Allegation

by R. G. Adams

‘That’s right. Do you blame me, after last time?’

  ‘OK, fair,’ he said, not wanting to discuss the last time, involving as it had both a police raid and her front door being broken down. ‘Drop me in town instead? I see my probation officer Tuesday mornings.’

  ‘Yes, OK.’

  ‘Miss Morrison, her name is. Emily.’ He was looking at her again, willing her to ask him more.

  ‘Shift your butt then, Ty, some of us have got jobs to get to.’ She turned away to pick up her coat and bag. He said nothing but got his leather jacket and they headed out to the car. They were silent for the whole journey until Kit pulled up in front of the complex that contained the Magistrate’s Court and the Probation Office, where she paused with the engine running and waited for Tyler to get out. He didn’t move.

  ‘Seriously, Tyler, I’ll be late, and Miss Morrison will be waiting for you,’ she told him.

  ‘Do you know why I like her?’ he asked as he got out of the car.

  ‘Because she’s dead fit, knowing you?’

  ‘Well, she is, as it happens; I’d definitely give her one, like, but I already told you she’s not up for it.’ Every word of this made Kit flinch, but she reminded herself not to expect too much of him. One step at a time.

  ‘Too professional she is, or something,’ he continued, making Kit worry that he might already have given it a shot. ‘No, it’s all right, don’t look so worried. It’s not like that. I like her because she doesn’t make out like stuff never happened. A lot of them do, social workers and that. But she doesn’t play with my head that way, you know? I reckon she’d listen to anything.’

  Kit recognised the rebuke. ‘Well, that’s good then,’ she said. It was the only thing she could think of, and she knew it was inadequate.

  ‘See you then.’ He gave her another grin, because he knew his point had gone home, then slammed the car door. Kit drove off towards the council building, glancing at Tyler’s retreating back in the rear-view mirror. She’d screwed that up completely. A memory came to her of the last time she’d seen Danny, and a similar conversation, which she had avoided in the same way. She promised herself that she’d text Tyler later, try to sort it out. Right now, she needed to deal with the Coopers.

  When she arrived at work, she found Vernon sitting in the main office, his feet up on Ricky’s desk. No one else was there. For once, Vernon wasn’t eating. He was drawing in the margins of the Guardian. Glancing over his shoulder, Kit could see it was a cartoon of Maisie, dressed head to toe in a vast patterned kimono and carrying the tatty wicker shopping basket that she insisted on using instead of a briefcase.

  ‘It didn’t go great last night then?’ Vernon said as soon as he spotted her.

  ‘You’ve heard about it already?’ Kit dropped her rucksack by her desk and headed for the coffee maker.

  ‘Yeah. Saw Dai in the pub after.’

  ‘I thought Martin had a casserole in.’

  ‘Well, if he did, it will have been burnt to hell by the time Dai showed his face.’ Vernon grimaced. ‘Let’s hope that’s not going to lead to another domestic, I don’t think I can go through all that again. Anyway, Dai told me about it, yeah. How was it? Did he handle it OK?’

  ‘He was all right, when he was with it,’ Kit said, pouring a big mug of coffee for each of them. No need to ask Vernon if he wanted one.

  ‘Zoned out on you, did he?’

  ‘For a bit. Like no one else was in the room.’

  Vernon tutted. ‘Yeah, he does that. Bloody hippy.’

  Kit thought it would be difficult to imagine anyone less like a hippy than Dai, with his M&S outfits, his chalet holidays in Tenby and his love of the soaps.

  ‘Lucky you had Beth with you. What did you think of her?’

  ‘Oh my God, I thought she was fantastic.’ This came out before Kit could think about it, and she was immediately embarrassed, but Vernon just nodded.

  ‘Yep, she is. She’s tough and she’s clever. You can always rely on Beth.’

  ‘Anyway, I gave Mrs Cooper the letter, but she chucked us out then.’

  ‘What did you make of Mr Cooper?’

  Kit thought a minute. ‘He cooperated. Quite charming really. But then he’s arrogant, too. Very keen to let you know how important he is, who he knows.’

