Chapter 184 - What are you doing with my sister? (1)

10 February, streets of City K

John Nang sat in the passenger seat of the patrol car; with the uniform general duties officer he had been assigned patrol with. This, for him and his team was meant to be a means to ensure that they did not become separated from other police members and could pitch in with general duties when there was a need.

The problem was, particularly for him and his trusted staff members the last few shifts they had been assigned were with rookie officers on patrol duties. They spent more time explaining matters to these rookie officers rather than doing what these shifts were designed to do, keep general policing skills up to date.

What was more concerning, was the arrogance of the head of general policing when he confronted him over this before starting this shift. The words even a couple of hours later rang in his head "Who wants to do a patrol with people who see us as dirt. You kept us in the dark a few weeks ago about something and palmed most of your staff onto us. Why would we be accommodating to you. You get what we assign you, and rookies it will be from now on."

Keeping hidden what happened to Matthew and Lexi, while necessary has impacted some within the general duties' division trust of his team, but what could he do. Annoy senior military people? That did, not only his group any good, but in the end, it harmed policing in the city, let along throughout the country. The training teams such as his received was invaluable. They could perform the duties that they were assigned but could call on military assistance when matters were outside of their skills.

John knew brooding on what had happened was inappropriate as he was taking his frustration out on someone starting their career. He remembered what that was like, and it was simply his academic skills that allowed him to progress his career as quickly as he had.

Before John could speak, the officer said "Sir, there is a car parked over there. I think we need to investigate the situation."

John looked around quickly and realised that during their patrol they had made their way into parklands. His immediate response was "Why?"

After a couple of seconds of silence, the officer said "Sir, we are in a remote area of the city park, it is close to midnight, and I spotted what I believe to be an expensive vehicle. If my quick glimpse was correct, then it would mean that the vehicle is likely stolen and been dumped there."

John realised that he was paired with a smart rookie, quickly observing and could come up with an explanation. Whether he was correct or not did not matter. "So, what is your plan?"

"We need to go back to the location, run the license plate, determine if there is any report of the vehicle being stolen, and safely approach the vehicle to see what we can do."

Knowing that this was standard practice, John simply responded "Proceed."

Over the next few minutes, they found out the vehicle was a Ferrari Portofino and that it was registered to Lexi Yao. As soon as John heard this, he said "Let me make a telephone call." He just hoped Matthew and Lexi would not kill him for making this call.

Pulling out his mobile, he quickly dialled Lexi, and heard her answer "John, it better be good."

"Apologies Lexi, do you know where your Portofino is?"

"My Ferrari? Andrew borrowed it from my collection, apparently, he had a date and wanted something special. He firstly wanted my Bugatti Veyron, which I refused. There is no way I trust him with that vehicle, let alone letting him loose with my Lamborghini Aventador and Urus, the Aston Martin DB9, DB11 or Vantage or any of my Porches or any other Ferrari, or even the Australian or American Mussel cars. You know he cannot drive them well, and my collection is precious. I took the time to learn how to drive them well, but Chester and Andrew never learnt how to drive such vehicles. After the disaster with the Aston Martin DB7, I banned both Andrew and Chester from any access to my collection without my permission, unless they take the lessons, I constantly offer them to learn to drive such vehicles correctly, but you know those two. Andrew asked, and I allowed him to borrow the Portofino and as is booked in for a service on Monday I figured that any mechanical damage that idiot causes can be dealt with then. He just must pay for that damage or any physical damage he does to the vehicle. Why?"

"I am on a patrol tonight and the officer I am with spotted it parked in a remote area…"

"He better not have damaged it or let it be stolen. I will kill him if he has."

"I will let you know what I find out. I better let you go, or Matthew will kill me …"

"You better do that John."

John paused and decided to end the call as he could now hear Matthew in the background, angry about them being disturbed. "Thank you, Lexi, and I apologise for disrupting you and Matthew." John ended the call and placed his phone back away.

"What was that about sir?"

"The vehicle owner is one of my friends, so I called her to find out information. Getting the information from police records as to whether the vehicle was stolen or not would have taken five times as long as what I did. Here is a lesson, for you to take on. What I did is not something you always do. You must weigh up multiple matters, that will be unique to the circ.u.mstances of each case, to determine if it is appropriate. In making my decision I considered the time of night. We both know that trying to find out that information from the police station will take five times as long as during the day given the minimal administrative staff on duty or not."

"The other problem is that, if it has been stolen in the last few hours there may not even be a report. We also must look at the value of the vehicle, consider the location we observe it, and any other information we know. The owner is a friend of mine, and in fact I am godfather to her son. I trust her response. The one though that you would never have found out is it will be protected information is her current husband, also a friend of mine, is a senior officer on the military base. As police officers in this city, we need to be conscious of keeping a good relationship with the military."

Seeing the look on the junior officer's face John continued "Do not think that is about dismissing crimes committed by military members or on them. Regardless of what anyone may tell you, we investigate them the same as any other crime. The issue is, and this is when we liaise with the military police is who handles the prosecution of the case, the civilian or military court? That prosecution authorities work out."

"But getting back to what I was trying to say. You need to apply the knowledge that you have, that comes from our job, as equally from our personal lives. So, what I did was fine here, when I weighted up everything, but it may not be the correct decision in another. It is always a judgement call and making those is something you will develop with experience. No one can teach you how to make them. But we know that the vehicle was borrowed by the owner's brother to go on a date. That means we have two options. The vehicle had been stolen while the owner's brother was in somewhere or…"

"Is he so called parking."

"Correct officer. Let us park away from the vehicle and approach it on foot to determine the situation."

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