Exploring Adultery and Consequences in Sheriff Will Diaz’s Story

I hate trying to forecast where my novels are going. I’m not the kind of writer that sets down and makes an outline and then follows it like its written in stone. The writers that do that are called Planners.

I’m more a pantster – it means we write by the seat of our pants. I know where my starting point is and I know where I want to finish (more or less and sometimes that shifts), but in between the two, the journey is wide open.

And so, it will be with the next several books. They all exist in what can only e called a very rough form and turning them into good stories is the challenge ahead. But I’d going to part the curtain a little and give you a bit of glimpse of what Sheriff Will Diaz and company are going to be through in the next one.

Book five has the working title of Internal Affairs. The name straddles a couple of fences and I think it will stay.

Most large departments have an Internal Affairs division. Their job is to investigate incidents involving officers and to determine if a violation of department policy and the law exists. A lot of police officers look upon the Internal Affairs division with mistrust, believing that they exist to hang them. And they will if the officer has broken the law.

They can also help to find holes in company policy (and officer did something, but there’s no policy to back it up). Internal Affairs can also work for the protection of the officer and the department. In our world where it’s insanely easy to videotape something and then edit it into however you want it to look, Internal Affairs takes on a large, more important mission.

That said, I’ve been investigated by the Army’s version of Internal Affairs once and I’ll tell youy, it was no picnic.

What happened was the Officers Club at Ft. Riley was robbed. A man walked in and caught the manager with his back to the office door and with the safe open. He told the manager not to turn around, and to hand him the contents of the safe and once he had the money bag, he booked. We (meaning the road MPs and myself – I was working investigations at the time) responded. We locked down the crime scene and I did a quick interview with the manger. It took us very little time to ID the robber (a military dependent who had worked there and lived on post – the manager recognized the voice) and in less than thirty minutes we had the guy in custody and recovered the money minus a few bucks that was covered by a register receipt.

Now, here’s where things went off the tracks. When I talked with the manger at the initial response, I asked, “How much money are we looking at?”

His answer, “ABOUT eleven thousand.”

When we took the guy down and recovered the money, we recovered ten thousand three hundred and sixty dollars. The guy had spent all of twenty plus dollars at the local shopette on beer and smokes before we got him (the receipt was in his car).

Webster defines the word About as “ in the immediate neighborhood of . . .” Translation, the manager wasn’t sure down to the nickel, dime, or penny on how much money there was because receipts and etc hadn’t been reconciled for the day. All he had was a rough running total in his head. CID, who actually handled the case (this was more a felony level crime where MPI handled the lesser crimes), overlooked the word “About” and said there was eleven thousand in the safe. Later tally and receipts showed that ten thousand three hundred and eighty dollars was closer to what was there to start with. That accounts for what we recovered plus the twenty some he spent.

Tell that to CID.

They drug me and the MPs who helped me secure the scene, plus the MPs who picked the guy up; read us our rights and asked if we knew anything about the missing money. They even put us on the Polygraph. That didn’t conjure up the money they insisted was there (and never was).

Needless to say, they annoyed us to the point that after it was all over, I said a few things concerning CID I probably shouldn’t have. I didn’t just burn those bridges, I nuked them! And then in a fit of pique, I withdrew the application I’d put in to join their ranks.

But Internal affairs can also be taken as a sexual relationship between two people who work together. And so, that’s the principal story here.

If ever there’s a book I’ve written that going to hold a mirror up to our society, this will be it. It tackles the sexual moirés we have today and the impact they have.

In the story, we have a deputy involved in adultery. A lot of people would treat such an event as between them and maybe go so far as to say they aren’t hurting anyone. But considering what happens in the story, that claim falls to the ground. Before it’s all done, the entire incident has blown up and ends with the attempted murder of two deputies and a terrifying hostage situation.

Will, in confronting the deputy before everything goes to hell and when this is all still mere suspicion, says:

“I know you were raised in the LDS church. And I know the ten commandments is taught by the Mormon church just as in any other church. So, I know you’ve heard of the seventh commandment.”

“Yes. ‘Thou shall not commit adultery.’ “

“Then you’ve heard it?”

“Yeah?”

“So, a lot of people look at it and say, it’s’me. It’s my life, my body, I will do as I please.’ But it’s so much more than a commandment. It’s a warning.”

“Of course, against sin. But God foregives sins.”

“True, but you’re missing the point. It’s not just you impacted by this.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

I thought about a real world analogy I could use and then smiled. “OK, you were in the Army. I know they taught you what a minefield sign looks like.”

“They did.”

“So, you’re on patrol and you come across a sign warning you that you’re about to enter a minefield, Would you go in there?”

“No?”

“Of course you won’t. You might go through it just fine. But again, you might not.“ I paused, thinking a bit about it. “I had an uncle who lost a leg because the guy a few feet away stepped on a mine. The explosion killed the guy next to him and wounded him. He’s not the one who stepped on the mine, but he was impacted by the one who did.

“It’s the same with the question I’m asking if you’ and Glinda are involved. Who will get hurt, maybe killed because you say it’s none of my business.”

“But we’re not doing anything?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

I don’t know why I said what I did, but it had to be said. “You’ve set something in motion, and it can’t be stopped. A plus B plus C will equal something you don’t want to be part of. It means you go into that minefield, expect you and others to get hurt and maybe even killed.”

Will’s word will prove that maybe he does have a future as a prophet.