Chapter Five- Innocent's Ire
Inspector Lewis leaned back in his chair and sighed. It was almost ten o'clock, and his sergeant still hadn't arrived. Lewis looked up and saw a familiar figure standing by the door. He smiled.
"Come in, Laura."
Dr Laura Hobson entered the room and paused, glancing at Hathaway's empty chair.
"Where's...?"
"No idea. I've tried calling his mobile several times and even sent him a text message."
Laura smiled and said "Robbie, I had no idea that you could text."
"Yes, I s'pose I can now. This was my first real try. I'm not very good at it, though. Took me about twenty minutes to figure out how to send the blasted thing. But I've no response at all from James."
Hobson walked over to Lewis and put an arm on his shoulder. "Well, I'm sure James is all right."
"I hope so," Lewis said anxiously. "It's not like him to be late. He's usually here before I am." He changed the subject. "Anyway, do you have anything good to report to me?"
"Unfortunately not. That's what's so troubling. Other than what I told you yesterday, we have few real leads. There are no fingerprints on either the knife or the body, so the attacker must've worn gloves."
Laura smirked slightly before continuing."There is one thing. Based on some tests we performed, it seems that Mr Innocent may have been involved in sexual activity."
Robbie let out a groan. "Laura, if you think I'm going to barge into the super's office and ask her if she... Can you imagine how humiliating that would be for both of us?"
"It was embarrassing enough to perform the tests. If it bothers you that much, make Hathaway ask."
"Make me ask what?" said a deep voice from the doorway, and DS Hathaway walked into the room.
"Where the hell have you been?" Lewis railed at the sergeant. "The super's been in here twice asking to speak to you. I had to tell her I had no bloody idea where you were."
"I...I. …wasn't feeling well. I wasn't sure if I was feeling up to coming in."
"You could've called."
"Well, I … slept late and then kind of decided at the last minute to come. Listen, did the super tell you what she wanted?"
Lewis studied his sergeant thoughtfully, wondering if he was imagining the anxious tone in James's voice. "She just said it was important."
An expression that looked oddly like relief passed over James Hathaway's face. "So, what were you saying earlier? Something about me asking someone something, I think," Hathaway asked.
Laura, a smirk firmly planted on her face spoke up. "Inspector Lewis needs you to ask the chief superintendent if she had sex with her husband the night before his murder."
"What!" exclaimed Hathaway, looking horrified at the prospect.
"We have forensic evidence that indicates that Mr Innocent may have slept with someone before he died. If he did and that someone turns out not to have been Jean, it would make a significant difference in your investigation."
"I'mnot doing that. It's a lose-lose situation. Either the Super will be mad at me simply for prying into her sexual history, or she'll be mad if it turns out her husband was having an affair."
"It's important to the investigation," said Lewis who was clearly enjoying the sergeant's discomfort.
James looked at Robbie pleadingly. "Can't you do it, Sir?"
Lewis flushed. "I… well… it's just better if you do it, seeing as you two are close and all."
An expression of slight panic flashed across Hathaway's face. "What do you mean, 'close and all?'"
"I just meant that you've always gotten along. What did you think I meant?" asked Lewis, eying Hathaway curiously.
James Hathaway sat down at his chair and pretended to be examining some papers on the desk, carefully avoiding Lewis's gaze. Sensing that he would receive no clarification from the sergeant on that front, Lewis changed the subject.
"So you were sick, then?"
"Yeah. I've still got a throbbing headache."
Laura walked over to James's desk, a self-satisfied smile on her face as though she fancied that she knew something that Robbie didn't. "Are you sure that there isn't something else going on, James?" she asked.
"Well…" James began. He paused, biting his lip in thought. He continued, looking straight at Lewis, as he didn't like the knowing gleam in Hobson's eyes. " Have you ever had a dream that you'd done something so bloody stupid that you wanted to crawl in a hole and die of embarrassment, only to wake up and realize that it wasn't a dream?"
A certain incident in Lewis's youth involving a few fellow policemen and a confiscated stash of cannabis came to mind. Lewis wondered what on earth Hathaway could've done that measured up to that. "Would you care to elaborate?" Lewis asked, intrigued.
"No," Hathaway said firmly. "I would not care to elaborate, but it is, without a doubt, the most idiotic thing that I've ever done."
"More idiotic than getting involved with Zoë Kenneth?" said Lewis, thinking back on what he thought Hathaway's biggest mistake had been.
Hathaway stroked his chin in thought for a moment. "I think so," he said finally.
A new voice from the door made Hathaway flinch."There you are," said Chief Superintendent Innocent, her arms crossed in front of her. She walked over to the group, her eyes firmly planted on James. "I've been in here twice already asking for you, only to be informed that you had given Inspector Lewis no indication of your whereabouts."
