Elise leaned back, inching closer to her friends but looking at the detectives. They were rolling their eyes. 

“Don’t roll your eyes brother”, the young man in front was looking at Detective Laursen. Completely ignoring Detective Ha.

“Let me guess, more ‘independent journalists’. Like we told them, we’re investigating the hospital. If you have any evidence, then share. If not we have a job to go do”, Detective Laursen continued down the steps. 

“Why don’t you start doing your job by asking the politicians that line the pockets of the hospital? Like Karl Schroder? Yamada Seizo? And the rich donor families. If you really work for the people.”

Elise reached for her phone, adding the names the man listed off into a folder on her notes app. Behind her Ruth was doing the same. 

Detective Ha seemingly entertained the idea, “and what evidence do you have that they're involved?”.

The young man shrugged his shoulders, “that’s your job to find out. If a little ole civilian like me can find out, you low level soldiers with all your government access can. If they let you in on it.”

Detective Laursen’s eyes narrowed, “low level soldiers?”.

The young man gave him a look up and down, his eyes filled with pity. “I just call it like I see it, Brother. If you even are a brother. You're here working for the other side. A soldier for the government and a servant to the rich.”

Detective Ha stepped forward, placing a hand on his partner’s chest when the man clenched his fists. “what’s your name?”.

“Am I being detained or arrested?”, his grip tightened on his phone. 

His friends got closer to him, holding their cameras up pointedly at the faces of the detectives. They hadn’t said anything all this time. Elise watched them closely. The second man looked kinda cute, green eyes that stood out, long curly hair and tanned skin. The girl with them, on the other hand, looked beautiful. Undeniably beautiful. High cheekbones, hair curled and falling in a lazy way that still looked intentional and it was perfection. Elise would’ve mistaken her for a boy if not for the size of her chest. Another girl that’s prettier than me and she doesn’t have to try.

Elise glanced behind at Ruth and Arlo. Arlo was holding the camera on the trio. Ruth was crossing her arms, staring them down. Probably thinking if they should get out of here. 

Detective Ha forced a smile, sarcasm dripping from his words. “You're a concerned citizen who was forthcoming with this tip. We would like to be able to reach out to you in the future in case you would like to be more helpful. Since we just can’t seem to do our job right”.

The girl in back spoke up, saying something quickly in another language. 

Elise strained her ears. Was that Korean? 

Then the door to the precinct opened and an older man stepped out. 

Captain Griffin. Elise watched the detectives stand a bit taller out at the sight of him.  We didn’t get to finish our questions. They wasted our  time. 

“Is there a problem detectives?” Despite being a few inches shorter than his detectives and having a protruding belly, he still had a commanding presence. Standing there with his hands stuffed into his pockets and eyeing all of them gathered with trained critical eyes. 

Elise slouched down and averted her eyes, feeling self conscious all of a sudden. 

Detective Ha smiled, too brightly, “No Captain, just a friendly conversation with the… ‘press’”. 

Elise would’ve shot a look at the detective for his hidden insinuation if not for the fact that the situation didn’t look so good. 

The captain nodded and then looked between the two groups. “We have nothing to share at the moment. When we do, you’ll know.”

“You asked your detectives if there was a problem but not us. How do you know they weren’t out here causing a problem?” The guy with dreads from the other group had his eyebrows raised in shock but something about him seemed as though he wasn’t really.

Elise felt a hand wrap around her arm. It was Arlo. He was pulling her back. Ruth stepped back with them.

“We should go”. Arlo was looking between the cops and the other group. 

Elise nodded. She had learned a while ago, in this business, when you ask cops to comment on open cases, you accept things might not go your way. A quick dismissal was the best outcome. You could move on quickly from those. A tense back and forth wasn’t terrible. You could use it as a learning opportunity. Intentionally antagonizing the cops wasn’t the best strategy to take and it typically led to less desirable outcomes. Sometimes terrible if a reporter felt they had something to prove.

Given how tense the detectives were standing and how determined the group seemed, Elise knew a less than desirable outcome was on the table. 

