Bobby on the Beat

by Pamela Rhodes

  ‘Very.’

  ‘Almost beyond words.’

  And it was nice, if that’s enough of a word for it. But somehow Malcolm didn’t seem happy, even set against that glorious scene.

  After a while we walked back towards my digs. We said very little most of the way. As I was about to say goodbye, and was getting my key out of my pocket, Malcolm opened his mouth. For a moment nothing came out, then a small voice.

  ‘Do you … ? I mean … Can I visit you? When you go back to Richmond? I’d like to. If you would.’

  I waited for a moment. This felt like a kind of turning point. One where, if you make the wrong decision, you might regret it for ever.

  ‘Yes. I would,’ I smiled, but I was making it up. Life, I mean. Making up life on the spot, there and then. I suppose there are no answers, I thought, no right and wrong. It’s all one big improvisation. We do what we do. And then that’s that. Curtain down.

  By the final week at Redcar, I couldn’t wait to get back to Richmond. For starters, I was finding it hard to be around Steve now. I liked him a lot. In fact, I’d never felt so relaxed and happy than when I was around him. But somehow that wasn’t quite enough. I felt bad, but in the end I hardly spoke to him again, and then, one day in the corridor I blanked him completely. He looked back sadly, but I was relieved the next day, because I saw him leaning on a wall, talking to Maureen. Steve was never down for long.

  ‘Thank you for all your efforts, Rhodes,’ said Sergeant Ditchburn, nodding his head. ‘It’s been a pleasure.’

  Well, that was a surprise too, as I never thought Ditchburn liked me that much. Maureen was just going on shift as I was leaving; it was her last day too, and we wouldn’t see each other again.

  ‘Thanks again for all you did. When I was starting out. I honestly don’t think I’d be where I am if it wasn’t for your help,’ she said.

  ‘I’m sure you would have done just fine without me,’ I told her.

  Malcolm walked me back to my digs.

  ‘So I’ll come to Richmond then. We’ve got some friends with a farmhouse nearby. I can stay there.’

  ‘Fine. Great. Lovely,’ I said. When I went inside, my heart was beating so fast I thought it might give up with the effort.

  ‘We’ll be sad to lose you, love,’ said Annie, as I stood in the hall with my bag all packed and ready to leave. ‘It’s not often we have a young face around here.’

  Before I left, I had one question I had been meaning to ask all summer. I finally plucked up the courage.

  ‘Was there a reason you never had any children yourself? I just wondered,’ I asked cautiously, not wanting to offend.

  After a while Annie looked up.

  ‘We did try, but … well, we did have one. Little Norman. But he only lived a few hours. I held him for a while, like a little monkey he was. All furry. But there was nothing they could do. He never even opened his eyes. Colin was inconsolable. Just wouldn’t accept it. I’ve never seen him like that. I thought, I can’t do this again. The loss. And we never mentioned it again.’

  ‘I’m so sorry. I had no idea.’

  ‘I said to myself, there’s no room for dwelling in this life. And we’ll meet Norman in the next. We get along just fine, the two of us, as we are.’

  She inhaled and brushed down her apron, then went into the kitchen for a moment and came back with a small package.

  ‘Anyway. You take care. I made you these, for the journey. Some of my best apple cake, and some sardine sandwiches. Should keep you going. Don’t eat it all in the first five minutes, though.’

  ‘Thank you so much. I can’t thank you enough for being so kind.’

  ‘Oh, you’re off,’ said Colin, coming in. He had been out in the garden sweeping. He packed his pipe tight with tobacco, then put it in his mouth, and shook my hand. ‘Do visit again, won’t you? If nothing else, it’s nice to have someone to keep the wife busy.’

  ‘Cheeky!’ said Annie.

  ‘Thank you both for everything,’ I said. Then Annie gave me a bear-like, all-encompassing hug, before pushing me through the door.

  ‘Now, you’ll miss the bus if you hang around any longer. Off you go, lass.’

  I thought I saw a little tear in the corner of her eye, and then the door shut. As I walked off down the street I looked back to see if they were waving through the window, but they had gone.

