Roberta saw the stick drawing of a person being hung and for a moment, she momentarily panicked before her training kicked in. Immediately, she dropped the photo and the envelope onto the floor.

She felt her heart pounding at the same time as feeling physically sick.

Roberta had always known that her secret would be out in the open sooner or later. She'd never imagined that it would be like this. Despite her rational mind, her body decided that being sick was the order of the day. She made it to the bathroom just in time.

After recovering both physically and mentally, her detective mind began working again.

With a newfound determination, she found a pair of evidence scene gloves in her shoulder bag and put them on.

Who could have done this? Why had they done this? Why now?

Now ‘Gloved up’, she put the photo and the envelope that it came in, into two evidence bags and sealed them shut. Finally, she wrote the date, time, and place of when they were collected. It was almost automatic thanks to her training. Then she panicked again. What should she do next? All sorts of things flashed through her mind before she calmed down.

Slowly, her functioning mind regained control over her raw emotions. A plan began to form in her mind.

After taking more than a few deep breaths to slow her heart down, Roberta made a call to her father. That was just step one of her plan. While she waited for the call to connect, she admitted to herself that it was the only step. What happened next would depend upon what her father said to her.

“Dad, do you remember that photo of me that Mum took just after my confirmation?”

“Yes, the one of the old me looking grumpy because I was made to wear a suit instead of that dress that she had made for me?”

“Someone put a copy of it under my door along with a stick drawing of someone being hung while I was at work today.”

“Yes, I do think that they meant me.”

“I can’t stay here any longer. It is not safe. I know that I’ve only just moved in, but if whoever it is, can find me so quickly… I don’t know what to do next. I knew that one day, I’d be exposed but not like this.”

“I’ll pack a bag and get the hell out of here, but I need to call the Chief Super at the nick. He knows about my past but, I can’t just go AWOL.”

“I will let you know where I’m going.”

“Sorry Dad, if they can find me here then your place is far from safe. I don’t know if my phone has been bugged but it is a possibility that someone is listening in to this call. I’ll find a hotel to lie low in, and before you ask, I won’t be in uniform.”

“Speak to you later.”

Roberta hung up the call and sighed. Now for the hard part.

Her next act was to call Chief Superintendent Thompson. He was one of the very, very few people who were stationed at Tottenham Police Station who knew of Roberta’s past.

“Sir, PC Roberta Galbraith.”

“Sorry to bother you at this hour sir, but you did say to call if I needed help. I believe that my identity has been compromised as well as the location of my new home. I have only been here a week.”

“When I returned home from my shift, I found that an envelope had been pushed under the door to my home. It contained a photo of me or rather the old me from when I was confirmed. On the back of it, there was a stick drawing of someone being hung. The implication of the drawing was pretty clear to me.”

“No Sir. Both items are in evidence bags. The envelope was one of the old types with a water-based adhesive. There could be DNA on it.”

“I want to pass this evidence onto someone who is not going to sit on it because they think that I am just being a silly woman. I will stay at a hotel tonight but I am unsure about my shift tomorrow.”

“Thank you, sir. If you could do that then I would appreciate it. If I tried to explain what I have, I’d get the third degree from my Sergeant who would make it clear that he would rather be paired up with anyone but me. He is clear to anyone who would listen, that I don’t belong anywhere near the Police because of my sex.”

Roberta bit her lip. She almost revealed that Sergeant Hill was more than likely a bent copper.

“Yes Sir. That would be good. I will wait for your call.”

“Oh yes. Thank you, sir. I have got that.”

Roberta ended the call and sat motionless for well over a minute. Her brain was working at a million miles an hour. She was thinking about what she could take with her when she did a bunk from her home, possibly to never return.

With a sigh mixed with a deep breath, she sprang into action. Luckily, she'd changed out of her uniform at the station. She made a mental note to get her father to arrange for the remainder of her things to be collected and taken down to Dorset. At that moment, her future in the Met Police looked pretty bleak.

In less than ten minutes she’d packed two soft bags and was ready to leave. That was just in time as there was a knock on her front door then a voice said,

“PC Galbraith, this is Sergeant Colin Heaney from Islington. I’ve been detailed to take you wherever you want. The Chief Super says ‘Palace for the Cup’.”

