Page 52 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Thrown for a Loss

She turned away from Waylon, leaving me to make some hasty
arrangements with him to secure the area, and then hustle along to
catch up with her again. What happens when you drop a bunch of
coins straight down? Don’t they bounce off in all directions? That
could mean in this case they weren’t exactly dropped, but thrown.
But why then did she say that some of them could have gone toward
the escalators? Just being thorough? Wouldn’t a shower of coins be
more likely to jam the up direction? Or did she mean that she
considered the possibility that the coins could have intentionally been
tossed in two directions, away from the landing as a diversion, and on
to the escalators to jam them? But she hadn’t been talking as if she
considered any possibility other than the button being pushed.
I also wondered about finding only quarters. Wouldn’t the average
person have an assortment of coins rather than just one kind? I
would guess that smaller coins make a higher-pitched noise when
they hit the floor, getting more attention. But that might be
outweighed as a distraction by the greater value of a quarter. On the
other hand, dimes and pennies would be more likely to find a shut-
off sensor if someone wanted to take the chance of stopping the
escalator that way or creating confusion among the people riding it. I
tried to remember if the emergency stop button remained locked
after it had been pushed, but that memory escaped me. It was all very
confusing. I joined Labelle just as she was taking one of the mall rats
over to the bench for questioning.

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“What is your name, please?”
I could see that the youth was struggling with the usual adolescent
demons. He needed to know how to act in a situation where he was
powerless but didn’t want to show it. It takes patience to get beyond
that when you deal with older teenagers. I learned that the hard way,
as I said before. Labelle Gramercy couldn’t be bothered. Her manner,
her voice, her body language—all of it broadcast, “I’m the cop,
you’re guilty unless I decide otherwise.” That would get some uneven
reactions from these kids, who were already putting up a brave front,
usually over the top, in my opinion, against the bullies their own age
and the disapproving adults at home and school. In my own life that

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