CHAPTER 19
I collared Mam in the kitchen after the two men had gone out for the supplies.

“What are you up to, Mam?”

“He’s one of the good ones, love”

“You’re trying to fix me up, aren’t you?”

She sighed. “Sit down, girl. Come on. Get your tea and sit down”

I did as she asked, and she turned her face to me, brow furrowed.

“How many friends have you brought back here since, well, you know? Apart from Bridget?”

“I haven’t really had time, what with studies, and training and that”

“Rubbish, girl! What about Saffron? After that day, you closed them all off!”

No, mother dear, the whole school closed me off, apart from the boys who thought I was ‘open all hours’ for them. I kept that thought from her and concentrated on my tea.

“Did you ever look up and see what was happening to me and your Dad? Wasn’t just you they turned on, was it? Anyway, it’s not just you the lad’s here for. Dad likes him too. You may have missed that bit, but we haven’t exactly had the easiest of times with the neighbours. I think your Dad’s got a mate again, and although I do love you, my darling, love you with all of my heart, I loved him first, and he’s been hurting ever since that night. I am NOT throwing you at Blake!”

She took a sip of tea. “Though you could do a lot worse, girl. Now, you need to know a couple of things”

From one of the drawers, or rather, to my astonishment, from underneath one, where it had been hidden away, she brought out a folder, and in it were press clippings, notes, letters. At least one of the envelopes was a creamy beige, bearing the portcullis of Westminster. Mam caught where my eyes were looking.

“Yes, we wrote to the MP, and he did nothing. Said it was in the hands of the police complaints people, leave them to their internal stuff, load of tripe like that. But your Dad, he wouldn’t let it go. Kept tabs on those two bastards, those policemen. You weren’t the only girl they did that to, and it caught up with them. What?”

She’d obviously caught my wince. “I know there was another woman, Mam. Sarah Powell, innit?”

She nodded. “And your boss is?”

I sighed. “Her sister. She got a pay-out from their force. Mam?”

“Yes?”

“I met them again, while I was still new. We, Bryn and Barry and me, when I was doing Traffic, we got called to help out of area, a stop needed doing. The boys warned me off them, said they were cu--- said they were people I should avoid. They were right”

She nodded. “You know they were both sacked?”

“No, I didn’t. What the hell for?”

She passed me another clipping, this one just a little box, then another one, and each told the same story, of a roadside breath test failure and a driving ban and fine. I looked back up to her sad, weary smile.

“Their own force made sure they were gone, love. There is nothing left for you to chase, not now. We need to move on, all of us, and your Dad is doing that now, and that is because you have finally brought a friend home. I am not belittling your pain, Di, just saying that it’s more than just you. Perhaps, together, yes?”

Ripples, spreading. I couldn’t hold the tears any more, and nor could my mother, but we had a table properly set, complete with glasses for the ale and wine, as she wasn’t going to have people slumped in armchairs drinking from cans, was she? Both men were back in twenty minutes, the smell of the chips grabbing my attention, and when Blake spotted the plate with the bread and butter he roared with laughter, before putting on the campest lisp imaginable, although it sat oddly with his deep voice.

"Darlings, one simply cannot eat chips without bread and butter, but it must be cut square, don’t you know?”

Dad looked up at him in shock, so I explained.

“Lad we work with, gay as a gay thing. Chris. Really good lad. Trust me, this one’s not like him! Can’t even do the voice”

My friend (yes, friend) laughed again. "You still thought I was, though! Mark, she apologised to me the other day, ‘sorry, didn’t realise you were a bender’, innit?”

“I did not say bender!”

Mood broken. The pattern of our evening was set, and we finished up slumped before the telly, Blake and myself in the armchairs while Mam did the cwtching on the settee with Dad. Healing was at least starting, if not yet fully underway.

We were back at work the next day, driving in separately to avoid eyebrow-raising and gossip, and the drudgery continued, although the room was enlivened by a bouquet of flowers from Omar’s parents. Chris was the one pulling favours, though, in a series of phone calls and visits that led him to give us a little speech.

“Darlings, I have been speaking to colleagues and managers at my own office, and they have been most helpful. Lainey, we need an appropriate data gateway signed off for this”

She nodded. “Can do, butt. What can you get me?”

