2 Little crimes

When her shift was over, Elizabeth bade the people goodbye and went to her apartment, she changed her clothes and decided to go to a bar to calm her head with a few drinks.

The town was small and well-lighted, so she immediately found the small bar.

She walked into the small bar and the sound of merry entered her ears, laughter and chattering.

Elizabeth walked to the bar counter, she sat on the stool and ordered a few drinks from the bartender. 

Her eyes scanned her entire surroundings out of habit, studying the interior of the bar and the people in the bar. A few faces she saw yesterday were present, even Officer Hamilton and the detectives, all were here except Officer Louise, who didn't seem to be quite the social person.

"Oh, Officer Brian!" Detective Daniel waved for her to come over.

"Come join us and celebrate." He added.

Elizabeth walked to their table and sat on her empty seat.

"What are we celebrating?" She asked.

"Life of course." Officer Hamilton replied.

"And successfully finding Madam Joanna's goose." Detective Christopher said and all of them roared in laughter, raising their mugs of beer and carelessly spilling the contents on the table.

Elizabeth wanted to sip from her drink when she caught sight of some customers that had really young faces, too young to be at a bar.

Elizabeth bade her colleagues goodbye before walking to the table where the young boys sat.

"Hello." She smiled and showed them her police badge.

"Nice to meet you all, may I know how old you all are?" Her smile widened, this town was oblivious to little crimes like this and her colleagues didn't even mind.

The boys panicked and quickly called out random numbers, some going as far as to call numbers higher than thirty.

"Then may I see your ID?" She asked again.

"We left that at home since no one asked for it!" One of the boys hurriedly replied. 

Elizabeth ignored them and turned to one of the boys, he had glasses on and he was quivering in fear.

"Hello." She said to the boy. Her eyes looked straight into his eyes.

"H-Hello."

"Would you mind telling me the age of your friends?"

"T-that…" The boy stuttered and glanced at his friends, he gulped when his eyes met with Elizabeth's. 

"He is sixteen, t-that one too and that one is…" The boy called out the age of all his friends, his eyes dropped and he bit his lips to quell the fear.

Elizabeth smiled and muttered a "Thank you."

"Alright then, come with me, boys. We would be having a little health session in the cell." Elizabeth paid for her drink and led the boys outside.

She opened the door and walked out of the bar and the first thing that caught her eyes was a staggering man trying to pry a car door open. 

Elizabeth walked up to him and asked,

"Is this your car, Sir?"

"Yes." The man nodded and staggered forward, the foul stench of alcohol emanating from his body made Elizabeth cringe.

"Are you drunk, Sir?"

"What are you saying?! I'm not drunk, you're the drunk one!" The man pointed at her and huffed.

"Then excuse me, Sir but how many fingers am I holding up?" Elizabeth asked.

"T-three…?" The drunk man stuttered. 

Elizabeth looked at her fingers, she really was holding up three fingers.

"Alright then, sorry for the inconvenience." She stepped away and the man entered into his car, she knew she couldn't stop him since she had no breathalyser to check his alcohol level. The car soon started but immediately crashed into a pole.

"Okay, that's it." Elizabeth walked up to the car and pulled the man out, she pushed the half-conscious man into the back seat and ordered the young boys to get in before she herself got into the driver's seat, she then drove all the law breakers to the police station.

***

A month later, Elizabeth had become quite popular in town and she quickly made a few friends. The town was still as peaceful as ever and this peacefulness wasn't all too bad. It even felt like she could stay here forever. These kinds of thoughts were not normal for the usually enthusiastic Elizabeth, it somehow felt like a force was urging her to relax and let go of her worries.

She had also become quite close to her colleagues except Officer Louise who wasn't really close to anyone.

Elizabeth sat on her desk and continuously clicked her pen in boredom.

"Officer Brian, can you please help me sort out these files?" Chief Alejandro asked.

"Okay." She replied with a smile but her smile fluctuated when she saw the pile of files, if there were stacked and kept on the ground, it would reach her knees.

"Sir…?"

"It's useless papers, Officer Brian. You just have to sort them according to the time they were filed in descending order."

"If it's just that, then it's no big deal." Elizabeth smiled and slowly sorted the files, she read through some and they were all about small thefts or robberies, nothing special. 

Elizabeth stacked them till the last and the oldest file, it had more papers in it than the others and Elizabeth opened it and what was written on the heading was,

-MISSING PEOPLE- 

'Missing people?' Elizabeth thought to herself, this town was too peaceful to have missing people.

Elizabeth wanted to read further but was interrupted by Chief Alejandro.

"Are you done, Officer Brian? Your patrol shift is about to start."

"Ah, yes. I'll bring the files to your office."

"Thank you." The Chief smiled and went back into his office. 

Elizabeth glanced at the file in her hand before stuffing it into her bag, afterall it was 'useless paper' anyway.

Elizabeth packed up the remaining files and brought them back to Chief Alejandro. She took the police car with her partner for the day, Officer Hamilton and drove to the main street. The everyday patrol was the most useless and boring time of the day since nothing ever happens, but at least watching the people made it clear to her that she was still a police officer.

**************

Chal ^_^