She had the information they needed and they all knew it, but for some reason she being reluctant to talk. Brendan and Shirley had gone so far as to pick her up and lean on her in one of the interrogation rooms, playing the good cop/bad cop routine for all they were worth. Their reluctant informant was feeding them trivial things, obviously wanting to keep the main information for a time when she might need a favour.
In her guise as bad cop, Shirley had strongly hinted that a certain person might find themselves held in the remand centre for a few days if they didn't open up a bit, but this had been met with stony silence.
Shirley indicated to Brendan that she wanted a quiet chat with him, and the pair withdrew to the side of the room, with Shirley flicking off the recording equipment as she passed it.
"Brendan, we both know that she can give us the information we want. If we can get her to talk we can tick of half a dozen cases. Kudos for both of us. I think the time has come for a change of tactics. I want you to drop the nice cop routine and get really nasty. Physically nasty if you have to, but we have to get her to talk."
"Do you know how much trouble we'll be in if we rough her up? It's just not on."
"Do you realise how much trouble we'll be in if we don't do something about clearing the backlog of cases we've got. I've already had some nasty innuendos passed my way about our lack of progress. Anyway, as long as we don't leave bruises it'll be one against two with no other evidence available. By an odd coincidence this room has no camera right now. It was taken for repairs this morning. Strictly speaking we're not supposed to use this room, but I sort of forgot when we brought her in. And these rooms are soundproof in case you've forgotten. No-one will hear."
"Bullshit you sort of forgot. You had something in mind even before we picked her up. Just what do you intend?"
"I want you to show her what it's like to be raped," said Shirley blandly. "You'll have fun, she'll learn a valuable lesson and we'll get the information we need."