Page 29 of Steeped In Problems (Badges & Baristas #3)
Right as the clock struck eight, Officer Joe Griffin, dressed in his freshly ironed blue cargo uniform, took his spot at the front of the Disaster City Search and Rescue Academy classroom.
Fellow instructor, Ted Hendricks, went to the back and shut the door, making it clear that it was time to start the first session.
The other two instructors for their division, Officers Bilmont and Dixon, didn’t miss a beat.
They immediately started going over the expectations and requirements.
The trainees whipped out their notepads and pens, furiously taking down notes so they wouldn’t forget anything as the experienced instructors rattled off the massive list of information.
Legend leaned against Joe’s leg, clearly sensing the tension in him. His canine partner looked up at him with concern, causing Joe to be filled with frustration. Get it together, Griffin. Focus on your job, he chastised himself. Stop letting your mind wander where it shouldn’t.
The instructors finished the rest of the morning lecture before releasing the class for lunch. In the afternoon, in order to allow the instructors to determine the capability of each recruit, the trainees would conduct their first practice search.
“What’s going on with you, Griffin?” Dixon questioned from across the lunch table. “You seemed…distracted this morning.”
“It’s nothing,” Joe stated, gesturing dismissively in the air. “I didn’t sleep well last night, that’s all.”
“I’d wondered if it was first-day jitters, but you’re too well-seasoned for that,” Bilmont stated with a roll of his eyes. “I’ve never known a man more about the job than you, Griffin.”
Joe purposely took a sip of his iced tea to avoid saying anything else.
He knew what the other instructors thought of him, and the last thing he wanted to do was give them a reason to doubt his commitment to the job.
When they weren’t training handlers at the academy, they were out conducting search and rescues together assisting other agencies that needed help.
It was important that his fellow teammates felt like they could rely on him and admitting to his recent apathy would only raise concerns.
“Leave him alone, Bilmont. We all know how Griffin is,” Dixon stated with a shrug. “He’s like a veteran bear that’s made his permanent home in an old cave. For better or worse, we’re stuck with him.”
“Yes, but he’s our grumpy bear,” Bilmont said with a chuckle. “We’ll never?—”
Joe knew they were messing with him like they did on a regular basis.
On any other day, it wouldn’t have bothered him.
Today, however, he couldn’t help but feel the frustration about his current position seep out.
Unable to tolerate their ribbing one moment longer, he jumped up from his chair, spun around, and took off without saying a word, Legend trailing behind him.
He had no idea where he was going. When he ended up at the staff offices, he took it as a sign that he needed to go over a few details for the rest of the week.
He turned on his computer and went through the agenda for the first week of the current class.
He was nearly finished when he heard the familiar voices of his fellow instructors outside their office.
“You know, his reaction today probably has to do with what’s happening at the end of this week,” Bilmont told the other men.
“I know, every year this happens. I doubt he even realizes how much the anniversary affects him,” Dixon added.
“What anniversary?” Hendricks asked in confusion. “Did you guys forget that I’ve barely been here a year? I don’t know all of your guys’ patterns yet.”
“It’s the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I can’t even imagine being in New York when the planes hit the Towers, let alone at Ground Zero as they fell,” Dixon explained. “He rarely talks about it, and never in detail, but it’s clear what happened during the attack did a number on him.”
“It only makes sense that he isn’t sleeping well.
I bet he has all sorts of nightmares from that day and the search and recovery he did afterward,” Hendricks stated with clear pity in his voice.
“I wouldn’t wish that job on any officer.
Do you think we should ask him how’s he doing with the anniversary coming up? ”
“No,” both Bilmont and Dixon blurted out in unison.
“If he wants to talk about it, he’ll bring it up,” Dixon added. “But Griffin plays most everything pretty close to the vest.”
Joe didn’t like the other instructors discussing his past. It meant that he hadn’t been doing a good job of keeping his feelings under control, and that wasn’t like him.
