Jack and Diane Ch. 08-10

"Hardly us boss. This all happened last shift."

"Yeah, but we uncovered it. They shoot the messenger round here."

They returned to David and Jack. David went on the attack immediately. The Inspector interrupted him. "We are releasing Mr Winters immediately on police bail. There seems to be a lot more to this case than meets the eye. I'm going to have to refer this up the chain. If you'll excuse me I'll leave you with Sgt Henshaw to complete the formalities. I'm going to prepare a report for the Chief Inspector."

When he had gone Sgt Henshaw sat them both down. "This is totally off the record here, OK?" He looked inquiringly at Jack and David. David looked at Jack, who nodded.

"OK" said David.

"What happened on Friday evening?"

"Nothing here is evidential?"

"Nothing, look, you'll get all this under the rules of evidence so I'll tell you what Mrs Winters said. She claims that Commander Winters..."

"That's plain old Mister now, but I'll settle for Jack," said Jack.

Sgt Henshaw grinned, "Mrs Winters claimed she arrived to pick up the children, Jack refused and assaulted her."

"Oh-oh," said David, "I'm a witness to that incident. I'm not going to be able to act for you Jack."

Sgt Henshaw groaned. "This just gets better and better. She reported the assault and WPC Graham responded. It looks to me like she was looking some payback for her father..." Henshaw noted David's puzzlement, "Jack and WPC Graham's father had a run-in when Jack was in the Navy." David nodded. "... and she thought she could hang him out to dry. I told the Inspector I'd get your side of the story so we can figure out just how we are going to proceed. It looks to me like she over-reacted and you have the best "get out of jail, free" card ever."

David looked at Jack. "Well? Normally I would tell you to say nothing and get Milla in here pronto. But this looks like Diane and Graham have fucked up big style. If you trust the Sergeant here it might worth telling him what happened."

"All off the record." said Henshaw.

"OK," agreed Jack.

After Jack had explained the sequence of events, Jimmy Henshaw sat back, sucked his teeth and said, "Oooooh shit. The Inspector is not going to like this one bit. It pretty much confirms what I thought. Look, I'll have to go over this with him. So! As he said you're released on bail. We'll get in touch with your solicitor when we have something. If you could let us know who that'll be...?" David gave him Milla's details.

David ran Jack to his parent's house. Jack's mother had got the kids to bed and she and his father had also retired so Jack got David to drop him off at his house. As David drew up, the security light came on. "Jack, do you still use the cameras?" Jack had a security system installed when someone had been attacking and killing horses.

"Yes, actually, I do."

"We'll have to get the recordings and make sure we retain copies. I'll sort that with Milla. You get some sleep."