Call & Response Read Free Page A

email had explained that she’d come from a senior role in Supply Chain Management at one of the major supermarkets. As a result she’d already gained the nickname BOGOF, but as she sat down Pepper thought that it could be worse. One of her predecessors in the area commander’s chair had been known simply as ‘the arse’.
     
    ‘I’ve been reading your file, Samantha’ she began. ‘You do like to be known as Samantha?’
    ‘Sam is fine, ma’am. But most people call me Pepper.’
    ‘Do they? Well, Pepper, I’ve been looking at your record, and I can’t help but notice the high number of complaints made against you by members of the public. The highest number in the Division, in fact.’
    Here we go again, thought Pepper, and started to open her mouth. But the Super held up a well-manicured hand.
    ‘But I also notice that you have by far the highest arrest rate in the Division as well. Top of every single chart in fact, right across the board. I wonder if those two facts might be correlated, or connected, in some way?’
    ‘I think so, ma’am.’
    ‘Well, as a matter of fact so do I. I’ve been having a look at all of the key metrics around officer performance, and there does seem to be a clear correlation. There is, for example, an officer at this very station with not a single complaint against his name, which of course would be excellent if he also boasted an equally outstanding arrest record.’
     
    Pepper smiled. She knew who the Super meant, and so she already knew what was coming next.
    ‘But, unfortunately, that officer has made fewer arrests over the past twelve months than any other front-line officer in the whole of the Constabulary. Now I know that I’ve not been here for five minutes, and I’m very aware that I’ve got a very great deal to learn, but I’d have said that arresting offenders is pretty much the core function of a Police officer.’
    ‘I agree entirely, ma’am.’
    ‘Can we drop the ma’am, please? Mary is fine, when we’re on our own.’
    ‘It is customary, ma’am.’
    ‘Is it? If we must then, I suppose. But it’s first name terms outside work, is it?’
    ‘Aye, of course.’
    ‘Good. But a word to the wise, Pepper. Try not to add too many more complaints to your tally. I know that none of any significance have gone against you, but it’s not doing you any favours. You’ve got a bit of a reputation, reading between the lines. And it is a thin line between straight-talker and pain-in-the-arse, isn’t it? And you do want to get on, I expect.’
    ‘I do, ma’am.’
    ‘And you’re currently acting DI, is that right?’
    ‘Yes. Bill Murray is away on long-term sick leave, I’m afraid. Stress, ma’am.’
    ‘What a shame.’
     
    Pepper let the Super’s considerate comment hang in the air, even though she wanted to add that the old bastard was playing the system, and that his stress wasn’t preventing him from golfing three times a week, except when he was at his villa in Spain, of course. Because then it was five times a week.
    ‘Sickness levels here are a worry’ the Super continued, ‘but I see that you’ve barely had a day off during your whole period of service to date. And you only took three months off after your child was born.’
    ‘That’s right, ma’am.’
     
    This time it was Mary Clark who paused, but Pepper had no intention of filling the silence, no matter how long it lasted.
    ‘And I also see that you had a period on attachment at HQ last year. Tell me about that.’
    ‘I spent six months instructing on the self-defence team, ma’am. We worked with everyone from the Specials and PCSOs right through to senior officers on refreshers.’
    ‘Really? I don’t want to be personal, Pepper, but you don’t look like the type. You’re so slim, I mean.’
    ‘That’s why I did it, ma’am. Good technique, combined with fitness and the right attitude trumps brute strength every time, believe me. The female officers needed to understand