If he was honest with himself, the upcoming anniversary had been bothering him more than usual.
He’d always managed to push away the pain from that day, but lately, Melanie’s memory had been popping up when he least expected it.
Part of him wondered if it had to do with the girl he rescued last month during a flood in Northwest Texas.
She looked a lot like Melanie, from her red hair, to her sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
He was glad he was able to save the girl, but it brought back the pain of failing Melanie.
If he had just been able to get to her in the Towers, maybe his whole life would be different now.
Instead, he was forced to live with the knowledge that the biggest failure of his career took away the most important person in his life.
He stood up from his desk and marched across the office, yanking open the door and startling the other three men in the process. All of their heads jerked toward him, eyes wide with shock.
“We didn’t know you were in there,” Hendricks stammered out, his cheeks tinged red with embarrassment.
“I was just leaving. It’s time to head back to the classroom.” Joe firmly shut the door and pushed through the group. “Come on, we don’t have all day,” he added over his shoulder.
The trainees didn’t get very far into the practice course before Ben Miller, the salt-and-pepper haired deputy commander of the academy, showed up with an emergency assignment for them.
“There was a massive flood in northern New Mexico that caused several mudslides. They need help searching for survivors and asked us to send over any available officers. I know you just started training this group, so they can’t go since we aren’t sure how they will do.
I’ll take over the class with Sarge while the four of you head to New Mexico.
The helicopter is already on standby, so gear up and get out of here. ”
Joe, along with the rest of his team, made quick work of getting ready. Once they gathered all the necessary search and rescue equipment, they placed their K9 partners inside the kennels on the chopper and took off for their mission.
Joe tried to focus on getting his head straight for the grueling hours of search and rescue that lay ahead, but his mind kept drifting back to what he overheard the rest of his team discussing.
Between his time at the academy and his twenty years with the New York City Police Department, his search and rescue tenure was extensive.
He’d managed for years to keep the stress under control, but he wondered if constantly seeing desperate people in disastrous scenarios had finally caught up to him.
It wasn’t easy to handle and often took a harsh toll on an officer.
Was his time in the field finally up? What did that mean for him?
Joe’s whole life revolved around search and rescue.
If he retired now, he wasn’t even sure who he would be without it.
He’d chosen to focus on his career rather than take the time to start a family, leaving him squarely as a confirmed bachelor with his K9 partner, Legend, as his only child, and his fellow instructors as his family.
What would his life look like if he left that world behind him?
“We’re here,” Dixon announced as the helicopter landed on a clear patch of dirt near the command center for the search and rescue operation. “Let’s get to it.”
The team hopped out of the helicopter and quickly got their instructions.
They were assigned to assist in searching several camping areas in the Carson National Forest. After hitching a ride with some of the U.S.
Forest Service Rangers to the location, they placed their rescue pack on their backs and made sure their K9 partners’ vests were secure before giving the command for them to search the first area.
Joe sent up a silent prayer, asking God to guide their steps as they conducted their search.
They methodically worked their way through the disheveled terrain littered with chunks of mud, rocks, and broken pieces of trees.
There was a piece of a roof poking out from a large deposit of mud.
“That could be something,” Hendricks stated, as he pointed to the mostly obscured area.
“It could be part of the campground. We should go check it out.”
“Good catch,” Dixon praised as they made their way over. “If the campers had any warning, they might have tried to go into the structure to hide.”
The foursome made their way over to the new section and set their dogs to the task of investigating. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but as they moved from the edges of the area further in, the faint sound of muffled cries penetrated the air.
“Do you hear that?” Joe asked the group. “I think there’s someone in there.”
The team placed their bags down on the ground and pulled out their collapsible shovels.
They gently scooped up mud, being careful to cause as little disturbance as possible so the debris wouldn’t fall into the structure and cause more damage.
Once they reached about midway down, a window became visible.
The glass was gone, pushed in from the mud.