September 29 - One Week Until Retirement (Cliche Busters Volume 2)

After serving on the Los Angeles Police Department for more than 40 years, Detective John Sanford was one week away from retirement.
And he was ready.
Earlier in the week, the boys from the precinct had chipped in and gotten him a top of the line rod and reel, which he planned to put to very good use on the fishing boat he'd been neglecting for the past several years, caught up as he was chasing down dead end leads on the Speros case, the one unsolved case left on his docket--a case he planned to keep working on up until the very moment he handed in his badge and gun.
But once that day came--in just one more week--he planned to spend every moment he could on that boat, teaching his grandchildren how to fish. It was going to be glorious.
His phone rang.
"Sanford."
"Hey, old man! They still letting you answer phones around there? Ha ha!"
It was Detective Jack Maddox, his more fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants partner. Whereas Sanford was more cautious and deliberate, Maddox played by his own rules and delivered his own brand of justice to the streets of Los Angeles. Sanford was a down to earth family man. Maddox was reckless and impulsive. They were the original odd couple!
And yet over the years, their fire and ice approaches to police work had gelled, and the two had found a way to work--and thrive--together as a team. Now they were best friends in the world.
"Ha ha," Sanford laughed. "No, they haven't wheeled my old bones out of here just yet. Well, what the hell you want? I ain't got all day. You know I'm retiring at the end of the week."
It was the Speros case.
There was the possibility of a new lead. Maddox wanted to know if Sanford could check out an abandoned warehouse out by the old municipal airport. Maddox would go with him, but he was on the other side of the town, so he couldn't. Besides, it was probably nothing anyway.
Sanford checked the time. He was supposed to meet his wife for lunch, but he could squeeze a visit to the warehouse in before that.
He got up to leave, but his eye caught the pension forms on his desk--the forms that would authorize the payment of his pension and other retirement benefits to his wife in the event of his untimely death.
Wow, I really need to sign those, he thought, grabbing his pen. Otherwise, if something were to happen to me, Madge would get nothing!
Just as he was about to sign them, his phone rang.
It was Madge, and she had exciting news: Their daughter Audrey and her husband Robert were pregnant--with twins!
This is the happiest day of my life!, thought Sanford as he practically floated out the door of the precinct, leaving the unsigned pension forms on his desk.
He drove out to the old municipal airport and spied the warehouse from atop a ridge that overlooked it.
The place was dead.
There were weeds growing between cracks in the pavement. No cars. No activity of any kind. The place probably hadn't seen business in years.
Sanford decided against calling for back-up.
He drove his squad car down onto the property, got out, and walked slowly up to the metallic door. Rapped on it.
No answer.
He pulled on it, but it was locked.
"Hello?"
No answer.
He walked around to the back side of the warehouse, slowly, carefully. The midday sun left no shadows. He looked out in the distance. Power lines. Desert scrub. Emptiness.
Sanford pulled on the back door. It was locked, too.
"Hello!" he yelled again.
Still no answer.
He walked back to his car, turned his back to the warehouse, and got Maddox on the CB.
"Maddox. Sanford here. I'm out at the warehouse, but there doesn't seem to be anything going on. All the doors are locked and nobody's around."
Maddox thanked him for checking it out and apologized for having him go all the way out there on a wild goose chase.
Then Sanford told him it was all right, left the warehouse and met his wife for lunch. After lunch he went straight back to the precinct and signed his pension forms, and then retired uneventfully at the end of the week. Even though he'd never solved the Speros case, he was able to let it go. He was able to let all his police work go because retirement was so relaxing and enjoyable.