Free The Devil's Interval by J. J. Salkeld

out why I over-react sometimes. Or at least, the bosses seem to think I over-react.’
    ‘But you don’t?’
     
    Pepper sat back. She’d had the interview training, plus a refresher, so she could suss all of his techniques, no problem at all. And two can play at your game, she thought. ‘Have you ever been in a fight, anything like that? When you felt in physical danger, anyway.’
    ‘A few times, yes. I used to work in a hospital, and there were occasions…’
    ‘What did you do when it all kicked off, like?’
    ‘I pressed the alarm.’
    ‘But what if there hadn’t been an alarm, what would you have done then?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Would you have fought, tried to overcome your patient?’
    ‘I suppose so, yes. If I’d had to.’
    ‘Of course you would. And you see the thing is this, Paul. In my job there is no alarm to press, because I am the bloody alarm. I’m the one who has to sort everything out when it all goes tits up, like. There’s no one else to call on. Me and my mates, we are the thin blue line. Get past us and it’s hell on earth. Simple as that, really.’
     
    ‘And that’s how you feel, is it?’ She smiled. She just couldn’t help it. ‘You’re smiling. Why’s that?’
    ‘Because it’s not about how I feel. Not everything in this world is about that. It’s about how things are. Let’s be honest. I’m here because my boss saw a bit of real police work, probably for the first time in her life, and it was all a bit mucky, a bit ugly. Well, I’m sorry, but it was an armed man who I subdued, and I did it using minimum force. How I feel about it doesn’t come into it.’
     
    Collier nodded. Pepper was sure he did a lot of that, even when he wasn’t even listening any more. Christ, why did people have to talk so bloody much all the time?
    ‘I tell you what’, he said, ‘let’s talk about something else. And you’re quite right, of course, I can’t really understand what it’s like to be in that kind of situation. So how’s this, why not start at the beginning? Tell me about your childhood.’
    ‘Must we?’
    ‘No, but we should talk about something. I’d feel like a fraud if we just sat here in silence for another,’ he glanced at the clock on the wall, ‘forty eight minutes.’ He smiled, and she found herself smiling back.
     
    Forty five minutes later Pepper had soaked four impressively absorbent tissues, and had nearly needed a fifth.
    ‘I’m sorry’, she said.
    ‘For what? You’ve done brilliantly. It can’t be easy, being a single mum, and working in the environment that you do. Always having to be strong for everyone. Being, effectively, the only adult in the family.’
    ‘I don’t mind that. But you know what I was saying, or trying to say, about having let my work take over my life? What do you make of that, doctor? And don’t just turn the question straight round on me. I’m wise to that little game, marrer.’
    ‘Of course you are. Well, it’s too soon to say, really, and there’s probably no hard and fast rule about work-life balance anyway, is there?’
    She smiled. ‘You’re a fat lot of good, then.’
    ‘Exactly, Pepper. We’ll talk this through together, and some of your other concerns, and we’ll see where we get to. I won’t just be a mirror, I promise you, but in the end it’ll be you who decides what to do, and where we go with this. I’m confident that you don’t have any mental health issues that could in any way interfere with your professional work, and I’m happy to submit a report to that effect today.’
    ‘So no more sessions.’
    ‘That’s right. You never have to see me again, if you don’t want to.’
     
    Pepper got up, and threw her tissues in the plastic bag-lined waste paper bag by the desk.
    ‘No, actually I’ll be back. It’s the only freebie I’ve ever had from the job, and that’s the truth.’
    ‘Good, that’s good. But can I ask you one question, just before you go. And I have to admit a