Ken MacLeod - Intrusion

Hope shook her head.

‘So you’re happy to have me represent you?’

‘Yes,’ said Hope.

He motioned her to the seat at the back of the table, and sat down at the side. The policewoman sat down opposite Hope, and turned on some very visible and clunky recording devices. She introduced herself as Police Sergeant Dolina Macdonald, gave the date and time for the recording, and got down to business.

‘Are you Hope Morrison?’

Hope glanced at the lawyer.

‘You have a right to remain silent,’ he said, ‘but I don’t advise it. If there are any questions I think you shouldn’t answer, I’ll tell you at once.’

‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Is that in answer to my question?’ said Macdonald.

‘Yes,’ said Hope.

‘Are you married to Hugh Morrison, of 13 Victoria Road, Finsbury Park, London?’

‘Yes.’

‘And are you the mother of Nicholas Morrison, of the same address?’

‘Yes,’ said Hope. ‘And I want to know where he is now.’

‘I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that.’

‘Can’t, or won’t?’

‘I can’t,’ said the policewoman, ‘because I don’t know. And if I did know, I would not be allowed to tell you at this stage of the inquiry. I assure you he is in safe hands.’

‘I’m sure he is. I’m sure he’s also very distressed.’

‘Every effort will be made to comfort and reassure him. As I said, I’m certain he is in safe hands, and between ourselves I’m certain he’s more than safe.’

‘I hope for your sake he is.’

‘Really, he is,’ said Macdonald. ‘Now, Hope, let me explain the situation to you. You have been arrested on suspicion, but you have not yet been charged. Your rights have been explained to you, so you are being interviewed under caution. Do you have any complaints about your treatment up to this point?’

‘Yes, I have,’ said Hope. ‘I was roughly handled, and restrained unnecessarily and uncomfortably, despite the fact that I had made no resistance. I was gagged, merely for asking after my son.’

Macdonald looked impatient. ‘These are very minor complaints.’

‘I’ll take them up later,’ McKinnon said.

‘Very well,’ said Hope. ‘I’m making them for the record. Particularly given that I’m, uh, four months pregnant.’

‘I’m sure the recordings from the arresting officers’ lapel cameras will show that you were treated properly.’

‘I’m sure they will,’ said Hope. ‘I have a different recollection, and I’ll say so.’

‘That is your right,’ said the policewoman. ‘Now, do you know why you’ve been arrested?’

‘No, I don’t,’ said Hope. ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’

‘So why did you flee from the police?’

‘Flee?’ said Hope. ‘We were walking in the hills. We saw the police behind us, and the drone above us, but didn’t run from them. They didn’t pursue us, or call out or challenge us in any way. For all we knew, they were on a search-and-rescue exercise.’

‘ Mrs Morrison,’ Macdonald said, with affected weariness, ‘you were found hiding in a disused culvert.’

‘We weren’t hiding,’ said Hope. ‘We were exploring. We entered the culvert – well, we entered the gully that it led off from – in full view of the police and I guess of the drone.’

‘Exploring,’ said Macdonald. ‘Exploring. Your husband walked off a job he had just started, without giving explanation or asking permission, and drove at speed to meet you. You had also just walked off a job, in a comfortable office, taking your child to the house in pouring rain. You met your husband and immediately set off up the hill, leaving behind or switching off any devices on your persons that might have been used to track you. Can you explain any of this?’

‘You don’t have to explain anything now,’ McKinnon interjected.

‘No, it’s all right,’ said Hope. ‘I can explain. My child was bored and fractious. I was unable to concentrate on my work, and he was annoying his grandmother, too, in the shop. When my husband called to ask how I was getting on – it was the first wet day we’d had here, the first day the boy was pretty much stuck indoors – I’m afraid I was so fed up that I begged him to skive off. He had the idea of teaching Nick orienteering, which is why he switched off his phone – to demonstrate to the child that we can navigate without GPS.’

‘Mrs Morrison, your husband was carrying an illegal firearm.’

‘I didn’t know that,’ said Hope.

‘The weapon was clearly shown on the drone’s imaging equipment. Your husband was also seen and recorded apparently discarding the weapon in the tunnel, in the course of some altercation with you.’

Hope shrugged. ‘I’d like to see the evidence for that.’

‘Oh, you will, Hope, you will. Do you deny that it happened?’

Hope said nothing.

‘You needn’t say anything at this stage,’ said the lawyer. He turned to Sergeant Macdonald. ‘You said “apparently discarding”. Why “apparently”?’

‘You’re in an interview room, not a courtroom,’ Macdonald told him.

‘I’m well aware of that,’ said McKinnon. ‘Nevertheless, my client and I are entitled to know what evidence you have against her.’

‘Not at this stage in the proceedings you aren’t!’

‘I’m only raising the point,’ said McKinnon, ‘because your choice of words suggests to me that you have no physical evidence of this firearm.’

Macdonald glared at him, then looked away. McKinnon sat back, looking smug, and tapped a note on his pad.

‘Mrs Morrison,’ Macdonald went on, ‘you most certainly fled from the police while you were in the culvert. You, your husband and child ran away down the culvert when they called on you to come out. You were warned that they were armed. You do know that running away after a warning from armed police can have very serious consequences? Even fatal consequences?’

‘Yes, I’m well aware of that,’ said Hope. ‘And you must be aware that amplified sound in such a confined space can be very distorted, as well as alarming. It certainly alarmed our child, who took off as fast as his legs could carry him. Naturally we ran after him, if you could call that running.’

‘According to the police video evidence, Mrs Morrison, your husband was in front, then the boy, and you brought up the rear.’

Hope shrugged. ‘Maybe so. It was dark, lots of shadows, very confusing. My husband may even have had the impression that Nick was ahead of him.’

‘I find that very unlikely. You ran from the police. That’s not the reaction of innocent people.’

McKinnon leaned forward again. ‘Perhaps, Sergeant, it’s the reaction of innocent people who think that they are being threatened and pursued by whoever the police were searching for ?’

‘You’re not here to suggest lines of argument to your client, Mr McKinnon.’

‘When we entered the culvert,’ Hope said, gratefully grabbing the lifeline, ‘the police were hundreds of metres away, and not obviously pursuing us. Then the drone buzzed the gully, and we heard shouts and loud noises behind us. It was a moment of panic. I can’t even say what I thought I was running from.’

‘I bet you can’t,’ said Macdonald. ‘But not because you didn’t know you were fleeing from the police.’

‘Fleeing where?’ Hope asked. ‘We were in a dead end.’

‘Oh,’ said Macdonald, ‘and how did you know that? Before you reached it, I mean.’

‘Oh, I can explain that,’ said Hope. ‘My husband grew up in that very village, in the house just down the hill, as you know. He found the culvert when he was… in his early teens, I think, with some pals. No doubt they can verify that; they shouldn’t be hard to trace. Anyway, Hugh remembered it as quite an adventure, and thought it would be exciting for Nick to see it too.’