Page 88 of Marc

I dial the non-emergency police number.

When the receptionist answers the phone, I say, “I’d like to file a police report regarding destruction of property.”

“Sure, I can send some officers your way. What is your address?”

I give her the address of Staci’s studio and make sure she notes that we are in the back alley before hanging up the phone.

Turning my attention to Dan, I ask, “Do you need a hand with anything?”

He shakes his head. “Nah. The truck does the heavy lifting.”

He pushes a button on the side of the truck and the large metal chains begin to move.

The sound of a car approaching grabs my attention.

I turn around to see a couple of police cars pull into the back alley.

After they park, I make my way over to the closest one.

The police officer gets out. He’s massive. Like a bodybuilder. “Did you call about the vandalism?”

“Yes, sir.”

I look at the other officer who joins us. He’s as big as a grizzly bear, but not as fit as the first officer.

Glancing from one officer to the other, I say, “They sent in the big guns.”

The first police officer chuckles. “I don’t knowwhere you are from, but we take crime seriously in this county.”

Since I live in this county, I know they are telling the truth. We have the lowest crime in the entire state, and that is just one reason I chose to move here.

Plus, it’s the county over from my parents.

The grizzly bear-like man asks, “Is this your car?”

“No, it belongs to my girlfriend. She’s currently inside making copies of previous police reports for her security guard.”

I’m not sure if I should have told them, but it might be helpful in this case to get some help from a different county.

He scrunches up his face as he thinks. “Has this happened before?”

“Thankfully no, but her abusive ex-husband just recently broke into her house and destroyed almost everything, and he shattered a window this morning. She has a restraining order, but he has friends in high places.”

Both officers nod their heads as they seem to understand what I am implying.

The bodybuilder officer walks back to his vehicle and grabs a clipboard from his trunk.

“We can start the paperwork for the report, but we will need the owner of the car to sign the paperwork and verify that everything you wrote down is the truth.”

“That’s not a problem.”

Do they really think I would lie on a police report?

Do people actually do that?

“I’ll need you to fill out the top part of the form, starting with the vehicle owner’s name.”

I take the clipboard from him and write down Staci’s name, home address, and phone number before writing down the studio’s address.

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