Chapter 2: The Arrest
Officer Trnava Stashak had gotten ready for her morning patrol before it was even seven o'clock. Her partner who had a wife and two young kids never came in so early; no she wouldn't be seeing Officer Detynik Andreis for another thirty minutes. He always walked his five-year-old boy to school every morning before making his way to the police station.
Officer Stashak picked up their assignments from the Chief's office and then decided to step outside to wait for her partner to appear. The sun was just rising over the massive stone courtyard of the Governor's Palace. It was going to be the type of warm bright day that made patrolling Rika Chorna a pleasure. After a few minutes of relaxing she spotted her partner across the boulevard in front of the Ministry of Public Works having a conversation with a criminal grounds keeper.
Trnava just grinned and shook her head. Officer Andreis was a decorated and experienced policeman who had proven himself on the force for almost eight years but his friendly behavior toward the city's collared criminals was a bit strange. He would only require them to kneel long enough to satisfy protocol, and then afterwards it wasn't unusual for him to talk casually with a criminal right out in the open. If they got to choose who their arresting officer was, there would be a line forming outside his office. The judicial punishments he administered, while harsh enough to satisfy the judge, were nearly always on the lenient side. Yes, Officer Andreis sometimes seemed too kind hearted for this line of work.
The streets were starting to fill with morning commuters. Since serious crime was rare in Rika Chorna; Stashak focused her efforts on punishing lesser offenses such as littering or disturbing the peace. In just two months she had used up a whole book of citations already, bringing in a fair amount of money to the department.
Then Stashak saw a disturbance up ahead. A perpetrator veered off the road and across a pedestrian sidewalk, recklessly jumping off the curb. A couple pedestrians had to leap to the side.
Officer Stashak rushed out onto the street. "You there, Stop!"
The teenage girl skidded to a stop; her skin lost all color.
Officer Stashak ordered the girl to put down the kickstand and get off her bicycle. Stashak rose up to her full height. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
The girl shifted her weight from foot to foot nervously. "I... uh..."
"Marinya, do you know it is against the law to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk or the lawn?"
The girl was starting to cry. "Um... yes... yes Officer Stashak."
Stashak tapped the handle of her police switch with a finger, letting the girl sweat it out for a while before giving the girl a stern warning and sending her on to school. Normally she would give the girl's parents a ticket but Stashak felt extra generous that day.
Meanwhile, Officer Andreis concluded his conversation with the criminal and crossed the boulevard to meet his junior partner. Stashak saluted Andreis.
He returned the salute. "Whew... you looked very intimidating there, Officer Stashak... almost scared me! I would say that your patrol will have the best behaved children in all of Danubia."
Stashak blushed. "Oh, why do you tease me like this?"
"Maybe you remind me of my little sister." Andreis grinned. "So Officer Stashak, where do the fates throw us today, I would hope it's in the direction of a good coffee shop."
She smiled shyly. Officer Andreis was both handsome and charming; Stashak thought the other women on the force must be jealous of her, if Andreis were only a few years younger and unmarried... No, she told herself, she already had a boyfriend and they were a happy young couple, really they were.
She pushed aside such foolish thoughts and focused on the business at hand. "The Chief wants us to head over to the eastern side of the business district; they're replacing a water-main this morning, so they need us to re-rout traffic and keep people out of their way. They want us over there before the heavy equipment arrives at about nine o'clock."
"There is a little diner on the way, next to the Farmers Market." Andreis remarked. "Perhaps you will forgive my impudence if I treat you to a cup of coffee?"
After a good cup of black coffee they continued to the site of the water-main break. It was eight-thirty in the morning already but nothing was happening. The foreman furiously barked into his radio about all the delays, and then he really went off the edge throwing his clipboard to the ground and stomping off toward his work crew.
" See," Officer Andreis observed. "Now that's what would happen to me if I didn't stop after my second cup." With the significant delay in work on the water main, he decided that it would be best if he and his junior partner patrolled to the east for a while.
This part of the Business District had rows of office buildings to either side but at the very end of the street and the edge of the city was the new Rika Chorna Technology Center; a collection of several brown brick buildings in a campus-like setting. Just a few of the facilities were finished though, standing at the main entrance Officer Andreis could see empty bicycle racks out front. It appeared that no one was working at the Tech-Center yet. Curious by nature, he decided to have a look around.
Stashak really wasn't that interested in exploring a bunch of vacant buildings, so she volunteered to go back to the intersection in case the workers showed up early, and perhaps to enjoy a second cup of coffee. She traveled back alone, greeted the foreman who had calmed down some, and then a noise caught her attention. The industrial park was a kilometer to the west and south so it wasn't that unusual to hear noisy bangs and crashes, but Stashak thought the noise sounded an awful lot like gunfire.
She paused a second, wondering what to do, not wanting to be the rookie cop that over- reacts and makes a fool of herself. It surely wasn't gunfire, not in Danubia. Stashak decided to be cautious; she contacted the dispatcher on the radio and reported a suspicious noise to the east, then she made her way quickly toward the Tech Center, where she would meet up with her partner. At the entrance Stashak paused and checked her revolver, feeling somewhat foolish she walked in.
Stashak called out her partner's name. He didn't answer. She walked into the center of the rectangular courtyard and called out louder and again he didn't answer. Rookie or not she now felt justified in calling for backup. She radioed in, put a reassuring hand on her revolver and walked from building to building. The first three were dark inside with locked doors. At the far end of the courtyard there was a one-story brick building. A sign outside read Computer-Modeling Center. The plate glass in the front door was shattered and scattered on the sidewalk.
Her right hand went to her revolver and her left found her police radio; Stashak's voice shook as she reported the break in. Gripping the revolver in her right hand, Stashak braced it with her left but the sights on the barrel still trembled constantly as she aimed at the glass door. She called out: "This... this is Officer Stashak of the Rika Chorna Police Force." Her voice seemed high and panicked; she trembled, hoping that backup would arrive soon. Real life wasn't like training at the academy at all. "Who is inside? Identify yourselves!"
A police siren sounded to the east. Her radio went off confirming there were officers in route. Stashak took a half step closer to the door; the lower glass was shattered except for a few jagged shards. Inside it was dark but there was something on the floor, down the hall ten meters. She lowered into a crouch to look through the opening. Every noise seemed amplified; she could hear the beep of a telephone left off the hook. Stashak took a sharp breath, the thing on the floor was a leg. Someone was lying on the floor. A polished shoe reflected light. "Andreis." She whispered louder: "Andreis!"
She felt panic take over. A police car raced into the courtyard behind her. They took action, they cleared the building, they found her partner on the floor. She stood helplessly and watched as others administered first aid. The ambulance came as she watched. Her radio was busy with traffic.
