by Alex Clare
‘So right, left, on the right. Thank you so much.’
The car drove away leaving Robyn feeling idiotic. Everything was fine, this was exactly what normal people did. It was ridiculous for her to feel so vulnerable. It wasn’t very late and she was bigger than the average woman – not an easy target. There were rape alarms at the station and she considered picking one up, then wondered again why she felt she needed one. The night felt cold all of a sudden and she started moving again, swinging her arms both to keep warm and reinforce the space around her as she rounded the final corner. There was an agonising fumble with the keys before she could get the front door open. With the chain on the front door, her pulse began to return to normal.
MONDAY 19 SEPTEMBER
15
Walking into the police station, Robyn felt as if she’d not been away for more than a few minutes. Her sleep had been fractured, punctured by a moment of sudden wakefulness, convinced someone was calling for help. She had sat up in bed, straining her ears against the silence. When it came, the scream was right outside, a yowling mix of fear and rage: the neighbourhood cats were fighting again. The normality of the crush in the canteen was welcoming and she merged into the crowd, happy to be invisible. In the queue, she thought she felt a couple of looks: the story of Saturday would be doing the rounds. She kept her eyes fixed on the display boards behind the counter, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone. While waiting to pay, she scanned a poster announcing ‘Diversity Day’: someone had written ‘today’ across it. Walking out with her tea, the posters seemed to be everywhere which proved she hadn’t been fully awake when she’d arrived. The HR manager and two of her lackeys were waiting by the lift, thrusting flyers into the hands of everyone passing.
‘Ah, DI Bailley, good morning.’ The woman flicked a length of hair over her shoulder. ‘You are coming to our Diversity Day workshop.’ It was not a question.
‘I have two serious crime enquiries which started over the weekend – there’s a lot to do.’ Robyn had to fumble her cup from one hand to the other as the heat became too much.
The woman’s narrow brows came together. ‘You, of all people, are such an advocate for diversity, I’m sure everyone will be expecting you.’ She turned her professional smile on a couple of uniformed officers, who quailed under her gaze and took a sheet. ‘I’ll see you in the main conference room at ten.’
Superintendent Fell strode through the lobby towards the lift. Turning her back on Robyn, the HR Manager held out a leaflet. ‘Good morning, Superintendent. These are the final preparations for the session. We’re expecting a good turnout.’ Her voice had become deeper, with a warmer tone.
‘Good, good.’ Without stopping, Fell walked into the lift and turned. ‘We need to be seen to implement all of the recommendations in the Public Services Equality bill.’ The doors closed before the HR manager could comment. She turned back, eyes moving over Robyn.
‘How’s Clyde?’ Robyn pushed the lift button, waiting for the HR Manager’s eyes to return to her face. She was getting used to being scrutinised: what amazed her was that the people never seemed to realise they were doing it.
The HR manager seemed surprised to be asked. ‘Sorry, what did you say? How’s who?’
‘Clyde.’ Robyn paused, waiting for a sign of recognition. ‘The officer who was hurt on Saturday.’
‘Ah.’ The woman forced a leaflet into the hands of an officer walking towards the stairs. ‘I haven’t heard.’
‘Ah.’ The stairs seemed a very attractive option. ‘I thought you might have kept track.’ She walked away. At the first landing, she found two of the diversity flyers screwed up. Kicking them both into the corner was a satisfying, if childish moment.
In the safety of the incident room, Robyn set down her cup of tea next to the slick of papers on her desk. Yesterday, she’d planned to at least put things in piles and hadn’t got round to it. She stirred the tea. Today would be a day of difficult conversations. There was no telling what state Ravi would be in and she needed to find out what was wrong with Graham. Fell and Khalid would also expect updates. She regretted not picking up a bacon sandwich but those indulgences had been rationed, along with a number of other treats in the quest to get herself into a size fourteen blouse. There was an apple in her bag: she set it on the desk in a prominent position. Even if she didn’t eat it, at least the guilt might stop her indulging in anything else.
