Impeding Justice (10 page)

The man continued to speak in seductive,
melodic tones.

‘
We have good time, all of
us. You do me proud, especially you, Carma, my precious
one.’

He held Carma’s chin in his hand. She tried
to pull away from him, but his grip tightened making her lips
protrude as if she were a fish. He kissed her long and hard. She
squirmed out of his hold and squealed. The man laughed then punched
her in the stomach.

‘
The next time I want kiss,
you give me one or I will…’

He lifted his right hand pointed his thumb
towards his throat and dragged it from left to right.

Charlie heard Carma sob and saw her bend over
in pain and clutch her stomach. The man lifted her face and wiped
away a tear from her flushed cheek.

‘
You do as I say and you
won’t get hurt, you hear, Sweetie?’

‘
Yes, Sergei.’ Carma
replied, her voice trembling.

The man laughed and continued on his journey,
touching every girl he passed.

Sometimes he ran his finger down a cheek but
mostly his hands sought out the most private parts of their slim
bodies. None of them objected, but Charlie knew they were afraid
to.

Now he stood in front of her. His fingers
clicked towards the two men who had followed his every step. They
grabbed her and pulled her on to her feet. Her legs trembled and
her knees buckled. But before her body slithered to the ground one
of the men grabbed her right wrist and wrung it between his hands
giving her a Chinese burn. She cried out as the pain shot through
her. But the cry strangled in her throat as the other one punched
her hard in the stomach. She doubled over. Her breath left her body
draining all her strength. Her soul sank into her despair.

‘
Ha, I thought He said this
one is to be careful of? That she fight like a tiger!'

His words mocked her courage, but didn’t
extinguish it. Her body may not be able to help her, as wracked
with pain and weakness and unable to breathe she needed help to
even stand. But that wouldn’t stop her from challenging him.

‘
What…what do you want from
me? Who are you?’

‘
I ask the questions. Do you
understand?’

His angry face almost touched hers. She
gasped in his garlic and cigar laden breath. Her stomach rejected
the vile smell. Vomit projected from her mouth. His ugly face took
a direct hit.

Her body hit the cold, damp floor with a thud as the
vicious swipe stung her ear and threw her off balance. She lay
unable to move, unable to stave off the blows and kicks that rained
down on her. She went beyond the agony. Her mind floated above her.
Her blood mingled with her tears and snot filled her mouth. Then, a
moment of clarity came to her. This is where I die,
Oh, Mum…mum….

Chapter Twenty.

Lifting the receiver broke the agony of
frustration the last couple of hours had given Lorne. At last
intelligence had come in giving them new information. They needed
MI6 to help.

‘
Tony? It’s me. We’ve just
heard there’s going to be some sort of party at one of the
addresses you gave me…’

‘
Yes, I know. We have it
covered. I was just about to ring you. M15 have agents going in
under the guise of being workers from a staff- agency.

‘
Great, that is what I rang
for, my DCI wanted to get the same thing set up, but what you could
have done in the timescale, I’d no idea, still, not relevant, now.
What’s the plan?’

‘
They haven’t revealed
everything, but as you would expect there is a surveillance van in
place. I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of asking if
you could go over there and join the team for a while in the van.
But, only say yes if you think you can cope. I told them you
weren’t the type to go all hysterical on them.’

‘
Thanks, Tony, yes I’ll
cope, a lot more than I am here, doing nothing. Really appreciate
that, are you going to be on it?’

‘
Yes, let’s see, it’s,
11.45, I’ll meet you on the White Swan car park in fifteen. We
should be there by midnight and catch most of the guests arriving.
Our information has the party starting around 12.30am.’

‘
Right, see you
there.’

The phone clicked. This time she felt relief
rather than anger at his abrupt end to the call. She’d half dreaded
him deliberately misreading her asking him if he would be there and
making some crass remark about holding her hand or something.

‘
Well, I can tell by your
face you have news…’

‘
Yes, Chief, they’re already
on to it.’ She told him what had transpired.

‘
I’d like a word. In my
office if you don’t mind, Inspector. The rest of you carry on
digging up what you can. And, John, get someone to chase up the
facial recognition team.’

Whoops! He had a face on him like thunder.
Had she gone too far making arrangements without running it past
him first?

He set off for his office like he had a
rocket up his backside.

‘
I’m sorry, Chief, I should
have…’

‘
Yes, you should have. You
can’t do it, I won’t allow it!’

The bang of his fist on the desk made her
jump.

‘
But, why? And, why are you
so damn angry with me?’

