Naomi
Bloody ridiculous, I thought for the twentieth time since I got to this drab cinder block pile called a police station. Being 'processed' by the custody sergeant was bad enough.
"Do you know why you're here?" - Err...yeah?
"Do you want to make a telephone call?" - Nope, the only person who mattered knew exactly where I was.
"You've been arrested on suspicion of theft" (The copper who handcuffed me, held up exhibit fucking A in a plastic wallet or whatever they called it and they all looked at each other and me, like we were all in this together.
"You'll now be searched and then placed in a cell until the officers are ready to interview you regarding this allegation"
Don't they get everything ready before they haul you out of your home at 7am, I thought miserably.
But I didn't answer any of the questions, just nodded and glared a bit. The police must take lessons from Effy Stonem, because they never showed any emotion to my stonewalling.
So...I was put in a grimy grey box with a window so far up the wall, all you could see was the sky and a steel door with a hatch in it and no fucking handle on the inside.
I sat there for over an hour, biting my nails and cursing the very existence of Jenna Fitch and her obedient sidekicks. How could I have been so stupid? Of course...not being able to brow beat Emily into returning to the bosom of her family, the next easy target was me. I should have known when Jenna was so polite and accommodating that she had a plan. That last minute suggestion that I take Emily's other winter coat from the bedroom? I had two suitcases ready to go, but JJ showed me into 'their' bedroom before offering me the dark wool coat on a hanger. No doubt one of them had stuffed the fucking watch in the inside pocket, carefully buttoning it up so it wouldn't fall out when I took it from him.
I never even considered searching the pockets. Why would I? When I got back, I just put it, hanger and all, in my...our... wardrobe. Emily had hardly left the flat since I got her home , so she hadn't needed her spare coat. Fool that I am, it was just hanging up there...ready for the police to find, in the place I'm sure Jenna made sure they were advised to look.
I'm stuffed, I thought miserably. No one will believe me, except Emily.
Fuck, Emily, I thought immediately. I was so wound up and worried about me...I'd almost forgotten my girlfriend, holed up in Chez Campbell, without any idea where I was being held, or how long I'd be here. I jumped up from the thin, plastic covered mattress on the concrete block 'bed' and rang the bell next to the door. There was no point ringing her, but there was one other person I could trust. Effy.
The fat and grumpy custody officer took ages to answer the bell. Just as well I wasn't hanging by my neck from a belt, I thought savagely, before remembering they'd taken my belt and left it outside the cell door, along with my shoes. What the fuck I was supposed to do with a pair of shoes in this 2 metre box, I had no idea, but they obviously posed a security risk. Fuckers.
When she did finally heave into view, puffing like she'd run from the other end of the pier instead of the ten metres from the other end of the cell lined corridor, the hatch opened with a clang.
"Yes?" she said, the crumbs from her breakfast clearly visible on her dark shirt.
"I want to make that phone call now" I said briskly.
"Not convenient" she answered, making to turn away. No doubt a half eaten bacon roll was sitting on her desk.
"It's my right...and I want that call" I said firmly.
Her eyes blazed at the cheek of me actually stating my rights, but eventually the little piggy eyes dropped and she huffed as she jangled her bunch of keys and opened my door.
"Follow me" she barked and waddled off back the way she had come. I thought about putting my shoes on, but decide against it. The phone call was the important thing. There was a wall mounted phone at the very end of the corridor and she insisted on dialling the number for me, as if I was an educationally challenged 8 year old. Luckily, Effy's mobile number hasn't changed for years, so I remembered it.
Unluckily for me, she wasn't answering. Damn, I thought...probably on her way to work. Effy never did like hands free kits so the mobile was probably buzzing away on the seat beside her as she negotiated the Bristol early morning traffic. I left a brisk message, telling her where I was and what the address of the police station was. I asked the fat plod what the name of the copper who'd arrested me was and she told me. I barely managed to keep a straight face as I relayed it to voice mail. Fucking hell... Sergeant 'Major'?...who works in the police force with a second name of Major?
