Ducie

by Chris Freeman

  Chapter 48. Front desk girl

  Kate examined the offerings of the vending machine in Erdington Police Station’s waiting room. She had no appetite, but knew she needed a boost to keep her flailing mind functioning properly. Energy-levels were not the issue. Urgency and panic had got her all hyped up and ready to run anywhere or fight anyone that she needed to to get Adam back to that Institution before his counterpart was executed. Despite feeling lively and switched on, she felt unstable and weak, like she had little control over her own body. Like the room could spin its way into oblivion at any moment. Her finger trembled as she hit the digits on the vending machine’s selection panel and watched a bag of Maltesers squirm its way free from its circular steel restraint and fall ungraciously to the collection area at the bottom of the machine. She collected her purchase after struggling with the machine’s rubber flap contraption briefly and began to mechanically shove the chocolate balls into her mouth without pleasure or enjoyment. She crunched and swallowed, before placing the next one into her mouth. Crunch, swallow, crunch, crunch swallow. Not once pausing to savour the experience. She cleared the remnants of honeycomb from her mouth half way through by necking the remainder of her luke-warm machine coffee. It was probably disgusting, but it didn’t even register. Within 30 seconds, she’d consumed the bag of chocolate and replenished her energy levels for now at least. Right, time to force the issue!

  Kate strode over to the front desk where a young, blonde lady in her thirties was leafing through paperwork in an attempt to appear busy. She noticed Kate and instantly switched on the look of resentful disgust that she reserved for all visitors of Kate’s ilk. Admittedly, with her gaunt cheeks, her matted greasy hair and her stained vest-top, Kate was less than pristine and didn’t exactly scream ‘Respectable’ or even ‘Innocent’ for that matter; although technically, she hadn’t been arrested and was convicted of nothing, so from a police standpoint at least, she was wholly innocent. This didn’t stop the front desk lady playing her usual game of ‘Guess the Criminal Record’ of every scruffy looking scumbag that walked into the station to pass the time. Having clocked Kate when she initially arrived, front desk girl had speculated to herself that Kate might have a history of repeated shoplifting, along with a few hair-pulling cat fights and perhaps a drug possession charge or two. She also guessed that she might have a child that was taken into care at a young age, but she stopped at that point for fear she was being judgmental.

  - Can I help you?

  Front desk girl’s tone was professional, but the smarmy, fake grin that accompanied her words told more truth about the opinion she’d already formed of Kate.

  - Adam Trundle….

  Front desk girl frowned and said nothing, prompting Kate to quickly realise that Adam was just one in a long line of people the young girl would have checked in tonight.

  -….Sorry, my friend. Adam Trundle. He was arrested. He’s been here hours….I’ve been here hours.

  The young girl looked no more impressed than she was a moment ago, continuing to chew her chewing gum with an intent, if now slightly pitiful look on her face.

  - What do you want from me?

  - How long is he going to be?

  Front desk girl’s eyes widened at the directness of Kate’s question.

  - Look love, this is a police station. I’m not here to give you or anybody else running updates. What’s going on back there is none of your business quite frankly.

  She gestured behind her to ‘back there’, like it were some sort of behind-the-scenes torture chamber that she was fronting.

  - Whatever your boyfriend has done….

  - He’s not…. my boyfriend….

  The girl’s eyes widened again.

  - ….And he’s done nothing

  - Look love, I’m not a court judge, ok. It’s no good telling me what he has or hasn’t done. I take their names, their addresses, confiscate any belongings and send them through….

  His address! Front desk girl carried on talking, but Kate zoned out so it was a blur of noise behind her thoughts. What the hell had Adam given them as his address? Would he tell them about the Institution? They’d never have heard of the place, surely! No police forces were aware of the set-up as far as Kate knew. It was government-level confidence. Had he made up an address? She didn’t even think Adam had the capacity to invent something on the spot like that. She felt that pang of sadness and guilt for Adam again, just as she had when Joe and Harrison had roughed him up at the Institution. She pictured him back there with the police, that wide-eyed look of disbelief and anger on his face, as he tried to convince them of an underground Institution they didn’t believe existed.

  Another thought careered into Kate’s head, turning her stomach a sickly rotation. Would Adam tell the police what she’d told him? That the people at this imaginary Institution wanted to kill him? About counterparts? About Ducie? Momentary panic was quickly replaced by the comforting thought of how ridiculous it would all sound to a police officer who had just picked up a down-and-out at a crime scene.

  Half an hour past, in which time Kate consumed a further cup of weak machine coffee and narrowly avoided any sort of real conversation with a persistently annoying woman who was sporting a swollen eye; a fresh blood scratch on her cheek and a wrinkled complexion that suggested that she was old enough to know better than whatever the hell she’d been up to tonight. Kate regretted the coffee the moment she downed the last dregs. Her stomach knotted and gurgled under the pressure of caffeine, stress and hunger. Her nerves were fraying. Every voice in the busy station seemed louder and more offensive than it actually was. Every light assaulted her eyes and threatened to burn a hole in her face. Walls, floors, chairs and people were closing in on her rapidly. Claustrophobia! She was breaking down, but knew she couldn’t afford this now. Time was running out. They could have killed Lionel already. Adam could have dropped dead already whilst he was being questioned. Would the officers even come out and tell her if he had? “Excuse me Miss. You can be on your way home now. Your friend is dead”. Kate felt tired and overwhelmed. She approached the desk again. Her co-ordination was shot to pieces, causing her to stumble a little, catching the edge of the desk just in time to steady herself.

