Flashback by Ann Reader

DC Kate Chalmers waited behind the uniformed officers as they broke the door into the flat . It was a standard dawn raid, acting on information received concerning an amount of drugs on the premises.  Sufficient to base a charge of possession with intent to supply. 

From the start Kate had had a bad feeling about this bust although she could not have said why. As she waited while the officers hammered on the door then eventually,  getting no reply, burst  the door open, she felt an almost overwhelming desire to turn and run away. 

The door gave way and as she followed the others into the narrow hall way a sickly smell pervaded the air. Suddenly she was transported to her brother’s flat, similarly on the 3rd floor.  A narrow entrance corridor with a bedroom and bathroom on one side and a kitchen and living room on the other.  Evidence of the kind of poverty and destitution that serious drug addiction brings throughout.  No carpet on the floor no pictures on the walls, a couple of packing cases doubling as furniture, the bed would turn out to be a mattress on the  floor  she was certain .  Anything that could be sold having been  sold to feed the addiction. 

Kate had asked the police to break in to her brother's flat as she had not been able to get any response from him for several days. Her beloved brother Pete was a heroin addict and because of his addiction had managed to alienate himself from all the rest of the family.  Kate was the only one who did not give up on him. She was realistic enough to know that he had probably sold the mobile phone she had bought him . She had called round several times and left notes suggesting times he might like to meet her at their favourite cafe but he had not turned up.  Usually the chance of a free meal was incentive enough.  She had argued with herself long and hard about involving the authorities but eventually her anxiety for his welfare had outweighed concern for his privacy. 

She followed the officers into her brother's flat, she was embarrassed that they should see the squalor he lived in. No wonder he had always insisted on meeting her at the cafe! The smell struck her first, sickly, dirty and almost sweet. One of the officers felt for a light switch but there was no electricity. There were no windows in the hall just doors into the other rooms.  A torch was called for and produced.  

Kate didn’t know why she hung back , she had as much right as the police to enter her brother's rooms,  she found she was frightened of what she might find. They opened the bedroom door and the smell was overpowering,  one of the officers wretched and another older officer gently took her by the arm and led her back out of the flat. She heard phone calls being made and an  ambulance being called.  She rushed back in and in the half light of the torch, the curtains in the bedroom  being drawn, she saw her brother's body, emaciated and beginning to decompose lying on the bed. It was a nightmare scene but at the same time totally tragic. His needle and other heroin paraphernalia were on the floor beside him.  It was clear he had taken an overdose. The tears she shed were as much anger and frustration as sorrow. All her care for him, standing by him when the rest of the family had washed their hands of him had come to nothing.  She had not been able to save him from this terrible drug.

The kindly older officer took her arm again and led her out of the flat then held her on the landing as violent sobs racked her body. At that moment Kate formed a clear plan for her future she would become a police officer and do everything she could to fight those who supplied heroin. Her brother's death had given her a purpose. 

“DC CHALMERS “ DC Chapman was holding her and then more gently calling her name “ Kate , Kate what is it you’re shaking and you’ve gone quite blank “ 

“ Sorry Rob it’s a bit of deja vu I can’t explain right now but I think we’re going to find a body in there." 

At that moment she heard the shout for the ambulance and the forensic medical examiner. This was not going to be an arrest of a dealer as she had hoped, just the tragic end of another addict.