Roberta Galbraith - Rookie Days

“Hello?” said Roberta slightly nervously as she stood at the reception desk of Colindale Police Station.
This was her first day ‘on the job’ since she’d graduated from the Hendon Police College two weeks before.

“Can I help you?” asked the civilian receptionist.
“I’m PC Roberta Galbraith. I’ve been assigned to this station. I understand that Inspector Youngman is expecting me.”
The civilian receptionist smiled and picked up the phone. After a brief conversation, she hung up the call.
“The Inspector will be right down.”
“Thanks,” said Roberta.

Just then a uniformed officer hurried into the station.
“Is that your rust bucket of a Fiesta that is parked in my space?”

His words startled Roberta.
“I… I’m sorry but the man on the gate said to park in any space that was not labelled.”

The officer was pretty red in the face.
“That’s my spot. It is reserved for the senior uniformed sergeant and that’s me!”

“I’m sorry. I’ll go and move it.”

He didn’t bother to step aside to let Roberta out of the door.
“Excuse me?” she said quietly.
Reluctantly, he moved out of the way.

---

A few minutes later she returned just in time to see the Inspector arrive in reception. He escorted her into the station proper and up a flight of stairs to where his office was located.

“Welcome to Colindale, Constable,” said Inspector Derek Youngman.

“Thanks sir. It is good to be ‘on the job’ after all that training.”

“We are glad to see someone with your background. It isn’t often that we get someone with your qualifications here. Most of the time any Hendon graduates with similar backgrounds to yours usually get snapped up by places like West End Central or City of London Police.”

Roberta resisted smiling.
“It was made very clear to all of us cadets at the start of the course that it was only those in the top ten of the class who would get the chance of those assignments.”

This time, the Inspector smiled.
“I might be guessing but from your record at Hendon, you didn’t want any of them?”

“Sir? I could not possibly comment. If I said yes then that could go into my record as a negative point. I know that I’ll could treated as a poor little rich girl who failed to land a more glamorous posting but this is the sort of place that I want to be. I’m not someone who is after a rapid promotion. I just want to learn my craft as a Police Officer and do the best job that I can do out of the spotlight. Much like learning to walk before trying to run. I know from talking to some of the senior officers who came to lecture at Hendon that they hate the prima-donna’s that almost every class has in abundance. I’m not… or at least I hope I’m not one of them.”

“That’s’ good to know. I’m assigning you to work under Sergeant David Green for your probationary period. With your background, you probably know more about the criminal mind than any of my officers including those in CID but please… try to dial the ‘keenness’ level that back a bit. Please try helpful when asked, but don’t try to tell the more experienced officers their jobs unless you find them actually breaking our operational rules or even worse, the law.”

“I understand perfectly sir. I will take those words to heart.”

“Good. Now let me take you to Sergeant Green.”
The Inspector stood up and headed for the door to his office. As he opened the door, he stopped and said,
“My door is always open should you need me.”

Roberta smiled and nodded her head. She knew that his words actually meant, 'I don't want to see you again unless you are in physical danger from one of my officers', or words to that effect.

---

Roberta took an instant dislike to Sergeant David Green. The way that he undressed her with his eyes told her nearly everything that she needed to know about him. The mark of a recently removed wedding ring said the rest.

“Sarge, this is PC Roberta Galbraith. I spoke to you about her last week.”
Sergeant Green was also the officer who had his nose put out of joint when she’d parked in his spot.

“Yes Sir!” said the Sergeant who tried hard to not let his anger show in front of the inspector.

“I’m to nursemaid her until she is deemed ready to be let loose on the unsuspecting members of the public.”

Roberta groaned internally.
“Something like that,” said the Inspector who was clearly embarrassed by the Sergeant’s words.

The inspector managed a smile as he said,
“Just take good care of Constable Galbraith.”

Then he was gone…

“Constable, I like my tea with lots of milk and two sugars.”

Roberta’s misgivings about her new boss were fast becoming true.

“I’m sorry Sarge, I don’t make tea or coffee for anyone. I never have and never will. I have apologised for accidentally parking in your spot but if you are going to be a right pain in the arse towards me then you will find that I don’t take crap from anyone even if they are my training officer.”

“Why you….”

“Write me up all you like, I’m not your gofer. I’m here to learn policing and making tea might have been ok for a WPC in the 1960’s but not in the 2010’s. The address that the Assistant Commissioner gave at my passing out ceremony told us not to be afraid to question our superiors when we are being asked to do something wrong. She went on to say that that advice included making the tea. I intend to hold her to that guidance.”

