The police station was alive with the usual morning hubbub of people coming and going, the early morning regulars in the waiting room awaiting the bored police sergeant to work his way through the two drivers who had been asked to produce their driving documents and the third man who was asking after his brother who was in the cells after having been arrested. Upstairs, the superintendent strolled into the cramped office where the eager beaver investigators were either hunched up over their computers or rifling through various crime files. They all snapped to attention
"DI Sullivan, can you take yourself with DC Greer to Larkhall prison. We need a statement taken from Karen Betts seeing as you arrested Michelle Dockley in her house."
His expression fell a mile and DC Greer looked hardly more enthusiastic.
"Can't somebody else go instead of me? I've got a number of more important cases to chase up," He stammered, shuffling desperately with his papers.
"You go where I send you and finish the job off properly. I'm not having you take all the glory on operations and leave others to do the clearing up. Seeing as you're our local expert on Larkhall, you'll know that she's the governing governor now"
D I Sullivan's expression twisted as if he's swallowed a bone. He remembered the way that her subtle sarcasm had always rubbed him up the wrong way and yesterday was no exception, even at the most unfavourable circumstances.
"She can't be. I thought she was a snotty wing governor still"
"The very same"
"There isn't any possibility that the statement will be needed as testimony in court?" he hazarded a question very tentatively." Court cases can take up so much of our time in hanging round courtrooms when there's all the villains in this patch that need to be banged to rights."
"If an escaped prisoner has been apprehended and there's no major crime involved, then you probably won't be needed. Still, from the basic details we have, you and she will be on the same side. You've got the ideal opportunity with your natural Scottish charm to cement good relationships between us and the governor of the local nick. With your previous experience of prison investigations history, that's why I'm insisting that you do the job and nobody else"
DI Sullivan smiled wanly as the other man's insufferably breezy manner was starting to grate on him. His limp fingers reluctantly accepted the file thrust in his direction as if it were leprous. With longing looks at his dull as ditchwater post, he hauled himself to his feet, looked meaningfully at DS Greer and made his way to the door. Sometime, the path of duty was strewn with rocks and snares. Someone said that a policeman's lot was not a happy one and he was too bloody right.
Inside the neat new file in his briefcase, the envelope that had been addressed to Shell was secure inside its polythene sleeve. DI Sullivan slouched up to the nice bright white squad car with aggressive red flashes on the side and prominent blue light on top. He gunned the engine aggressively and the car shot out of the car park with a slightly nervous DS Greer in the passenger seat. She wasn't looking forward to the journey far less the visit but she figured that if she kept a low profile, then the better off she would be. Let him take the glory of this investigation or otherwise as the case may be.
DI Sullivan was more superior in his manner than normal from the moment he passed through the gates of Larkhall. As soon as the man had started to cross the yard, Ken muttered to himself about the jumped up young copper who thought he was God. Ken was getting to the age when there were an increasingly large number of policemen around who looked wet behind the ears.
"Hi, I'm Nikki Wade, wing governor of G Wing." The smart suited woman greeted him with hand outstretched and let him know that yet another upstart woman was wearing the trousers in a profession that he thought was run by the lads. The name tripwired his mind into searching past distant associations. With a job like this, it paid to have a sharp memory. Then he made that explosive connection between her and his old mate, DS Gossard, one of the legends of his time, a man's man and someone who set him on the right path when he joined the police force. He was the one all the others looked up to in the way he got results with single-minded determination.
"Haven't I heard of your name before? It rings a very loud bell. I have a good memory for names." He declared in a meaning tone.
Nikki's normally friendly smile became frozen, icy. Her hackles rose immediately and adrenaline started to pump through her body. She knew exactly what this copper was getting at. This was the first time ever since she had killed Gossard that it had ever been mentioned in any capacity. Ancient feelings of blind anger started to well to the surface but she had been just about long enough in her job to bottle them down. He was, after all, entering her home territory and, like it or not, he was in her charge until she handed him over to someone else.
"You flatter me, DI Sullivan. I'm not as famous as all that."
The policeman scowled in frustration as this bloody woman refused to rise to the bait. Never mind, he thought, his chance would come.
"You had better come this way as I understand you're here to interview my governor, Karen Betts." Nikki said quietly, delicately pressing home her advantage.
She got out her keys and led the way. She let them through the first set of gates and walked on ahead. To her shock and horror, he walked up behind her and grabbed her by the wrist.
"Trying to be smart and clever? I know you. You were the murdering dyke who killed DI Gossard. You got banged to rights and deserved everything you got only some lily livered liberals let you get out on a technicality. You're remembered at my station all right"
Nikki shook herself free and turned round squarely to face him. She ignored his sidekick, DS Greer who stood there like a dummy.
