Chapter 3: My Village
"This is my favorite part of my morning run: Here by on the main street. Ah, look, there's Mrs. Faulker; she runs a boutique just down the street." Skinner pushed Nicholas' wheelchair down the brick-lined streets of Sandford and named each of the city's residents for Nicholas as they saw them.
"Did I meet her before my accident?" Nicholas asked. He looked straight ahead, though what he really wanted to do was to look at Skinner properly. As much as he wanted to keep an eye on Skinner, it was impossible to turn around in the wheelchair to look straight back.
"No, I don't believe you have, unless you spent some of your time off browsing for a party dress!" Skinner laughed heartily. "I'm joking, of course, I doubt you really had any time off, since you always seemed to be working."
"I suppose I was just doing my job." Nicholas replied flatly, completely ignoring Skinner's joke as he was in no such mood.
"Of course. Oh! This is actually not part of my run, but maybe coming this way will help you remember something." Skinner pushed Nicholas' wheelchair onto an alleyway. "I still distinctly remember you chased down a thief from my store through this way. I heard from Danny you were quite the hero, and pulled off some amazing acrobatics over some backyard fences."
"I see." Nicholas replied, unsure what to make of Skinner's story. What most concerned him now was that the two of them were effectively alone, in a back alleyway, with no witnesses; definitely a place he did not want to be at this time.
"Here at Sandford, we're very proud of our town." Skinner said with extra weigh in key places on the sentence. "We like our idyllic village the way it's been in the last twenty years, and any crime increase is a direct attack on each and every member of this community."
To Nicholas' surprise, Skinner stopped pushing the wheelchair and walked around to face Nicholas. Skinner's expression betrayed nothing of what he meant to do next, but there was no question in Nicholas' mind that what the merchant was about to say was most definitely not for Nicholas' benefit.
"We do everything we can to protect our village, Sergeant Angel. You could say we're quite possessive about our town. I'd like to believe that, as the new addition to the Sandford Police Service and being an exception officer, you will be a champion for that cause."
There was a pregnant pause while Nicholas tried to decide how to reply to this... suggestion. Thankfully Skinner's smile returned and he patted Nicholas on the shoulder. "Let's get you well as soon as possible so you can continue to do that job. Come on, I'll get you back to the clinic."
The trip back to the clinic was much quieter than the trip out, mostly because the town was closing down for the evening and everyone had gone. Skinner dropped Nicholas off at the front of the clinic after Nicholas' insistence that he could make it inside by himself and that he had already taken up too much of the merchant's time. Skinner smiled and waved like a seasoned diplomat before taking off.
Nicholas wheeled himself back to his room, where he saw a plush monkey was tucked comfortably inside his bed and dinner consisting of a sandwich and a glass of water was waiting for him on the over-bed table.
He pushed himself off of the wheelchair and hopped the rest of the way to the bed-side on his good leg.
The plush monkey was wearing a blue shirt with the words "I'm with Stupid" written on it. Nicholas shook his head as started to push the monkey to one side when he heard a conspicuous crinkle of paper from underneath the monkey's shirt. Nicholas got into bed and pulled the covers over him and the plush. Underneath the sheets he carefully felt for the hidden piece of paper from underneath the monkey's shirt, pulled it loose and tucked it into his waistband, all while trying not to disturb the top of the sheets.
Nicholas pulled the over-bed table towards him, but also made a show of knocking over the dinner plate from the over-bed table. The plastic plate did not shatter, but the sandwich was now just a mess on the floor.
"Towels, towels..." Nicholas scanned the room, then got out of bed again and reached for the crutch by his bedside. He slowly made his way to the bathroom down the hall, entered a stall and locked it behind him.
Nicholas took one last look around, checking for cameras. Even he did not believe the NWA was wicked enough to install cameras in a bathroom stall, but it did not hurt to check one last time. When he was convinced that he has selected a stall that was camera-free, he pulled the piece of paper from his waistband and unfolded it.
It simply read "Return me to the sea mine at midnight."
Damn it, Nicholas thought, how did he know?
Nicholas knew it was Danny who left this message for him, and last thing he wanted was to get Danny involved. The stunt car crash (which he learned how to execute during his advanced driving course at the academy, along with how to brace himself for a crash), and amnesia were both done for Danny's benefit, and he does not want the young police constable to find out, try to help Nicholas, and get on the wrong side of the NWA once again.
