Chapter 9 –
Henry lay his head on his crossed arms, which were resting on his desktop. He was exhausted. It was nearly one o'clock in the morning, and it had been a very eventful night, followed by lots of paperwork.
"Hey."
Henry lifted his head to see George standing next to him, offering a tired smile.
"Hey." Henry replied lamely.
"I got a chance to talk to our friend once we had him in the cells. He explained everything." George pulled up a chair. "May I?"
"Of course," Henry said. Crabtree sat down.
"When he saw my picture in the paper, he started hanging out around the station and when he recognised me, began to follow me around, in hope that he would hear me mention the name of the man who killed his brother. Then, last night, he got fed up and decided to follow me home after work."
"So all those times when I thought I saw Nolan during our patrols?"
"It was his twin, David Nolan, following me."
Henry nodded.
"Couldn't he have figured out that your beat partner would have been the one to have gone to help when you were being held hostage?"
Crabtree shrugged.
"Maybe. But part of me thinks that David Nolan was unsure of his plan from the beginning. He knew he wanted to avenge his brother's death, but he didn't really want to kill anyone. I think that's why it took him several days to actually confront me at my place. And he was full of threats, but he had already been at my house almost an hour by the time you arrived. He wasn't going to do anything."
"Oh." Henry said.
"Speaking of which…" George continued carefully, "there must have been some reason you came over tonight."
"Yeah." Henry said. He began uncomfortably adjusting some of the papers on his desk. "I…I came by to apologise. I felt bad about how I treated you earlier. You didn't deserve any of what I said. I was just…still trying to deal with Nolan's death and everything."
"Henry, you don't have to apologise…"
"Yes I do," Higgins insisted. "especially after you refused to give up my name to someone who threatened you with a gun. You could have been killed."
"Well, like I said, I didn't think he would actually do it…"
"That's not the point." Henry said.
There was a moment of silence.
"It's no more or less than any other member of the constabulary would do for a comrade." George said.
"Right." Henry said softly. "But I still feel terrible about what I said to you yesterday. Not only did you risk your life for mine, you saved us both by talking down an armed gunman."
"Well, you saved us once, and I saved us once. That makes us even." George said with a smile.
Henry gave a short laugh. George had every right to throw Henry's treatment of him back in his face, but he didn't. It was admirable.
"It's late, we should both get home and go to bed." George suggested with a smile. "After all, we have to be back here in –" He checked his watch, "—less than six hours."
Henry groaned.
"I guess it's unlikely the inspector will give us the day off."
"You're probably right." Crabtree said with a nod.
So the two decided to pack it in for the night. They got one of their friends to give them a ride back to George's place, where Henry picked up his bike.
"Well, it's been an interesting night." Henry said, retrieving his bike from the tree in the front yard. "I guess I'll see you bright and early."
George gave him a smile.
"Have a good night, partner. See you in the morning." He shook Henry's hand, and then headed inside.
As Henry rode his bike home, he could hardly believe what had transpired since he'd ridden down the same route towards George's house several hours earlier. Despite having been held at gun point, Higgins felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. And despite being physically and mentally exhausted, he hadn't felt so alive in weeks.
The next day, Henry and George had a difficult time keeping the previous night's events low key. Both men refused to talk to the press, out of respect for David Nolan and his late twin.
At one point, Henry walked into the lunch room to overhear McDonald and Keller discussing the incident.
"So Crabtree needed Henry to bail him out again?" McDonald asked, "I don't get why this kid is in the constabulary. He's a liability."
"That isn't what happened." Henry said, walking up from behind his colleague. He wasn't about to let McDonald slander his partner, especially not after last night.
McDonald looked up in surprise.
"And you don't know what you're talking about. Crabtree is an asset to this station house, and if it weren't for him, I could have died last night."
McDonald let out a nasty laugh.
"An asset? I'll believe that when I see it. You know, you don't have to keep defending him just because you feel sorry for him. We all know he is too weak to do this job."
"He may not beat up everyone he encounters on the street, like you do, McDonald, but guess what! That doesn't constitute a good police officer! George managed to save both of our lives last night just by listening and talking to the guy. I'm not just going to let you talk about him like that anymore."
"Are you joking?" McDonald asked after a moment.
"Does it look like I'm joking?" Henry asked, his fists clenched.
McDonald looked at Keller, who just shrugged.
"Okay, fine. Maybe you two are more alike then I thought." He grabbed the rest of his lunch, and pushed past Henry, leaving the room. Keller stood up.
"I'm glad you're both okay." He said.
"Thanks." Henry said quietly. Then Keller followed his partner out of the lunch room.
Henry sat down in disbelief of the fact that he had just stood up to McDonald for the first time in his life. He knew that this would have a serious effect on their friendship, and possibly on his friendship with Keller as well, but he knew it was the right thing to defend his partner.
He hadn't noticed Detective Murdoch sitting on the other side of the lunch room, observing the conversation, or him standing and moving over to where Henry now sat.
"Good afternoon, Constable Higgins." He said.
"Oh, hello, sir." Henry said, starting to stand out of respect. Murdoch waved him off.
"Relax. I'm just leaving. But, I was wondering…might I take your earlier statements about Constable Crabtree as a retraction of your request for a new partner?" The detective smiled warmly at him.
Henry gave the detective a grin.
"Yes sir."
"Excellent. That's a good partnership, if I may say so. I expect I'll see great things from the two of you." He gave a tip of his hat and walked away.
Henry tried to picture George and himself as detectives, and had to smirk. Perhaps one day they would be solving crimes themselves, but for now, he suspected they both had a lot to learn before they reached that level.
