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On Thursday morning Nick was again late into work as he’d had to detour round to the police station to cancel the notice he’d activated regarding Kevins’s campaign of terror which was now seriously in doubt. He’d felt a complete fool at having to retract his statement he’d made the previous afternoon but he was so relieved to find that it had not yet been issued. The sergeant he’d spoken to wasn’t available so he’d had to go through it all again with someone new but eventually they said they would get someone down to speak to him. He would need to sign some paperwork to say he was retracting his accusation.
The atmosphere between him and Polly had been strained that morning. Neither had slept much after the events of the previous evening. Nick had refused to tell her what he’d done until they were back in the privacy of their flat. Not surprisingly he got a complete carpeting by Polly after his secretive visit to the police. All the tension from the previous weeks culminated in a horrendous slanging match which soon digressed from the subject at hand. Past events and mistakes were dredged up and weighed in the balance. By the end of it, they were exhausted and both in tears feeling thoroughly wretched and depressed. After separating into different rooms to cool down they both apologised and agreed not to let others come between them and destroy their relationship.
Nick felt that it was best if Polly stayed over at a friend’s for a few nights and she’d phoned Libby to ask if that were possible. She had agreed without hesitation so Nick drove Polly into the university along with a small suitcase which should see her through the next few days. He hoped that in her absence he would find out what action was to be taken against Kevin at work and that he would be able to work out who else was bearing a grudge and enacting the malicious deeds against him.
Nick waited in the grotty reception area, once again staring at the crime prevention posters and looking at his phone. He had again had to phone Billie to say he would be late, this time he didn’t lie and told her he needed to report something to the police. He also asked her to tell Kirsty not to do anything with the reaction they’d put on the previous day until he arrived. He detected a note of annoyance in her voice and was worried that he was going to be labelled as extremely unprofessional after the events of the week. Integrity and honesty were extremely important to Nick, he’d always upheld those two behaviours. It pained him that he was compromising his values by behaving like this. He just needed to keep in mind that he had been forced into this situation by the dishonesty of others. He hoped that once the company started to look at the accounts from the storeroom they would see how Kevin had been swindling the company. The problem could be that even if Kevin was dismissed he would have even more time on his hands to wage a war of retribution. Suddenly the door behind the reception opened and out strode PC Dave Martin. Nick recognised him immediately and stood up to shake hands.
‘Mr Thomas, please step this way,’ he said and ushered him through to the inner part of the police station. ‘There’s a room here we can use,’ he said opening the door and showing Nick through. Thankfully it was a small meeting room rather than an interview room. Memories of the interview room immediately brought Nick out in a sweat.
PC Martin had encountered Nick before and had trusted his judgement which had proven to be correct at least partly, and so he was sorry to hear that Nick had been on the receiving end of some anti-social behaviour. He listened carefully whilst Nick went through the whole sorry saga once more, emphasising this time that he’d jumped to conclusions and thus wanted to retract his accusations. Nick ended his account with the events of the previous evening which seemed to interest PC Martin.
‘Well he just brushed against us I guess, although Polly did stumble, banged her knee, but it all happened so fast.’
‘Have you still got the letter?’
‘Not with me, but I’m sure he was wearing gloves, and we’ve both handled it.’
‘Well, next time you are passing you could drop both letters in, make sure they are passed on to me, put them in a plastic wallet or something.’
‘OK, thanks, will do,’ nodded Nick.
‘And where exactly did this happen,’ asked PC Martin taking out his pad.
‘We’d turned onto Bridge Street, heading for the car park, it was about twenty yards before the entrance to the parking area. Then he ran off to the end of the road and then turned left, I can’t remember what the road is called where he went.’
‘I can check, thanks for that. And don’t worry about the PIN notice, it will be filed but not issued. Just sign here and it shows that you don’t want any further action.’
Nick duly complied and PC Martin showed him out. Walking to his car through the sunshine, he felt a sense of relief that he had at least not aggravated the situation further. Perhaps finally I can concentrate on my work thought Nick. However, he knew that despite intervening to stop the notice being issued, the general problem of intimidation still existed and he was no further forward in solving it.