"Except Sally Ann Howe…….." Nikki said with surprisingly icy calm even though she was boiling with anger. The last man who laid a hand on her arm was that bastard Fenner.
"Never mind, she doesn't count." He said sullenly.
"You know, inspector, I get to look through the files of all the female inmates on my wing." Nikki started to retort in clipped official tones. This sudden borrowing of Helen's wing governor style instantly made her feel strong and good about herself. Instinctively, she realized that this was a far stronger card to play than blind anger. Why lower herself to his level, a calm voice reasoned inside her head.
" We get women who have been through the due process of law on a whole range of offences, you name it, we get them. Did you know that there is a remarkably high incidence of sexual abuse in the files something that should really shock you as it does me? Like you, we get to see the underside of society but that's because a lot of the women have never had a proper chance in life. It might surprise you that while Karen and I have used prison as an opportunity to educate inmates, we're getting better results in reducing reoffending because we show them that there are alternatives in life. The problem is that we are fighting a difficult uphill battle to put right the damage done to them from an early age by some men whose sexual morality leaves just a little bit to be desired. Then again, the thought crosses my mind that rape happens at all levels of society, including the guilty ones in positions of power who are never brought to justice but should have been. They don't even get hauled up for internal disciplinary action. I can think of one institution that has been lax to the point of being criminally negligent. Ring any bells, does it?"
DC Greer stared down at her feet while Nikki shriveled her boss with scathing words and eyes that burned into him before she saw her turn to address her in quiet friendly tones.
"By the way, DS Greer, you ought to be very careful in putting yourself in a dangerous position in just the same way that my staff have to. Only in your case, the risk might come from your side. It's happened before."
Those ominous words made DI Sullivan blush and feel uncomfortable. His heavy-handed approach in insinuation during interrogations had been turned back on him in double measure. It made him squirm.
Nonchalantly, Nikki calmly turned her way to open the second set of gates and escorted them to Karen's office. Just before knocking on the door, she turned to him.
"I'm going to think very seriously about lodging an official complaint at your unprofessional behaviour. At the very least, don't you dare cross me again. It isn't safe. I would strongly advise you two to be at your most professional and respectful to Karen Betts. She won't be in a mood to tolerate anything less than this. You ring me when you're done and I'll see you off the premises"
Her withering look of contempt finishing off with that crack of almost military authority pierced clean through the man's defences. He was visibly nervous and sweating at the dressing down he had been apologetic. Vengeance is mine, saieth the Lord, Nikki thought, as she walked away with a lighter heart. She had rerun her victory over Gossard in terms that were personally satisfying, as she had beaten him at his own game.
"Come in." Karen called out wearily to the very polite knock on the door. She thought she had heard some raised voices far away but decided that in her fogged state of mind, she must have been mistaken.
"Oh, its you two, is it? Very well, you can take a seat"
She had lost a fair chunk of her normal night's sleep and that alone had made her feel totally wretched. It was for this reason that she had agreed to the interview to just get everything out of the way so she could dismiss it after it was committed to paper.
As she was slower off the mark than usual, it took her a little while to realize that the truculent Scot was visibly ingratiating himself, in his general manner and that he had scuttled in. Most unusually, a smile appeared on his lips in response to her weary greeting
She didn't get it. Last night, he had been his usual bumptious, aggressive self, and heard all he needed to hear about the row of scars that lined and shamed her forearms. It ought to have put her at an immediate disadvantage in being hardly better, in his oh so superior eyes, than the woman on whose wrists he had gleefully snapped his handcuffs. It was as if the nasty, aggressive scalp hunter had been spirited away and his doppelganger had inherited his suit, his skin but an entirely different personality had taken him over. DS Greer walked in, as meek as a lamb but that was nothing new. She was always the passive part of his double act, to be there to bounce his sarcasm off at his chosen victim.
"I hope that you are feeling up to being interviewed. If it's too much for you and you want us to come back another day, You've only got to say and we'll work round you"
Karen was more puzzled than ever and flipped out a cigarette. Wordlessly, she offered the pack to the other two who politely declined. She needed that intake of nicotine to ready herself for what lay ahead of her.
"So can you tell me in your words what happened to you that night that Shell Dockley broke in. Take your time"
A caring sharing DI Sullivan, I just don't get it, she thought.
"Just before I start, I ought to say how pleased I am that your attitude has changed for the better since you were last here"
"I understood from your wing governor that I might have been a little bit tactless. I'm always willing to improve customer relations." He gushed forth, remembering in the nick of time, the instruction to "cement good relationships." It might earn him a few brownie points to lay it on thick, as he wouldn't put it past that dangerous woman to grass him up to his boss. She scared the shit out of him.
