Chapter 13

       "Arriving five minutes earlier would had been better."

    One of the officers said as he settled into one of the two chairs opposite the desk. Ishbelle took her seat beside him. His mind was at peace. At least someone who knew him well was around and would speak up for him if at all any odd was to be supplanted. 

    He looked at Ishbelle, she was troubled. He could see the lines the feelings had traced on the curves of her cheeks. He didn't like it. What used to amuse him bothered him. 

    He put his right hand on the top of her left shoulder, she was seating at the right, and squeezed its gently. 

     She swallowed the feelings he was going to put across. He actually had no idea why she felt that moody. 

    Even he who had been summoned was calm, why was he? Probably she loved him so much to watch hurt befall him. That made sense. 

     Then he remembered that the officer had said something. He turned quickly to him and said, without removing his hand from her shoulder,

     "Sorry, I was out with my love. Yesterday was her birthday and we decided to celebrate her today. Matter-of-factly, your call made us leave the beach in a haste."

   The man put his pen to the document on his table. Twas like some bunches of A4 stapled and put in a file. 

   He had no idea what office folks always love to write. Most times he got sick of having to see everyone sitting before a table writing something down. Seemed more like a showoff to him. 

    Didn't know why he was feeling that way. Probably he had a problem he wasn't paying attention to. 

     The man dropped his pen and placed the tip of his elbows on the table, tucking the palms into each other. 

     He cleared his throat and started,

     "You should of course. And the haste was not enough."

     Ishbelle hopped on the discourse. She seemed tired of it all,

     "Can we just talk about what brought us here and leave out the ishes...?"

     She mouthed the ishes as though she had been beefing the cop since like forever. 

    Eric was trying to understand what she was doing. If he was right, then he guessed she was concerned about him. She probably hated seeing someone spill shitty words at him. 

     That would be hell romantic if that was what it was. 

     "Who's she, please?"

    "The cops asked."

     "That question is rude, officer, you know?"

     Ishbelle was already heating up. Eric was glad that his hand was still on that shoulder. He kept squeezing it and kept chewing,

     "It's okay, babe."

    He turned to the officer and said,

     "That shouldn't be the question, and by the way, she's my .... girlfriend."

     He looked at her. Of course she was his girlfriend. He wasn't sure. She hadn't said yes to him and he hadn't asked her out properly. 

     She ate him up with, you-sure-you-can-say-that-again kinda ogle then looked at the Cop,

     "So what now? You wanted to know."

     The cop looked irritated. He didn't even hide it. You could easily tell that he was under pressure, and right on tension. 

    The tip of his nose was swelling and his eyes were lighting up. If he was some balloon, he would had bursted into flames, if balloons ever had flames. 

       "She'll have to excuse us."

     Twas Eric's turn to be mad,

      "On what stance? Because the information you would give is confidential or because she is talking sense?"

      The cop blew his nose into the handkerchief in his hand and squeezed the latter. 

      A drip of the mucus dropped on the top of the file and Eric felt like punching the guy really hard. 

     The cop didn't look up at them, he brushed the mucus away with one of his fingers and rubbed it on the top pocket of his uniform. Then he remembered that he had a handkerchief on the table. 

     Then he picked up the handkerchief and used it on the top of the pocket where the smear of the mucus was. 

    Instead of cleaning it up, he added more to it and decked the pocket with mucus. 

     Ishbelle was up already,

      "I'm out of this shithole."

     She pushed the chair aside and was going to walk out when he heard the officer say to the standing Eric who was trying to talk her into calming down and staying,

      "Let her go. I can't handle sassy bitches."

      Before Eric could even react, she was already all over the table, swiping off some of the files on the table. She almost hit the laptop on the man's table off. 

     She was yelling as she did all those,

     "Motherfucker. You ain't even worth being a cop. How'd you even get here.? You should be in some rehab, you retarded asshole. Or better still in a psychiatric hospital, eating bread with your mucus. Bozo!"

     In the midst of the hue and cry walked in another officer. He was more of Eric's stature and was more of a youth, compared to the protruding bellied fat ass sitting at the table. 

     The new officer touched his palm to the fall of her right shoulder from behind but she swiped her hand outta anger and brushed the jaw of the fellow hard. One of the incisors dropped. 

     "Oh, Ish. What have you done?"

    Eric said, turning to the officer who was putting his hand to his mouth. There was blood on his swollen upper lip, yet he was smiling, revealing the newly paved gap in between the front teeth. 

    Eric pointed at the gap and the officer stopped. 

    Ishbelle spoke,

      "Sorry about that, but do something about that sagged brain pumpkin."

   She said, pointing at the other fellow. 

    The officer removed his hand from his mouth and had his way with the words he had wanted to say earlier before the punch,

     "Sorry about him, let's talk about it outside. Let's go to my office. I was the one who called you, not him."

      "I was wondering too."

     Eric said as he led Ishbelle outta the office. He was sure not to let her look back at the other officer. 

        "But damn! Ma'am, you hit hard."

    The officer said, coming behind them. 

     "Didn't mean it that way."

    Ishbelle said and stepped aside as the officer took his position at the front and led them to his office. 

      "Goddamn bitch!"

    They other cop cursed but none paid attention. Twas costly, not even other cops who were staring at them could afford it.