  Once I was on the bus I felt all excited, as though I was going back and starting a new life in Richmond again. The station had arranged for me to live in new digs, with a new family, so it would be exciting finding out who that would be. And Malcolm would be visiting me in a few weeks. I felt like I had grown up suddenly, and the world seemed like a newly clear place, full of possibilities.

  Outside the bus, the countryside whizzed by. I changed buses twice before the lanes and farmsteads gradually began to look familiar again. We passed by Pemberton’s farm, and then Joe McGregor’s; I could just make him out, with his pigs, sloshing buckets around. That means we’re nearly home, I thought.

  I had eaten the sandwiches already, but saved the cake until I couldn’t wait any longer. Annie had a secret ingredient, she said, which made it irresistible. Finally, I opened it up and savoured every mouthful with its rich, appley flavour, finishing it just as the bus came to a stop outside Richmond town hall. I was back.

  10

  ‘Did I miss much?’ I walked into the office and plonked my suitcase down on the floor.

  ‘Rhodes,’ said Sergeant Shaw. ‘How nice to see you. Well. Can’t say that much has happened really. Oh, we did have a leaky pipe in one of the cells one night. That was quite an adventure. We had to move out the prisoners for a whole night, and keep them all in one cell, while it was fixed. Otherwise, much the same as usual.’

  The other WPC, Jeanette, came in with Sergeant Hardcastle. They were in deep discussion about something.

  ‘Ah, good. You’re back,’ Hardcastle said. ‘Timely. Jeanette here has just given me some news.’

  She held up her hand, and there on her finger was a large, shiny engagement ring. Blimey, I thought. That didn’t take long.

  ‘So she’ll be loving us and leaving us in a few months.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ I said as she showed me the jewel.

  ‘Yes. It all happened so fast. But I know he’s the one. He got down on one knee and everything.’

  ‘Oh, by the way, I have the address of your new digs here somewhere,’ said Sergeant Shaw, digging around among the papers on his desk. ‘A Mrs Pritchard. On Beechfield Road. You might as well go up there now.’ He handed me the piece of paper. ‘But don’t get too settled. First thing tomorrow, I’ve got a job for you up at Durham Jail. So be bright and early and ready for action.’

  I arrived at my digs with a feeling of trepidation. Over the past year I had felt like a nomad, moving from house to house. Hopefully this would be the last move, for a while at least.

  My new landlady, Caroline, was older than Janet. She was in her early forties, and I think a little better off. She lived with her husband, Terence, in one of the new houses at the top of town. It was a lot bigger than Janet’s house, a semi-detached, and they had a big garden at the back full of flowers. There were even a few cars on their street. Where Janet had always seemed a little flustered, Caroline was the epitome of calm. When she first opened the door, the whole house smelled of scent.

  ‘You must be Pamela? I must say, we are so honoured to be helping out the police. When they rang I thought, how lovely, to have a policewoman in the house. She must have lots of stories. Come in, come in and let’s take your things up.’

  ‘You’ve got a lovely house,’ I said as we walked up the carpeted stairs.

  ‘This is Lily’s room.’ She pointed. ‘And this is Katy’s.’

  ‘How old are they?’

  ‘Twelve and fourteen. It’s gone so quickly, I can’t tell you. And we won’t go in here,’ she said, shutting the door to her and her husband’s bedroom. ‘I haven’t tidi
ed up properly or anything. And this is yours.’

  My room was very clean and sparse, with no ornaments, just a lovely vase of freshly picked blue flowers on the desk, a carriage clock and neat white bed linen. On the wall were a few little watercolours of flowers and country scenes.

  ‘I like to dabble,’ said Caroline, looking at the paintings.

  ‘Oh, you did these? They’re beautiful. That one’s the castle, isn’t it?’

  ‘It’s so lovely to paint. All that stone, and the wildlife there. And the river too. I go up there when I get time. Which isn’t very often. But it’s a bit easier now that the girls are getting older. My father-in-law makes the frames. Ooh, the girls will be home from school soon. They’ll be so excited to meet you. Get yourself settled and then you must come down for a cup of tea.’

  I sat on yet another new bed, and looked out of the window at the street below. Children were coming home from school and playing games on the street, laughing and chattering to each other. Some were skipping or playing hopscotch, others were kicking a football. It felt like a nice friendly neighbourhood.

