1.4 Guilty or Innocent?

By the time they reached the police station, Charles was shivering head-to-toe. He had no idea what was going to happen next. He longed for his mother’s comforting hand over his forehead and his father’s warm hug. The police officer prodded him to walk inside the police station once they got out of the car.

He was made to wait in a room with people who looked like criminals, not all but most did. He kept looking down at his feet; he couldn’t stand looking at any of them because they all gave him the creeps. Another officer walked up to him and asked him if there was anyone he wanted to inform about his arrest. YES!!!! He wanted to scream out loud but resisted. He called up his parents who said they were on their way to get him out. Charles was made to go back to the waiting room.

Almost five minutes later the officer who had made the arrest walked in and asked Charles to follow her. He couldn’t help but notice that the officer was young and innocent looking; that made him wonder whether she was really an officer or some con artist. At that point he only wished everyone around him was a con artist too and that they’d come out with the cameras shouting “it’s a prank!” Unfortunately nothing of that sort happened. Instead he was taken to an interrogation room and that only made his heart pound faster.

She waited for a moment. Then said,

He handed her the required document and she studied it for a moment. Charles went on to tell her about his furniture store and how he’d gone to the nightclub to celebrate and she listened to him with skeptical eyes. Just then an officer broke in, “The nightclub owner’s here for interrogation.”

“Right… I’ll get to him right away” She replied.

Charles walked back to the waiting room where his parents were waiting for him. Both looked worried and they grew all the more troubled when they saw their son’s bruised face.

After what seemed an eternity, he was finally released on bail and pronounced innocent. Apparently the nightclub owner narrated what actually happened and the drunk guy confessed his mistake. On his way out of the police station, the police woman handed him back his driver’s license without a word of apology which Charles thought was really rude of her but didn’t seem to care, after all this was probably the last time he’d ever see her again, maybe… maybe not…