Always: You'll Never Walk Alone by Keith Whiting Page B

it is.”
    “Well, would you like to tell us what is so important?”
    “Err… no sir, I’m sorry I can’t.”
    “It’s obvious he’s lying. No one would give this little thief six pounds”, Mr. Mortimer interrupted.
    “Please, sir, I’ll do the questioning. Now you said you had ten pounds and the boy here only has six, he couldn’t have spent four pounds between Kingston and here. Is it possible it’s not your money?”
    “Absolutely not. Now arrest this boy and return my money.”
    The policeman turned back to me.
    “O.K. son, now you’re going to have to give me an explanation as to how you came to have this money, or I’m going to have to take you in.”
    “But I told you… It’s the truth.”
    “I’m afraid that’s not good enough, if you can’t do better than that we’ll have to let a judge decide.”
    “But…”
    “Look, I need my money back now. I can’t wait for a judge. We leave first thing in the morning.”
    “I’m sorry sir, it’s not up to me, we can see the judge tomorrow afternoon.” He picked up the money. “You’ll have to come with me son.”
    And taking a hold of my arm, he led me out.

 
    Chapter Six
     
    We walked along the dark streets, the snow blowing in our faces. Reaching the police station, we went inside. There were two constables sitting by a small stove. “What have you got there, Sarge? Looks like a dangerous criminal to me.” The constables laughed.
    “I don’t know about that but, he’s been accused of theft by a gentleman down at the coach stop. It seems a little unlikely based on the evidence, but we’ll have to let the judge decide tomorrow. For tonight he’s gonna stay with us. Do we have anyone in the jail tonight?”
    “Just Willie, he’s drunk again, he was causing a disturbance down at the Guild hall, so we thought we’d keep him in for the night to sleep it off. He won’t be causing any more trouble tonight; he passed out as soon as we locked him up.”
    “Alright let’s put our master criminal in with him then.”
    One of the constables picked up a large ring with a bunch of keys and took me through a dimly lit corridor, unlocked a steel door and ushered me through, locking the door behind me. I don’t know how long I stood there in the darkness not knowing what to do. Slowly, as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I could just make out a sleeping figure, in the far corner. This was obviously Willie. He was so still he could have been dead but he let out a loud snore and muttered something unintelligible so I guess he was still breathing. I heard a scampering by my feet. Looking down I saw a huge rat sniffing around my wet shoes. I kicked out with all my might, and with an indignant squeal, it disappeared into the darkness. There was no heat in the cell and as the shock of my situation finally hit me, I started to shiver. I sunk down to the ground and hugged my knees, finally falling into a disturbed sleep. I dreamed of rats biting my face, and Mr. Mortimer accusing me in front of the judge, and Sarah chained in a room, rats climbing over her body… and then the constable was back with a cup of hot tea and some bread. It was morning and a grey light filtered through the bars high up on the wall. He went over to Willie and shook him out of his sleep, putting a cup of tea down next to him. “Come on Willie drink this and be on your way.”
    Willie seemed quite comfortable where he was, pulling his coat over his head he went back to sleep.
    I ate the bread and sipped the tea. Just as I finished, the door opened. It was Jim. “Hey Stephen how’re you feeling? He looked around the cell, the dirt floor, the drunk in the corner, the rats and the stink of urine and worse. “Guess you’ve been a lot better. Well I’m here to let you know I’m staying until you see the judge. Mr. Mortimer has to stay anyway so I told the Chisholms that we couldn’t leave ‘til later. They weren’t too happy but they don’t really have much choice do