Breaking the Circle by Althea Barr

Author:Althea Barr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Sunpenny Publishing Group
Published: 2012-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

“Hello, Matthew.”

The Inspector looked up. He rose to his feet and came round the desk.

“Annie Fitzpatrick! What a surprise! How are you?”

“Well as may be,” she answered, looking him up and down.

He began to feel as he had felt when he had been a small boy and she was his teacher.

“You’re getting to look more and more like your father,” she commented, and somehow he felt that this was not a compliment.

He tried a smile.

“He was a fine policeman,” she continued dryly, “but he lacked imagination. I thought you’d go further than he did. You’ve enough of your mother in you. Your father would never admit it if he made a mistake.”

“Annie,” he said suspiciously. “What’s this leading up to?”

“You have to do something about it. One of your men is about to make a big mistake, and if you’re not careful the police are going to look stupid.”

“Annie –”

“I’m coming to the point!” she snapped. “You’ve gravely misjudged Selwyn Toa. Before you bring him to Court, you should listen to what his stepson Robert has to say about it.”

“Very well, I’ll listen to him. Will that satisfy you? Although I doubt that my officer will be pleased about my going over his head. I’ll have to inform him.”

“Do what you like, it’s your police force. Just listen to Robert. I’m bailing out Sel Toa.”

“You won’t get him out. He’s in on Child Abuse and GBH. No one wants characters like that on the loose.”

“Bollocks! Sel Toa cried when he killed my chicken … And before you get ideas, I asked him to do it. Pushed him into it to see how he got on. Wanted to see if he was capable of killing the kid.”

“You old fox!” Matthew said, admiringly. “And what did he do?”

“He did it because I challenged his masculinity, but he cried like a baby. He’s the first to admit he’s hit Robert in the past, and the kid’s done a few things to warrant it, I’d guess. But after what they’ve been through together, I don’t reckon he’d do it again.”

“Would you swear to it in court?”

“If you could get me there. I live most of the time on my island. Don’t get on too well with folks these days.”

Did you ever? he wondered. “Okay, Annie, I’ll see the kid and I’ll check up on Toa. And you can have him out if you can handle him. But he’s not to go near the kid, understand?”

She nodded, although he suspected that, being Annie, she would obey him only if she felt like it.

“Kid’s outside,” she said, “with his teacher. She’s looking after him while his mother’s in hospital.”

“Hospital?” This was news to him.

“Went in last night with a miscarriage. Sel doesn’t know yet, but the kid does.”

The Inspector talked into his intercom. “Tell them I’ll be there in ten minutes, when I’ve had a chance to look at Toa’s file.”

He turned back to Annie. “The Interview Room’s down the corridor,” he said. “A policewoman will be waiting for you.

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