Matthew Nath – Author

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Chapter 2

“Alright, ya’ ready?” Jim asked

“Oh my gosh, yes. Please release me from this torture. I swear if I have to comb through one more government document, trying to find where I missed a single, tiny, box about something completely irrelevant, I will throw this laptop into the wall and let the captain take the cost out of my next check. Was it inside city limits? DUH! Of course it was! Every single other piece of information in this case was inside city limits, why wouldn’t that one be too?! Ugh, it’s like they design these machines specifically to be inefficient just to torture us.” Nathan sat in his chair almost panting while Jim looked on from the doorway, waiting for the tirade to end.

Silence hung for a moment. “Ya done? Well, then,” Jim said, “tell me how you really feel. My rate is $200 per hour and I require you bring one plain, glazed twist donut to each session.” Nathan laughed and settled into his desk chair as Jim closed the door to the room and took a seat. “They don’t want to press charges!”

“What?!” Nathan almost yelled out. He put his hand over his mouth and then continued in a quieter voice, “What?!”

Jim had a small smile as he opened the file. “Just listen to Vicki’s account. I’m gonna just quote her directly. You ready?” Jim cleared his throat dramatically before saying, “Vicki’s quote, ‘He was just so nice. He seemed genuinely surprised and like he really didn’t want us there. He didn’t tie us up, he had us tie each other. He said he had a gun, but idk, maybe not. I never saw one. And once we were secured he offered us each a drink of water. Then he apologized as he put duct tape on our mouths. He said it wouldn’t be long, and then he’d let us go. He really, really didn’t seem like he wanted to hurt us. And he didn’t take anything, at least not that we could find. He did something on my computer, but I have no idea what. We usually have it off and it was on when we went through the house, so he did something but I couldn’t tell you what. But no, we do not want to press charges at this time. I pray that him being here will be punishment enough. He seems young and confused and I don’t want to make this into anything bigger than it is. A desperate kid looking for some money, maybe and that’s it.’”

Jim looked up at Nathan, who stared back in shock. “Bu-whe-bu-who-“ Nathan stammered. He took a breath and then said firmly, “he had them tied up. Pastor Mike was bleeding.”

“Yeah,” Jim replied, “apparently Pastor Mike accidentally fell as they were moving into the kitchen and glanced his forehead on the counter. The kid jumped to help, got a towel and covered the wound and then found the first aid kit to wrap gauze over the wound. Vicki was very impressed. Pastor Mike was a little groggy still and said he had a headache so I didn’t get much out of him, but he agrees with everything Vicki’s said.”

“What about the kid? What does he say happened?” Nathan asked.

“He hasn’t said much but I guess he works with Mrs. Dreyfus at some insurance place. She recognized him from there as one of the janitors maybe. Anwyays, it’s a little convoluted. He was trying to get even with Pastor Mike for getting his friends in trouble just for a little spray painting. He talked about that news report we saw and that he knew one of the other kids. The news must not have noticed but I guess his house address was visible on one of the clips, so Calvin knew where they lived. And when he found out they’d be gone tonight he wanted to do something to get even. He went to spray paint on their house but couldn’t resist looking for some expensive jewelry to steal. But then Vicki and Pastor Mike came home early.”

“Oh yeah,” Nathan replied, “what’s with that?”

“Probably the strangest part of the entire night, actually,” Jim replied. “Mrs. Dreyfus insisted they come back home because she forgot her wallet. They even stopped at an Arby’s parking lot to get out and look for it and were not able to find it. So they came back to grab it and found Calvin in their house.”

“Hahaha,” Nathan laughed. “Really? Well isn’t that interesting?”

“Yeah, pretty crazy! What a coincidence!” Jim replied.

“Nah, there is no coincidence,” Nathan replied. “Where some see coincidence, others recognize as God giving them a sign. So, Pastor Mike and Vicki don’t want to press charges?”

“Nope,” Jim replied simply.

“So what do we do with him?” Nathan nodded at a camera pointing to a single, small cell. Calvin sat on a cement bench in the cell. The only other furniture piece was a toilet/sink combination. Nathan was fairly proud of his precinct for getting them installed. They were cheaper with less maintenance, used far less water, and recycled the water that you used to wash your hands to fill the top of the toilet bucket. Smart. Economical. Nathan thought everyone would like it.

Unfortunately there was a news story posted about how the city was making their prisoners wash their hands in the toilet. His old boss, Sheriff Verbrugge, was blamed for the issue and, in the next election, a new, younger deputy ran against him. And won. Nathan was very disappointed in his community, but went along with it.

It had only been about six months since the transition and Nathan already noticed things starting to slip. Co-workers came in late or their uniforms were visibly dirty. Nathan heard more swearing around the office. The tone on the phones was less respectful. All very minor things, but nothing he could really complain about. He even kept his mouth shut when the new sheriff hung a pride flag in his office, but asked Nathan to take down the cross in his office because it might make some people uncomfortable. And the one change the new sheriff promised to make was never done. Nathan shook his head seeing that stupid toilet.

“You still with me?” Jim asked. Nathan shook his head, coming back to himself. He always got a little distracted thinking about those toilets.

“Sorry, yeah,” Nathan said. “What can we do with him? We gotta keep him overnight and let him talk to the judge in the morning.”

“What?” Jim asked. “Can’t we just let him go?”

“Why would we do that?”

“Well,” Jim replied, a little chagrined. He looked up thoughtfully and continued, “I mean, if they aren’t pressing charges, how would we even keep him?”

“Where did we find him?” Nathan answered calmly.

Jim got kind of annoyed when he got into these teacher-y moods, but played along if only to help Nathan feel better. “OK, we found him in the house. Right. A house that is not his and that he did not have permission to enter.”

