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"Ow!" Harvey exclaimed. "These are so damn tight."

"Serves you right for having broad wrists," I giggled, clinking my handcuffs together.

The constable ignored Harvey's remark and turned towards Jamie.

"I need a bigger pair. A men's one, not this kiddy one," said Jamie.

"No," was the constable's laconic reply as he clicked the handcuffs around Jamie's wrists.

"They aren't that tight," said Jamie.

"You have girlish wrists," Harvey scowled at him.

"Chief will be here as soon as he finishes dealing with the boatmen," the constable told us.

"How do you manage to work with that man?" asked Jamie.

I elbowed him in the ribs.

"He's my boss. I can't say anything about him," replied the constable, looking as serious as always.

Nonetheless, I got a glance of a small smile on his face, as he turned around and stepped out of the jail cell.

"Are you mad? What if he told him?" I asked Jamie, scowling.

"I swear he smiled," replied Jamie smugly.

"I think you are trying to get us deeper into trouble," I said.

"Nuh uh! I'm trying to get us out. Do you have a hairpin?" he asked.

"Why? Are you thinking of escaping?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied. "It's either escape or death."

"Don't worry, they aren't going to kill you," I said, laughing.

"But my dad will," Jamie said.

"Don't worry, you won't be alone," I said.

"You'll beg my dad to let me go?" he asked excitedly.

"Nope, I meant Harvey will be with you too, getting killed," I laughed.

"Can I just have the hairpin?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

I handed him one of the many hairpins embedded in my hair. I didn't want to aid a criminal in escaping, but I knew Jamie's efforts in unlocking the handcuffs would be futile.

I watched as he inserted the pin into the lock. He twisted it and jiggled it, and I smiled to myself at his naivety. He wasn't a spy or something. I was patiently waiting for him to fail, so that I could laugh at him.

My mocking smile turned into that of astonishment, as I heard a click and the cuff around his left wrist fell open. He looked up and beamed at me.

"Are you mad?" I asked.

"What?" he furrowed his brow, his smile vanishing.

"You are not going anywhere," I snapped.

"Why did you give me the pin then?" he asked.

"I didn't think you would be able to unlock them," I replied.

"My dad's cousin taught me to open all kinds of locks," Jamie said with a smug smile.

"Well, I'm not letting you run away. You'll get us into deeper trouble," I said. "And they'll put you into real handcuffs, which you won't be able to unlock."

"They wouldn't," gasped Jamie, feigning horror.

"With this stupid chief inspector we can't say anything. He might even chain your feet or something," I replied.

"We are going to get into trouble, that's for sure. Why not have some fun then. I'd love to see the look on the chief's face when he sees us with unlocked handcuffs," said Jamie.

The idea of deflating the police inspector's ego was quite tempting.

"I guess we can say the handcuffs fell off by themselves," I said.

"Yes, let's do that. We won't get into trouble for that," agreed Jamie.

"But the constable might. What do you think?" I turned towards Harvey.

He didn't respond. I smiled as I saw that he was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. He looked tired and his face twisted into different expressions, after every few seconds. He looked so funny that I laughed out loud.

"What?" he sat up with a jerk.

"What were you thinking?" I asked, unable to control my laughter. "You looked hilarious."

"I was thinking of many different ways my dad could punish me," he said tiredly.

He looked so unlike himself that I had to stop laughing.

"It wouldn't be that bad, would it?" I asked.

"You have no idea," he sighed.

"This is what I'm talking about," said Jamie. "We should run away."

"Will your dad beat you up or something?" I asked Harvey, unable to imagine sweet Mr. McDonald doing such a thing.

"No, but I'm pretty sure he'll make me get a job in the summer vacation," he sighed again. "Which is worse than getting beaten up."

"How?" I asked, astonished.

"I won't be able to go the lake with the others," he replied.

"Oh! I guess I have to save the day then," I said.

"How will you do that?" asked Harvey.

"By letting me set us free," replied Jamie.

"No. When the chief inspector comes, I'll tell..." I was interrupted by the arrival of the constable who had handcuffed us earlier.

"The chief inspector will be here in about two minutes," he announced and left again.

"Quick, unhandcuff us," I whispered to Jamie.

He fumbled with my handcuffs and unlocked them. I swapped places with Harvey who was not really enthusiastic about our prank.

Jamie hadn't even started when we heard the sound of footsteps on the concrete floor.

