By Emma Russell

 Daniel Peters leaned against the ledge of the high-rise, breathing heavily. Below the smoke from his burning car rose high up into the air, blood trickled down the drain from a dead cops’ chest, sirens were gaining in the distance. Daniel had been set up. Set up by what he thought was his best mate, set up by his best friend. Lucas was Daniels best friend, or so he thought. Lucas had been involved in a chop shop. Lucas had been stealing cars, doing them up, grinding down the serial numbers and then selling them as though they were new. “Don’t worry, you can trust me. I wouldn’t do anything wrong mate, I never get caught, “ Lucas had told him. “Trust you, my ass,” Daniel thought to himself. Lucas had been a bit shifty as of late and the cops had picked up on that and realised what he had been doing. So Lucas, being himself, had sensed this and reported to the cops that it was Daniel who was running it, of course, with the appropriate fake evidence. That’s when the chaos started. 

Lucas had told the cops where Daniel was going to be so that they could arrest him and take him into custody. But the whole process had got a bit messy and Lucas had shot the cop in the process. Then he had taken off, leaving Daniel to take the wrap. Daniel had got to safety away from view, because he knew that just before the cop had died, he had called for reinforcements, because to both his and Daniel’s surprise Lucas had shown up. Daniel knew that they would be here soon.

 The sirens started to get louder as Daniel looked over the ledge to look at the cars approaching. They were closing in on either end of the street and were gaining fast. Daniel tried to get his breathe back as he listened to them getting out of the cars and turning off the sirens. He looked over the ledge again to watch them inspecting the scene. One of the cops glanced up in Daniel’s direction, inspecting all of the possible escape routes, and Daniel ducked just in time to avoid the cop’s eyes. Daniel peered back over the ledge a second later to see a spark fly from Daniel’s burning car and into one of the cops’ cars, creating a small fire that was growing by the second. That wasn’t too much of a problem, but the problem arose from the huge puddle of petrol that had leaked from Daniels car onto the road and was beneath that cop car.

 One of the cops spun around and saw the fire and yelled for the other to run. Daniel ducked behind the ledge to hear a huge explosion and a lot of black smoke rose up from what was once the engine. He listened intently to what they said. One of the cops said a few cuss words and then told the other to check out the area while he called the fire brigade and an ambulance. 

Daniel had to think quickly. There were only two ways off this rooftop, one safe, easy, but right in the cops’ direct line of sight; the other fairly dangerous and a long way from getting out of this joint if he did make it to safety. He decided to go with option B.

 He ran to the other side of the building and climbed onto the ledge, starting to lower his feet onto the balcony rail of someone’s apartment below. He jumped down and walked across the balcony and opened the screen door to the apartment. He made his way hastily across the room and walked out into the hall and pressed the elevator button. But as he waited there, he realised that he probably should take the stairs as the cop could be in the elevator if he was planning on inspecting the building. 

He ran, practically jumping down the stairs, going two at a time, stumbling occasionally, until he reached the bottom. He walked into the lobby, as casual as possible and made a dash just before he reached the cop, who was talking to the receptionist. The cop turned around, hearing the commotion and yelled out, “Hey, you, Stop! Come here!” Then he let open fire. Bullets shattered the doors and Daniel felt one whiz past and graze his skin. Lucky no one was there, or there would be chaos.

 Daniel ran for it. He ran out into the car park looking for someone who was getting into or out of their car. He was lucky enough to find a person just around the corner from the door. He dragged the man out of the driver’s seat and threw him onto the pavement, apologising as he did so. He then jumped into the driver’s seat, closed and locked the doors and took off.

 He flew out of the car park and around the corner, turning just in time to move out of the way of a semi carrying cars. He looked in the rear vision mirror to see the cop just exiting the car park, sirens howling.

He raced off down to the main highway, swerving and dodging cars when necessary. The little hula girl on the dash was bobbing everywhere. He had had the taste, or rather the luck, to get a Holden Senator as his getaway car. It was a black one with silver finishes and a beautiful leather interior. It was the kind of machine that he only dreamed of. 

He looked in the rear vision mirror again. The cop was getting further and further away now. He looked back out the front window to see an F-Truck right in front of him. Lucky he had trained his reflexes to act faster than his thoughts, and he swerved right to avoid him just in the nick of time.

 He darted in front of the F-Truck so that the cop couldn’t see him and he turned off at the turnoff for Tweed Heads. When he got to the base of the turnoff, he looked out his rear vision mirror to see the cop car go whizzing straight past the exit. Daniel was safe for now, but he needed to get rid of this car.

