by M A Comley
“I see, thanks for the clarification, boss. I hope you don’t mind me probing.”
“Why should I? It’s the only way you’re going to learn, Craig.”
They arrived back at the station at around three. Sara’s stomach had rumbled a few times on the journey back. She’d stopped off outside the baker’s down the road and sent Craig in to pick up whatever sandwiches they had left, to feed the team.
A car drew up alongside her. “Sara, get in.” It was the chief.
Sara made a face at Craig. “You go on ahead, leave me the tuna on brown, I shouldn’t be too long.”
“Good luck, boss. Not sure I care for the chief’s tone.”
“Bugger, can’t say I noticed. See you soon, I hope.” Sara pulled on the handle and slipped into the passenger seat of the car.
The chief put her foot down on the accelerator and screeched out of the car park.
“Is everything all right, ma’am?”
“What gives you that idea? You two make me sick. You’re going to thrash this out, once and for all.”
“Excuse me? I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about. Where are you taking me? Should I be worried?”
The chief cast her a scathing look and then concentrated on her driving once more. “Don’t be so ridiculous, what do you take me for? We’re going to see Carla. You two need to sort this shit out, and quickly.”
“What? I don’t have time for this, boss. I’m working a double investigation. If she wants to walk out on the job then there’s not a lot either you or I can do about it to change her mind.”
The chief expelled a long, deep breath. “That’s where you’re wrong. We need Carla on our team. If you have a problem with her then you need to work things out before we can move forward.”
“That’s utter codswallop and you know it. I’m her superior, not some constable straight out of training college. She made her position perfectly clear this morning. She’d rather spend time at home with an abuser than stick with a job she knows makes a difference in this world.”
“Bollocks. You two are buddies. You need to listen to her cries for help and stop judging her.”
Sara’s eyes bulged, and she stared at the chief. “What? I’ve done nothing of the sort. What the fucking hell…? Yes, I swore in front of you, I make no apologies for that. I’m vexed about this situation and the fact that you’re coming down heavily on me as if I’m the one in the wrong here.”
“Compassion—every officer under me should be riddled with it.”
Sara folded her arms and grunted. “I repeat, you’re being totally unfair.”
The chief’s gaze left the road. A horn blasted, and she swiftly faced the road again. “Am I? So what if she has a problem with her fella? She’s a good copper, and we need her experience to keep us afloat, especially if we’re going to be a man down soon.”
Sara felt numb. All this was beyond her. For once in her life, she chose to ignore her superior. If she hadn’t, she would have likely ripped into the chief for tearing her apart, which in her opinion was wholly unjustified.
The chief took the hint and, thankfully, didn’t push the issue. She drove like a madwoman most of the way to Carla’s, and they arrived within ten minutes. Sara’s pulse rate matched the chief’s speed.
“We’re here. You play nicely, you hear me?” The chief snatched her key from the ignition and flew out the driver’s door, not bothering to wait for a barbed response from Sara.
She followed the chief up the path to Carla’s front door. Her glare bored into the back of the chief’s head. What gives her the right to have a pop at me for doing sod all? Should I have tried harder to dissuade Carla in my office? Even if I’m guilty of not doing that, she left the room, and the station, before I realised what she’d said and done.
A bruised and bewildered-looking Carla opened the door and invited them inside. They followed her into the lounge. Sara quickly scanned the room—it was a mess. Gym equipment was set up at one end and the chairs were all squashed, clumped together at the other. She told me they had a designated room for his gym equipment, was she lying?
“Right, I’m going to sit here and mediate while you two sort things out. I’ll give you this warning: I will not, I repeat, I will not be leaving this house until we’ve come to an agreeable solution. Go on, get on with it.”
Sara and Carla both stared at the chief. She sat down heavily on one of the sofas and crossed her arms, letting out a few impatient sighs when both Carla and Sara remained quiet.
Eventually, the uncomfortable atmosphere wore Sara down. “How are you feeling, Carla?”
