STORYBOARDS : Part 2

"Ignore them!" Debbie sits down.
"I'm quite happy if they think I'm making a move." Apparently, the truth is much more embarrassing. Eddie goes on to say how he could do with a mate who knows the newest points of law, like Debbie as she's not long been out of Hendon, as he's been out of the loop for a while.
"There are a lot of stories going round about you, Eddie. But noone's got you down as a networker!"

Reg is still going on about this island. "If you arrive at the island by boat, they drop you at the bottom of a cliff and you get taken into the main town on the back of a donkey."
"I know how the donkey must have felt," groans Polly, obviously not interested.
"Do you think he's in with a chance?" Tony nods at Eddie and Debbie.
"Search me. I had Debs down at 20-1 against, but, well, after all that business with Nick Slater..." ponders Dave.
"...You'd have to tear up the form book," Tony finishes.
"All bets are null and void when it comes to women with depraved taste."
"Still, I've got a soft spot for old Debs. I wouldn't want to see her in the hands of a total scroat."
"You've got nothing against him, apart from gossip," Polly interrupts.
"Ah yeah, but he was a little suspect about his origins. I mean, saying to be Italian when he's Greek," pipes up Reg.

Rod's out again, off to visit Tony Vale, who's still boarding up his windows.
"Can't say I didn't warn you."
"I'm busy."
"The Robbins boys did this, didn't they?"
"Not your problem."
"Make a statement, Tony. Dump on them properly, do the world a favour, as well as yourself."
"They'll get dumped on, don't you worry." Tony keeps looking round, making sure that noone sees him talking to a police officer. "Now can you leave me be. I've got company coming."

"Canley Road," Eddie reads from the map. They back out in the Panda.
"Yep. Main artery for the ground."
"They seem a decent enough bunch on the relief."
"Oh yeah! You could do a lot worse."
"Bloke I knew was at Hendon with Tony Stamp. Been here a while hasn't he?"
"Yeah."
"Well thought of is he?"
"Diamond geezer. You can't go far wrong with Tony on your side."
"Debbie Keane seems a smart kid. Lot of commitment to the job."
"Right, that's what you were talking about. The job," laughs Dave. "We had the silly idea that you were inviting her to play hide the sausage."
"No, these are the days of equal opportunity, Dave. If I didn't establish friendly relations with female colleagues, it might get around that I'm a sexist."
"Right. Rapists, flashers, serial killers, toms, rent-boys. We've had them all here."
"What on the relief?" jokes Eddie.
"No, no, you prat. Canley fields."
"Oh, right."
"Heart and lungs of the Borough of Canley, according to the leisure and libraries department. They don't usually mention all of the other organs."
Ed continues following the map. "Speaking in personal terms, Dave, what would Debbie's situation be?"
"You'll have to ask her that yourself, if you're interested Eddie. As far as I'm concerned, she's a friend. One of the team."
"I hear what you're saying."

It's dark and Reg and Debbie have come across Tony Vale and his mates hitting some railings with a baseball bat.
"Oi, what are you doing," shouts Reg.
"Just pratting about," answers Tony.
"This your property, is it?"
"No, but we weren't doing any harm. They're only railings"
"Never mind "They're only railings". Leave council property alone in future."
"Yeah, sorry."
"What are you doing carrying that bat around?"
"Oh, we were just on our way to have a game."
"Got a ball then?" questions Debbie. Tony gets one out of his pocket.
"We're going to the park."
"Well, don't go swinging that bat around in public," continues Reg. "You'll find yourself in trouble. Get on your way."
"Okay. No problem"
"Well they didn't give us any lip," Reg says to Debs, as the youths pass them.
"No, too crafty."
"Well, we can't pull'em for that."