 He drove towards Tweed until he found a deserted car park along one of the back streets about half an hour later. He stopped the car at the furthermost point from the road and locked it, placing the keys on the ground below the door. He walked out of there and down the road until the came to the main road, across which was a shopping mall. He needed to get some things before he could do anything else. 

Daniel crossed the road at the light, after some waiting, and entered the shopping mall. It was massive, and every single type of store you could find was there. If he had a girlfriend he would take her here so she could shop to her womanly heart’s content. He chuckled to himself and then made his way to the food court; he was starving. He hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday, and that was a long time for a man who would eat a feast by himself. So he walked over into the food court to see what he could get. There was everything: Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Indian, African, Italian, and every single cuisine you could think of. But Daniel, being a simple man with simple tastes, walked straight past all the stores to a little one in the corner, which was serving sausage rolls, meat pies, steak burgers and basically everything that the typical Aussie would love as their dream diet, or for some it was a reality, judging by the size of the people lining up to eat there. He brought a meat pie and a coke and sat down at one of the stools.

Daniel thought as he was eating. He couldn’t go home; he couldn’t stay here either. He hated this situation. He would have to find Lucas. That would be the only way to get this whole mess cleaned up.  But first, before even thinking of where to look, he would have to find a car. He had seen a second hand sales yard about 500m away and thought that perhaps there would be the best place to go. So he finished his pie and threw the empty bottle in the bin and made his way out of the shopping mall and down the road.

 He got there in ten minutes. He walked into the yard and looked around; there was nothing but a load of bombs. He was about to leave when something caught his eye in the corner of the yard. He walked over to the car, which was a stunning Holden Monaro, a V8, in peak condition, as well as bright red paint and black leather seats with red leather strips down the middle, and with 18 inch chrome mags with red edging. The most unbelievable thing was that it said that it was only $22,000. It was amazing, straight off the market that thing would cost practically triple.

 A salesman tapped Daniel on the shoulder and asked him cheerfully if he would like to purchase the car.

“Yes, I would, but what is wrong with it?” Daniel questioned him.

“Nothing, I presume you make this assumption because of its low price?” he asked with that creepy, cheerful salesperson type of voice.

“Yes, of course. Why is so cheap then?” He was curious, but wanted to get away from this man as soon as possible.

“Because of the fact that its owner died while in the car. But when said owner was taken to the coroners, there was apparently no reasonable explanation for the death. The boss is extremely superstitious and does not want the car around, so it is going cheap, but no one will buy it because of its history, “ he said, looking a bit frightened of the car himself.

“Well I guess I’ll have to take it off your hands then, won’t I? Drive-away please!” Daniel said. He wasn’t superstitious in the slightest, except for perhaps his belief in jinxing.

“Great, now come inside and sign some papers,” the salesman said.

Daniel had been fortunate enough to have inherited a small fortune from his grandad that he had always kept for emergencies. If he bought the car now it would be ages until the cops would track him because of the purchase.

 Half an hour later Daniel drove out of the sales yard in his new car. Boy, was it a machine and a half. It had some real grunt. He drove out and to the beach where there was a car park right next to the water. He went and sat down on the sand for a while, to clear his head, but he couldn’t do that, so he thought about a plan.

 Daniel knew that Lucas would not think to go somewhere the cops wouldn’t expect. He wasn’t street smart like that, and he had always relied on Daniel to get him around and out of trouble. So Lucas would go to a safety zone. A place where he could be comforted. Apart from his house, which Daniel knew he wasn’t dumb enough to go to, the only place he could go would be his brother’s pub, Aaron’s pub, which was in Brunswick Heads. He decided that he would leave for there in the morning, but for now he would sleep in his car. He didn’t want to rent a place because the cops would trace that, but they wouldn’t think of tracking cars.

 He stayed on the beach that night until nine. The sun had set hours ago and it was really dark. He was just thinking about things. He had needed a break for a while now, so why not take one while he was working on being a fugitive.

 He got up from the sand finally and dragged himself back to the car where he dusted himself off and jumped into the passenger side so there was no steering wheel to cause discomfort while he was sleeping. He lowered the chair, locked the doors and then lay back, closing his eyes and just relaxing. Slowly he drifted off to sleep, pushing himself deep into the seat.

 He awoke to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. It was nine in the morning according to his clock. He decided that now was the time to get a move on down to Brunswick Heads, but first he decided that he would go buy some necessities. 

