Professor Kathryn Morris was standing in the kitchen with her arms folded. The tap over the sink was dripping. Two days earlier, she had telephoned the plumber and asked him if he could come and fix it for her. He had told her that he was very busy that week, but said he would definitely find the time to call round.

I tell you what, he’d said, I will be at your house by eleven a.m. the day after tomorrow.

Just so you know, she’d said before hanging up, I have an important meeting I must attend at lunchtime.

This was not true. She suspected that this busy plumber might be late and so wanted to make sure that he would arrive when he said he would. She didn’t want to end up waiting all day for him. It wasn’t so much that she had somewhere particular to go but the act of waiting and not knowing would make her unsettled and distract her from her work.

Don’t worry said the plumber, I promise I’ll be with you by eleven.

Professor Kathryn Morris looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. It was nearly five past eleven. In her office upstairs a student dissertation lay half read. We can talk about it this afternoon she had told the student. Was it her imagination or had the sound of the dripping tap got slightly louder during the previous two days. She thought about running the tap just in case it might stop the dripping for a while. In any case she needed to put some water in Charlie’s bowl by the back door.

She decided to go back upstairs to her office and carry on reading the dissertation. A little later she thought she heard a sound that was strange. Strange because it was a distinctive crack that she identified straight away. No, she thought, that can’t be, it must be something else.

When the doorbell rang, she looked at the clock on her desk and then at the photograph next to it. In it, she sits with a group of her former colleagues at Langley, they are at a barbecue, the photograph captures a moment when they are all smiling broadly.

When she opened the front door, she expected to see the plumber but instead she found herself facing Lieutenant Lamont.

Hello Luke.

Kathryn. The police officer looked sombre. May I come in?

They sat facing each other in the living room.

I am afraid I have some bad news Kathryn.

The Lieutenant went on to say that there had been an incident that morning which had involved one of his officers. They had got reports of two children being attacked by a dog.

The officer was authorised to use lethal force, he said, but I am afraid that he killed your dog by mistake.

Charlie?

Kathryn looked away from him and closed her eyes. It was more than a minute before she spoke. How are the children? She said, her eyes still closed.

They are at the hospital being treated now but it looks like they will be alright.

Kathryn turned back to look at him. Tell me exactly what happened.

Luke Lamont knew of Kathryn’s history with the agency and her time as a security analyst so on the way to her house he had carefully rehearsed what he would say in response to her inevitable question.

Luke described how his officer had attended the location where the dog had been reported and found a dangerous animal that was a clear threat to the public. He was equipped with an appropriate firearm and took aim at the dog.

Just as he pulled the trigger, he said, your dog Charlie, ran into his line of fire and the bullet hit him. I am afraid there was nothing we could do for him.

Kathryn shook her head, I had been meaning to get the fence in the back yard fixed for weeks, but I never got round to it, he must have found a way out.

I am most sincerely sorry for what happened said Luke but that is how my officer shot Charlie by mistake.

Kathryn sat quietly for nearly a minute staring at her steepled fingers before she said, actually Luke, I am afraid that is not true.

Lieutenant Lamont sat and looked at her. Finally he said, not true?

No, said Kathryn. From what you have described to me your officer did not shoot Charlie by mistake.

What the hell are you suggesting? That one of my officers would …

Kathryn held up the palm of her hand towards him and the policeman stopped talking.

From what you have described to me your officer did not shoot Charlie by mistake. If your officer had identified Charlie as the dangerous dog, taken aim and then shot him then that would have been by mistake. However, from what you have said, he was aiming at the dangerous dog. Then something happened out of his control, in this case Charlie’s sudden presence. The result of this was that your officer shot Charlie by accident. 

I really can’t see what point you are trying to make Kathryn, said the Lieutenant.

The difference is important Luke. In the first case your officer would have made an error in identifying the dog and in so doing did something wrong. Not with any malice and while it might seem not to be a moral failing there is some culpability here. A mistake does bring with it personal responsibility. However, in the case of an accident your officer never intended to shoot Charlie. He identified the correct dog but something else unforeseen intervened. Clearly there is the issue of risk to consider. I should ask myself in that situation if I did my best to avoid any risk of harming anyone else versus the need to take swift action to stop any more children being hurt. Would people blame your officer for not being more reticent, I doubt it. Perhaps many would say that he and Charlie were just unlucky. To coin one of your own phrases Luke, my dog just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lieutenant Lamont leant forward in his seat. Kathryn, he said, I think you might be in shock.

Don’t patronise me Lieutenant, she said. Kathryn stood up and went over and stared out of the window. She kept her back to him as she spoke.

When you say “you are under arrest” you are not simply asserting a fact, given the power the state confers on you, you are carrying out an official act. You are doing something significant. When a woman says no to a man in the case of sexual consent, she is carrying out an act of refusal. She is not simply saying something, she is actively doing something. You are well aware of what you can do with weapons Luke but you should also be aware that you can do things with words.

There was a tremor in the air, the kind that follows a glass shattering. Without turning round Kathryn said, you can find your own way out Lieutenant.

She listened to hear the front door close. An hour later she was still standing at the window.

That afternoon the plumber successfully repaired the tap in the kitchen. Word had clearly spread in the neighbourhood.

I am so sorry he said, about what happened to your dog.

Thank you for your condolences she said, I appreciate you saying that.

She chose not to bring up his lack of success in meeting the conditions of his eleven a.m. promise.

After he left the tap no longer dripped. The silence in the kitchen engulfed her and carried her through the twilight and then on into the night.