11 March 2013

And it burns,burns,burns

I shall probably fall asleep after posting this. Apologies for lack of replies to any comments.

Last night, got called out to a scene. Older bloke beaten to death. The body had been there a little while - probably around a week.

We did all the usual things, got the body sent away, made enquiries with the neighbours who were up and being nosy helpful. Started looking through lots of paperwork in the flat, but there really was a limit to what we could do at that time on a Sunday, so eventually I came home - later than I wanted, but I had to set a few things in motion.

Of course, Sherlock not being here meant there was no pointy-elbowed alarm clock, so I slept in until almost six-thirty - which is the absolute limit of when I can fall out of bed, get clothes on, and get out the door and still be on time for work.

Then we hit all the lines of enquiry hard. And it eventually paid off. Got an excellent lead.

We found our suspect at his workplace.

He tried to do a runner...we were prepared for that, and had some uniform with us to cover the back entrances.

I'd just grabbed the guy, and he was struggling, when one of the PC decided to get enthusiastic with the CS Spray.



If you're a junior officer, word of advice - don't employ your CS Spray when there's a 20mph+ wind and you're the wrong side of a senior officer.

It's like getting a face full of acid. You can't breathe, or see. It feels like your face is melting off. The burning pain is indescribable. Every 'wet' part of you feels like it's being eaten away - mouth, nose, eyes... The upside was the breeze helps clear it away faster, and it's worse when it's summer and you're sweating - that makes everything a million times more heated, and it gets in all your pores, too.

So, once I and another PC who'd also got a face-full had recovered slightly, apart from the gagging and swearing and being completely unable to see anything, we started gingerly washing off our hair and stuff, and eventually got out of the worst of our clothes.

Sal brought me home, where more cold water over my head - away from my eyes - helped a bit more. And eventually a braved taking a (cold) shower. Believe me, you don't want to take a hot shower (as mentioned earlier - it gets in your pores) and you don't want to jump straight into a shower standing up...the burning...finds everywhere on the way down, if you get me.

Anyway, I'm pretty much fixed now. Apart from bright red eyes. John's been God-like and taken good care of me, while Sherlock has tried to examine every interesting part of me - and get to my clothes. Which I'll brave putting through a  cold, then hot, then normal wash...at some point.

One of the forensics boys gave me a present for Sherlock last night, too - which I completely forgot about until just now, and gave to him for bedtime reading:


His eyes lit right up. (Not the same way mine have...)

60 comments:

John H. D. Watson said...

That is a very sweet and very strange gift. They know him well...

I'll take care of the clothes tomorrow when Sherlock's at school, don't worry. Just didn't want to do them with him here for fear he'd try to stick his face in them or something.

Greg Lestrade said...

Yeah, everyone knows about him and his thirst for knowledge...

You shouldn't do the clothes - honestly, they're my problem. I'll do it. Although...yeah, if they could find their way out of Sherlock-reach, that'd be good.

John H. D. Watson said...

I don't mind, I'll be here anyway.

Sherlock said on the other post that his parents evening is Wednesday, right?

Greg Lestrade said...

...he didn't answer.

I know you don't mind, but I'd feel terrible if you got it on you.

John H. D. Watson said...

It is indeed Wednesday, at 7.

Then I will be very careful. Really, don't worry about it. Bed time?

Greg Lestrade said...

yeah, definitely. I could sleep for a week.

REReader said...

It all sounds most extremely uncomfortable--I hope it's all worn off by morning. (And I know of one PC who needs a bit more training before being trusted with CS spray again...)

And that is a most Sherlock-y gift that the forensic guy sent! I hope it's as informative as it looks, Sherlock.

Greg Lestrade said...

He fell asleep hugging the book last night, which I assume is good.

pandabob said...

How's work Greg? and have you disposed of the DC's body carefully? ;-)

John H. D. Watson said...

Your clothes are done, and I did not get it on me. Just thought you'd like to know. Sherlock took his book to school this morning.

Greg Lestrade said...

Thanks love, you're wonderful.


I hope Mrs N didn't mind...

AnonyBob - the PC was a local, so haven't seen him since I'm sure he's been dealt with by his mate who he also sprayed.

John H. D. Watson said...

I hope so too. That didn't occur to me until after I'd dropped him off, which shows you what I consider normal these days... Still, not as if he wouldn't tell everyone all about it anyway, so I'd be hearing from her anyway if she objects.

Greg Lestrade said...

I'm certain she's heard worse from him

He asked if he could take me in this morning to show people my red eyes. When I said no he asked if he could take my clothes in ... Imagine that, evacuating a school with CS gas contamination, the day before parents' evening ...

Anonymous said...

