The Tower by Kate London

Author:Kate London
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Tags: Mystery, Police Procedural, Literature, Police, Contemporary Women, &, Mystery & Suspense, Contemporary, Fiction & Literature, Women, Suspense, Fiction, Procedural
ISBN: 9781838955885
Publisher: Atlantic Books, Limited
Published: 2021-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

27

C

ollins’ chin rested heavily on the heel of her right hand and she appeared to be staring at the door of her office. On her desk was a packet of cigarettes, a set of keys, a takeaway coffee and a half-eaten blueberry muffin. She picked up the keys and unlocked her desk drawer. She removed the working file and searched through it.

Brendan Cormican LLB, of Cormican, Murphy and Khan, had drafted the initial complaint on behalf of Younes Mehenni.

PC Matthews, the solicitor wrote, had entered number 7 Kenley Villas on 23 March without permission. Mrs Mehenni, Younes Mehenni’s mother, did not speak English and did not understand the police officers who had barged their way in with no power of entry. The entry to the house was therefore unlawful. Farah Mehenni had arrived to find PC Matthews and PC Griffiths already in the property. Matthews had suggested that the whole family might want to return home – here the solicitor started to go heavy on the quotation marks – rather than remain in London ‘pissing people off’ and ‘creating work’ for the ‘British’ police. ‘Do you think the police would put up with any of this shit in your country?’ PC Matthews had asked. In the course of questioning Farah Mehenni – a fourteen-year-old girl, Mr Cormican had noted – PC Matthews had called her father both ‘Mohammed’ and ‘Bin Laden’. Farah Mehenni had been very upset. PC Matthews’ actions made her fear the police, and when her father arrived home, she was so traumatized that she tried to intervene physically to protect him. This created a situation where PC Matthews used force to remove her from the bonnet of his police car. This distressing and potentially harmful situation would have been avoided if PC Matthews had acted correctly. The family requested a police investigation into the incident, with appropriate disciplinary consequences for the officer.

It was all drearily possible. Collins knew PC Matthews’ response almost off by heart, but she turned to it nonetheless and read once again his round state-school handwriting. It was a short statement, and to the point.

On 23 March, I was on duty in uniform. I attended number 7 Kenley Villas on arrest inquiries in company with PC Griffiths. We were looking for Mr Younes Mehenni, who was the named suspect in an investigation into an allegation of criminal damage. A woman who I believe to be Mr Mehenni’s mother gave us permission to enter the property. I attempted to speak with her but her English was limited. This being the case, I was unable to get her to sign an entry in my pocket book that she had allowed us to enter. However, she waved us into the property and it was clear that she was giving permission.

Mr Mehenni’s daughter, Farah Mehenni, returned home. We were just about to leave the house. She spoke good English and I decided to explain to her our reason for being at the address. I requested her to ask her father to get in touch.

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