D.I. Lindsay Denton

D.I. Lindsay Denton   

There may come a day whence the reckoning of a profound and sublime force of nature, which may or may not be attributed to the whimsy of a supreme being, depending on one's personal view, will smite down the perpetrators of the dastardly deed that incurred our anti-heroine into the act - albeit foolish and rash but yet well meaning - that saw her incarcerated for the rest of her natural, and to which all angels and demons must rage against the sheer injustice of it all. 'Lest he who is without sin' must be a required, if not obligatory, preamble to the circumstances of such an outrageous set of misfortunate happenings, and should this woman, on reflecting her lot from the snugness of her prison hovel, conclude that the Devil himself would look into his own soul and mutter 'Revenge is a dish best served straight from the fridge.' 

That our good woman looks the part, but by no means exhibits the virtues, of your more than exemplary cherub, you must cast out of your mind as you prepare to sit in judgement of the rights and wrongs of this case, for there are few of the former and more than half a dozen of the latter. To start, it can only be said that if nothing else, this beacon of dedication to her job can only shine with the luminosity of a deification light.  Indeed, had it not been for a desire to help a young teenage girl from escaping all sorts of villainy, then Lindsay would not have found herself in the predicament that she undoubtedly still rues. 

That she is actually no angel herself, would not come as a surprise even to her misguided logic, as she would be the first to admit. In the course of this sorry case, she has crowned her neighbour with an empty wine bottle, punched a colleague in the stomach and crushed the legs of a, thoroughly reprehensible, crooked cop. That she became crooked herself, may stem from the fact that she has always been a solitary lone-ranger type figure, and consequently felt the distance, if not hostility, from her fellow colleagues. 

This may have, in turn, led her into a sense of being a maverick and consequently, if unconsciously, then into the arms and other appendages of her Deputy Chief Constable. Indeed this amour, or the hope of rekindling it after a fizzle out, drove Ms Denton into the path of Carly Kirk, said young teenager. The subsequent witnessing of the physical abuse of the girl, set her on a collision course with Nemesis and the latter is rarely forgiving. Just what she was thinking of, though, when she tracked down Carly's abuser, I doubt even Lindsay knows, but that it set in motion the events that led to her downfall there is no question. It may have been simple avarice, when presented with the dosh offered by D.S. Akers to help in the ambush, but one thinks that a good helping of medicine, taste and one's own flashed through our detective's mind. It's still argued whether the subsequent ambush and the killing of three police officers was put in train by Lindsay's deviating from the agreed route of the two vehicle convoy, but perhaps it's moot. The fact is a tragedy occurred that would have Sophocles bowing in admiration. One can't help but feel for her as she observed the aftermath of the massacre, bringing forth the heartfelt sentiment and utterance of 'Oh, shit!' 

Seldom has a truer observance of the predicament that she now found herself in been spoken, and with crystal clarity of the quantity of the faecal matter which she was now in danger of drowning in, set forth an action which was to strangely render her tongue-tied and in urgent need of a lavatory break, when later confronted with it. Realising that a tracking device had been placed under her car, she immediately sought out the offending object and placed it under the second car which had been the target of the hit. All of which was to no avail as we would eventually find out, but she gave the investigators a bloody good run for their money and, until the aforementioned loss of explanation, had even turned the tables on the anti-corruption brigade. This did not prevent her from finding herself in chokey, on remand, and at the mercy of some wretched abuse, both physically and mentally, which one feels offsets her own violent shortcomings previously mentioned. She had her head pushed down a crapper, the recurrent excrement - which seems to feature heavily in this story -  physically and solidly crumbled in her porridge, got roughed up, had boiling hot water poured over her hands and was waterboarded. If she was owed some of this due to her own, admittedly psychopathically induced rages, then the exchange rate was extortionate. 

No sorrier sight was seen sitting in the dock, after the kidnapping attempt on her, an almost broken human being that would melt even the most stonier of stone hearts. There followed a brief, calm interlude for her, and one thought that all of life's troubles were, if not behind her, then somewhere near Heston Services. Not a bit of it. The hounds were soon snapping at her feet again, and this is where many regard her of committing the fatal error that precluded a happy ending. Pathos indeed, when she was caught with the pay-off money collected from her recently departed mother's belongings, and Mephisto, as well as Lindsay, were snarling when the overnight bag was opened to reveal the loot. 'Death Where Is Thy Sting', one almost wanted to shout out, and throw a book at any supernatural entity complicit in such an agonising conclusion it was now surely to be, as the book you knew was going to be thrown at this poor downtrodden person. A tragic story indeed and one that seems to lack any redeeming feature on all sides. Yet, I will not have a wrong word said about this woman, 'But There for the Grace of God' and all that. A tough set of  bad circumstances, ill luck and sheer sodding Sod's Law just fell in to place to plague D.I. Lindsay Denton, and she may feel that it all compounded her sense of victimisation not unreasonably. 

Lindsay spent a year and a half in prison. She was subsequently freed on licence after a re-trial, which was brought as new evidence had come to light. Her conviction for Conspiracy to Murder was overturned, but that of Perverting the Course of Justice remained. She was later found dead of gunshot wounds, murdered by another corrupt police officer.