Chloe stuck her head around the door. ‘Morning, Guv.’ She cast her eyes around the room. ‘Ravi not here yet? Good, I’ll nip to the canteen – you want anything?’
Robyn’s phone rang. She held up her cup to show she was OK and Chloe disappeared. ‘Hi, Khalid.’
‘Robyn, good morning. An eventful weekend. No long term damage from Saturday, I trust?’
She was not going to tell Khalid about the bruise on her chest which sat directly under the bra strap. ‘I’m fine, thanks. Have things calmed down for you yet?’
Graham walked in, giving a muted greeting on the way to his desk. Robyn raised her hand to him. In her ear, Khalid continued. ‘Mostly. Annoying how the press hasn’t given Clyde’s injuries more coverage.’
‘I saw the Gazette article yesterday – I thought that was reasonably balanced?’ Robyn was only half-listening while studying Graham. The skin underneath his eyes was an unpleasant greyish-yellow colour.
‘Mostly, yes. What annoys me is I keep seeing comments where what those women did was presented as “fighting back against oppression” – you’d hope papers would challenge such rubbish, not just regurgitate propaganda.’ Khalid tutted. ‘One other interesting thing: Bergmann’s talk to close the Loveless festival has moved to the football stadium. She must be expecting a bigger crowd.’
‘I’m amazed Bergmann would go anywhere so associated with men.’ The oddness of the image made Robyn smile.
‘Like I said, she can draw a crowd. Anyway, the reason I was calling.’ Khalid’s tone had become brisker. ‘As well as the panel this evening, Fell wants to do a briefing later today to call for calm so, can you give me anything you’ve got on the Lady Ann case?’
‘What time is it?’ If she’d known she was going to be doing a media briefing, Robyn would have worn a different blouse.
‘Ah, don’t worry about it, it’s not going to be a big number.’ Khalid sounded less assured than usual. ‘There’s a bit of a concern about causing offence to certain sections of the community, so best it’s just him.’
Once again, she was seen as a potential risk. Swallowing, Robyn told herself it was nothing personal though all the same, she didn’t think this would have happened to Roger. ‘OK. We’ve got movement though it’s nothing we can talk about. We have a suspect who admits he was there and we’re waiting on the forensic reports for confirmation.’ Even though the only other person in the room was Graham, she found herself turning away and dropping her voice. ‘The big question will be, even though there is circumstantial evidence, can we prove the sex was rape? The girl can’t talk to us and, even if she recovers, there’s a chance she may not be able to remember anything.’
‘Hmm.’ There was a sound of typing at the other end. ‘We’ll need to bring it to some sort of resolution though. The case is still getting a lot of attention on social media.’
‘Yes but are activists just tweeting to other activists? How many real people are reading?’
Khalid laughed. ‘Probably not many. And you’re right – I thought you didn’t do social media?’
‘I don’t.’ Here, she had no hesitation about lying: her online explorations were private, allowing her to ask the questions about her transition she couldn’t ask in person.
‘That’s a good thing.’ Khalid paused. ‘Some of the things they’ve been saying about you aren’t very, ah, charitable, especially after the film was published.’
Robyn picked up her cup and began pressing in the dimples with her thumbnail. ‘I know what they say about people like me. I don’t see why they should stop me do
ing my job.’
‘Yes. You’re right.’ Khalid didn’t sound convinced. ‘Look, call me if you get anything else, bye.’
Robyn sat back, putting the phone back into its holster. She allowed herself a brief moment with her eyes closed, trying to think of how to open the conversation with Graham, who sat hunched at his desk, head buried in a report. To give herself purpose, she stood up. ‘Morning, Graham. Have you got a minute?’
Graham looked up. There was a tiny rasping noise as an unshaven patch under his chin rubbed against his collar. ‘Can it wait, Guv? I’ve just got these reports in from Maidstone.’
‘No, it needs to be now.’
As Graham got to his feet, the door swung open and Lorraine marched in holding a coffee cup. ‘Morning. Ooh, nice pendant, Guv. Is it new?’
Robyn’s first thought was Lorraine was joking: nothing Robyn owned was more than a couple of months old. Then she decided to just be grateful for the compliment. ‘Thanks. I got it from one of the craft stalls in St Leonard’s Square.’
