Having completed the refill she walked to the Garage shop, there was a large notice on the door as there was on each petrol pump, which read, “Will all motor cyclists please remove their helmets and likewise those wearing hoods”.
Such a motorcyclist was entering the shop in front of her. He was wearing his helmet but could be seen to be a man, middle aged, short in stature, fat and white and obviously in rush.
As Jack sat in the car with open window he looked, never in the history of terrorism he thought had there ever been such a suicide bomber nor in fact any he had dealt with as armed robbers.
Still he thought that was the rule same for everyone and one could understand the reason for the rule.
The motorcyclist appeared exasperated and on approaching the door a voice on the loud speaker called, “Motor cyclist please remove your helmet before entering”.
The person at the desk was seated some distance away at the rear of the shop and had called further instructions, “we need to see your face for security reasons please remove your helmet”
With some difficulty, the man removed the helmet, then paid for his fuel at the next till to Doris.
Doris wearing a civilian coat over her uniform looked and asked the lady at the desk, “I can understand the rule to remove head gear but may I ask what you will do now?”
“What do you mean?” asked the assistant.
“Well” replied Doris, “look, here is a tall lady coming she is a Muslim, she is wearing religious head gear. All you can see of her face is a slit four inches wide and half an inch high, just sufficient for her to see you but you can see nothing of her, will you ask her to remove it?”
“We dare not ask them to do that, this religion race thing, I am likely to get the sack at best or prosecuted at worst if I was to ask that”.
“I see” replied Doris and turned to leave, opening the door for the entering Muslim lady.
Doris sat in the car and was putting her things away when Jack spoke”.
“Did you notice that Muslim lady wearing the full length black clothing and a burka or some similar head wear?”
“I saw her. Why do you ask?” said Doris.
Jack pushed back his trilby into active duty mode and said, “I noted the lady appeared rather tall, her strides were long and she appeared to have fairly large feet”.
With that, before Doris could reply there was a scream from the shop.
Doris looked and realised what Jack had just said and so she ran back to the shop arriving at the door just as the lady in black was leaving.
The mystery lady was now in possession of a gun in one hand and a handful of money in the other.
“Failing to keep to the rules of saying, “Stop Police”, or even “I am a police officer”. Doris put up her knee, which connected with the villain in the solar plexus, felling the person to the ground.
In an instant, Doris was kneeling on top of the now winded villain and before a shout of Allah Ackbar could be made Doris, had the handcuffs on then slid the gun away out of harms way.
The shop alarm began to blast as Doris lifted the villain and pulled him back into the shop. Both staff were aghast with terror, as Doris called, “Don’t just stand there call the local police”.
“Yes, Yes” replied the woman assistant already dialling the number”.
Jack left the car picking up the firearm for safety reasons.
Doris removed the headgear of the villain; it was a man, very tall, well-built aged about 20 years of age and white.
At that moment, a police car went past the shop the crew in the midst of eating food they had purchased at the Super Market. They looked and turning on all emergency lights pulled onto the filling station forecourt.
Both officers arrived, still eating their cakes, causing Jack who was standing bemused at the situation, to shake his head and speak to himself saying, “Standards, standards”.
The officers arrived, Doris identified herself,
“I am Inspector Scott-Ling of the Cheshire Police, I am visiting here on an unrelated enquiry I was here when the robbery took place, I have detained this man, and I hand him to you”.
She took off her handcuffs and said, “I will send you a statement of evidence down by email, the two staff here can give you sufficient facts for your arrest report.”
The young officers now finished eating nodded and looked amazed at what had suddenly befallen them in this rural town, things such as this never happened down here.
A middle aged man arrived displaying a badge “Manager”.
Doris looked at him and the two ladies and said, “Your policy of removing crash helmets but not Muslim head wear has proved to be useless”.
“I suggest you tell your head office. It only goes to show when it comes to law and order and security the rules need to be the same for all, and all heads uncovered”.
Doris received no reply as she left; Jack gave her the weapon which having run back she handed to one of the officers. They both got into her car and they were soon on their way.
“What did you think of that Mr Richards?” Asked Doris
Jack smiled and replied, “The cops eating on duty and driving or the robbery”.
“Both” replied Doris
Jack hesitated then said, “No discipline in the police these days. Anything goes.”
“When you are sloppy yourself you get sloppy in your work”.
“The security rule of the helmets removal but not other religious symbols is useless of course but one has to sympathize”.
“We could discuss it forever and only get into trouble for our efforts, it all boils down to pacification,” he added.
“May I ask you another question?” Asked Doris.
“By all means” replied Jack.
“Well” she asked, “How is it as a retired Superintendent you noticed, the height of the man, the long strides and large feet. I recall when visited Wrexham some time ago you noticed the smudged lipstick, the photograph and the still burning cigarette?”
He smiled and said, “As a young serving Police Inspector in this modern policing system, how is it you did not?”
She took the point and promised herself she would once again learn from his experience and his tenacity, even his Lordship the judge recalled it and admired him for it.
At 9am, the following day they arrived in the office and Doris set herself the top priority of arranging a good reliable team to assist the now delicate stage of the enquiry, the exhumations and second post mortems of the five deceased officers.
“Hello, Good morning Garden Rescue, can I help you?" said the female voice.
“May I please speak with old Bill or Ben the gardener; this is Inspector Scott-Ling of Chester Police”.
“Heavens don’t say we are in trouble.”
“Nothing like that” replied Doris
“I will put the boss on; he is just on his way out”
There was a pause then, “Hello, how can I help?”
“Hello, this is Inspector Scott-Ling”, she repeated, “Mr Richards, I believe he is a client of yours”.
“Yes, that is correct, but he is not due for a visit until next week” came the reply.
“I am calling on another matter, we have a delicate enquiry, we require someone with a small digger to exhume some bodies”
“Oh I see, well, we don’t have a small digger but we can hire one. Yes, if it’s for Mr Richards certainly, we will do the job”.
“Thank you” replied Doris, “unfortunately the job will be have to be done at night and under a tent”.
“Yes, I am aware of that, we have done one some years ago, when someone was placed in the wrong grave, but the procedure will be the same”.
She then said, “You will appreciate the job calls for complete confidentiality”.
“Yes of course, the last one did”.
“Thank you” said Doris “if you might arrange it, either myself or Mr Richards will come back to you with all the details”.
“Thank you,” he said and the call ended.