Human Frailty, a Detective Mike Bridger novel (3 page)

They were wearing their Police issue stab
proof vests and carried all the necessary tools on their belts
should any danger present itself.

Steve felt bulletproof, his size and
training he thought would see him through most problems.

Gillian felt vulnerable; it was not because
she was a woman, but because she knew that her job and human nature
would someday put her in a situation that would be beyond her
capabilities. Because of this, she was always cautious and took
every precaution she could. Never take anything at face value, she
always told the new officers that she took under her wing.

She had been cautious this evening to park
down the street from the address, one thing she did not want was
someone to take a pot shot at them as they pulled into the
driveway. Better, to approach on foot and assess the situation.
Complacency could cause complications she did not need.

Steve had started to jog ahead a little as
they neared the address, eager to get inside and sort out the
situation, or maybe just get inside and warm up.

Just wear a jacket like every other normal
person, Gillian thought, as she upped her pace to keep Steve in
sight.

Steve was at the door knocking when she came
through the gate. She could see his defensive posture in the way he
held himself.

It is good to see you taking this seriously,
she thought. Although Steve had been in the job long enough to know
what he was doing, she still felt the need to watch out for him as
she would for anyone she worked with.

A shadow was plainly visible behind the
glass panel of the door.

"It's the police, open the door please",
Steve called. The shadow did not move.

Gillian came up the front stairs and stood
off to the side of the door and slightly behind Steve.

"Open the door, we need to check everyone is
alright", Steve said a little louder and more forcefully.

Gillian put her hand on the hilt of her
baton, feeling the hard reassurance in her hand. Her other hand
unclipped the fastening holding her pepper spray in its case. Never
be complacent. The shadow faded a little as if someone was backing
away from the door, retreating or retrieving a weapon, it was hard
to tell. Her breathing increased slightly.

"I know there is someone inside I can see
your shadow, open the door please or I will have to force it
open."

"Fuck off out of it, no one called you, we
don't need you here."

The voice was male, his speech slurred and
full of attitude.

"Open the door and let us be the judge of
that."

"Fuck off, I don't want you here and neither
does my Mrs."

"Can we speak with your wife?" Gillian
said.

"I told you to fuck off, do you not
understand what I'm saying piggy. Are you thick as pig shit or
something...? Ah ha, pig shit...ha ha."

Both Gillian and Steve heard the male
sniggering to himself as if he had said something funny.

"What do you want to
do?
”
Steve
asked Gillian.

"From the neighbor
’
s report it sounds as if it
was a pretty noisy fight, we have to make sure that the wife is
alright.... We're going to have to get inside", Gillian
replied.

Steve looked at the door; it was wooden with
a frosted glass panel at the top. There was only one lock, an old
Yale type. A front door only kept honest people out. It opened
inwards as all front doors do. "I can force this open pretty
easily, and then we go in and grab him first,” he said, already
tensing his body for the impact.

The voice behind the door continued to
snigger and yell obscenities.

Gillian used her radio to request another
patrol for backup.

Steve took a step back and delivered an
accurate blow with his size 11 boot to the area of the door
surrounding the lock. Inside the obscenities got louder as the door
gave way and swung inwards, catching Steve off guard.

Gillian’s mind was displaying everything in
slow motion; there was an eerie muffled silence in her ears. She
watched as Steve lost his balance and fell forwards into the
hallway and collided with a man mountain standing there in his
boxer shorts and an old white singlet. He was big, muscle turning
to fat, shoulder length hair hanging lank against his sweaty
neck.

"I told you guys to fuck off", the man
mountain said, holding his massive fists down by his waist.

Gillian looked down at Steve who was
desperately trying to regain his footing in the narrowness of the
hallway, and then back up at the man mountain. Blood covered his
dirty singlet. His scratched facet twisted into an angry sneer.
Small amounts of blood had already coagulated in clumps that looked
like red stubble on his chin.

It took less than a few seconds for her mind
to run through all the possibilities of what had happened for him
to be in the state he was and then calculate what was happening
now. In the same period, she had also assessed what was going to
happen.

She made her decision subconsciously,
watching as her arm came up in a fluid motion holding the small
blue canister of Oleoresin Capsicum spray. She watched as a small
stream of liquid arced across the gap between them and tracked
upwards towards the man mountain
’
s eyes. She saw the man mountain stagger
backwards slightly, and then his face went from an angry sneer to
that of surprise, then to that of a man in immense pain. His
massive hands came up to his eyes and he screamed.

She watched as Steve regained his
footing in slow motion and brought his shoulder up into the
man
’
s chest
forcing the air out of his lungs. The man mountain deflated and
fell to the floor curling up in a fetal position, holding his hands
over his eyes and screaming like a newborn child.

"Calm down you big baby", Steve said,
as he went to secure the man
’
s hands behind his back. "Pass me some
plastic cuffs Gill, I can't get this guys arms close enough behind
his back to put proper cuffs on."

Gillian looked down at Steve who was
struggling with the man's arms, his shoulders were so big and
inflexible they would not bend the right way. She looked up again
at the space that the man mountain had occupied and could now see
further down the dimly lit hallway. A small and frightened face
looked back at her from the darkness. It was a little girl; she
looked pale and ghostly in her white nightdress. Her face was
glowing in the darkness, radiating her fear from every pore in her
skin.

Gillian put out her hand and reached towards
her but the gap between them seemed impossible to bridge. Then the
expression on the girls face turned to that of indifference. Almost
as if, this regular occurrence did not faze her. Gillian's heart
twitched in her chest. This was probably was a very regular
occurrence in her short life. A life she would continue to live, as
she got older if the cycle was not broken.