Then I was back in the cell for another 30 minutes before I heard footsteps in the corridor outside again. No doubt Sgt Major and her sidekick were digesting another of those police canteen bacon sandwiches before bothering with me. My stomach grumbled in sympathy. I'd got used even in two short weeks, to Emily's breakfasts. No more rushed instant coffee and a crisp bread before running for the train. No...my little Fitch insisted on quality filter coffee, buttered toast and at weekends, the full works. Bacon, mushrooms, tomato's, hash browns. The lot. Jesus, my stomach growled again as I remembered the last delicious breakfast we'd shared.
But then the door was screeching open and Major Major (stop that, I thought...this isn' H) came in with her junior oppo.
"Ready for your interview?" she said without looking at me.
"A fucking hour and a half ago, actually" I said sourly, which gained me nothing but an indifferent glance back. I followed her back down the corridor, this time pausing to collect my shoes and belt.
A minute later we were in what I suppose they call an interview room. Drab and green/grey like the cell, it had three chairs, a table with a grey cube shaped recording machine on it and a microphone both sides. Above me, facing down, I could see the lens of a CCTV camera, a red light winking under it. Around the wall was a strip of red plastic inside a black rubber border. Alarm, it said at strategic points round the walls above it. Right, so if I try physical assault, that's when the storm-troopers make an entrance, I thought bitterly. As if.
The interview itself lasted less than ten minutes. After the initial bullshit about announcing themselves individually for the tape, and reading me my rights again, then telling me I was entitled to a solicitor, they got to the meat.
"Tell us your side of the story Naomi" the younger woman said pleasantly (no doubt auditioning for the good cop role).
"Simple" I said "Emily had left her husband JJ and was living with me" I glared at them both before continuing, just in case of the usual establishment homophobic response to an admission that two women were 'cohabiting', but their faces remained blank.
"She...Emily that is, asked me...as she's still injured from the accident, if I could go to her old place and collect a few personal things from her ex. I did. Her mother and sister, who hate me and the ground I walk on by the way, were there and gave me a couple of already packed suitcases and then her ex husband told me I should take her winter coat too, which was in the bedroom. I followed him in there..."
"So you were alone with Mr...ah.. Jones in the bedroom?" The older copper said, looking at the other one as if that had hidden meaning.
"Yeah...I bent over and offered him a quickie, just so he wouldn't feel completely left out, but he refused, funnily enough" I said acidly.
"Being crude won't help your case" Major Major said and made a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp.
I glared at her.
"Yeah...like you're actually interested in the facts...you've already made your mind up anyway. Wronged ex loses watch..which turns up, mysteriously in my flat...open and shut case huh? Let me guess, the complaint was made by Mrs Jenna Fitch?" I growled. This bullshit was giving me a headache. As far as the cops were concerned this is a slam dunk. Stolen watch, me and a cuckolded husband. I bet they were hoping I'd 'cough' or whatever slang the police use nowadays and then they could get back to duty, sitting in a squad car, eating greasy Maccy Dee's.
Major Major shook her head.
"No...actually Mr Jones made the complaint. Mrs Fitch was present, but took no part in the statement process" she said primly.
"Right" I said flatly "Just wrote the script...wrote the theme tune, sang the theme tune..."
Neither of the policewomen appreciated my attempt at humour.
"So..." the younger one piped up again "You deny the charge of theft. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we terminate the interview?"
I shook my head. No point, was there?
After that they ended the taping, escorted me back to my lovely cell and another hour went by. Eventually the fat lady sang (or growled) and escorted me out to the charge room. I stood by a tall desk while a different sergeant in a white shirt droned on about me being granted police bail until the CPS had decided on whether they formally charged me. Another minute later I was outside, blinking in the strong winter sunshine, looking back at the grey block of Southend Central Police station. I was free...for now at least.
It was a ten minute walk back to my place from there and I had to hug myself against the biting cold, but at least I was out. I thumbed a quick text to work, telling them I had a temperature and wouldn't be in today, then one to Effy, saying I was out. By that time I was at the entrance to my apartment block. Shivering a bit, I pushed open the glass lobby doors after entering my security code and took the lift to my floor.
I hadn't had time to grab my keys before being hauled off this morning, so I had to ring the bell. I heard shuffling footsteps and then the door was flung open.
"Hi" I said brightly...then the smile was wiped off my face instantly. Behind a sad looking Emily was the last person I thought I would ever see in my home.
JJ fucking Jones.