The Sergeant was by now, very red in the face so Roberta added,
“If I am going to get some tea and I ask you if you want some then that is a different matter just like if you want some and you ask me if I want some tea.”

“Why….”

He shuffled around for a few seconds. His red face told her that he was not used to being talked to like that.

After about twenty seconds of fuming at Roberta, he recovered some composure.
“See that pile of files on the desk over there?”

Roberta turned in the direction he was pointing.
“That’s your desk for the time being. I suggest that you file those documents before sitting down.”

She knew what he was hinting at.
‘Be seen to be doing something and not making waves or as her great grandmother used to say, ‘be seen and not heard’’.

---

A temporary halt to hostilities between Sergeant Green and herself had been agreed upon without actually saying so. She was under no illusion that this state of truce was going to last very long.

The Sergeant had made it clear that on the showing of her first day, her time in the Police was going to be short and if he had any say in the matter, it would be very short indeed. She was thankful for a heads-up about him that she'd received from one of the instructors at Hendon who had been subject to his temper as a constable.

A few minutes later, Sergeant Green was called away to another part of the station. Less than 10 seconds after the office door closed, the four constables who had witnessed the exchange between the Sergeant and Roberta broke out in spontaneous applause.

Their act of kindness made Roberta feel rather embarrassed.

“Roberta? I’m PC Joanne Swain. I was the last rookie to come to the station so I know exactly what the Sarge tried to get you to do. If you had said yes and made his tea then that would be just about all you would do for the rest of your probation period.”

“Pleased to meet you but there was no need for the applause.”

“There is. You just did what the rest of us didn’t dare to do. Sarge is as they say in my home town, ‘All Mouth and no trousers’. You told him to his face to get stuffed. Once word of what you just did gets around the station, you won’t have to buy a drink for months.”

This was just what Roberta didn’t want to happen.
“Please, don’t spread what just happened around. I just want to keep my head down and learn the ropes of being a good copper. I don’t want a reputation for being an awkward bitch to precede me for the rest of my career.”

“That’s an admirable aim but those two,” said Joanne who looked at the other two officers in the office,
“Are not known for keeping their mouths shut.”

---

Thankfully, the news about Roberta's run-in with her Sergeant didn't spread which pleased her no end. However, the decidedly frosty relationship between the two didn't go unnoticed. Sergeant Green spent an awkward half-hour in the Inspector's office where he was hauled over the coals for not reporting to him on what tasks he had assigned Roberta and how she had performed.

Roberta later found out that Sergeant Green had told the Inspector about the incident over making him the tea. From what she was told, the Inspector laughed and told the Sergeant to grow up and get with the image that the Police were trying to present in the second decade of the 21st Century.

The very next day, a notice from the Inspector and the Chief Superintendent was put up on the Station notice board. It reiterated the policy of the force that neither racism nor sexism was not going to be tolerated in the Metropolitan Police and that the days of women officers just being filing clerks and making tea were long gone. The notice had to be replaced several times after someone kept removing it. Only once one of the internal CCTV cameras was moved to cover the notice board did the notice remain in place.

The constant removal or defacing of the notice told all the female officers that there were still some chauvinist pigs in the station with Sergeant Green at the head of the list.

The dressing down that the Sergeant received at the hands of the Inspector did little to improve their relationship. Roberta was given all the shittiest jobs that came available. Roberta, to her credit did them without complaint or argument. The Sergeant saw that as an act of defiance and consequently made him even more determined to take her down and get her to quit the force.

His hatred for Roberta had to be put on hold when a team of officers from the Drug Squad arrived at the station. Word soon went around that an operation to take down a local drug dealer and his operation was underway. An ‘all hands’ briefing was scheduled for the following morning. Roberta was looking forward to seeing some action but her hopes were dashed when Sergeant Green said firmly,
“Your job is to man the phones. If you are needed on this operation, I will brief you but at the present time, I don’t think that you will be needed.”

He was sure that he’d put Roberta firmly in her place and she was left alone in the office. It was strangely quiet and for a while, she felt a bit lost. The normal sounds of a busy station were missing. With a sigh, she got on with her current task of collating nuisance calls to elderly people in the local area.

“Constable Galbraith,” said a voice from the office door.
She looked up and was surprised to see Inspector Youngman looking at her.
“Sir?”

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the briefing?”

“Sir, Sergeant Green specifically said that I was attend to the phones and that he would brief me if I was needed.”

“You are needed so drop whatever you are doing and get into the briefing. I will deal with the Sergeant after the briefing.”

“Yes Sir,” said Roberta who managed to suppress a smile.

