Monday, September 24
Nick finished his regular rounds of the elementary school to make sure everything looked right. He loved this old brick building, three stories tall and so solid it could survive a hurricane. A few school activities were still going on in some of the rooms, but most of the students and teachers were gone.
It was time for him to go, too. He got on his motorcycle to ride the fifteen blocks to his garage home.
As he got close, he noticed police cars and flashing lights up ahead. Someone in the neighborhood was having trouble. But when he got there, he found the police cars parked in front of his building. Nick's garage studio was on the ground floor. The upper three floors were for his brother and his brother's family, who were away on a cruise ship right now. He hoped there wasn't a problem with their place.
Couldn't be me. Nick walked a straight line these days-he hadn't done anything foolish since he was much younger. So he parked the motorcycle and boldly wandered through the ring of police cars. Before Nick could get very far, a policemen stopped him.
"What's going on, officer?"
The policeman squinted. "Are you Nicholas Veseli?"
"Yes, I am." Two other policemen turned toward him.
"Wait right here, please." The officer spoke into the radio on his hip. "We've got him." All three policemen stared at Nick with narrow eyes, daring him to try and leave.
This seems ominous. Something bad had happened. Nick tried to find out more. "Is someone hurt?"
A man in a suit came over, probably a detective. "Mr. Nicholas Veseli?"
"Yes?"
"I have a warrant for your arrest." Nick stared with his mouth open as they read him his rights.
"What am I charged with?"
"Child pornography. We found a large stash of it."
Nonsense. Why would that be in my place? He snapped his head back and frowned. "That's ridiculous. I would never do anything like that."
The officer pointed to the garage. "Is this your residence?"
"Yes. My brother and his family live upstairs."
"Well we got an anonymous tip and found a large collection of illicit material in your garage. You might want to think twice before you say anything more."
Nick stared for a second, then closed his mouth. He immediately thought of the drug company representatives. Could this be their doing? Getting dragged off to jail seemed like a pretty serious retaliation for postponing a vaccination clinic.
He looked around carefully. Some of the neighbors stared from their windows as the police bundled him into a patrol car and drove off.
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