Blank Confession by Pete Hautman

Author:Pete Hautman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2010-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

23. THE INTERVIEW ROOM

“You ever tase anybody?” Shayne asked.

Rawls shook his head. Stun guns were available to all officers on the force, but he’d never carried one himself. It felt too much like cheating. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, a good cop could keep the peace simply by talking. The cops who carried stunners, in his opinion, were all too quick to tase any drunk or druggie who got a little belligerent.

“You ever been tased?” Shayne asked.

“No, but I’ve seen it. It looks really unpleasant.”

The kid’s eyes lost focus for a moment. Rawls wondered what he was seeing.

“It’s not so bad,” Shayne said. “At first you don’t know what’s going on—like the electricity scrambles your brain. Your arms and legs go all limp and spazzy, and it hurts, but it doesn’t last long.”

“Who tased you?”

“After I dropped Mikey off that day, I stopped off at the Pump and Munch up on Freeman Street. You know how they got motorcycle parking around the side? I just went in to grab a soda. Anyway, I came out of the store around the side of the building and there was this guy sitting on a chopped Harley right next to my bike. An older guy, like in his thirties. He had one of those haircuts where it’s shaved on the sides, but long on top and tied back in a skinny braid going halfway down his back. Looked like he had a long-tailed rat sitting on his head.”

Rawls agreed. “World’s ugliest hairstyle,” he said.

“The guy was looking at my bike. He said, ‘This your German piece a crap?’

“I told him it was my piece of crap. He looked past me and I turned to see Jon and his guys standing there. Jon had this thing in his hand. I didn’t know what it was at first, and when I figured it out, I wasn’t quick enough. Next thing I knew I was flopping around on the ground.

“Like I said, the getting tased part wasn’t so bad—I probably could have got back up in a minute or so—but Jon and Kyle started kicking me. I didn’t even try to fight back.” He looked up at Rawls. “They say it’s hard to hurt somebody who isn’t fighting back. Most guys don’t have it in them. That’s why they say if you’re taking a beating and there’s no way to win, you should just curl up and do nothing.”

“Who are they? ” Rawls asked. “The people who say that.”

“You know. Self-defense experts. Anyway, Jon is one of those guys who does have it in him. If Trey hadn’t pulled him off me, I think he would have kept kicking until I was dead. I spent two days in the hospital. Two broken ribs, a concussion, and a bruised kidney. I told the doctor I fell down a flight of stairs. I don’t think he believed me, but that’s what he wrote on my chart.”

“Why didn’t you report it?”

“My word against theirs. Nothing would have happened, except maybe more of the same.

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