Nonetheless, Jamie grabbed Harvey's wrist and started working on his handcuff.

"Let go," said Harvey, panicking, as the sound of footsteps came nearer.

"No," Jamie whispered back and quickened whatever he was doing.

The left handcuff fell open. Jamie quickly returned my hairpin and I put it into my pocket, just as the chief inspector stepped in.

"What's the plan?" asked Harvey in a whisper.

"Just go with what I say," I whispered.

"So, it's time to call your parents now," the chief inspector rubbed his moustache.

"Thank you. You are so kind," I beamed at him, cringing inwardly at my gesture.

"Who wants to go first?" he asked, obviously enjoying himself.

"Me," squealed Jamie, and raised his right hand enthusiastically.

His handcuffs dangled from his right wrist, swaying to and fro. I had to bite my tongue to hold back my laughter at the look on the chief inspector's face.

"What happened to your handcuff?" he asked.

Jamie feigned an exaggerated expression of amazement.

He looked so comical, that I had to let out my laugher, or else I would burst. Luckily the chief inspector was busy staring at the dangling handcuff.

"It must have unlocked by itself," said Jamie, feigning innocence.

"I'll have someone check that," he said. "Come, follow me, he gestured the constable to unlock the jail cell door."

The constable unlocked the door and held it open for us. I got up and my handcuffs fell to the floor with a clank.

The chief inspector looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head.

I picked up the handcuffs and stood, looking uncertain. I had no idea why our little prank was effecting him so much.

"You, what about you?" he asked Harvey, his voice trembling a little.

"Mine are okay," said Harvey, stretching his hands in front of him.

But of course, his handcuffs were also dangling from his right wrist.

"There must be a ghost here!" exclaimed Jamie.

The chief inspector looked on the verge of tears.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to be surprised.

"Boo! I'm a ghost," said Jamie in an eerie tone.

The chief inspector jumped. He turned pale and whimpered, pointing at us.

Another whimper from the chief inspector set me off. My laughter was contagious and soon Harvey and Jamie joined me. We laughed till our sides ached.

The constable looked quite uncomfortable, trying to keep up his serious demanour. I could see he was bursting to laugh.

Our laughter was cut short by a loud thud. I looked up and saw that the chief inspector was on the floor, unconcious. That made us sober up at once.

"What happened to him?" I asked, aghast.

"I don't know," the constable rushed up to him to check his pulse.

"Is he dead?" asked Jamie.

"No, but we have to get him to the hospital," replied the constable.

He called the ambulance and we waited in silence.

For the second time that day, we heard loud sirens approaching us. But this time, the anxiety was different than the first.

The paramedics came and lifted the chief inspector onto the stretcher. The constable locked us back in the jail cell. He went to the hospital with his boss, and assigned a different constable in his place, who was specifically ordered not to take his eyes off of us even for a second.

We sat in subdued silence, thinking that we were in deeper trouble than ever before.

"Sir," Jamie called out to the constable timidly.

"It's Fred. 'Sup?" asked Fred, crossing his right leg and resting it on his left.

Jamie looked a bit taken aback at his frankness.

"What will happen to us?" he asked.

"Oh, you are probably going to get a death sentence," he laughed.

"Seriously?" I gulped. "I don't think we killed him."

"The chief will recover alright. But no one can fathom how his great mind works," said the constable.

"You think he'll sue us just for pranking him and get us a death sentence?" I asked.

"He sure will try," he replied.

"How do you know?" asked Jamie suspiciously.

"Cause he's my uncle and I've been living with him ever since I was born," the constable replied.

"I'm sorry," said Jamie, shaking his head as if he were consoling on someone's death.

"So, what's up with your uncle, huh? Why did he faint on the sight of unlocked handcuffs?" I asked.

"Don't tell anyone," he whispered, bending forward.

Jamie and I leant forward excitedly. Even Harvey replaced the tired look on his face with a curious one.

"Don't tell anyone," he repeated in a whisper. "Uncle has phasmophobia."

"Fear of unlocked handcuffs? I didn't know it existed," Jamie said, spoiling the effect of Fred's words.

"Idiot!" I scowled.

"It's the fear of ghosts," said Fred.

"I thought the fear of ghosts was spectrophobia," said Jamie.

"Same difference," said Fred, leaning back.

"Wow!" exclaimed Jamie excitedly. "I can think of so many ways to make him pay."

