(Untitled)

[stayastranger]

Sarah had been working in the IPD office for some months now. It wasn't the most strenuous of jobs, but she liked it considerably better than working at the Wienerlicious, despite the minimal hours. There were too many ready hands, too little work to be done. She'd signed on under the impression that it was the best way to see the various records

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[sir_samuel]

"Interesting reading?" Vimes said without preamble as he came into the office, letting the door swing behind him. He had a stack of patrol reports in his hand that he had been reading outside,* which he dropped onto the desk in front of the file Sarah was looking through. He still smelled faintly of the cigar he'd been smoking and looked vaguely annoyed. But then again, it was generally more troubling if Vimes didn't look vaguely annoyed. "Or is it just that the day's so slow that you've decided to give yourself a history lesson, Miss Walker?"

A pointed remark made at the last Council meeting about Community Leaders Needing To Follow The Compound Rules had finally made him cut down on smoking in the IPD office and take his cigars outside.

[stayastranger]

"It has been quiet, sir," Sarah agreed, glancing up with a small smile. Even here, in this environment, she couldn't entirely shake trained behaviors, sitting up a little straighter. The smell of cigar smoke was a familiar one now, after a few years as John Casey's partner and a few months working in this office. "And it is an interesting report, but then the history of this place generally is."

[sir_samuel]

"Isn't it always?" Vimes said darkly. Even after all these years, he hadn't gotten used to just how quiet it could get on the island. "Which file you reading, then?" He came around the desk and peered over her shoulder, grimacing when he saw which reports were laid in front of her. "Oh good gods, that. I wasn't here for that, but I had to have the sodding bastard sitting in my cell for months. Just as much a punishment to us as to him, if you ask me. Why they didn't just chuck him in the volcano, I'll never know."

Really, what use was a volcano if you couldn't throw deserving people into it?

[stayastranger]

"Squeamish residents," Sarah said lightly. From what she had read, she couldn't entirely disagree, though. It seemed as if the island built up all the tension and bad deeds that went on daily in cities, kept under the surface without interruption until something, someone, went over the edge in a big way. "It seems unnecessary, either way, having kept him in such close proximity to the rest of the people living here. Isn't there a jail cell further out into the jungle?"