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Chapter One
     
    Officers Patrick St. James and Hank Capstone waited nervously outside the Forestville Chief of Police’s office, wondering what they had done to get themselves into hot water this time. It had been over six months since their sting operation had brought down the powerful Governor of Maryland, once again putting St. James in serious danger in the line of duty.
    Once they had notification from the FBI that the governor had been killed by unknown persons, St. James and Capstone returned to normal patrol duties. After two very high-profile spree murder investigations, routine patrol had become boring for both men.
    On the home front, not much had changed. Pat’s lover Dean still worried about him every time he put on his uniform and went out the door, but they were now settled comfortably in the role of a couple confident in their choice of partners.
    Hank’s passionate love affair with sexy young Shawn was in full swing. When Hank wasn’t on duty, he was with Shawn, and most of the time they were with Pat and Dean. Pat enjoyed watching the love develop between Hank and Shawn and was happy that his patrol partner had found someone he had a real chance of building a long-term relationship with. Everything was going smoothly until the telephone call that ordered both men to the chief’s office for an undisclosed reason.
    “Did we fuck up an arrest recently?” Hank asked Pat.
    “Not as far as I know. Besides, don’t you think we would have heard from the sergeant way before the chief if that were the case? No, this is something else, and I just hope she hasn’t changed her mind about us being gay,” Pat replied.
    Before either officer could say anything else, the door to the office opened and the Deputy Chief of Police said, “Gentlemen, please come in.”
    Pat and Hank walked through the chief’s outer office to the inner office where they found Chief Morgan at her desk with what were clearly their personnel files in front of her. She looked up and greeted both officers.
    “Good to see you both again. It’s hard to believe it’s been a little over six months since the governor’s arrest and the media circus that followed.”
    “Yes chief, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long ago since we were all media stars,” Hank replied.
    “Well, I’m sure you’re both wondering why I asked to see you, so I won’t prolong your agony. In this department’s very long history, I can find no other record of two young rookie officers performing in such an exemplary manner to bring about positive outcomes of two very high-profile serial murder cases. In both cases, Officer St. James, with the backup and tactical support of Officer Capstone, made the arrests that closed the cases.
    While it is true that you both have received departmental medals and numerous awards for your actions, I don’t want it to go unnoted that your native investigative instincts played a very large part in the solving of these crimes. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I inform you that you are hereby promoted to the rank of Detective, 3 rd class, effective immediately.
    These promotions have the unanimous recommendation and consent of your supervising sergeant, as well as the command officers that oversaw much of your work. You are hereby reassigned from patrol division, to the Detective Division where you will work both vice crime and homicides.”
    The chief rose from behind the desk and picked up two sets of credentials that contained a gold badge and identification stating that the holder was a detective with the Prince Georges’ County Police Department. She handed each man their new badges and said, “Congratulations to you both. I hope that you’ll continue to show the promise that has brought you this far in your young careers.”
    The deputy chief then handed each man his new orders as to where to report and to whom. This was the beginning of an entirely new chapter in their police careers and it came about