Page 20 of Copper Script
Joel blinked at him.“You mean that?You’d speak on my behalf?”
“Not as a character witness,” Fowler said, perhaps a touch bitchily.“But Paul told me in so many words that he bedded another lady before writing to his fiancée.I’m not going to deny that on the stand— You thought I would.”His face changed as he said that.“You came here because you thought I’d, what, refuse to tell the truth?Claim that he never said it?Perjure myself in court?”
“I wondered,” Joel said, a little defensively.“He’s your cousin.The police lie.”
Fowler started to say something.Joel distinctly heard the fricative of anFfffbefore he stopped himself, jaw muscles tightening visibly.“I do not lie on oath.If I’m called I will tell the truth.”
That rather cut the legs from under Joel’s grievance.“Right.Yes.Well, thank you.I, er, didn’t mean to insult you.”
“You didn’t think insulting my professional integrity would insult me?”
The budding efforts at peacemaking instantly withered.“As it happens, I have personal experience of the Metropolitan Police in the witness box, and maybe you’re an honest copper but I can assure you, the one who testified against me wasn’t.I suppose everyone who is accused of anything insists that the policeman lied, but this onedid.And if that leaves me with a prejudice against the police, I’m sorry to hurt your feelings, but that does tend to happen when you screw people over.”
“It doesn’t help you to assume bad intent of an entire group based on an experience with one man.”
“That’s true if you say it about Jews, or Greeks, or redheads,” Joel said.“I don’t think it applies to people who choose to do a particular job.Come off it, Detective Sergeant.You don’t believe there’s any corrupt police?”
“I know very well there are,” Fowler said, clipped.“A small minority.People love to say that one bad apple spoils the whole barrel, but I would say that most of my colleagues do a difficult job with dedication and good intent.If you encountered someone else—” He paused there for a second, then went on deliberately.“I am aware you were convicted.And of what.”
Of course he was.Of course he’d looked.Joel’s heart was thudding with a peculiarly unpleasant combination of fear and anticipation.“Are you.”
“You’re saying the charge was trumped up?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Do you actually want me to answer that?Because I will be obliged to go into details which you might not want to hear.”
“Go on.”
Joel shrugged.“Public lavatory.Minding my own business.A gentleman indicated I might want to suck his cock.It seemed like a good idea at the time and there was nobody else there, so I obliged him.He seemed to enjoy himself; he certainly made sure he finished before he arrested me.”
He’d been watching Fowler’s face as he spoke.It was unreadable, rigid.
“I objected on the obvious grounds, and he and his mate gave me a slapping about for it.Then when it came to trial, he stood up and assured the court he was innocently minding his own business when I accosted him.No possibility that he solicited me, and of course no mention of the part where he came in my mouth.My defence counsel advised me that my story would be an admission of gross indecency if they believed it, and slander of an upright servant of the public if they didn’t, so either way I’d be looking at a longer sentence than what I’d get for importuning, so I just had to sit there and take it.The judge gave me my two months as per, and the bastard smirked at me when I got taken down.”
Fowler contemplated his face for a long moment.“What’s his name?”
“Are you joking?Plenty of them do it.You know they do.Hanging around to entrap people—”
“I can’t stop that practice.But you’ve told me of a gross abuse of power, and if he’s done it once, he’ll do it again.Abuses are like mice: they don’t come in the singular.”He tipped his head, looking at Joel with a distinct challenge.“If you’re telling the truth you’ll know his name.”
“Constable James Sefton,” Joel said.“Big chap, brown hair.Marylebone Station.If he finds out I’ve been talking, he’ll probably come after me.”
“I can raise questions without naming you.Leave it with me.”
He actually sounded like he meant it.“Thanks,” Joel said, stifled.“That would—if you could do something about that—” Fuck.He wasn’t going to cry.Only, it had been so frightening and humiliating and shitty, and nobody had listened or cared at all.
The policeman was looking at Joel’s face closely.Too closely.He was going red, he could feel it, but he wasnotgoing to cry.
“I will look into it,” Fowler repeated very calmly.People probably found his deep voice soothing.“And I will also bear witness to Paul’s admission if that’s required, but first I will let him know that I’m ready to do so.If he goes ahead with a slander suit in the circumstances, he’s even stupider than I realised, and more to the point, he’ll need an equally stupid lawyer.Unless he has anything else to complain of?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then I don’t think you need worry.Now, what was this about Hollis?Slander isn’t generally a police matter.”
“That’s what I said.He turned up and made a lot of threatening noises on the theme of it being unwise to make unsupported allegations about my betters.He didn’t have anything else.Thereisn’tanything else.”
