Police Officer Daniel McCoy pulled his old Ford in front of his apartment house and turned the engine off. It was 6:20 am and the sun was already warm through the windshield. He sighed deeply and gazed off into space. The older he got, the more the night shift seemed to be a real pain in the ass and always caused him to arrive home early in the morning in a bad mood. He sighed again, leaned back behind the wheel of the old car and lit a cigarette. His wife Maria didn't like him smoking indoors and he just wanted one more before breakfast and then a blissful, hopefully dreamless, sleep. He inhaled deeply and tried to relax a little. He was in a bad temper now. Many things had added to this mood and were flipping around in his head as he smoked. The night duties, the daytime heat, the fact that his young wife would be rising from their bed soon just as he was climbing into it. But most of all McCoy though about his new partner. Jake Stanton was a raw recruit fresh out of training school and had a real bad attitude.
Where as McCoy had fired his .38 only twice in anger in his whole 27 year police career, Stanton had already shot and killed three people. But it was the kid on the roof that bothered McCoy so much. Sure, he was probably a scumbag, but Stanton didn't wait to find out. They had chased him up onto the roof of a ten story apartment block. Stanton, being younger and fitter, had got to him first and McCoy arrived just in time to see the kid take a flying lesson from the top of the building. Reluctantly, McCoy had backed up his partner's story that the kid fell, but from the look in Stanton's eye, McCoy knew that this was a work of pure fiction - he was certain that his partner had thrown the kid off!
With the weight of the world on his sagging and tired shoulders, McCoy mashed the cigarette butt into the ashtray and climbed out of the car. He knew that Maria wouldn't be up yet, as he padded silently into their bedroom removing his uniform as he went. He looked at his young wife sleeping and felt a stirring in his loins. The warm morning had caused her to subconsciously kick the sheet away and McCoy looked at her naked body on the bed before him.
The ache in his groin reminded him that they had not had sex for over a month now, and he swore under his breath and promised himself he'd speak to the captain about shifting back to day duties soon. He watched Maria stretch and turn in her sleep, her full round breasts clearly visible and the top of her trimmed mound peeking seductively from the edge of the sheet. McCoy squeezed his crotch through his uniform pants and groaned quietly, but he knew better than to try anything with Maria when she was asleep - she'd freak! Reluctantly he tore his eyes away from her and headed for the shower. He'd wash the night's grime from his weary body and jerk off!
The breakfast table was the one place where McCoy and Maria were together, but the meal was usually a quiet, if not silent, affair. Maria busied herself pouring coffee and scrambling eggs while her husband read through the morning paper and yawned. But today he was strangely animated, she thought; seemingly unable to concentrate on the newspaper and wandering around the kitchen fidgeting. She guessed it was all to do with the business with his new partner. McCoy had given her the gist of the problem but she wasn't really interested - his work was a world apart from her own. She decided to ignore his movements, she'd be off to work soon.
"I'm gonna see Internal Affairs today." McCoy suddenly blurted out.
It had been playing on his mind for days and nothing would shift the thought. If Stanton was innocent then the investigation would clear him.
"Are you crazy!" said Maria, turning sharply and suddenly interested. "Do you know what you're saying? Informing on you're own partner is like signing an early retirement form, you know that! You will never get another job at you're age. How are we suppose to live?"
But McCoy seemed adamant. Maria had seen that look on his face before and knew that there was little anyone could do to change his mind.
"Look, I'm gonna be late for work. Can we please talk about this later?"
McCoy shrugged in a non-committal fashion and bit down hard on a slice of toast. What else was there to talk about?, he thought. The man broke the law - he had to pay the price.
Maria was worried as she opened the door and left for the day. There was no way that McCoy would survive ratting out his partner. There must be something that she could do.....
By lunchtime, Maria's office had gone quiet. Most of her co-workers had left the building for lunch in one of the many restaurants or bars that filled the area. She would normally have joined them, but her husband's decision this morning weighed heavily on her mind. There was a telephone call she had to make.
"Hello. 19th precinct. Can I help you?"
"Captain O'Donnell please"
"Hold please, I'll see if he's in." Maria waited a few seconds, treated to some inane switchboard music, before she heard the familiar gruff tones of Her husband's boss.
"Yeah, O'Donnell here - who's this?"
"Hello, Mike. This is Maria McCoy - Danny's wife - can I speak to you about something in confidence?"
"Hi Maria! Sure - What's on your mind?"
For the next ten minutes, Maria talked and O'Donnell listened. She outlined everything that her husband had told her about the incident on the roof and about his decision to go to the Internal Affairs department. When she had finished her oration, the was a brief silence before O'Donnell spoke.
"You do know what you're saying, Maria? This could finish Danny's career in the force. If word got out that he's ratted out his partner, nobody would ever work with him again!"
"Shit, Mike! of course I know - why do you think I'm calling you? You gotta do something!"
"Mmm, I think what our Danny needs is some "gentle persuasion". No good can come out of an internal investigation now." O'Donnell smiled to himself and pictured Maria McCoy. Oh, how he would love to carry out an internal investigation on her! A Year or so ago, she had been the talk of the precinct. It was said that she'd gone down on so many of her husband's male colleagues - and one or two of the female ones as well - that she could tell their names without even looking at their faces! O'Donnell had arrived at the precinct quite recently and had, as yet, never had the pleasure. As yet! The more he thought about it, the more a plan began to form in his mind.
"Leave it with me, Maria. I think there may be something I can do!"
The following night Danny McCoy arrived for work at the usual time. Roll call was uneventful, as usual, but as all the officers began to drift out of the door and towards their various squad cars, captain O'Donnell held him back.
"Speak to you for a moment, Danny?"
"Sure captain, what gives?"
"This is your last night on the graveyard shift - tomorrow you go back to day duties. I'm also assigning you a new partner, Jeff Zorelli. Jake Stanton's doing some..er..undercover work with his new partner Davis."
McCoy was delighted but didn't want to show his distaste for his ex-partner just yet. He wanted to see Internal Affairs first. This was perfect. On day work he could use his lunch break to go see them and make out the report.
"That's fine, cap' - no problem here!"
Danny finished his last night shift in a much better mood than normal. He lit his usual cigarette before going into his house and thought that, just maybe, his luck was changing for the better. He was still determined to see Stanton pay for his behaviour, but somehow, a little of the urgency had gone out of it. Tomorrow would do just fine, he thought.
As he entered the house, removing his shoes and preparing to creep upstairs, McCoy was suddenly surprised to hear his wife's voice.
"I'm in here, Danny"
He was suddenly confused. Her voice was coming from their lounge. Why was she up so early, he thought. And why was she in the lounge and not the kitchen? He swung the lounge door open and walked in only to be confronted, not by his wife, but by captain O'Donnell.
"Hey, cap. What's going on? I thought -"