Sisters 38

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CHAPTER 38
Events continued to take their own course in another station, as I was definitely being kept well clear of any involvement in the case, and more importantly away from any possible perception of involvement. I got hints, though, and as the trial was approaching I was ‘asked’ to attend an interview with the IPCC, the body that oversees complaints against us. If I had realised what was to happen only a week after my interview, I would have found it very difficult to answer their questions with a straight face.

Councillor Evans had made the complaint, about inappropriate victimisation of his family led by a police officer who held a grudge and indulged in malfeasance in public office in order to pursue a private agenda for---etc. I answered all the questions, gave almost all of the facts (Steve’s involvement slipping my memory) and was released, the IPCC deliberated, and returned a ‘no case to answer’ decision, and a week later Bevan Williams arrested the bastard for rape and perverting the course of justice. Three days later, and the charges were expanded to bribery, false accounting, VAT fraud… I forget the rest. Another strike for my team, and this time I did get some unofficial intimation of what had happened, via Wyn.

“You have a very, very good team there, Elaine”

“I know that very well!”

“Did you know that your boy Blake’s brother worked for HMRC? Did you inculcate a ‘no shame at all’ culture into your boys and girls?”

“Not exactly, boss. What I did teach them is to be open to all sorts of information, to find the indirect route if the one going straight ahead is blocked. We did a bit of that for the rapes”

“Well, they impressed Heddlu De Cymru. The team’s not being disbanded, and we’re discussing a combined command system. All of the Welsh forces are going to fund them jointly, plus some English ones if we sell it to them the right way. You are leaving a legacy, Inspector Powell”

He took a long sip of his tea, choosing his next words with obvious care.

“Joseph Evans will not stand trial, Elaine”

“Why the fuck---sorry, sir. Sorry”

“No need, Elaine. They took the precaution of having him properly assessed, and he’s been sectioned. It would appear that the attentions of persons who will forever remain unknown left him several sandwiches short of the proverbial picnic. Unfit to plead due to being of particularly unsound mind. He’s gone to secure accommodation, Elaine, and I think he is destined to stay there. Did you not notice the smell at the Custody desk? He lost bladder control when you spoke to him, it seems”

“What about the others?”

“Hansen has gone guilty, looking for the usual reduction, as has Jamie Evans. Our two ex-associates are still arguing, but they are in for a surprise in a day or so”

He was smiling now, his teeth showing in a nasty and predatory way. “Bob Evans and that fellow Pritchard were being looked after by Ashley Evans’ legal people. It appears that as his assets have now been frozen under the Proceeds of Crime Act—“

“No!”

“Oh yes, Elaine, oh yes. I did mention your boy’s brother, didn’t I? Anyway, as is usual with the hangers on, they cease to hang on when their wages dry up. Professional embarrassment, they are calling it. Evans and Pritchard have gone from QC to Duty Solicitor and whoever is next in the cab rank. Goose nearly cooked, girl, nearly roasted and ready to carve. Oh, and stay away from that hospital in the capital. We had a real find there: somebody used a rape kit on your young lady, and had a sufficiently suspicious mind to keep it safely stored, just in case. Apparently, some of their own family lost out on some building business one day”

Ye gods, was there nowhere that didn’t have some sort of back-handers involved? “Wyn, why do I feel as if this is still dirtying me?”

“That’s the reality of politics, Elaine. Who you know, what you’re willing to pay on the side. All we can do is try and keep our heads out of it and swim to the best of our ability. The more you rise, the more it smells. Enough. We have done what we can. The rest, well, we can live with it. I believe you have an event coming up in England; I saw the leave request”

“Yes indeed. My sister’s wedding”

No real need to mention the surgery she was due to undergo.

“Joe Evan’s former acquaintance? Good. It seems some finer things can grow out of the shit we have just been discussing. Will it be a big event?”

“Hoping so. Just got to try and get the rest of the family on side, aye? Be a lot more hard work ahead, aye?”

“Aye indeed. Elaine, just this once, take whatever time off you need. The trial will go ahead, or the two idiots will plead, but put that to one side. Ashley Evans’ arrest has opened such a can of worms that your team will be hard at it for months, and that should be seen as a compliment. Include it in your CV. And I am putting you down for a commendation, or to be precise I am countersigning Bevan Williams’ submission. I may have to wade through the mire of the political side of things, but I will always value a good, honest copper, for you are few and far between. Enjoy the wedding, and good luck with your family”

I got the word a few days later, after I saw Mam and Dad off for England. Sister and bits doing well, though Mam did have a few choice observations about Sarah’s own choice observations and the language she used to make them. I simply smiled, and said nothing.