Even worse was that Skinner suspected something. Nicholas was sure the walk was more than just to verify he's lost his memory. Skinner pointedly wanted to tell him that he knew Nicholas was faking it. Though the fact remains that he has not yet been carted off by the NWA and chucked off a cliff, which was a good sign. This meant that Skinner has not yet convinced the rest of the NWA of his deception.
Nicholas felt the guilt hit him hard in the gut. Previously he thought he could carry on policing without having to resort to such tactics. As he told the school children at the primary school, the most important part of police work was "procedural correctness in the execution of unquestionable moral authority." It was a sacred creed he has kept true to since he started with the Met, but now it seemed more than just fancy verbiage. How could he execute unquestionable moral authority when he's a big fat liar?
The guilt he felt for lying to the NWA paled in comparison to the guilt he felt about lying to Danny. After all, the NWA did try to kill him, but Danny has done nothing but try to protect him. He didn't believe Danny would betray his trust, but the problem was that Danny was too guileless. The members of the NWA would be able to see right through Danny.
Well, apparently Danny can also read me like a book. Nicholas shook his head. Nothing in his conversation with Danny should have revealed his game, but Danny somehow knew.
Danny did have the good sense of hiding the note in the monkey instead of confronting him outright where the NWA cameras could see. He also had the good sense of choosing the only completely NWA camera-free place in Sandford to meet. After all, the NWA itself was headquartered in the police headquarters, and it was always staffed by a member of the police service, so the NWA thought it was unnecessary to install cameras there. Maybe Danny did not need as much protecting as he thought.
Towards midnight Nicholas took a hold of his cane and hobbled out of the clinic. His story—should anyone ask—is that he felt like he might have remembered something and felt it was urgent he took a look immediately. Once he was sure he was out of view from any of the NWA cameras—which were all conveniently marked by signs promoting the NWA—he picked up his cane and broke into a jog. He did sprain his ankle during the carefully executed car crash, just not as badly as he let on. It was another "safety net" he wanted the NWA to think they had over Nicholas. Since they thought he was immobile, no one would be monitoring his whereabouts in the middle of the night, which afforded him time to go meet Danny.
Nicholas snuck into the police station through one of the back doors to avoid Sergeant Turner at the front desk. Quietly he made his way to the evidence room, where the sea mine was currently kept. He waited until the door shut behind him before he made a sound.
"Danny?" Nicholas whispered. His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness of the room, where the only light source was the small window at the top of the back wall.
"So you didn't lose all of your memory." Danny said flatly. As Nicholas' eyes adjusted, he could make out Danny's silhouette behind the sea mine.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Nicholas was still going to make a go at trying to convince Danny he lost his memory. "Someone left me a note to meet them here."
"Well," Danny sounded more crossed now, "how did you know where here was again?"
Nicholas started to answer, but recalled the exact wording of the note and knew Danny had him.
"You tricked me." Nicholas chuckled. "So you weren't sure whether or not it was an act, and wrote down something I could only know if I had my memory."
"Well, I couldn't just come out and ask you now, could I?" Danny stepped around the sea mine towards Nicholas. "I know what you're trying to do, and it's really sweet, but I want you to know you can count on me on this, so you didn't have to lie to me."
"The second an NWA member asks you, you'll give away the game." Nicholas' voice went up an octave. "I don't want you in danger again! Not to mention Skinner pretty much told me he knows I'm faking it."
"Skinner?! Did he do something? Cuz if he did—"
"No, all he did was take me out for a walk, pleasantly threatened me with subtext and invaded my personal space." Nicholas sighed. "So nothing is new."
"Well, what's the plan then?" Danny leaned in, and—from the look in Danny's eyes—Nicholas thought Danny seemed to be enjoying his new mission a bit too much. "Are we going to start by blowing up the NWA headquarters? Do we take out a couple of suspects and interrogate them?"
"I don't have a plan right now, alright." Nicholas almost wanted to point out the NWA headquarter also happened to be Police Headquarters. Danny seemed noticeably disappointed at Nicholas' answer. "But since we're here, let's take a look around your dad's office. Maybe he has something around there to help us prove to the Met of what's really going on there."
"Okay! Let's go!"
"Shhhh! Sergeant Turner is still on duty. We have to be quiet."
Danny lowered his voice, but still seemed excited about being back on duty with Nicholas. The police constable opened the door to the evidence room and did his best ninja impression as he tip-toed down the corridor. Nicholas followed suit, but suddenly got a bad feeling he was being watched. As far as he could remember from visiting the NWA camera room, none of the cameras were trained inside or outside of the police station, so he quickly dismissed the idea and quietly followed Danny to the Inspector's office.