On a Friday night I found myself working in dispatch. There are few things I hate more than working in dispatch but as a supervisor the opportunity sometimes presents itself in the form of staff calling in sick. It was a night like any other and as the bars let out, our guards were busy greeting the local pub crowd making sure they knew where they were going and that they got there safely without causing any mischief along the way. As the night wound down it seemed like we had made it through another one unscathed but after a long period of silence, around 0300 hours a guard working in one of our buildings came over the radio.

"Dispatch ... be advised ..."

I could hear fear in his voice and I sat up as I waited for him to finish the sentence.

"10-9 your last?" prompted my partner after a few seconds.

The guard repeated with a bit more confidence this time, "Dispatch, be advised, I have a male who just wandered into the lobby with stab wounds to his hand, maybe elsewhere? There's a lot of blood here, he's leaving footprints. Be advised, he seems HBD or EDP or something?"

"Ask him who stabbed him and why." I replied into the radio

"He's saying that he was jumped by several Asian males around the corner and that he grabbed the knife to defend himself, his hand is cut up pretty bad." Replied the guard.

Several other guards copied the transmission and indicated they were on the way to start medical but my concern was with where the suspects were. I really felt conflict about letting my guards respond to this call without me but I also knew that I had responsibilities in dispatch. My partner whom I've worked with for several years sensed this conflict and told me to go.

"You sure?" I asked,

"Yeah, I got it. I'll call you if I need help." he said as he picked up the phone to call 911. I left.

It was a short trip to the scene from dispatch and I made contact with the victim in front of the building. I could see where he had made his way outside from the bloody bare footprints he had left on the concrete. He introduced himself as Mani and repeated to me the same story about how he had been jumped by several Asian males around the corner but didn't know exactly where. He said that he was from out of town and didn't know the area well.

Mani was between 20-25 years of age, 5'8, 150lbs, with brown skin, short black hair, wearing a ripped white t-shirt, and black jogging pants covered in blood. He had a pair of black slip on shoes with him but he was carrying them thus leaving bloody bare footprints as he moved around. I could smell the alcohol on his breath and he seemed nervous. He asked if he could have a cigarette, I didn't mind.

"Do you want us to look for them?" my guard asked.

"Look for who?" I replied.

"The suspects, they might be around the corner." he said.

"Uh, no." I replied, "they are armed with at least a knife and they aren't our concern right now, this is a medical call, but do a me a favour and surround us so we can do first aid on this guy without anyone sneaking up on us."

And the team who had now fully assembled began to surround us to give us cover.

It's not that Mani's story didn't make sense or that he wasn't exhibiting all the signs of just being involved in a violent altercation but something seemed off. He seemed more nervous about gathering attention than being attacked and my extra sensory began to kick in.

During the short time that I had been talking to him a puddle of blood began to form under him and as I turned on my flashlight to survey the damage, I could see that his pants were soaked in blood on his right-side originating from his pocket. I was sure he was stabbed elsewhere and as I began pulling his pants down to check I crimped his pockets and asked him where the knife was to see his reaction. He maintained that he didn't have the knife and that he wasn't sure where it was.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see two television news crews pull up next to us and begin filming us from the sidewalk. I tried my best to ignore them but one of them approached.

"Does this have to do with the stabbing at the hotel around the corner?" The anchor asked.

"Dunno, sorry." I replied.

They filmed for a minute but got bored and left us alone.

I didn't find any more stab wounds in Mani so I started to see what I could do about his hand. He had deep cuts to the bone on both his index and middle fingers of his right hand. His bleeding certainly wasn't life threatening but would require stitches and I explained it to him as I got a 4x4 and a gauze roll ready.

"Here's the t-shirt bro!" said a new character as he emerged out of the dark running towards us.

My guards shoved him back before he could reach us.

"You know this guy?" I asked.

"Yeah, kind of ... well, no actually. He saw me get attacked" Mani replied.

"What's the t-shirt for?" I asked.

"I saw him getting attacked around the corner," replied the stranger, "and, wanted to help but I wasn't sure how, so I went and got him a t-shirt from the hotel I am staying at."

"Ok? Why did you get him a t-shirt? Why did you think that was going to help?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," replied the stranger, "I just didn't know what to do, so I thought I would get him a t-shirt."

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Sal." replied the stranger.

Sal was between 20-25 years old and a very large man. He was more than 6 feet tall and I would guess weighed over 250lbs. Like Mani, he also had brown skin and short black hair and smelled like alcohol. He staggered a bit when he ran and walked but wasn't quite to the point of slurring his words.

Although there was no one big plot hole, it felt like the wheels were beginning to fall off the situation now with the introduction of Sal, who was attempting to help in the most unhelpful way by providing a t-shirt from the hotel around the corner and the news anchor who asked about a stabbing at the same hotel. I let this sink in as I finished bandaging up Mani's hand.

"What did you see Sal?" I asked fishing out cracks in the story.

"Well," started Sal, "he was around the corner and got jumped by a few guys with a knife. He grabbed the knife and started punching them and they ran away".

I turned to Mani, "are you staying in the hotel?"

"No, I'm not staying anywhere around here." he replied.

The ambulance arrived while we were talking and the paramedics got out to take over. I told one of them that Mani had left bloody footprints as he walked and managed to convince him to let me show him so that I could get him alone. Once alone I explained to him that I had a bad feeling about the two of them and to be on guard. He thanked me for the info as they took Mani into the ambulance to assess his injuries and we stood around making notes of everything that we could remember.

