An Interview with Sheriff Will Diaz – Part 14 – The Fall of Max – The Lie!

A continuation of the interview with Sheriff Will Diaz. Will Diaz is the central character in the four novels that currently make up The Lawman Series. The fifth book is expected out about Christmas of 2025.

Rich Muniz – What did you do when the weapon fell out? What did you think?

Sheriff Will Diaz – That he was burnt for sure. I mean the only people in the world who carry snub nose 38s are cops. Oddly, no one batted an eye over it.

Muniz – Let me get this straight. Max was carrying a gun that he wasn’t supposed to on the street. And it was in direct violation of orders. And you knew about it?

Sheriff Diaz – I knew about it. Terri and Jonesy knew about it, also. We never said anything about it.

Muniz – So you broke the rules.

Sheriff Diaz – I broke the rules. Worse, when it came out, we claimed we didn’t know. Max never said differently, but we did tell him it would be the last time we covered for him.

Muniz – Why?

Sheriff Diaz – He put us into a ethical dilemma. We believed in telling the truth. Yet, we’re lying to cover our butts. That’s not a pleasant place to be. I know the three of us spent some sleepless nights over it.

Muniz – So, what happened when he dropped the gun?

Sheriff Diaz – Anywhere else but there, it might have caused an issue. Everyone acted like nothing had ever happened. He bent down, picked up the weapon, and put it away. He went right back to dancing with the girl. But Wild Bill had seen it happen.

Muniz – Wild Bill?

Sheriff Diaz – The CID warrant officer in charge of us. He was working alongside us that night.

Muniz – What happened?

Sheriff Diaz – When we got back to the office, Bill chewed him up one side and down the other. Told him he knew he wasn’t supposed to be carrying and if it happened again, there would be repercussions.

Muniz – So beyond the Alpha Charlie, nothing official was done.

Sheriff Diaz – No.

Muniz – What did that do to Max?

Sheriff Diaz – He cooled his engines for a few weeks. If he started carrying again, he never told us though we did suspect it.

But the incident did cause us to notice one thing going on.

Muniz – Which was?

Sheriff Diaz – Like I said. He always had something going down. But at the end of the evening, he would come up dry. Jonesy, Terri, or I would go out and work about five minutes. We’d come back with some coke or grass.

Muniz – What was he doing?

Sheriff Diaz – We began to suspect the big deal never existed. I mean we’re out there night after night supporting his “Operation.” (Diaz made air quotation marks at the word Operation). And he’s coming up with nothing. There was always some reason, but eventually those reasons started sounding a little hollow. Like I said, he comes up empty and with five minutes work, the rest of us would get something.

What’s wrong here?

Muniz – What did you think was wrong?

Sheriff Diaz – We were beginning to suspect that he was enjoying partying on Uncle Sam’s dime.

Muniz – What did you guys do?

Sheriff Diaz – We talked with Wild Bill about it. Then we all spoke to Max. Max insisted he was working the chain, taking it slow and building trust. He assured us that all he was one introduction away from shutting down the JC meth labs. The temptation of shutting them down was just too big.

After that, he’d come up with a bag of weed or coke once in a while. But the big haul was illusive, assuming it ever existed.

Muniz – And then.

Sheriff Diaz – Looking back, we’d made things too easy for Max. I guess he really thought rules were meant to be broken, and those rules didn’t apply to him. And I guess he thought we wouldn’t say anything if he did something else.

Muniz – What did he do?

Sheriff Diaz – He broke a rule he should never have broken. He slept with the enemy.

Image generated using AI.

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