by J. M. Peace
"Even if we don't know who the guy is, Angus did. It wasn't just a chance meeting in the pub. I wonder if Roy knew him too?"
“If he doesn’t, I’ll help you find someone who does,” Brad said.
27.
Roy turned up at the police station with red eyes and a thumping headache that a double dose of paracetamol had made no dent in. He'd done his crying. Now, he wanted answers. Whatever form the answers took, he wanted to know them, to fill in the gaps. Because there was barely an evening when his brother didn't go to the local for a couple of drinks. Roy couldn't grasp how it could possibly have killed him.
The station boss quickly ushered him into his office.
"Roy," he said, shaking his hand. "I'm so sorry for your loss."
Roy read his badge. 'Senior Sergeant Simon Cornell' it said in neatly printed letters with a mini police emblem next to it. So that's why everyone called him the Colonel. Roy had never known his real name. He'd never dealt directly with him either though. Whenever he'd come to the station to pick up one of his kids or bail out Angus, he'd always dealt with the general duties officers. He knew most of them by name. Even if he hadn't had anything to do with them directly, it was still a small enough town to know who the local coppers were. He realised he had no idea who had locked Angus up. Who was the last person to see his brother alive?
"Please take a seat." The Colonel waited for Roy to sit down before sliding into his own chair on the other side of the desk. "We obviously caught you by surprise when we knocked on your door this morning.”
Roy had no idea what he was going on about. “Sorry. I’d had a couple of drinks. I don’t really remember much of what happened. I thought it was a bad dream when I woke up.”
“That’s okay. We’ll forget it happened anyway,” the Colonel said. “How about I go through everything that we know at this stage and then you can ask any questions.”
Roy nodded, once only.
"Angus was involved in a fight outside the Cool Mule just after midnight. He was fighting with an unknown male. The other man was younger and fitter, and clearly getting the better of Angus. When police arrived, they have attempted to apprehend the other man but Angus assaulted one of the officers and this diversion allowed the other man to escape."
“Angus assaulted someone?” Roy clarified, his face crinkling in disbelief.
“Yes. He spat on one of our officers.”
“He spat on a cop?” Roy shook his head. “That doesn’t sound right.”
“There are a lot of witnesses at the pub,” the Colonel replied.
"Who were the coppers?" Roy asked abruptly.
"Do you know Senior Constable Morten? Everyone calls him Mort."
"Yeah," Roy nodded. "He's helped me out with Skeeter a couple of times. Angus spat on Mort?”
“Correct.”
Roy shook his head again. “Who else?"
"A new officer. Constable Danaher."
Roy shook his head. “Don’t know him.”
"Her. She's only been here a few days," the Colonel said.
"Okay. So the other guy's got a good punch in on Angus. I've seen about things like that on the news. One punch can kill. They didn't call an ambulance?"
"No. He had no apparent injuries. He and the other man were wrestling on the footpath when police arrived. They've arrested Angus not only because he was extremely drunk, but because of the assault on Mort. They brought him back to the watch house where he was lodged. When Krista checked on him just a few minutes later, she found him not breathing and unresponsive. She phoned for an ambulance and started CPR. I heard her calling for assistance and I myself got out of bed and helped perform CPR on Angus. We did our best, Roy."
The Colonel looked genuinely upset. Time seemed to slow as Roy replayed the scene through his head.
"We can't say for sure what's happened until after an autopsy's been done. Did he have any medical conditions? Heart problems? Anything like that?"
Roy shook his head. "Nothing. The ambulance didn't find anything?"
"That's not their job really," the Colonel explained. "They were trying to get his heart going again. There were no visible injuries. I saw him myself when I helped try to revive him. It's not clear whether he's copped a blow to the back of his head falling on the footpath when the other man punched him or if the punch itself has done the damage. Or he might have had a heart attack. We can't rule that out either."
"There was nothing wrong with his heart," Roy said with conviction.