A few minutes later I was called to the ambulance by the paramedics who said that Mani wanted to talk to me.

"Thanks Rex, you are really cool and thank you for wrapping me up." he said.

"Yeah for sure," I replied "I hope you get some stitches and heal up fine."

"Me too." he replied "Hey Rex, can you call my girlfriend Tina and tell her I am in the ambulance around the corner?"

"Ok? Where is she?" I asked.

"She is staying in the hotel in room 612." He replied.

I challenged him, "Ok, I thought you weren't staying in the hotel."

"Well," He replied, "I'm not but she is."

The paramedics were now getting their own sense that things weren't adding up.

I called Tina on my cell phone who answered with a concerned voice and made it pretty clear that she was aware that Mani was probably in some kind of trouble. I told her that he was in an ambulance and to meet me in front of the hotel so I could escort her.

The wheels had now fallen off completely and we were riding on rims. Mani who had originally said he didn't know the area had a girlfriend named Tina who was staying in the hotel around the corner. This was the same hotel which was referenced by the news anchor and that Sal was staying in, who apparently didn't know Mani but was attempting to help him in a way that didn't make any sense. The whole situation was suspect and now It was tangible.

I told my guys I would be right back and to stay vigilant as I made the short trek 150 feet around the corner to the hotel. Upon arrival I found 4 police vehicles with flashing lights parked in front. A Sergeant was standing outside the lobby with a young woman and several Constables were busy inside.

I greeted the Sergeant "Stabbing?" I asked

"Yeah, lucky guess." He replied

"Maybe, I have a young guy with holes in his hand around the corner in an ambulance, does he belong to you?" I said.

"Oh," He replied with curiosity "Maybe?"

"I think this is his girlfriend, are you Tina?" I asked

"Yes." She replied.

The Sergeant turned with his back to Tina and asked, "is he giving you any problems? Can you baby sit him for 5 minutes until I can get a couple guys over there? You are looking at the entire division tonight." he said as he gestured around him - 72 square major city blocks run by 4 cars

"Yeah, that's fine." I replied

"Ok great thanks," Replied the Sergeant as he turned around to include Tina, "can you take her over to him for me?"

"No problem Sarge," I replied.

Tina looked nervous and walked with her arms crossed and shoulders hunched over.

She looked like she was about to cry as she said "I knew something was going to happen, I told him to stay inside".

"Oh, you knew there was going to be some trouble?" I asked.

"Yeah," Replied Tina "big fucking trouble".

I stopped the conversation there as I delivered her to Mani in the ambulance. Sal was standing by outside but keeping to himself concentrating on his phone. I knew more than everyone else there now and it weighed on me as I attempted to keep it cool.

But, a few minutes later I was relieved of my burden as the entire division of 5 Constables and a Sergeant entered the scene and began interviewing everyone. I laid out to the police everything that was said to me that night and outlined all the problems with the story as it unfolded in front of me. They obviously knew more than me about what happened in the hotel that night but I wasn't privy to that information and in fact wouldn't find out until over a year later.

The lobby remained closed for several hours at the request of the police as they wanted to photograph the footprints. The rest of my night was filled with paper work and was uneventful.

I was surprised in the morning to see very little coverage on the news but was truthfully relieved to not be in any of the shots taken by the news team. All it said was that a stabbing had happened in a hotel overnight and that a male is recovering in hospital.

A long time passed and details were forgotten.

In the spring of the following year I was woken up in the mid afternoon between shifts by a knock on my apartment door. I looked out the window before I opened the door and could see a document services vehicle parked out front. I was served a subpoena to witness by a confused document services officer who was surprised I didn't recognize the names on the paper. After looking up the names and dates in my email I realized it was related to the hotel stabbing. I would need to attend court.

Mani and Sal had been charged with assault using a weapon. When I attended court I was told by the Detective Sergeant in charge that this was a pretrial and that the defense had requested to see the evidence against them in order to make an informed decision as to their course of action. I would be called to recount my involvement in the case and may be asked questions by the defense attorney. It wasn't necessary, before I testified Mani and Sal plead guilty to their charges after hearing the accounts of other witnesses present in the hotel.

Once court was adjourned, I learned the truth of what happened that night as it was told to me by the victim.

Mani and Sal had attended a party that night in a hotel room and had an argument with the victim over a girl. When the party was over, they returned to the room, kicked the door in, and jumped on the victim while he was asleep in bed. They stabbed him over 100 times. The victim's girlfriend who was laying next time him was also stabbed several times by accident in the mayhem. The crown had originally wanted to charge them with attempted murder but the argument was made that if the victim was asleep and defenseless, they could have easily killed him if they wanted to. Instead they settled for lesser charges that were easier to prove. The victim looked incredible and you wouldn't know to look at him that he had been stabbed in his face, neck and arms. He told me that the plastic surgeon had concentrated on the areas which could be seen and showed me his stomach which was full of scar tissue. I wished him luck in the future and was thanked for my contribution to the event.

In the end I am not sure what happened to Mani and Sal, I wasn't present for their sentencing and haven't heard about them since.

What did I learn? - Trust your instincts; if something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't. Ever since that night I have carried an IFAK with a combat application tourniquet, bleed stop, and a triangular bandage.