Breaking Down Barriers

"That depends. Don't worry, I'm not rushing into anything without giving it a great deal of thought."

Simone had the kettle on and coffee powder waiting in mugs. Felicity had found my stash of chocolate biscuits and was stacking them on a plate. "What was that all about?"

"That was my boss ringing to tell me that you no longer have a house. It has been torched. The locals are concerned because there are no dead bodies in the wreckage. It's only a matter of time before they find out that you were seen heading for my room at the hotel. As no-one would have seen you leave with me, I'm hoping that they'll think that you missed me. They may think that you've left town under your own steam."

"And left our car out front of the hotel? If they think that we've left they'll probably give up trying to find us. They might even think that we've abandoned our case against them. How long will we stay here?"

"As long as you want, you need. Don't feel the need to rush off looking for somewhere to live because of me."

"So there's no wife to object then?"

"No, there's not one of those. Don't get any ideas, I'm not in the market for another wife."

"So you had one at some stage?"

"Yes, but that's a long story and not one that I'm willing to discuss just yet."

"Ah, the sore point again."

"Yes. Can we change the subject? This house had three bedrooms, well two bedrooms and a home office, but that can be changed. There's only one bathroom so we'll have to be careful not to rush in on someone, especially me, I've sort of gotten used to living on my own and tend to wander around in just my jocks, if that. I'll have to change my habits."

"We will need to buy some clothes, especially nightclothes, and soon. Underwear will be okay for tonight but I'll not place you under any temptation by wandering around half-naked. That goes for Felicity, in case you hadn't noticed, she's physically advanced for her age."

"There is no way that I'll do anything to upset her fragile psychological status. Tomorrow we go shopping." I thought about it for a minute or two. "Actually, I have a better idea, I don't want you wandering around, just in case someone gets the idea to check me out to see if I did manage to get you out of town. We can get on the Web and buy you what you need on-line and I can pick the stuff up when I go into work this afternoon."

"The presence of semen is a given, it's literally caked in the stuff, but I'm sure that you've already worked that out for yourself. I suppose that now you're going to ask me to isolated individual DNA strands for you."

"I am. Is this going to be a problem?"

"Only if you tell me that you wanted it yesterday. If you were to be a reasonable person you'd tell me that sometime next week will be okay."

"I'm not unreasonable, but by the same token, when a matter is urgent, I'm not entirely reasonable. Let's split the difference and say that I want results in three days."

"This will cost you big time."

"As ever. What will it be this time, a single malt?"

"You can read minds. If you arrive here in less than three days it'll cost you two bottles."

The department store had a large parcel waiting for me that they exchanged for a sizable dent in my bank account. I was treated to a fashion show when I arrived home. I must say that they both scrubbed up pretty well, to the point that I had to think about mundane things while I made appropriate comments as the clothes were paraded. I'd forgotten how well women can look in simple clothes such as jeans and tee shirts. Thankfully the night attire was not paraded. I had been looking over their shoulders when they ordered them and I was not about to trust my reactions to go un-noticed.

Two days of gentle conversation, skirting certain issues, and there was a subtle change in our relationship. Simone had told me about her previous incarnation, before she married Ted, she had been married to a university lecturer, and life was pretty settled, that was up until he announced that he was heading off overseas to continue his studies with the view to obtaining post-graduate degrees and possibly seek a professorship at an overseas university. What he conveniently failed to mention was that he would not be going alone. His Research Assistant, who just happened to be a young man, would be accompanying him.

"Let me tell you that came as a shock. Here I was thinking that he and I got on reasonably well, we argued seldom, fought not at all, and while sex was infrequent, it was okay. Sure he needed to be hand-started, but I put that down to the stress of work."

"I'm not a psychologist, but that would have done nothing for your self-confidence."

"Felicity helped to an extent, but it took some getting over. I eventually yielded to nudges from friends and signed up on this dating site. There were some duds who had exaggerated their credentials, if you get my drift, and there were others who were looking for easy young women with big tits."

"You're not that old. As for the tits, I wouldn't want them any bigger than they are."

"Aren't you kind. When I saw Ted's bio I couldn't believe my luck. He hadn't used the usual codes for his ideal woman, and he actually played down his attributes. We dated for three months before the 'C' word entered into our conversation. It was not long after that that we got married and Felicity and I moved in with him. You've probably already been told that this did not go down well with the ladies of the town. He was something of a catch, self-employed, well off financially, owned his own house, no major vices, at least not at first. That was before the local girls at school made life miserable for Felicity. It didn't help that she's pretty and dresses well, but she's also intelligent and the teachers treated her differently from the other girls. A lot of it was that she's a city girl with different interests to the country girls. She wasn't into footy or cricket, and she certainly wasn't about to let some young buck fondle her like the other girls did."

"Let me guess. When they weren't harassing her they were ignoring her. Any attempt that she made to be included was rebuffed, and they wouldn't have been polite about it."

"You have had some experience with, this have you?"

"They treated my father in a similar way. He couldn't handle it."

"I'm sorry. Is that the raw nerve that I'm supposed to avoid?"