“Exactly,” Nathan replied, a mockingly proud smile on his face.

“So we gotta keep him overnight so a judge can rule on if the city will move forward the breaking and entering charge,” Jim finished.

“BINGO!” Nathan said. He continued with a mocking tone, “I remember just a few years ago when this little whippersnapper in front of me first walked through those doors.”

“Enough,” Jim said, trying to stop him.

“His baby face screamed to all who saw it, ‘Punch Me!’ Nathan continued, undeterred. “And now he has grown into a somewhat smart, barely capable deputy.” Nathan concluded with a flourish and an exaggerated salute.

Jim gave him an overly dramatic, bow, accepting the praise with mock glee. “Alright, we done? Can we figure out what we’re gonna do tonight now?”

Nathan sighed and looked at the clock. It read 2100. 9:00 PM. Twelve hours until anyone else came in. Nathan looked back to Jim who seemed to have the same realization. They both rushed to touch their finger to their noses, with Nathan just barely outpacing Jim.

“I win!” Nathan declared.

“No,” Jim lied, knowing that he had lost. “No, at best it was a tie.”

“Well then, tie goes to most senior,” Nathan replied smugly. “As it so happens, I think I’ll take the cruiser back out.” He sank back into his emotional, mocking tone as he continued, “Seeing as we find ourselves with an inmate, one of us will just have to stay here tonight. Gosh darn it, I wish there were another way but you’re the only one here.”

“Please don’t make me. Please. I can’t handle sitting here staring at a screen all night just watching for this guy to try to kill himself. I’ll need someone to watch me to keep me awake,” Jim finished his only semi-joking plead.

Nathan looked at Jim like he was trying to decide, but Jim already knew what he would do. After a minute, Nathan declared loudly with a smile, “Sucks to suck! No can do. I think God wants you to be here or he would have made your hand be just a little bit faster. Good luck!” Nathan closed and locked his computer and started grabbing his stuff. “But its not like you have to sit here alone, you know?”

Jim looked at Nathan confused, unsure what he meant. “You can go talk to the inmate, ya moron,” Nathan answered.

Jim hadn’t even thought of that, but was intrigued by the idea. The pair walked down the hall toward the front door as Jim replied, “Oh! Right! Yeah, I kind of forgot that I can do that. There’s nothing special that I’d need to bring or do for that right? Like he wouldn’t have to sign anything or whatever if I was just talking to him?” Nathan shook his head and Jim nodded. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound too bad, I guess. I’d be curious to hear his story a little. Alright, I’ll stay.”

“Of course you will. That was never a question,” Nathan replied.

“Call me if you need me, please. Or if you change your mind and want to stay?” Jim said, giving it one last try.

“Yeah, not looking likely, but who knows where God will bring me. Sitting up and watching someone moving around in a cage will be good practice for you, anyways, son-to-be-daddy.” Nathan bumped Jim’s elbow as he walked past him and into the hallway.

Just then their radio chirped to life. “34 this is dispatch, we have a report on a suspicious vehicle parked on the corner of Elm and Carol street. Would you be able to go check that out?”

“Dispatch this is 34,” Nathan replied into his microphone. “Yeah, you can put me en route. Thanks, Gloria.”

“You got it, Nate. Have a good night.” Jim sighed and met his friend’s eyes, accepting his fate.

“Seriously,” Nathan said, “you should go talk to him. I’ve had some pretty good conversations with inmates.” Jim looked to Nathan, trying to communicate “seriously” with his face. Nathan continued, “well at least twice. But both times were good. We talked gospel, Christ, living in a fallen world and fallen bodies. They were both some deep, interesting conversations. Better than staring at your phone all night.”

Jim had to agree with him there. “Alright, yeah. I think I’ll give it a try.”

“Do it, for me, please,” Nathan gave Jim some mock doe-eyes. He was almost at the door as he turned to say, “Just don’t let him out of the cell!”

Jim laughed at the joke as the door closed. He turned the lock and spun around, surveying the empty station. Silence rang out around him and made him a little uncomfortable. He went to his desk and busied himself cleaning and reorganizing a few things, but very, very quickly ran out of things to fiddle with. He eyed the monitor showing the cell, watching Calvin sit silently. His shoulders were sagged and his head hung in his hands. He looked pretty depressed and bored to Jim. The red, record light blinked, gently startling Jim and causing him to make his decision.

He stood from his desk and walked across the open office area. He passed Nathan’s clean, organized desk and opened the hall door. At the end of a short hall was the cell room. Their station had been built over fifty years ago and still had a less common design, but they had two cells built into one room. The room was under 24 hour surveillance when used, but also had a small area outside of the cells if any inmates needed direct, 1:1 supervision. The small couch for observation wasn’t used much, but at least it would be more comfortable that Jim’s desk chair. He hoped.

Jim opened the door into the cell room and walked in. The room was silent and somewhat dark. Jim never really appreciated just how dank the room was until he realized he was looking at spending a few hours there. We should really clean this room up, Jim thought to himself.

“You should really clean this room,” Calvin said. Jim was shocked and then laughed.

“I was literally just thinking that,” Jim said. He felt his guard dropping a little at the young man’s gentle voice. “I hope you don’t mind some company?” Jim said hesitantly.

“No, of course not,” Calvin quickly replied. “Not at all, but I do need to tell you, I lied about one thing.”

“What’s that,” Jim asked.

“My name’s not Calvin. It’s Tyler,” he said with a sigh.

Jim chuckled and said, “Well then, it is nice to meet you Tyler.”

“Likewise,” Tyler replied from behind the bars. “So, what do you want to talk about?”