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"What's wrong with you?" Jim asked as Christina jammed the car into gear.
"Nothing."
"Well, it can't be nothing, not to put you into a mood like this. You've had a face on you ever since you asked me to come and see this witness with you."
"I only asked, I didn't force you."
"I'm not saying that you did." He paused. "Lovers' tiff, is it?"
She glanced sharply at him, "What?"
"You and Stewart. Have you had a falling out or something?"
"Oh, Stewart…"
"Who else would I mean?"
"No, we haven't had a falling out. I'm just…I'm just pissed off, that's all."
"Why, because Burnside decided he had better things to do than investigate this allegation?"
She took a breath before answering, "He seems to like just popping in and out whenever it suits him."
"Yeah, well we all know that. As long as he oversees it, there isn't a problem, surely?"
"No, I suppose there isn't." She pulled up at a set of traffic lights and yanked on the handbrake. She had tried not to think about the argument in the hour or so since it had happened, and yet she was finding it impossible to think about anything else. Part of her knew that she was being unreasonable, that Frank had only been trying to tell her what he had seen without jumping to any conclusions about her husband, and another part of her was irritated that he had felt the need to mention it at all. She had grappled back and forth with what his motive might be, swinging between him having a desire to hurt her, which seemed unlikely, or a desire to be smug and condescending about the state of her marriage. In the past, she would have said that the latter was the obvious choice and yet the improvement in their relationship of late argued against that. "You…eh…you were in the pub for lunch yesterday, weren't you?"
"The Grape? Yeah, most of us were."
"Did you see Stewart there?"
"No," Jim looked at her. "Should I have?"
"Burnside said he was there."
"Oh, well I never saw him. It's not exactly unusual, is it, for him to be in a pub at lunchtime?"
"No, of course not. It's just…" she paused, wondering how much she should say. "It's just that he said he was there with his arm around a woman." She turned round the corner and then glanced over at Jim again. "Well?"
"Do you believe him?"
"Burnside? I don't see why he would lie, especially if the rest of you were there." It was a thought that hadn't actually occurred to her, but even as she turned it over in her mind, she genuinely could see no reason for deception.
"And does it bother you?"
"Does what bother me?"
"That Stewart was there with his arm around a woman."
"Well…" she paused, "I mean, it was in a public bar. If he was up to anything, he wouldn't do it there, would he?"
"That wasn't what I thought you'd say."
"How do you mean?"
"I thought you'd say that it didn't bother you because he would never cheat on you."
"Isn't that, in effect, what I said?"
"Not really no."
"Oh…well…" she looked both ways at a junction before pulling out, "I know he would never cheat on me."
"Is that what you're really pissed off about? What Burnside said, rather than him taking himself off this case?"
"I…" she shook her head. "I don't know."
"Would you rather he hadn't said anything?"
"Yes…no…I don't know, really I don't. It wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't said anything because I know Stewart would never be unfaithful, but the fact that he felt he had to say something just…well it makes me feel…" she scrabbled for words to adequately convey how she was feeling. "It just makes me feel like he was getting at me."
"Why would he be getting to you?"
"Like…well, like he was pleased about it." She glanced over at him. "Does that sound stupid?"
"Well…" Jim paused, "I know he's a lot of things, but I doubt even Burnside would be pleased if it turned out Stewart was having an affair. Despite all the aggro, I think he does care about us, as a team. Besides, if Stewart was having an affair, wouldn't you want to know?"
She pulled the car to a halt outside Sophie's mother's home address, the one Sophie had given Viv upon her release from hospital, and switched off the engine. It was another question that had gone round and round in her head since her conversation with Frank. Would she want to know? Was it the fact that he had told her of his suspicions, or was it the fact that he had told her of his suspicions? Would she had reacted differently if the news had come from someone else? "Yeah," she replied finally, "wouldn't any woman?"
Jim made a face at her, "I wouldn't know."
XXXX
"Well, this is all reassuringly familiar," Ted said, lighting up a cigarette and blowing smoke in Frank's direction. They were alone in the CID office, the others all being out on enquiries.
"How do you mean?"
"The atmosphere. It was beginning to all get a bit too cosy."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Frank replied, pulling open a drawer in the filing cabinet behind Ted's desk and rifling through some papers.
"You and Christina, fighting like cat and dog again. Like I said, reassuringly familiar."
He paused, irritated that any of them might have been party to what had happened earlier and yet well aware that any altercation in his office was liable to be overheard. "What did you hear?"
"Oh, not much. I'm guessing you told her about what you saw in the pub yesterday."
"I did as it happens."
"Was that wise?"