Roberta dithered but the recent arrival of a text from the Superintendent telling her that a Sgt Heaney from Islington would be taking her to wherever she wanted to go. A second text had told her to expect a code phrase. He’d given it perfectly. Now it was up to her to trust him.

Roberta opened the door and smiled at the Sergeant.
“I’m just about ready to go.”

“Good,” he said.
“My Chief Inspector told me that you had received a viable threat to your life and that I was to protect you. I spent three years on the Royal Protection Squad and I’m firearm certified.”

Those last words sent a chill down Roberta’s spine but it soon passed. The Sergeant was very much the right person for this duty.

“Thanks Sarge. If you can take that bag, I’ll bring the other one and the evidence and lock up this place.”

“Very good Constable,” said the Sergeant as he picked up the largest and heaviest of her bags.

Roberta started to walk towards the door but stopped.
“I have forgotten something important. Won’t be a moment.”

He didn’t react but the frown on his face told Roberta that he wasn’t impressed. She ignored him and dashed into her bedroom. Less than 20 seconds later, she returned stuffing a black wallet into her trousers pocket. The wallet contained her pass to the Palace of Westminster. She could not risk that very sensitive item falling into the wrong hands.

“Let’s get out of here.”

The Sergeant smiled and nodded.

“I’ll take your bags down while you lock up.”

“Sure thing Sarge.”

A couple of minutes later, Roberta joined the Sergeant in his patrol car. Right away she knew that she was in an interceptor vehicle. Unmarked and with a highly tuned engine and suspension. Perfect for chasing down criminals or leaving anyone following them in the dust.

“Where to?”

“The first stop is the Home Office Path Lab at University College. I have some evidence to drop off. The Chief Super texted me to say that they were expecting me ASAP.”

“Do you want me to put on my lights and siren?”

She shook her head.
“Only if we are being followed.”

“Good move,” said the Sergeant as he set the car in motion.
He smiled. His original opinion of Roberta had already been proved wrong. She had a cop brain just as he was told she had.

They’d been going for a few minutes when the Sergeant asked,
“If you don’t mind me saying, you are taking this threat very calmly. We all get threats from time to time, but very few turn out to be credible.”

“I know that. This one is credible because they know about my past. That tells me that they know all about me right down to the church where I was confirmed as a child.”

“Ouch. I can see why you needed to get the hell out of town in a hurry. Do you have any idea about who is behind this threat?”

“At the moment, the list is the size of the phone book, but there is one prime suspect, but they can’t be here so the answer is no one at the moment. Hopefully, the evidence I have might shed some light on who it is.”

There wasn’t much more to be said for the time being.

Almost fifteen minutes later, the Sergeant said,
“We don’t have a tail and unless they planted a bug on this car in the short time that I was at your home, we are free and clear.”

Roberta had been watching their rear via the rear-view mirror.
“I think that you are right.”

“We’ll be at the lab very soon. Are they expecting us to wait?”

“According to the Super, they are not. They will inform him of any results of their tests.”

“He’s a Chief Super now,” said the Sergeant.

“I keep forgetting to add the ‘Chief’ but he’s cool on the thing.”

“He was my boss on the Royal Protection Squad.”

His words answered several of the questions that she had about the Sergeant.
“That’s good to know. I wondered how you were assigned to come and rescue me so quickly.”

“He was very lucky. The Chief was at Stratford earlier today interviewing a new Chief Inspector and we bumped into each other as I came on duty. When the call to come to your aid came through, I was in Leytonstone mopping up after a boy racer lost control and went into the back of a refuse truck. The Vauxhall Nova was not a pretty sight. Luckily, the driver was able to walk away with just a bad gash on the head. He’s probably going to jail for this as it is his fifth time driving without a license or insurance. The Nova also had four bald tyres so that’s another twelve points on his license… when he gets it back in about five years.”

“Thanks for rescuing me like that.”

“I’m not done yet. You haven’t told me where we are going after the lab.”

Roberta managed a smile.
“I’m still working on that. The last thing I want to do is put you at risk. You don’t need it.”

“Bollocks. The Super said that you were something special. In the short time, you have been in my car, you have impressed me just how composed you are. The majority of other officers would be in a right old state whereas, you have your wits about you. Plus, fuck those who want to top an officer of any rank.”

