That seemed likely. Darren was a big lad and didn’t look like the sort who could think or move quickly. Appearances could be very deceptive.
“I’m afraid I overestimated their coordination,” Mills chimed in helpfully. “They were staggering about all over the place, and I caught an accidental knock from one of them flailing around while I dealt with them, Sir. DC Walker called for a couple of patrol cars to come and take them off our hands and they’re all in lock up now, hopefully sleeping it off.”
All four of our DCs had been enjoying some extra training sessions with Conall since last summer. They’d known that he’d been helping me and had been dying to get in on it ever since they’d heard me describe how he’d handled our three assailants last March. They’d certainly all benefitted from the extra workouts.
“Mmm.” Conall’s mouth was twitching as he pictured the farcical scene. “No doubt they’ll be sorry once they’ve sobered up, especially when we inform them of the fines they’re probably going to have to pay. So,” he asked, “unexpected scuffles aside, how did you all get on?”
Between us all, we’d managed to speak with forty three of the sixty people on our lists, not counting the one in lock up. Twenty three of those had willingly agreed to let us look around, as well as check their GPS history. Not bad for a first run. The last sixteen would get another visit tomorrow, but hopefully, they’d phone in first so we weren’t wasting time going to empty houses next time.
I took the opportunity to nip off to the loo while they were all talking. Conall glanced over when I reappeared before turning back to his little group.
“Well, it’s up to you four if you want to finish writing up your reports tonight but I’m packing up and heading home, and so is Sergeant Murray.” He went off to get his things together and lock up his office.
“The boss mentioned fines?” Bryce asked me as I came up to them again. “But they could potentially get up to six months, right?”
“If they’d been sober, some time would be more likely.” I told him, “but we can’t send every drunk who does something stupid off to prison. It’ll be a few hundred quid each and a dose of community service more than likely.”
“Aye, that’ll do nicely,” Darren agreed. “That should be enough to make them think twice before trying anything like that again in a hurry, no matter how pissed they get.”
“Of course, if either of us had been seriously injured it would be another matter, drunk or not,” Walker added. “Depending on who’s on the bench, the magistrates usually show some common sense when deciding what’s appropriate. Our reports have influence too. In fact, in this case, pointing that out to our man tomorrow might make him more inclined to be cooperative.”
“I’m sure it will,” I told her cheerfully. Conall was ready to go by then so we left them to shut down and lock up.
“You didn’t seem too concerned about Walker and Mills’ little brush up,” I commented as we climbed into the car and he handed me his bag to put on the floor. I got my notebook out and popped it into the front pocket. He’d want to borrow that if he was planning to write up our results tonight.
“Thanks.” He buckled up and waited for me to do the same. “Those two are quite capable of looking after a trio like that. Besides, you don’t have to be in the police force for some drunken idiot to decide they want to take a swing at you. How many brawls were you called in on when you were in the uniforms?” He pulled us out of our parking spot and out onto the road.
“I expect I got my fair share. A few pub fights and a lot more domestic disturbances. How about you?”
“I think we could all say the same. If either of them had really been hurt, it would be different, but it doesn’t do any good to overreact to incidents like that. They know that as well as we do.”
He was right, of course. Assaulting a constable in the execution of their duty was classed as aggravated assault but there was a growing tendency, in some areas, to come down excessively hard on people who’d done no more than give one of us a little shove. It was one thing to discourage that kind of behaviour but quite another to pursue such cases to the full extent of the law.
“It doesn’t seem very likely that their house owner could be the man we’re looking for.”
“Not behaving like that, no. And if he’s got any sense at all and wants to keep his fine low, he’ll give consent for us to check his place out thoroughly tomorrow.”
It was only a few minutes’ drive to my place, and he didn’t hang around once he saw I had my door open. I picked up my mail and dropped it off in the kitchen before heading upstairs to change.
It was only when I went downstairs again and got the kettle on that I looked through the day’s offerings. One envelope grabbed my attention immediately.
Christ! Conall hadn’t wasted any time after our conversation last month. The letter made it official. I was to attend a promotion ceremony down at Tulliallen in May, along with a group of other officers getting their bumps. He must have been working on the competency based assessment for months, to get it pushed through so quickly. All he’d needed was my agreement before asking Superintendent Anderson to set the wheels in motion.
Well, at least the threat of a transfer was firmly off the table