"Probably not, given the reaction I got." He slammed the drawer shut. "But if he is playing away, I still think it's better she knows."
"Only you don't know that's what he's doing," Ted reminded him. "All you saw was him talking to a woman in a pub."
"You saw them too, what did you think was going on?"
Ted shrugged, "Not my business."
"Oh, well that's very nice, isn't it? You'd prefer to see her humiliated by him?"
"Why are you so bothered by this? If he is playing away, he won't be the first or the last."
"I'm bothered if he's making her look like a fool, and you should be too."
"Why?"
"Because she's your friend and your colleague."
"No, why are you so bothered?"
Frank wandered over to Christina's desk and starting casually flicking through her in-tray, conscious of the fact that he had been asking himself the same question. "Because she's a decent girl and she doesn't deserve to be shat on by a slimy git like him. You know what he's like. I wouldn't put it past him to have two or three other women on the go, and her oblivious."
"Mmmm."
"What does that mean, mmmm?"
Ted chuckled, "We've all been there."
Frank turned back to face him. "We've all been where?"
"Oh, come on, it's obvious! I've seen how you look at her! You take her out on every enquiry you have, regardless of what it is, not to mention the fact that I doubt very much you'd have dragged me down to Patterson's club if it had been Jim or Tosh working undercover." He grinned broadly. "You fancy her!"
He felt himself bristle at the insinuation, "I do not fancy her, and I have never looked at her in any way other than an appropriate one." Ted laughed again and he stepped forward, pointing at the other man. "You'd better not be spreading that sort of crap about the nick, Ted! She's a married woman."
"When has marriage ever stopped either of us before?" Ted opined, "Ours or theirs?"
"Besides…" he sidestepped the question. "She's a pain in the backside."
"Meaning what, that you wouldn't?"
"No," he glared at the other man. "I wouldn't, because she's married."
"Oh, so if she wasn't married, you'd take a crack at her?"
"I am not having this conversation with you, Ted. We don't all live by your standards." He turned back towards his office. "And anyway, she's not exactly my type."
"She's a woman, isn't she?"
"Now you're out of order," Frank turned back around to face him. It was one thing to know your own reputation, deserved or otherwise, but quite another to have it thrown in your face by someone else. "That sort of talk gets officers like me into trouble! It's difficult enough supervising a woman in CID without helpful remarks from you making out that there's something going on. Haven't you ever heard of sexual harassment?"
Ted raised his eyebrows, "If you haven't done or said anything inappropriate, what would you have to worry about sexual harassment for?"
He had no answer for that so, instead, he ended the conversation by going back into his office and closing the door, Ted's cocky look of satisfaction following him. Sometimes he felt as though he never knew where he stood with the other man. Half the time they were friends, allies, confidantes and the other half of the time they were butting heads, usually because Ted felt himself well appointed to wax eloquently about matters he had no understanding of.
Like his feelings towards Christina.
Although, right at that moment, he wasn't sure that he understood them himself.
XXXX
"She's not here."
Christina paused and frowned, "What do you mean, she's not here?"
"Just what I said, she's not here." Sophie's mother folded her arms across her chest and glared at them suspiciously. "What do you want her for anyway?"
"We need to follow up on some information she gave us earlier. This was the address she said she was coming to."
"She's got her own place over on the Larkmead."
Christina exchanged a look with Jim, "Yes, we know that. But after she left the hospital, she said she was coming here, where her kids are."
"Her kids aren't here. I haven't seen them or her for weeks. And what do you mean, hospital? Has she been hurt?"
"Mrs Davis, your daughter made an allegation that her husband had assaulted her," Jim said. "She turned up at the station quite badly injured. She was taken to St Hughes and then advised the officer with her that she was intending on return here. She said that you were looking after her children."
"Doesn't surprise me," Sophie's mother shook her head. "He's bad news that Dennis Brennan. I told her when she first got in with him that it would all end in tears. I'm just surprised that it's taken this long." She paused. "You could try her boyfriend's place."
Christina blinked, "Her boyfriend?"
"Yeah, she's been seeing him on the side for ages. Jack Porter, his name is. Lives in a flat just behind the Larkmead, that's how they met. He seems a decent enough sort, better than that Brennan, anyway."
"Do you know his actual address?"
"Manor Lane, number 71 I think, but I couldn't swear to it. The kids are probably there too."
"So, she's been having an affair," Christina said, as they turned back towards the car. "That would certainly give Brennan a motive for giving her a doing."
"As if men like him need a motive," Jim replied.
"Yeah…" she paused. "I reckon we should take a swing by the pub Brennan said he was in last night, see if anyone can corroborate his whereabouts, then head over to Mr Porter's place."