  ‘Goes back a long way with the Lord God Almighty and all that?’ Vernon said. ‘I know the type.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s him. But then it was him who talked his wife down when she started to get worked up. He was very warm with her, but totally focussed on the kids and what was best for them. I was quite impressed with that.’

  Vernon raised his eyebrows. ‘Well, that’s as clear as mud then. Sounds like you don’t know whether you want to shag him or punch him in the face.’

  Kit laughed. ‘Yeah. That’s about it.’

  ‘What about her?’

  ‘She was wearing high heels. In the house. Sat on the sofa, drinking wine, reading the paper, wearing strappy high-heeled sandals.’

  Vernon was nonplussed. ‘What’s the significance of that then, Miss Marple?’

  ‘Does Nell allow shoes in the lounge?’

  ‘God, no. Nell wouldn’t stand for that type of nonsense,’ Vernon said, as if the wearing of shoes in the lounge was the very height of depravity. ‘She’s got mules. M&S. Fluffy ones. I get her a pair at Christmas. A different colour every year, to keep it interesting.’

  ‘She’s a lucky woman, Vern.’

  ‘You don’t know the half. Anyway, go on, what’s the deal with the shoes?’

  ‘Annie Cooper’s uptight, that’s the point. Very tense. She’s got a severely disabled child, plus two younger kids, but the house is immaculate and so is she. She wasn’t really relaxing, but she wanted to appear as if she was. Or maybe she wanted to feel as if she was. But she still had to look exactly right, and slippers would have ruined the outfit.’

  ‘Very insightful. So how did she take the news? Did she have any inkling, do you reckon?’

  ‘Badly. Wouldn’t you? They weren’t married at the time, and no, it didn’t seem to me like she had a clue. She’d never heard of Nicolette or Stephanie.’

  ‘Right, well, we can’t blame her for being shocked then, so that explains her throwing you out. We’ll have to give her the benefit of the doubt for now or we’ll be in trouble if this lands in court. Let’s have another go at persuading them to cooperate before we start getting heavy. I don’t want these kids in care, Kit, especially not Lucy, it would be a bloody disaster for her. I can just imagine what Judge Peters would have to say about it. You’d better get on the phone to Dai and see what the news is. I’m assuming they arrested Mr Cooper. Beth doesn’t usually mess around. Once you’ve got that sorted, give Annie Cooper a ring and let’s see if they’re planning to come along to the meeting. Make sure she understands he’s not to have any contact with the kids in the meantime, OK?’

  ‘Yeah, sure.’

  At this point, Maisie arrived, her flip-flops smacking against her grubby heels. She hauled her shopping basket onto her desk. She was panting heavily.

  ‘Morning.’ She proceeded to glare at them both.

  ‘Coffee?’ Kit asked.

  ‘Herbal tea, if you don’t mind. You two shouldn’t drink so much coffee, it rots your insides.’ Maisie drew an evil-smelling pack of herbs out of her shopping bag. Kit took it gingerly and crossed to the kettle, glancing over Vernon’s shoulder on the way. He was carefully adding a detail to the paisley kimono. Kit made a mental note to speak to him about that. It was the kind of behaviour that she’d heard had landed him in grievance hearings in the past.

  Kit made Maisie her tea. By the time she put it down on her desk, Maisie was already busy on the phone, berating a client at high volume. Kit made herself and Vernon another coffee and then made a cup of tea for Ricky, who was utterly predictable in his time-k
eeping and was due to arrive in ten minutes. She covered the cup with a coaster to keep it hot until he got there. She debated whether to make him some toast but thought about how that might look and decided against it. She made herself and Vernon three slices each, adding jam to his, and then finally sat down at her desk. She rang Dai first.

  ‘Morning,’ she said when he answered, sounding tired. ‘Got time for a post-mortem?’

  ‘A short one. Just to warn you, we’ve got a toddler with a broken arm in A & E. Who’s duty social worker with you today?’

  Kit consulted the rota on the wall. ‘Maisie,’ she replied.

  Kit registered a pause at Dai’s end and she thought she heard him sigh. Maisie’s approach to joint-working with other professionals tended towards the outright confrontational. Even gentle, kindly Dai had reached the end of his tether with her. ‘Great, thanks,’ he said. ‘Right, what about last night then?’

