Arrested

The two policemen walked into the precinct with huge smiles on their faces and a handcuffed man between them.

The jaws started dropping as soon as they walked past the door, and they kept on doing so.

They knew how big a deal this arrest was.

They walked past reception and crossed the first open space.

Everyone they walked past would stop what they were doing and turn around looking at the prisoner.

Everyone had been looking for this man for months on end, and no one believed he’d be caught anytime soon.

They crossed the door: another room, another series of open mouths in silence; quizzical looks of puzzlement and disbelief everywhere.

They hadn’t gotten to their captain and were already dreaming of promotions.

They had finally caught the greatest bank robber of all time. No one expected them to do it. And they could barely believe it themselves, and how easy it had been.

The first look of disappointment came when they reached their captain, at the door of his office.

- What… What is the meaning of this?

- We caught him, cap!

- No… No, no, no!

- What… What’s wrong, captain?

- No!

- But we caught him, boss!

The handcuffed man now had a grin on his face.

Everyone was still in shock, but the reason was not the success of the arrest.

If the arrest had been easy, they were about to find out why.

The captain walked back into his office. They followed.

There were two other officers there, smiling, and the four of them stopped smiling almost immediately.

Sat down, another man in handcuffs.

- Damn it, the lawyers sure are gonna have a field day…

The two prisoners looked at each other and grinned.

They looked the same.

They were the same.

And they already knew how hard it was to put a time traveler behind bars.

The captain had seen this before, and he knew that there was legal precedent to have to let them go if they didn’t know for sure which was younger and whether a younger one was roaming the streets.

In the distance, someone walking into the precinct shouted:

- We got him!

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