W. Franklin Sanders
Whip Hand1962
Complete & Unabridged
1Bill BrownMY reinitiation was off to a thundering start. It was my
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rst day back in Traf
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c after three good years in the AutoTheft Bureau, and the day was not a pleasant one for me. Notpleasant in the smallest detail. My determination to make thebest of my comedown and see it through was already runninginto serious trouble. Shame and disgust were banging brutal,body blows against my determination, and my hot temper wasa rotten referee in the clinches.I told myself I wasn’t the
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rst man on the force to beknocked down as an example. I had seen it happen before. Itwasn’t entirely a new idea. But this time it had happened to BillBrown, and that made it seem all too new and personal. With abit of 20-20 hindsight, the events leading up to my humiliationwere not too hard to trace. In fact, the trail was quite clear.The Auto Theft Bureau snarls the lines on a pair of raidswhich
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lls our nets, and the big ones get away. Then weoverlook another lead passed to us from Homicide in routinepaper work and it turns out that a prompt follow-up would havepaid off big for us. A big stink is raised. A bigger investigationis ordered, and stuff bounces off the fan in every direction. Ashake-up rattles through the Bureau and the whole Los AngelesPolice Department.When the charges and counter-accusations start
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ying back and forth it isn’t amusing. Every instance of lax ef
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ciency,questionable conduct, or carelessness is apt to be spread outand raked over, and usually is. It boils down to every man forhimself—and anybody he thinks he can depend on to helpwhitewash him. My short seniority in the Bureau didn’t rate memuch help or sympathy.Before one of these investigations is over,
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ngers getpointed at some vulnerable miscreants found in any largeorganization. Also at a few unlucky individuals trapped bycircumstances and appearances. This time those
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ngers werepointed at me, among others. And they had pushed me rightdown to where I stand now. Demoted. Back in uniform.Turning with the signals at Eighth and Broadway, downtownL. A.
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Whip Hand - W Franklin Sanders
Whip Hand was ghostwritten by Charles Willeford for his friend Frank Sanders. Hardboiled crime fiction at its best. Like a lot of great PBOs from this era, this one is in the public domain.
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