Title: Intimidation
Chapter: 5 - Justification
Fandom: The Doctor Blake Mysteries
Author: Ceindreadh
Characters: Matthew Lawson, Charlie Davis, William Munro, Mattie O'Brien, Lucien Blake
Rating: 15
Spoilers: Seasons 3
Summary: Lawson gets the opportunity to state his case but will the committee side with him?
Word count: ~ 2,000
Disclaimer. I don't own the characters, I'm only borrowing them, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Allan was the first one to recover, "Inspector Lawson, I presume. So nice of you to finally join us. I think yes, we should hear from you directly." He gestured to the witness chair, "Davis you may step down for now."

Charlie walked towards Lawson, hardly able to believe his eyes. Lawson was paler than usual and had a bandage on his left hand as well as a dressing on his cheek.
"Sir?" whispered Charlie as they passed. "What the bloody hell's going on?"

"It's all right, Davis," said Lawson. "I'll take it from here." He walked up to the committee table.

Charlie took his seat, unsure of what was going to happen, but relieved that he wasn't going to be facing it alone. He could see that Griffin looked equally as puzzled, but Munro on the other hand, Munro was looking about as sick as Charlie had earlier, and was hurriedly whispering in Griffin's ear. The sight of Munro's loss of complacency cheered Charlie somewhat as he waited for Lawson to speak.

"We appear to have two contradictory accounts here," said Allan, indicating Lawson's original statement and the retraction which Charlie had just read out. "One in which you accuse Superintendent Munro and the other in which you praise him. Do you wish to withdraw your original complaint or not?"

"No Sir," said Lawson, "I do not."

"Ah, so you wish to retract your retraction. Inspector, we are all very busy men, and if you don't want to be censured for wasting police time then I hope you have a very good explanation for this. If you didn't want to withdraw your complaint, then why did you write this retraction?"

"Because a man will write pretty much anything if there's a gun to his head," said Lawson, trying to keep his temper under control. "I was abducted last night and coerced into writing that statement. I'm here now to set the record straight."

"And we're supposed to just take your word for it?" said Brown. "It seems to me that you could simply have come to your senses over this attempt to smear the good character of a senior officer but now in the cold light of day you're trying to save your own skin."

So that was Morgan's man on the committee thought Lawson. He knew Allan by reputation, a hard man but with an impeccable reputation. He would be on the side of justice. Brown was clearly going to vote to exonerate Munro if it were at all possible. Cole however was an unknown quantity. If he was in Morgan's pocket too, then Lawson knew he'd already lost. But he also knew that he wasn't going down without a fight.

"No, Sirs," said Lawson, evenly. "I don't expect you to take just my word for it." He put his hand inside his jacket and pulled out an envelope. "I have here one of the original pages which I was forced to transcribe. It's identical to the statement you have before you. The only difference is that it's in William Munro's handwriting." He opened the envelope and handed the sheet of paper to Allan.

"You could easily have forged his handwriting," snapped Griffin. "Are there no lengths you're prepared to stoop to in order to harass my client?"

"A handwriting expert will prove it one way or another. But that will take time," said Lawson, turning to face Munro and Griffin. He pulled out another envelope. "An analysis of the fingerprints on the sheet...now that's another matter." Lawson slammed the envelopes down on Munro's table. "Care to take a guess as to whose prints they found, William."

"So tell us about this rabbit," said Blake as he drove out of Ballarat. They'd stopped at Lawson's place long enough for him to pull on a clean uniform and then they were on their way. "Sorry, I mean the hat."

Lawson shifted uncomfortably in Blake's passenger seat. "I'm not even sure if there will be a rabbit in it," he said, finally. Putting his hand in his jacket pocket, he carefully pulled out a few folded sheets of paper.

Mattie, leaning forward from the back seat could see that the pages were dusty and had been crumpled up before being refolded. "What is it?" she asked.

"That's the confession that they forced me to write. Or rather, that's the original I had to copy from. It's in Munro's handwriting or I'll eat my hat."

"Difficult to prove that he wrote it though," said Blake. "You'll need a handwriting expert and that can take time. Ah, you're thinking there'll be fingerprints on it. But what if was wearing gloves? You said that Morgan didn't take his gloves off at all."

"Morgan was making sure there was going to be no proof he was ever in Ballarat," said Lawson. "But it's not easy to write with gloves, and besides, he never meant to leave these behind."

Lawson had only found them by chance when he'd gone to check that Scott was indeed dead. They'd evidently been knocked to the ground during his fight with Scott and Eddie. Afterwards, Scott had collected the other sheets and returned them to Morgan, but these had been hidden by the upturned crate. "Morgan took the rest of the pages and they're probably a pile of ash on the side of the road."

"Unless he kept them as an insurance policy against Munro," said Mattie.
Lawson looked sharply at her while Blake smiled, "Why Mattie, I do believe you're getting into the spirit of things. We'll make a criminal mastermind of you yet!" To Lawson he added, "So all we need to do is check for fingerprints on the pages, see if they're a match for Munro's and we're home and dry. Let's see William weasel his way out of *that*! But why not get it checked at Ballarat? You have the facilities and the results could be wired to Melbourne." Blake caught the expression on Lawson's face. "Ah, you don't know who you can trust."

