24. The Commissioner.

They left Brighton Police Station and Tony brought them back to Aunt Matilda where they spent a comfortable night after he readied the spare room. After breakfast, they came back to London. Tony dropped Adam off at the usual alleyway near Scotland Yard before he carried on to the Auror's office in Knockturn Alley.

Adam ran into the building, the AI recognising him as usual, opening doors for him as he arrived. As he headed for his office, he found the commissioner waiting for him. Not a good sign thought Adam. His smile was warm, which Adam again thought was another bad sign.

"DCI Croft, Come into my office."

He followed the uniformed man, who was shorter than Adam was, his uniform pressed to within an inch of its life as usual.

"Please take a seat." He said as he closed the door to his office. Adam sat, waiting, his foot tapping.

"I thought we needed to have a chat." He said walking around the room to his own chair and seating himself. "You've done nothing wrong I know of, but some things have come to light and I think I need an answer."

"Fire away Sir." He kept his voice light.

"Our phones keep a constant watch on what officers are doing, a safety feature that was added a few years ago."

"Yes, Sir, I understand that."

"The software and location records are accurate. I assume you understand that if the software, or more likely the AI, sees something odd in a police officer's movements, or call patterns it reports to your commanding officer. Also, you may not know the phone monitors your voice in real-time, for stress patterns."

"I did not know all of that." Adam felt uneasy.

The commissioner looked at Adam before continuing. "It's very accurate. Your commanding officer will sometimes receive alerts, or rather, his team will, telling him an officer is under stress and could be in trouble. If he thinks, it's appropriate, checks will be instigated. I'm sure you will have received these alerts from time to time."

"Yes, sir, I have, many times."

"Also, if your phone is away from the office for any serious length of time, a similar alert is sent. I am your commanding officer. I decided this because of the possible political ramifications."

"Can I assume you don't trust me?" Adam asked, getting annoyed.

The commissioner smiled. "That never crossed my mind, however, the nature of the case warned me to take an interest in this investigation, just in case you were in danger, I could get resources to your aid much quicker than a Chief Super."

The commissioner went quiet, giving Adam a chance to talk, which he did not take. He felt the pit of his stomach drop as he realised where this was going.

"Now, back to the problem at hand, you see Adam, according to your phone you were in Northern Sweden or Norway at least twice, you were absent from your phone for several hours, while Garrett's phone showed he was somewhere in South Africa. A call was made to the cloud sending and receiving information from somewhere in North Norway." He stared at Adam again, waiting for a reply which he didn't give. "Stress patterns reported by your phone suggest you have both been under extreme duress frequently." The intense stare never faltered. "I called in the company that looks after the software, assuming we had a serious glitch. They could find nothing wrong with the software and are still here running extensive diagnostics. Would you care to elaborate?"

"Truthfully?" the commissioner nodded. "No."

"That is not an acceptable answer."

"I thought you might say that."

"Adam, how could you and Garrett have possibly travelled from the UK to Norway, then to South Africa and back in a single morning?"

"In all honesty Sir, I do not have an answer that would make sense." Adam's mind was working overtime looking for an answer that could or might work.

"The information is stored on your phone is also stored in the cloud. If someone goes looking, it could become public knowledge. I need something I can use to defend you if this gets out."

Adam decided on an answer that might give him some breathing space. "I will give you the information on what I have been doing since the start of this case, upon the explicit orders of the PM." The commissioner sat back and rubbed his brow, signalling his tiredness.

"I contacted the PM's office yesterday letting them know about the software problem after reviewing some of it." Adam's head snapped up to look at the Commissioner.

"There seems to be a lot of that going on at the moment," Adam replied with a resigned air, even less sure where this was going.

"Yes, I know, a certain Brighton Police Superintendent called wanting to know what the hell you were doing on his patch."

"Another thing I was supposed to warn you about, but circumstances have..." He held his hands up. The Commissioner shook his head. "In all of my not inconsiderable years on the force, I have never been put in such an impossible position. Somehow I think you're in a very much worse position than I am."