Dave stops the Panda car. "Thing about this relief is that you know where you stand with all of them. Even Reg. Alright, he may be a bit of a pillock. Maybe better than a public address system when it comes to spreading information, but...he wouldn't drop a mate in it. Not when it comes to the crunch."
"What you're saying is that I'm not part of the culture club until you know whether I'll do the business. That's fair enough."
"It's more than that, Eddie. We'll all here 'cause we want to be here. We haven't been knocked back from somewhere else."
"Right, yeah. I suppose I should of known that my history would have got here before I did."
"Well, I expect you've got your own version."
"What's on the grapevine, then? Give it to me straight."
"Alright. The story is that you put in for CID and your DI from the Crime Squad got you blown out because he didn't trust you. So, what do you say, Eddie?"
"Well, it's the truth...as far as it goes, but it's a long way from being the whole truth. You mind if we get some air?"
"No." They get out walk along the docks again.
"It was CID I was interested in from the word go in this job. I wanted to investigate crime, Dave, yeah, I wanted to be out of uniform. I wanted to have a lot more control over my time. I loved it on the Crime Squad. I mean, we got all the gutty jobs, house to house enquiries but I was learning the trade. That was fair enough. And I was learning from some very smooth operators. CID at my old nick, they'd been there, done it and got the T-shirt. So I thought, yeah, this is it. I put in to be made a Trainee Investigator. I want some of this. And I started to put my storyboards together."
"You what?"
"What you have to do is, you choose ten cases you've been involved with and for each one you construct what you call a storyboard. Now, the storyboard shows how the case developed: what the key elements were; the offence, the evidence, witnesses, suspects, methods of investigation, result. But it's not strictly official version. It's your version. And you're judged on whether you've shown the right grasp of the investigative process."
"So who decides?"
"Storyboards go up to Area for assessment. So there I am right, reviewing these cases, and I just start noticing a few things that I hadn't realised at the time. Now, we're talking about a busy South London nick here, so a lot of the work is drug related. So I'm thinking, yeah we raided that crack house, or that blues clubs or that pub, sure, but I saw the DCs and DSs rubbing down the dealers, and they were seizing twice the amount of gear that was put in the reports."
"What selling it on?"
"That's what I guessed, through their snouts."
"Yeah, well. It has been known. So what did you do?"
"I talked to the DI. I mean, you know maybe I misunderstood. Maybe I'm making a prat of myself. So the DI says, "Have you got any evidence of this other than what you remember seeing," and I said, "No Guv'." He said, "You're a good lad. You leave this with me. I'll deal with it. None of this has to go in your storyboards. It's not what's wanted." Right? So, I put in my ten storyboards, and I've got to say that they were immaculate, Dave. Textbook stuff."
"And you still got blown out."
"The DI had an old mate at Area. I found out later. He must have put the mockers on it behind the scenes. I was knocked back into uniform and they said it'd be more comfortable for me if I moved to another division. So it's true. The DI didn't trust me: he didn't trust me not to blow the whistle."
"Well did you make a complaint."
"No. I've got nothing to back it up with. All I'd be doing is to make sure that my card was marked publicly instead of on the quiet."
"So you just kept your head down?"
"Had no choice. Put it down to experience. But I'm sticking with uniform now, Dave. As far as I'm concerned CID are bananas: they're bent, yellow and they hang around in bunches." Dave just laughs

June Ackland puts a call out over the radio. There's a group of youths fighting in the Larkmead. As the calvary arrives Ian Robbins yells, "Get stuck in Chris," who hits Tony Vale with a baseball bat. Meanwhile the relief are too busy apprehending the others to give chase. Eddie and Dave arrive towards the end of it, when one of them is threatening Polly. He drops his weapon as Eddie comes up from behind and cuffs him. "You're body," Ed says as he pushes the guy towards Polly. "You alright with him?"
"Yeah." Polly doesn't sound too pleased,
"I'll catch up with Dave then."
Dave's busy chasing Ian Robbins into an alley. At first, he thinks that he's lost him and picks up a piece of wood of the floor. Then Ian runs past him ad straight into Eddie. He denies dropping the piece of wood. Dave arrests him for carrying an offensive weapon.

Back of the station, Eddie's yet again the subject of conversation. Tony makes a comment about him doing rather well for an Italian.
"Tony, I told you. He is Greek," Reg just won't back down on this one.
"Is he hell Greek."
"Look. As far as I'm concerned, he didn't do anything that clever. I had the situation in hand. I wouldn't have minded if he stayed out of it," Polly complains.
"It's your name down on the sheet. I don't see what you're moaning about."
"Nothing. Forget it." Polly walks off.

Eddie and Dave are booking the prisoner in.
"I saw the prisoner leave the scene of the affray, carrying a piece of wood," Dave tells Sgt. Cryer. "He never left my sight until he dropped the piece of wood and then attempted to take refuge in the front garden of a house. He ran out the front garden when I approached, failed to stop when requested to do so and then PC Santini stopped him."
"That's rubbish!" remarks Ian.
"Yeah hold on. You'll get your turn," Bob tells him.
"When I put the offence to him, the prisoner denied it," finishes Dave.
"I only arrived at the scene when the piece of wood was in PC Quinnan's possession," Ed says.
"Yeah, an' it was never in mine. If I put my hands up for possessing an offensive weapon, I'll get what? A caution. I'm not doing it. I'm going for a jury trial. I wanna see what a jury makes of this. His word against mine."
Eddie interrupts. "I think I can help here, Sarge. Although didn't pursue the prisoner, I did see him with a piece of wood at the scene of the original affray, when we first arrived."
"You lying pig!"
"I've already told you."

The relief are relaxing in the pub at the end of the shift,
"Listen, it turns out he is Italian," Reg finally agrees.
"We all know that!" Polly reminds him.
Eddie and Dave are busy getting the drinks in at the bar.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Well, you can ask, Dave."
"Did you really see Ian Robbins at the scene with that lump of wood?"
"Did he really never leave your sight?"
"That's what it says in the evidence."
"Well, there's you answer." Eddie winks.