Your descriptions are too good. They remind me entirely too much of doing the gas chamber training in Basic. Our DI "rewarded" the people who got their masks right by having us take them off at the wrong end of a Quonset hut full of tear gas and run for the other door. I swear that I could still smell the stuff on my uniform even after it had gone through the laundry. Having to deal with the liquid directly on tender skin and not just the vapor is the stuff of nightmares. I know it's not meant to be fatal, but what happens if it gets sprayed on someone who's allergic to it?

I hope today is a lot less exciting.

rsf

John H. D. Watson said...

L - I can imagine it all too clearly. I kept a very careful eye on that bag this morning.

REReader said...

I have to say, Sherlock has way more interesting ideas for show-and-tell than anyone in any of my classes ever had...

Greg Lestrade said...

Sorry, was getting a warrant sorted.

Did you have a good day, Sherlock?

RSF - people have died after being sprayed with it, although I'm not sure it's ever been proven to be the sole cause.

Anonymous said...

I wonder sometimes if that stuff was the beginning of my asthma. I'd hate to be exposed to it now. Glad you didn't die. Are your eyes still red? (I did muse briefly on the irony of yesterday's blog title, considering what happened.)

I think Sherlock would be a real challenge to find books for, if he walked into my library. Best kind of patron, ever!

rsf

Sherlock said...

No Mrs N took my book away because I was showing it to people at lunch. :(

John H. D. Watson said...

I don't think most people want to read about blood spatter patterns during lunch, Sherlock. Just a guess. Anyway, you've got it back now.

John H. D. Watson said...

...and his comment is in the spam, apparently. L, can you extract it when you have a minute? I don't think I can do it on your blog.

Greg Lestrade said...

It probably deserved to be! I'll look when I have a minute.

Sherlock, did you get your book back? Or do you have to wait until the end of the week? You shouldn't show people things unless they want to see them , especially blood spatter and the like.

Sherlock said...

Yes I got it back it's MY BOOK how could she take it away for the whole week! I wouldn't let her.

Why wouldn't everyone want to see it, it's AMAZING and I DID NOT deserve to go in the spam.

REReader said...

Sherlock, who said anything about taking the book away for a week?

(The spam filter has a mind of its own. I think it just likes to play with our minds.)

Greg Lestrade said...

I just did, RR.

Sherlock, when I was at school, anything that was confiscated you got back at the end of the day on Friday - or sometimes you never got it back at all.

REReader said...

Ah. (Your comment got caught in my email's spam filter...it's a conspiracy.)

REReader said...

Sherlock, some people are just funny about blood, and it makes them very uncomfortable to see blood or even pictures of it. Sometimes it even makes them feel sick, so seeing those pictures when they are eating is especially uncomfortable. (People are funny about lots of things that other people find interesting. It's just the way people are.)

I have to say it does sound like a very interesting book, though!

Greg Lestrade said...

Like we've talked about before, not everyone finds the same things interesting. You need to ask people if they would like to hear about things like murders and blood and if they say no you need to respect their choice.

I know you didn't really deserve to be in the spam ;)

Sherlock said...

But she said she wanted to see! I don't think it's fair you got things taken away for a whole week.

Greg Lestrade said...

RSF - still red in places, yeah. And if I'd known it would happen I would have saved that blog title!

Sherlock - well in that case you needed to ask mrs N if it was okay to show people then, I guess. Her class, her rules.

And at the time, I didn't think it was fair either - especially when it was a jumper or something and I'd end up freezing cold! And especially when it was things I never got back. But the teachers where just trying to do their jobs.

Anonymous said...

Sherlock, when I was in school, if the teacher took something away, you didn't get it back until the last day of school.

Who wanted to see? Your teacher or one of the other people in your class?

rsf

Greg Lestrade said...

RSF - you're right! I'd forgotten that. It was repeat offenders, in our school - confiscated stuff was given back either last day of term or of the year. Except who could ever remember what had been taken off them by then?

Anonymous said...

I remembered. Because it was usually a book I hadn't finished reading yet. The only time I ever got any of them back sooner was when they were library books, and I had one teacher who wouldn't even give them back then, which pretty much guaranteed I couldn't borrow any books from the library until June. :(

Glad your eyes are recovering, even if it's slowly.

Did Sherlock and John make that cake? I like it because it only takes one pan and one spoon. (Well, yes, measuring spoons too, but you know what I mean.)

rsf

Sherlock said...

rsf it was a girl in my class and we didn't make cake but I wanted to.

Lestrade why would they take your jumper?

If they took my things forever I would get them back or tell the police because that's STEALING.

Small Hobbit said...

Why do I get the feeling that your expectations of Sherlock's parents' evening are slightly different from Mycroft's?

Greg Lestrade said...

Sherlock - because it wasn't school uniform, and we weren't allowed clothes that weren't school uniform at school. I lost a lot of jumpers and t-shirts that way. And, on one occasion, my trainers.

I guess they didn't see it as stealing when they kept the stuff I shouldn't have had.

SH - hah, you think? ;)

Sherlock said...

