She smoothed down her uniform and glanced in the mirror. Seemingly satisfied with her appearance she turned and left the changing rooms. Spotting a group of uniformed officers leaning against the wall at the far end of the corridor, she headed in their direction. Turning the corner, she could see a stream of officers entering a room on the left hand side of the corridor. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and she whirled around, staring at the dark haired woman stood behind her.
"Harriet Barclay?" The taller woman nodded. "Inspector Gina Gold" Gina held out her hand for the brunette to shake. "I'm sorry I didn't get to come and meet you beforehand, I had a meeting with the super and the DCI"
"Don't worry about it, Ma'am, I understand" The Inspector stood back and slowly glanced over the woman's appearance. She was tall, around five foot ten, with large brown eyes and a mass of thick brown hair, which had been scraped up into a tight ponytail. Her uniform was pristine and her make up simple.
"Well I can't keep my officers waiting, can I?" Gina gestured towards the door. "Let's go and introduce the relief to their new Sergeant"
Entering the room to the left of them, she moved to the back of the room behind the officers as Gina called for quiet. As the Inspector started off the morning briefing by discussing the work of the previous day, the Sergeant took the opportunity to observe her colleagues; There seemed to be an even amount of male and female PC's sat in the chairs in front of her but, deciding she couldn't really tell much from the back of their heads, she turned her attention to the three officers stood along the side of the room. Presuming they were the three other Sergeant's, she tried to work out which officer was which from the three names she'd been given. Nikki Wright was obviously the blonde woman on the right but she was puzzled as to which of the male officers was Callum Stone or Dale Smith. As if he could feel her gaze on him, the taller of the two turned and looked at her.
Quickly she returned her gaze to the Inspector, avoiding the man. "Oh and finally, I'd like to introduce our newest recruit; Sergeant Harriet Barclay" The Inspector raised her arm towards the back of the room as the other officers turned and looked at her. "She comes highly recommended so I expect you to treat her with the respect she deserves… Nate and Will" As a jeer rose from the officers the brunette smirked. "Sergeant Stone, I'd like you to partner Sergeant Barclay today, if that's alright?"
"Ma'am" The man replied with a nod.
"Aright, then, off you go" The Inspector instructed the relief, turning away and busying herself with her clipboard.
Quickly filing past the PC's, she followed Callum out into the corridor and into the Sergeant's office. "That's your desk" Callum nodded towards the desk behind the window. "Here, these are yours too" The man placed a radio, utility belt and stab vest on the desk.
Sliding into the seat, she sat down and turned on her radio. "So who's on custody today?" She asked as she adjusted the belt.
"Nikki" Callum replied firmly as he tapped at his keyboard and peered at the screen. "Smithy's going through WAD's with an assault victim"
The pair sat in silence for a while before both their radios burst into life. "All units from Sierra Oscar; suspected armed robbery at Boost nightclub on Fairbank road. CO19 already on their way, any unit deal?"
Callum glanced up from his computer and snatched his radio up. "We can take that" Nodding the brunette quickly pulled on her stab vest and belt before attaching her radio. "Sierra Oscar from 30, show me and 82 dealing, over"
The two officers quickly left the office before heading out of the station and into the area car. Callum quickly pulled the car out onto the road, putting his foot down as more information came over their radios about where they were heading. As Callum threw the car round the corner and onto Fairbank road, she grabbed at the door handle and glared at the man as she hit her head on the window beside her.
"This is it" He nodded at the building in front of them before leaping from the vehicle.
"I can see that" Harriet muttered. Callum shot the woman a glare before striding towards where one of the armed officers was stood.
"So what we got?" He asked, removing his hat as the brunette joined him.
"Well from what we can see, the whole place has been ransacked. The tables have been overturned, glasses and bottles smashed, the padding in the seats has been ripped out and the tills have been bashed about. We found one of the guns stashed behind the bar. Im sure you'll be able to get prints from it"
"I presume whoever did it is long gone?" Harriet asked, eyeing the front of the club warily.
The man nodded. "We got here about five minutes before you guys and there was no sign of anyone inside"
"Any victims or witnesses?" Callum asked as Harriet moved aside to observe something on the ground a little to the left of them. Narrowing his eyes he craned his neck to try and see what she was looking at.