"What did the PM's office have to say?"

The commissioner smiled and shook his head again. "You're making huge waves and upsetting a lot of powerful people, which is exactly the reason you and young Garrett were chosen to lead the investigation, apparently. They told me to ignore things like phone records as they will be put right in the end." He stopped and leant forward. "And if the records are not right, then it's not the end."

Adam laughed. "You weren't talking to the PM's office; you were talking to Tony Garret's Ministry person."

"How can you know that?"

"That's the sort of strange comment I'd expect from them."

"These powerful people..." The commission was saying until Adam interrupted.

"Are very powerful, and not necessarily from the UK and not necessarily our friends." The humour had dropped out of his voice, not missed by the Commissioner.

"I'll assume you can't tell me any more, so let's change the subject. Why were you interested in a dead person in Brighton?"

"We weren't so much interested in the person, rather the manner they died."

"And the woman you want moving from the hospital."

"Again the manner she became hurt is the interesting part and the reason we want her here for questioning."

"What happens after the questioning, does she disappear like the last one?"

Adam felt uncomfortable. "Probably." He replied.

"Where are they sent?"

"The Ministry has its own prison, so I'm told."

"What about trials and juries?" The commissioner's voice rose in concern.

"I'm assured they have them and they are above board and I have no reason to disbelieve that."

It was clear from the commissioner's whole persona he did not like what he was hearing. He sat back in his chair and took a deep breath. "Is there anything else I should know about?"

"Nothing that would make any sense. I'll need authority from you to bring the two up from Brighton."

"When will the girl be ready to leave the hospital?"

"I'm expecting a phone call this morning."

"I'll not take any more of your time then. I'll get someone to do the paperwork and get it off to Brighton." He stood up and guided Adam out of his office. As he walked away, he realised the Commissioner was following him down the corridor. He gestured to Adam to stop.

"As of this morning," he whispered into Adam's ear, "you were officially retired from the force, so in real terms, you are no longer a serving policeman," Adam said nothing, not understanding where this was going. "I'm under instruction, while you were a serving police officer, to say nothing about what I am about to tell you." Adam turned towards him, suddenly very interested. "My instructions do not mention what happens if you are no longer a policeman."

"Should I be even more worried than I am already?"

The commissioner raised his eyebrows. "The police force nor I were involved in your enforced retirement."

"What?" he exclaimed.

"Your anger at me and the force is fully justified, however, it is not our fault, and I have fought tooth and nail, first, to keep you on the force and second, the reason why."

"Who the hell is forcing me out?"

The commissioner paused for a moment. "I am almost certain that the people demanding your release or retirement are the same people you are currently working for." The Commissioner stepped back towards his office and stopped at the door. "Thank you, Adam, please take care, and watch your back. We may have our differences, but I really do not want you to be a statistic. I'll speak to you later." He shouted as he entered his office and closed the door.

Adam stood in the short corridor, the sounds of life continuing around him. His thoughts swirled around, unable to settle on what was going on. Everything he thought and expected was wrong, the people he trusted were no longer to be trusted, and the untrusted were to be trusted. Maybe he thought.

Adam dashed back to his office; Tony had his feet up on the desk, in the usual pose struck by Adam, gazing at the electronic information board.

"Just had a phone call from Holly. They're bringing her out of the coma after lunch." Tony looked up at the clock. "We'd better get a move on." He said as he stood up.

"We need to leave here first and sign out."

"Understood, we'll use the alleyway again."

"Good, if she wakes up earlier, she'll apparate out."

"She can't, I made sure of that yesterday before the alarm went off. However, if she's pissed enough, she could harm Holly."

"Without a wand?"

"Yes, the wand is just a focus. If she's skilled enough, she could still do someone without magic a lot of harm."

They were just about to exit the main doors when the duty sergeant called them from the large display.

"Adam. Before you go, the commissioner called down to let you know about a young girl in Brighton. Does that mean anything?"