He grinned. “Already got it, my sweet. Just need some paperwork before I can let you see it. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency would not DARE to stoop to such things as leaking data to others without all the necessary authorities in place, would they?”

He put a folder down on one of the tables.

“Oopsies, I appear to need to go to the little boys’ room for a few minutes. Later!”

He gave a little finger wave, and moved off only as far as the tea urn, where he started making a round of drinks. Elaine went to her little space, no doubt to set up the necessary paperwork, and Rob was first to the bundle.

“You little beauty, Chris! Boys and girls, this is all the registration details of our two villains. Addresses, points awarded, everything!”

Chris looked across from our mini-kitchen.

“Then I suggest you start looking for ways to put them together”

That set the pattern for our work for three weeks, and as December wound down to Christmas, Elaine called us together for a team meeting. She laid out our results in a way that showed the links rather than just recounting what we already knew.

“I want three of you to sign out tasers, and that means you, Blake, Rob and Candice”

I was a little put out at that selection.

“Why not me, Elaine?”

“Because, Diane, the boys think you’d be too gung-ho to use one, besides the fact that you’re not certified to carry it. Now, I am off to England for Christmas, but I will be back for the New Year’s delights. Boys and girls! Your ears for a bit. Now, I know this is going to piss you off a bit, but I don’t want to try our luck on that night. I know it’s the only time some of you are lucky enough to pull, and that’s what the problem is. Our targets are likely to be out on the pop themselves, and we would be setting our bait in the middle of a lot of potential victims. I will be doing the night shift into the New Year just in case, but I don’t anticipate any attacks that night.

“Our boys seem to meet up mostly on Thursdays and Fridays, at least the two we know about. This is the hard bit. I want the team stood to on both those evenings following the New Year, and we will have the ANPR switched on for Hansen on the M4. I want four unmarked cars around the area fitted with ANPR as well, and there will be two carriers for the rest of you plus uniformed support. Bring a flask and sandwiches, and before then, have a nice Christmas”

I looked over to Chris, and saw a shudder pass through him.

“You OK, mate?”

He shook his head. “Not really, Di. This is getting too real too quickly. You do know why I am really here, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Sacrificial goat, innit?”

“Yes. Trouble is, I don’t do violence, or pain. Just getting a bit too three-dimensional now, too up close and scary”

Blake was at my shoulder again. “You do know that you don’t have to do this, don’t you?”

Chris gave him a flat stare, all the camp playfulness gone.

"And when some other boy gets beaten and raped, and I could have stopped it, how am I supposed to feel? No, we run with this, but please remember that I am shitting myself”

Blake stepped forward before I could and gave him a hug, so I joined them both. It seemed the right thing to do.

The next day, I took an unmarked car for a drive up one of the streets mentioned in Mam’s press clippings. As I cruised past a driveway with a Range Rover on it, I clocked the face of the man washing it. Pritchard. I made a mental note of his number and carried on driving, looping round to the main road back to Cardiff.

Elaine was gone the next day, off to her Christmas with the family, but the rest of us were in on time. Once Chris had sorted out our beverages, Candice stepped forward, and after the obligatory ‘boys and girls’ said her piece.

“I’ve been having a natter with Chris this morning, and I think he’s right. I know I am not the only one to see how nervous he is on this one, so I think we should let him have his say. Chris?”

"Thank you, my love. Now, Lainey says we won’t be working the holiday shifts, but that’s not the point. Soon as she’s back, we need to move on this one before our targets get frisky again. I am willing to do whatever it takes so that I don’t have to see another Vernon, another Omar, in hospital. Or worse. Are you all with me? All happy to…do it for the queen?”

He was right, naturally. We had a vote, for the sake of some sense of formality, but the result was inevitable. We’d all be in work for as many days as we could manage, doing it for the queen himself.

The next day, another surprise, which seemed to be rapidly becoming the pattern of my life.

“Di?”

“Yes, Blake? White without, it’s on the sheet”

“Cheeky cow. Christmas”

“Yes. I know. It comes round each year, same date”

“Your Mam and Dad. They’ve asked me to come for dinner. Spare bed”

Deep breath. Think of my parents.

“I see. Then let’s make it a good one, mate"