His words were delivered in a way that told Roberta that he was in it for the duration. That must be down to the relationship he had with the Super. She’d learned from Sergeant Singh, that if you had a good commander and worked with them, then they’d have your back in a crisis.

Most of the Lab building was in darkness but about half of the 4th floor was lit up. This was where Roberta was going. The sergeant stopped the car right outside the main entrance to the building. A Security guard was sitting behind a desk.

“Do you have your warrant card with you?” asked the Sergeant.

“I do. Do you think that he’ll let me in if I flash it at him?”

“He will if you also waft those two evidence bags under his nose. Processing evidence is their bread and butter.”
His words were spoken in such a way that exuded confidence. That could only come from experience. While that was good, it reminded Roberta that she was only just past the ‘rookie’ stage.

Roberta got out and walked up to the front door. It was locked but her rattling it drew the attention of the guard. She flashed her warrant card and the evidence and the guard remotely opened the door. She went inside after mentally breathing a sigh of relief.

“The people on the 4th floor are expecting you,” said the guard as he pointed towards the lifts.

Less than ten minutes later, Roberta returned to the waiting car without the evidence bags.

“All done?”

“So far. I had to give them my fingerprints for elimination purposes because they don’t have out-of-hours access to our prints database. Otherwise, we are good to go.”

“When will they have some results?”

“The DNA test will take a couple of days to come back but they should be able to check for prints tonight and be ready to dive into the records first thing in the morning. If we are out of luck, there might be only my prints on it, then we are back to square one.”

“Ok, where to now?”

“I want to get out of the city. Tomorrow is Friday so the weekend is upon us. That might give me time to sort out who is behind all this.”

“Where do you mean by ‘out of the city’?”

“My real home is in Dorset. If we are smart and don’t get caught by all the lights, I can just about catch the last train from Waterloo.”

“Forget the train. Any woman alone on a late-night train is at risk from almost every drunk who can still walk. Then, while you were in the lab, the Chief Super called for an update. He told me to stick like glue to you. Reading between the lines of what he didn’t say, I think that other things are going on behind the scenes. He also said that you are to forget about reporting for duty in the morning and that you are to consider that as an order.”

Roberta smiled.
“Things are going on in the background, and they involve some very bent cops at Tottenham nick. AC-12 are on the case. If you want out now that you know that, then I’m giving you an out.”

“I’m in,” said the Sergeant without even an instant of hesitation.

“Ok, then it is time to head west. M3 and A303 past Stonehenge.”

“As long as we can stop at a chippy on the way out of town,” remarked the Sergeant as he put the car into gear.
“I haven’t had a break since I came on duty.”

“I know just the place!”

“Do you actually live here?” exclaimed the Sergeant as he drove up to the house that Roberta called home just after 11:00 pm.
“I do. My family has done so for at least ten generations, but I’ll probably be the last.”

“Don’t say that. You are young enough to get married and have children.”

“Can you stop the car? I have something to tell you. I should have told you earlier.”

He brought the car to a halt and turned to Roberta.

“Are you gay?”

“Not quite. I was born male. The photo was of me when I was confirmed at the church that we passed in the last village.”

“Fuck,” said the Sergeant.
“Sorry. I should not have sworn.”

“Sarge, I’ve heard much, much worse so don’t worry about it.”

“I can see why you have to take the threat so seriously. There are a lot of people in the Met who would like everyone in the LGBTQ world to disappear.”

“Are you one of those?”

“Me? No. Far from it. My sister is a dyed-in-the-wool lesbian, and I had to step in and keep the Neanderthals off of her more than once. I do have to say, Roberta, that I would not have guessed. You come over as an intelligent officer who is wasted in uniform.”

“In that case Sergeant, we are good to go. If you go around to the back, Mrs Clarke, the housekeeper should still be up. She loves to watch Question Time on TV.”

She saw him properly smile possibly for the first time since they’d met.

“Did you sleep well?” asked Roberta as she joined the Sergeant at the breakfast table in the kitchen.

“Not really. It was far too quiet. Then an owl and a fox started a duet just before five.”

Both Roberta and Mrs Clarke laughed.
“Ok, ok, I’m a city boy.”

“I have to sleep with earplugs in for a couple of nights when I go back to town because of the noise,” replied Roberta.

