First Arrest

by Jim Doherty

About the Author: Jim Doherty's first novel, AN OBSCURE GRAVE, featuring his series character Dan Sullivan, was a CWA Dagger finalist. Dan has appeared in many short stories, some of which were collected in THE BIG GAME, which included "Cap Device."

Excerpt

Everyone knows that Gus Hachette was, arguably, the finest American peace officer ever to pin on a badge. He almost single-handedly tamed rowdy, crime-ridden oil boom towns. He fought border bandits along the Rio Grande. He clashed with virtually every species of lawbreaker, from serial killers to Chicago mobsters to conductors of fraudulent elections.

He’d serve at every single level of the American police service, municipal, county, state, Federal, and “special jurisdiction.” He was, arguably, America’s first cold case detective. He was in over fifty shootouts, sustaining wounds, often life-threatening wounds, in seventeen of them.

And in his most famous case, he tracked down Bart and Annie McCoy, the Depression era’s “Slaughterin’ Spouses,” who left a trail of dead bodies, including a dozen police officers, in their wake during a multi-state rampage of armed robbery.

Considering all that, it seems odd to think that he ever considered any other profession besides law enforcement.

But the fact of the matter is that, earlier in his life, he believed he had a very different calling.

Indeed, he fell into police work almost by accident.

This is the story of that serendipitous turn on the trail.

This is the story of Gus Hachette’s first arrest.

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