That Monday morning, Maud was on the phone in the middle of an argument when she became aware that a colleague was standing in front of her, trying to get her attention. She turned her back on him, but he moved in front of her, brandishing a file. She tried to wave him away, mouthing that she was busy, but he held the file in front of her face. When she finally put the phone down, he was still standing there.
‘Did you get it sorted, ma’am?’ he said.
‘No, I didn’t get it sorted.’ She looked at him suspiciously. ‘What are you doing here? Why are you waving that file around?’
The young detective smiled.
‘You know how I went on that course about how to deal sensitively with women?’
‘I did not know that,’ said Maud. ‘Did it do any good?’
‘I think it did. Because I’ve got a woman in my office at the moment. In the old days I’d have just kicked her out or charged her with wasting police time. But now that I’ve been on this course and I’ve learned that we’ve got to be social workers and social psychologists as well as coppers, I want to check in with you before I kick her out or charge her with wasting police time.’
Maud sat back in her chair.
‘All right then. Check with me. What’s the problem with this woman?’
‘You mean, what isn’t the problem with her? It’s Kemp’s case actually, but he’s on annual leave and anyway, he’d just tell me to get rid of her. A month ago, a young woman killed herself.’
‘Yes,’ said Maud. ‘I remember.’
‘Hanged herself in her flat. Case closed. But this woman came in claiming it was murder. It turned out that she was a full-on psychotic. Seeing things, hearing voices. We took a statement and looked into it out of politeness. You know, co-operating with the public. The next thing we heard, she was in hospital.’
‘I heard that too.’
Maud remembered Kemp’s look of triumph when he told her that the woman had been sectioned.
‘Now it seems that she’s talked her way out of it and she’s back in here saying it’s murder again.’ The young detective seemed to be considering things. ‘She’s nice-looking, mind. I want to deal with it sensitively. Maybe I should take her number and talk to her about it over a drink after my shift.’
Maud looked at the detective impassively. Detectives said things like that to her to see how she’d react. If she got angry, they would laugh and say that they were only joking. Except that Maud knew that sometimes they weren’t joking. Sometimes they did get the numbers of women who came in to report crimes.
She took the file from his hand.
‘I’ll talk to her,’ she said.