Dangerous Games

Chapter 6 part 1

I was whistling when I arrived at work the next day. Contrary to my expectations, I'd had a nightmare-free night. Perhaps it was the effect of the delightful Constable Ogden. Anyway, whatever the cause, I was quite happy to see the odious Superintendent Sugden. In fact, I even sought the man out.

I knocked on the office door, and was sensible enough to wait for a bark of "Come in" before entering. The Inspector would have been happy with me - with anyone - walking straight in after knocking, but something told me Sugden would not tolerate such lack of decorum.

"Sorry to bother you, sir, but I thought you would like to know how it went yesterday in Bradford."

The man was clearly none the wiser. "What are you talking about, Prat-chard?"

I was getting used to his nasty little play on words. In his presence, I was even starting to think that my name really was Prat-chard.

"You asked me and Constable Ogden to go and interview that girl who'd spoken to the press, sir?"

"Oh, yes. I remember. And what was the result?"

For once, Charlotte Fleming's unhelpful nature and general surliness might actually prove useful. I certainly intended to play it to best advantage to keep Sugden as much in the dark as possible.

"Well, the girl didn't have much to say for herself, but she did admit that they'd spoken to a reporter who'd gone away and made most of the stuff up."

"So the whole thing's a load of rubbish, then."

"Yes, sir."

"Of course it's a load of rubbish, Prat-chard. I've known that from the start. Mystical portals into some faraway world? Honestly! Do you think I'm a simpleton? The fact remains, utter tripe or not, that story is still doing the rounds. In fact, your escapades yesterday just seem to have made the situation worse, if anything!"

There was no way to win against this guy. He sat down with a resigned thud in his chair, picked up the day's copy of the Daily Mail and slid it across the desk in my direction. "You're on the inside pages today."

I hurriedly flicked through the paper and my eye fell on the headline "Police confirm ghost theory." I read on in increasing disbelief.

"Sir! This is utter nonsense. Neither Constable Ogden nor I said any of those things."

"Whether you did or not, the newspapers think that you did and that's the material point. You'll see they've even included more crap from those two damn Patel parents. Now, is there anything of use you can tell me about the girl?"

"Well, she's some school drop-out. You know the type - sits around at home picking her nose all day, then makes up some story about something she's read or seen or been told about. Then she tells her mother and probably her friends too. All it takes is one person to believe her and ring the papers."

"So the whole thing was a bust. I see. Well, in that case, you can help with the finger-tip search. While you and what's-her-name were swanning around in Yorkshire, we were doing something useful down here, actually trying to find that girl! Now I'm going to assign you to Sergeant Gower's team, where you won't be able to cause any more trouble."

"Yes, sir."

"You'll find him hard at work sorting through the rubbish bags down at Lakeside House. I suggest you get over there and give him a hand."

And so I found myself spending the rest of the day sorting through the assorted contents of various large metal dumpsters back at Lakeside. The message was obvious - I was on punishment detail, for sins committed. Although what those sins were, I had no idea. I had done everything that Sugden had asked of me, quickly and with no hint of complaint. Sergeant Gower hadn't been the slightest bit surprised when I turned up.