The Scapegoat - Part Two.

The Scapegoat – Part Two

It was 1.25am when the phone rang, it was the police! They said they had Daniel our 15 year old son, that he’d been arrested! I told the police woman, “That is the best news I have ever heard!” She was clearly taken aback! And replied, “The best news you have ever heard?” I said, “Yes for we thought he had been killed, or seriously injured.” I was SO relieved!!!!

I asked her what had my son been arrested for. She said, “She wasn’t sure she could tell me.... I said, “How can my son be arrested and you not tell me what he is suppose to have done!” She said, “One moment I will find out if I am allowed to tell you,” a few seconds later she came back to the phone and said, “Daniel has been arrested for theft!” I was shocked and said, “There is no way he would steal!” I asked if I could come and see him now she said, “No, he will be interviewed tomorrow morning and one of his Parents can be in the interview room with him,” I told her it would be me, she went on to tell me the interview would start at 09.30 tomorrow. I didn’t even know where the police station was! She gave me directions.

The time now was 1.45am Meghan, Daniel’s sister couldn’t wait up and had gone to bed, so on our way to bed she had heard us coming up the stairs and had asked if we had heard anything, I quickly told her, “Daniel had been arrested for theft, and that I would be with him tomorrow in an interview.” Meghan replied, “He’s stole nothing, he would never do that!” I said, “We know.” We went to bed.

Five minutes after we went to bed, we heard a car pull up, then we heard doors slamming and footsteps then we heard BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! On our front door! I jumped out of bed and putting my dressing gown on as I was walking down the stairs within seconds then I heard it again, BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! I shouted, “OK, I’M COMING!!!!” And I heard  laughter! I opened the front door and saw, three policemen, I said, “I know why you’re here, it’s to bring Daniel back,” and one of them replied, “No, it’s to search his bedroom!” I said, “At this time of night?” He said, “Yes.”  The three of them them came into our Living Room, Paul had now joined me and as we all stood there, the little one with the big nose said, “Your son had committed a serious crime, I saw him with my own eyes attack a man and stole his phone.” I quickly replied so it was, a case of ‘Stop! Camera! Action!?’ ” I asked him what he was doing there! He replied that he just happened to be there at the time of the incident.”

Then his two colleagues, left the room and went upstairs, I decided to go upstairs too, as I didn’t trust them for I thought they may plant something, and Meghan was in her bedroom. She told me later they had opened her bedroom door but hadn’t gone in.

As I was walking up the carpeted stairs, they didn’t hear me and I heard one of them say, “She only called the police, because she thought he was dead!” And the other one giggled” I was now at the top of the stairs  and shouted, “I DON’T THINK THAT’S VERY FUNNY!!!!!!” “YOU CLEARLY DON’T HAVE CHILDREN, OR YOU WOULD UNDERSTAND!!!!!” They said nothing. I asked them, “What are you looking for?” And the blond one replied, “The man’s mobile phone that was stolen.”

They found two very old phones and asked me if, I’d seen these before, I said, “yes, I’d bought them a long time ago, from eBay they are both broken now”, I told them they could take them if they wanted to, one of them said, “We don’t need to take them, we just wanted to know if you knew about them”, I told them, “I did.”

I didn’t sleep well. The next day I was up early. I had put in a little bag a small unopened bottle of water, an unopened packet of biscuits and the unopened bag of jelly babies sweets I’d bought both kids the day before. I would ask the police if I could give these to my son for they could clearly see on inspection that they were all unopened.

I arrived at the police station in plenty of time, parked the car, and walked through the doors of the police station for the very first time.....