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----- Part Five -----
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The first hour or so of the shift were fairly uneventful. The pair chatted idly about nothing in particular, eventually settling into doing their paperwork in silence. Occasionally, they snuck a look at one another when they thought the other wouldn't notice. Unfortunately for Susie, on one of these occasions, Jonesy felt her eyes on him.
His pen stopped writing. Susie tried to look away, but she was too late. He looked up, and caught her staring at him, smiling.
"What?" he was slightly uneasy, unsure why she was looking at him.
"What? I'm not allowed to look at you?" a coy smile escaped her mouth. He squinted back.
"Depends."
"On what?" He dropped his pen, crossing his arms.
"On why you're looking." Susie tilted her head, confused. "So…?" he motioned with his hand for her to explain. She shook her head to communicate that she had no idea what he was talking about. Jonesy spoke slowly, his words spaced out to patronise her. "Just now. Why were you looking at me?" The phone rang. Susie snatched it up. Jonesy sneered at her.
"Saved by the bell." He whispered. She ignored him.
"Mt Thomas Police, Senior Constable Raynor speaking… " Jonesy grumbled jokingly, standing up. He leaned across her desk slowly, grabbing her mug and taking it away to the mess room. When he returned, Susie was scribbling something down, and standing up.
"Okay, thanks Mrs Johnson. We'll be right round." She hung up. "We've got a bunch of drunken 'louts' " She made air quotes, mimicking the elderly woman's language, "breaking into a car on the street, laughing and talking loudly." She headed for the door, Jonesy hot on her tail. She paused in the doorway, her hand on the car keys. She turned, looking cheekily at Jonesy. "You look cute when you're concentrating." With that she slipped the keys off the hook and whisked out the door, leaving Jonesy at a complete loss.
Realising what she meant, he followed her, smiling slyly to himself.
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The callout was nothing like they expected. They arrived to find three guys sitting in the gutter, drinking beer. In front of them on the nature strip sat a huge plasma-screen TV, a football match in progress on the screen.
"Phwoar, look at the size of that telly." Jonesy exclaimed as they pulled up in front of the house. They exited the car as the three guys let out a cheer, raising their beers to the screen and high-fiving each other. Jonesy strolled over to the football-watching trio, thumbs in his belt.
"What's going on here, boys?" They started, not noticing his approach. None of them seemed worried, they all greeted him. One even saluted.
"G'day, mate. What are you doin' here?" The other two returned their attention to the footy. Jonesy snuck a look at the footy scores, before continuing.
"Someone reported a car being broken into. You blokes know anything about that?" One of the men raised his hand.
"Yeah, that was me. Locked me bloody keys in the car." Jonesy frowned, confused.
"So you just smashed the window?" The guy stared at him like he was an idiot.
"Well, yeah. We were locked out of the house and the footy was about to start." Susie butted in.
"About that… this is your TV?" she pointed to the plasma.
"Yep. 110cm." He stated proudly. Jonesy exhaled approvingly. "Still got the receipt if you don't believe me." He started to get to his feet, but Susie waved him down.
"No, no, that's fine. It's just that… " She paused, "why do you have it out on the street?"
"Oh. Well that air con's broken, so it's bloody boiling inside. We thought it'd be nicer out here." Another bout of cheering erupted from the other two men.
"Go the mighty dogs!" one of them yelled, reaching for another beer.
"You're gonna have to keep it down a bit fellas, there was also a noise complaint made against you." Jonesy informed them with a polite smile.
"No worries." One of the men grabbed the remote, turning the volume down. Susie laughed.
"Well, as long as you keep the noise down…" Jonesy started to wrap it up, motioning with his head to indicate to Susie that their work was done. "and you realise that you're in no state to drive tonight-"
"No, sir." Chimed in one of they guys, saluting once more. Jonesy continued.
"We'll leave you guys to it." With that, they bade the men goodnight and went on their way. As soon as they had started the engine, they heard another cheer from the guys the curb. Susie rolled her eyes.
"Who cares? We'll shut 'em up if old Mrs Johnson rings again." She muttered lazily, hanging a u-ey. Jonesy scoffed.
"She was probably asleep by the time we got there."
"True."
"So what have you got lined up for your morning off?" Jonesy asked, eyeing Susie curiously.
"Hmm…" she explored the idea with a smile on her face. "A sleep-in sounds pretty good right about now." Jonesy nodded in agreement, stretching out in his seat.
"A sleep-in sounds really good." He too looked forward to it with a smile. The rest of the trip back to the station was silent, both of them exercising their own fantasies about their morning off.
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