Being Butch Green || ✓

Chapter 21 - A Deal is a Deal

A sinking, defeated feeling washed over my body as I sulked in the chair, glaring across the table at my three questioners. This was not what I envisioned would happen when I returned the file. And God only knows, I've delivered it straight into the hands of the wrong people. If this deal could get me out so I can stop Galgort and stumble into the arms of an ASIS officer, then that's exactly what I would need to negotiate.

"So, Butch," Buller said, flipping through my police file on the table. "Where do we even start with you? Graffitiing of public property, stealing of classified information, murder, and the evasion of a police arrest? How on earth did you manage all that? Please, do enlighten us!"

I studied the depths of his chilling blue eyes. They were cold and hard as if a tragedy he'd suffered on the job made him stiff. I scoffed at him. "You're as hard as a brick covered in cow shit."

He gaped, rage filling up his face as it turned a beetroot colour. "How dare you!" He stood, slamming his hands on the table.

"What? You're too much of a man to come over here and fight a useless boy?" I antagonized. "Some goddamn useless cop you are!"

He gritted his teeth. "You're one hell of a stupid boy!" he coldly articulated, spitting on the table before me.

"And you're one hell of a cop who probably killed someone and got let off the charge!" I roared back. "Is that why Mr-Oh-So-Angry over here thinks he's king of the interrogation room and my welfare as a minor in all of this!?"

He fired his gaze at me and turned to storm around the table in order to strangle me. My eyes opened in anticipation as I intensely watched his every move. Why couldn't he just get on with it already?

"BULLER!" Haynes shouted grabbing onto his forearm.

He shook his head, his body following Haynes grip back into his seat. "I don't know if you can get yourself out of this one, Butch," he concluded.

"Watch me," I muttered coldly.

"We just want answers," Haynes said gently, making me fix my gaze upon her instead. "Anything you help us with would be greatly appreciated."

I leaned forward. "Where's the file?"

"Why?" Martin retorted quickly.

I shot him a raised eyebrow. "If you really must know, it was an accident."

"Oh, don't you get cocky with me boy!" he shot back, raising a finger.

"What was?" Haynes asked gently, interrupting Martin's muttered rant about the politeness of kids these days.

"Everything," I shrugged.

"You're gonna have to define 'everything', Butch," Buller interrupted.

I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Why don't you start by telling us what's in that file?" Martin suggested, a refined sense of calmness flowing over his body. "Or maybe where you got it from?"

I thought about it for a moment, shrugging. "Okay."

Surprised and satisfied, Team-Illegal-Interrogation pulled out their notepads and pens and waited.

"What would you like to know?" I asked, perhaps a little too knowingly.

"How'd you get that file. That's highly classified information," Martin said.

"I took it by accident. I grabbed the wrong one," I pointed at the file in front of them, "I thought it was that one I had grabbed."

Martin nodded. "And why would you steal your own file?"