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Hathaway mumbled, looking everywhere in the room but directly at her.
"I need to speak to you right away in my office." The chief superintendent's voice was strained and careful—as though she was trying very hard to avoid shouting right then and there. Innocent gestured for Hathaway to follow her out of the room, and he did, his head bent down as though he was a condemned man headed for his execution. Lewis meanwhile turned to Dr Hobson.
"Is it just me, or is their something funny going on with James?"
As she nodded her agreement, the pathologist responded. "It's not just Hathaway, though. It's Innocent as well. When she came over last night, she seemed quite… disoriented and mentioned that she'd run into James."
"Do you have anywhere you need to be, Doctor?"
She looked at him questioningly. "No, I'm on break. Why?"
Robbie headed for the door. "What do you say we find out what they're not telling us?"
Laura followed him. "What, eavesdrop?"
"Not exactly. We could go in and tell Innocent's secretary that we need to speak to the super. And, well… we should be able to hear the conversation from outside the door."
Hobson raised an eyebrow. "So, it's glorified eavesdropping, is it?"
"I guess you could call it that. I prefer to think of it as serendipitous eavesdropping."
"Wow! First you send a text message, then you condone eavesdropping, and now you're using highly sophisticated vocabulary. You really are full of surprises today, Robbie," said Laura, grinning at Lewis.
"I try," said Robbie, modestly.
As the two stopped outside of the main door to Innocent's office, Hobson said what she was thinking. "What do we say if the secretary asks why we need to speak to Jean?"
Lewis thought for a moment. "We can always say that we're worried about James. It's half-truth anyway."
"And if Innocent sees through that as I expect she will?"
Robbie looked straight at Laura, chuckling slightly. "Well, if she does, you can always ask her your 'medical question,' Doctor."
He opened the door and walked into the room, Hobson following close behind. Their eyes darted to the empty desk of the chief superintendent's secretary.
"So, since we're alone, do we just go and crouch down by the door?" Laura whispered into Robbie's ear. Lewis shrugged in response.
It was soon clear, however, that they did not need to crouch beside the door to hear. The chief superintendent's angry voice carried extremely well through the closed door. "A barroom brawl? Really, James? I had thought that you of all people would've known better than that. You're a bloody policeman! You're supposed to protect people, not assaultthem."
Hathaway muttered something incomprehensible in response.
"And then, just when I thought, you couldn't possibly embarrass me, yourself, or our noble profession any further…"
"Ma'am, I know the kiss was a mistake, and I'm sorry. But please remember that I was dru-" Hathaway said, as Lewis and Hobson exchanged identical looks of horror.
"I DON'T CARE that you were drunk! And you should be bloody sorry! I hope you realize, sergeant, that if word of your 'mistake' leaks out, it would mean the end of both of our careers."
"Please, ma'am. It was stupid, I know, but if we could just forgive and forget. I've forgotten most of the details already, and no one else knows." James said in a placating tone.
"I know and that's more than enough people. You may have been drunk, Sergeant, but I was perfectly sober the entire time."
"What are you doing here?"
The new voice from directly behind them made both Lewis and Hobson jump. The pair spun around to see that Camille, DCS Innocent's secretary and sergeant, had re-entered the room.
Laura stood up straight and managed to assume some semblance of composure. "The door was open, so we went ahead and let ourselves in. We need to speak to the superintendent. We have a question about her late husband's … health."
"All right," Camille said. "I'll go in now and see if the superintendent can meet with you after she's finished with Sgt Hathaway."
'Finished is the right word for it,' Lewis thought to himself. The way Innocent was going, Hathaway would be lucky to make it out of that meeting alive.
Camille entered Innocent's main office, shutting the door behind her. Behind the door, Lewis and Hobson heard the secretary address Innocent. "Ma'am, Inspector Lewis and Dr Hobson are just outside. They say they have a question about Mr Innocent's health. Should I send them in after you've finished conferring with Sgt Hathaway?"
"They're here! Now?" Innocent asked frantically. "How long have they been there?"
"Dunno," Camille said. "I just returned from the loo, and they were there when I arrived."
The chief superintendent let out an expletive that Lewis hoped he'd never hear again from the usually professional mouth of Jean Innocent. Then, Innocent continued speaking, lowering her volume a notch.
"Well, you'd better send them in right away. Now that they've overheard some highly sensitive information—well, it's better that they hear the full story rather than draw scandalous conclusions from a few compromising details."
The door to Innocent's main office opened, and Camille ushered Robbie and Laura inside where they came face-to-face with a furious Jean Innocent and Lewis's very embarrassed sergeant.