"Oh, and who was that?" Karen asked vaguely.
"Nikki Wade"
A light bulb was switched on in her head and she had to fight down that irresistible urge for a huge grin to spread across her face from ear to ear. She made a mental note to ask Nikki for her side of the story.
"I'm sure I can rely on your good will. Anyway, back to business." She added more briskly than usual. Her spirits had been uplifted but she was pessimistic just how long this feeling of well being would last, probably the day if she were lucky. She certainly had a nasty taste in her mouth last night at the way she had lured Shell into a false sense of security.
More surprisingly, her mind drifted freely back to when she was chatting away to Shell Dockley, almost as if they were old friends and she talked freely of what had happened. She verbalised these recollections straight off mental images of what she saw and words that she somehow remembered. DI Sullivan listened intently and scrawled a few notes in his notebook ready for when he would cast it into statement form. She talked about her ultimate in flat, factual, throwaway phrases. When she was done, she searched for something to lose her thought processes until inspiration finally came to the rescue.
"Tell me, inspector, I have the newspaper cutting that Shell showed me with my home address on it. Was there an envelope to go with it"
She slid the news cutting across to DI Sullivan to scrutinize. He scanned the article and also the writing on it. This answered the question that had been in his mind from the word go. Ordinarily, he would have grilled Karen for an explanation at the very first opportunity but Nikki had scared him into holding back. It did not occur to him that, by doing so, the missing evidence had come to hand of its own volition without him using his normal bullyboy tactics.
"There might have been." He answered evasively. In his mind's eye was the blistering fury of those brown eyes, which had pierced through him. He really didn't want to blot his copybook. Better by far that the information slipped out, no names, no pack drill.
"I know that this writing wasn't Shell Dockley's. What about the writing on the envelope"
"I couldn't possibly comment, Miss." He answered a little defensively.
That means that I'm right, she clicked her thoughts together with the last reserves of mental strength. It prompted the next question.
"Have you got the envelope to hand? I might help both of us to see it"
He sighed to himself as he gave way to the inevitable. Wordlessly, he slid the envelope from his file and laid it on the table. The evidence was plain to see.
"Tell me, DI Sullivan," Karen pursued. "Don't you think that the writing on the envelope is exactly the same as the writing on the newspaper cutting"
"I'm not a handwriting expert, Miss but you could say so." DI Sullivan replied, shrugging his shoulders non committally. He felt as if he were once again on the witness stand with a powerful female barrister pinning him relentlessly down with razor sharp questions. All he needed was the memory of that judge whose thunderous anger had reverberated round that court building and made him only too willing to get out of it while the going was good. While her eyelids threatened to droop down over her eyes, Karen smiled faintly with satisfaction. She was sure that the answer to the puzzle was in her hands.
"Might I keep the envelope? I think that I have need of it for an internal investigation as to how come Shell Dockley received the letter in the first place"
This threw the inspector into a state of confusion. He was by no means sure if Shell Dockley would end up being charged with an offence more than breaking and entering, especially as she was already locked up at Ashmoor. He was less sure that the business of the letter was a police matter at all.
"I tell you what, Miss. I'll keep the envelope for now until I am sure if it is needed but you are at liberty to keep the article while you conduct your investigations. If there's a change of plan, I'll phone you or you'll phone me. We ought to work together on this one"
Karen was totally dazed by what she had heard. The interview was becoming more surreal by the moment. Eventually, she nodded her agreement before he proceeded to finally wrap up the interview.
"Erm. Miss Betts, I'll just write out the statement for a few minutes based on what you've just told me. If I've got anything wrong, just tell me"
Karen's mind threatened to drift into dreamland while DI Sullivan scribbled down furiously. Eventually, he stopped and passed the statement pad to her. She ran her eye over it. It met the facts accurately but left out what was most important to her, her frantic desire to protect John from a very unpredictable Shell Dockley, her curious conversation with her, her very real desire to help her and comfort her and her guilty knowledge that she must betray her and Shell's last minute act of generosity to her which made her feel ashamed and disgusted with herself. Apart from that, it was an accurate statement.
She picked up her pen and scrawled her signature at the bottom while DI Sullivan countersigned it. He had got what he wanted.
"If you don't mind me, I'll be off to the station. If there's any need for further action, you'll be hearing from us"
"Sure," she answered. "I'll ask Nikki Wade to escort you back to the gatehouse"
She was too tired and drained by now to react to the way he flinched at the name. She was past caring.