"Yes, it does, we're on our way there now."

"The commissioner has sorted the paperwork to have a body brought up here and then onward to a location only you know of and the transferral of a woman, again to here, upon her release from hospital."

"Good news for once. We may bring the girl back ourselves. Thanks." He yelled as he ran to catch up with Tony.

Back in Brighton, Adam stopped to take things in. He had never rushed around like this before, and he felt the need to take a moment to catch up with himself. He put things straight in his head, following Tony into the hospital and then on to the ward.

Holly was seated in the corner, looking very bored, the steady beep from the machinery the only noise. She smiled when Tony came in.

"When does the show start?" Adam asked, pushing his way into the small room.

"The doctors are coming down at ten o'clock. She hasn't moved a muscle while I've been here."

"You've been here all night?"

"Yes. I slept in the chair here."

"We're moving Clerkin to Scotland Yard for another autopsy, and then on to the Ministry. Tony has contacted the Ministry and his parents have been called."

"Do you know why he was fighting or whether he was with her or someone else?" She asked.

"That's the reason we need her awake and in our control. If she's with Scriven's, she'll be dangerous, if she's not, I want to know what the hell she was doing flying over Brighton on a broomstick and how the hell did she crash?" Tony asked.

They chatted for a while, listening to Holly explaining her background. Watching her three elder brothers going to Hogwarts, the disappointment of her parents when she never received her Hogwarts letter.

Finally, Tony asked her for the wand.

He took his own wand out and did his usual interrogation. Translucent flickering images appeared a few times.

"What were you practising?"

"I tried to talk to it." She said, looking embarrassed. "I've no idea what to do with it, my brother used to tell me that the wand chooses the wizard, so I tried to bond with it."

"You've done something to it."

"What?" she exclaimed.

"I've no idea, but yesterday this wand was ownerless, today it has an unknown owner. It's not strong, but it's bloody strange, then again, I'm not that experienced, so it could be normal." He handed the wand back to her. "I'll get someone at the ministry to have a look."

The door opened, forcing Holly to shove the wand out of sight, guiltily. The first one in was the doctor who saw them the day before, he was with another white-coated male; who they assumed was another doctor.

"We switched the drugs off earlier this morning. She should be awake at any moment if she isn't already.

All of them looked toward the bed and saw that the girl's eyes were open and flicking from person to person.

"I want words with you, now." Adam grabbed the arm of the Doctor and pushed him out of the doorway

He waited for the door to close. "You fucking idiot," Adam shouted, his clenched hand with his index finger an inch from the Doctor's nose. "We were discussing the case in there, and we just mentioned the person she was with was dead. Now she knows." The doctor's mouth opened, unable to talk at the sheer force and anger from Adam. "Who the hell do you think you are putting a serious investigation in jeopardy?" Adam didn't give him a chance to talk. "I will put a serious written complaint through to the hospital administration. If this case falls through, because of your stupidity, I will make sure you end up in court. You are not allowed back in this room; get someone here to do your job, now."

Adam turned away and went back into the ward, closing the door in the doctor's face. The second doctor checked the equipment before going to the girl and giving her the once over.

"You have been lucky. The scans we took when you were admitted looked as if you could have had a bleed on the brain, but the scan we did yesterday evening showed no bleed. We need to keep you in for observation for a day or two."

"Can she talk?" Adam asked concealing the anger in his voice.

"I can talk." The girl whispered from the bed.

"Good enough, you can leave now, doctor."

"I'm sorry, I need to do..."

Adams put his face in his. "We'll call you when we have conducted our interview."

"This is against hospital rules; I don't know who you people are?"

Adam slipped his phone out and held it up in the doctor's face. The force logo stood out along with his name and rank.

"Wait outside, or go to the nurse's monitor station." He turned to Holly. "Officer Fairweather, go with the doctor and ensure he has no microphones listening in at the nurse's station."

"Yes, Sir." She said getting up and bustling the agitated doctor out of the room.

