Police Month Week Two- Police Officers Susan Daniels and Anna Decarlo

Police month continues, this time with two officers, Officer Susan Daniels and Officer Anna Decarlo...

... Officers Decarlo and Daniels stood on the cordon at the entrance to the alleyway. It was late at night, the alley was barely lit by the streetlights. Crappy neighborhood, meant that as soon as the cops turned up in force, there was no one on the street. Hookers and pimps had cleared out as soon as the sirens came, the drunks had long since shuffled off to their beds.

While Decarlo looked at the street, Officer Daniels was looked at the crime scene, she saw another officer giving DCI Calvin a folder. There was a discussion as Calvin opened it, the old man had looked shaken. Hands ever in his pockets, he stood staring at the body in the alley. Calvin started talking to the boss, and the boss looked worse than Calvin did.

After a minute or two, Calvin strode off, leaving the boss in his wake.

Calvin shuffled past the two officers in his usual brusk manner, "Probably got a lead" Decarlo said.

An hour later, the two officers were relieved and headed back to the station. On the way there, the radio crackled into life, the monotonous female voice of the dispatcher came across "..Officer in need of assistance, north corner of 14th and Green...". Another voice responded, the SWAT unit was on the way to the scene. Decarlo responded "Officers Decalo and Daniels responding, 5 minutes out".

"Really Anna? Was standing in that alley not enough fun for you?" Officer Daniels said, a comment which was met by a withering look from Decarlo.

"I was joking Anna, sheesh, lighten up. SWAT are on their way, we are going to be pulling cordon for another four hours. It's going to rain, I'm going to be cold and the fricking uniform officer at the station make us wear these skirts. God damn pig. So excuse me for not wanting to be standing on a rope getting my ass stared at by that creep Frost. Is it so wrong to want to have a little time not freezing my ass off?"

Decarlo didn't respond. This wasn't the first time Daniels had made the point, and she wasn't exactly wrong.

The police car rolled up to the corner of 14th and Green after a few minutes of awkward silence. The two officers sat in their car, and waited. The street was clear, DCI Calvin's beat up old car was out the front of the starbucks on the north corner. The lights were off inside, it was well before opening hours, before the caffeine starved masses needed their fix.

A flash of light upstairs- Daniels caught a brief glimpse of a man in a coat- DCI Calvin.

"At least we are in the right place- let's go" Decarlo said, exiting the vehicle. She held her truncheon in her hand, feeling the weight as she moved up the stairs. She arrived at the front door, noticing that it was unlocked, she paused at the top step.

A flash and a loud bang came from upstairs- a gunshot. Daniels caught another glimpse of Calvin upstairs, this time he has his pistol raised. Calvin hated guns, she had never seen him carry one. For him to be carrying his gun, let along be using it, things must be bad.

Decarlo burst through the front door, truncheon raised.

Daniels wasn't messing about, she went to the weapons locker at the back of the vehicle, grabbed the shotgun with some ammunition and followed Decarlo in....

The whole reason I did an order with Crooked Dice was to get the figure I used for Decarlo. It is such a good, dynamic pose, lovely facial expression and great detail. And when it arrived, I was not at all disappointed. Crooked Dice mush have known that I loved the figure, so they sent me two of them!

Not one to have two of exactly the same figure lying around, I decided to do a brief bit of surgery:

Just a minor procedure...

I married the metal body up with some of the Wargames Factory plastic survivor parts, plus a bit of Greenstuff..

Such as giving her hair extensions

And I was left with Officer Daniels!

I am pretty happy with how she turned out, although to me it is really clear the difference in detail which the lead miniatures provide- the original is so dynamic and characterful, whereas Daniels is just a little more... subdued. It's not a bad thing, I just think that the original is just a bit better. Overall I am happy with these two, they definitely make fine additions to my police force, although I do need to do photography some other time than before work- not enough natural light!

So big question, how do Decarlo and Daniels fare? Is DCI Calvin still alive? And who will be next week's Police Officers?

Chris

Police Month Week One: Tenth Survivor- Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Calvin

The Tenth Survivor heralds the start of my first theme month, February is going to be all police, all the time!

