Mary Frahns, dispatcher for MacksburgCounty, couldn't keep the smile out of her voice when she radioed Officers Clem and Deuce. "Report of a troll under theWilliamFrankBridge." There was no code in her book for a troll.
"10-4. We're two blocks away," Deuce radioed back in his usual lazy voice, not giving her the satisfaction of a reaction; he did, however, give his partner a wink.
An hour later, they wrestled the subject into the station amid much cursing, spitting, and flailing about. Mary peeked around the corner to watch the booking. Gladys, the booking officer, jumped from her chair and backed up four or five paces, her hand clutching the front of her shirt.
The officers deposited their captive in the chair and held him down by his shoulders while another deputy ran for the shackles. Only after he was secured did Gladys sidle back toward her desk. She sat on the edge of her seat, poised for a quick exit if it became necessary. She adjusted her glasses with a trembling hand and reached for her keyboard. "Name please?" she asked, carefully avoiding eye contact with the perpetrator.
Snarling, he shook his long matted hair and looked down at the floor. Art Clem stood on one side andCasper"Ace" Deuce on the other, should the detainee decide to try anything. Between the two large officers, the arrestee looked diminutive and harmless, but the tension in his body said otherwise.
"Name?" Gladys repeated, sneaking a look from under her thin bangs. The subject twisted in the chair and growled a long utterance, which no one understood. With his bulging forehead, bulbous nose, and pointed ears protruding from his wild hair, he looked not quite human. Gladys tried again, making her voice gentle to disguise the fact that she was frightened. "Your name, please?" She knew if he didn't answer he would raise the ire of the two officers, who at this point were merely amused.
"Larkensparkenbluertruerharken!" His voice was guttural, like stones falling into a metal pipe.
"How do you spell that?" Gladys asked, and the deputies burst out laughing. Ace slapped his thick thigh several times and turned away, trying to quell his mirth. Art covered his own mouth like a tittering girl.