"You think Sophie might not be telling the truth?"
"I don't know. I mean, if you wanted rid of your husband to start a new life with someone else, then accusing him of rape would be a good place to start. Only she didn't know the law, so now she's come to us after he's allegedly beat her up."
"Or he could just be a bastard that she needs to get away from regardless of having someone waiting in the wings," Jim pointed out.
"That too," she agreed. "But something definitely isn't quite adding up here."
XXXX
"Dennis Brennan? Yeah, he was here yesterday. He's in here all the time to be honest. One of my best customers." The landlord of the Fox and Hound leant across the bar towards them. "Likes a pint, does Dennis."
"And what time was he here?" Christina asked.
"Oh…hard to say. It was busy yesterday. I reckon he showed up about lunchtime. He was with the usual crowd in the corner, and then he staggered out…oh…must have been about six o'clock."
"Did he say where he was going?"
"Home, I assumed."
"What sort of state was he in?" Jim asked. "You said he staggered out, so does that mean he was unsteady on his feet?"
"Oh, completely. He can drink, can Dennis, but he can't really hold it that well. He was falling about all over the place. But, fortunately, he only lives across the road and round the corner and he's made that journey in that state so often that I'm betting he knows the way blindfolded."
"Would you say he would have been capable of, say, defending himself if he got into a fight, for example?"
The landlord met her gaze. "You mean, do I think he beat up his wife?"
"I…well…"
"I've seen the face she's got on her today. She was in here earlier."
"When?"
"About noon. She sat there, had a coke and then left. Must have only been here about ten minutes, tops."
"Did you speak to her?"
"Only to say hello and give her the drink. I didn't ask her about her face, if that's what you mean."
"But you suspect it was Brennan?"
The landlord paused, "It wouldn't surprise me. Dennis has got a temper on him. But as to whether he would have been in a fit state to do that to her yesterday…your guess is as good as mine."
"Her injuries were quite extensive," Christina mused as she and Jim emerged back out onto the street. "If Brennan was as drunk as the landlord says, could he have done it?"
"Well, we all know that alcohol can make people act irrationally," Jim replied. "He might have been so pissed that he couldn't land a punch, or, on the other hand, it might have made him worse. Did he give you any indication in interview that he knew his wife was having an affair?"
"No and of course, we never asked." She put the key into the lock. "Next stop, Jack Porter."
XXXX
"Ah, Frank…"
The very sound of Brownlow's voice behind him as he made to descend the stairs caused Frank to momentarily close his eyes before turning around to face him. "Yes sir?"
"I'm glad I've caught you. I've had Councillor Hammond on the phone again today. He's a little concerned about the lack of progress made with regards to the liaison initiative for the local estates."
"Ah well, you see sir, it's been difficult," Frank replied. "I've obviously had to discuss it with uniform and, well, sometimes not everyone sings from the same hymn sheet, if you know what I mean." The truth was that he had had a meeting with Frazer about it and she had been irritated at the prospect of having to second officers for the very purpose of managing the requests that had been made. None too enamoured with the idea himself, Frank had done little to persuade her otherwise.
"Are you saying that you didn't receive cooperation from uniform?" Brownlow asked. "I find that difficult to understand."
"Not so much lack of cooperation as lack of resources. And given that a uniformed police presence is really what the councillor was looking for, I'm not sure what more I, in CID, can really do, sir."
"It is imperative that both departments work together. This isn't just a uniform issue, Frank, it works across all sectors. Yes, the visual impact is one of seeing regular patrols in the area, and closer ties formed with the community, but that does have to be backed up with robust detective work when crimes are committed. Councillor Hammond wants results and I can't blame him."
"Yes sir, I understand that, but if we allow ourselves to be dictated to by elected officials…"
"It's not a question of being dictated to. It's a question of listening to what the community wants and acting upon that. Please speak with uniform again. I don't want to have to offer platitudes next time he contacts me."
"Yes sir," Frank sighed as Brownlow turned back towards his own office and then continued on down the stairs. Maybe the whole thing was something he could delegate. Maybe Christina might enjoy doing something a bit different. He was musing on that very point, when he heard his name being called from behind and turned to see Alec coming up the corridor towards him. "Alec."
"What's happening with Dennis Brennan?" the other man asked.
"WDC Lewis is dealing with the matter now. She's out on enquiries, why? We've got hours on the deadline yet."
"It's not about the deadline," Alec replied. "But a call's just come into Inspector Frazer from the CPS. Apparently, Brennan was supposed to be in court this morning. Only he didn't show up, because he's here."