"No!" I exclaimed. "What if he has a heart attack or something?"

"That would be even better. Good riddance to bad rubbish," said Jamie.

I glanced at the constable to see if he minded. He didn't.

"You don't mind us talking like that about your uncle?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"That's not nice. He brought you up," I said.

"He didn't bring me up. We just live in the same house. Me, my parents, my uncle and his wife. You know, joint family," he said.

"Oh! But still, he's family. You should be more loyal," I said.

"I'll try," he replied, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Good," I said.

"Though it's a little hard being loyal to, uh, an embarrassing uncle," he added.

I gave him a hard look. He scratched the back of his neck and shook his head.

"Enough with the boring talk," said Jamie, elbowing me in the ribs.

I pushed him away.

"Tell me everything you can, about your uncle," said Jamie to Fred, rubbing his hands together.

I rolled my eyes and turned to Harvey. I nudged him out of his daydreams.

"What?" he snapped.

"Chillax dude! Everything's going to be perfect," I giggled.

"Perfect?" he scowled.

"Okay, maybe not perfect," I said.

"Have you thought of something?" he asked.

"Yup! A plan," I smirked.

"Well, what is it?" he asked.

"I'm pretty sure my aunt will be feeling a bit guilty about last night's encounter. I'll call her and I'm sure she'll handle the rest," I said.

"What about us? Me and Jamie?" Harvey asked.

"I just told you. My aunt will handle it. If I know anything about her, I know that she'll absolutely loathe the chief inspector. She won't let him get the better of her. She'll get us out. All of us," I explained.

"I can't think how she'll possibly get me and Jamie out, without the chief informing our parents," said Harvey.

"Leave it to her," I said.

That considerably cheered Harvey up, and he joined in our conversation without biting our heads off.

After about an hour of talking and bickering, at last, Fred's phone rang.

"Justin Bieber? Seriously?" Jamie covered his ears, feigning horror.

Fred blushed and mumbled "my friend loves messing with my phone," before quickly attending the call.

"Hello!" he said.

"Yes," he nodded.

"No, no," he said. "They are safe under lock and key."

"Okay, I'll take care of it," he nodded again.

"As you wish," he said, and cut the call.

"Is he alive?" I asked at the same time Jamie asked, "is he dead?"

"He's alive alright," said Fred.

Jamie pouted and I sighed with relief.

"I have good news and bad news," said Fred.

"Bad news first," I said.

"Uncle has decided to sue you," he said.

"On what grounds?" I asked.

"For insulting a police officer, assaulting him and trying to escape," he said.

I couldn't speak.

"Your aunt can't help us now," said Harvey.

"The good news?" asked Jamie.

"You have one day till he is discharged from the hospital," Fred smiled.

I nodded.

"Another bad news," he said, looking directly at me.

"What?" I asked, as I felt my heart drop into my stomach.

What could be possibly worse than getting sued by a police chief inspector?

"You'll have to spend that one day in here," he said.

"Spend the night in jail?" asked Harvey, aghast.

"Cool," said Jamie. "I've always wanted to spend a night in a jail cell."

I couldn't even scowl at him.

"You aren't allowed to call your parents till my uncle is back," said Fred.

"That's absurd!" I exclaimed.

"Thank God! I'm getting one more day to live," said Jamie.

"How?" asked Fred, furrowing his brow.

"Our dads are going to kill us. If we get out out of this alive, that is," explained Harvey.

"That's one way to look at it," Fred said to Jamie.

"I'm always optimistic," said Jamie.

"This is a serious case of a picnic gone wrong," sighed Harvey. "I should just stop thinking of a way to get out of it. It's just impossible."

I could only think how much I hated the chief inspector and his moustache, and how lovely it would be to rip it off of his face for good.

Author's note:

Dear readers!

I said I would update on the 28th, but I didn't. It was because I was unhappy and down in the dumps. And writing requires me being happy and cheerful.

My spirits lifted a bit yesterday and I started writing at once.

When I started writing this chapter about a month ago, I wanted it to be funny. But see how it turned out because of my not really happy mood.

Oh well, let's see where this goes.

Comment what you think.

Will Harvey and Jamie get out of trouble, or will the chief inspector have the last laugh?

Eh, I kinda like the inspector :P What do you guys think about him?

Don't forget to vote, if you like. *Gasps* It's free!

Toodles!