Braver by Deborah Jenkins

Author:Deborah Jenkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairlight Books
Published: 2022-04-26T14:16:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Saturday 31 March

Virginia

Virginia takes off her glasses after she has read the statement and looks directly at the panel. The members of the Ministerial Complaints Committee are sitting behind a huge table and are made up of two men and three women – the fifth person, she has been reliably informed, is always matched with the sex of the accused so as to avoid unnecessary discrimination. The person who told her was a man, and he acted as though she should be grateful. Grateful for what? she thinks, eyeing him now as he levers a finger into his left ear. Grateful that more of my own sex will witness me being accused of this horrible crime? He is a doom-laden character with a frown etched on a face that has seemingly never smiled. The others look nice enough, though they are of course in a serious mood. One of the women looks at her directly and gives a gentle nod. What the nod is supposed to communicate, Virginia has no idea.

She clears her throat. ‘I didn’t do this,’ she says calmly. ‘It is true that Harry came to my house sometimes after school, but this is because he liked to do his homework there.’ Mr Doom – she cannot remember any of their names – raises his eyebrows. ‘His own home is not a place conducive to study,’ Virginia continues with a firmness she does not feel. ‘It is chaotic, unkempt, there is no table or anywhere to work. And his mother…’ – here she hesitates for a fraction of a second – ‘…is unhelpful.’

‘Were you worried about the boy?’ asks one of the other women. She pushes her glasses further up her nose and looks at Virginia owlishly.

Virginia knows she is treading on dangerous ground, but she has no choice. ‘At times,’ she says, ‘but those concerns were not sustained.’

‘Did you communicate your concerns to anyone else?’ asks Mr Doom darkly. ‘To the Safeguarding Lead?’

‘No.’ Then after a small pause: ‘I am the Safeguarding Lead.’

‘That…’ says Mr Doom, ‘…is regrettable.’

The woman who nodded has a low, pleasant voice. ‘I apologise that we can only now give more detail of the allegation. You have been accused of committing a safeguarding breach on Monday 26 March, at four o’clock,’ she says. ‘That’s earlier this week. Can you tell us what you were doing then and who was with you?’

Virginia sighs. Was that the day the girls came? Or had it been a Harry day? Her memory has got so bad. She puts her glasses down. ‘No,’ she says. ‘I can’t. Various young people come to my house most days after school. I’m not sure who was there on Monday. I don’t write these things down.’

‘Does your safeguarding policy not suggest you always have another present in such situations?’ asks Mr Doom. The panel are watching her intently. Virginia thinks. She knows safeguarding is important, has thought for a while that they ought to update their policy and invite someone in for training.

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