Chief Williams hated this time of year.  He knew when he was sworn into office six and half years ago that this time of year would come around all to soon.  Steve had warned him about it, and he now knew the problem Steve had faced once a year.  “Danno,” Steve told him, “when you are Chief, you will have to evaluate your friends and colleagues on their performance.  It’s easy to tell a friend they are screwing up, but it’s not so easy when you have to sit on this side of desk and tell them the same thing.”

Now it was Williams’ turn to take a hard look at each member of his team and evaluate their performances once again.  He got up to stretch from his sitting position for the past two hours of hand writing the various evaluations.  “At last, I’m almost done.  I got the three administrative assistance’s done, my personnel secretary,” he reads off what he had done by going through the pile of files in his top drawer, “the five junior detectives, the three senior detectives, the rookie on the team, and now for the last three, which are the hardest.”  In front of him, he laid three personnel folders: Assistance Deputy Chief Carl Wise, Deputy Chief of Detectives Paul Murphy and Deputy Chief of the Academy Commandant Caterina M. Williams.  In the back of his mind, he wanted to find an escape from these three reviews.  He got a short break when the phone began to ring, “Williams,” it was his private line.

“Hello Dannya,”

A little surprised that Caterina was calling him on his private line, usually during the day she would call him on the private line to discuss business and would address him as Chief, “Hello sweetheart.  Where are you?”  Dan didn’t get a call from his wife Caterina unless she was out of the office on family business.

“Didn’t you get the message I left you on your computer screen?”  Catie knew she put the note of where she was heading on the computer screen in his office before leaving.

Dan turned to towards his computer, and there it was. 

Dannya,

The high school called, DJ had an accident and I’m heading over there to take care of him.

Love Mrs. W.

Dannya smiled at the Mrs. W because he knew how she loved to sign her notes to him that way.  “Sorry Catie, when I came back to the office I had something else on my mind and didn’t look at the computer.  So how is DJ?”

Catie knew her husband had missed the note because she had not heard from him on her cel phone.  “We’re at Queens and DJ is finally getting a cast on his right ankle.  To say the least he is mad, oh boy, he is mad.”

Dan didn’t understand why, “What is upsetting DJ so much?”

“I should’ve known you have been buried on those annual performance reviews again.  When you start those reviews, you tend to miss or forget about our family events going on around you.  Bad Daddy Williams.”  Catie loved to tease her husband when he missed the little details of their children’s lives.  “In case you have truly forgotten, tomorrow you are supposed to be taking Guinevere and DJ for their drivers licenses road test.”

“Oh boy, I had forgotten, but I’m sure somebody would have reminded me before tomorrow.”  Daddy Williams laughed, “In fact, two somebody’s would’ve reminded me.”

“You should make that four somebody’s to remind you.”  Catie was laughing with her husband.  “Anyway, DJ will get over his sister getting her license first, of course we will have to live with that for awhile.  The blessing of parenthood, I guess.”

“Sweetheart, do you need me to come over to Queens?”  Dan asked still hoping to delay these reviews just a little longer.

“I don’t think so, we should be done here soon, since they are in the process of putting the cast on his foot now.  Then we’ll be heading back to the office, I know you would prefer the family to stay away from the office but I don’t want DJ home alone this afternoon, so he will be hanging out at mommy’s office.”

Dan wasn’t too thrilled with DJ hanging around the office but his wife was right about not leaving DJ home and knew that neither of them in the next couple of days could afford to stay home either.  “Then I’ll see you both in a little while.  Bye Sweetheart.”

“Talk to you later, Dannya.  Now I suggest you get back to those reviews so your mind can get back to family business as well.”  Catie was about to hang up when she remembered something.  “Hey Dannya.”

After a few seconds, Dan replied with a caring tone of a loving husband, “Yes Catie.”

“If by chance you see that boss of mine, tell him I left my preliminary reviews of Wise and Murphy on his computer.”

