It wasn’t unusual for Gary to take the helm. It was what deputies did. But Jo did pick her moments to storm out. He knew it was partly of his own making, and if he were in her shoes, he’d have done so months ago.
The next hint that the day was on a collision course was when the duty inspector called him and asked where they should take prisoners.
‘Where do you think? Bit of a daft question.’
‘Well, obviously, sir, but have we got permission to go out of county?’
‘Why would you do that? If Brighton is full try Worthing, Crawley or Eastbourne.’
The inspector took on a patronising air. ‘But they’re all closed. Have you not read the email?’
Gary tapped the touchpad on his laptop and typed in the password.
Force-wide email.
To all officers and staff,
With immediate effect, due to a contractual issue, all custody centres 277in Sussex Police area are closed. Prisoners already in custody have been transported to neighbouring force facilities, but until further notice only essential arrests are to be made until the situation is clarified.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Chief Constable
‘What the hell …? I’ll get back to you ASAP.’ He ended the call and immediately called ACC Mills.
‘Gary, how can I help?’ said Leon, sounding much more like his usual self.
‘Have you seen this email about custody? What the hell are we supposed to do?’
‘I know, it’s a bit of a pickle. Just bear with us and we’ll sort something.’
‘With respect, sir, it’s not as easy as “bear with”. I’ve got officers attending calls as we speak and my money is on most of those ending in an arrest. We can’t just ask people to pop back when we’re open again.’
‘Gary, we are dealing with this and, for your ears only, the force maintenance contract and vehicle recovery contract have been suspended too. It’s hell up here so do what you can. Phone round other forces, voluntary interviews, you know the drill.’ Gary pressed to end the call, if only to stop himself detonating his career with a reflex response.
He messaged all the inspectors and chief inspectors to attend an emergency meeting.
Ten minutes later, the three of them walked in.
‘Right. We know that custody is closed, so the second this meeting is over I’m contacting Reigate and Portsmouth to let them know to expect our prisoners …’
‘But boss,’ said the chief inspector. ‘That’s a three-hour round trip to either. We’ve next to no one on duty anyway, so what are we going to do when they all bugger off to Surrey and Hampshire?’
Gary shrugged. ‘Have you got a better suggestion?’
The inspector who’d called him earlier then spoke. ‘I’ve got two units at 278RTCs and no one is available to recover the cars. So that’s the Mill Road roundabout and the Rottingdean traffic lights gridlocked.’
‘Jesus,’ said Gary. That was two of the busiest junctions blocked, effectively cutting off most of the city.
The second inspector chipped in. ‘And undertakers too. I’ve had a PC at a sudden death for three hours and no one will come out. It’s bad on us but worse for the families.’
This was a new one on Gary. ‘Why won’t they come out?’
The inspector shrugged. ‘Comms say they can’t get hold of anyone but they’ll keep trying.’
‘Good God. Is there anything else I don’t know about?’
They shook their heads.
‘Great. I need to make some calls,’ said Gary, gathering his papers while trying to figure out where the hell this was heading.