Not that long later, and I was at the ticket barrier at Abertawe station awaiting my little sister, who duly appeared in yet another short skirt and heels, but with the added accessory of a little boy attached at the right hand. She complained I hugged her too hard, but I will admit I got carried away.

She was absolutely glowing. Even with the stress of travel following such seriously invasive surgery, she looked happier than I had seen her in over a decade. I gave a smile to Jim.

“Hiya, Jim! Welcome to Wales!”

“Hi Aunty Elaine! You coming to Mum and Dad’s wedding?”

“Of course, little man, she came to mine so it is only fair”

‘Mum’ indeed. I sneaked a look at Sar’s face, and dear gods was she smug. Smug and soppy, and clearly delighted at what he called her. I led the way to the car, and after a decent bit of rurality and some teasing of her stepson by Sar, we were home to tea and some special biscuits. I hauled Sar’s bags up for her while she discussed plans with Mam. This was to be her attempt to get the family onside, the side in question being in a church and at her wedding. I took the opportunity upstairs to make a quick safety net call to Kev, only to find Dad at the bedroom door. He sighed.

“You think that of your uncle, Elaine?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Not really, Dad, but one thing I have learned over the last few years is not to leave anything to chance, aye?”

“Like you had that radio when you first spoke to your Mam and me?”

“Yes. Absolutely. Dad, I can’t think of a finer man than you, but, well… sometimes you need a little time to think before you are my Dad again. That’s all I want with Uncle Arwel, aye? Just a second or two to let his head get past his reflexes?”

“That’s the reason for Jim as well, isn’t it?”

“Partly, aye? Just a little brake on the more vocal ones. But you do know why he’s here, don’t you? Why he WANTS to be here? It’s because you are family, and he holds to that, holds to it very, very strongly for such a young man”

He laughed, tensions easing. “Aye, and like your own girl and hers, aye? We know full well where that woman is living. Vicky is like a saint for her cousin”

“She is, Dad, and Kev no less”

He looked a little wistful at that. “He would have made a fine husband, Elaine”

“He has, Dad. Just not with me. Not for me, is he?”

He delivered a better smile. “Aye, and as you have blessed us with our daughter-in-law, we can’t complain. Now, it is to the Oak tonight, aye, and see how things go”

“Any trouble, Dad, and we are leaving. Jim comes first, aye?”

He nodded sharply. “That is as things should be, Elaine. As they should always be”

We went down to join the rest, and Dad just hugged my sister till he was happier. Siân joined us a bit after six and we made our way down to the pub, an historic old place and somewhere I hadn’t had to visit too often to settle a fight or clear away a D and D. Uncle Gethin and Aunty Gwen were already there, and when they called Sarah by her old male name I nearly lost it. I realised I was not being very successful in being the steady Elaine of my professional life, just as Siân mentioned my forearms. Relax, Lainey.

I think that the trigger was the name. All I could think of for a few choice seconds was Joe fucking Evans and how he was getting off so easily from the punishment he merited. I think Sarah felt my tension, for she was already using Jim as a shield. He had picked up a very few phrases in Welsh from Sar, mostly simple things like ‘How are you?’, and that definitely seemed to be breaking the ice.

“Where the fuck is he then?”

Shit. Uncle Arwel had arrived.

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Comments

Where the....is he then?

Andrea Lena's picture

“Yes. Absolutely. Dad, I can’t think of a finer man than you, but, well… sometimes you need a little time to think before you are my Dad again. That’s all I want with Uncle Arwel, aye? Just a second or two to let his head get past his reflexes?”

Maybe she'll need a bit more than a second or two?

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

Jim Is The Key

joannebarbarella's picture

What's the betting that Arwel will shortly get soft?

I did enjoy the denouement of Councillor Evans, but wonder how the public ever manage to elect such people. Although Lainey seems to think Joe Evans got off lightly I don't imagine that incarceration in a psychiatric institution (Broadmoor perhaps?) will be a picnic and he won't be committing further felonies.

Looking forward to the next chapter...as usual.

I do hope the old pub has a

I do hope the old pub has a separate room from the main section or the entire pub has been rented by the family; because Uncle Arwel and others there like him will be causing trouble that no-one really wants to have to deal with right now.

Thank you Steph

for your continued excellence.
I confess that I broke down (quite rapidly) and went and reread the description of this scene from the other PoV.
Equally as well written
Thanks seem so inadequate somehow
J