Warning: Some may find an event described in this post disturbing.
One lazy summer Sunday afternoon I was sitting in the office in La Ronge when the phone rang. A youth was on the phone, sounding a little panicky and he needed the police. Why? Well his he and his friends were just hanging out and some guy rode up, chased them into the house and was now throwing rocks at his house. They of course, had done nothing to provoke the rock throwing (it had long been my experience that when ever someone spontaneously laid claim to "doing nothing", that it was a rare occasion that "nothing" was actually done).
La Ronge was such a busy detachment that often a call for something like "someone is throwing rocks" would be met with a response such as "Okay, I'll just drop this stabbing call and get right on it", but it was a lazy afternoon. So I jumped in the truck and headed straight over. When I got to the yard however there was no one in sight but after I pounded on the door, four teenagers appeared at a window, still looking a little panicky.
Their story was basically the same as the phone call. They had been playing in the yard when a stranger rode up on a BMX bicycle, started swearing at them, and when he picked up some stones they ran into the house. He continued to throw stones at the house so they called me. They told me that he had left just before I arrived, so I told them I'd have a look around. I asked who he was and they didn't know, so I asked what he looked like. The four answered in one voice "He looks like Billy Idol".
As I got back to the street I was shocked to see Billy Idol riding a BMX bicycle towards me. "Good description" I thought. The young man, in his twenties, hopped off his bicycle, and began complaining about the youths laughing at him and calling him names. A look back at the boy's (who were now standing a little behind me) sheepish looks confirmed his story.
I turned back to Billy and gave my best talk about adult responses, how while it was wrong for the boys to laugh and make fun of him, throwing rocks was probably pretty low down on the scale of proper responses. Seeing as though I had several alarms ringing in my head from the moment "Billy" appeared, I took the opportunity to find out more about him. He'd moved to town the day before with his girlfriend, his name was actually Stephen, he was originally from Newfoundland, and yes he had been in trouble in the past.
After getting his full name and DOB I called our comcentre to query him on the computer. The operator came back and let me know that there were no warrants for Stephen but he was on probation for… and then there was a pause. The operator asked if I was alone and I let her know that he was standing right beside me. She then told me he was on probation again and this time gave me the section number of the Criminal Code that probation was for, and then asked if I knew the section.
I didn't, which was unusual, because I had a pretty good grasp on most of the offences in the Code by this time, so I sat there and tried to figure out what were the offence sections near to this one, to give me a clue as to what it was. While I was trying to figure out the section I looked at Stephen, and he rolled his eyes, and said "Its for indignity to a human body"
Okay… I got the conditions of his probation from the operator (none of which he had really violated except for keeping the peace and being of good behaviour), and brought Stephen to the truck where I could find out more about him. It turned out that some of the trouble he'd been in back in Newfoundland was digging up a woman's body and keeping her skull in his bedroom.
It was not to be our last meeting.
Comments
12 responses
Ack!!! You have to quit leaving us hanging like that. Ignore your guests, ignore the birds and keep on writing!
Sounds macabre!
Kia ora Clare,
Geez, I am heading out to the mountains for six days and you will have me wondering where this one is going to go. Oh well, I will find out then i guess. Cheers.
Ka kite ano,
Robb
Kara, Ignoring my guests I might be able to do, but the birds? They’re here for such a short while.
I guess I was a police man for too long John, I don’t even think about it being macabre. I have to remember my readers.
Have a great trip Robb. We’ll look forward to hearing about it when we get back. I might even have continued the story by then, or not.
I am on the edge of my seat here. Nice cliffhanger there.
ewww…is he a necrophilia too?
Thanks Kent, I’m not sure the rest of the story will live up to it.
Not that I know of Aida. If the title is causing confusion, its just the Billy Idol song I could find that had the best fit. Rebel Yell just didn’t work, and White Wedding….
Hey Clare, guess you haven’t read or either haven’t got my email yet. Anyway, just wanted to say that I’m now working for the local police in Aberdeen (Scotland) as their Force Curator, and doing a reminiscence project with retired officers. Be great if I could interview you one day! Any chance you’ve any spare memorabilia to send me? My boss was terribly impressed with the Toronto Police Museum when he was there, esp by the then curator ‘Copper Jack’, have you heard of him?
ah, that sounds like a typical La Ronge tale. Maybe he believed that old adage, “two heads are better than one”.. Heh. [rimshot]
HI Fiona-Jane. I did get your email, and I thought I responded. I’ll have to have another look. Let me know what sort of stuff you’re looking for. I don’t really have anything but I suppose it would depend on what you need. I’ve never heard of Copper Jack by the way, but I’ve never had much to do with TPS.
Nice Terri. I’m sure the big guy would remember Stephen.
Good Grief! When’s the rest of the story coming?
Hi Clare, no, didn’t get a reply, but have sent you another message with my powerpoint on the mystery of the arctic grave for you to look at.
Reason I mentioned Toronto was also that an ex-workmate is going there and to Vancouver next week and it jogged my memory about what my boss said