Chapter 7: Caught On Camera

‘Make any attempt to run and she’ll flatten you, put you in handcuffs and drag you out to the car. She’ll also make so much noise about it that the entire hospital will know about it.’

Gavin looked at Clair with a bit more respect. ‘I’ll behave, I promise.’ he said. Danny left the white coats and stethoscopes with Jake and the three of them walked out to Dannys car. As they walked, Danny told him, ‘If you’d been in handcuffs, we would have had to call for a marked police car to take you away.’

On the way to the station, as she had been instructed to, Clair asked Danny, ‘How did you discover it was him?’ ‘The hospital administrator had noticed an excessive quantity of drugs unaccounted for on that ward.’ Danny told her, knowing Gavin would be listening intently.

‘He asked me if I could do anything discretely, so I set up a camera in the room to watch the trolley. Unfortunately, I was otherwise engaged last week, so I didn’t see Gavin raid the trolley twice last week until a while afterwards. Although the video evidence should be enough, I wanted to catch him with the drugs on him if possible. That’s why I waited until today.’

At the station Clair told Sergeant Gately, ‘I’ve arrested Mr Dunning for the theft of drugs from the hospital. He would like to make a statement.’ ‘Take him into interview room one,’ he told her, ‘You can do the interview, but wait until I send someone to sit in with you.’

‘Shouldn’t he be in handcuffs?’ the sergeant asked. ‘He’s been co- operative sergeant,’ Clair told him, ‘So I decided it wasn’t necessary.’ ‘That’s your decision to make,’ he said, ‘But it’s not a good thing to do regularly.’

As Clair took him through, Danny asked if he could use a room and then have access to a computer. ‘Go into interview room two,’ Andy told him. ‘Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll sort out a computer.’

Danny followed Clair through and discovered his room was next door. He sat at the table and opened the phone. First, he checked the text messages. He was soon convinced that Gavin wasn’t dealing. Then he went into the gallery of pictures.

He went through it and found hundreds of pictures. Eventually he came to a picture of two men kissing. But it wasn’t Gideon. He checked some more and discovered that Gavin had sixteen pictures that all looked as if they were taken at the same location.

They had all been taken on the evening of the same day. Danny thought about it, then transferred all sixteen to his own phone. After that, he deleted them all from Gavin’s phone, deleted the email he had just sent to himself and then cleared the recycle bin.

He continued going through the photos in Gavin’s phone and saw nothing untoward. Closing the phone down he went out into the corridor and waited. When Clair came out with Gavin, he handed her the phone and said, ‘I don’t believe that Gavin is dealing.’ Gavin looked very relieved.

Going back to the desk, there was a young PC with Andy. ‘Phillip here will find you a computer. he told him. ‘Danny shook hands with him. ‘Once he’s got into the computer, make sure he has everything he needs and then you can leave him to it.’ the sergeant told Phillip, who looked a bit surprised but led the way.

They went into an empty office which had several computers. ‘They should all open up for you ok,’ Phillip told him, ‘Although there will be some sections requiring a password.’ ‘I only want to make two copies of a video,’ Danny told him. ‘That shouldn’t be a problem,’ Phillip said.

‘Have you got discs?’ he asked. When Danny said. ‘No.’ he went over to a cupboard and returned with two. ‘Theres plenty more in that cupboard if you need them,’ he said. ‘Any problem, dial three for the desk sergeant.’ he told him pointing to the phone. ‘Thanks for your help.’ Danny told him.

After Phillip had gone, he logged in to the camera and made two copies of the video. Closing down the computer he went up to the canteen. Clair joined him soon after. ‘Here’s two copies of the video,’ he told her. ‘Give one to the custody sergeant to pass on to Gavin’s brief. The other one is for the court.’

‘Did you find the pictures you wanted?’ she asked. ‘Yes, found and deleted,’ Danny told her, ‘So everyone is happy. Well apart from Gavin perhaps.’ he added with a grin. ‘Well, I certainly am,’ she told him. ‘My first arrest and my first interview. What will you do with the keys?’