---

[two hours later at an address in Cricklewood]

“Galbraith!” said Sergeant David Green.
"As much as I dislike it, I’ve been ordered to nursemaid you. That means you are with me and you will do what I say and when. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Sarge.”
“Good. On this operation, you are to look after the grandmother. Do whatever it takes to make the old dear not scream the house down, ok! I understand that she is in the front room of the house."

She groaned internally. Another job for the rookie woman in the station.

Sergeant Green called her into the crime scene after three young men had been led away in handcuffs and pointed at the downstairs front room. One glance told her that was where the grandmother slept. It also smelt of stale urine and cold curry. Roberta had mucked out many stables and pig-styes in her childhood and was determined not to let that smell get to her.

The drawn curtains let in very little light. Roberta saw through the gloom, what appeared to be a small grey-haired woman huddled in a corner mostly covered by a blanket. She knelt and touched her hand. It was stone cold. Just to be sure, she checked for a pulse. Nothing. Then she noticed the smell coming from her body. That told Roberta that she'd probably been dead for more than three days. The odour of a body that was starting to decay was one that she'd never forget.

Roberta said quietly,
“May your god be pleased with your life and that you will have a new and brighter one in the future.”

Sergeant Green saw her leave the front room and shouted, "What the F are you doing here? I told you to look after the old woman? Can't you do even that simple thing?"

“Sarge, she is beyond help and has been for several days.”

The Sarge glared at Roberta and roughly pushed her to one side as he headed for the front room. The inevitable string of curses that came next, was aimed squarely at her. It was as if Roberta had been responsible for the death of the old lady.

Roberta tuned his ranting out and made a call to the duty doctor and coroner. Her first duty of care was to see that the deceased woman was treated with some honour and dignity. The smell of her body had brought back memories of finding her mother, who had died of cancer only a few years before. She'd managed then, and she would manage now despite the best attempts of Sgt Green to make her life miserable.

Roberta went back into the front room mainly to stand watch. This scenario was right out of the training manual she'd used at Hendon college. Her job right now was to secure the room as a possible crime scene. The death of the old lady had to be treated as suspicious until proven otherwise. This was standard operating procedure and she would as they say, ‘repel all boarders’ until it was freed up.

Roberta looked around the room that had all the signs of being the home of the old lady. After feeling sad at how such a long life could end up in such a small room. She noticed a row of pill bottles on a shelf. She looked at the labels on the bottles. From her limited knowledge of medicines, it seemed that the lady had been treated for cancer of the spleen because the drugs were almost identical to what had been prescribed for her mother. At the end of the row of bottles, there was a printed piece of paper. Roberta knew exactly what it was. She had one exactly like that in her purse that was back at the station. It was a form to order a repeat prescription.

Then, something attracted her gaze. The address on the form was different to that of the house where the raid had taken place.

She took a photo of the address and then went in search of the officer in charge of the raid.

“Sir, I think that you should look at this,” said Roberta as she addressed DCI Hurst, the officer from the Drugs Squad who was in charge of the operation.

She showed him the photo of the prescription form.
“This is the address of the old lady who is lying dead in the front room. As that is not this one, it might be worth taking a look at. It might be nothing, but as no stash of drugs were found here?”

The DCI thought for a second or so before replying.
“Thank you, Constable. Any leads we can get at the moment will be investigated.”
He took out his notebook and copied down the address.

“Well done for finding this out,” said the DCI.
“Just doing my job sir.”

Roberta returned to the front room to wait for the doctor.

---

[two days later]

“Galbraith! The Inspector wants to see you in his office right now!” barked Sergeant Green.

Roberta had just about finished the collation of nuisance calls that she’d been working on for almost a week.
She looked up at the Sergeant who had an evil grin on his face. This didn’t look like it was going to be an enjoyable visit to the Inspector.

“Don’t dawdle, the Inspector is a busy man,” said the Sergeant.
“Yes sir,” replied Roberta.

“You wished to see me sir?” said Roberta as she entered the Inspector’s office.
“Ah… yes. Please come in and close the door behind you.”

Roberta began to fear the worst. A closed door would usually mean a dressing down.

“Please sit down Roberta. You can relax, this is not a dressing down even though I gave that sort of hint to Sergeant Green.”

“Sir? I don’t understand?”

“It has come to my attention that you have crossed swords with the Sergeant more than once. I’m sorry for that. I’m the one to blame for whatever he has put you through. Spending your time collating nuisance phone calls is in my opinion not a very productive use of your time.”

Roberta wanted to say that it wasn’t his fault but for some reason, the words would not come out.
“The reason for me calling you here today, is that I finally received your personnel file from Hendon. I have to apologise once again for assigning you to Sergeant Green. His views about people who are… LGBT are well known around the station. Nothing illegal but the rank of Sergeant is as far as he will get if you get my meaning.”

