Chapter Eleven

As soon as the Police arrived at the gym, they took both Ben and Mike into custody. Ben was handcuffed and taken out to a patrol car once his ID was confirmed, while Mike was taken into an office and spoken to by a constable.

He explained the reason for his being there, and the fact that Ben had assaulted him when he tried to apprehend him, and the cop made notes in his notebook.

‘You tried to apprehend him?’ the cop asked, ‘for what?’

‘Assault, like I said before. He’s wanted for assaulting my partner.’

‘I know that, but why are you trying to apprehend him? I mean, why you specifically?’

‘Why me?’ Mike looked confused. ‘Why not me?’

‘You have no power of arrest, you’re just a civilian like everyone else. You should have called the Police.’

‘Yeah, well, the Police weren’t looking for him.’

‘How do you know we weren’t looking for him?’

‘Well, you were, but not very hard. I found him in no time, and I’m just one guy.’

The cop stared at him and Mike stared back, then figured he better not antagonise the cop any further and looked away. The cop made some more notes in his notebook.

‘And when he ahh...assaulted you...what did you do, Mr Manning?’

Mike didn’t like the way this was going now.

‘I defended myself. He’s some kind of a kung fu dude and he attacked me. I had to defend myself, and I did.’

‘So you’re responsible for his injuries then? The broken nose etc?’

Mike sat back and contemplated that one for a minute.

‘Am I under arrest?’ he asked, and the cop shook his head. ‘So I’m free to go?’

The cop shook his head again, with a slight smile this time.

‘Not really, no.’

‘What d’you mean, not really? Either I am or I’m not.’

The cop said nothing.

‘Then I’m going,’ Mike declared, standing up.

The cop also stood up, and put his notebook and pen away.

‘Just stay here,’ he said calmly, and Mike shook his head.

‘No. I’m going. Give me a business card and I’ll email you a statement.’

He headed towards the door and the cop took hold of his arm.

‘Look fella-’

The office door opened and Buck appeared. He looked at both of them, looked at the cop’s hand on Mike’s arm.

‘Tony, got a minute?’ he said to the cop.

They stepped outside the office and Mike could hear hushed voices for a minute. The door opened again and Buck gestured at him to follow. Mike ignored Tony and followed Buck out to the car park. They stopped near Mike’s WRX.

‘Are you an idiot?’ Buck asked, and Mike felt his cheeks flush. ‘Were you trying to get arrested in there?’

‘No...’

‘You need to learn that we’re on the same side,’ Buck told him firmly, ‘when the boys turn up to a job you’re at, you’ve gotta pull your head in and tow the line, understand? As far as they could see, you beat that joker to a pulp and broke his nose, so they could arrest you for assault.’

‘It was self defence, Bucko.’

‘Yeah, I know, all you need to do is explain it to them. As soon as you start not co-operating, it looks like you’ve got something to hide. That’s when you end up in the slammer and lose your license. Get it?’

Mike’s cheeks still burned, but he nodded anyway.

‘Yep, got it. I did tell him though, I could email him a statement.’

Buck made an exasperated sound.

‘Don’t be an idiot. Just go home, or back to work or whatever, and I’ll catch up with you later for your statement.’ He shook his head with frustration. ‘As if I haven’t got anything else to do.’

Mike nodded and got into his car. He watched the patrol car carrying Ben leave the car park, and fired up the engine. He thought about what Ben had said to him at the end there.

You have no idea what you’re dealing with, do you?

Was it just the guy talking himself up? he wondered. Or did it mean something else?

Mike pushed the thought aside and dropped the hand brake. The guy was a jerk, of course he was talking about himself.