chief, administration, and detectives. Andy and Rose were the newest members of the twenty in patrol.
Rose pulled into the back dirt lot of the PD and parked her truck next to Andy’s Explorer. Keying in through the back door, Rose went over to the woman’s locker room to change as Andy was just leaving the men’s locker room next door. “You’re here sooner then I thought. No action huh?” said Andy, grinning broadly and elbowing Rose, flapping his arm like a chicken. “I could tell something was brewing.”
Rose laughed shoving him away, “No no, I can’t be late right?” she said sarcastically and shrugging, a wide grin on her face. “I’ll meet you in roll call in a few.”
“No roll call today,” said Andy. “We’re getting some training from some guy from the Centers for Disease Control, you know the CDC? My Uncle Rob works for them and called me the other day. Said they were rolling out trainings for all cops nationwide so we know what to look for with this disease thing.”
“Man, they’re really taking this seriously, eh?” asked Rose, frowning.
“Yeah man, you’ve seen the news, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. The Government is keeping the press locked down, but there are videos out there on the internet if you look hard enough. They don’t say up for long, but they show some scary shit. Videos from New York, LA, even like Paris and shit.” Andy looked disturbed recalling the videos, all his humor gone. “With the French one you can’t tell what the people are saying, but you get the point when people start running and screaming and shit.”
Jordan Rose Duology (Book 1): Break Away Page 1