  When I got downstairs, two young girls were sitting at the table in their school uniforms. Their mother busied about, bringing out some hot buttered teacakes and putting a big red teapot in the middle of the table.

  ‘Katy, Lily, this is Pamela. She’ll be staying with us for a while.’

  ‘Hello. Pleased to meet you,’ said the younger girl to me, and then turned back to her mother. ‘Mrs Hirst gave half the class the slipper today.’

  ‘Oh dear. What for?’

  ‘It was a horrible dirty old slipper too. Because someone let in a cat. And then no one would admit to it. It just sat there and licked its paws. And a window was open, so someone must have opened it.’

  ‘I’m sure that woman enjoys hurting children.’

  ‘When I was in her class, she used to give us the ruler every day, whatever we did,’ said Katy, trying to better her sister’s story.

  ‘You never told me that.’

  ‘Well, she did.’

  As Katy spoke she examined her teacake, picking out the raisins one by one, before placing them carefully at the side of the plate.

  ‘I thought you liked those. I put them in especially.’

  ‘I’ve gone off them. I can’t help it. They remind me of dead insects.’

  ‘What can you do?’ Caroline said to me, sighing and clearing away the plates. ‘It can never be too soon, getting these two off my hands, I can tell you. I’ve a good mind to marry you both off to the butcher’s sons tomorrow.’

  ‘Mam!’ they said simultaneously, clearly appalled by the notion.

  ‘Well. You’d never want for sausages.’

  When I got to the station in the morning, we had inspection with Sergeant Cleese. I had forgotten how rigorous they were at Richmond. No room for anything out of place. There had been none of that in Redcar, where I had hardly seen any of the officers in charge.

  ‘You might have been away, Rhodes, on the seafront, but we run a tight ship here. Those shoes aren’t nearly shiny enough,’ Cleese said as he strolled up and down the line.

  The men had to present their ‘appointments’: truncheon in one hand, handcuffs in the other. I didn’t have to show anything.

  ‘Right. Cosgrove and Rhodes, I’ve got a job for you. They’re bringing in a woman, needs driving up to Durham Jail from court this morning. You think you can manage that between you?’

  ‘Yes, Sergeant.’

  The woman was brought out of the cell and put in the station car, to be taken to the jail.

  ‘Do you know what she did? To be going to Durham?’ I asked before we got in the car.

  ‘Murdered her husband, maybe? Mrs Slater’s her name. I don’t know her. She’s not from Richmond.’

  ‘Blimey.’

  ‘Actually I think it was theft. But you never know …’

  The woman was wearing a brown cardigan and skirt, with her hair in a neat bun. She wore small spectacles and didn’t look at all like my expected vision of a female prisoner. She didn’t look up as Bill guided her into the back seat, and we stood outside for a moment.

  ‘You wouldn’t think it to look at her, would you?’ I said. ‘Murder or theft or whatever … She looks so ordinary, like you might see her on the bus or anywhere.’

  ‘I suppose. But then what do murderers and thieves look like? She does look like that woman who works in the library, though. Wouldn’t say boo to a ghost, that one. She won’t last five minutes up at Durham,’ said Bill as we got into the car.

  Every now and then I looked at the unlikely criminal in the back seat next to me, but she didn’t speak the whole way. It looked as though the court case, and the whole affair, had drained the life right out of her, and this was just a shadow-woman.

  When we got to Durham Jail we walked through the imposing main gates.

  ‘We’ll take her from here,’ said a female prison officer and took her off down the corridor towards the cells.

  Bill handed over the paperwork, as though we were making a goods delivery. I watched as the officer took her through a giant steel door, which slammed immediately shut behind them.

  ‘Fancy a mug of tea, up at Scotch Corner?’ said Bill as we got back into the car.

  We would often stop at the transport café on the side of the road for a cuppa after making trips like this.

  ‘Traffic’s terrible today,’ he said as we climbed towards Ferryhill, on the way up to the café.

  Suddenly, behind us, there was a loud bang and a horrible crunching of metal on metal.

  ‘Flippin’ heck! What was that?’ he said, and stopped the car, narrowly missing the one in front. He pulled off to the side and we swerved to a halt in the verge.