Carla avoided eye contact with her head low onto her chest. “I’m getting there.”
“Good to hear.”
“Stop! What the fuck is this?” the chief shouted, outrage reddening her cheeks. “You’re talking to each other as if you’re perfect strangers. Get a bloody life. You’re good friends. As such, you should be making a concerted effort to get along. Stop wasting my sodding time!”
Sara shook her head. In her eyes, the chief was talking out of her arse, and she was getting the impression Price blamed her for what had transpired between her and Carla. Which was totally unjust and incomprehensible.
“I’m sorry,” Carla suddenly murmured. She raised her head slightly and looked Sara in the eye for a split second before lowering her head again.
“So am I,” Sara admitted. “It shouldn’t have come to this.”
“Why did it?” Carla asked.
Sara heaved out a sigh. “I guess because we’re both pig-headed and set in our ways.”
The chief applauded. “Glad you’re both seeing sense.”
Before she could say anything else, the door burst open and in stormed Gary. They all glanced his way. He stood still, his gaze flicking angrily between the three of them. “Aye up, what’s going on here then? Looks like a witches’ coven. Thinking up spells to get rid of us men, are you?”
“Only one in particular,” Sara muttered.
He heard what she said because he marched over to where Sara was sitting and towered over her. Sara’s hand slipped into her jacket pocket where she kept her pepper spray. Carla must have sensed what she was about to do because she left her chair and tried to pull Gary away. He stood firm and glared at her. Sara caught the evil glint in his eye and watched Carla visibly shrivel in front of her.
His hand clenched down by his side, he sneered at Carla. “Did I tell you to move?”
Carla gingerly retreated to her seat. Sara glanced at the chief, whose mouth was hanging open, willing her to intervene. She didn’t. If Sara didn’t stand up for herself, no one else was about to. She cleared her throat. “You need to calm down, Gary.”
It was the worst thing she could have said. He closed what little gap there was between them and prodded Sara in the shoulder. “You reckon? You’re in my fucking house, uninvited. Why the fuck should I be happy about that?”
“Gary, please, don’t do this,” Carla said, her voice trembling.
Gary instantly changed direction and was on Carla within two giant steps. He slapped her so hard her head whipped to the right.
Carla’s neck cracked. Sara winced and leapt out of her seat to tackle the bastard. “Get your fucking hands off her. You’ve hit her once too often.”
He turned to face Sara, his broad chest inflating along with his mounting anger. He pushed Sara backwards. She stumbled over the chief’s feet and ended up on the floor. Sara refused to stay down. She instantly bounced back up and went into battle with the bully, her hand still in her pocket, stroking the spray bottle.
“I said leave her alone. You touch her again and I’ll drag you down the cop shop on a charge of GBH, got that?”
He glared at her up and down as if she was something vile he’d stepped in. “Threats don’t wash with me, you can ask Carla about that, can’t she, bitch?” He threw over his shoulder in Carla’s direction.
You fucking moron. How dare you stand there an
d speak to us like this? Sara glanced at the gobsmacked chief, still sitting glued to her position, her head swivelling between the three of them. Fucking hell, you’re no use. “Don’t speak to Carla like that. What’s your problem, Gary? You never used to be like this. Why the sudden change?” She tried reasoning with him, her objective to ease the tension in the room.
A pronounced vein in his temple twitched. “Don’t try to psycho-analyse me. Carla is my girlfriend, that gives me rights to treat her how I want to treat her.”
“It doesn’t,” Carla mumbled.
Again, he shot around and pounced on her, slapping her head the other way.
Carla cried out. “No, Gary. No more, stop it!”
“Stop it!” he mimicked nastily.
Sara had seen enough. Before he had a chance to take in what she was about to do, she aimed the can of pepper spray in his face. He yelled and dropped to the floor.
Sara looked at Carla. “Quick, get your cuffs if you have them handy, mine are in the car.”
“They’re upstairs.” Carla raced out of the room.
