Page 41 of Cruel Daddy Dragon

The butcher braces himself, fists flexing. Merl’s unfocused eyes blink a few times at the man.

“You don’tgetto just walk away from me!” he snarls, “I know you’re worth more than you pretend you are, you old drunk, so you’re paying for everycentof what you destroyed!”

Merl points a finger at the angry butcher.

“You… I do not… I didn’t do that!” Merl protests drunkenly.

“I saw you!” he snarls,“I watched you fall right into that fridge and wreck it all!”

The butcher jabs a finger back at Merl.

“And now, you worthless, drunk asshole, you’re going to write me a check right the hell now foreverythingyou destroyed!” he growls.

“You can’t make me do that!” Merl slurs, “I didn’t do anything—you can’t blame me for that!”

“No,” the butcher says, “We’ve all had enough of you, Merl. Every one of us. You’re not getting away from this.”

Merl is bristling, but I sprint up and put myself in between them.

“Guys!What’s going on?” I ask.

Merl recognizes me first.

“Thisassholekeeps saying I destroyed… uh… something!”

“Myfridge!”the butcher says, before looking directly at me, “Sheriff, this drunk dumbass fell into my front-facingchilling cabinet and smashed a huge hole in it!Then,pretty much everything I cut that day just starts falling out the hole—all that meat just landing on the floor. I can’t sellanyof that now, and the cabinet itself isthousandsof dollars—I don’t even know how he got through that glass! I then told this asshole that he needed to pay forall of it,and he turned and ran away!”

I nod, but I’m only half concentrating.

If this was exactly like my vision, the fisticuffs should have started by now… it was all very accurate until I walked in…

I saw the future. Then I changed it!

“I don’t remember doing that!” Merl slobbers.

“You don’t remember anything you did five goddamn minutes ago, you worthless drunk!” the butcher snarls back.

“Hey, Guys,Guys!” I say firmly, “We need to calm this all down!”

“Sorry, Ms Sheriff,” Merl drawls.

The butcher grunts.

“Right. Give me a chance to figure this all out,” I tell them both. I look at the butcher, “So, you’d like to press charges, I’m assuming?”

He gives an angry sigh.

“No! I don’t want to have to deal with all the police processes and stuff—I just want him to pay for what he broke and never step foot in my store again!”

“Right,” I say calmly, “Well, we can do that, but shouting at Merl when he’s drunk and belligerent isn’t going to help anything. He’s not in the right frame of mind to understand you. Do you have CCTV in your shop?”

“Yeah,” the butcher replies, “They caught everything, I’m sure.”

“Okay, then,” I say, “Burn me a copy of that CCTV and send it over to me. I’ll take Merl home now, and once he sobers up, I’ll drop by and visit him later. Then, I’ll get him to pay for everything, and if he doesn’t, we’ll look to press charges. Is that acceptable to you?”

The butcher thinks hard and then nods.

“Yeah. I’m also banning him from my store, so if he turns up again, I’m calling the cops,” he grunts, “Tell him that when he sobers up.”

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