So he drove over to the IGA and brought some biscuits, some 2 minute noodles (which Daniel loved to eat raw), some water, a cap gun that looked like a real gun and some deodorant, which he could tell he needed by the checkout chick’s face as he lined up with his goods. He grabbed the paper and placed it on the counter out of habit, then realised that he could be in there and he didn’t want to know about that right now, so he placed it back on the rack, smiling awkwardly at the woman behind him.

 He walked back to the car, eating biscuits and drinking along the way. He put the groceries on the passenger seat and grabbed the deodorant and smothered himself with it. He was starting to get used to the smell and that signalled trouble. He hopped back in the car and drove towards Brunswick Heads. He would be there in an hour.

 He arrived at Aaron’s pub an hour later and parked the car outside. The pub was closed on Mondays, so it would be only Aaron and Lucas inside, if anyone. He walked in to hear Lucas, who was at the bar, say, “Hey, can’t you read? We’re not open, like the sign…” Lucas stopped mid sentence when he saw Daniel’s face after he emerged into the light.

“Hello Lucas, “ Daniel said in a deep and frightening tone.

“Danny, buddy, I was comin’ to getcha, just that those damn coppers were after you so I didn’t want to go back and…” Lucas stopped the fake, whiny voice when he saw Daniel’s eyes. He wasn’t going to forgive.

“Yea, well you little conniving weasel. I know the truth, so don’t you try to bullshit me,” Daniel said, feeling his anger rise again.

“I didn’t think you’d be smart enough to come here, Daniel, you know, playing that whole ‘honesty is the best quality’ act ‘n all. I thought you’d have owned up to my deed,“ Lucas said in a mock voice, realising that Daniel wasn’t here to play.

“Lucas, just because you couldn’t find a shrink that works miracles, don’t take all your crap out on me,” Daniel said irritably.

“Ha, Ha. Oh my gosh Daniel you always were a riot, weren’t you?” Lucas said, yet again in a mock tone.

“Why’d you do it Lucas?” Daniel asked, sounding more humane.

“Because you were too easy, too trusting. You are so naïve when it comes to trusting people that it’s not funny. You have no idea and you believed me, “ he said, really ticking Daniel off now.

“You know what Lucas? I stopped trusting you a long time ago. That wasn’t it. It was just that you are enough of a bastard to lie to your friends,” Daniel said angrily.

“Yeah well, guess what? I’d rather have to throw your life away than mine,” he said reaching for the phone.

“I wouldn’t do that Lucas,” Daniel said. His hand was hovering over a bulge in his jacket. Daniel could see Lucas’s eyes darting to it and then to his face. Daniel had been smart enough to stuff the cap gun he had brought into his pocket so that he could deceive Lucas. “We can do this two ways Lucas, my way, or the highway… to hell,” Daniel said.

“Oh you are so funny that I forgot to laugh. You are so…hmm…what was that word?...Oh right…pathetic!” Lucas said, trying to convince himself he was brave.

Daniel took a step towards Lucas and pointed the gun at his heart. ”You don’t scare me Peters. I’ve been hurt before,” Lucas hissed.

“Oh really,” Daniel said coolly, changing the gun’s direction of fire to Lucas’s head, “but I guess this time you won’t live through it to tell the tale.”

Lucas thought for a second, looking at the door, trying to think of a way out, but then looked at Daniel’s eyes. They were steely cold, and full of rage.

“I’ll do whatever you say!” Lucas yelped at Daniel.

“Coward…where are your balls? Try being fired at by a cop…huh? Try dodging through traffic to escape them…huh? You don’t have balls, “ Daniel said, raising his voice.

“Please don’t shoot me. I’ll tell the cops it was me, please?” Lucas whined.

“Come on creep, move!” Daniel yelled at Lucas shoving him towards the door.

 Outside Daniel told Lucas to call the cops. “But why?” Lucas asked shaking; the cap gun was pressed up against his head now.

“Just do it. Trust me okay? Oh sorry, that’s right you can’t!” Daniel said shoving his mobile at him.

Lucas shakily called the cops and told them to get to Aaron’s bar as quickly as possible. Then Daniel relaxed. He didn’t mind having an attitude, but he was much better at being kind.

“I’m going to put my gun in my pocket now okay? Now you run off, you’re dead!” Daniel said, placing the gun in his pocket. 

The sirens started to approach a second later. Daniel held tight onto Lucas’s wrists, which were covered in sweat.

“What seems to be the problem boys?” the cop asked, studying the situation.

