Now his car had run out of petrol

 

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Night

As he drove across the bridge into town, Angus checked his watch. It was a bit hard to read in the dark, but it looked liked it might have been a bit after two. With any luck, no one would see or hear him as he made his way through this last bit of civilisation before he got where he was going. Last thing he needed was for someone to remember him coming through here. He turned left at the roundabout in the centre of town and headed off towards the ironbark forests out of town. He felt he'd done well tonight; made it out of the city and up the freeway without incident. It was all good.

And then it wasn't.

The engine spluttered, stalled, farted a few times and then raced as if to try to make up for bad behaviour before deciding to just pack it all in. In the silence, Angus stared at the bonnet, willing the engine to fire back up as the car slowly glided to a halt. He looked down at the fuel gauge and swore quietly as he realised the the needle was firmly at empty. He'd checked it as they left Melbourne but had obviously underestimated how much fuel it'd take to get here and with bigger things on his mind, he hadn't thought about it since. He looked out the back window to see a distinct lack of petrol station behind him, and scanned around through the driver's window, the windscreen, and finally through the passenger window before diving down below window level with a string of expletives that surprised even him with its inventiveness and directness of instructions.

A cop shop.

He'd run out of petrol in front of the coppers. Angus peeked around the edge of the seat into the back to see Ed staring unhappily at him. He couldn't blame Ed for looking a bit miffed. After all, he was stuffed a bit unceremoniously and probably quite uncomfortably into the back seat. And there was the small issue of Angus having murdered him earlier in the night over who got the beer first. Well, maybe it was a bit Ed nicking his girlfriend, but that was 10 years ago so Angus was over that. Definitely the beer. But having a freshly deceased corpse in the back seat outside a cop shop did start Angus to panicking a bit. In retrospect, using Ed's Mini Minor to shift Ed's body wasn't the best decision; there was no way he was ever going to have fit in the boot. Angus had just had his Commodore detailed, so no corpse was going in there.

Angus carefully lifted his head up to take a peek at the cop shop. The light above the door was on but all was quiet. Looking around as much as he could without exposing too much of his face, Angus couldn't see the cop car either meaning that with any luck the cop had gone home for the night. He was in mid sigh of relief when a tap tap on the window behind him made him drop down again. Ed glared at him from the back seat, refusing to offer Angus any sympathy for his predicament.

The tap tap swapped to a "Morning sir. Problems?"

Grabbing hold of the steering wheel, Angus unwillingly dragged himself upright and looked out the window. All he could see was a blue shirt with the words Snr Sgt Greg Ellis on it motioning him to wind down his window. Angus did so.

"Out of petrol, officer." stuttered out Angus as the Snr Sgt bent down and swept through the car with his torch, finishing with it in Angus' face.

"And your companion in the back?"

"Sleeping, officer. Long trip."

Quick flick if the torch to the back seat. "With his eyes open?"

"Err, he does that?"

Another quick flick. "And missing the back of his head?"

"About that…"

The officer's hand down to the door handle.

"Perhaps you best join me inside for a chat."

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