AN ALMIGHTY, CRIMINAL CAPTURING SYSTEM

Chapter 7 Corrupted

Dave came back to the present moment when he heard the screech of brakes of the police jeep, only to realize that they had arrived at the precinct.

Feeling proud, he got down and escorted Noah out of the jeep, only to be greeted by his colleagues.

"I guess Dave finally opened his arrest record with a bang, huh?"

"Getting a high profile criminal and getting his revenge, now that's something else!"

"Yeah man, I guess all he needed to jump into action was a little push from our side!"

By this time, they had entered the precinct, and Dave was enjoying the attention and flattery quite a bit.

He handed Noah Stone over to one of the constables and instructed him to put him in lock- up.

"He is an A- list criminal from the auction theft, who managed to escape from prison. Lock him up for now, and we will be getting the statements from people tomorrow morning."

"Yes sir!"

The constable saluted him and led Noah inside, who felt even more humiliated, being dragged around like cattle.

"Leave me, you even have a chance to save yourself now! Are you listening, Walters? This is your last warning, otherwise—"

"Otherwise what? Look, plenty of people were threatening me inside the Plaza Hotel, that I won't be able to arrest you. And what happened, I was able to do it, wasn't I? So you can blabber as much as you want, but you are definitely going behind bars."

As two other constables arrived to take the suspect inside, the team of police officers erupted into cheers.

"Whoo! Look at that! He shut him up so smoothly!"

"Honestly, Walters, I thought you were quite a loser. But you're actually kinda cool!"

As soon as their group stepped inside, talking and laughing loudly, Dave's eyes fell on a beautiful girl sitting near one of the officer's desks across his own.

This girl was sitting beside another girl of the same age, and they seemed to be friends.

Her friend was crying while getting her report filled out, and the girl was comforting her by rubbing her arm and whispering something softly in her ear.

On hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, she turned her attention towards the door, only to end up making eye contact with Dave.

She gave him a small smile out of embarrassment, and then turned her attention back to her friend, trying to calm her down.

Meanwhile, the officers hadn't noticed anything, and continued to joke amongst themselves;

"I bet the commissioner will be confused whether to scold him or give him a freaking medal!"

"Haha! Walters, you're gonna give us some credit, right?"

But Dave's attention was somewhere else entirely – he was quite taken by the girl, and wanted to showcase himself in front of her.

Trying to raise his opinion in the eyes of the girl, Dave winked at them, saying,

"Are you sure, you just want the credit? Because I was planning to treat you guys to a party tonight, all expenses on me!"

There were loud sounds of cheering and jeering, but Peter cut them off,

"No no, Dave, that's not necessary. We were just doing our duty, right? Nothing special. So don't waste your money on such silly matters, you will need it later."

Peter placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it, signaling that he understood the burden on Dave's shoulders. Anyway, their salary wasn't much, and he had not even received the bonus from this arrest.

But only Dave knew that he had just gotten ten thousand dollars into his account, and he was in the mood to celebrate. After all, this day wasn't going too badly.

"No, Pete, it's no big deal. This is money I can spend, and I want to celebrate with everyone."

In reality, Dave wasn't the kind of person who liked to spend unnecessarily or just for the sake of showing off.

But for now, he was feeling happy that finally, he had enough money in his account to be able to settle the loans he had taken out to supplement his meager salary.

And most importantly, he could pay the school fees for his little sister, Morgan… in fact, this was enough to pay the fee for her remaining years in school!

But before their celebration could happen, someone interrupted;

"Officer Walters? Commissioner Ronald wants to see you in his office."

Thinking that he must be wanting to praise him or talk about the evidence of this case involving Noah, Dave entered the office with his head held high.

However, the atmosphere inside the office didn't match his expectations at all. His superior was frowning with a fierce look of disapproval on his face, and as soon as he walked in, he barked;

"What the hell did you smoke today? Are you high, or just stupid!"

"Boss, I just arrested a high profile criminal–"

THWACK!

"You idiot! If you don't have a brain of your own, couldn't you have at least borrowed mine for some time? The first thing you should have done, after this shitty idea came to your head, was to call me!

If you had the common sense to inform me first, I would have told you to go as far away from this case as possible."

"But sir, he is a–"

Commissioner Ronald raised his hand to slap him again, but controlled himself by balling his hand into a fist, as he scolded harshly;

"Shut your trap! He isn't any common man, whom you can put any blame on! He is one of the members of GOMM!"

Dave's eyes were wide with realization, while his cheek was throbbing due to the impact of the slap.

GOMM was an underworld ring, which was involved in all kinds of shady businesses.

So… he was being punished for arresting a criminal?!

Meanwhile, the Commissioner continued,

"Yes, you pile of shit! Do you think it's a coincidence that we have shut down the investigation? Now if you have any shame left in you, apologize to Mr. Stone, right now!"

Hearing this a smirk danced on Noah's face, as he spat and continued to mock him, as he added;

"See! This is what I wanted to warn you about, that a worm of the gutter like you can do nothing to throw dirt towards me! No matter how many times you try to squirm, you are the one who'll end up in deep shit, while I am as spotless as ever.

If you had heard it back then and accepted my warning as your fate, you wouldn't have been humiliated like this."

He paused for a moment, as a silent chuckle left his mouth and he continued;

"But now there is another tip for you, from my side. Hm… you may consider it as a warning also! But keep this in mind, that even though my wedding ceremony has been ruined by you, don't you ever dream about getting married to her.

If she can't get married to me, then don't even imagine that there will be more than zero percent chance of her getting married to you… that's what a loser like you deserves– to be dumped and humiliated!"

Commissioner Ronald scolded him again,

"If you had to stand here like a dumb statue, then get out! And don't show me your face, ever again! Out, NOW!"

Being bullied and berated like this, Dave didn't even have anything to say. All his happiness was drained out of his face, as he walked out of the office.

Seeing his droopy shoulders and downcast body language, Peter assured him.

"Hey, Dave! Did you get scolded again? Just let it go, don't be so upset…"

Lee, who was usually quite sassy and liked to provoke Dave, also said and expressed his sympathy.

"Yeah man, we know how shitty this system is."

Peter tried to console him,

"What can we do? Everyone here is corrupted on some level, and hopefully, things will improve soon. Till then, we can just do our jobs and hope for the best."

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