Part 13 (2/2)
”'Belligerent and provocative' is what it says, right here.” He held it up briefly to show me.
”We're not allowed to talk back?”
”No, in fact you are not allowed to talk back to your arresting officer. What are you, a moron?”
”I come home and find my apartment full of police officers and I haven't done a f.u.c.king thing and I'm not allowed to have an opinion about that?”
”It's not your home,” he informed me.
”Far as I can tell, it's not yours either.”
He paused without looking up, like he was thinking about responding to that, then got more interested in why I persisted in my stupidity. ”You might want to watch your mouth,” he finally suggested.
”Yes sir,” I said. He looked up at me, but he wasn't annoyed by my problematic tone of voice. Now his face was bent around the words that had come out of my mouth.
”Wait a minute, what did you say before? You came home and found them there?”
”Yes sir.”
”So, what, you opened the door and found them in your so-called apartment?”
”No.”
”So what happened?”
”I was out buying some toothpaste and then I came home, and I got off the elevator, and I was going to go in, but Mrs. Westmoreland told me the cops were in there and I should get out. So-”
”You know Mrs. Westmoreland?”
”I saw her that night she was trying to get you to come in and have a drink with her.”
”That night you were spying on us.”
”Yeah, that night.”
”Well, maybe that night you heard she's not someone who's going to go out on a limb and do you any favors. And now you're claiming what, that she warned you there were police officers looking for you? Why would she do that?”
”I don't know. Maybe it wasn't her, maybe it was someone else.”
”She lives there alone.”
”Well, I don't know who it was. She was standing behind the door.”
”And whoever this person was said get out of here the cops are here.”
”Yes.”
”So then what did you do?”
”Well, then the arresting officer-”
”The one who put his hands on you?”
”Yeah, that guy, he stepped out into the hallway and said could you come in here, please?”
”Did he put his hands on you then?”
”No, he just told me to come inside.”
”So that's what you did.”
”Yes.”
This seemed like bad news to Detective Drinan. He was in a p.i.s.sy mood now, you could see it in his face. His eyes were hooded and his hand covered his chin, which made it look like he was trying to be businesslike while he looked at my file. But he was biting the inside of his lip like he had a canker sore that was giving him h.e.l.l. He s.h.i.+fted in his seat and looked up at me.
”You knew there was an injunction barring you from the apartment and that cops were waiting in there for you, and you walked over and stepped into the apartment anyway?”
”I didn't know there was any injunction.”
”You were served.”
”I wasn't served.”
”Your representation was served. Your legal representative accepted service on your behalf two days ago.” He leafed through a pile of doc.u.ments in another manila folder and shoved one across the table to me. I couldn't even read it.
”I was served?” I said, sounding really stupid all of a sudden, like someone who was completely exhausted and hadn't eaten in twenty-two hours.
”What's the matter with you?” he asked. ”Was this deliberate? Is that why you went in there and mouthed off at Officer MacDowell, so you could provoke him into shoving you around a little bit? We going to see all this in the newspapers tomorrow?”
”Oh, knock it off, this isn't my fault,” I said.
”The h.e.l.l it isn't. You walked right into this. You defied a court order and forced an arrest-”
”You're the one who got this f.u.c.king injunction.”
”Yes, I did, that's right, I did; I f.u.c.king well did.”
”You said you'd wait. You said let me know when you're ready, you'd come by when I was ready to let you in, and then you sent a bunch of creepy police officers to arrest me.”
”You wanted to be arrested.”
”Oh yeah, I love being arrested, it's just a total blast having police officers manhandle you.”
”According to your record, you have something of a problem with men shoving you around. Maybe you enjoy that type of thing a little more than you like to admit.”
”What did you say? You think I like it when men hit me, did you just say that?”
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