‘I’ll return them to the ward sister when I collect the camera.’ he told her. ‘Has it had a lot of use?’ she asked. ‘A while ago, instead of being in a box, it was built into a piece of tree branch. That was hung in a clearing in a wood and caught two men raping a youngster after school.’

‘I presume they are now locked up?’ she asked. ‘Yes,’ Danny told her. Clair went quiet then said, ‘Er Danny,’ ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘I never repeat anything confidential that anyone tells me, even to Lorraine.’ She looked relieved. ‘I still can’t believe I almost said it.’ she told him.

‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ Danny asked. ‘No,’ she answered sadly. ‘Have you ever had one?’ ‘No.’ ‘Has anyone ever asked you out?’ ‘Yes, several times.’ ‘And?’ ‘I made an excuse.’ ‘This is far too personal to go into here,’ Danny told her.

‘Just answer me one question. For which of these reasons did you refuse them. One, you were worried about getting close to any of those who asked you. Two, you were worried about getting close to any man. Three, you were worried about having sex. Four, you were worried because of a previous bad experience in your life. Five, you were worried because you are, or think you are gay. Six, you have no idea.’

Clair looked deep in thought as she turned it all over in her mind. ‘Two, three and four definitely. I have wondered about five at times.’ She finally said, looking very embarrassed. ‘You did very well to tell me all that.’ Danny told her.

‘I’d like to help more if you’d let me, but back home, one of the first people I helped let me use his house, usually on a Saturday morning to counsel people. Here I don’t have anywhere.’ ‘You could come to my flat.’ she said, then went very red. ‘That sounds terrible.’

‘No, it doesn’t,’ Danny told her, ‘The very fact that you have suggested it, says that you want help and would feel safe with me there. What I want you to do,’ he told her, ‘Is to think about what you’ve told me today. Then think how you would feel if you had told me about all the things that have happened to you, and how you felt about them.’

‘If you still feel ok about it then, let me have a week’s list of when you are off and I’ll let you know which coincide with my available time. Three hours would be the absolute maximum needed,’ he told her. ‘But for your flat to be suitable, once we started there would have to be no interruptions.’

‘No one has knocked on my door for weeks,’ she said, ‘Apart from the postman once.’ ‘Ok,’ Danny told her, ‘If you do invite me, I’ll bring a suitable note to put on your front door so no one will expect an answer if they do knock.’

‘If you decide not to, remember that no one will ever know anything you have told me.’ They got up to leave. ‘I so want to hug you,’ she said, ‘But that is frowned on when I’m in uniform.’ Danny smiled. ‘Just knowing you want to, gives me a nice feeling.’ he said, ‘So consider you have had one back as well.’

‘I’ll go and take these discs to the custody sergeant.’ she said. They shook hands. ‘I don’t anticipate doing anything else whilst I’m up here,’ Danny told her, ‘But if I do and I need a policeman, I’ll ask for you. If that’s ok.’ ‘Yes, please.’ she said, ‘I’d like that.’

On the way out, Danny thanked Andy for his help and told him Clair had been excellent.

When he returned to the hospital, he collected his things from Jake and thanked him for his help. ‘Any time,’ Jake said smiling, ‘I don’t usually get any excitement.’

Putting his white coat on, Danny went to Gavin’s ward and saw the ward sister. He introduced himself and at his request they went into her office. He handed her Gavins two keys. He told her what had happened then showed her the video. ‘I must admit I’m not sorry he’s gone,’ she told him, ‘He wasn’t really the right sort of person to be a nurse.’

‘I’d like my camera back please,’ he said, ‘Can you let me into the storage room.’ She took him over and opened the door. Danny pointed out the camera, signed into the internet and showed her on his phone the two of them standing looking at it. Then he went over and unplugged it. He wrapped the cable round it and put it in a bag.