All in all, Sheriff Creech was kind of looking forward to retirement. It was a lovely mid-May and ending his decades of service to Putnam, Kentucky just in time to be able to spend Christmas with Elaine and her boys - his grandchildren. He was smiling just thinking about it as he leaned back at his desk. Plenty of good memories with this town, he almost hated to go.
"Hey, Old Man." spoke up Deputy Hallenbrook. In full honestly, Putnam probably didn't need a Deputy but Creech brought him on when he had accepted the fact that he was getting old and should have a replacement in the works and didn't feel like holding off until the next sheriff elections in a few years. The town had to approve of that of course but Putnam, Kentucky all told had maybe 2,500 people under its township and that was being generous. A few bulletins at some of the local churches and it was just a quick 3 minute vote at the next city council meeting.
"Hey, young'en. Any new trouble we have to deal with?"
"I got a source says that Jimmy White is growin' weed again. Bob King ain't up to nothin' illegal but he fell off the wagon again last night. And the Caldwell's are wondering if you're willing to cut a deal to help with Stevie's situation."
A source. Heh, Deputy Hallenbrook made it sound so official and criminal. Truth is, Alan hit one of the local bars while off duty and heard a few conversations. Good thing too though, kept the Sheriff's office looking busy.
"Jimmy took after his daddy, he ain't in it too hurt nobody. We'll go by his mother's place later to get him to change is mind. And I'm thinking we'll call Howard at the Courthouse and see if we can work out a Community Service deal, but let's scare Stevie a little - don't want him joy riding again. Bob though, Bob's liver can't take it anymore and he knows it. You want to take Howard or Bob?"
"Howard, I think his niece sweet on me and she works the front desk." the Deputy chuckles. Sheriff Creech forgets himself and chuckles a bit at that.
"Alright, I'll talk to Bob - radio in when you're done and meet me at the White's in case Cheryl's in a bad mood."
That was the joke of course. Cheryl, Jimmy's mother, was always in a bad mood. Yeah - Putnam, Kentucky was a slow town and getting slower. Sheriff Creech never liked talking about, or thinking about, why that was. It's not like it didn't have its perks, granted - a Slow Town was a Safe Town - but Putnam was a town that was too slow, Sheriff Creech had the statistics to prove it. Oh, it looked so good on paper when you looked at the crime rates - especially the violent ones. Heck, there's only been one of what could be could be called a sex crime in the last decade - and even that wasn't that bad. Last year a couple teachers from the community college up the road got a bit randy, decided to pull over and make love in the great outdoors of Putnam's own Heavenly Kingdom Park, and accidently got caught by a couple hippies tending their weed patch. Even that turned out to nothing but one man's word against another and the hippies had much more to lose so he had to let them off with just a warning.
Unfortunately, the reason why things like that were so low was so depressing. Putnam, Kentucky always was a mining town - mostly Coal. The vast majority of the men who lived in Putnam, Kentucky were both the sons of Coal Miners, worked as Coal Miners, and would die as Coal Miners. The problem was that nothing says one type of mine can't find another type of rock, and its a well known fact that a Coal mine can have quite a bit of Uranium in it as well.
And apparently the Coal Mines around Putnam have quite a bit of Uranium in 'em, but nobody figured that out until after the Coal Mines were well established as the main employers of the region and they sure as hell couldn't make the changes it would take to account for it. So the town decided it rather would pretend it wasn't the case and run with it, much to Sheriff Creech's own disagreement. But he was outvoted, as Miners came home with little bits of radioactive dust allover their bodies year after year. It may not of looked it at a glance, but among the men who worked in the mines the cancer rate was about double the national average but that wasn't the most tragic bit.
"You and the wife have any luck?" Sheriff Creech asks the young man, not looking him in the eye for it. The Deputy shakes his head. A town the size of Putnam should be seeing about 30 births a year if you go from the national average, but it hasn't done better then half the births it should of gotten in coming up on 20 years now - and is usually lucky to get even a third. Last year, there were only 8. There were good jobs here, new families always moved in to match the losses but that couldn't hold up forever.
Yes, he was looking forward to retirement. He just wanted to make that someone else's problem at this point. Just hold out until Christmas and he was home free.
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Natalia Youngblood had been looking forward to this all year, honestly. Heavenly Kingdom Park had some great running trails that she really wanted to explore and now that the elementary school was officially on summer break she'd have time. A few meetings left maybe but her grades were done and Putnam Elementary officially had a new batch of 5th graders out of her hands. Now she'd really get time to do what she wanted on the side.
