A nervous sweat was breaking out across the top of his forehead. Patrick looked around the police station with uncertainty and fear. He had been arrested the evening before and spent the night in a holding cell. Now, he was sitting on one side of a table, occasionally glancing at the miserable looking officer sitting quietly on the other. The officer – Harrison according to his name badge – was reading some notes. After what seemed like an eternity, the miserable one looked up at him.
‘So,’ he began with a grimace, and shaking his head a few times, left to right. ‘… a peeping Tom hey? You know you’re in big trouble. You’re 19 years old Patrick, and that makes you an adult offender.’
‘It’s not what it looks like,’ came the predictable response. ‘I’m not a peeping Tom.’
‘No? Then how do you explain the binoculars, and the fact that a neighbour witnessed you standing behind a tree outside Miss Stanton’s home, and peering through the binoculars at the ground floor window – that just happened to be her bedroom?’
‘It’s … not that…. It’s … complicated.’
‘And the only light in the house that was on was that bedroom light.’ Harrison was blunt and sceptical.
Patrick shook his head. ‘No!’ he cried out with more volume that he should have. ‘It was not the only light on. The porch light was on too: it’s always left on there.’
Harrison seemed to ignore that detail and continued with his evidence. ‘And the witness has taken photos of you and supplied them to us as well. You are standing there peering through the glasses that are clearly pointed in the direction of the light.’
‘It sounds bad when you say all that – but that’s not what happened.’
A loud sigh rushed through Harrison’s large nostrils. ‘I’m all ears,’ he offered, in a cynical tone.
Silence filled the room. Patrick was struggling to find the best way to explain what happened.
‘Son, you’d better start talking or we will simply charge you – and it’s an open and shut case, as far as we’re concerned.’ Another pause. ‘Come on then: what have you got to say for yourself?’
Patrick was fretting. His nervous energy was growing. Suddenly he burst out with his reply. ‘It’s all about my Canadian Mounted Police Pin!’
Harrison looked lost. A quick shake of the head was followed by, ‘Your what?’
‘My Canadian Mounted Police Pin – my lucky charm.’
Harrison rolled his eyes. ‘Go on.’
Patrick could feel the disbelief coming from his adversary. It made him even more nervous.
‘Well, I used to date Lizzy… um… Miss Stanton. Even though she’s a couple of years older than me, we dated for nearly a year – until recently.’
‘A few months back I gave Lizzy the pin as a gift. It was a big thing – my grandfather had been a Canadian Mounted Police officer before migrating to Australia, and when I was little he gave me this special pin that all the Mounted Police there wore on their uniforms. It meant the world to me.’ He paused and spoke more softly. ‘But Lizzy meant more. So I gave it to her.’
Patrick stopped and looked like he might even cry. He contained it, and went on. ‘I gave it to her as a symbol of my love. I’m no peeping Tom. I love her still. I was not there last night to perve on her. I’m not like that.’
Harrison breathed a loud sigh. ‘I still can’t see how anything you’ve said helps explain your actions with the binoculars.’
Patrick was scrambling for the best way to say what he needed to say.
‘She took the pin and seemed genuinely grateful at the time. And she said she would hang it on her front door of her house, for good luck, and to keep her safe. You know, that kind of thing.’
Harrison shook his head as if to say, ‘I’m listening’.
Patrick pressed his lips tightly together and then with determination he poured it all out.
‘And she did. I saw it there every time I visited her while we were still dating. It was kind of nice to see it hanging on the outside of the house, over the door mantle. ’ He let out a long sigh before continuing. ‘Anyway, about a bit over a week ago, we had a big blew and she broke it off with me. It was the weirdest thing. I’m still not entirely sure what it was all over. The argument we had didn’t seem that big a deal at the time. I clearly upset her with something I said or did, but it seemed like a massive overreaction. But she was … so… fixated… and we broke up that night. I was devastated. I rang the following day to apologise but she wouldn’t talk for long. She said she was tired of me and needed a break. She said she wanted to find someone a bit more mature, a bit older. I was hurting big time. I asked if I could give her a call in say a week’s time, to see if she might have – you know – changed her mind by then. She said “if you have to – but I’m not getting back with you.” Anyway, I waited the week – that was really hard to do. Then I rang back to see how she was feeling. She was still, you know, distant, and upset with me. It was then that I reminded her of the pin and how much that meant to me, and how much she meant to me. And then she said a really hurtful thing. She said, “You can have your god-awful pin back if you want. You know what? I’m tempted to toss the stupid thing away.” I begged her not to, but she seemed to sense the pain I was in, and … she seemed to even enjoy it. I said I would come and get it, but she said it might be gone by the time I got there. And then she said that if I set foot on her place, she’d call the police and have me arrested for trespassing.’
‘Let me guess: and that brings us to last night?’
‘Yes! I went around after dark, and I knew that the front porch light would be on, as always. I figured that if I could confirm that she had not thrown the pin away I would risk sneaking in and retrieving it, and then leave again. If it was not there, then what would be the point of even doing that? That’s why I was behind that tree with the binoculars, to look for the pin. Not to perve on Lizzy.’
Patrick was listening to himself as he spoke. He wondered if any of this was convincing Officer Harrison.
Harrison responded. ‘Hmm… and … was the pin still there?’
‘I thought I caught a glimpse of it reflecting under the small porch light. I was trying to focus the binoculars more when the police car pulled up. I never got to get it, if it was still there.’
Harrison let out another of his signature nostril snorts and sat back in his chair. He stared at the frightened young man in front of him.
‘I’ll send an officer around to the house now. If the pin’s there, they will retrieve it (with Mis Stanton’s permission – you did give it to her after all so it is technically hers) and we’ll check the details of your story. If it’s not there, we’ll ask her about it.’
‘What happens after that?’ asked Patrick.
‘We’ll see…’