happened to be J.R., who seemed to be dozing off in his
chair.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” I demanded.
“You’re in this too, you know.”
“There’s no need,” the street vendor shrugged. “It’s not
like we were in trouble or anything.”
“That’s funny. I thought we were in a police station.”
“So what? They aren’t really serious. Are you. Captain?”
The Pervect who had been arguing with me shot him a
dark look, but I noticed he didn’t contradict what had been
said.
“I’ll bite J.R.,” I said, still watching the captain. “What
are you seeing that I’m not in this situation?”
*»
MYTH-NOMERS AND IM-PERVECTIONS 123
“It’s what isn’t happening that’s the tip-off,” he winked.
“What isn’t happening is we aren’t being booked. We’ve
been here a long time and they haven’t charged us with any
crimes.”
“But the Captain here said …”
“He said they could charge us with etc., etc. You notice
he hasn’t actually done it. Believe me, Mr. Skeeve, if they
were going to jail us, we’d have been behind bars an hour
ago. They’re just playing games to stall for a while.”
What he said seemed incredible considering the amount
of grief we were being put through, yet I couldn’t find a
hole in his logic. I turned to the captain and raised an
eyebrow.
“Is that true?” I said.
The policeman ignored me, leaning back in his chair to
stare at J.R. through half-closed eyes.
“You seem to know a lot about police procedure, son.
Almost as if you’ve been rousted before.”
A sneer spread across the street vendor’s face as he met
the challenge head on.
“Anyone who works the streets gets hassled,” he said.