Judgement Call Read Free Page A

which was clean and ready for its first occupant of the day. Henry told him to remove his trainers and leave them in the corridor before entering the cell.
    Henry slammed shut the self-locking steel door. Kaminski shoved his head at right angles into the inspection hatch.
    â€˜You make big mistake, cop,’ he said, exaggerating his Eastern European accent for best effect.
    â€˜Vot you mean,’ Henry mimicked him, ‘Igor?’
    â€˜She vill not make a statement. She vill not take me to court. She knows she vill be dead if she does.’
    â€˜Now you shouldn’t have said that. Threats to kill can put you away for ten years.’ Henry crashed the up-sliding hatch into place and locked it.
    â€˜Ve’ll see,’ Kaminski’s muted voice cried.
    Henry jerked a middle digit up at the peephole in the cell door behind which he could see Kaminski’s eye and returned to the charge office where Sergeant Ridgeson was inserting the forms into the binder. He glanced at Henry, shook his head sadly and said, ‘Why have you arrested him?’
    â€˜Rape. He raped his girlfriend. Beat her up, too.’
    â€˜Sally Lee, you mean? Sally “Jugs” Lee?’ Ridgeson scoffed.
    â€˜Yes, that’s her …’ A sudden lurch of dread gripped Henry’s guts in a clawed hand.
    The sergeant’s head continued to shake pityingly. He blew out. ‘You’ll learn … I took the liberty of calling the DI, just to let him know.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜His patch, laddie. He likes to keep abreast of all serious arrests. What are you going to do now?’
    â€˜Get a statement from Miss Lee … police surgeon and all that, Scenes of Crime … Hopefully she should have landed at the front desk by now.’
    â€˜You’ll be lucky if she has,’ the sergeant muttered. ‘Just don’t let her jerk you around.’
    At that moment a policewoman appeared at the charge office door. She looked at Henry. ‘A Miss Lee at the desk for you,’ she announced. She kept her eyes on him.
    â€˜Thanks … be there in a moment, Jo.’
    The policewoman gave him a slightly quirky half-smile, lowered her eyes coyly and returned to the front office with just another almost imperceptible second glance at Henry, who didn’t notice a thing. The sergeant did. He was one of this police station’s fixtures and fittings, a font of all knowledge, professional and tittle-tattle, and he rarely missed a trick.
    â€˜What do you mean, sarge?’ Henry asked, referring to Ridgeson’s last remark.
    â€˜You’ll come to realize,’ he said patiently, leaning forwards, ‘that there’s two sides to every coin and everything is not as it seems. I suspect that Miss Lee simply wants Vlad the Impaler out of her hair for a while. Probably wants some other bugger to shag her without poor Vlad finding out, then when the deed is done, she’ll drop the charges, or you won’t be able to find her to get her to court and next thing you know, it’ll be all lovey-dovey … until next time. You’ll look like an unwiped arse and the prosecutions department will not be happy with you.’
    â€˜So you’re saying we don’t protect her?’
    â€˜Don’t waste your time on her … she howls wolf.’
    â€˜But he’s beaten her up as well as raped her.’
    Ridgeson shrugged. ‘You’d be better off chasing the tail of that bonny police lass … you’d get a result there.’
    â€˜Uh?’
    â€˜Didn’t you see the lustful, come-hither look she just gave you?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Having said that, I hear you’re courting.’
    Henry grinned and reddened up. ‘Wouldn’t say courting.’
    â€˜Anyway …’ The sergeant waved him away. ‘Get your statement if you must, but I’m telling you from experience …’
    â€˜Waste of time?’
    â€˜And