XXX
Emily
I knew as soon as I saw Naomi's face as the door opened that I'd fucked up...big time. I thought it would help...ringing Jay and asking him to come over to talk about what ever my mother and Katie had cooked up to incriminate Naomi. Whatever our differences, I had always been able to talk to him. OK, except when he was a lot younger and he got that locked on thing going when things got too much for him, he was the most level headed person I knew. He never went off the deep end. The meds he was on made him just about the most laid back person on earth. I knew it would still be raw for him...me leaving...especially for another woman, and I knew full well that my mother and Kay would have been dripping poison in his ear from the moment I left. But Jay would never resort to something like that...fitting someone up with a crime they hadn't done. No...that was my mothers idea of revenge.
I needed to know that he wasn't involved and that Jenna had blind sided him too with the watch thing. He almost never wore it anyway. He preferred his old Timex from school. Simple dial, simple wind up. But he used to wear it when we went out somewhere formal, or to one of the interminable Fitch family dinners. He probably wouldn't have even noticed it had gone if it hadn't been pointed out to him.
So I called him as soon as Naomi had been taken away and he came straight over.
What he told me, however, shocked me to the core.
"I hate to say this Em" he said, eyes locked on his shoes "But Naomi did take it. It wasn't even in the coat, whatever she says. It was on the dressing table, in its box, ready for tonight. I have a works function in the City and I got it out specially"
I gaped at him in total disbelief.
"But why, Jay...Naomi doesn't need a fucking watch, let alone a mans watch. It's even engraved on the back with your name. It doesn't make any sense?"
He carried on shaking his head.
"Maybe it was just an impulse...I don't know. All I know was when I went back into the bedroom, after she'd left...it was gone"
My head spun with a million different thoughts. Naomi...a thief? It made no sense. She would have known that she would be the prime suspect. What on earth...?
All the anger at Jenna and Katie was turned in on itself. What the fuck was I supposed to do now?
I was showing him to the door, still trembling with tension over what he'd said when the doorbell rang. I thought it might be my fucking mother, so I opened it with more than a little hesitation. But worse, much worse than that...it was Naomi.
Her face told me more than words ever could. Here was I, in her place, cosying up to my ex husband. I never even thought about the watch at first. Just that she would think the worst, whatever I said now.
"Naomi...I...I...thought I should talk to Jay...find out what's going on with this stupid watch thing...I..." I stuttered to a close, watching her face set into an expression I had never seen on it before. Anger, sheer icy anger.
"That's fine Emily" she said tightly "I'm sure your...husband... was very helpful...sorry your visit had to be so short JJ...but if you'll excuse me...I have quite a lot of sorting out to do"
Her voice was frigid and she brushed past both of us without looking, going straight into the bedroom and shutting the door. My head was churning with different thoughts. I still couldn't believe that she would steal from Jay..but he sounded so definite. He'd never lied to me...not ever.
I let him out with a small sad smile and closed the door behind him. I was no nearer to understanding what the hell was going on...but I needed to speak to Naomi first.
"Naomi...can I come in" I said softly, tapping on the bedroom door. I didn't get an answer, but pushed it open anyway. The room was dark. She'd pulled the curtains tight across the window. She was lying on her side, facing away from the door.
"Naomi...please...I know he must have been the last person you wanted to see here, but I wanted to see if I could get at the truth. I know my mother is capable of some cruel shit...but Jay isn't a liar...I thought that I could..."
"Don't" she said in a muffled voice, curling tighter on her side. I sat on the bed, and winced, not in pain but misery as she flinched when I tried to touch her. "Don't" she said again.
"Naoms...please...we have to talk about this. I've spoken to him and...and..." I stopped then because what could I really say anyway? Yes, I'd spoken to him, but he'd basically backed up exactly what the police believed happened.
She turned to look at me, her blue eyes colder than I'd ever seen them.
"And now you believe me...?" she said.
My eyes betrayed me. I was always a crap liar.
"I..I..." I choked and looked away from her intense, searching gaze. I heard her stifle a tiny sob before she laid back down, pulling the pillow over her head.
"I'd like you to leave me alone now Emily..." she said from under it quietly and my heart sank to my boots.
I got up with difficulty and slowly walked out of the bedroom. I left the door half open as I went down the hall to the lounge. A couple of seconds later I heard it bang shut loudly.