"No. I suppose that I can tell you my problems. She was a pretty woman and very popular, too popular as it turned out, particularly with men. It would seem that she continually needed to be reassured that she was still attractive to men. During our marriage, she had several affairs that never seemed to last very long. It could have something to do with the fact that her selfish attitude meant that sex was all about her, my feelings, and those of her lovers, didn't enter into it at all."

"Why didn't you leave her?"

"Because I lack confidence when dealing with women. It was she that chose me. I had been happy with my girlfriend at the time, who was a nice girl and was not looking for sexual excitement. Laura was devastated when Lucy told her that the two of us were having sex. I pleaded my innocence but she was persistent. I succumbed and we married. Between lovers, our marriage was good, except for the sex that is."

"I'm so sorry, that must have put a huge strain on your marriage."

"That was until her final lover. I tried to warn her about him but she wouldn't listen. Don't get me wrong, he could be charming, but that never seemed to last. He had a record a mile long for domestic violence. Several of his previous partners ended up in hospital from the beatings. He had managed to stay out of gaol by convincing Psychiatrists that these incidents were momentary aberrations and out of character. They were always someone else's fault, his partner was having affairs, things like that."

"So what happened?"

"She began an affair with a man at her work, and he came home from the pub earlier than usual and found them at it. The resulting incident made the nightly news. He stabbed both of them in a frenzied attack and then barricaded himself inside the house. When he eventually came out he was waving a large knife and threatening to kill anyone who came near. He was demanding transport to the airport and a plane ticket to the US. My mates that attended the scene told me later that they could possibly have disarmed him, but decided that, because he was who he was, and obviously off his face on either or drugs and booze or both, and as the likelihood was that he would re-offend, that they would be doing me and the rest of the world a favour if they killed him. They wound him up by telling him that he would be questioned by me and that the CCTV and voice recordings would malfunction."

"And I thought that I had problems. What happened next?"

"There was the usual internal investigation into the incident and on the evidence provided, the attending police were exonerated, end of story as far as they were concerned, but not for me. I got a call over the radio and went home to find my house looking for all the world like an abattoir. There was blood everywhere. It wasn't this house by the way. I couldn't live in that house anymore, so it was cleaned by professional crime scene cleaners and put on the market."

I returned to the town the next day. If I thought that my first welcome into this town was cool, the second was positively arctic.

"Don't tell me that I didn't warn you. There is going to be a civil war in this town if you try to take DNA samples from the young lads."

"I have a court order requiring those on my list to submit DNA samples."

"You can have a hundred court orders, it won't make any difference. Any or all of them will be ignored."

"Are you telling me that if I were to give you the court orders you would not serve them?"

"I would serve them because I have to, not because I want to. You would be putting me in a difficult situation."

"Okay, I will serve these orders." I knew exactly who the first recipient would be. Go for the jugular.

I caught him as he left school. "Brenton Forrester, This is a court order requiring you to submit a saliva sample for DNA testing."

"What? Why should I have to do this, I've done nothing wrong?"

"Here's your chance to prove it."

"And if I don't, what will happen to me?"

"You will be charged with the rape of Felicity Smithson."

"Rape, what rape? Felicity was begging for it, she's a whore and everyone knew it."

"That's not what the evidence suggests. According to her mother, she had not had sex before that night and the presence of her blood in the samples taken from her panties would confirm that."

"This is bullshit. I won't do it without first checking on my rights to refuse."

"While you're checking on rights, I suggest that you check on the victim's rights to refuse to have sex with you and your mates."

"You'll have your work cut out getting a conviction, there are literally dozens of witnesses who'll swear that she was all for it."

"All the same I'm asking for a saliva sample from you and all the others who took advantage of her so-called willingness."

"I won't give a sample without first discussing it with my father and his lawyer."

"Fine, bring them with you tomorrow morning and we'll get your sample."

I knew that this would get the locals up in arms. My first visitor was Roderick Forrester who accosted me as I headed to my hotel. He was foaming at the mouth. "What the hell do you think that you're playing at?"

"I'm trying to obtain saliva samples from all the lads that attended the footy club that night so that I can identify all those that had non-consensual sex with Felicity Smithson. I will also be interviewing the girls that were in attendance to get their side of the story."

"I have, on legal advice, advised my son not to submit a saliva sample. I have also told the parents of the other boys to not allow them to submit samples. Face it, no-one will assist you with this witch hunt."

"This is not a witch hunt, it is an investigation, launched at the request of your local state MP in response to a submission from one of his constituents."

"I hope for his sake that he won't be counting on this town's votes at the next election."

"Look at it from his point of view. He is aware that will lose more votes from elsewhere in his electorate if he does nothing, than he will lose from this town. He doesn't look on that as a gamble."

"You're caught between a rock and a hard place then, if you press ahead with this you'll get nowhere and possibly lose your job, and if you don't, our MP will be pressured to ensure that you lose your job. Whichever way you look at it, you'll soon be out of a job."

"I wouldn't count on that if I were you, you see I have an ace up my sleeve that I'm prepared to play in order to get a result." I tapped the side of my nose to let him know that I would not be divulging just what I had up my sleeve. He glared at me and stormed off.