“Inspector, this is all very well and I… I don’t quite understand where all this is leading?”

He smiled.
“Roberta, I was told by some friends of mine that you were a direct person. I admire you for that. No… What I am about to say is for the rest of the day, confidential. Are you happy to keep a secret for 24 hours?”

“I guess so,” replied Roberta with a good degree of hesitation in her voice.

“This station is going to close next month. As you know, it is a fairly small location and the writing has been on the wall for some considerable time. That’s why it hasn’t been redecorated in years. Your time with Sergeant Green breathing fire and brimstone at you is nearly over.”

“I get that Inspector, what has this to do with me? Do you know where I’m going to be transferred to?”

“I do. From the information coming down from above, you next station will be Edgware Road.”

Roberta let out a groan.

“Is there something the matter?”

“That’s where all the terrorists and really bad criminals and terrorists are taken.”

“That is correct. Why don’t you like the idea of going to Edgware Road?”

“Sir… AFAIK, I would need to be vetted by MI5 to work there?”

“Yes. I don’t think that your… gender would be an issue.”

Roberta shook her head.
“Sir… It is not me but my father. So far, I have managed to keep the fact that I’m his daughter out of my Police record. He is not a criminal but he is a person of some importance in the City of Westminster.”

“Why?”

“Sir, I’d rather not say who he is but I’ll show you if I can use your computer? You can never tell who is listening when they shouldn’t be.”

He hesitated for a second or so before moving out of the way.

Roberta swiftly found a bio of her father.
“That is who my father is.”

The inspector looked at the screen.
Then he sighed and shook his head at the same time.
“Thank you. Now I understand your reasons for not wanting to go to Edgware Road.”

Roberta closed the browser after making sure that the search history and all cookies would be deleted.
“You are a very careful woman,” said the Inspector.

“You know why that is, and why I can’t go to any high-profile station. That’s also why I didn’t come top of my class at Hendon.”

“Aren’t you being a little paranoid?”

Roberta shook her head.
“I want to make a name for myself not the offspring of my father. I have had a good dose of ‘poor little rich girl’ comments from CID even though I don’t flash the cash and I drive a twelve-year-old Fiesta. My accent and my graduation pictures from Oxford and Cambridge are there for anyone to see and also, a dead giveaway. It is easy for anyone to dig up my past if they use the right terms in a search engine and are prepared to spend some time just to dig up the dirt on me. I am under no illusion that eventually, my past will come to light but the longer I can delay that the better.”

“Ok, I’ll pass on what we have discussed upwards.”

“Is that everything? Sergeant Green will be wanting to know what I have done wrong and what my punishment will be?”

“No… The work you did with the dead woman and finding that address was noticed. You were not afraid to tell a DS that the front room was a separate crime scene and to get lost until the medical people had done their thing. Well done for that. His DCI noticed that and told him that you were right and that he was well out of order.”

“Thanks Sir but I was just following procedure.”

“Roberta, please keep quiet about the other things we have discussed. I will be briefing everyone tomorrow morning at 09:00.”

“Can I have that as a direct order? Just so that I can deflect the Sergeant?”

The inspector smiled.
“I am ordering you to not reveal what we have spoken about here today apart from the case of the old lady.”

“Thank you, sir, I will do just that sir. If you could quietly feedback my reticence about going to Edgware Road then I’d be grateful.”

“I will do that.”

---

Roberta went back to the office. Four pairs of eyes followed her as she walked back to her desk in the far corner of the room. None of the three other Constables dared to ask her. The fourth pair of eyes belonged to Sergeant Green who was on the phone. As she passed his desk, he glared at her as if to say, ‘why aren’t you out on your ear?’.

He finished the call and slammed down the phone into its cradle. Then he stood up and came over to Roberta’s desk.
“Do you have something to say? What did the Inspector say?”

Roberta smiled back at him.
“Most of what was said is between the Inspector and me. He did congratulate me for the way I handled the deceased woman at the raid last week and that my tip about another location for the drug factory was very useful. I knew that last part as is it rather hard to hide the seizure of five tonnes of high-grade skunk from the press.”

“I order you to tell me what else was said!”

“Sorry Sarge. I am under his direct orders not to talk about the other things we discussed. If you don’t like it then please go and talk to him.”

The sergeant glared at Roberta. For a moment, she was sure that he was going to lose his temper but he didn’t. He stood there for more than twenty seconds before storming off. His voice could be heard as he shouted at someone in the corridor. He was a nasty piece of work.