That's stupid. Are you coming home soon? Can we make falafel?

John H. D. Watson said...

SH - I'm sure it'll be an exciting evening...

Greg Lestrade said...

Well, quite often what they were taking off me was cigarettes. That wasn't stupid of them, was it? Stupid of me, more like. Especially after the first few times, when I hadn't learnt.

Why falafel? Do we have ingredients?

REReader said...

Of course it will be different, you know Mrs. N much better than Mycroft's teachers! :)

I don't remember my teachers ever confiscating anything from me--or anyone else, for that matter--but I did get sent to the principal's office with some regularity for reading or daydreaming during class--reading something other than what was being taught at the moment, that is. (The principal mostly just sighed at me and sent me back, so far as I can recall. Or sometimes called my mother.)

Sherlock said...

Yes we have everything I checked and because we saw a shop that had it and it looked good but we already had chips and John said if I had that too I wouldn't be hungry for dinner but I would be.

Isn't it against the law to smoke when you're young? So that's different than them stealing your clothes.

Greg Lestrade said...

So...you've had chips, and we're making falafel? Right...

And yes, back then you had to be 16 to buy and smoke cigarettes. Now you have to be 18 to buy them. I was younger than that.

A for the clothes...yeah, it didn't feel very fair. But like I said, my fault for breaking their rules.

John H. D. Watson said...

It's the day of fried food, apparently... Maybe we can have a salad with it.

Sherlock said...

Uniforms are stupid anyway.

Greg Lestrade said...

I disagree with you there. Uniforms have a time and a place.

You don't hate your school uniform, do you? It's pretty casual. Not like Mycroft's.

Anonymous said...

The only thing Ilike about uniforms is not having todecide what to wear.

KHolly said...

I spent 12 years in uniforms and hated every minute. And now I'm fairly incapable of dressing myself because I never had to learn how in the impressionable years.

Sherlock said...

I don't HATE it but it's still stupid because it tries to make everyone the same and they're not and Mycroft's is worse.

Greg Lestrade said...

Sherlock - it makes everyone the same, yeah, but then people don't feel bad when they can't afford fashionable clothes. And everyone knows which school you belong to - like being part of a team. And no one in class needs to be distracted by what anyone else is wearing, as it's all the same.

Imagine how some people would feel if everyone else came to school in really expensive clothes and they couldn't afford anything so nice.

Rider said...

I didn't wear school uniform much. I wore the shirt usually but I preferred jeans to skirts and I tended to lose the jumper.

By the time I was in about 4th year of high school, the headmistress looked at me (jeans, no jumper, but I was wearing shoes which wasn't always the case) opened her mouth to give me the regular bollocking and then sighed and said "Alright, you win".

(My mother had gone to a school with strict uniform rules and detested them as being about regimenting kids, so complaints to her didn't work.)

I suspect I wouldn't have gotten away with my sloppiness (and shoelessness) if my academic ability had been less. That school was much more academics than sports minded.

Greg Lestrade said...

Sherlock - don't get any ideas. You're wearing yours.

Sherlock said...

But Mycroft's clothes cost loads of money and he had to buy lots and lots.

Kestrel337 said...

You have an excellent point re: uniforms. In my case it wasn't so much that my folks couldn't afford what was fasionable, it was that they just plain didn't care. So I was never in style, in a time and place where that was a deadly sin, and it was just one more weapon to be used against "the weirdo".

Greg Lestrade said...

true, Sherlock. But Mycroft's school costs so much to go to his uniform is like the small change you'd find down the back of the sofa.

John H. D. Watson said...

And most of the boys there could wear things that were far more expensive if they weren't wearing uniforms - but not all of them could.

Greg Lestrade said...

There's a scowly small person here now... (Sherlock, not John.)

Anonymous said...

Backing up a bit, if I can, to blood spatter and things…it's like this, Sherlock. I remember from somewhere (perhaps incorrectly) that John and Lestrade don't do lots of mushy/kissy stuff around you, most of the time, because they know you don't like it and that you don't see the point of it. They don't make you watch boring grownup movies with lots of romance stuff because they know that's not your thing. They try to find things to do that all three of you will enjoy. Blood spatter's kind of like that. Just because it's your thing, doesn't mean it's everyone's. When you're with people and you find that you and them like different things, it's often worthwhile to investigate until you can find something that you're all interested in. That way everyone has more fun. You don't want to have to explain to people why blood spatter is interesting, right? That's not fun. You want to find people who already find blood spatter interesting, then you and them can share your common interest.

Greg Lestrade said...

Yes...we never do mushy stuff around Sherlock, do we, Danger, SuperNanny, Fiancé o' mine... Um.

Anonymous said...

Well, no more than is absolutely, positively necessary, I'm sure. ;)

Greg Lestrade said...

You would be amazed how often it is actually essential. John's fault, naturally.

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