Four Years Ago
It stinks of second-hand booze and disinfectant. A couple of drunks are hauled away in handcuffs while a woman in an overall mops up what they just deposited on the tiled floor. In the waiting area, a man in a three-piece-suit flicks through notes and files, checking his watch impatiently. A girl with cheap clothes and a black-eye tries to control the screaming baby she looks barely old enough to call her own.
Thin-faced and with pale flat eyes and nondescript sandy hair, the police officer looks bored and pissed off.
Natalie is bored and pissed off.
“When can I go? I’ve got a living to earn you know.”
“Don’t we all, Natalie. You know the routine.” The police officer picks up a clipboard, riffling through the pages. “You can go when we’ve settled this, not before.” He f
