A Voss and Pike Casefile: The Early Days
Section 43: Order Restored
Rook arrested Tom Rudd that evening, with a decency that did not make it a better arrest. The cell was clean, the cuffs were warm from his pocket, and he read out the caution as though apologising for the weather. Rudd looked at you through the grille and didn’t say a word. That was worse than anything he might have said.
The Sentinel ran the headline by morning: STRIKE LEADER HELD IN CRANE DEATH. By Friday the walkout had broken, the pay cut was in force, and Thrift Day was rescheduled with a larger band and a bigger banner. Constance Ward thanked you at the door of the Chamber with a smile of such flawless warmth that you felt, briefly, like a piece of furniture that had been correctly placed.
The town exhaled. It had found a face for its fever.
“We got a result,” said Jonah, on the walk home. The rain was fine and cold, and the gutters ran full.
“Did we get the answer?” you said, and neither of you felt like finishing the sentence.
Sociological note: Functionalism in action. Deviance is a threat to integration and the control agents (the press, the constable, the Chamber) restore the body's equilibrium by removing the offender. The system's account of itself was never asked a question, and the scapegoat suited the system perfectly.