"I've been thinking a lot about what happened, whether there was anything we could have done to prevent this,” the Colonel said. “These are early days in the investigation. Rest assured, every aspect of this will be thoroughly investigated. We'll give you answers as soon as we find them ourselves, Roy."
Roy breathed in an out deeply. The Colonel shuffled paperwork on his desk. He pushed a piece of paper across the desk to Roy. "Do you know this man?"
Roy stared at the still photo clearly taken from CCTV footage. A young man, fists clenched by his sides.
Roy looked up, met the Colonel's eyes. "No."
"This is the man Angus fought with. They arrived at the pub together and sat together all night. Until they started fighting. No one seems to know him. He's not a local."
Roy looked at the picture again. He shook his head. "Nope."
"Okay." The Colonel withdrew the sheet of paper, tucked it into a folder.
"So... what now?" Roy asked.
"We need someone to formally identify the body... sorry, Angus. Would you be okay to do that?"
Roy stared at him. "What do I have to do?" His own voice sounded small to his ears.
"Just look at him and confirm it's Angus," the Colonel said.
"What? It might not actually be Angus?" Part of Roy wanted to believe there might have been some horrible mistake.
"No. It's definitely Angus. There's just an official procedure we need to go through."
Oh. He had learnt there was always an official procedure when you were dealing with the cops.
"Okay," Roy replied.
"I also have to check - you have no objections to an autopsy being performed?"
"No. I want to find out how come he died."
"We all do, Roy."
Roy left the station with a worse headache than he arrived with.
28.
Pat Mulroy had taken over the senior sergeant's office and didn't particularly care that Simon was unhappy about it. The commissioning of office space, police cars and random staff members was a benefit of working with ESC. Not only was Tannin Bay miles away from any real station, it was cramped and it was hard to find a private space.
Pat was watching footage. He'd already seen all three pieces a number of times.
The first one was from the Cool Mule. They had several cameras within the establishment, but only one took in the front door and barely half a metre directly outside it.
Mr Hegarty had been drinking with the man he'd later fought with. A man whose identity they were no closer to finding. Mr Hegarty was clearly under the influence of liquor or a drug as he and the man had walked out of the pub to fight. Pat could track his path through the pub on the CCTV. He was surprised he'd made it to the front door without falling over.
The second round of footage was body worn camera from Constable Danaher. It showed the two men grappling on the footpath. It showed the serious assault of Senior Constable Morten. It showed a pretty much textbook arrest of Mr Hegarty. It had been switched off some time in the car between the pub and the watch house, as would be expected.
The third was body worn camera from Senior Constable Morten. It showed nothing. There was no recording at all from that night.
29.
"Twelve years in The Job?"
"Yes, sir."
It was Mort's turn in the offender's chair in the interview room. He'd been interviewed in relation to a couple of matters over the years. There'd been a pursuit which had ended in a crash and a bloke who
had done a runner with a set of handcuffs on. He'd never had anything to do with Ethical Standards Command though. Most coppers tried to keep it that way.
The Detective Inspector, whose name he had missed, was leafing through papers in front of him.
"So you know how this works? You've had a chat with Phil from the Union?"
"Yes, sir," Mort replied.
"We'll get straight to it then."
It was unsettling to be on the receiving end of the pro forma questions asked at the start of the interview, kind of like one of those dreams where you felt like someone else.
"Can you tell me what happened? Please start from the beginning of your shift," the inspector asked.
"Yes, sir." Mort had anticipated this and thought it through to try to remember every detail. “I started at 10pm with Constable Danaher. There were no jobs outstanding. After kitting up and handing over, we headed out to conduct some patrols. I remember it was 10:22pm, when we headed out. Constable Danaher was driving. We completed five RBTs. Three were in Lawrence Street, one was in Finley Drive and one was in Sage Street. They were all negative. We patrolled through town, the industrial estate to the south of town, along the waterfront and around the hospital carparks." Mort knew they'd be verifying details any way they could, using things like the odometer on the car, any CCTV footage in town. The breathalyser recorded the time and location of every RBT too.