  ‘Vernon thinks we need to give them another chance. But we can’t push it very much further now. I didn’t even get to see the kids properly, and I didn’t see Lucy at all. What’s happening with dad?’

  ‘Arrested and bailed to reside at his parents’ address. Very nice address indeed, by the way. No conditions. Beth thought we’d leave that side of it to you to tie up with a written agreement. The grandfather’s Len Cooper, he’s friendly with some of the town councillors. So, you might want to watch your back a bit.’

  ‘I bet Matt Cooper made damn sure everyone knew about it, too,’ Kit said, revising her opinion of him yet again.

  ‘Yes, according to Beth, he was very keen to point it out.’

  ‘What was he like in interview?’

  ‘Denied the whole thing. Admits he knew the two of them, remembers them vaguely as two annoying kids who hung around with his younger sister Katie, more or less like they said, but that’s it. Totally denies anything ever happened. He reckons his wife has seen some woman hanging around outside their house recently; he thinks it might be Stephanie Harman, taking a look at what they’ve got, hoping to get some cash out of them maybe. He’s a very cool customer indeed, Beth says. And if she couldn’t scare him, no one can. She bloody scares me.’

  ‘OK, thanks. I’m going to ring Annie Cooper now, see if I can get her to work with me. We’ve got the meeting tomorrow and we should start getting the checks made after that because his lawyer’s bound to be pushing us hard for contact. Then we need to decide about conference. What do you reckon?’

  ‘I don’t know about conference. It might be good to have everyone around the table to discuss it, but even if we did put the kids on the register, what do we gain from that? We either trust them or we don’t. I wouldn’t trust him one inch. But the six-million-dollar question is, can we trust her?’

  ‘I really don’t know. I’ll see how it goes. Perhaps she will have calmed down a bit or maybe they’ll get a decent lawyer who’ll warn them about not cooperating.’

  ‘OK. Well, speak later then. Good luck.’ Dai was suddenly sounding hurried.

  ‘Didn’t you want a word with Maisie?’ Kit asked him.

  ‘Er, no. Not yet anyway. There’s still just a slim chance the doctors will decide it was accidental. I’ll call her if I need her.’

  ‘OK.’ Kit put the phone down, noticing as she did so that Ricky had arrived. He was leaning against the wall, drinking the tea she’d left him. She noticed that he was wearing shorts. She guessed he must be planning to go to the gym after work, but she decided she’d better have a word with him about it later. It would be yet another opportunity for Vernon to tell him off; better coming from a friend, she decided.

  Kit went into the records and got the Coopers’ phone number. She picked up the phone and started to dial it, then she put it down again. What Dai had said about the Cooper family was playing on her mind.

  ‘You all right? You look like someone’s smacked you in the face with a cricket bat.’ Vernon had emerged from his office. Picking up his words, Ricky and Maisie both stopped what they were doing and turned in her direction. Ricky wore a concerned expression. She knew it was genuine. Now that they’d got past a brief awkward stage caused by Ricky getting totally the wrong idea, they had started to settle into an easy friendship.

  ‘Yeah. It’s just . . . Dai says the grandfather’s got some connections with some of our members.’

  ‘Is that right? Who’s grandad then?’

  ‘Guy called Len Cooper, according to Dai.’

  Vernon’s face took on a new expression, one that Kit hadn’t seen it wearing before.

  ‘Should I be worried?’ she asked him.

  ‘Well, no, not really,’ Vernon said. ‘He knows some councillors, that doesn’t make any odds to us. Just do your job, as usual.’ But his words hadn’t extinguished that look. He was wary. Vernon, the most unafraid person Kit had ever met, had the wind up him.

  ‘So, forget what Dai said, and just get on and get it done, eh?’

  After Vernon had gone back into his office, Maisie sidled over to Kit’s desk. ‘Watch your back on this one, kiddo.’ She was whispering, even though everyone else in the room was too busy to be interested and the morning racket was at its height.

  ‘That’s what Dai said. What am I watching it for exactly?’

  ‘Kit, getting involved with an elected member’s family or friends – well, it’s the short route to career suicide in this authority, if not the sack.’