“I have to get back to town in the early afternoon. I’m supposed to be on the two till ten shift and West Ham are playing Arsenal at home tonight.”

“That’s hardly the job for an interceptor driver?”

“I was only doing it for a week just to keep my certification going. My last day just happened to be yesterday. The regular driver will be wanting the car for the evening shift. There are a lot of boy racers around on a Friday and Saturday evening at Ally Pally [1]. We join forces with your lot and a couple of other nicks to stop the drag races. Inevitably, we get one or two who try to take on an interceptor. There is a lot of street cred to be had for beating our cars away from the lights. We are under strict orders not to race them, but we work in packs to trap the drag boys. Sadly, some choose to act stupid and end up like the Nova that I was dealing with yesterday. A few see crashing a stolen car and walking away from a write-off as a badge of honour. What they don’t understand is that there is a very fine line between walking away and being carried away in a body bag.”

“Sounds interesting,” said a clearly uninterested Roberta.

“Ok, I get the message. What kicks your boat then? Riding your pony?” he said with a smile on his face. Roberta knew that he was pulling her leg.

This time Roberta laughed. Then a wry smile appeared on her face.
“I am a complete klutz on a horse. Finish your breakfast and get ready to leave. Then, I’ll show you what I do to relax when I’m here, if I’m not out in Lyme Bay fishing or helping with the shooting parties that we have come here. Mostly clays at this time of year, I’m afraid.”

Twenty minutes later, Roberta led Sgt Heaney into the cellar of the house.

“Some of this part of the house dates back to the 13th Century. Back then it was heavily fortified. That was a throwback to Norman times. In many of the fortified houses that were not quite castles, the inhabitants built an exit route in case they were under siege. Back then private armies were the order of the day as the state was often flat broke, nothing new there then... The crown would raise funds for an army should the need arise such as the Crusades. The entrance to that exit route is where we are going now.”

“How many people know about this part of the house?”

“Very few so consider yourself honoured. I’ll explain why in a minute or two if it is not pretty obvious.

Roberta led him up to a huge steel door.
“This looks pretty recent.”

“It is. We had it installed after the Dunblane School Shootings at the back end of the 1990’s. As you know, there was a huge crackdown on gun ownership after that. We as a family have legally owned guns since the time of Henry the Sixth. After that crackdown, we converted the escape tunnel into a firing range. We also keep the guns down here behind that door. They are mostly rifles and shotguns. The rifles are never taken out of here. The only pistols we have are from the 18th Century. They are excluded under the Firearms Act because of their age. You can hardly perform a mass shooting with a flintlock pistol from the time of the American War of Independence now, can you?”

Colin smiled.
“That beats any gun cabinet I’ve ever seen into a cocked hat.”

“Sergeant, would you please turn away while I unlock the door.”

He didn’t say anything but turned away as requested.

Roberta opened the door with an optical scan of her left eye. If she had used the right one, all the guns would have been dosed in a powerful acid making them inoperable.

“Shall we go in?” asked Roberta once she’d swung the heavy door open.

They went inside and Roberta closed the door behind her.
“The emergency exit is operated by breaking this glass. The door will open and you can get out.”

“This place feels like Fort Knox?”

“When the local force came to inspect it, they didn’t know what to make of it as it was so unusual.”

“The range is one kilometre long,” said Roberta as she flipped a switch that lit up the tunnel.

“Wow. That is some serious marksmanship if you can hit a target at that range even with a decent sight.”

Roberta unlocked a more conventional gun cabinet and pulled out a rifle.
“Want to try? I’ll set the target up at 200m.”

After a brief hesitation, Colin smiled and took it.
“That is a genuine Winchester ’74 sniper rifle. It was made in 1876,” said Roberta proudly.
“A relative went to California in 1849 to look for gold and returned thirty years later, flat broke but with two of these in his luggage.”

“I’ve never shot anything this old.”

Roberta smiled.
“We only have pre-WW2 weapons here. It is a lot more fun than all those with modern sights. It is also a lot easier to keep our licenses. Like the pistols, you can hardly perform a mass shooting with one of these. It seems that it is something to do with the rate of fire.”

“That makes sense.”

She took a similar weapon and opened a drawer to reveal boxes of shells. She gave one box to Colin along with some ear defenders.

