It was safe to say the WPC Barbara Hardy was not a well liked woman. Not by her family (who had all but disowned her), not by her colleagues (who she had managed to either get up the noses of, fall out with or try to get into trouble) and certainly not with the criminal community in Preston. She was good at her job though, very meticulous and officious and liked to not give anyone an inch if she could help it. She had secured a lot of arrests and were it not for her attitude towards her colleagues she would surely have gained promotion long before now. But she didn't and over time all the enemies she made came back to haunt her.
Away from work Barbara still thought herself above the law and got herself into a few scrapes that certainly didn't help her career. Two speeding tickets. Two parking tickets. And on all occasions she thought because she was a cop she could get off them but, while that may have been the case for some, it wasn't for Barbara, people remembered how she had talked behind their back or gone over their heads and the tickets stuck. Then there was an assault charge that nearly happened after a brawl in a nightclub, it had blown over but some of her colleagues knew of it and the allegations it had racist overtones.
The set up was brilliantly orchestrated and executed. It had taken no little observation of Barbara's routine and involved quite a few people, all more than willing to help the organiser out. Barbara was walking back from the station after a ten hour shift, she was tired and looking forward to getting back to her house and catching up on some much needed sleep. Two teenage girls came up behind her noisily and she ignored them and it was only her policewoman's instinct that alerted her to something being wrong milliseconds after one of them had hooked Barbara's handbag and the two had ducked neatly into a side alley. Without thinking the blonde took off after them, unaware that once she was in the alley a refuse truck parked next to it started up and followed her in before stopping, very neatly blocking the rarely used street, to anyone that enquired it had just broken down.
The alley was flanked with disused buildings and warehouses, bins and bags scattered through it, all of this Barbara briefly registered as she pursued the girls. Just after a slight kink in the alleyway her pursuit came to a shuddering halt as her ankles hit the cord that was tied across the width of the alley. She had next to no time to react, she was going too fast and the trip was too unexpected, she got her hands up to protect herself a little but it was still a hard fall on the wet cobbles and it shook her as she lay face down on the surface. As she lay there trying to come to terms with the fall and what exactly had happened she heard heavy footsteps behind her and before she could react a pair of stiff handcuffs had been attached to her wrists behind her back.
This had all happened in the space of a few short seconds and as she shook of her daze and she realised she was cuffed she began to try and shout. That came to swift end when an orange ball gag was shoved in her mouth and the straps tied behind her back. She looked up and came face to face with her assailant.
She recognised Leroy Daley immediately, she should have she had arrested him twice, once planting evidence to make sure of the arrest. It was about this point that she realised that it had all been an elaborate trap and that she was pretty much helpless at his mercy. Leroy was an imposing figure at the best of time but here, in this deserted alley standing over the kneeling blonde he was especially intimidating. He was a wannabe gangster, black and thought he was smart. He was over six foot tall and well built, even did a bit of bodybuilding and he was flashing a toothy grin at Barbara.
"Save your noises bitch, I can't hear none, not with that handy gag in there. But I just bet you're making all kinds of threats and promises, aren't you? Well you better listen to what I gotta say first bitch."
He was too cool, too composed and that worried Barbara even more. The big man reached into his back pocket and plucked out a picture that he held under her nose.
"Recognise her copper?"
The picture was gruesome. It was a close up of a young woman with some major trauma to her face, there was bruises, stitches and cuts across the whole left side of her face. It was puffed up and swollen and it looked like she had been in a car wreck. There was something familiar about the face though.
"That, Officer Hardy, is Rosie Martin. You remember? The girl you had a screaming match with in the club a couple of weeks ago? The girl you called a stupid nigger". The girl you threatened and bullied in front of witnesses, including some of your colleagues. Seems like Rosie was attacked at the club last night. She was glassed with this."
Here he held up a clear plastic bag containing a shattered glass tumbler.
You were in the club last night. Rosie is willing to identify you as the assailant and best of all your fingerprints are all over this glass. So do I have your attention now, bitch?"
Barbara's mind was racing, she had been at the club last night by herself, had left by herself and had not seen the girl she had rowed with the time before. Leroy could see the blonde adding it all up in her head.
"Good isn't it? You will know better than me what'll happen to you. Best case, you lose your job, your pension and maybe you get a slap on the wrists. But that is pretty heavy Officer, beating and assaulting a black girl you were seen being racist to before? Maybe it's bad enough you'll get sent down and imagine how you'd fare inside. A pretty ex-cop in jail? You'd be easy meat girl, easy meat."
As he spoke Barbara had gradually stopped struggling. As a set up it was bloody good, she couldn't see any obvious holes in it, not if that glass did have her prints on it. And she knew there were plenty of her colleagues that would be only too please to take the case on and make sure it stuck.
"So what do you say Officer? If I take that gag out are you going to be a good little girl and not shout out or scream?"
She knew when she was outflanked and nodded her assent, her mind already thinking of some way out of this situation.
"That's Bullshit Leroy, and you know it! I didn't touch the bitch! What do you want?"
Once the gag was out she really struggle to contain her anger but the criminals cocksure smile was unshakeable, he knew that she knew she was in trouble here.
"No. I believe the words you were looking for Officer were, "Please Mister Daley, what can I do for you to help me out of this most unfortunate situation I am in". Weren't they Barbara?"
She was so used to being in charge, to having the power in situations, being helpless like this was a new experience for her and she almost cried in frustration. But she kept it together enough to give him a nod and agree.
"OK Leroy, Ok. Let's be reasonable, release me and we can discuss this and see if we can come to some agreement."
