KATE: [smiling] I would prefer to deal with the person in charge.

SIMMONDS: [with mock surprise] Are you expressing a lack of confidence in Constable Ross, Mrs Mason?

KATE: [with a forced smile] Not at all, Sergeant…

SIMMONDS: Constable Ross is a product of the finest police training in the southern hemisphere, Mrs Mason. You’ve been thoroughly trained, haven’t you, Ross?

ROSS: [hesitantly] I’ve been trained.

SIMMONDS: The boy’s modest. Where did you come in your class, Ross?

ROSS: I did reasonably well.

SIMMONDS: Isn’t he sweet? Where did you come, Ross?

ROSS: Ninth.

SIMMONDS: Out of how many?

ROSS: Eighty.

SIMMONDS: [to KATE] Top ten percent. [Recalculating] Almost. Pity you didn’t come eighth, Ross. [To KATE] I think you’ll find the constable a very capable man.

KATE: [with a forced smile] I’m sure he is but—

SIMMONDS: I’ve judged Constable Ross competent to deal with your case, Mrs Mason, and in a way your objection to him is a reflection on my judgement.

KATE: It’s just that—

SIMMONDS: Constable Ross has been prepared for every eventuality. Isn’t that right, Ross?

ROSS looks embarrassed.

Isn’t that right, Ross?

ROSS: Yes.

SIMMONDS: However, I can understand your doubts and I feel that you’re entitled to express them. After all, we are public servants. Servants of the public. I’ll take charge. [To ROSS] I’m taking over, Ross. Two paces backwards and learn. Look and learn. [To the women] Right ladies, I’m all yours.

KATE: We appreciate your dealing with our case personally, Sergeant. My sister’s rather upset over the whole business.

SIMMONDS: Yes. It’s pretty terrifying when the family unit becomes a seat of violence. KATE: [fumbling in her handbag] We’ve got a medical report from a doctor.

SIMMONDS: [taking it and looking at it] Your lawyer told you to get this, I presume?

KATE: Yes, he did.

SIMMONDS: Then to come to us?

FIONA and KATE nod.

I doubt if you’ll get a conviction on the strength of this report, ladies.

KATE: It was quite a nasty bashing.

SIMMONDS: I’m sure it was, but there’s a saying in the trade: ‘Never arrest a wife basher if his missus is still warm’. We don’t like to stick our necks out on domestic issues for the simple reason that the wife invariably doesn’t proceed. We could take him in for questioning.

KATE: Our lawyer said that even if you didn’t arrest him you would make a report.

FIONA: Yes. We didn’t so much want you to arrest him. We just wanted a report.

KATE: He said it was a pretty standard procedure.

SIMMONDS: [not impressed with these references to the lawyer] Yes, I bet he did.

KATE: [still polite] It will be all right, won’t—?

SIMMONDS: Yes. Your lawyer’s quite right.

KATE: Thank you, Sergeant.

SIMMONDS takes a piece of paper, inserts it in the typewriter and shakes his head.

SIMMONDS: Pretty standard procedure. Sometimes I wonder about lawyers. [He bashes a few letters.] I suppose their training makes them detached to a certain extent, but I can’t help wondering sometimes. [He taps a few more letters.] Your average lawyer’s in love with procedures, I’m afraid. At this end of the law we’re more interested in people. You’d be amazed at the range of our duties, Mrs Mason. Your policeman isn’t a numbskull flatfoot these days. He’s a social worker, a marriage counsellor, a psychologist, a friend—you name it. There’s an awful lot of cases that’d never go to court if the public trusted their police force a little more. Wouldn’t you say, Ross, that the whole emphasis of a policeman’s training these days is to enable him to handle human problems?