“Five rounds sighting and then five for real. The worst shot buys the winner a meal? Are you game?”

“You are on.”

They each put five rounds into the rifle. Roberta put two targets onto a small trolley and sent it down a 10-inch wide railway towards the end of the range. When it was in place, they laid down on some matting. Only then did they each chamber a round. Colin was observing Roberta closely. So far, he was impressed.

“That rifle of yours tends to shoot low and left. Five practice rounds when you are ready.”

She waited for Colin to shoot one round. Then she squeezed off her five rounds in fairly rapid succession.

Then she waited for him to finish his sighting rounds.
They looked at the target through spotting scopes that were next to each position.

“You are good,” exclaimed Colin.

“You aren’t that bad especially for the first time firing such an old and pretty unique weapon.”

“Do you want to raise the bet?” asked Roberta.

“No chance. I will probably owe you a meal when all this is over. You are a great shot. Why aren’t you shooting for Team GB?”

“And what would the IOC think when it came out that we’d selected a tranny for the women’s team? I’d be dropped like hotcakes and the press would hound me from here to eternity. Sorry, I am a coward when it comes to that.”

“Ok, but I’ve never seen shooting like that with such an old weapon.”

“Thanks. I have had a lot of practice so it was a bit unfair.”

They reloaded after Roberta had changed the targets and sent them down the range.

“Ok, five shots for real.”

They squeezed off their rounds and once again, Roberta’s grouping was almost perfect. His were close but nowhere near as good as hers.

“Ok Roberta, I owe you a meal. Nothing too expensive, ok?”

She laughed.
“It would need a bit more than a Big Mac to satisfy me but honestly, I hate the pompousness of the top restaurants. Somewhere in between would be fine.”

Roberta took the rifles and after checking that their chambers and magazines were empty, she safely stored them in the gun cabinet. He was impressed at her discipline when it came to gun safety. In the back of his mind, he was wondering if he should suggest that she sign up for firearms training…

As they walked back towards the main part of the house, Roberta said,
“Please don’t go boasting to people on the job about this. Far too many already want to take me down.”

“Then they are mad. Roberta, you are a one-off and it has been my pleasure to have met you. I only wish that it had been under better circumstances.”

“Sarge, the same goes for me.”

“I need to check in with your Super before I head back to London,” said Colin when they came up out of the depths of the house.
“Are you going to come with me?”

“I don’t know. It all depends upon what the Super has to report.”

He smiled as he pulled out his phone.

“Sir, Sergeant Colin Heaney reporting in.”

“Hold on sir, let me put this on speaker.”

“Please go ahead, sir,” said Colin.

“Roberta, we received the results of the fingerprint tests from the lab an hour and a half ago. There were yours naturally and one other print right in the middle of the hangman’s noose. We identified it as belonging to someone you may know Roberta, Antoine de Scuderi. It looks like it was deliberately placed to send you a message.”

The mention of Antoine sent a cold shiver right down Roberta’s spine.

“Sir? Are you sure? Isn’t he in jail awaiting trial in Paris?” asked Roberta with a slightly desperate tone to her voice.

“We are 100% sure that it is him. Like you, I thought that he was banged up. I called the Foreign Office and together we spoke to the Deputy French Judiciary Minister half an hour ago. I am sad to say that he was released on bail four days ago. They did confiscate his passport and put movement restrictions on him, but… he seems to have connections with people smugglers. The Minister is, if my French is correct, very unhappy at his release and even unhappier that he may well have come here. The Minister was talking about revoking his bail which was set at one hundred thousand Euros. I’ve just finished a call with the Commissioner, the Home Secretary and the deputy PM and they want him apprehended and sent to France ASAP. We are sending them our evidence and if they agree that he is indeed in this country, the French will issue a European Arrest Warrant for Mr Scuderi, which should speed up extradition especially as he has broken his bail conditions.”

Roberta stared straight into space. All her worst nightmares were coming true. Her past was coming to haunt her… again.

Antoine had a score to settle with Roberta and he was certainly going to try to take her down before he was caught, tried and sentenced to a very long time in jail.
[To be continued]

[1] Ally Pally. Alexandra Palace in North London. This was where the world’s first public TV transmission was done. I saw Led Zeppelin play there in the 1970’s.