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‘Yes, quite,’ Kim conceded. ‘Although I’m sure we could have waited an hour or two for them to be sorted into order. Any order.’
Kim could swear she saw a hint of triumph in the woman’s eyes.
‘We understood it was urgent. Tidying up archived records doesn’t take priority. We sent them as soon as we located them.’
Kim tipped her head. ‘I suppose a cynical person might wonder if the lack of organisation was an attempt to hide certain details.’
‘Then those people wouldn’t understand that it would be against the law to withhold such information.’
‘I didn’t say withhold, Ms Kirk.’
The woman coloured slightly, and Kim was done playing.
‘Enough of this dance. You had to have known that we’d find out that you were the young female officer attacked by the Psycho Six.’
Still she said nothing but swallowed deeply.
‘Did you think we’d overlook the fact that three of your attackers are now dead? And is there any reason you didn’t bother to tell us this yourself?’
Her hands gripped each other on the desk. ‘I didn’t see any relevance. It was a long time ago.’
‘So you won’t mind telling us what happened,’ Kim said, sitting back in her seat.
‘It was a prank. Just a stupid act by a group of immature boys.’
Kim wasn’t sure whether she was playing it down for their benefit or her own.
‘Six boys attacked you, held you down, stripped you naked and were poised to rape you.’
The woman moved some papers around. ‘You’re making it sound much worse than it actually was.’
‘No, I don’t think I am. It affected you enough to leave your job.’
‘Well, of course it upset me a little at the time.’
‘Ms Kirk, you appear to be the master of understatement. Those six boys stripped you and tried to rape you. They overpowered you and placed you in a vulnerable, terrifying situation. Why the hell are you acting as though they tripped you up while carrying your lunch tray?’
‘Because I don’t like to give it much thought, givethemtoo much thought. To dwell on it gives them too much power in my present, not just my past.’
Kim was about to test how that was working out for her. She may have pushed the six to the back of her mind, but now they needed to be discussed.
‘We need to understand the dynamics in that group better. Who was the ringleader during the sexual attack?’
‘I c-can’t remember,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘Was it Paul?’ Kim asked. After all, Paul was a convicted rapist.
‘I really can’t remember, Inspector, and I’m not going to try too hard.’
‘Bloody hell, you do realise you’re being obstructive?’ Kim asked, not even bothering to hide her frustration.
‘My memory is my memory, and I’m not prepared to make things up.’
It was clear that the woman hadn’t properly dealt with the attack and that they weren’t going to get anything else out of her.
Because there had been no actual rape, it had impacted no one’s life in a major way. Except for Josephine Kirk. To everyone else it was an ‘almost’ event. Something that could be pushed aside and forgotten about.
It seemed to Kim that Kirk had attempted to do the same. Everyone else had played it down, and so had she. She not only still worked in the same industry; she worked at the place it had happened.