Chief (Dannya) Williams smiled, I knew she would help me get started on those two, “When I see your boss Catie I’ll tell him.  Bye Sweetheart.”

“Bye,” Catie hung up the phone.

Chief Williams hung the phone up while turning on the computer and going to the personnel review section that Catie had set up for him over a month ago to do this year’s reviews with.  It was the same system she had been using for years on the Academy personnel.  There was the entire departments review files, then he saw the last three review files for him to fill in.  Murphy, Williams and Wise.  He opened Williams’ first and looked it over.

The rest of the form was questions that the answers where left blank.

Chief Williams laughed, “That figures she put her form together then left it blank for me to fill out.”  He sent it to print and started the review of his wife by picking up her personnel file and seeing that the year was good to her.  It was not to heavy and not to light.  He paged through the little notes he had left himself over the year.  There were memos and reviews from other senior ranking officers from all over Hawaii that dealt with Catie on a regular basis.  This year the notes were more on the positive side then the negative as they have been in the past.  There were eight accommodations from various functions that she performed in their district when she was there visiting and copies of the rewards from various organizations around the Honolulu area thanking her for her time and help in teaching their children about the Police Department and other things that she aided with.

Chief Williams leaned back in his big chair, this last year had been good in the office and at home.  Things had gone reasonably well all around for the Dan Williams Family.  The casework in the office was the lightest it has ever been in his recent memory.  Both he and Catie had no injuries to speak of for a change.  The kids were the one’s getting hurt from various sporting activities and event, and now DJ has a cast on his foot.

Dan was brought out of his pleasant memories of his family when the door opened from the other side of his office, it was Deputy Chief Murphy, the sore point of the office and source of his biggest problem and headache.

“Chief, I need to talk to you,” Murphy demand in his usual nasty manner.

Chief Williams pleasant manner turned sour once again, “Yes Murphy.”

Murphy was a six-foot, American-Italian mix, greasy black hair and black eyes.  “I would like to inform you that I’m leaving this lovely little garbage dump of yours,” as he dropped down hard into the plush chair in front of Chief Williams’ desk.

Williams was ready to throw this guy into the garbage, but he was the Chief and would not let this jerk know how much he disliked working with him, since he had been saddled with him three years ago by the Governor’s order.  “Leaving?”  His tone was absent of any emotion, something he became very skilled at, somewhere in his career as a Five-O officer.

“Yes, I’m taking a promotion to Chief on the mainland.”  Murphy got up long enough to throw the letter of resignation on Chief Williams’ desk.

“When will be your last day?”  Dan was leaning back in his chair, would not even react to Murphy’s poor behavior, and did not attempt to pick up the resignation since he had known of the offer for the past three months or so, and the acceptance for the past three days.

“I’m due on my NEW position within the month.”  There was a smile on his face that would make most people ill.

Chief Williams ignored it as usual because Murphy reminded him of a typical movie/television hit man.  That should have been his calling not an officer of the law.  Murphy is a good officer when he wants to be or his curiosity is peeked on a case.  Murphy’s biggest failing is he was not a people person unless you kissed up to him and the powers that backed him.  But Williams was not one of those powers, never was and never would have been because that as the way Murphy wanted.  One of Murphy’s big mistakes in his life was backing Chief and Deputy Chief Williams.

Williams had his little speech prepared in his head since he learned of the accepted offer by Murphy. “In the next two weeks, I want a full accounting of the cases you have been working on and any depositions that the DA may need made on any of the case that you are to be testifying on in the next few months.  In addition, it is expected of you to be here to testify as required on every case.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that.”  Murphy said with his usual lack of caring that he shows from time to time.

