In my novel " An Ordinary Life" Tom Houseman gets the feeling that the police have been responsible for the shooting of his friend. The detective denies this when they meet.
" The door opened and Detective Inspector Henderson walked in. Tom was immediately silent.
Marlene almost snarled. “ What do you want?”
Henderson smiled slightly. “ I am here investigating the shooting of a man on my patch. It does not matter who that man is or what he has done. The police will investigate any attempted murder.”
“ Even though you might be the reason why he is here?” Tom asked evenly.
It was obvious that Henderson was far from pleased with Tom’s question. “ What are you insinuating professor?”
Tom did not hesitate or hold back his feelings.“ You employed the oldest police course of action in making sure that your questioning of Derek Jones was given the greatest amount of publicity possible. It has been obvious for a long time that the police can influence the way the public thinks by controlling the way in which stories are reported. If those people taken in for questioning do not have the means to counter your slant on the story until they are released, the polices’ version of events is entrenched in peoples’ minds.”
Henderson looked hard at Tom. “ You had better be careful what you say Tom Houseman. Are you accusing me of trying to stitch you up?”
Tom grinned. “ Not really accusing you of having the intention of getting me sacked from the university but that is the direct result of your arresting me a few months ago. You are not so thick that you had no inkling of what would result from your actions that day.”
Henderson looked as though he was going to hit Tom. “ I can assure you that was not my intention at all. I am sorry that you lost your job though it will not make much difference to your way of life will it?”
“ If you mean financially, no.” Tom spread his hands. “ There is also the subject of reputation. I remember in Nigeria the morning Ken Sira Wawa was executed telling my companion that that could not happen in England. I did add however that the police could make somebody’s life hell by hinting at things. He did not believe me at the time. He does now.”
“ I will speak to you again later,” he said to Marlene, glowered at Tom and turned on his heel to leave the room."
An Ordinary Life by Edmund Gubbins available from Amazon and www.createspace.com as a paperback and Kindle and www.smashword.com as an ebook to download.
No comments:
Post a Comment