A town meeting was called at which Roderick Forrester was the most vocal, and only, speaker. He ranted for some thirty minutes on police harassment of the young men of the district over what he described as a minor incident. He harangued me in absentia about the waste of money and resources in pursuing a case that would never be proven and was a total embarrassment to the police in general and me in particular. Someone suggested that they should all march on the hotel where I was staying and let me know in no uncertain manner, that there would be no co-operation from them.

The gathering outside the hotel was noisy but generally well behaved until some clown decided to heave a brick through the front window of the hotel.

I decided to act. I stepped out onto the footpath outside the hotel and held up my hand for silence. It took a while to arrive and when it did I spoke to them, my eyes making short sweeps of the crowd as if I was memorising faces, but for the most part staring directly into Roderick Forrester's face. "This meeting will achieve nothing. I understand that you feel strongly about a city cop like me coming into your town to investigate a matter that would seem to be a common occurrence. It is, however, against the law. And, for my sins, I have been asked to investigate, and investigate I will. Now I will be taking saliva samples from most of you, not to so much to convict the guilty as much as to identify the innocent. When my investigation has been completed, the results, along with my report will be presented to the relevant authorities. When that is completed, I will be leaving this town and going back to the city. I am aware that my presence here is causing concern among you about who is guilty of the crime, and who is innocent. The only way to resolve this is for me to complete my investigation and for you to read my report so that you can sort it out for yourselves."

"Now, if you were to turn around you will see a contingent of TV and print media. You guys are about to hit the headlines, not just here or even in the city, but you can be certain that the media will spread the news right around the world. You never know, but you might just kick Donald Trump off the front pages. I would ask you, is this the sort of publicity that you, or this town want."

I turned and walked back inside. "Who is going to pay for this?" The manager asked, pointing to the glass scattered across the floor.

"Get an estimate and I'll present it to my bosses."

The meeting outside dispersed without too much fuss. Roderick did try to hold it together but soon gave up.

The following morning I was having breakfast in the dining room when I had a visitor. Jacinta Miller, Roderick's sister. "Sergeant Rogers, could I have a word with you?"

"Certainly, won't you have a seat?" She sat. "What can I do for you?"

"While I don't condone what happened to that girl, whether she 'asked for it' or not is irrelevant. I have to tell you that my brother will not rest until you leave."

"Would that be because it was he that organised the footy club show?" I knew this to be true.

"Yes and no. He does these things to show the world what a great bloke he is. You have inferred that, great bloke that he is, and given the power that he wields, he is in the wrong. You have got people thinking that maybe he has stepped over the line,"

"This isn't the first time that he has done this, is it?"

"What do you know?" I had piqued her interest.

"Some twenty-five years ago there was something of a scandal involving the new Anglican Priest, something to do with sexual harassment of a young girl. He was involved in that, wasn't he?"

"Yes." Her words were reluctant to leave her mouth. She was thinking; 'what does this man know about this?'

"You were also involved in this, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"That Priest was my father. He was so depressed that these salacious revelations could have been levelled at him that he committed suicide. My mother never forgave this town for that. While she was aware that she should forgive, her mind would not let that happen. She lost the plot and suffered from Dementia. For the last two years of her life she did not recognise me. I have found it hard to forgive."

I sat next to her and watched her face melt. "I'm so sorry, please, can you ever forgive me?"

"I forgave you years ago. You were only doing what you were told. At least you had the courage to own up to making that false accusation. It was your father and brother that I'm having problems with forgiveness. I've known for many years just who was responsible for that, your father because of the increasing popularity of this new Priest was eating into his own popularity, and your brother who did it to impress your father."

"If you've known about this, how is it that nothing was done, no charges have ever been laid against them?"

"Knowledge is not proof, and such was his power, no-one would act against him. The chances of a conviction was well-nigh impossible."

"What makes you think that you'll succeed this time?"

"The cracks are appearing as we speak. The townsfolk now know that he has broken the law and that they, at least most of them, stand a good chance of being convicted of something that he has told them would not warrant a custodial sentence. His power has become vulnerable. How long he can hang on to it is anyone's guess."

"I just might see my way clear to help you."

"Why would you do that? Look, I can't ask you to do anything that will put your existence in danger."

"Then don't ask. I want to right the wrongs of the past, and until now I haven't believed that I would get any support. You have given me some hope at least. I'm emboldened by the fact that you have offered Simone and Felicity hope that they would have an audience that is prepared to listen to them. Sergeant Radcliffe has done as he is told ever since he got here. If you must know, I was drunk at the wheel of my car when I lost control and hit the tree. I didn't remember much about what happened after that because my father sent me off on an overseas trip until the heat died down. Ted did not accept that. He did all that he could to discover the truth, without success. That was until I told him exactly what happened. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't get the support necessary to see me charged. Not even my confession helped him. I was told to say nothing more, to deny having confessed, and it would go away permanently. I didn't know what that meant until after he was killed. Again I was told to say nothing, and this time the threats were even more direct."

"What makes you think that this time will be any different?"

"You. You will make the difference."

"I can't guarantee anything, when I finish here I will submit my report and after that, it's out of my hands until it comes to trial. If it comes to trial."