This is the seventeenth part of a fiction serial, in 813 words.

Denise sounded excited.

“Two women came. They seemed really concerned when I told them about Lee’s history and what Daisy had said. They want to talk to her too, but we have to go to a special room in some place in Welwyn for that. I can go with her, but I’m not allowed to be in the room while they speak to her. It will be on Friday, and they are going to contact the school to tell them why she won’t be in. One of them is coming to pick us up in a car at nine. The other one was a bit of a cow. She asked me about Lee’s complaint that I didn’t look after Daisy, and that I was always drunk. I told her that was years ago, and I only have the occasional lager these days. Hang on”.

Marian smiled at the irony as she heard the ring-pull pop on the beer can that Denise was opening.

“Anyway, I gave them all the details like you said, and they wrote it all down on one of those little laptops. The cow said I would get a printed copy and have to sign that it was all true. They are giving it to me on Friday when they speak to Daisy. They had been here for almost an hour when the nicer one went outside to make a phone call. When she came back, she said they had been compelled to inform the police. I asked her who compelled them, it seemed a funny word to use. And she just said it was the circumstances that compelled them”.

There was a pause as a lighter clicked several times, then she came back on the line.

“Well, you’ll never guess what happened next. Only about a half hour later, her phone rings and she tells me the police have arrested Lee where he works, and taken him to Welwyn Police Station. If they let him out tonight he will be after me, sure as shit”.

Knowing she needed to keep her calm, Marian spoke with some authority.

“Why would he do that? It will only make things worse for him, and he knows that. It will scare Daisy as well, so that won’t help him. Keep the door locked, don’t drink too much beer, and if he shows up, call the police. My guess is he will be told not to approach you or Daisy, so he will be in breach of that if he turns up at your place in a temper. On the plus side, him being arrested at work is good news. They will definitely not keep him on in that job now, especially once they get the information I sent tomorrow. Okay, stay strong, and I will call you in the morning, Denise”.

After hanging up, Marian rang Lyndsey, and went over everything that had happened. The lawyer was non-commital.

“Yes, he is likely to lose his job, I agree. But they will have to give him bail, and he is certain to deny anything ever happened with his daughter. I’m surprised they arrested him on the say-so of Social Services, to be honest. But where chld sex allegations are concerned, things are changing here for the better. In short, there is really nothing to charge him with, unless Daisy speaks up on Friday, which seems unlikely. No doubt they are hoping against hope for a confession of some sort. But knowing Lee, they will have to wait until Hell freezes over. And Denise is going to be investigated too, that’s certain. Daisy may well be taken into care until this is resolved, but if you want to keep Denise on side, best not to mention that”.

Disappointed with that conversation, Marian stood up.

“Time to open the wine, Ros. You can phone for the Chinese, my bank card is in my bag, and the phone number is on the menu I showed you”.

Once the food had been delivered, they had already gone through the first bottle of wine, and Marian was opening the screw-top on the second bottle. Munching Maltesers later, she spoke to her sister, who had been unusually quiet all evening.

“What is that with taking Daisy into care? Denise hasn’t done anything, besides being a useless mum. And there are millions of those in this country. If she finds out that might happen, she will withdraw her statement to Social Services and Lee will have no case to answer”.

Ros took a handful of Maltesers from the big box.

“Too late now though, Mal. The wheels are in motion. Best thing you can do is to offer Denise more money. A lot more money. Otherwise she will shit herself, and bail on us. Do you have that sort of money, Mal?” Marian looked determined.

“As much as it takes, believe me.”