  ‘Don’t the members have a code of conduct or something?’

  ‘This is Sandbeach we’re talking about.’

  ‘So?’

  Maisie wasn’t making any sound at all now. ‘Rotten to the core, trust me,’ she mouthed. Then she flip-flopped away to her own desk and went back to her phone calls.

  Kit pondered for a few minutes, but she still wasn’t getting why Len Cooper knowing a few local councillors mattered. They might be in charge of the council in theory, but surely they couldn’t actually interfere in child-protection work? She didn’t believe a word of what Maisie said, and while she trusted Vernon implicitly, she thought she could only have misinterpreted his face. Vernon would never let anyone get in his way if he knew the right thing to do. She had to get the phone call with Mrs Cooper over with. She picked the phone up again and dialled the whole number this time.

  ‘Hello,’ Annie Cooper answered, her voice wary.

  ‘Annie, it’s Kit Goddard. From social services.’

  ‘Mrs Cooper, if you don’t mind. I’m not your friend, Miss Goddard, so don’t behave as if I am. What is it you want?’

  It seemed that Annie hadn’t calmed down and probably hadn’t got legal advice either. Or if she had, she hadn’t listened to it. Right then, missus, Kit thought. Time for a reality check.

  ‘I’m ringing because I understand that your husband has been interviewed by the police and bailed to another address. I need to make clear to you and to him that we would not be happy for him to have any contact whatsoever with your children in person or by phone over the next couple of days. Any contact that takes place after that will need to be agreed with us, which is one of the things that we can discuss when—’

  ‘You are seriously telling me that you think you can dictate whether or not my husband sees our children? What is it that gives you that authority exactly?’ Kit felt sorry for Annie Cooper, but her air of talking down was beginning to grate.

  ‘I realise that this must be very difficult for you. But the fact is that your husband has been interviewed in relation to serious sexual offences against minors. Now what that means is that I have a statutory duty to ensure that your children are protected. We either need to arrange for his contact to be supervised by our contact team, or we might consider running checks on a family member if you can suggest someone suitable. I am giving you an opportunity to cooperate with that.’

  ‘Are you really? How very kind of you. And what will hap
pen if I don’t?’

  ‘That is entirely up to you.’ Kit kept her voice firm. ‘I can’t make you work with us. But you remember that I handed you a letter yesterday? It’s called a letter before proceedings. And if you will refer to that, you will see that it tells you quite clearly that if you are not prepared to cooperate with us in order to protect your children, we may consider taking action via the court. We may issue care proceedings in respect of Cameron, Chloe and Lucy.’

  Looking up, Kit realised that the team room had fallen silent. Everyone had picked up on the situation and they were waiting to see what would happen next. Kit knew she had to think on her feet. She wanted Annie Cooper to agree. She didn’t want to have to go to court and she certainly didn’t want the children in care. But the confrontation had backed Annie right into a corner, Kit realised, and she was definitely someone who did not like to climb down. Kit understood that, because she didn’t like climbing down either. She knew that Annie Cooper needed a way to retreat.

  ‘What I suggest is that you give your husband a ring. It’s a decision for the two of you to make, of course, and he may feel differently to you. Speak to a lawyer, if you want to. Then come back to me by midday. If you are going to work with me, we’ll make all the arrangements at the meeting tomorrow. But if you won’t, then you must understand that I will get legal advice myself today about what action we can take. So, have a word with your husband, then let me know what the two of you decide.’

  ‘Fine,’ Annie said, and put the phone down. Kit looked up and saw Vernon standing in his office doorway.

  ‘You do realise that if she comes back and tells you where to shove it, you’ll have to go home and put a tidy skirt on for once, don’t you?’ he said. ‘I’m not explaining to Judge Peters when you turn up in her courtroom in jeans.’ He glanced at Ricky. ‘And as for you, lad, I don’t know what you’ve come as today, but let’s hope to God you don’t get called to court.’

  Ricky looked hurt, but Vernon had already turned back to Kit. ‘Plus, where do you reckon we’ll get an emergency foster placement for three sibs together, including one with a severe disability? And what foster carer is going to be able to stand up to the Coopers, eh?’