I’ve been a cop for over ten years now. Not a rookie, but retirement still isn’t in sight either. I’m nestled in between burn-out and contentment. Since the day I’ve started with this department, I’ve learned to dread New Years. I don’t think dread does what I feel justice. Perhaps if I’m honest enough with myself, I actually fear New Years.
Let’s start back to 2014, my first New Years as a cop. I grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC, constantly surrounded by people with the dream of working Federal. It was my dream too and I thought starting as a beat cop could be a way to work my way up to Federal Agent. Believe it or not, back then it was hard to get a job as a cop. I had no military experience, just a college degree. So, when I finally got an offer with a department in Washington- I snagged it right up. But this wasn’t Washington, DC…. This was the complete opposite side of the country- Washington state. I went from clean cut to a required beard (or so it seemed).
Only a few hours away from Seattle, this small town has a population of less than 1,000 residents and is so secluded you’d think the nearest city was a day away. The only way in and out was over a drawbridge that looks like it could crumble at any moment. I rented a cabin that overlooked a river and in the distance I could see the tip of Mount Rainier. I took up hiking and rekindled my love for fishing. As far as the job went, it was more security guard work than police work. I visited the few local stores we had in town and spent most of my day at the police station, which at one point was the town mayor’s house before they built a new house for themselves. You’d think I jumped right into a Hallmark movie.
That was, until New Years Eve. Sheriff was getting ready to leave for the day as I came in to work the night shift with Bryan. There are only four officers here total, including Sheriff himself.
“Alright, you gonna handle telling him?” Sheriff asked Bryan.
Bryan avoided eye contact with me and began walking toward the coffee pot. “No Sir, I thought that’s something you may have wanted to do yourself.”
Sheriff let out a grumbled, “Ha!” before responding, “Of course you did.” He took a deep breath before sitting down at his desk.
I knew this wasn’t going to be good, but I absolutely was not expecting what was about to come next.
Sheriff took a sip from his room temperature coffee, nearly finished, and swished it around. He was taking his sweet old time as I stared wide-eyed waiting for the ball to drop.
“You got your duty weapon loaded, yeah?” he asked.
“Yeah…” I hesitatingly answered.
“Extra cuffs?”
“In my Go-Bag.”
Sheriff nodded. “Put them on your belt.”
I tilted my head in confusion, but obliged. “Alright…”
“You remember our riot procedures?”
“Yeah. Sheriff, I’m good for the job. Can you tell me what’s going on here?” I grew impatient.
Sheriff pursed his lips. “Alright then. Shit’s gonna hit the fan tonight.”
“I know it’s New Years and expect a few drunks on the road, but this is snooze town here. You get some sort of intel on a protest or something?” I wondered if there was some sort of crazy group coming through our town on their travels or some other sort of intel he received that day about potential visitors. But I was wrong. It was our own we had to worry about.
“You may not believe it, but it’s true what I’m about to tell ya.”
I glanced over to Bryan and saw he was still avoiding making eye contact with me.
Sheriff continued, “Every year, there’s a new crime. Everyone in the town commits some crime.”
All I could think of was the movie The Purge. “You mean like The Purge? People just go ape shit and we let it happen?”
He shakes his head. “No, no. Everyone commits the SAME crime. My first year here it wasn’t anything major, they all decided to use forged checks that day anywhere they went. One guy legit even used Monopoly money to buy gum. I thought, how is this even real. I thought since the whole town was in on it, it wasn’t really a crime since it appeared even the business owners were allowing it. But I was wrong.” He finished his coffee and let out an “Ah,” as if to announce his drink is gone. He continued, “It escalated every year since then. And every year on January 1st when the sun comes up, nobody remembers what happened.”
I squinted my eyes, as if an attempt to read his bluff on his face. “Is this some sort of rookie tradition? To scare me?”
Sheriff sat upright, “Goddamnit! I’m telling you the truth and if you don’t want to listen you’ll find out soon enough on your own. I’m trying to do you a favor!”
His tone convinced me this wasn’t a bluff. Or perhaps if it was, I’d never play poker with that man. “Alright, so what’s gonna happen this year?” I asked.
“We have no idea. We never do. Neither do they.”
I thought for a moment. “If everyone here gets amnesia and runs around doing the same crime, why don’t we do it too?”
Bryan finally looked at me. Then he looked at Sheriff before looking back at me and answering, “We do.”
I let out a laugh that I immediately regretted. Bryan and Sheriff grew angry and I quickly tried to back pedal. “I mean, how is that even a thing? And if we’re running around committing crimes, why don’t we lock people up before hand?”
