Coming, Ready or Not (D.S. Hunter Kerr Book 4) by Michael Fowler Read Free Book Online Page A

eighteen months previously when they had met in a bar. Three months into the relationship he had moved in with her. Her first contact with the police to report a domestic incident was in September of last year, after they had both been out drinking in Barnwell town centre, and upon their return home he had begun shouting and swearing at her for no apparent reason. This had been repeated a month later, and on both occasions the police had attended and warned him as to his conduct. On the latter occasion they had made the decision to escort him from the house, taking him to his parents’ home, where he had slept off his drunkenness. In January and February of this year, Gemma’s neighbour, Valerie Bryce, the lady who had called in the previous night’s stabbing, had telephoned the police after hearing Gemma’s cries, and Adam Fields’ aggressive behaviour, through the adjoining walls of their houses. She also reported that she had seen bruising to the upper regions of Gemma’s arms. On all those occasions Gemma had refused to make any official complaint. Hunter noted that the compulsory Multi Agency Risk Identification Form had been completed for each three incidents and the PPU Sergeant had made the assessment – ‘standard’ risk level. As he took a break from reading, to make a cup of tea, he pondered over the judgement and re-visited the sequence of events inside his head. As he dunked the teabag he came to the conclusion that given these circumstances he would have made the same call.
    Upon returning to his desk he picked up the report containing the details of the a ttack upon Gemma five days earlier. The events of that incident were more comprehensively recorded and he slowly went through the narrative. He noted the following: on the night of the assault, Gemma and Adam had visited a number of town centre bars and the pair had come home in a drunken state. She reported that she had gone to bed and quickly fallen asleep but had been woken up by him standing over the bed accusing her of having an affair with a man she had chatted with earlier that evening. She had got out of bed and told him to leave and he had started packing a bag. While in the middle of this, without warning, he turned on her, grabbed hold of her jaw and pinned her against the bedroom wall, banging her head. He had slapped her face and then punched her on the cheek. She had retaliated by kneeing him in the groin, making him release his grasp. She had then fled down the stairs, making her escape to the next door neighbour’s house, where she had called the police. By the time uniform officers had arrived Adam Fields had bolted. Everything else was as Detective Tom Hagan had explained; Fields was arrested the next day at the gym he used, and when interviewed had put Gemma’s injuries down to a drunken fall – she had banged her face against the coffee table. As there were no independent witnesses Adam Fields had been bailed pending a medical examination of Gemma’s injuries.
    As Hunter pushed the papers to one side and rubbed the tension away from his temples, he let out a deep sigh. The report showed that the actions of every officer involved had been carried out to the letter. It seemed his suspicions of any irregularities by Detective Tom Hagan were unfounded and yet something was still nagging deep in the depths of his consciousness.
     
    - ooOoo -

C HAPTER FOUR
    Day Three : 20th March.
     
    ‘Heads up everyone, latest intel is that Adam Fields has acquired a gun,’ Detective Superintendent Dawn Leggate announced as she walked to the front of the room. ‘A man from the gym Adam uses, came forward late yesterday afternoon with this information.’ She halted in front of the incident board and swept her fringe to one side. ‘He hasn’t seen the gun but he’s given us the name of the guy who’s supplied it. So this raises the status of his arrest and therefore later this morning I’ve a briefing with the Tactical Support Unit. We