‘Where’s Adrian?’ Gary asked as he approached Imogen’s desk later that day. He looked more panicked than usual.
‘Last time I saw him he was coming to see you. What is it?’
‘Adrian asked me to check in with dispatch about the call Angela Corrigan claims she made to the police.’
‘You’ve got it?’
‘I’ve got more than that. I showed it to Adrian.’
‘And?’
‘He flipped out.’
‘Why? What’s on the call?’
‘It’s not what’s on the call that’s the problem. A uniform went to check on the call and he was wearing a BWV for at least part of the call.’
Body worn videos were there both to protect the officers and to keep records of incidents that were likely to escalate. People generally behaved themselves when they knew they were being filmed. Domestic violence was one of the situations that had a propensity to get out of control.
‘Part of it? The first part, or the second part?’
‘He turned it off after a brief chat. I get the impression from what I saw that some conversation occurred after the camera was switched off.’
‘Which officer was it? One of ours?’
‘PC Ben Jarvis.’
Imogen exhaled. Gary was right to be worried. Adrian already had a little history with Jarvis and this was hardly likely to build any bridges between them. Imogen was worried. Whenever she looked at Adrian at the moment, he had that look in his eye again. Dog with a bone. If he thought Jarvis had protected Corrigan in any way, he would kick off.
‘You watched it?’
‘Yep.’
‘Was it all by the book?’
Gary screwed his face up and shrugged. ‘Yes?’
The way the intonation in his voice went up several octaves indicated otherwise.
‘Shit.’
Adrian was determined to get Corrigan put away and his determination concerned Imogen. Several days in a row now he had already left when she had woken and he wasn’t sleeping at night. He was wired. She knew this was all going to go wrong. Adrian was a good police officer and his heart was always in the right place, but he struggled to enforce the law when it came up against his own personal code.
She had admired that about him at first, but then as time had gone on, she realised that it only led to more problems. From now on she had to rein him in, or he was going to do something stupid, maybe even get himself fired, or worse. She looked at the clock: it was lunchtime. If Adrian was looking for Jarvis, he probably went to the canteen. Time to do some damage control.
Imogen rushed to the canteen, with Gary following close behind. When she got there, she found Adrian and Jarvis standing unnaturally close to each other by one of the tables. Adrian was leaning in and saying something – it looked like a threat. She hurried over to them.
‘Adrian, I need you to come take a look at something.’
‘I’ll be there in a minute,’ he said, not taking his eyes off Jarvis.
‘You need to keep your partner under control, Imogen,’ PC Jarvis said, smiling at Imogen.
‘Why didn’t you bring Corrigan in when you went to that house call?’ Adrian snarled.
‘You saw the video; she said she made the call as a joke,’ Jarvis replied.
‘But she made the call. It’s your duty to investigate.’
‘She insisted she had done it to wind him up.’
‘And you accepted that? I mean, I know you did; I saw it.’
‘There really wasn’t enough to bring him in on. She told me she was fine and so I left.’
‘Why did you switch off the camera?’
‘Because the call was over. I was leaving. What are you implying?’
‘I’m implying that you’re bent.’
‘Me? That’s a joke coming from you.’ Jarvis laughed. ‘How many rules have you broken? How about all the accusations that have been made against you for harassment or assault? And you think no one knows you’re banging DS Grey here? We all see you for what you are. You’re going off the deep end, mate.’
Before Imogen had a chance to react, Jarvis was on the ground. He touched his lip to check for blood. Imogen grabbed Adrian’s arm; it was rigid with anger. She yanked him back and pulled him towards the door.
‘For fuck’s sake, Adrian.’
‘I suppose I was wrong?’ Adrian snapped.
‘The man is a dick – doesn’t mean you have to be one, too,’ Imogen said.
‘Is everyone insane? Am I in Upside-down Land, or something? Jarvis was sent to a domestic abuse call and he barely even questioned the accused. Does he not understand how these things work?’
‘We are supposed to use our judgement on call-outs, his was wrong. Are you telling me you’ve never been wrong before?’
‘Great. Did you hear what he said to me? And I’m the bad guy?’
‘I didn’t say that. You need to keep your head. I don’t want to work this case alone and if you carry on this way then I will be,’ Imogen hissed at him angrily.
Adrian shook his arm free and walked out of the canteen. Imogen went over to Jarvis, who was pretending to laugh it off in front of all the others in the canteen.
‘What the fuck was that?’ She got up close and spat the words at him.
‘Miles came after me!’ Jarvis said.
‘Because you turned your video off. What was it you didn’t want anyone to see? Did Corrigan pay you off?’
‘Actually, no. I turned the video off because I wanted to have a candid word with the husband. I told him in no uncertain terms to leave his wife alone. She wouldn’t report it, so what could I do? I had to walk away.’
‘How did he take that?’ Imogen said, not quite sure she believed this spontaneous chivalry on Jarvis’s part; it certainly didn’t line up with what she knew of him. She also wondered why he had left this out of his report.
‘He told me he would fuck me up if he saw me again. He was very convincing,’ Jarvis said, with a little more conviction than his last statement.
‘Why didn’t you just tell us that?’ Imogen said, frustrated.
‘Well, at least I figured out why you keep knocking me back.’
‘I knock you back because I think you’re an immature twat and I’m not interested in you, Ben. Thanks for proving me right.’
‘You’d better go check on your boyfriend.’
‘He’s not the one bleeding,’ Imogen said.
She walked away from Jarvis. She hadn’t lied to him – even if she had been single, she wouldn’t have gone out with him. Jarvis had asked Imogen out almost as soon as he started working at the station over a year ago. She said no to him, but that didn’t seem to stop him from asking again. If you have to say no to someone three times and they ask you a fourth time, that’s just unwelcome and off-putting.
He had that air of entitlement around him that some men have, as though they should get everything they want just because they want it. The universe doesn’t work like that. When Imogen had first met Adrian, she assumed he was like that, but that wasn’t him at all; it wasn’t the women he slept with he didn’t have any respect for, it was himself.
Still fuming from the things PC Jarvis said, Imogen went to find Adrian and reprimand him again for letting Jarvis anger him in that way. But the truth was, if he hadn’t punched Jarvis, she probably would have.