Page 150 of The Mercy Chair

‘But he hanged himself.’

‘She alleges that by dredging up Nathan’s past, you committed a criminal offence. By forcing her husband to relive his time as a gay man you goaded him into suicide.’

‘Icommitted a criminal offence? He tried to cure his homosexuality by stoning someone to death.’

‘Nevertheless, she wanted you prosecuted under section two of the Suicide Act 1961. She said you should have completed a risk assessment before you visited her husband.’

‘Section two?’ Poe said. ‘I’m not familiar . . .’

‘Encouraging or assisting suicide, Poe!’ Bradshaw burst out, her frustration boiling over. ‘You could have been sent to prison forfourteenyears!’

‘That’s ridiculous,’ Poe said.

‘It is. And Professional Standards would ultimately have dismissed it out of hand.’

‘What’s the problem then?’

‘The problem, Poe, is that elements of her complaintdidhave merit.’

‘How?’

‘They found that by ridiculing Mrs Rose’s religious beliefs, youhadbroken the NCA code of conduct.’

Poe put his head in his hands and groaned. ‘The Björn Borg joke?’ he said.

‘The Björn Borg joke,’ Flynn confirmed.

‘But she wasn’t supposed to hear that.’

‘It doesn’t matter. She did. And what do you think she’ll find more palatable? That her husband was hounded to his death because of his religious beliefs, or he hanged himself because he was about to be arrested for murder. Which version of events allows her to hold her head high in church on Sunday?’

‘What do you mean, “did”?’ Poe said.

‘Excuse me?’

‘You said, “elements of her complaintdidhave merit”. “Did” implies they don’t have merit any more.’

‘That’s where they tested just how loyal Tilly was.’

Poe glanced at Bradshaw. Her head was low and her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably. He looked away. She wouldn’t want him to see her crying like that. Realisation dawned. He slowed his speech and took care with his response. ‘They blackmailed her, didn’t they?’ he said, anger creeping into his voice anyway. ‘They told her that if she did what they asked they’d see to it that the complaint disappeared.’

‘As good as,’ Flynn confirmed. ‘They said that although they couldn’t make it go away, they would make sure you kept your job and your rank.’

Bradshaw looked up. Her eyes were red and brimming. ‘If I didn’t do what they wanted, they said you couldn’t be a police officer any more, Poe.’

‘As soon as Tilly agreed to work for them, Professional Standards decided the legitimate element of Mrs Rose’s complaint could be dealt with by management action. I’ve spoken to Van Zyl and he will explain that your behaviour fell short of the expectations set out in the NCA code.’

‘That’s it? No other sanction?’

‘You also have to attend counselling.’

Poe swallowed a string of profanities. ‘I don’t need counselling,’ he said irritably. Bradshaw and Flynn exchanged a look. ‘But fine, I’ll do what I’m told,’ he added before it could escalate. ‘Have we been reassigned yet?’

‘We have.’

‘Bad?’

Flynn nodded. ‘Until you have a clean bill of health, you’ve been posted to the training unit.’

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