The Law

Sam looked doubtfully at the two men in front of him. He was both daunted by their ferocious demeanor and uncertain of their ability. But his own ability to catch Ralph was a proven disaster. Ralph had to be stopped. "I will help, but I'm not sure what I can do."

"What sort of weapons does Ralph have?" asked Hiro.

"I've only seen him with a knife. But that doesn't mean he hasn't armed himself differently now."

"Was he known to use a gun when you were chasing him? Is he a good shot?" This time it was from Kisho.

"No, but how good do you need to be with a Tommy gun? They can spray bullets across a wide area."

"What do you know about his habits?" asked Hiro.

"He likes to dance. And drink, like I said before. I think he plays cards a little."

"Drink what?" asked Hiro.

"Whiskey, usually. But he sometimes just goes for a brew. You know, beer."

"Any idea what he was doing with the stolen body parts? You said you didn't find them, did he destroy them? Have them in the car with him? Take them with him when he fled?"

"No idea. I know that his hands were empty when I was chasing him through the mountains. There was nothing in the car. It was a stolen vehicle. We never did track down his last place of residence."

"Speaking of that. What sort of house would he choose to live in here?" asked Kisho.

"He grew up kinda rich. His dad is a doctor married to a debutant. You know debs?"

"No," said both men in unison.

"Society girls. Come from good families. Money. Ralph's mother's family were doing okay until the stock market crash. Then it all fell apart for all of them. Buying on margin, trying to get richer, quicker. They still had some of their properties, but it didn't leave them with enough cash flow.

"Anyway, it wasn't enough cash to keep Ralph in his nice loony bin and the cheap place had low security. Actually they had no security. Ralph just walked away during the dead of night."

"How much time do you spend at The Station bar? You ever seen Ralph there?" asked Hiro.

"I mostly drink up here." Sam looked around the room at the empties attesting to this sad fact. "I don't really want to talk to people. I was supposed to be a good detective. Didn't work that way, though."

"You might still be a good detective. What we have found here is that the Boss's influence only goes so far. You can be what you choose to be. You can be a drunk cop or you can be a great cop. You choose. You are now the Author of your life. Unless the Boss calls you back into action." Hiro was surprised at how often people didn't realize that they were more than mere characters. At The Station, they were who they would choose to be.

"You mean I'm not forever left with the story of the Boss? I can actually do something here?"

"Yes. What would you like to do?" Hiro tried, with little success, to keep the smile out of his voice.

"I would like to catch that bastard."