Chief Williams got up from his chair in his full Chief’s authority.  “In the next two days, I will have a primary report to review on every case you are currently working on in my IN basket.  In three days, you, Wise, Caterina and I will sit down and discuss the work you have been involved in that needs to be turned over to Wise.  Plus, you are not allowed to remove anything in our office or the any other part of the Five-O suite of offices that has been issued by Five-O.  Your case files will remain here and Caterina will see to it that they are properly categorized and stored for future use if necessary.  An accounting of these files will be sent you in your new position on the mainland.  Plus a list of possible court dates will be composed and sent your new boss making him aware of when you will be returning to Hawaii to testify.  As result of your resignation you are not to start working on anything, I mean ANYTHING new.”  Is this all clear?

“Yeah, it’s clear.”  Murphy reaction was of not caring but he noticed that look of unquestioning authority come over his boss.  A look you just didn’t ignore, even if you are leaving for good.

Williams went over to the door leading to Murphy’s office to show him the way out and stated, “Now that I have your resignation, I will take it that you will be out of MY Department at the end of two weeks.  I wish you luck in your new position on the mainland but you will have to fulfill your obligations to My Department first.  I have known of your job offer for sometime and gave a good review of you to your new boss, now I expect you to fulfill your job obligations to Hawaii Five-O without question or hesitation.  I happened to know that your new position would allow you to conclude the cases you are presently involved in.  After talking with the Chief Junept, I know that if need be I can request an extension of your time, if necessary, since Junept is retiring, he is willing to stay on the job a couple extra days until you arrive.  But you should consider that the longer you take to clean up matters here the worse it will be for you when you go over there.”

Murphy looked at his boss and knew that he was not kidding.  He has seen this attitude before and knew there was no way around it.  Murphy also knew that Williams never made a statement that was not followed through on.  If not by Chief Williams himself, then by that bitch of Deputy Chief ‘Wife’ Caterina.  He stood up and went to the door, then turned and saluted Chief Williams, “Yes Sir.”  Murphy suddenly realized as he walked into his office that they would be on equal levels and it has been known when one Chief didn’t get along with another, it could cause problems for the less experienced Chief.

Dan slammed the door closed smiling.  Wonderful, happy days are here again.  His biggest headache just walked out of his life and into someone else’s life.  He returned to his desk on a happier note.  There it was the key to his happiness, Chief Williams opened the resignation to verify that is what was in the envelope.

To:         Chief Williams

From:     Deputy Chief Murphy

Re:         Resignation

Please be advised that I resign my position in Hawaii Five-O effective June 15, 20??.

My time here in Five-O has been a good learning experience and now I’m moving on to new position on the mainland.

Yes it was the resignation that he had looked forward to during the last three months of waiting for a decision to be made on the mainland.  “It took them long enough to make up their minds.”  He made a note on the resignation that is was accepted on June 1 and attached a piece of note paper on the memo to have it copied and sent to the State Personnel Office and have it placed into Murphy personnel file and proper internal copies.  Then he marked Murphy personnel file closed with a note to Caterina to have it sealed once a copy of the resignation was placed it and put it into the Five-O vault for safe keeping.

Now that Murphy was leaving Chief Williams had a couple of new headaches including the search for his replacement.  Later, I’ll deal with it later when Catie gets back.  This time I pick my Deputy Chief of Detectives and somehow I think Caterina has already picked out my new Deputy Chief.  It will most likely be Carl Wise and the hunt is for a new Assistant Deputy Chief, but I’ll have a little fun about the hunt with Caterina.  Dan laughed at the thought of some of the fun and watching Caterina protesting the decision to not promote Wise.

Then he looked at that folder again, there it was waiting for him still.  He turned his mind back to review of his Deputy Chief Caterina’s performance for the past year.  He was ready to review her now that his headache was almost totally gone.

Skills, Commandant Caterina’s skills have improved over the past year.  Please rank from one to five.  “She is a ……..”

Pau, I bet you thought you would get to see what the Chief Williams though about her.  You will have to read the big story to found that out.  {hahahahaha}

Original content © 2000-2001
Betty's Book Me Danno
Original Posted June/July 2000