Witnessed

Across the street, Nick Crawford found it hard to take in what he was seeing.

Normally there was nothing doing on this beat - well, not in the daytime, anyway. So the presence of the squad car had caught his attention. He'd been about to go and see if Sally and that new guy - Jim? No, Joe - needed a hand, when Joe had started in on the bloke they'd had in the car.

Without thinking, he'd ducked behind a bin. It felt like spying, but he needed to see what was going on before he barged in. He didn't know Joe, except to say hello to - but he knew Sally pretty well, and couldn't believe she was behaving like this.

Soon, he'd seen enough to know he had to put a stop to the situation. But just when he was about to let them know he was there, he saw the young guy go down on the ground with a sickening thump.

The reaction of his colleagues completely shocked him. Instead of calling an ambulance, the two of them exchanged a few words and then leapt into their car, driving off with a squeal of tyres.

Nick was amazed. What was all that about?

But before he could reach for his radio and call the incident in, to his further amazement, two old women seemed to appear from thin air. One of them - the taller of the two - went to see to the man on the floor.

The other, who looked familiar to him, stood in the middle of the street shaking her fist and shouting "that's right you cowards! Run! You don't know how lucky you are that I didn't get my hands round your bloody necks!"



Part Two begins here.