"We completed two street checks, but I haven't been able to enter them on the system. I have them in my notebook. At 12:23pm, a job came through over the radio that there was a fight outside the Cool Mule on Finley Drive. We were on Steadham Street when we received the call, so we were at the job inside of about two minutes. I switched my body worn camera on and reminded Constable Danaher to switch hers on too."
Both interviewers made notes on the papers in front of them.
"When we arrived, I saw two men grappling on the footpath. I recognised one of them to be Angus Hegarty who I have known for approximately eight years since moving to Tannin Bay. I did not recognise the other man. He appeared younger and fitter than Mr Hegarty. On previous occasions when I’ve dealt with Mr Hegarty, he has never been violent. As we pulled up, I suggested to Constable Danaher that she could arrest Mr Hegarty, while I focussed on the younger man. Constable Hegarty has very little experience and I thought this would be easier for her."
"Do you recall how many shifts you have worked with Constable Danaher?"
"That was the third, sir."
"What do you think of her?"
"What do I think of her?" Mort echoed.
"As an officer. What do you think of her as an officer?"
"I had found her to be a bit timid and unsure of herself which I put down to a lack of experience. Aside from that, I thought she was sensible and a quick learner."
"Okay. Continue please."
"I was the first one out of the car as Constable Danaher had to turn off the car and come around it to get to the footpath. Both men were on the ground, but the younger man started getting to his feet when the saw me. I stepped past Mr Hegarty who was still on the ground to try to grab the younger man before he got away. Mr Hegarty grabbed my leg..." He paused. "My right leg… and threw me off balance. I fell to my knees. I turned to release Mr Hegarty's grip on my leg. As I turned and bent across, he spat in my face. The spittle struck me on the left side of my face. I felt it go into my left eye. I leaned back away from him, but then he sat up and started swinging punches at me. I managed to get him into a bear hug and we wrestled briefly on the ground. At some point, I became aware that Constable Danaher was assisting me and between us we rolled him onto his stomach and cuffed him to the back."
"Did you see what happened to the other man?"
"No. After Mr Hegarty grabbed my leg, my focus was on him. Constable Danaher told me in the car..."
The inspector cut him short. "We're not interested in hearsay. Did you see any interaction between Constable Danaher and the other man?"
"No sir."
"Why do you think Mr Hegarty grabbed your leg?"
"I felt he was trying to stop me from arresting the younger man."
"Why do you think he spat at you?"
Mort shook his head. "Perhaps, again, to stop me from pursuing the other man. Though I take this as a gross overreaction. Without any official complaints, it was going to be a public nuisance ticket at best up until that point."
"You say you have never witnessed any violence from Mr Hegarty on previous encounters."
"No sir."
"During the fight, did you use any closed hand tactics on Mr Hegarty?"
"No sir. I grabbed him in a bear hug after he attempted to punch me. I got under the arm he was punching with and pinned his other arm, his left arm, to his body, and used my weight and momentum to bring him to the ground."
"Did he strike his head on the ground."
Mort paused. "Yes, I believe he did. My momentum pushed him backwards and we hit the footpath. We were kneeling, so it wasn't a great height. Then we wrestled briefly on the footpath until I managed to get his arm behind him and Constable Danaher than assisted me in handcuffing him to the back. I then searched him and we placed him in the back of the pod."
"You didn't adjust the handcuffs."
"No. He was handcuffed, stacked, to the back. It's only a short trip."
"Did he say anything to you at all?"
"He called me a 'copper-dog' when he threw the punch at me. I think he might have said something similar as we placed him in the back of the pod. Nothing aside from the usual swearing and name-calling."
"Did you say anything to him?"
"I did ask why he'd spat on me and told him we would be taking him to the watch house for that reason."
