You'd Have to Ask - 7. Chapter 7

Monday Morning

Cole feels great as he gets up. He is in his uniform and ready for work. He drives to the Tim Horton’s and grabs a bagel and a coffee.

At work Cole logs in, he is assigned Mark as a partner today. His normal partner is away and so is Mark’s. He doesn’t mind the two of them always manage to find something to do to keep the shift interesting.

They attend role call and find out what they are concentrating on today. They are told it is Seat Belt Awareness Week. “Oh great, that means we get to stop about a hundred cars today!” Cole says under his breath. “My hand is going to be sore from writing tickets”

“That’s why we love the job Cole!” Mark says softly. “Besides it is a great way to meet people!” he jabs Cole in the side.

Cole thinks to himself, yeah a great way to meet people. He smiles at the prospect.

They sign out all the required stuff, laden down they head to their car. Cole locks the shotgun in place. Then he does a radio check. Mark does the vehicle inspection.

“Flip to drive?” Mark says as he pulls out a quarter.

Cole hates this game. He always loses. “Tails, the odds are on my side this time!”
Cole remember the first scene from a movie he saw, two guys are in a horse drawn cart, one guy keeps flipping a coin and it keeps coming up heads. He smiles it is one of his favourite movies.

“Heads!” Mark says, he kisses the quarter and goes to the driver’s side.

When they are underway the first thing they do is get another coffee.

Mark steers them down the main drag. Cole is carefully watching for seatbelt use. The shift always has a contest to see who can issue the most tickets. By lunchtime they have managed to tag people for their errant ways. Of course most of their customers curse them and ask if there is something better they could be doing with their time.

“So what did you guys wind up doing yesterday?” Cole asks.

“Oh had to go to the in-laws, that is always fun!” Mark laughs. “Well at least Mary’s brothers and sisters have kids too, there was a swarm of them there”

“So it was worthwhile then?”

“Yup, time with my family is always worthwhile” Mark says, “So now you know what the married people did on Sunday, I need to know what excitement you had on the weekend.”

Cole laughs, it’s the same with his normal partner, the married guys re-live their single days through their single friends.

“Not much, went mountain biking with Lance, you remember Lance?”

“The fireman Lance, cool”, Mark wants to ask why Cole would hang out with a fag, but knows better. “That means you had some energy left after Saturday night!” Mark says with a grin.

Cole doesn’t get a chance to respond. The radar unit picks up a vehicle, which is exceeding the speed limit. In Lacombe the radar guns are mounted in the front of the car, this way they are always on.

“Mark picks up speed and pursues the car. Cole checks the tag on the computer to see if there are wants or warrants.

“Negative hits” Cole says out loud, so that Mark is aware of that too.

When the car pulls over. Cole grabs his hat and gets out. He walks slowly up to it. He is watching the driver’s head to see if he is planning to do anything. When he gets to the window he asks the driver for his license, registration and insurance.

The man hands it all over. Cole leans in close to the guy and asks some question. He is checking out the inside of the car and also trying to see if he can detect alcohol on the man’s breath.

Cole gets back in the car and checks out the guy on the computer and finds nothing.
Cole writes out the ticket. The guy wasn’t rude or uncooperative so he gives him a break on some kilometres.

Walking back he hands the man his ticket and documents.

“Try and keep it down” Cole says “and have a nice day”

The man’s car chirps as it takes off but Cole sees that the man doesn’t appear to start speeding again.

“One for the good guys!” He says as he gets back in car. “How about some lunch?”

“Never thought you’d ask” Mark says.

“They go to a place that Mark frequents. They both have coffee and club sandwiches.
“So, you never did tell me how Saturday night went” Mark says.

“We had some wine and talked, what’s there to know?” Cole says.

“Talked, that’s it” Mark continues his questions, “Did you spend the night?”

“No comment” Cole says, he is trying to hold back the smile.

“Aha!” Mark says.

Cole is desperate to change the subject now. He doesn’t like to lie. Not telling the truth and letting Mark come to conclusions is the same as lying to him.

“So this afternoon, how about I drive and you do the leg work?” Cole says.

“No, no buddy, you are not getting off that easy” Mark smiles.

“Look I don’t ask what you and Mary do on Saturday night,” He says and then with a smile he adds, “It’s inappropriate”

Mark laughs as they both just came off sensitivity training. That word figured predominantly in it.

“Sure bud, you can drive or we can” he stops and fishes out a quarter “We can flip for it”

“No fricking way Mark, I am never flipping with you again!” He laughs.

The rest of the day is non-eventful. Twenty-seven people wound up getting tickets for seatbelt violations. They were not even close to winning. Some other guys set up near a bridge where people had to slow down. They checked and managed to pull over about fifty people.

Back at the station they finish up their paper work and get ready to leave.

*****************

Cole managed to work with Mark for the rest of the week. Nothing eventful, just a lot of people pissed off about seatbelts. Cole faithfully read the book every night. He started to feel more at ease.

Cole also started keeping a journal. He noticed the he was having bad thoughts lately. Not really bad thoughts but irrational ones. At work the Criminal Code and his training guided him. However in his dealings with people he knew he found he was starting to read things into what they said. Cole had never been afraid to be open and up front with people. However he was finding that these irrational thoughts were draining him.

Cole figured that maybe it was because he wanted to act out his gayness. Maybe another trip up to Edmonton is needed. He decided Friday afternoon that that was what he was going to do.

After a quick workout, Cole ran home and packed a bag. He called Kat and left a message to say he was going to Edmonton for the weekend.

Cole got some CD’s and hit the road. He planned to make it in time to get a room and a half decent dinner.