Number 10 is Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Daniel Calvin....

"...another body.

This is his fifth homicide in two days.

She is young, maybe 16? Blonde hair. Pretty dress. Probably on her way home from a party. Took a shortcut to get a taxi home.

Now she is dead in a dark alley way. No sign of sexual assault.

DCI Calvin moves closer. His hands are in his pockets, reduces the temptation to touch things he always says.

The girl's torso is split open, blood and viscera have oozed out onto the dark concrete. Her face is unrecognizable, shattered, crushed. What was once her image had been destroyed.

Calvin looks away, and his mind spins back the past 48 hours, a film reel of horror and violence. Such are the idle moments of a homicide detective. The fifth victim in the last two days.

The first victim was a tweaker, a druggie. Stabbed in the head by his once friend. Apparently he had gone crazy, thrashing, attacking, so his mate stabbed a steel pipe through his eye socket and into his brain. Then the other junkie continued his drug trip, and is now in a coma in hospital. Calvin had seen him, his body was covered in wounds, needle marks, infections, scratches and bites. Life on the streets had not been kind to him, the nurses must have struggled to find a vein to put the IV into.

Victim two was Paul Hastings. Shot at close range by his wife, Susan Hastings. Shot dead in his kitchen, blood on his arm, and a single round through the forehead.

Victim three was Shaun Hastings. Shot at close range, by his mother, Susan Hastings. Same MO as Paul. Both were found in the kitchen, wounds on his skin. Coroner's report yet to come.

Victim four was Susan Hastings. Self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Wound on arm, suggests a struggle with Dan. Perhaps Shaun caught in the crossfire? Must remember to check for a history of abuse Calvin reminded himself.

And now victim number five.

Calvin rubbed his eyes to refocus himself. He hadn't slept. Too many questions, too many anomalies. He wanted nothing more than to go back to bed, to curl up and never be seen again.

"This stinks" Calvin said aloud to no one in particular.

"What does?" the coroner replied, as he spoke he went about his work examining and photographing the body.

"This whole thing. Why here? Why smash her head in? Why do so much damage?" Calvin responded. He was staring now at the girl. Willing himself to make sense of it.

"You aren't going to like this Guv" a police officer had arrived at his side, holding a document tightly in her hands. "All of them have been bitten."

"Bitten? As in by a human?" The officer nodded. "A cannibal? Christ...." Calvin replied. He stared into the distance.

His sleep would have to wait....

DCI Calvin comes from Crooked Dice, and is an absolute cracking miniature! He may actually be my favourite so far, which is a pretty big call, but I think he might just be. The story is very heavily influenced by the Luther TV series (hence Calvin as his name too), so apologies to Neil Cross (the creator of Luther) for shamelessly ripping your material off! I do really like the figure, and the colour scheme for the suit is directly from Luther's wardrobe.

Now, as I said. February is going to be all police, all the time. It has begun with DCI Calvin, and will continue for the next 3 weeks with yet more police officers!

As ever, I would love to hear from you, what do you think? Like the figure? Like the story? Let me know!

Chris

Survivor Week 9- Bridget!

An update today chaps- this weeks survivor is Bridget!

I haven't had enough time to get a story written for her, but it is safe to say that Bridget likes her teddy bear, playing field hockey and punk music. If she could update her Facebook status with her zombie kills, she would. Pity that the Internet went down, and her phone ran out of batteries to take selfies with. However, with her no nonsense boots, and with her typical rebellious take on her school uniform, she is taking the fight back to them living dead.

Smacking Zeds has been great therapy to get out her anger issues tho....

Bridget comes from Crooked Dice miniatures, and is an absolutely lovely figure. I have tried to get a good mix between the more formal colours of the uniform, with the more out there colours of her hair, her bracelets and her hockey stick. I hope to do her justice with a good story, but I just haven't had the time this week to get it done. To maintain my schedule I had to get the pictures of her up on the blog (which I have now done), so hopefully over the weekend, I will be able to share her story with you, along with some better pictures I think!

Chris