You done good kid.

Alex lead Chloe into the security offices where John Anderson was waiting for him.

“Take her to holding cell 3,” he instructed.

Lucky for Alex, Chloe kept her mouth around his boss.

The holding cell was the most basic of rooms with nothing but a small tablet, two chairs and a CCTV camera pointed at the detainee. Leaving Chloe handcuffed there he told her, “I’ll be back,” and went back to see his supervisor.

“Good job on that arrest kid,” John began.

Fucking calling me a kid again, Alex thought irritably within his brain, we’re practically the same age.

“I was watching you on the screens to see how you’d do. I thought she was going to get away from you there for a minute,” John congratulated him.

“Thanks, boss. It’s just a matter of never giving up,” Alex bullshited. He’d given up long before and only found Chloe by accident.

“That’s the spirit kid! You’ll do great working here like that. How’d you go recovering the stolen merchandise?”

Yeah because working at The Sunshine Mall was his big dream in life! Pfft! “Sorry, she must have discarded it somewhere while I was chasing her.”

“Motherfucker!” John yelled slamming his hand into the wall next to him. There’s the former police officer after all. “Ah well, never mind, it’s not your fault. I’d better go down and explain what’s happened to the store manager at Andre & Gav.”

“What do I do with the girl?” Alex asked suddenly sweating on what John would say to do with his potential accomplice.

“Make her wait in the room for an hour or so and cut her loose. With nothing on her, the best we could get is a misdemeanour which isn’t really worth the hassle. Just take a polaroid of her face before you release her,” he instructed.

Alex cheered mentally on the inside.

John took one last look at the sweaty Alex before he left, telling him, “why do you take a break in the surveillance room for the next couple of hours. You look like you could do with a spell.”

Alex did just that, sitting on his oversized rear end in front of all the monitors. He didn’t bother watching the cameras though, that looked like the most boring job in the world staring at a bunch of people going about their lives buying crap. He did look at one screen though. The one with Chloe. She sat on the chair in the corner, her feet up on the desk, not knowing at what was going on outside her. Would she be let free like Alex had told her or was she looking at something far worse?