Adam sat on the end of the bed while Tony sat on the chair vacated by Holly.

"I'd like to apologise for the way you found out that Eric Clerkin had died."

"I saw him fall, he was a lot higher than me, so I'm not surprised and I'm not that unhappy about it either." Her voice was quiet and sounded dull. Adam was unsure whether it was the drugs, making her sound like that.

"How did he fall?" Tony asked.

"He was hit by a spell from a wand. I saw the flash and then him falling."

"Do you know who it was?"

"Hulda Scrivens."

"What was the spell?"

"I don't know."

"Were you running from Miss Scrivens?"

"Yes, she was trying to kill me."

"Why?" She seemed to sink back into the bed, saying nothing. "We can do this the easy way or I can interrogate you with a wand, or we can get you moved to a less pleasant place to do the interview," Tony said keeping his voice neutral.

Tears welled up in her eyes. "I can't, she did something to me, I can remember, but I can't say it."

Tony slipped his wand out and pointed it at the girl. Adam reached up and placed his hand over the camera lens. He stared at the coloured light that flickered out from the tip of the wand to envelope her head.

He put his wand away, looked at Adam and shook his head. "Someone has done a job on her. I don't want to try putting it right until she's been seen by someone at St Mungo's."

"How come you're telling him?" She Asked Tony.

"Because I know all about your world and my wife was recently in St Mungo's, put there by your friend Hulda," Adam replied.

"Hulda is no friend of mine."

"Are you sure you don't know the spell she used?" Tony asked.

"No. I was..." She stopped again, pain showing on her face as she tried to talk. Tears dripped down her cheeks onto the pillow. "I can't talk."

"Don't worry for now," Adam said. "Tony, can you get her ready to travel now? I'll go see the doctor and get her released."

Adam stepped out of the ward, leaving Tony to get the girl ready, looking for her clothes in the small cupboard, while she extricated herself from the bed, leaning on the bed frame, still sore.

Tony heard her wince when she stood up. "Do you want me to get rid of the pain?" He asked.

"No, the pain is keeping me going. I want to be in a proper hospital."

"Your clothes aren't here." He said closing the small cupboard. He could hear raised voices from outside in the corridor. The door flew open and both of the doctors came in.

"She shouldn't be out of bed." Yelled the first one storming across the small room. Gabrielle was removing the leads from her body, which connected her to the monitoring machine, which was now beeping in multiple tones. He grabbed the lead from her and tried to aim her back towards the bed.

"I am not getting back into that bed." She said with feeling.

"I'm your doctor and I am telling you to get back into that bed, you are not well."

"The young lady will be signing herself out of the hospital," Adam said from behind the doctor.

"You cannot make that decision without a court order, which I will stop." The doctor yelled as he turned toward Adam.

"If the young lady wishes to sign herself out, you have no choice but to agree," Adam replied, his voice dropping and becoming more reasonable. "Now, Miss Lynwood has made a request that she wishes to leave and be taken to another hospital to complete her treatment."

"What hospital?" Asked the doctor, his voice echoing Adam, the anger dropping away.

"That would be the Ministry's Hospital," Interrupted Tony, "in London."

The doctor looked at Gabrielle.

"I'm going with them." She said, her voice sounding full of determination.

"I must impress on how dangerous movement is at this time." The doctor spoke earnestly to the girl.

"I know, but the Ministry hospital is better suited to my problems than this one."

The doctor closed his eyes and shook his head. "I don't know how they can be better suited than a trauma unit like this." His voice had changed, sensing defeat. "At least let me arrange for an ambulance with someone on board who can monitor you."

"Thank you, doctor, but we have our own transport, which is much faster than an ambulance," Adam replied.

Holly squeezed into the room, pushing the original doctor to one side and helped Gabrielle with the leads.

"One thing, where are my clothes?"

"I assume the police have them." Replied the first doctor looking at Adam, who replied with a stare that had the effect on the doctor he wanted.

"I'll prescribe a few things she'll need for the journey." He turned and walked away.