The face disappeared back into the darkness
making Gillian question whether she had actually seen her at
all.

Her senses were coming back to her now,
noises invading the muffled silence, she could hear music playing
in another room, one of those American singers with the big bums,
Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, someone like that, singing about women power
or something, not really her style at all. The whole scene was
surreal.

"Gill, pass me those cuffs will you, I'm
having a wee bit of trouble here", Steve said, breathing heavily
with the exertion.

Brought back to reality Gillian reached for
the rear of her belt, retrieved two plastic cuffs, and handed them
to Steve. The cuffs were no more than your average plastic tie used
in all sorts of everyday situations. But they were also perfect to
secure a wrist too big for proper handcuffs

"Bloody stab vests, make it hard to breath
sometimes", Steve said, as he wrapped the ties around the man's
wrists and secured them together by pulling them tight. "There,
that's you nicked then big fella."

The sound of boots thumping on the pavement
outside made them both look towards the door. Two more uniforms
came into view. One of the officers had his hat on slightly askew;
the other was carrying his baton fully extended in his hand. The
poorly painted doorframe framed them both in a picture. The music
playing in the background along with the red and blue lights
blinking outside made it look like they were arriving at a bad
taste fancy dress disco.

"Looks like you two don't need the cavalry
after all, bloody typical, we miss out on all the fun", the larger
of the two officers said, as he took in the sight of the man
mountain lying face down in handcuffs.

"It's just what we do", Steve said, grinning
as he stood up and smoothed his trousers. He left the man mountain
lying on the floor sniveling quietly.

The officer looked at Gillian. "Do you
need us to do anything Gill?
”

"Thanks Brendan", Gillian said, regaining
some of her composure.” We have not seen the wife yet to see if she
is okay, I think there may be a little girl in the back room as
well. Could you and Darren go and have a look for us, we need to
get this lump back to the cells before he kicks off again".

"No problems", Brendan said, as he and
Darren pushed past the crowd of bodies in the hallway and
disappeared further into the house.

Steve had lifted the man mountain to his
feet and was leading him unsteadily out the door. His eyes shut
tightly, snot and tears streaking his face. Pepper spray was an
effective tool.

"The A team strikes again", Steve said, as
he pushed the man mountain into the back seat of the patrol
car.

The air outside was cold, the perspiration
steaming off their foreheads making it look like two friends
sharing a cigarette.

"It worked out Ok this time Steve, but we
were lucky," Gillian said. "We should have waited a little longer
for backup before kicking the door in".

"Come on Gill, we needed to get in there to
stop him hurting his wife more. We can't muck about with scum who
beat their wives". Steve slammed the car door shut, not bothering
to see if the man mountain was fully inside.

"He was standing behind the door talking to
us Steve, we knew where he was. A few more minutes would not have
hurt. When we work together your decisions affect me to you know. I
want to go home at the end of my shift, not to the hospital".

"Point taken Gill, but let me say one more
thing".

"What".

"You
’
re a bloody fast shot with the
spray... Partner", he smiled and thumped Gillian on the
shoulder.

It took more than an hour to book the man
mountain into the custody suite at Dunedin Central Police Station;
after-care was unavoidable whenever they subjected a person to a
liberal pepper spraying by the police.

According to the Senior Sergeant running the
cellblock, it served two purposes. The first was that it ensured
that the subject was not likely to have any unwanted side effects
from the spray, but the second and most important one in his book
was that it stopped them sniveling or screaming in pain, which made
his life a lot happier, and a happy Senior Sergeant made for a
happy workplace.

It turned out that man mountain's name
was Leon Sutcliffe, a 6 ' 6", 36 year old man of no substance. The
only record the police held for him was his
driver
’
s
license. He was unemployed; he did not suffer from any mental
illness or allergies. He was not thinking about harming himself,
and had never had any previous dealings with police. He lived in
rented accommodation with his de facto partner Tina Hamilton and
their daughter Lucy. He had been drinking that evening with his
partner but did not consider himself intoxicated, despite the reek
of stale alcohol coming from his breath.

He acknowledged that he had several minor
injuries to his face, but declined to say how they occurred. The
only statement he made to police was to say that they had it all
wrong.

"He went down without much of a fight after
that dose of spray you gave him", Steve said while filling in yet
another form.

Gillian did not reply.

Looking at the pile of forms in front of
him, Steve frowned. "Two hours of paperwork for ten seconds of
fun", he added without looking up.

"The face of that little girl in the
hallway....” Gillian said, "What she must have seen..., it's not
fair you know, the kids don't choose to be in that situation, I
blame it on the mother, she has the choice to leave. It's no
environment for children".

Gillian did not have kids of her own, she
had not even had a proper long-term relationship, there was no man
was willing to put up with her dedication to the job for long.
However, if she ever had children she knew damn well that their
welfare would come first.

"I just hope the wife is not to badly hurt",
she said.

"I think I can help you with answering that
question", Brendan said, walking into the office. He was still
carrying his baton fully extended in his hand. Darren followed him
into the room.

Gillian and Steve’s eyes went to the baton
questioningly.

"Brendan
’
s got his baton stuck again", Darren
said, looking back at Brendan. "It
’
s probably still full of seaweed
from your wee swim in the harbor the other day...., I told you to
strip it down and give it some lubrication, but would you
listen".

"I haven't had time yet", Brendan retorted,
looking sheepish.