Constable on the Hill Read Online Free

to the rules. I would meet them both in due course and make my own judgements.
    The office contained bound copies of the Criminal Law Review, the Justice of the Peace, and some very ancient police law books. There was little else, save the weekly duty sheets. The duty sheet showed me as ‘rural beat’ for tomorrow and the following day, with a late route from 7 pm until 11 pm the day after that.
    Alwyn showed me the Found Property register, the Lost Property register, the return of licensing premises, the return of explosives stores, bookmakers’ shops, telephone calls register, postage book, the list of keyholders of places likebanks and shops, and the names of local contacts. I would, from time to time, be instructed to perform duty in this town, and based on this office, especially when there was a shortage of men due to leave or sickness. In any case, I was expected to pop in at least twice a week to keep myself updated with affairs in town. Actually, the town boasted a population of only 3,000 but for us folks on the moors, this was a considerable centre of activity.
    “Have we any cells?” I asked, thinking of prisoners.
    “Two,” Alwyn told me. “I’ll show you. In fact,” he went on, “the toilet is in one of the cells. We haven’t an official toilet here, so we all use the cells.”
    He led me into the tiny cell passage where were confronted by two massive, studded doors with huge keys and gigantic iron hinges. No. 1 cell was on the left.
    “Males in No. 1,” he said. “Females in No. 2.”
    He pushed open the door of No. 1 and revealed the carcase of a fallow deer. It was lying on the stone floor.
    “Killed in an accident with a milk lorry,” he said. “This morning, just out of town.”
    “What happens to it?” I asked.
    “We’ve an arrangement with a local hotel,” he said.
    “Arrangement?” I asked, wondering what sort of arrangement it could be.
    “Oh, it’s all above board,” he smiled. “The deer about us, in the hills and forests, belong to the local estate, and his Lordship wants all those killed like this to be sent to the King’s Head. He owns that hotel, by the way. When we’ve one brought in, we ring the hotel and the manager arranges collection. The estate gives us a useful donation for the Police Widows’ Pension Fund. Deer are not reportable road accidents , as you know, but we take them in because too many bloody motorists insist on fetching them here. We get about two a week.”
    The deer’s head, damaged on one side, lay on a piece of newspaper which absorbed the blood. There was the traditional wooden bed, boxed in all around, and a toilet in the corner. Nothing else furnished the place.
    “Ladies in here,” he said, throwing open the door of No. 2. This one was full of chrysanthemums. They stood around onthe bed, the floor, on a board on top of the toilet basin, and on shelves which stood loosely against the walls. They were in all colours, shapes and sizes, and they were beautiful.
    “Mine,” said Alwyn, proudly. “That’s ideal for them, especially when it’s very hot outside. Lovely and cool in there. I grow them for showing, you know. Get prizes all over. Lovely flowers, eh?”
    “Marvellous,” I agreed, having never seen such a wealth of colour in a police cell. “But what happens if you arrest somebody? Where do you put your prisoners?”
    “Arrest?” he sounded horrified. “We don’t arrest people here!”

Two
    Having made contact with my colleagues at Ashfordly Police Station, one of my first duties was to acquaint myself with the public of Aidensfield and the residents of the surrounding villages which formed my beat. These were country folk, down-to-earth people whose ancestors had occupied these moors for generations and who had a built-in suspicion of strangers. This was coupled with a bluntness that was typically Yorkshire and yet it hinted at absolute honesty and integrity. Being moor folk, they also possessed a natural hardiness and a