Gary wiped his face with the bottom of his T-shirt and stumbled to his feet. He stood in front of Sara, challenging her.
She raised the can again and aimed it. “You want more of the same? Come on, Gary, make my day, come at me.”
Carla barged into the room and stood behind Gary. “Give me your hands, it’s for your own good, Gary.”
“Like fuck I will. Screw you, both of you.” He looked down at the chief. “You’re a witness to this. Are you going to sit there and let them behave like this?”
The chief stood. “No, I’m right behind them. Come willingly, or Inspector Ramsey will do what’s necessary to restrain you.”
His head bowed, and Sara thought he was about to surrender, but the opposite was true. He charged at her like an outraged bull battling for his life. He connected with Sara, knocking her off her feet. He ended up straddling her. The can got dislodged in the melee. Sara stared up at the brute glaring down at her. Mixed emotions surged through her. Fear the most dominant one.
The next moment, the chief lashed out with something, and Gary flopped on top of her, smothering Sara and suppressing her ability to breathe.
“Quick, Carla, help me get him off her,” Price ordered.
Gary was out cold from the bash he’d received from the heavy statue the chief had managed to get hold of. Price and Carla helped manoeuvre Gary’s dead weight, sliding him off Sara, enabling her to get to her feet. Once upright, she placed her hands on her knees, sucking in lungfuls of air, replacing that which had been bashed out of her.
“We need to get the cuffs on him, he could wake up any second.”
Carla snapped the cuffs on her boyfriend’s wrists, tears trailing down her bruised and swollen face. “I’m such an idiot. I’m so sorry for involving you both in this. You shouldn’t have come here today.”
“What? Carla, we’ve seen how he treats you with our own eyes. No woman should have to deal with that shit. You have a right to lead a perfectly normal life, without living in fear of saying the wrong thing and suffering the repercussions for having an opinion of your own. He’s in the wrong, not you,” she pointed out with a pained expression.
“Please, he never used to be like this, it’s only since the accident and the abduction.”
Sara’s mouth gaped open and then she asked, “Wait, does he blame you for being abducted?”
Carla nodded.
Sara shook her head in disbelief. “How fucking warped is that? If he hadn’t got involved with that loan shark in the first place… Jesus, you were both abducted because of his involvement with the loan shark, how were you to blame for that?”
“I know. I tried to reason with him and…” Carla pointed at her face. “This was the result. He needs help.”
“You’re not wrong there,” the chief was quick to agree. “I’m going to call for backup to take him in.”
“What? No, you can’t do that. I’m sure he’ll calm down once he regains consciousness. We’ll be able to set him free then.”
Sara glanced at the chief’s shocked expression.
Price shook her head. “I’m sorry, Carla, it’s time to admit what he is. Abusive people never change, not in my experience. Yes, I agree, he needs professional help for his anger issues, but I can’t, no, I won’t, allow him to get away with what happened here today. He needs to learn to respect women. His whole demeanour was one of hatred for the fairer sex, I saw that with my own eyes. And frankly, if you failed to see that side of him today then I pity you, love. Maybe you’re in desperate need of counselling yourself.”
“I… I’m sorry.”
Sara approached Carla and hugged her. “The first step is to admit defeat, admit when you’re wrong, Carla. Granted, he needs help to get some control back in his life. I also think the chief is right, you need help, too. It’s not right that you should feel guilty for what’s going on with him. It’s as though he has brainwashed you into believing you’re in the wrong and he’s always right.”
Tears slid down Carla’s flushed cheeks. “I don’t see that. All I see is a man crying out to be loved, and I love him, no matter how he treats me. He doesn’t mean it, deep down, I know that, and he knows it, too.”
Sara resisted the temptation to shake her by the shoulders to make her partner see sense. “We’re going to take him in and charge him, Carla, how do you feel about that?”
“What? Charge him with what? What he did to me?”
“No. What he did to me. He assaulted a police officer, and you know what? I’m going to need you to speak up as a witness to the event. Will you do that for me?”