“We’ve tried it all,” Sheriff said. “But then we unknowingly just let them loose once the clock strikes midnight. People try to protect themselves leading up to it and lock their homes, get their guns, you name it. Sometimes it does help them protect themselves or their homes.”
I rubbed my forehead with my index and pointer fingers. “Alright. I’ll bite. So, what’s the crime this year?”
“We have no idea,” Sheriff answered and they both shrugged their shoulders.
“What’s the point of working here tonight if I’m just going to run off and uh, burglarize or rob someone? Aren’t I better off leaving my weapons at home?” I’m not sure if I actually believed them at this point, but even so, their story was too compelling not to ask questions.
“It doesn’t matter. You can work, not work. Your weapons are to protect yourself, not to hurt others. Now, thankfully, I’ve never seen anyone hurt someone else, even on New Years. All of the crimes seem to be of theft or similar nature, oddly enough.”
“Speaking of, I’m gonna go check on Sophie before we do our night rounds,” Bryan said.
“Send Sophie my regards,” I said as he headed out of the station to help his wife prepare for whatever was about to come, apparently.
None of it made sense. How could an entire town get amnesia, and only commit non-violent crimes? Was there some unconscious level of ethics? The more questions I asked, the more I realized that I was starting to actually believe their stories and before long, I just said “Fuck it” and got ready for my night.
Remember, this was back in 2013, going in to 2014. People were still listening to Miley Cyrus and Donald Trump was just a businessman. I didn’t think any crazy riots would actually take place, but I was wrong. Boy, was I wrong.
Aside from two drunks on the road, the night was perfectly quiet until the clock struck midnight, on the dot. I was finishing up some paperwork from the second DUI when I heard the Whoosh whiz right in front of my cruiser. They must have been going over 80 in the 45 zone. I turned on my lights and was about to pull out when the second one came, Whoosh!
Damn, I think. People still drag race? I turned out and began to flick on my siren when a car traveling the opposite direction drove by- Whoosh!
Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me, I muttered. It hit me- So this is the crime. I parked my cruiser as there was no point in chasing four cars at once.
My vision went from a flood of red and blue reflection to black. I couldn’t tell you a single thing that happened for the rest of the night until I found myself in my bed, waking up to the crack of dawn coming through my window. Still in uniform, duty weapon holstered. I couldn’t tell you why, but my first instinct was to pop out my magazine and ensure all of my bullets were rightfully there and sighed in relief when I saw each brass hole perfectly aligned.
Aside from a few car accidents, none of which resulted in major injuries, shockingly, all in all it wasn’t a horrific scene. Each year from then on though, there’s been a new crime. Sometimes I remember the first few seconds of the night, other times I only see the lingering evidence upon the break of dawn. Since then, the list of crimes has included: Drugs, graffiti, public drunkenness, motor vehicle theft, destruction of property, bombs (thankfully only small ones that resulted in no deaths), kidnapping, and most recently, arson. Now, thankfully the bombs were all small ones with no injuries, just some destroyed properties and the kidnapping had no children injured, everyone just woke up confused why they had someone else’s kids in their house. However, arson is probably the worst one yet. There was even one home that was destroyed and it led to a small wild fire that outside fire departments rushed in by morning. Most of the arson was certainly smaller, such as burning someone’s chair in their front lawn or whatever, but for some reason one of them actually set a house on fire. I have no idea how Sheriff talked our town out of a more thorough investigation, but they chalked it up to the town having a night of bonfires that accidentally spread.
Now here we are, nearing 2024. I went in to work yesterday and Sheriff said what was on my mind. “It’s escalating.”
“I know,” I agreed. “But there isn’t a pattern to it, right? You said that burglary was the crime back when you started and somehow it went down to speeding when I started. So why would it escalate?”
“I can’t answer that. I don’t think anyone can.”
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”
He smirked. “Jake, you don’t think I’ve tried that? There is no stopping it.”
I left his office and heard his words, but I disagreed. I’m going to stop it.
I was grabbing dinner with George, the second oldest cop in the department next to Sheriff, and asked him, “You know anything about when this New Years thing started?”
He fearfully looked around us, as if it was confidential information from anyone to hear our conversation.
Despite the entire town having awareness of what occurs, it’s taboo to ever speak about it.
George shook his head.
I pried, “You never even hear so much as a rumor or speculation as to what’s going on here?”
George’s nostrils flared ever so slightly as he raised his eyebrows. “Can’t say that I have.”
He was lying.
“Well if-“ before I could finish, he cut me off.
