Chapter 7

Accusations

The Blind Leading The Blind

"We are sorry about your stolen property, but let's talk about why we are here. Do you, I mean can you, tell me about the ATM you destroyed last night?"

The proverbial "room began to spin" thing happened. I felt the whole of my vision alter out of balance, focus and perception. Destroyed? ATM? Me? How? What? What was she on about? I closed my gaping mouth and spoke to them slowly, carefully, as my brain verged on popping a vessel or just shutting down altogether. The room was still out of kilter, but talking seemed to slow the vertigo feeling. "Last night, I remember attempting to get money from an ATM. When it didn't give out any money or my card, I remember punching several buttons, then hitting my hand on the keypad, but, destroy?No way!" The woman turned to her partner and made subtle signals between them with their eyes and faces.

I thought a moment, as it had been several hours since this had transpired and for the first time I truly felt out of sync with myself, as if something on me or in me was out of alignment, or even missing. Think of waking up and breathing, only you can't catch a full breath because overnight one of your lungs vanished, that's how I felt; incomplete and nervous just beneath the surface. I knew right now that it was very important that I didn't show any outward sign of stress, anxiousness or nervousness. Anything could be interpreted wrong by a questioning authority, and a foreign one at that.

I continued, "I went out this morning, or perhaps early afternoon with...a friend to try and find the ATM center where my card was lost. You realize that the machine stole 500 RMB from my account, don't you?"

The woman looked at her partner, said a few words and then continued our conversation. To this day I have no idea why the other officer was there. He never spoke, only nodded his head a lot. Was he there as a witness? Her boyfriend or husband? Someone in training? Regardless, she would always say something to him and like an obedient lap dog, he would nod his head and nothing more; good doggy. I later realized that all people in touchy situations like this must have an abiding witness present to back up any lie, half-truth or non-evidence that is produced by the questioning party. I had an experience like that years before when I worked in a commission sales position. A manager who didn't like me and wanted her friend to get more hours by either getting me fired or causing me to lose more hours set me up, and then used the very person who set me up as her witness; of course the patsy was going to follow anything she wanted, and as a result I lost my job. My wife at the time, being from Eastern Europe and having no respect for authority, completely understood and sympathized with my explanation. She had seen it done too often in her own country, and she full well understood that everywhere in the world corruption, greed and dishonesty walked hand in hand, regardless of borders.

Now it was she who had a look of incredulous disbelief. She even laughed, if a bit nervously. "You mean.." she paused to look at her partner again, and continued, "You don't remember beating the ATM to pieces? There is a video! We have photos! Would you like to see?" At this moment she opened a folder she had with her and took out some papers. She spread them out in front of me and I looked at them. They were color prints taken from a surveillance camera. In one photo it showed a close up of an ATM; there was no glass cover, but a small TV-type monitor sat askew inside a larger rectangular hole, a few wires poking out around it. In a second photo, a long dull gray metal object lay at the foot of an ATM, looking a bit like a section of rain gutter. The other two photos were obscure pictures of the room where two ATMs were and another photo showed a man in a yellow shirt and longish, wavy hair exiting the room, presumably me.

I looked at them both, tossed up my hands and folded them on the table and sighed despondently, "These mean nothing to me. It doesn't register. I recognise that it is a mangled ATM, I assume that one photo is me from the back, I did have on a yellow shirt yesterday. All I remember is what I told you. I made a transaction on an ATM. I heard the machine process it, you know that sound? Whiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrr! That's what I heard, it was counting the money. The door opened and nothing was there! The whole thing shut down and kept my card!" I looked at them earnestly, with no reaction. I continued, "I punched buttons, I banged on the keypad and then the last thing I remember, I was standing in front of the Garden Hotel, with no memory of having walked there or leaving the ATM room." Then I looked down at my lap, brooding.

They talked between themselves for a moment, then she gathered her files and folder, and stood to go. I told her I would like to go now, and she smiled and informed me I wouldn't be going anywhere for some time. I then said I wished to call my Embassy. As she and her "dog" walked out, she turned to me and said to me with a disdainful smile on her pretty little mouth, "You can call anyone you want, but nobody can help you now."