Frank frowned, "He never mentioned it. What's he supposed to have done?"
"He's not meant to be there as an accused, but rather as a witness. He was due to give evidence this morning against one Jack Porter. According to the CPS, Porter assaulted him three or four months ago, left him quite badly injured by all accounts."
"I see, so what do CPS want us to do about it? Ship him over to the court so he can give his evidence?"
"Well, no, they said Porter never turned up for court either, so the case was put off, but they're thinking of charging Brennan with contempt."
"Well, they can hardly do that if he's in lawful custody."
"No, but perhaps WDC Lewis should be told? It might have a bearing on her enquiry."
"Yeah, all right. I'll tell her."
"Great, thank you sir," Alec said, turning and heading back down the corridor.
"When she gets back," he muttered to himself. "If I talk to her now, I'm liable to say something I might regret."
XXXX
"I'd hate to live around here," Jim opined as they pulled up in front of Jack Porter's block. "Imagine if this was what you had to come home to, day after day."
"I don't think people who live here leave much, except to go to the pub or down the dole office," Christina replied. "I grew up on an estate like this."
"And look how far you've come."
"Yeah, well I probably owe a lot of that to Stewart and his folks," she replied. "If they hadn't taken me in, I'd probably be living somewhere like this myself now. What number did Mrs Davis say again, 71?"
"Yep, top floor, of course."
They trudged their way up the stairs, only slightly out of breath by the time they reached the top, with number 71 being halfway along the landing. Christina knocked and waited, then knocked again when there was no response. Moving to the side of the door, she tried to peer in through the window, only to find it was too grimy to see anything.
"Nobody's home," Jim observed.
Christina knocked again, only for the next door along to open and a man stuck his head out. "What's all this banging?"
"Police," Jim said, holding up his warrant card. "We're looking for Jack Porter, have you seen him at all today?"
"Yeah, he was here this morning with his girlfriend and her kids. They shipped out pretty quickly though."
Christina frowned, "How do you mean, shipped out?"
"They left with a load of bags just after lunchtime. Disappeared into a taxi, all four of them."
"Did they say where they were going?"
"No, and I didn't ask. Porter's not someone you really want to get into conversation with, if you know what I mean." Before they could ask anything further, he disappeared back inside his house, closing the door firmly behind him.
"So, they've done a runner," Jim said. "Looks like she wanted him out of the way so she could leave."
"And what better way than to have him locked up," Christina replied. "I think we need to go back to the nick and speak to Mr Brennan again."
XXXX
"So," Frank said, looking between them. "She's upped and left him."
"So, it would appear," Jim replied. "The neighbour said they left this afternoon in a taxi with the kids."
"Do you think she made up the attack?"
"Hard to say," Christina replied. "He could have beaten her up and she just took her chance to go, or someone else could have done it. Brennan certainly seemed outraged at the prospect when we spoke to him."
"There might have been another reason too," Frank said. "We got a call from CPS to say that Brennan was supposed to be in court today to testify against Porter regarding an assault charge. Brennan didn't turn up, neither did Porter, so the case couldn't go ahead. Turns out Porter gave Brennan a bit of a doing himself a few months back?"
"Over Sophie?"
"No idea."
"So, in order to stop Dennis testifying against her boyfriend, Sophie invents being assaulted so that we arrest him?"
"Or…" Jim said pointedly, "he did assault her, and she just took the chance to leave."
"I suppose we'll never know," Frank said, "not unless she comes back, which I doubt. Porter's assault charge was handled by Stafford Row, so they'll be dealing with trying to track him down. I say we charge Brennan, bail him and kick what we've got to CPS. Let them make a decision as to what to do."
"What, and that's it?" Christina said. "We just close the book on it?"
He turned to look at her, "What would you rather we do?"
"Well, I don't know exactly, but if she's played us for fools…"
"We don't know that she has and, quite frankly, I don't blame her for wanting to get away from her husband, do you?"
"There's better ways to do it than by having an affair and then coming up with some cock and bull story about being raped and assaulted!"
Frank raised his eyebrows, "You don't know that it was a cock and bull story, do you? Husbands have affairs, husbands beat their wives, husbands rape their wives. Just because your marriage is perfect, doesn't mean everyone else's is." She opened her mouth to protest. "And I don't want to hear another thing about it, all right?" She closed her mouth again and met his gaze, her expression one of anger, but her eyes filled with an emotion that he couldn't quite identify, nor was sure he wanted to. "Good. So, now you can get on with some other work. I took a look in your tray earlier and I think you need to do a bit of prioritising, don't you?"
Before she could respond, he turned and walked away.