Lawson shook his head, "It's not that. This isn't their fight. If I go down in flames, I don't want to bring them with me. Besides, if I produce evidence that's been analysed in Ballarat, it'll be tainted by association. We need this to be above suspicion. But I need somebody I can trust."

A few hours later they pulled up in front of a station house where a familiar face was waiting outside.

"Parks," said Lawson, as he climbed painfully out of the car.

"Good to see you, Sir," said Danny, a smile on his face. "I'm just sorry it isn't under better circumstances. Superintendent Collins is waiting inside. He's expecting you." Danny nodded to Blake and Mattie, "I'll catch up with you two after all this is over."

"We'll wait here," said Blake as the pair walked up the steps to the station.

"I know we can trust Danny," said Mattie, "But what about his boss?"

"Lawson and Chief Superintendent Collins go way back," said Blake. "They worked together on several occasions when Lawson was stationed at St. Kilda. When Danny was transferred to Melbourne, Lawson knew that he couldn't stop the transfer, but he was able to get his old mate to pull a few strings and have Danny assigned here. He knew that Collins would look out for him. Let's just hope that their fingerprint analysis brings up the right result."

Lawson slammed the envelopes down on Munro's table. "Care to take a guess as to whose prints they found, William."

"You bastard," hissed Munro, his face pale as he jumped to his feet. "You're mad if you think you can get away with this."

"Actually my parents were married for over forty years," said Lawson, a smile on his face. "But call me mad again when we're both out of uniform, and well, I may not be so tolerant."

Munro pushed past Lawson to face the committee, Griffin trying in vain to stop him. "Sirs, this is all clearly the work of a deranged individual. The stress of the past few months, his demotion...it's all clearly been too much for the man and has resulted in these baseless accusations. There's not one shred of truth in what's he's saying."

"Are you denying that this is your handwriting?" asked Allan, holding the page so Munro could see it.

"It's a good facsimile," said Munro, "But it's not beyond the work of a forger."

"And the fingerprints?"

Munro hesitated only briefly, "They could already have been on the page before the writing was forged, a blank page from my desk once I'd been removed from my position."

"And I suppose I punched myself in the face as well, just to add to my story," said Lawson, almost cheerfully now that he could see that Munro was on the back foot. "Maybe that's how I sprained my hand. I've always been told I have a hard head!"

Munro shot a venomous look at Lawson but before he could say anything, Allan interrupted. "Well, I believe that before we go any further, my colleagues and I should take a bit of time to discuss the matters that have arisen. Superintendent Munro, you will make yourself available for further questioning before this committee. Consider yourself suspended from all duties until further notice. Inspector Lawson, thank you for bringing this matter before us. That will be all." He held out his hand for the envelope.

"Sir," said Lawson, holding it out. "I should inform you that this report and the handwriting analysis when it's complete are being copied to the Crown Prosecutors Office, together with my official notarised statement on the events of last night. They'll probably wait for your findings before making any recommendation as to charges."

"Why Inspector Lawson," said Brown, "Anyone might think you had a lack of faith in this committee."

"Can't imagine where you'd get that idea from...Sir."

"Nonetheless," continued Brown, "Until our own internal investigation is concluded, it would be inadvisable for any external charges to be brought. Do you understand, Lawson?"

"Oh I understand completely," said Lawson. "And rest assured, I'll await your findings before proceeding. But don't worry, I'll make sure that all the relevant evidence is kept in a safe and secure location until such time as it's needed." He saw Brown's eyes narrow as he realised the implications of Lawson's words.

"Well if that's all," said Allan, "This committee will retire for the day."

"Actually there is one more thing," said Lawson, "What about Ballarat station? We need to know, the public needs to know who's in charge."

"Hmm, a fair point," said Allan. "It may take some time for us to render a decision. And given the recent events, I believe the public deserve a sense of continuity and stability. I shall recommend to the Police Commissioner that you be given a temporary promotion to Chief Inspector and resume your position in charge at Ballarat until further notice." He looked over at his colleagues, "Are there any objections? No? Good."

Lawson stood to attention as the committee members left and a seething Munro was escorted out by Griffin.

He heard footsteps approach him and knew who it was, even before Charlie opened his mouth.

Sir?" he said hesitantly. "What just happened here? Did we win?"

"Not really," said Lawson, carefully. "But we didn't lose either." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Is Munro gone?" he asked, his voice tight with pain. Already exhausted from his long walk to Ballarat, while the short rest at Blake's house had revived him somewhat, the rushed journey down to Melbourne hadn't given him much chance to rest properly. He'd pushed through the pain, not wanting to give Munro the satisfaction of seeing him at less than his best, but now the impetus that had spurred him on was gone. The painkillers that Blake had given him earlier were wearing off, and every part of his body was protesting the limits to which he'd pushed it.

Charlie looked around to see that the room was now empty, "Yes Sir."

"Good," mumbled Lawson, "Didn't want him to see me like this." He closed his eyes as the room started spinning around him.

"Boss!" Charlie watched in horror as Lawson's knees buckled. He was barely able to catch him as he slumped to the ground.

To be concluded