The Captain removed his hands from his pockets. “If my detectives had done something wrong I’m sure you would let me know. Mr. —” he trailed off waiting.

“I don’t give out my name to you people. You government thugs can do some work to figure it out if you want to know. It’s not really that hard for you”.

Elise nearly stumbled over her feet when Arlo’s hand tightened around her arm. She sucked in a deep breath and stared at the officers to see if the situation would get terribly bad. 

Captain Griffin nodded his head as if he considered the young man a joke. Detective Ha snorted but kept his eyes on the Captain for direction. Detective Laursen shook his head, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

“I’m just exercising my freedom of speech”, the young man shrugged his shoulders looking satisfied with himself going by the smug smirk on his face, “if you government thugs really care about the law you’d let me go on and on as much as I want without arresting me.”

“If you have nothing else to say, young man then we’re finished here.” Captain Griffin turned his entire body to the side, towards his detectives, shutting down any further conversation. 

But the young man went on. “Just like I thought! You aren’t going to look into the rich donors the hospital has. Or the politicians who collect money from citizens through backdoor deals.  Because you roll over like dogs welcoming the commands they give you! And the little bit of freedom you have pulling your leash that won’t ever disappear! Fucking disgusting!”.

The look in the young man’s eyes scared Elise.  She turned around and looked at Ruth and Arlo. “Let's go”, she whispered. She placed a hand on her chest as if it would hold her heart in place if it exploded with how fast it was beating. This guy didn’t have any self preservation. He wanted to cause problems. 

The other two behind the guy with dreads shot glares at Elise and her friends as they sped by. 

What the hell did we do!? Your friend is crazy! Elise looked at Arlo as he turned around to stay recording and walk backwards. 

“You need to leave now. Before you get arrested, sir”. The Captain said slowly and loudly.

Elise’s eyes flickered over to Arlo, trying to gauge what was happening by his face. His eyes went from the viewfinder of the camera, up to the unfolding scene. She placed a hand on her beating heart. Please don’t let this guy say anything back that could get them arrested.

The young man laughed out loud before his next words. “If you endorse the wealthy committing criminal acts against the poor or government sanctioned violence upon the people, the people are perfectly within their rights to form a resistance and take violent action against you as the Constitution not only allows but demands”. 

Elise, Ruth and Arlo stopped. They shared wide eyed looks before Ruth and Elise turned around to stare with Arlo at this guy who was playing with danger.

The Captain had reared up his head and had his hands out of his pockets. He wasn’t moving except for the subtle rising and falling of his belly. Detectives Ha and Laursen flanked the Captain, all traces of humor gone. Their hands rested above their holsters, twitching for their gun but not moving towards it any more than that. 

The young man on the other hand was smiling wide, showing off his white teeth. Chuckling aloud every now and then, he was waiting for them to make a move now. He was cycling between pointing his camera at the captain, to one detective and the other detective. Not staying too long on any one of them.The two with him weren’t smiling, keeping their eyes trained onto their cameras to make sure every second was caught in frame. 

A cop in a blue uniform came out of the doors suddenly, ending the tense moment. He stopped halfway out of the door, taking in the scene. “Captain?” He looked back inside the building. 

“Are you gonna arrest me? Or-” the young man drew out the r, then shot up straight with a finger in the air as if a thought had come to him, “oh wait! You can’t!” He shrugged his shoulders, “that pesky ole first amendment!” He began to walk down the length of the stairs leading to the precinct door. Then he turned and walked back and then begun to yell, “cause I’m not fucking leaving! The people's money pays your salaries! Pays for this sidewalk! Pays the salaries of every government official! I can do what I fucking want when I fucking want to out here! I dare you thugs to come down here and fucking touch me!”

People were stopping across the street to look, point and whisper. 

Elise shifted her weight. Maybe Captain Griffin just doesn’t want to deal with the fallout. This is a high profile case after all. Some people go to extremes to get information from the cops during high profile cases. 

Captain Griffin pulled cuffs from his waistband, finally making a move. “Your under arrest sir.”