Read Call & Response for Free Online

about anything. You’ve done nothing wrong, remember. Nothing at all.’
    ‘I was sixteen.’
    ‘But might you have been fifteen?’
    ‘I might, I suppose.’
    ‘And how old is Mo?’
    ‘He’s 31.’
    ‘OK. So he’s posted these pictures online, is that right?’
    ‘Aye. You’ll want to see them, I expect.’
    ‘Not at the moment. We just need to know where to find them. And you’re sure that it was Mo who posted them, are you?’
    ‘Oh, aye. It was him.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘He told me. Told me where to find them too, the bastard.’
    ‘When was this?’
    ‘The day before yesterday. He came round to the house, like.’
    ‘And was anyone else there when he was telling you this? Your mum, maybe.’
    ‘No, I was on my own.’
    ‘OK. So why did he do this, Ashley?’
    ‘Because I split up with him, last week. He’s been scaring me. Always talking about the other girls he’s had as well. And he’s tried to introduce me to his mates, other cabbies, like. I can do better. That’s what my mum says. And not because he’s coloured, neither.’ Ashley’s eyes widened slightly. ‘No offence, mate’, she added, quickly.
    ‘None taken. Just a statement of fact. Mo is of Pakistani heritage, I take it?’ Ashley nodded. ‘And has this Mo been sending you nasty texts, following you, hassling you, anything like that?’
    ‘No. But I expect he’s been saying all sorts to his mates, like.’
     
    Copeland glanced at the WPC, who shook her head slightly. She had nothing to add, or to ask.
    ‘All right, Ashley, thanks’ he said. ‘We’re about done, for now. You’ve been really brave coming in like this. All I’ll need for now is Mo’s address, and the URL of where we can find the images.’
    ‘So you’ll go and see him?’
    ‘Oh yeah, you can count on it.’
    ‘Will you nick him?’
    ‘That depends.’
    ‘Will he know it’s me, who’s been in, like?’
    ‘I certainly won’t tell him.’
    ‘He’ll guess though, won’t he? I knew it, you’ll do sod all about it. And it’ll be me who’s in the shit with him and his brothers.’
    ‘I’ll go and see him, just like I said. Today, or tomorrow latest. How’s that?’
    ‘You’ll not do anything though, because he’s Pakistani. That’s what my mum says.’
    ‘Your mum thinks that the Police is prejudiced in favour of ethnic minorities?’ Copeland tried, and failed, to keep the surprise from his voice.
    ‘No, don’t be daft. She reckons that you’re all shit-scared of being accused of being racist, that’s all.’
    ‘Well no one can say that about me, now can they? I don’t care what colour an offender is, Ashley, I promise you that. I’ll nick anyone I need to, irrespective of race, colour or creed. But one other quick question. When I speak to Mo tomorrow, what do you think he’s going to say to me?’
    Ashley shrugged her thin shoulders. ‘That I’m a slapper. A slag. That I was asking for it, like.’
    ‘But not that you consented to him uploading those pictures?’ She looked confused by the question. ‘Will he say that you gave him permission to upload the pictures?’
    ‘No. I don’t think so. I never, anyway. But would that get him off, like?’
    ‘Let’s wait and see, shall we? I’m sure that you’ve already been told that as of right now just putting up explicit pictures of someone without their consent isn’t necessarily an offence, in itself.’
    ‘Fuck off, mate. That can’t be right. Of course it’s a bloody offence. He’s posted pictures of us having sex. You can see everything, like. Well, of me, anyway.’
    ‘I’m afraid it is right, Ashley. But we don’t make the laws, we just try to uphold them. And, based on what you’ve just told me, I’d say that there’s reason to believe that we might be looking at a potentially very serious offence here. But I’ll need to check with my boss first, OK?
    ‘So you’re just the monkey? Not the organ grinder, like?’
    Copeland smiled. He just