“What the hell did you think you were doing, Officer Powell?” asked Mike Trethowan, Firearms Cadre superintendent, and Nerys’s immediate boss.
“Using my initiative, sir,” said Nerys Powell. She had changed from the tracksuit bottoms and hoodie top into jeans and a crisp white blouse and black wind cheater, and she was managing to put a brave face on things so far, Banks thought. She looked scared, but she had been unshakable in her conviction that she had done the right thing. If she had to go down, she might try to take a few of the enemy with her.
Chambers gave a “God save us all from initiative” sigh. “All right,” he said, “why don’t you just start from the beginning?”
Nerys glanced at Banks, who tried to keep a neutral expression on his face. “I overheard DCI Banks taking a call on his mobile, sir,” she said. “When he was out in the corridor. I was in one of the empty offices opposite, just hanging around and waiting.” She gave Chambers a dirty look. “There’s been a lot of pointless hanging around with this investigation going on. You never know when they’re going to call you back in to go over some minor detail again. They never tell you anything. Anyway, I couldn’t hear what the person at the other end was saying, but DCI Banks mentioned his daughter’s name and repeated the name of a school in Harehills, and he seemed nervous and furtive. DCI Banks, I mean, sir. He seemed upset, and at one time he threatened the caller. I knew that his daughter was missing, and that the man suspected of abducting her was armed.”
“Did you know the location of this school? Did it mean anything to you?”
“No. But I grew up in Leeds. I know where Harehills is.”
“Yes, yes, we know where you grew up,” said Chambers. “Go on.”
“DCI Banks left hurriedly, and I suspected he might have made some…er…private arrangements to help his daughter. Not that I’m blaming you, sir,” she said to Banks.
“I’m relieved,” said Banks dryly.
Nerys narrowed her eyes at him, as if she couldn’t make up her mind whether he was acting as a friend or enemy. Banks wasn’t too sure himself. He needed to listen to all this, Nerys’s side especially, before he planted his feet down firmly anywhere. “Anyway,” she went on, “as I said, I knew that Jaffar McCready was armed and DCI Banks wasn’t. I also knew that DCI Banks wouldn’t call in the FSU because of his daughter, that he’d want to try and settle this himself, somehow try to take advantage of the situation, overpower McCready, if possible. I thought it involved an incredible risk, sir, so I…well…”
“You decided to ride shotgun,” said Trethowan.
Nerys glanced from Chambers to her boss. “I suppose so, sir.”
“What do you mean, you suppose so? How else would you describe what you did?”
“Well, sir, I was following my gut instinct, taking an initiative. Here was an unarmed man, a fellow police officer, going up against someone we already knew had no qualms about pulling the trigger on a cop.”
“This wasn’t anything to do with revenge for what happened to DI Cabbot, was it, Officer Powell?” Trethowan asked sternly.
Nerys blushed deep red. “I resent that, sir.”
“Whether you resent it or not isn’t the issue. Was DI Cabbot on your mind at all when you went chasing after DCI Banks?”
“I won’t say I didn’t think of what McCready did to her. But you’ve got no-”
“If your sexual feelings for Annie Cabbot clouded your judgment,” said Chambers, with obvious relish at the image, and a hard glint in his piggy eyes, “then we have every right to question your actions and motives. You had a crush on her, didn’t you?”
“Ladies, gentlemen,” said ACC McLaughlin, holding up his hand, “this line of attacking Officer Powell on the basis of her sexual preference will get us precisely nowhere in our unofficial adjudications, and nor should it. Whether the officer in question had feelings for DI Cabbot or not isn’t the issue here, nor is the nature of those feelings. The issue is what she did and what we’re going to do about it. Carry on, PC Powell.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Nerys. Sufficiently chastised for the moment, Trethowan and Chambers slumped into a sullen silence as she took a sip of water and went on. “I followed DCI Banks to Harehills, and there I observed his daughter Tracy and Jaffar McCready get into the back of his car. It seemed as if McCready was clutching a gun in a hold-all he was carrying.”
“But you couldn’t actually see the firearm?” asked Trethowan.
“Not at that point, no, sir. But I knew he was-”
“Very well. That’s all I need to know.” Trethowan looked to Chambers. “Go on.”
“How did you know who they were?” Chambers demanded.
“Well, I didn’t think he was picking up hitchhikers,” said Nerys.
Chambers reddened.
“That’ll be enough of that,” said Trethowan.
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.” She glared back at Chambers, who was the first to avert his gaze.
“Did you have any idea at this point what you were going to do?” asked Detective Superintendent Gervaise. “Had a plan of any kind formed in your mind?”
“No, ma’am. All I knew was that McCready was armed, that he’d shot Ann-DI Cabbot-and that he had DCI Banks and his daughter hostage.”
“And wouldn’t it have made perfect sense right then and there to call me?” said Trethowan. “Or someone in authority? There are procedures to be followed, you know. Protocol. Why didn’t you call me, or Superintendent Gervaise, with your suspicions about DCI Banks’s course of action?”
“I know I should have done, sir,” said Nerys, “and I have no excuse. But sometimes you just have to think on your feet, and think fast. In my judgment, there wasn’t time for protocol, for getting the necessary wheels in motion. I didn’t have my mobile, for a start, and I would have lost them if I’d stopped to fill in all the necessary forms. Calling in the cavalry would have alerted McCready that we were on to him. I considered him armed and dangerous, and the last thing he needed was to feel that he was surrounded by armed police. There was always a chance that drugs were involved, too. They tend to make people jittery and unpredictable, as turned out to be the case.”
“He’d been snorting cocaine on the journey,” said Banks.
“So you discharged your weapon in a public parking lot,” said Trethowan, ignoring Banks. “A motorway service station. Risking injury to God knows how many innocent men, women and children.”
“I targeted Jaffar McCready, sir. I’m a good shot. The best in the unit. You know I am. And my weapon is accurate up to nearly a thousand yards. I was only three hundred yards away, at most.”
“And after you hit your target? Did you have any idea where the bullet would end up?” Chambers asked.
“I was at the top of a hill. From the angle of my shot, sir, I judged it would lodge itself in the body of the car behind McCready, which it did. Do you want to charge me with damaging private property, too, now, sir? I’ll see if my insurance will cover it.”
Trethowan thumped the table. “I’ve told you, Officer Powell. That’s enough of your bloody insolence. This is a very serious matter. Your career’s on the line. You’re not doing yourself any favors. Sarcasm won’t get you anywhere. Not with me and not with Superintendents Chambers or Gervaise or ACC McLaughlin. And we’re the ones holding your fate in the balance. Remember that. One more remark like that, and I’ll have you on disciplinary charges no matter what the outcome here this afternoon. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Nerys mumbled, head down.
“What happened when you got to the services car park?” Gervaise asked, pouring oil on troubled waters.
“I parked my car, ma’am. I’d checked out the surrounding area as best I could on my way in, and there was a slope just across the slip road. I could lie down just behind there unseen and get a direct line on DCI Banks’s car, and a good line of shot if it came to that. I wasn’t planning on shooting anyone. I didn’t want to alarm the public.”