The Ilium Obligation (A Matt Savage Adventure) Chapter 19

[seymoure]

More than Enough

 

“Prejudice is the child of ignorance.”
-William Hazlitt 

The next call was even more troubling.

It was also the police, but this was a completely separate department.

“Mr. Savage, this is Sgt. Cranston over at the Plaza Precinct. Do you have a young man named Gerald Ang or Ong or something like that who works for you?”

“It’s Ng, and yes, he works with us,” I told the officer. “Is he alright?”

“We had a bombing here.” There was more than just suspicion in the voice on the other end of the line. “Mr. Ng is a chemist, isn’t he?”

“He is a scientist and works in many fields, chemistry being among them.”

The sergeant’s tone took on a “Well La-de-da” attitude, and I hoped that I hadn’t hurt Gerald while trying to protect him.

“Well, you can understand that when there is a bombing,” he laid it out for me with the subtlety of a lumberjack hacking away at an oak, “and we find a Viet Namese chemist in the same parking lot . . .”

“Gerald is Korean,” my anti-bigot radar was activating, “and he works at the college.”

“Be that as it may,” he hadn’t lost a step, “you will understand how we had to take him into custody.”

“We’ll be down to pick him up,” I informed him. “How soon will we be able to have him released?”

“Oh, the paperwork may take a few hours,” he stalled, with every ounce of “good old boy” glowering before him.

“I’ll be there in 15 minutes, and if he isn’t out, I’ll be talking to the chief of detectives, my old friend Lt. Lewis.”

There was a pause. Then I hung up.

I explained what was going on to Hugo as he drove. I saw a boil beginning in the big man and tried to soothe it.

But not much.

We pulled in and found Gerald standing on the curb, with a bundle of possessions clutched to his bosom. His face was puffed up on the right side, the same one with the blackened eye.

I thought Hugo was going to explode.

Rayleen took Gerald to the car while I followed Hugo into the station house.

“Cranston?” he growled and every cop there swallowed visibly.

The one nearest the big man pointed to a doorway and found something else to do, just like everyone else in the room.

When I caught up to the gigantic strides of my friend I saw a sergeant, looking like a scrawny bantam rooster looking up at Hugo.

The big man leaned down, whispered into the police officer’s ear and stood back, showing that he had not laid hands on the smaller man.

“Yes?” he demanded quietly.

The dwarfed individual nodded his head meekly.

Hugo turned to me saying, “Taken care of, Boss,” and we left.

I did get to hear the body of the policeman fall to the floor as he fainted.

I decided never to ask Hugo what he had said.

 

© C. Wayne Owens

       Continue on to Chapter 20

 

 

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