What Will Burn by James Oswald (ebook reader web .txt) 📕

‘Witches?’ Gary asks, earning himself a puzzled look from the others.

‘All women are witches, Gary. Thought you’d know that. Of all people.’ Fielding puts a fatherly arm around his shoulder and steers him towards the door. ‘Come on, you lot. Let’s go get a beer, shall we?’

18

‘You paid a visit to that fathers’ rights bloke, didn’t you?’

Detective Sergeant Janie Harrison looked up from her desk to see who had spoken, saw the duty sergeant standing in the doorway. ‘Aye, what of it?’

‘We’ve just had a report of a disturbance. Bunch of protesters broke into the meeting and started screaming at everyone there, apparently.’

Janie sat up straighter, resisting the urge to glance at the clock on the wall. She’d been filling the time to shift end going over the Cecily Slater case notes for perhaps the thousandth time, but now she could see both that and an early night slipping from her grasp.

‘Who’s attending?’ she asked.

‘Uniforms out of Torphichen Street mostly. It’s a bit of a mess, way I hear it. You know what these angry feminists can be like.’ The duty sergeant’s brain caught up with his mouth and he shrugged away his embarrassment. ‘No offence.’

Janie wondered how it would go down if she told him that actually yes, there was considerable offence. Reg was a time-served sergeant, close to retirement, old school and very much set in his ways. She might have been the same rank as him now, and as a detective sergeant the senior officer in the room, but given she’d only been a detective sergeant for a few weeks, it was a point she thought best let go.

‘Who’s in charge over there?’ She picked up her phone and notebook, both lying on the desk beside her keyboard.

‘Kenny Stephen, I think. No’ really something plain clothes need to be involved in, but I thought you’d want to know. Seeing as you were there before.’

He was right. There was no need for her to get involved at all. The hotel wasn’t far from her flat though, or at least it was a good deal closer than the station. And it wasn’t all that long until shift end.

‘I’ll just pop over and see what’s happening all the same. It’s on the way home, and chances are Fielding will be bending the ear of anyone he can find. Better to be one step ahead, aye?’

The duty sergeant raised an eyebrow but said nothing more as Janie gathered the rest of her things together and turned off her computer. He stood aside to let her leave the room, and only then did she remember her manners, or rather that it was always a good idea to be nice to the duty sergeant, however misogynistic he might be.

‘Thanks for the tip-off, Reg. I owe you one,’ she said, but hurried away before he could make good on her offer.

By the time Janie reached the hotel, there was nothing left but a pair of squad cars parked on a double yellow line. A uniformed constable stood a few paces from the front door, chatting with Detective Constable Blane. With his back to her, Lofty didn’t notice she was there until she tapped him on the arm.

‘What the—?’ He whirled around in surprise, almost clocking her on the side of the head. ‘Jesus, Janie. What’re you doing creeping up on me like that?’

‘You got my message then?’ she said, to cover her alarm. It was one thing to know the detective constable hadn’t meant her any harm, quite another to still feel the rush of air on her face as a hand not much smaller than her head brushed past it with millimetres to spare.

‘Aye. Was heading home, but I figured this must be important. Davey here was telling me they’ve got it all under control, mind.’ Lofty waved his dangerous hand at the uniformed constable, and Janie recognised one of her old colleagues hiding under his hat and cold weather gear.

‘Hey, Janie. How’s it goin’? Hear you made sergeant now so I s’pose I should call you ma’am.’

‘Funny, Dave. How about you just let me know what happened.’

‘Well, you know that bloke Tommy Fielding’s here, right? Giving talks about men’s rights and all that stuff?’

‘Aye, Davey. I spoke with him a while back. And the protesters outside. Seemed peaceful enough, if a bit loud and smelly. I don’t need the full story, just where you came in.’

‘We got a call from hotel security maybe an hour, hour and a half ago? Some of the protesters had managed to get in through a fire door round the back. Fielding was talking to a group of maybe a hundred or so in the main conference room when they all burst in and started screaming.’

‘Screaming?’

‘Aye, that’s what it was. They didn’t do anything violent. Didn’t break furniture or try to hurt anyone, like. They were just wailing at the top of their lungs. Proper banshee stuff, y’know? Security dragged them out best they could, but it ruined the event.’

‘My heart bleeds for them. Where are the protesters now?’

‘Some of them got away. Some the security guys threw out. Most of them had dispersed by the time we got here, but there’s a half-dozen had somehow managed to barricade themselves in a smaller function room. They’ve been taken off to your nick, seeing as ours doesn’t have enough holding cells any more.’

‘Ah well, I guess that’ll keep Reg happy. Suppose I’d better go and speak to Mr Fielding again. Then I can go home and have a shower to wash the dirt off.’

‘He’s no’ that bad,’ the constable said.

‘Aye he is. Worse. He’s the reason women can’t go out on their own after dark. He’s the reason we have to think twice about what we wear and who we talk to. It’s people like him putting stupid ideas into young men’s heads that means I spend half of my life interviewing victims of domestic violence and lying