---

[The following day]

The Inspector was addressing all the uniformed officers. A Detective Chief Inspector was doing the same to the plain clothes officers and civilian employees.

“Thank you all for managing to be here this morning. I will be back later tonight to talk to the night shift so I would appreciate that you only spread the facts,” said the Inspector as he addressed almost all the officers that were assigned to the day shift.

“Firstly, I want to update everyone on the drugs bust that we helped with a week or so back. The three brothers have all been charged with drug trafficking and cultivation. The ‘skunk’ that we took off the streets was according to the forensic people just about the most potent they have ever seen. Good work people.”

There was some muted discussion amongst the officers. The inspector waited for it to die down before continuing.

“Plus, they have all been charged with manslaughter by gross neglect of their grandmother. These charges are all down to the sterling work of Constable Galbraith. She protected the crime scene from the size 15’s of the drug squad until the doctor and the SOCO people had done their thing. They found that her last meal had been more than a week before her estimated time of death. The CPS will… if they get a conviction, they will be recommending a life sentence for each of them.”

He paused to let some chatter die down.

“At a meeting at County Hall three days ago, the “Ways and Means Committee” examined the proposed budget for the next financial year. Top of the list was the funding of the real estate that is used by the Met Police. As many of you are only too well aware, this place is falling down about our ears. As a result, this station will close for redevelopment in six weeks. The plans have been under consideration for some time but the latest inspection by the structural engineers was bad. The building is being condemned. This existing building will be torn down and replaced by a new state-of-the-art station that will also include a custody suite. That is something we sorely need in this part of London. Most of you will be transferred to Harrow Station but a few will go to Barnet and other stations around the capital. How many of you return here when the new station is opened in an estimated eighteen months' time will not be down to me. I’m taking up a posting to the Hampshire Constabulary in Lymington. I want to thank everyone for their duty and dedication to this station and I hope that the new one lives up to the reputation that this one has. Please collect an addressed letter on the way out. That will detail your next posting. If you have a beef with it, Dorothy Samuels from HR will be here from tomorrow and for the rest of the week. Go and see her and she may be able to help out. Before anyone gives me any grief, I had little input into the assignments. They were all decided by the people at Headquarters.”

He paused for a second before saying,
“Any questions?”

---

[back in the office some twenty minutes later.]

“That was some bombshell that the Inspector dropped,” said Constable Hart as he sat down and fingered his envelope.
“Not good,” said Constable Morris as he looked at his assignment.
“Where are you going?” asked Constable Hart.
“Croydon. The problem is that we’ve just rented a new flat in Friern Barnet. Getting to Croydon will be a right pain in the neck.”
“Thameslink or whatever the service is called this week,” suggested Constable Hart.
“Eh?”
“The train that runs from North of London down to Brighton. They run every twenty minutes at peak times.”
“Oh yeah. I’d forgotten about that.”

Just then Roberta arrived at the office.
“Hey Robbie, where are you off too next?” asked Constable Hart.
“No idea. My letter said that my next posting will become available in a few days.”
“Any idea why?”

Roberta smiled.
“Gossip central in Admin, is saying that our dear Sergeant Green put the mockers on my transfer to Edgware Road nick.”
Constable Morris said what all of them were thinking, “Fuck dear Sergeant Green.”

The aforementioned Sergeant Green was away at the Dentist that morning otherwise the mere threat of him appearing in the office unannounced would have been enough to stop him from expressing himself like that.

“I’ll probably end up on the Isle of Dogs knowing my luck,” said Roberta.
That was a lie. She’d been told unofficially that morning that her revised posting was to Tottenham. Roberta was not looking forward to that one little bit. Her father had literally dragged her to a football match at the old White Hart Lane stadium when Bournemouth first played there after getting a promotion to the Premier League. Not only did she hate soccer but the person sitting next to her kept hitting on her for the whole match. On the way, home from that match was the day that she'd told her father about wanting to be a woman.

“That won’t be so bad. That’s where Canary Wharf is. Lots of rich bankers work there,” said PC Morris.
“Wankers the lot of them,” said PC Hart.
“Very true. Stuck up twats the lot of them. I spent enough time at school with the sisters of them to last a lifetime,” commented Roberta.

“Ohhhhh. It looks like our Roberta prefers working class grunts?” said PC Hart.

She smiled at her two colleagues. Thankfully, neither of them had tried to chat her up.
“Only if they are women.”

“That’s not news,” said PC Morris.
“That’s why the Sarge came down on you like a tonne of bricks. He hates Lesbians after his wife of ten years decided that she was a Lesbian and left him for her Pilates Instructor.”

Roberta thought to herself… ‘There is a god after all’.

[to be continued]