Night Watch (action)

[fabricati_diem_pvnc]

Though he was towards the top of the police hierarchy, Vimes still always kept an eye out for excuses to go on patrol, especially at night. It wasn't that he liked tramping around Venture City at 3am during one of the city's rare rainstorms. It was a bloody miserable time to be about. But...

But some of the best days of his life had been in the middle of rainy nights. You stood behind a statue or something to get out of the wind so you could light a smoke, you hunched your shoulders just like so and your hat directed the rain down the back of your jacket, leaving you in a tiny little bubble of warmth and dryness. For just a few minutes, you could pretend that the world made some kind of sense and fade into the background. If you could manage it, you became part of the architecture.

When Vimes had been a younger officer, on a night like this, he had become so much a part of the background that a purse snatcher had ran around a corner and stopped standing right next to him to catch his breath. Vimes had grabbed him and whispered "You just got nicked, son." and the poor man had needed a change of underwear.

Tonight, it had been quiet so far. Vimes stood in the lee of a phone booth out by the docks where the rain wasn't quite so bad, hunched his shoulders like so, lit a cigarette, and waited, looking to see what kind of characters would come out in the dark.

Comments

[forgottendecade]

There was something odd about the motorcycle's license plate. It looked legit, but there was an odd little symbol on the plate, one that looked like a double-headed bird with a couple letters across the body. It was only visible because of the light from the open door had caught it just right. Then it was gone as the big guy's shadow fell over the bike as he squeezed out of the door.

"So, what do you think?" he was saying, waving a hand at the building.

"I'll have to think it over."

[fabricati_diem_pvnc]

He reached for his radio to make a report of suspicious activity, but a faulty wire chose this moment to finally come loose, resulting in not a quiet beep but a max volume screech of static. Vimes flinched, then stepped behind the phone booth and prayed they hadn't heard him. "Blast!"

[forgottendecade]

Of course both men turned around at the noise. The big guy's hand went for his chest, where he grabbed at his shirt and breathed heavily while the slim Japanese guy smiled and started walking towards Vimes. It was not a hurried walk, not a threatening one either. If it wasn't for the rain and the fact that he looked like an extra from a crime drama movie, one could say that he was simply heading Vimes' way out of curiosity.

"Ah, hello?"

[fabricati_diem_pvnc]

Of course.

Vimes stepped out from hiding observing. The important thing here was to keep them off balance. Vimes radiated as much police man as he could. It was a state of mind that said to other people that if you stood very still, made no sudden motions, and were completely honest, you MIGHT get out of this without getting into TOO much trouble, but that you were on thin ice. Any officer knew how to make people nervous. He flipped out his badge.

"Venture City Police. Mind if I ask what you were talking about?

[forgottendecade]

Both eyebrows rose and Joji looked back at the big man - who is thumping his chest and muttering about a heart attack - and then back at Vimes. He looked up at the sky and the rain clouds and thought about what it had sounded like. The irony wasn't lost on him as he starts to laugh and then tries to control himself.

"What do you think you were hearing, Officer?"

[fabricati_diem_pvnc]

"Rather than speculate, I'd rather hear it from you. Any answers I come up with probably won't paint you out in a very good light right now."

[forgottendecade]

"I've been thinking of buying a building that has room enough for my own auto shop," he replied, still smiling and stuffing his left hand into the pocket of his jeans. "Mr. Matthews is showing me a couple foreclosed buildings that he wants to get rid of."

[fabricati_diem_pvnc]

"At 3am? On an anonymous street corner in the rain?"

[forgottendecade]

"We were at a bar about a half hour ago," he said, shrugging. "And it seemed like a good idea at the time."

[fabricati_diem_pvnc]

"I see..."

The beast sniffed the air...then went back to sleep. Nothing was happening here, and Joji's words rang true. Vimes looked marginally less like he was going to arrest someone on the spot.