Corinne felt ill at ease while waiting for Sykes. The desk officer seemed anything but helpful and was more interested in the ruckus going on behind him where two uniformed officers were trying to hold on to what she thought must be a suspect.
Whether he was on drugs or drunk, he seemed stronger than the two officers because all of a sudden he got free and because more violent forcing more officers to come to the assistance of the original two, three eventually forcing him to the floor rather abruptly whilst another cuffed him.
Another man, very large and unkempt, who was also waiting in the anteroom, had leapt to his feet when he heard the noise and was watching the spectacle with keep interest, all the while hurling abuse at the police accusing them of brutality.
When the 'entertainment' was over and the man was finally subdued, he glared at the two girls and sat down again, muttering to himself.
"Welcome to the precinct."
The voice behind Corinne startled her, and when she turned to see who it was, realized Sykes had been there all the time, also watching the spectacle unfold.
"Does this happen all the time?"
"Today's special. A new batch of drugs just hit the streets and we get the job of rounding up the crazies. We’ve met before, you’re Harry's sister right?"
"Yes." Corinne inclined her head in Daisy's direction, "and this is my friend Daisy."
He gave Daisy a cursory glance, and then returned his attention to Corinne. "What can I do for you?"
"I've been to see Harry in the hospital and he was telling me about the case he was working on, something about a man named Jones."
"Yes. I think we might take this discussion inside."
Sykes used his security card to enter the main office and led the two girls to a room that had 'Interview Room 4' painted on the glass door panel, waiting outside till they went in and then he followed, closing the door behind him.
It was cold in the room, perhaps intentionally so, and very bright. Corinne briefly wondered who had been sitting in her seat before her. A murderer? A witness?
She saw Daisy shudder. It was good of her to come with Corinne, but Corinne doubted Daisy had expected she might find herself inside the police station and in a room where one day, if she got into trouble, she might find herself on the wrong side of the law.
Or not.
Corinne knew Daisy was too timid to get into trouble and if she did for whatever reason, she would get her father, a top-flight city lawyer as she kept telling Corinne, and he would have her out in no time. He'd already had to do that for her brother, who was a bit of a hot head.
But, for the moment, it was just like it was on those cop shows on television.
Her attention came back to Sykes who was talking, "...you have seen your brother and he had mentioned one of the cases he was working on."
"Yes. A man named Jones?"
"Which one?"
It seemed a simple question but Corinne could not remember if Harry had mentioned one specifically. Then she remembered he said the Jones brothers. "Both."
"Did he give you any specific information, to give me. He was assisting with our enquiries."
This was where she was going to user her brilliant idea, the one where Sykes would hand over the files and she would have Harry right where she wanted him.
"He's asked me to go the his office and get the files together, read them and give him a fresh view of the case. He said you might like to give me what you have so I can correlate the information."
Ask nicely; make it sound like you are doing him a favour not the other way around. How could he refuse?
"Did he? Then he can't be quite as bad as he's making out. Let’s turn that around a little and perhaps I’ll bring what I've got and I'll correlate the data."
It would have to do, Corinne thought. "When?"
"This afternoon, about three."
She agreed, hoping it gave her enough time to think of a new plan to get the files from him.
© Charles Heath 2016-2019
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