  Front desk girl’s smarminess turned to impatience, as she recognised Kate instantly.

  - I’ve told you love, you’re wasting your time. They can keep him up to 24 hours. Longer if they get approval to. I’d go home to bed if I were you.

  - He hasn’t done anything though. He just ran his mouth a bit at an officer. Not exactly terrorism, is it?

  - Like I said, love; I’m no judge! Once they’re satisfied, they’ll let him go. I’ll tell you something though….

  Front desk girl leaned a little closer to Kate, a knowing look took over her face and her tone hushed slightly, as if she was about to share a big secret with her.

  - …. A lot of them talk themselves into deeper shit than they were originally brought in for once the plods take them back there.

  She gestured again to ‘back there’ like it was a sinister, hidden underworld.

  - If your boyfriend’s got a mouth or a temper on him, then he’s probably making his own life difficult. The plods won’t want to prolong things unless he’s getting cocky, which is most probably what he’s doing right now.

  Kate didn’t know whether front desk girl was winding her up or just trying to offer friendly advice, but she didn’t have time to worry about that any more than she had time to correct the stupid cow when she kept referring to Adam as her boyfriend.

  - My friend’s going to die if I don’t get him out of here quickly.

  Kate skipped straight to the point, but the moment the words left her mouth she knew she sounded like a nutcase. Front desk girl rolled her eyes.

  - Oh, here we go! The old stories about the plods roughing up the criminals round the back of the station. It’s a load of bullcrap, love! It’s bullcrap made up by people like you and your friends. You all
act like gangsters out on the street, but the minute we drag your arses back to the station, suddenly you’re all poor little victims.

  - Get me the officers talking to Adam. Bring them here. I have to talk to them urgently.

  Front desk girl looked annoyed and slightly embarrassed that Kate had completely ignored her arrogant little summary of Kate and ‘her friends’’ gangsterish tendencies.

  - I’m sorry. You’re going to have to take a seat or leave, love.

  Kate felt her face grow hotter, as her body summoned all available blood to her head to maximise her brain’s thinking power in this increasingly urgent situation. Her mouth had other ideas.

  - Get….me….the….fucking…..officers….that....arrested….Adam….Trundle…..Now! You snooty bitch!

  Front desk girl coiled back a yard in her wheelie office chair, her mouth wide with disbelief at Kate’s forceful outburst. It was nothing new in this job. She’d been screamed at, threatened and had things thrown at her in the past, but something about Kate’s manner up until now meant she hadn’t expected such a tirade from her. Kate’s commotion had attracted the attention of a tall, black police officer who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

  - Is there a problem here Becky?

  Front desk girl, evidently known to others as Becky, tried to disguise her smugness at the fact that big strapping police officers apparently came to her rescue the moment Kate raised her voice. She shot Kate a ‘this’ll teach you to mess with me’ look, before launching seamlessly into her best traumatised routine.

  - Yes there’s a bloody problem! This lady here is being aggressive to me, whilst I’m just trying to do my job. Take her away. I don’t get paid to work with this sort of kafuffle.

  Arguably, whilst her job description outlined her work location as ‘Police Station’, she was paid to work with exactly this type of kafuffle, but admittedly she had the right not to be abused. Even if she happened to be a snooty bitch! The police officer made no attempt to disguise that he was looking Kate up and down before deciding how to address her.

  - What’s the problem here Madam?

  His voice has stern and authoritative, in a way that said, “Try running your mouth at me the way you just did at my lowly little admin colleague then….I dare you!”

  Kate rather wisely ignored the overwhelming urge she had to tell the officer what she thought of Becky, instead choosing to stick to the point at hand.

  - My friend’s been taken in by two of your officers and I need to speak to them about him urgently.

  - And why might that be then?

  Kate paused whilst she considered how to yet again condense this spider web of a story into something compact and understandable. She was rapidly tiring of all this and coming up void of ideas.

  - I have some information for you!

  She had no idea where that line came from. Perhaps she’d subconsciously derived from police TV shows she’d seen in the past, that the way to a policeman’s heart was to feed him information. She wasn’t far off as it happened.

  - Information? Information on what exactly?

  Becky was appearing increasingly frustrated that defense of her honour, Kate hadn’t been frog marched out of the door by her burly protector.

  - Kevin! Are you honestly going to listen to this little chav? Just send her on her way. I have a job to be getting on with.

  Kate allowed herself a semi-humorous thought, “A chav! How ironic given the sequence of events that led them here”. Officer Kevin shot Becky a look that somehow by itself drew out the station hierarchy with huge arrows indicating her at the bottom and him somewhere way above her.

  - I’ll deal with this Becky thank you.

  Officer Kevin turned back to Kate.

  - Information on what exactly?

  - My friend, he’s…. he’s at risk. They’ve taken him in for something minor, but there’s stuff you need to know about him.

  - He’s at risk from whom exactly?

  - Can we talk in private please Sir? Just give me 5 minutes of your time.

  Kevin studied his watch as if it contained his entire schedule for the day, before nodding towards the double door to his right indicating that Kate should follow him. She was in! This was something at least, although it didn’t stop the hands of the clock moving on. They trudged off ‘back there’ together, leaving front desk girl alone to perfect her latest facial expression, which was one that did little to distract from the tail which now sat firmly between her legs.