  ‘It’s an accident,’ he said, opening the door, almost falling out onto the road.

  ‘Bad one?’

  ‘Not sure yet.’

  I scrambled out of the car too, and surveyed the scene behind us. The fronts of two vehicles had been mangled; one had both the headlights completely smashed, and the other was buckled up, with the bumper coming off.

  ‘Must have crashed head on,’ shouted Bill as he ran over.

  Traffic was starting to build up on the road in both directions but we had to get to the passengers before we could deal with that.

  ‘Can you sort out these, while I go and try to get hold of Durham?’

  ‘Sure,’ I answered, and felt for my notebook and pencil, tape measure and first-aid pack.

  I yanked open one of the car doors. Inside was an elderly man and two women dressed all in black. They were both sitting staring straight ahead, in shock. The man in the front seat had a small cut on his cheek where he had been flung forward and hit the dashboard; his hat was in his lap and he had a pipe in his hand. In the back, the two women sat with their hats all askew, looking stunned.

  ‘We’ve just been to a funeral,’ said one of the women with a quavering voice.

  ‘Are any of you hurt?’ I asked, but they didn’t answer. I suddenly saw a great shadow behind me, and the looming figure of a man spoke in a very gruff voice.

  ‘Can I help, officer? I saw everything from up in my cab.’

  I looked up and saw his vehicle, a huge lorry parked up behind us. ‘British Road Services’ it said along the side.

  ‘Thanks. You’re a godsend. Well, let’s get these lot out, and check the next car.’

  We helped the three funeral-goers out of the car and sat them on the grass verge, huddled together in their mourning finery.

  In the next car, a young couple were getting anxious. They had come off slightly worse. The woman had hit her head on the dashboard quite badly and there was a bruise forming already. The man had a cut on his hand where he had caught it in the steering wheel.

  ‘I don’t know where they came from,’ said the man. ‘One minute we were driving along and then they were on our side of the road, heading straight for us. There was nothing I could do.’r />
  ‘Let’s get everyone out first, and we can take it from there,’ I said.

  I looked back at the traffic building up along the road. Cars wound their way down the hill, some beeping their horns, and people were getting out, straining to see what had happened.

  ‘You were all lucky, if you can call it that,’ said the lorry driver. ‘I saw it all. Could have been much worse if you’d been going any faster. You get a lot of accidents up here. Bit of a black spot. Something should be done about it really.’

  Out of nowhere, a woman in a blue coat appeared with mugs of tea. I couldn’t work out where she had come from, as there were no houses that I could see, but the hot drink was very welcome.

  I dug out the first-aid kit from my pocket and dealt with the injuries as best I could. I wrapped up the older man’s arm in a small bandage. It had started bleeding a little where he had caught it on the door.

  ‘I don’t know what happened, officer. I honestly don’t.’ He was still shaking from the shock as I pinned the bandage on. ‘Did I do something wrong? I’m a very good driver usually. But I’m just not all here today. We’ve been at my sister’s funeral, you see. On our way to her house now. Everyone will be wondering.’

  ‘I’m sorry about your sister. Don’t worry. My colleague’s in contact with Durham, and I’m sure they’ll get you where you need to go.’

  ‘Hello, there! My wife feels sick. She doesn’t look at all well,’ said the driver of the other car. ‘She’s pregnant. I’m worried it might be the baby.’

  ‘Don’t worry. We’ll get her to a hospital as soon as the others arrive.’ I tried to sound as calm as possible.

  Once everyone was settled, and drinking the tea that the woman in the blue coat kept supplying from her mystery source, I thought I’d better get on to clearing the traffic. It had built up quite a way in both directions by that time.

  ‘Will you be OK here for a minute, while I sort this traffic out?’ I asked the lorry driver.

  ‘No problem. I’ll keep them all talking,’ he said, and started to make them smile with a few jokes.

  I managed to direct the cars using the hand signals I had learnt at Bruche and practised every market day in Richmond. I tried to keep my arms out as straight as possible, as we’d been taught, and I was surprised at how easily it all came to me in the heat of the moment. After about ten minutes, I had cleared away most of the backlog, directing the cars one way and then the other, building up a system to get them round the obstacles. When Bill finally arrived back, behind his car were two Durham police cars.