"The manager took a battering but no one's been shot" The man nodded his head towards the ambulance where a man was been tended to by paramedics. "There's a couple of cleaners and the assistant manager who were there when it happened. Their over there" The CO19 officer pointed towards the bench outside the club where more paramedics were knelt next to them.
"Thanks" Callum smiled tightly at the man before moving towards the club. Before he could, however, Harriet reached out and grabbed his arm. Turning, he peered at the ground that the woman was stood beside.
"Track marks" Harriet elaborated flatly. "You can clearly see how the fresh they are. Surely the CSE will be able to get something from that won-?"
"Yeah, he probably can but is that all you wanted to tell me?" Callum responded coldly. "That you've found some track marks. How else did you think whoever did this got away so fast? Fly?"
"No, Callum, look" Harriet glared at the man. "There isn't two sets of tyre marks, there's only one; meaning the getaway vehicle was probably a motorbike" He peered at the ground before conceding the brunette was probably right. "No wonder you're still in uniform if you're that unobservant"
"What's your excuse?" He snapped back icily.
"I like being in uniform. It means I don't have to join the gym" She rolled her eyes at the blank look she received in response. "I'll radio for the CSE to get down here and then we'll go and talk to the witnesses"
Raising her radio to her mouth, she smirked as Callum headed away towards the entrance to the club. "Sierra Oscar from 82, can we get the CSE down here, we've found some tyre tracks that we think could help us find the getaway vehicle and there's a gun with possible prints"
"Received, 82" Harriet returned her radio to its previous position before joining Callum and heading towards the bench outside the club.
"Sergeant Stone, Sergeant Barclay from SunHill. Can we have a word?" The three women sat on the bench shuffled awkwardly before the two women directly in front of them nodded reluctantly. "Where were you when the robbery took place?"
"Me and Leonie were cleaning the men's toilets" Replied the smallest of the three, gesturing to the redhead beside her. Harriet quickly scribbled down what the woman had said in her notebook.
"What did you hear?" Asked the brunette firmly.
"Screaming and then the sound of glass smashing" Leonie replied softly. "Me and Marie thought that Nicole had just knocked some of the glasses over and she'd hurt herself or something"
"Who's Nicole?" Callum asked in confusion. Marie pointed her head towards the blonde sat at the other end of the bench, pointedly avoiding the officers.
Returning his gaze to the two women in front of him, the Sergeant sighed. "Did they come into the toilets at all? Did they know you were there?" The women shook their heads. "Alright, well we'll need to take a name and address from you both. Sergeant Barclay will sort that out"
Callum moved away as the CSE appeared behind the two sergeants. "Marie Greening. 26 Mosley road" The taller of the two women replied.
"Leonie Bailey. 46A Tannerwell house" Harriet quickly scribbled down what she'd been told before smiling and thanking the two women for their co-operation as Callum joined her again. The pair glanced at each other before they approached the blonde who'd so far sat in silence.
"Nicole? Can we ask you a couple of que-"Callum began before the woman stood up abruptly.
"Do I have to talk to you?" She asked icily.
"No but it would help our investigation" Callum reasoned, frowning at her behaviour.
"It's hardly rocket science, is it?" Nicole shrugged. "What happened today isn't exactly suspicious. We're a popular nightclub that makes pretty good profits and someone clearly wanted a chunk of that. Now all you have to do is find whoever did it and charge them. End of"
Before either of the officers could respond, the blonde stormed away quickly. The two Sergeant's stared at each other for a moment before the brunette quickly moved back towards the two other woman who were sat on the bench.
"Do you have a surname or address for Nicole?" She asked as the women glanced up.
"Her surnames Garbett. Nicole Garbett. But I don't know where she lives" Marie responded.
"Alright, thanks" Harriet tapped her pen against her notepad. "I think our best bet is to get back down the station and check this Nicole Garbett out on CRIMINT and then get down to St Hugh's when the managers ready to talk"
Nodding, Callum and Harriet headed back to the area car, passing Beth and Nate on their way and telling them to pick up the CCTV from in and around the club.