Читать книгу Santa Lives! - Volodymyr Granovsky - Страница 3

It was hot at the police station. A girl, named Jade, was accompanied by two boys. They were all dressed in red Santa Claus style coats, and stood in front of the officer’s table. All three were sweating and sniffing their noses. Duty officer Stephens was examining the detainees in astonishment. Actually, only the girl was detained, two boys came by themselves, apparently to rescue her. These children seemed rather well-off. Why were they doing this then? Were they not getting enough presents? That seemed unlikely… Or was it a way to show off? The puzzle pieces were not falling into their places.

“Well, my dear, are you going to tell me why you were doing this? Or should I call your parents?”

“No, don’t call them! Please!” gave up a chubby boy whose face was sweaty from the heat.

“Then answer the questions. Why were you stealing Christmas presents? Not satisfied with yours? How many homes have you pawned? How did you get inside? Where did you get the keys or lockpicks?”

“We weren’t stealing…” sighed another boy, named Kyle, who was skinny even for a teenager. “I swear.”

“Weren’t stealing, you say? Maybe, you would also claim that you didn’t get into someone else’s apartment, wouldn’t you? And where did you get all those presents from? And you, princess, tell me, where were you caught?”

“We weren’t stealing…” skinny boy repeated stubbornly. He seemed to be the leader of the gang.

“Well then,” the officer sighed. “I must inform you that you have the right to remain silent. You’ll sit here till the morning, and then we will call your parents, and see what they have to say. We will also inform the school…”

“All right, we give in,” the leader finally agreed to speak. “But that’s not because we got scared. We indeed broke into other people’s apartments. But we were not stealing presents. Quite the opposite, we were putting them there.”

“Putting?” the officer shouted. “Do you think I’m an idiot? Do you even understand what’s going on? This is a criminal offense! Be grateful you are juveniles, not even fourteen yet. Otherwise, you would have gotten a jail sentence for sure.”

“But we were actually giving presents, you can check for yourself!” the chubby boy exclaimed fearfully. “And the owners will confirm…”

“Who will confirm it, the Boozers family?” the duty officer rose up. “Those drunkards from the apartment your friend broke into? Well, according to them, she swept half of their apartment!”