In the moment of pleasure, she hadn’t noticed the door had opened again. Chloe walked in, followed by Ravi who was pale and hadn’t bothered to shave. He went to his desk, sat down and switched on his computer without a word.
Graham walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘I’m sorry, Raver. No one should have to go through something like that.’
Shaking off Graham’s hand, Ravi whirled around. ‘You weren’t there. I called you, asked you for help and you didn’t answer.’
Robyn sat back on her desk. She was torn between intervening and wanting to see what Graham said. She saw his hands clench once, twice: his nails were bitten down and she moved forward. ‘Enough, Ravi.’ She was close to him now, smelling his angry sweat. ‘This is not the time or the place to discuss it. We have two serious cases and it will not help if we are at each others’ throats.’
Ravi, with his desk behind him, couldn’t move. Graham took a step backward. ‘I’m sorry.’ He turned and walked to the far corner of the room, pulling out a drawer of a filing cabinet without looking at the label.
Robyn turned back to Ravi as he threw himself back down on his chair. Lorraine moved beside him. ‘Look, stuff happens. What’s done is done. Now channel it.’
‘Are you quoting a line from one of your Scandi cop dramas?’ Ravi kicked at the floor. ‘This isn’t TV.’
Robyn opened her mouth. Before she could say anything, Lorraine gripped one arm of the chair, wrenching it around so Ravi faced her. ‘No, you’re right, it isn’t. We’re police officers. We deal with crap. You’re supposed to be on the fast-track which means they think you’re going to be better at dealing with crap than the rest of us. A bad thing happened and we’re all really sorry but we can’t make anything unhappen and it would be a lot easier for us to investigate if you weren’t acting like the victim.’ She spun the chair so Ravi was facing his desk and shoved it forward until the arms jammed against the wood.
In the silence as Lorraine returned to her desk, Ravi’s noisy breathing was a harsh sound.
Robyn snapped to attention. ‘Right, everyone.’ Even though heads turned, she could sense the reluctance. From the tension in the air, there were still things unsaid which would come out when she wasn’t around. She had to keep them busy. ‘Has all that made anyone feel better? Has shouting helped us solve any of our cases?’ She looked around the faces. ‘One point you might want to keep in mind is this team is going to be under scrutiny. We were lucky in July: the Professional Standards’ investigation concluded we had done nothing wrong but after this weekend, my guess is we’ll be back under the microscope, with another inspector crawling all over us. If you have to shout at each other, fine, go ahead if you’ve got the energy. But that’s only in here. Nothing gets out that this team is anything other than united. OK?’ She looked around the circle. The nods from Lorraine and Chloe were immediate; the one from Ravi sullen. ‘OK, Graham?’
A phone rang. After a second, Robyn heard Chloe answering the call. She kept her eyes on Graham.
‘Ah, Guv, it’s the Superintendent for you.’
‘Tell him I’ll speak to him in a moment.’ She had to be sure Graham agreed, like the others.
‘OK, Graham?’ In the background, Chloe could be heard telling Fell that Robyn was just finishing a call.
Graham looked up. ‘Yes, OK for Christ’s sake.’ Shoving the filing cabinet closed, he sloped through the room and out.
16
Robyn took the phone from Chloe. ‘Good morning, Sir.’
There was a grunt at the end of the line, which was as much small talk as she had expected. ‘Bailley, I need a briefing on your cases.’
‘Certainly, sir. When?’
‘Now.’ There was the sound of another phone ringing in the background. ‘Come up and bring me a cappuccino, will you?’
Robyn stared at the phone for a second, then allowed herself to smile. It meant a good excuse for another trip to the canteen. Spending extra time in Fell’s office would not be pleasant though if he waffled or she got an urgent task assignment from the meeting, there was a good excuse to miss the diversity seminar.
‘OK. I’ve got to go upstairs. I want this place organised when I get back. We have two major cases. There should be evidence boards for both.’
