Chapter 3

My head was much clearer in the morning, even though I only had a few hours of sleep. After having a shower, I felt fully awake and ready to make amends for what transpired the night before. I grasped my smartphone from the bedside cabinet. For a moment, I gazed at the screen. I was floundering in calling Nick. What if he doesn’t want to speak to me? I needed to compose myself on what to say to him. I took a deep breath and sat down on my desk chair before pressing the fast dial button.

After a few rings, he answered. “Hey mate, good morning,” Nick gleefully said. I could barely hear his voice from the noise in the background.

“Good morning, Nick,” I replied, querying why he was so cheerful.

“Mike, it was the ‘Mass Airflow Sensor”, he screamed with delight. “I have been working on the car since seven this morning. I removed the sensor and inspected it. You can’t imagine how much crap I dug out, which was blocking the airflow. I gave it a good clean before re-installing it. Now the car runs fine, but we’ll need to replace the sensor.”

“What about the race? I lost the race?” I responded.

“We’ll get them next time. I’m sorry.” He was speechless for a while. “I overreacted last night.”

I was quiet this time. I thought I had lost my best friend last night.

“Mike, we’re good right,” Nick said, with anxiety in his voice. “Is it ok if I come around your house? We can go together and buy the airflow sensor for the car.”

“That will be good. That will be perfect!” I shouted into my smartphone.

Swivelling the desk chair around to face my laptop, I pressed the power button on the device. I impatiently waited for it to start up. ‘I need to get myself a new laptop when I get my student funding in September,’ I thought to myself while I waited. Once it was ready, I opened Mozilla, guiding the trackpad pointer to the bookmark’s car parts shop. I did a quick search for a mass airflow sensor for our car. When I found the part, it showed in bold red, ‘one in stock’. The price was £129.95.

I checked my wallet to make sure that my debit card was in it. Then I remembered I had exchanged the money I had in my account for Euro for our trip. I checked my bank app on my smartphone to see how much money I had in my bank account. There were only fifty pounds in my savings account. It wasn’t enough for the car part we needed. I pulled the desk drawer open to take one hundred euros from the travel money I had. When I lifted the Europe guidebook, which was on top of the envelope with the money. My eyes widened when I noticed it wasn’t there. I emptied the drawer. Still, there was no envelope. I removed everything from the other drawer’s. The cash was gone.

I turned and stared at the bedroom door for a moment. “Frank!” I yelled as loud as I could.

I was out of my room in a flash and rushed down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. I could hear whistling. It was coming from the kitchen. As I entered the kitchen, I knocked a chair aside, which was in my path. Frank was preparing something on the counter. He had his back to me.

“Where is it, Frank?” I yelled.

He paused what he was doing. “Where is what, Mikey?” he sarcastically said.

“My money, Frank? Where is my money?” I could feel the heat on my cheeks from my rage.

He carried on with what he was doing, with his back still turned. “Ask your mother when she gets back. She’s gone shopping. Maybe she took it,” he sneeringly laughed.

I went behind him and clutched his shoulder to turn him around. He swiftly turned and buried his fist into my abdomen. I went down on one knee.

“I took the money, you little shit! Do you think you’re going to stay here for free!” he screamed down at me.

I looked up at him. He was standing over me, inches away. He had his hands rolled into fists. I kept my balance by pressing onto the floor with my left palm. I used it to force myself up as I rushed forward, like an athlete starting a sprint race. I went headfirst into Frank’s gut. He didn’t know what hit him. We both went flying back onto the kitchen table.

I was on top of him, pinning him down. I had my left hand wrapped around his neck. The other hand was up in the air, formed into a fist. “Where is my money, Frank?” I yelled.

He just stared at me.

My fist came crashing into the side of his face. I could see the Fear in his eyes, but still, there was no answer. The second blow came down, striking the side of his nose. There was a crunching sound, followed by a flow of blood. I repeated myself with more anger in my voice, “Where is my fucking money, Frank?”

He struggled to get away, but I held him down. He managed to free himself from my grasp, scrambling out of the kitchen towards the house entrance. I vaulted over the table, pursuing after him, a few strides behind him as he opened the front door. I stormed into his side. We both went toppling onto the front lawn. I tried to clutch him again, but he was booting and pushing me back in a frenzy to get away.

“Come here, you spineless bastard!” I screamed.

Abruptly, I felt someone dragging me back. It was two of my neighbours striving to hold me down from attacking Frank. I shrugged them off, but it was too late. Frank was already halfway down the road. I stood there, clutching my sides as I tried to catch my breath as I watched the coward run away.

A few of the neighbours came out of their houses. Their eyes glued on me. The guys who pulled me off tried to establish what occurred by asking me questions. When I waved them off, they let me be. They both went back to what they were doing in their front gardens.

I didn’t go back inside. I sat on the front doorstep until Nick came. When he arrived, he parked the Beamer in front of the house and got out of the car. Nick made his way towards me. As he approached me, the smile on his face faded away, turning into shock when he saw me.

“Is that your blood on your T-Shirt, Mike?” Nick worriedly said. He sat beside me, putting his hand on my shoulder.

My chin dropped down to my chest to check my T-shirt. “No, it’s Frank’s blood.” I tried to wipe it off.

“What happened, Mike?”

“He took my money, Nick. He stole my fucking money. When I approached him to give it back, he denied that he had taken it at first. Then he dared to tell me it was for my living expenditure. So I kicked the shit out of him.”

“Wow, where is he...?”

Nick didn’t have the chance to finish his sentence when two police cars pulled over and stopped in the middle of the street. Blue lights were flashing on and off. Frank was in one of the vehicles, in the back seat with two police officers in the front. From the other police car, two officers climbed out of it. They unceremoniously strolled towards the house, stopping a couple of metres in front of us.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” the older officer said. “Which one of you young men is Michael Porter?”

I slowly got up. “That would be me, officer, “I said, the tone of my voice a murmur.

The senior official said, “My name is Sargent Wright.” Indicating to the officer next to him, he continued, “This is Officer Smith.” Who looked not much older than me. Removing a small notepad and a pen out of his pocket, Sargent Wright said, “what happened, son.” I told him briefly, what occurred, as he took notes. Once we finished, he closed the notepad. He took a deep breath before he spoke, “You will need to come with us to the station, Michael.”

I nodded my head.

After removing a pair of handcuffs from his vest pocket, he turned me around and put them on my wrists. “That’s not too tight, is it?” he asked.

I slowly shook my head.

“Is that necessary, Sargent?” Nick protested.

“Don’t worry, Nick. Call my mom and tell her what happened,” I said while being escorted to the police car. Frank sat in the other car with a smirk on his face as he observed what was happening.

Nothing was said by neither of us on the journey to the police station. When we reached our destination, the officer driving was instructed by Sargent Wright to park the vehicle in the station’s courtyard, near the back entrance of the building. I got out of the police car, and I noticed the other vehicle with Frank inside didn’t follow us. Sargent Wright led the way, with me following, while Officer Smith was behind me. After climbing some steps and along a narrow corridor, we arrived at some offices. After seeing the nameplate on the desk with ‘Sargent Wright’ engraved on it, I presumed it was the Sargent’s office. Officer Smith removed the handcuff while Sargent Wright sat behind the desk, most of it covered in files. On the left corner of the table sat a monitor and a keyboard. The Sargent ordered me to take a seat opposite him.