A Pocket Full of Posies (Book 2)

Chapter Eight (Part 1)

Before heading back to the hotel, we make a stop at the local police station. Even though I've done nothing wrong, I can't shake my nerves. I half blame it on the time I was threatened with an ASBO at sixteen for telling a police officer he looked like a toilet brush with shit stuck in the bristles. He was really skinny with an abnormally big head, his hair was dead straight and he'd had a bad dye job, I'd had a few too many supermarket branded ciders, I was trying to show off in front of a girl, you know how it is.

It ended up just being a warning, but it left me scarred. The fact I'm here to hand in a dead girl's phone probably has something to do with the nerves too. Carmen jumps out of the car, and I follow.

"You okay?" she questions as we walk into the building. "You seem a bit... jittery."

"What? Me? Nah, I'm doing fab." Fab? When have I ever used the word fab? "I almost got an ASBO once, y'know," I say in an attempt to keep my unease underwraps, but immediately regret it.

Carmen looks even more confused, so I continue digging the hole as we walk towards a desk at the back of the station's lobby.

"You're probably too posh to know what it is. It's an anti-social behaviour something or other. Nothing really, I mean, underage drinking and disturbing the peace, and 'you can't speak to a police officer like that', and y'know how it is, eh? I mean, you don't--definitely don't. You don't hang around parks with cheap cider, but--"

"I like you when you're nervous. You're weird--really, really weird, but there's a charm to it." Before I can jump to my defence, we stop behind a woman who's speaking to the officer at the desk, and Carmen continues. "Is something up with you and Annabel? You looked like you were arguing with her in the car earlier. I mean, technically you looked like you were arguing with yourself, but you know what I mean."

I wave my hand in the air. "Yeah, it's fine, she was just being annoying."

Carmen doesn't look fully convinced, but she doesn't press any further. As we wait for the officer behind the desk to become free, I hop from one foot to the other, and take in my surroundings. It's a pretty drab lobby, a lot of grey. There's a row of chairs drilled down to the tiled floor where some unsavoury looking characters are sitting, and I have to stop myself from laughing at the idea that someone felt the need to do that as if it would cross anyone's mind to try and nick the plastic chairs and make a run for it.

"I don't think I've ever seen you stand still," Carmen comments, capturing my attention. She nods at my dancing feet.

I apologise, then stop. Within seconds, I'm doing it again. The woman in front of us mutters something, then turns around with a face like thunder. She shoves past us, still muttering as she storms out the building. I guess that's our cue.

"Hi," I say with a smile, to which the bald man behind the desk responds to with a tired expression. Tough crowd. "So I found this phone." I dig into my jacket pocket and place it on the desk. "Went for a jog last night--think I might have stood on it actually. Apologies, my bad. Anyway, yeah, got back to the hotel we're staying at, gave the thing a charge--figured we'd be able to call a number on it to give it back, right? Couldn't unlock the bastard though, so thought it made sense to just hand it in here."

The officer looks even more bored than he did a minute ago. He mumbles what sounds like a thank you, takes Lucy's phone, and looks down. Carmen and I wait for a minute or so until the guy looks back up questioningly.

"Do you need anything else?" Carmen asks.

"A pay rise would be nice," the guy murmurs, then laughs as if he made the best gag ever. He rolls his eyes when Carmen and I respond with blank stares. "No. Bye."