Carla hesitated and then slowly nodded as the reality hit home. “If I’m forced to. He was wrong to lash out at you.”
“He was in the wrong for slapping you, abusing you in front of us and for what he’s done before over the months. I bet if you lifted your top up, we’d see bruise upon bruise there, wouldn’t we?”
Carla avoided eye contact, giving Sara the answer she needed.
“Jesus, where do you think all this is going to end? With you on a slab at the mortuary is my guess, and yet you still can’t see it, can you?”
“No. It would never come to that. He loves me.”
“Well, if that’s his kind of love, you can stick it where the sun don’t shine. I think we should leave you alone to contemplate how close we all came to being seriously injured by your boyfriend today. You think he would have stopped at throttling me? No, I doubt it. He would have turned on the chief next, and then, once he’d punished her, he would have come after you. My guess is that he would probably lose control pounding you to a pulp, mainly for getting him into bother with me and the chief, if that makes sense.”
“There’s no proof any of that would have happened. He lost control for a split second. He didn’t lay a hand on either you or the chief.”
Gobsmacked at the blatant lie, Sara threw her arms up in despair.
The chief pulled Sara out of the way, held Carla by the shoulders and shook her. “Fucking wake up and see him for what he is, Carla, and yes, that’s an order. I reckon you’re lucky to still be alive. Had you not been a tough copper, he would have killed you long ago. Stop making excuses for him. He’s an outright abusive bastard, who gets a thrill out of controlling a copper, that’s my take on the situation. Don’t fall under his spell again. Stick to your guns. Come out fighting, you’re better than this, love.”
“But I…”
“Love him,” Sara finished her sentence for her. “That isn’t love, sweetheart. It’s pity or maybe even guilt for what he’s been through the last year or so, since his accident. Take my word for it, it’s not love.”
Carla clutched her hand to her chest and shook her head.
Sara could see the confusion running through her mind.
“I can’t… I think you’d better go, the pair of you.”
“If that’s what you want.” Sara shrugged a
nd tugged on the chief’s arm. “We’re clearly not wanted here. It’s obvious she’s made her decision.”
“Oh no. I can’t give up on her, and you shouldn’t either,” Price said, shaking her head. She turned to face Carla again. “You’re wrong about this—you need us, not him, Carla.”
Carla gulped and spread her arms out wide. “Why do I have to choose? Why can’t I have both?”
Sara pulled on the chief’s arm again. “Let me. Carla, you’re part of our family, we don’t give up on each other. It’s a different story if you want to push us away. We can’t force you to do anything, but I’ll tell you this, Gary is going to be punished for lashing out here today. In my mind, you should have reported him months ago. Look at all the advice you’ve given to the women you’ve come across over the years, who have found themselves in the same position, suffered domestic abuse. You’re a fool for not taking your own advice, surely you can see that, can’t you?”
Carla paused and glanced at Gary. He groaned; he was waking up. She started to move towards him, but Sara caught her arm and whispered, “Don’t. Leave him, he’s liable to be angry and lash out again.”
“How can he do that with his hands in cuffs?” Carla retorted sharply. She unhooked her arm and raced over to where Gary was trying his best to sit upright.
“What hit me? Carla, why are these two still here? I want it to be you and me, babe. You and me against the world.” He tried to move his hands but realised they were tethered behind his back. “What the fuck is going on here?”
Carla smiled and ran a hand over his cheek. “Do as they say and you’ll be home in no time.”
“I ain’t going nowhere. They can’t make me, can they?”
Carla nodded. “You shouldn’t have attacked Sara, they’ve got you by the short and curlies.”
“What? I didn’t do anything. She pushed me into a corner. I love you, Carla. Take the cuffs off, love. Go on, you’ve got the key.” He winked at Carla. “I’ll make it worth your while, you know, later in the bedroom.”
Carla’s cheeks coloured up, and she stood upright and stared down at him. His brow wrinkled into a deep frown. Sara could tell he wasn’t used to women retreating from his passionate suggestions.