"And he didn't reply to this?"
"He just called us 'dogs' again."
"Were there any other people present while this happened?"
"Oh, yes. Lots. Most of the patrons of the pub were watching. Some had come out onto the footpath and some were hanging out the windows. I'm pretty sure the manager of the pub was there too."
“No one else involved themselves in the altercation?”
“No sir,” Mort replied.
"Okay. What happened when you got back to the watch house?"
"Constable Danaher parked on the driveway so we could remove Mr Hegarty from the pod and walk him across to the watch house door. She went inside to get the keys. I then asked Mr Hegarty if he had settled down. He replied 'yes, just get these damn cuffs off me' and sounded subdued. I felt like he may have been more aggressive at the pub because of all the people watching, like he felt he had to put on a bit of a show. I then opened the door to the pod. Mr Hegarty slid off the seat and onto the floor of the pod. He wiggled himself on his bottom across to the door. He dangled his feet out of the door of the pod. I didn't count on his level of intoxication. Because when he went to stand up out of the pod, he kind of lurched forward and fell. At the time, I thought he was just too drunk but in hindsight, he might already have had some sort of internal injury that was affecting him. I grabbed him under the arm and pulled him to his feet as Constable Danaher returned with the keys. As we walked him across to the watch house, he vomited. The vomit struck me on the left leg and I could feel it running into my boot. I could smell liquor in the vomit. We took him straight through to a cell, uncuffed him while he was on his knees and laying across the bed. I left Constable Danaher to lock up the watch house. I walked immediately across to the barracks. I took my boots and socks off outside the front door and went straight into the shower. I did take some time under the shower as I wanted to give myself a good scrub due to the spit as well as the vomit. When I came back towards the station, I saw the watch house door was open. I went in and saw Constable Danaher and Senior Sergeant Cornell doing CPR on Mr Hegarty. I then assisted in showing the ambulance where to park and..." Mort trailed off. "Basically, I just kept out of the way after that," he said.
The inspector looked at him inten
tly for a long moment. Mort did not attempt to hold his gaze.
"You have a body worn camera, Senior Constable?"
"Yes sir."
"Did you activate it?"
"Yes sir. I turned it on in the car before we pulled up outside the Cool Mule. I remember reminding Constable Danaher to turn hers on too."
"And when did you turn it off again?"
"When I went to the barracks to have a shower, as I was taking off my vest I realised the camera was still running. That's when I turned it off."
"You're quite sure it was still running?"
"Yes sir."
"Can you give us any reason why there is no recording on your camera of this arrest?”
“No recording?” Mort clarified.
“Nothing at all."
Mort shook his head. "No. The only thing I can think of it was a technical failure. I have had that happen once before, where I thought I was recording and afterwards I couldn’t find it."
The Detective Inspector made a note in front of him. Silence fell in the room as he wrote.
"And why do you think Mr Hegarty passed away in the watch house, Senior Constable?" he asked.
Mort breathed in an out deeply.
"I've been wracking my brains about this. It was a normal arrest. We did nothing differently to what we normally do. I think Mr Hegarty might have had a heart attack or something similar. I accept that he was not properly lodged. If we had asked him the medical questions, we may have been alerted to the fact there was a health issue." He hung his head. "It was just a few minutes. When I look back on it, it's easy to say I should have done this or that, I should have noticed something was wrong. But I thought he was just drunk. You don't expect a drunk to drop dead in your watch house."
“And yet, here we are,” the Inspector said.
Mort nodded slowly. “Here we are.”
30.
Roy was a man on a mission when he left the cop shop. He drove to a house in town and banged too loudly on the front door. There was a brief word of explanation to the woman who opened the door. She led him inside and pointed out a body under a blanket in the corner of a rumpus room. Roy’s anger was barely contained, a pressurised lid waiting to burst. He peeled back the blanket to confirm he had the right person. The young man stirred, half opened his eyes.