Daniel shoved Lucas forward and poked him with his finger, knowing it felt like the gun to Lucas.

“Um…officer, have you heard about the Cop gun-down at Coolangatta? Yep well the man behind me is suspected of it and…” he paused, but Daniel shoved his finger into his back even harder, giving Lucas a fright,” and…ah, the man behind me was blamed for it, but I set him up.”

“Pardon me?” the cop said.

“I set him up to take the blame for that. I did it okay, I DID IT!” he yelled and yanked himself loose of Daniel’s grip. He tore down the street and ducked into one of the alleyways.

“Is this true?” the officer asked, looking at Daniel’s finger still sticking out.

“Yes sir, I am so sorry, but it all happened so fast, and then I stole a car to get away and he thought my finger was a gun and I brought a cap gun to fool him…Oh I’m in so much crap,” Daniel blurted out, really worried.

“That’s okay. I’m sure we can help you, but for the mean time, don’t you think we should go get your friend?” he said with a good natured grin. He could tell Daniel was sincere. “If you want I will ride with you, in your car, to catch him, that way none of the other cops can put you in a cell.”

“Yes sir, that would be great,” Daniel said grateful for his understanding nature. He had always thought that cops were stupid. But maybe they just weren’t given a chance. 

Both Daniel and the cop looked down at the alleyway when a large crash echoed though the street and Lucas drove out in a Ford Escort. “Let’s get a move on huh?” Daniel said to the cop, running to his car. Both he and the cop jumped in and Daniel reversed out and speed off down the street after him. “Nice car. My names Matthew, I might be able to help you from time to time from now on, because for the next few months you will probably be going to a few court cases in regards to that stolen car, which I’m guessing wasn’t this one,” the cop said.

“Good guess,” Daniel said steering sharply to the left, down a road that Lucas had gone down.

 They speed down that street reaching about a 120km peak speed, because Daniel didn’t want to go any faster, for fear of other cars. They started to gain on Lucas and Daniel honked his horn. “Stop creep!” he yelled while practically bashing the steering wheel.

Daniel skidded into an alleyway as Lucas drove down it. Daniel knew this was a dead end. No way out. Lucas jumped out of the car, and leapt at the wall trying to climb it.

“You always were bad at climbing,” Daniel said smoothly.

Lucas turned around and flattened himself against the wall; there was no where for him to go.

“Righto son, come here and we won’t shoot, “ Matthew said calmly.

Lucas thought for a second and looked at Daniel, who was fuming. He then started to walk towards the cop. The cop handcuffed him and called for backup. ”Just another day’s work hey?” Daniel said. Matthew just laughed. 

Five minutes later, the cops were there and Lucas was in the backseat. “So why don’t you come and work for us as your sentence?” Matthew said.

“Sure, but is that possible?” Daniel asked.

“Sure is, you’ve committed a large offence with that robbery, but what you’ve just done would’ve given you some justice. Maybe, oh I dunno two years parole?” Matthew said.

“That’d be awesome. I hope that’s true,” Daniel said.

“I am a man of my word, trust me.” Matthew said, feeling as though the cop knew more about his situation than he was letting on. “I’ve been there, okay? How do you think I was inspired to become a police officer?” he whispered grinning. 

Many, many years later Daniel sat in his office going through papers. His secretary, Tammin knocked lightly on the door and told him that a man was here to see him. He told her to bring him in. She closed the door and a minute later it opened to reveal Lucas. Daniel stood bolt upright and said, “What are you doing here, your parole officer is down the hall, you know that!”

“Daniel, I came for a chance. I have cleaned my record, served my time and now I want to do something. I had a long time to think about it, and oh I did, oh…I did.” He said, pleading with Daniel, sounding extremely sincere.

“What makes you think I will?” Daniel asked him.

“Many years ago, you were in strife. A cop helped you, gave you a chance, even when the rest of the world didn’t believe you.  I want that same chance, a chance to wipe the slate clean, for someone, even if it is a cop, an old mate, to believe in me. To believe me. To believe that I can do something good. Please Daniel,” He said. This time both of them knew he was sincere. Daniel sat down and thought for a moment, with it looking like Lucas’s chances were getting slimmer by the second.

“Just one chance…” Daniel said grinning. Daniel got up and held out his hand for Lucas to shake. Lucas jumped up and shook his hand vigorously.

“You won’t regret this, Daniel,” Lucas said sensing the forgiveness that he had seeked from Daniel all along.

Daniel looked Lucas in the eye and sensed the same thing. With that he said, “Don’t worry, I can trust you.”