“Let’s just drop it, alright? Nothing we can do about it and that’s that.” He took another bite of his food. After a few chews he added, “Kay?”
I nodded, knowing he wasn’t going to let me push this issue further. Nobody was going to talk. By the time we finished our food it was nearing 11:00 pm.
“Hey Tilly,” I said. “You ready to close?”
“Right on the dot!” She answered.
Every night we make sure to swing by at 11:00 pm to help her lockup and in return, she pays us in caffeine. Apparently nearly 15 years ago she slipped on some ice walking out to her car and her husband has requested she never lock up alone again. Once she was in her car and George and I had our coffees, I headed down the street toward my cruiser.
As I walked down Main Street (which was more of a main sidewalk than really street) I caught a glimpse at the sign swaying in the wind: Palm Reading $10.
I’ve visited Madam Burrow a few times on my business checks, but I never visited her as a client. I don’t believe in that mumbo jumbo, despite witnessing a cursed town. Something about predicting the future based on the lines in your hand just still doesn’t sit right with me. I certainly didn’t think she could help stop this… curse, or whatever you want to call it, but I knew she wasn’t afraid to talk about taboo topics. She didn’t exactly have much of a social circle in this town so I really didn’t know how she even stayed in business. To my surprise, she was still inside and the signage on her door read Open.
The small bell atop the door dinged as I stepped inside. “Ah, Officer Adams, nice to see you,” Madam Burrow greeted me.
“Hey there, how have you been?” I asked, making small talk.
“Oh you know, keeping busy.”
I glanced around the empty store. Busy, right. Before my next thought, I saw her little poodle stumble into the room. Her eyes were much cloudier than I remembered. “Hey there girl.” I bent down to pet the dog. “Bella’s eyes are looking much cloudier. Does she have cataracts now?” I asked.
Madam Burrow nodded her head. “She’s nearly completely blind, all in the matter of a month. She was diagnosed with diabetes and it’s just been a sudden downhill since then.”
“Awe man, I’m sorry to hear that. My boy had diabetes and I remember having to give him insulin twice a day and trying to work that around my schedule here none the less, it was a lot.”
She seemed surprised that I knew of the struggles.
I added, “You know, I have some of his old stuff like his glucose meter, some unused syringes, stuff like that. I don’t know why I’ve held on to it for the past few years, but if you’d be able to use them, I’m happy to swing by tomorrow.”
She lit up. “Oh, that would be wonderful! You know I’d do anything for Bella, but the financial hit of this diagnosis was more than I anticipated.”
Sadly, I knew all too well what she was saying. It’s tough having an animal with demanding medical needs. I could see how much it hurt her, too. “You know what,” I added. “If you ever need someone to watch her or stop by to give her food and insulin because you get tied up, don’t hesitate to reach out. Especially if I’m already on shift and in the area, I’d be happy to be a resource for you.”
Madam Burrow looked at me and smiled. “You are truly one of the good ones,” she said and she patted the top of my hand. She cleared her throat and added, “Now, is there something that I can help you with today that brings you here?”
“Actually, I had some questions about New Years.”
She froze in her tracks and looked almost, remorseful. Her eyes wandered across the room and she hesitated before answering, “Alright… What did you want to know?”
“I’m trying to learn more about this and hope that I can help maybe stop it or at least get to the root of it and we can work on reducing the population it impacts.”
She nodded as she listened. “Right, I know it’s unsettling and scary losing part of your memory and unsure what’s going to happen next. I’m sure you’re not looking forward to having it happen to you again.” She commented.
“Yes, of course. But even more so, I’m worried for everyone in this town that goes through this. I don’t care what happens to me, but I want to help everyone else feel safe and I feel so helpless.” My honesty surprised even myself. By the look on Madam Burrows’ face, it surprised her too.
“You really are one of the good ones,” she said for the second time. Then, she had that look again. She knows something. She added, “I’m sorry I really can’t help you any further. I have no idea how to stop this or why it’s happening.
I was disappointed in my lack of results. As I headed toward the door I stopped to give Bella a few good scratches and reminded Madam Burrows, “I’ll be by tomorrow with those items. Don’t hesitate to reach out.”
She smiled, and it quickly faded. She then said something that didn’t quite make sense. “Officer Adams.”
I held my hand on the door, pausing mid pull.
She added, “You seem a bit on edge. Maybe stick to Decaf tomorrow night. No need to keep your energy for New Years Eve, right?”
It was an odd suggestion, but I said alright and headed on my way.
Now here we are, back to New Years Eve. I’m about to head to Tilly’s for our nightly assist. But I will promise you this- this year is going to be different.