Page 50 of Break Away
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Right. Fuck Yourself is going right in thatspace, Paul ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ Clauson. Birthdate?”
“I’m not telling you my fucking birthdate.I’m not telling you anything. You got no reason to arrest me.”
Levi pointed at his face. Adrenaline hadinitially masked the pain, but he was beginning to feel it. “Seethis?” He indicated the shiner high on his left cheek and edgingtoward the temple. “That’s what got you here. You decided to buyyourself a shitload of trouble and now you have to live withit.”
“If you hadn’t gotten in my way, you wouldn’thave gotten yourself punched.”
“You were a cop. You know how thisworks.”
“Yeah, I was a cop. So how can you do this toa brother, man?” He held up his cuffed hands. “You’re a cop, I’m acop. We got to stick together.”
“Yeah, we have to stick together but youpunched me in the face? Shut up and let me get this done.”
Clauson didn’t shut up. He complained aboutthe mug shots, he complained about the fingerprints, hisbelligerence increasing as the process continued. “You know what?The police chief and I go way back, and I’m gonna have your job,asshole.”
“You know him? We’ll see how that plays.”Levi picked up the phone and called Brad, then continued withprocessing.
A few minutes later, Brad strolled in.
“Your pal here says you two are buds, andthat you’re going to fire my ass.”
“Hell, I just hired you. It’s too muchpaperwork to fire you. Plus, Mom would be pissed.”
Clauson looked from Levi to Brad, then backagain. “You two assholes brothers? You look like assholebrothers.”
“Your vocabulary range is astounding. Is thatany way to talk to your friend the police chief?” Levi asked.
Clauson began coughing. “You got to uncuffme, I can’t breathe.”
Brad shook his head. “Here we go. You knowwhat’s next.”
“I tell you. I can’t breathe. I’m havingchest pains.”
“Bingo.” Brad turned to Levi. “I’ll call foran ambulance. Put him in a cell until they get here.”
“You got to take me to the hospital. I thinkI’m having a heart attack.” Clauson made his breathing morelabored.
Ignoring the prisoner, Brad leaned in to geta closer look at Levi’s face. “That’s you not letting this gosideways?”
Since the part of his face that had connectedwith Clauson’s fist hurt like a bitch, Levi could guess that itlooked as bad as it felt. He walked Clauson to a cell, uncuffedhim, and locked him in.
“You get me my warrant?”
Brad slapped an envelope on Levi’s chest.“What set him off?”
“Me knocking on his door.” Levi slid thewarrant into a side pocket of his pants. “He was belligerent fromthe get-go, thought his ‘fucking bitch-ass neighbor’ had called thecops to complain about his crappy music, which we heard from thestreet. The neighbor appeared, yelling that finally someone wasdoing something about the douchebag. Clauson charged after theidiot neighbor and this happened.” Levi pointed at his face.
“Neighbor hurt?”
“No. Wasn’t touched. Monica and I will goback and search the place. I’ll bring in any electronics, see if wecan find evidence that he put up that post targeting Zoey.”
“Our IT guy is supposed to be tracking thatdown from our end, but he’s one guy and has a shitload ofwork.”
“Now he’s going to have even more.”
Brad gave a curt nod as he headed for thedoor. “Put some ice on your face.”