With two cups in her hands, Robyn was grateful someone had already pushed the lift button, until she saw the shaven head of DS Phil Flagg with a young officer she didn’t know.
‘Morning, Phil.’ She kept her tone light, with the certainty he would find her familiarity most annoying. ‘Are you here as part of the cover for the Loveless festival?’
There was a nod and smile from the rookie officer but Phil recoiled. Without looking where he was going, he stepped sideways onto the toes of a civilian worker, who yelped.
‘Sorry, love, sorry.’ The creases across Phil’s forehead deepened.
Robyn made sure she smiled at the rookie. ‘Hello, I should have introduced myself. I’m DI Robyn Bailley. How long have you been on the team?’
‘Six weeks, ah, ma’am.’ The rookie stood up straighter. ‘DC Clements, Ricky.’
‘Welcome, Ricky. How are you finding things?’
‘Good, thanks, ma’am. I heard about what you did on Saturday.’
The lift arrived. Robyn gestured for the woman to go first, who stepped forward with an exaggerated limp. Robyn followed. Ricky looked at Phil. Robyn heard the comment even though she couldn’t see his face. ‘We’ll take the stairs.’
Robyn smiled at herself in the mirrored walls of the lift. Phil’s obvious discomfort reinforced her suspicion that it had been him who had made a formal complaint about her soon after her return to work. Baiting him was harmless fun. On the fifth floor, the outer door of the office was open. From inside, Robyn could hear Fell’s voice and he did not sound in a good mood.
Robyn showed herself at the inner door. Fell looked around, the phone in his hand and nodded her to a chair.
‘To repeat, I have no one spare at the moment to undertake such an investigation, so I would ask you to continue the review and, at the point you find something specific of concern, I can reconsider.’
Robyn sat, keeping her breathing shallow. There was no acknowledgement of the coffee.
‘Yes, the new budget will be with Finance by Thursday, as agreed. We have covered the agenda? Yes? Goodbye.’
Fell swung his chair to face Robyn.
‘Right, Bailley, what is going on?’
Robyn took a quick breath. ‘We have progress on the Lady Ann case, sir. A man has confessed to having sex with the victim. We are anticipating a charge of rape or at least sexual assault.’
‘Those are difficult to bring to a successful prosecution and we are in danger of losing the trust of two sections of the community.’ Fell looked over his steepled fingers. ‘I would like to see the Lady Ann case resolved in a way that ensures citizens maintain confidence in the police.’ His eyes seemed to be fixed on her neck
lace.
‘There’s something else you should know, sir.’ Taking a deep breath, Robyn kept going. ‘The initial suspect was found dead in suspicious circumstances on Saturday night.’
A sharp intake of breath cut her off. ‘How long between his release from custody and his death?’
‘Between six and eight hours, sir. The cause of death appears accidental and we’re waiting for the full post mortem to confirm the circumstances.’
Fell sighed. ‘I will have to inform Professional Standards. This is the second time, Bailley, since you, since your, your new start that it has been necessary to call them in regarding one of your cases.’ He paused, shifting his gaze from over Robyn’s right shoulder to above her head. ‘I hope those two elements are not connected?’
Anything she came back with at this point would only lead to problems. ‘No, sir.’
Fell raised his eyebrows. ‘You may think this is just bad luck, Bailley, I have to consider the consequences for the reputation of the division. The investigation may conclude nothing improper took place but it is the need for an investigation which will be remembered.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘However, I have just received a piece of good news. You will be pleased to know our officer has been released from hospital. After a period of recuperation, he is expected to make a full recovery.’
‘That’s really good news, sir. I was worried Clyde was seriously hurt.’ The bruise on her chest chose that moment to twinge.
The clock next to the portrait of the Queen showed five to ten. Fell must have spotted the movement of her eyes because he checked his own watch. ‘Right, I have to get to the conference room.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘I am hosting our first diversity seminar in five minutes – I take it you are attending.’
There was no way out. ‘Yes, sir.’
‘Right then.’ Fell stood up. ‘This is an important meeting. The first in Kent. This is exactly the sort of initiative which will help us to retain “Division of the Year”.’