The phones had been mostly quiet all night except the usual calls from Missus McGravery complaining about skateboarders in front of her house and a few calls from farmers over a dispute. Ben Cimson hadn't expected to play secretary when he joined the police academy, instead he envisioned himself out on the field solving crimes and prevailing with justice. Part of him knew that his aspirations were slightly based on the fact that he had read far too many comic books as a kid, but he believed in everything that the police were. Interestingly enough he found that the police of Harrow Hall were anything but about peace keeping and bringing justice, instead they preferred to play jokes on each other and on their time off loved to go down to Avalanche to get drinks, or even head over to the casino for a couple of hours. Whereas Ben genuinely looked forward to going to work, hoping that one day he would finally be put out on the front line so that he could help serve and protect.
The phone rang again, Ben instinctively picked it up on the first ring and answered in the most professional manner, eyeing his radio that was sitting on the top of his desk. At first the call was just static, and then the person spoke clearly into the phone.
"There's been a robbery at Ice Queen, there are four suspects with guns," The voice said before hanging up.
"Excuse me, ma'am, can you tell me if they are inside or outside of the building? Have they discharged their weapons? Ma'am?" Ben said, checking to see that the line was still active, only to hear the dial tone. He looked over to see if there was an incoming number, but it was unknown. Usually they had a way to intercept unknown calls, but for some reason this time it hadn't worked. Ben stood up from the desk and announced what he had been told, alerting his coworkers behind him.
They all perked up, grabbing their things as they rushed out of the doors. Ben reached for his radio, but Officer Carlson turned to him and told him to stay put to man the phones. Ben was reluctant to stay behind, wanting to be a part of the action and to finally be free from the office, unfortunately tonight was not going to be that night. He shrunk back and sat down in his chair, watching his coworkers ready themselves before each hopping into their cruisers, taking off with their sirens blazing. Ben wondered why anyone would rob Ice Queen, of all the places in town, especially now that the bank had longer hours in the evening to accommodate the tourists that soon would be coming through town on their way to Brook. He sighed, balancing his pen on his fingers instead of doing the required paperwork – it was the least of his concerns right now. A few minutes had passed of him feeling sorry for himself, wondering why he had ever gotten into this career if all he was ever going to do was answer phones, when suddenly the phone went off again. Ben was the only one in the station now, so maybe he would finally get his chance to get out of the office. He answered as he usually did, but this time the voice on the other end of the phone was panicked.
"There's – been a robbery at the Metropolitan Bank," A frantic man said, trying to catch his breath.
"Take a deep breath, sir. Can you explain to me what happened? Is the robbery still in process?"
"No, no, they just left – two people, I think a man and a woman, they were armed with a knife – they had masks on," The man said as he stammered through his words.
"Was anyone injured?"
"No, well – they took a teller hostage and she's got a cut on her throat, but we're all okay. They just took off down Main Street towards Birch, I believe."
"Thank you, please stay put and lock the doors. We'll be right there," Ben announced, slamming down the phone and grabbing the keys to his cruiser. He had just freshly vacuumed it and figured that there was no better way to have someone in the back seat.
Ben jumped in his car and flew down the road, passing the bank slowly but wanting to find where the perpetrators had gone. He sped down Main Street until he arrived at Birch, making a sharp turn onto it as he saw brake lights ahead of him, the truck swerving slightly on the road. He figured that must have been who he was looking for and flicked on his siren, the cherries flashing blue and red into the quiet town as they settled down for the evening. He sped up to the back of the truck, which was now speeding up even more.
Inside the truck happened to be John, Hadley, and Atheson – who was not keeping calm whatsoever. He kept telling John to drive faster, demanding that he turn onto the next street. John tried to slow down enough to make the turn but slammed into a sign and knocking it to the ground. He managed to steady the vehicle, getting it straight onto the road as the cruiser quickly missed the sign that had been downed and followed right behind the truck.
"We need to pull over," John said, but Atheson screamed no at him. "I'm not going to do this, I refuse to be a part of it!"
"Too late, Johnny boy, you're now an accessory to a crime, which means you'll be seeing plenty of time behind bars," Atheson snapped, looking over his shoulder at the police cruiser that was right on their tail.
"I don't care," John snapped back, taking his hands off the wheel, Hadley quickly intercepting and trying to realign him but over correcting. John looked over to her, about to ask her why she was going to let herself go down for something her father had done, but when he looked back in front there was an elderly man crossing the street. John shoved Hadley's hands out of the way and managed to swerve around the man in time, causing him to step backwards.
John quickly peeked up to the rear view mirror, and that was when it happened. Ben had been following so close that he didn't have any time to react, he clipped the side of the elderly man and sent him flying through the air, while Ben quickly tried to swerve at the last minute and drove onto the sidewalk before hitting a hydro pole, decommissioning the vehicle as John, Hadley, and Atheson drove away down Shirley Street to safety.