‘
Don’t be so naïve, Lorne.
By rights, you shouldn’t even be on this case, but I gave you the
benefit of the doubt. You promised me you’d take a back seat and
now this. You’ve got to be out of your tiny mind, if you think I’m
going to let you within twenty miles of that place.’

She glared at him but he stood his ground his
eyes lashed her with his anger. Memories she would rather forget
came to her. Their time as an item had been ninety per cent
fighting and ten percent making up.

‘
I beg your pardon, sir, but
I think you are being unreasonable…’

‘
Huh, I’m the one being
unreasonable?’ he flopped rather than sat down in his
chair.

Lorne sat down too. She could see he’d begun
to weaken so pushed her advantage.

‘
I promise I will not do
anything untoward. Besides, Tony will be there to keep me in line.
There’ll be other agents there too. They’re hardly going to let me
storm the place, are they?’

‘
God, you’re impossible to
deal with at times, Lorne Simpkins, I’m not in the least bit happy
about this.’

‘
I know, but I’ll be okay.
Please say I can go. I need to be there…’

His eyes softened.

‘
Don’t think you can wrap me
around your little finger, Lorne.’

‘
No, sir. Of course
not.’

She gave him her most dazzling smile.

Chapter Twenty-One.

Sweaty bodies and rank remains of takeaways
didn’t exactly make the next few hours cramped in the Ford transit,
customised to look like one of the catering groups vans,
appealing.

The four agents from MI5 greeted her with
respectful nods. Obviously schooled in her personal involvement
they skipped the usual banter she’d expected with her being the
only one from the Met.

She picked up a pizza box and an empty curry
carton from the only seat available, Tony had already grabbed one
at the desk in front of the equipment, ‘Thanks for asking me to
dinner, Guys.’

This lightened the tension and earned her an
appreciative look from Tony. Three of the others grinned at her and
the third said, ‘Not exactly dressed for it or would have done, but
if you’re hungry there’s some chicken chow mein keeping warm in the
front there.’

Before she had time to answer one of the
others commanded, ‘Heads up, we’ve got action.’ He reached forward
and started tampering with some dials in front of him. ‘Falcon 1,
we are clear for take-off,’ he said speaking into a tiny
microphone.

They heard what appeared to be static in
response. Tony leaned forward and whispered in her ear, ‘That’s one
of the guys on the inside giving us the okay signal. We have six
acting as waiters and one as a valet.’

Scanning the half a dozen monitors in front
of her she watched in disgust and awe as dignitaries by the bucket
load arrived at the Georgian styled mansion. She recognised most of
them, but one in particular shocked her, ‘That’s the aid to the
Home Secretary, Paul Solomon! You’d think it was a film premier.
The only thing missing is a bloody red carpet.’ She whispered to
Tony.

Appreciating her wit, he and the others all
grinned. She began to feel part of the team instead of an observer.
Apart from the reason they were there she enjoyed the experience.
As stake-outs went this is the luxury end, she thought, remembering
many a night cramped in her car with Pete, shivering from the cold
and tired to her bones. The take-away food being the only thing
their operations had in common with this one.

The monitors covering the inside showed the
guests being ushered into a large room located at the rear of the
property. Male waiters handed out glasses of champagne and canapés
to the guests who stood around one half of the room chatting in
groups. The other half of the room housed several rows of red
velour-covered seats arranged theatre style.

At midnight the guests fell silent prompted
by the slow hand clapping of none other than Sergei Abromovski,
bringing their attention to him.

‘
Gentlemen it is a pure pleasure you should join us here
this evening, I know you will not regret
coming.’
He
paused, a sick appreciation of his own joke smirked his face. A
ripple of naughty schoolboy laughter bounced through the
microphones. Lorne gripped the rail of the chair she stood behind,
but remained silent.

Sergei’s voice droned on.

‘
The proceedings for
tonight’s enjoyment will be as follows: I will ask all of you first
to take a seat, then once you are all settled the evening’s
entertainment will begin. The girls will be brought out one by one,
you will bid for an evening of joy and the highest bidder will win
the girl. Rooms are available at a small extra charge and all the
money raised this evening will go to a charity close to my heart,
the Children of Beslan fund.’

‘
Like hell it will,’ Tony
muttered. ‘There’s only one charity he’s interested in, the Sergei
Abromovski, Cayman Islands fund!’

‘
Bastard!’

‘
My sentiments exactly,
Lorne, hark at them clapping, they’re so civilised you’d think they
were attending a state dinner with an HRH.’

They were not so refined when it came to
choosing a seat, however. In fact, they witnessed a couple of
scuffles as they vied for position nearest the front.

‘
Fucking, dirty old
men…’

No one commented on her remark. Their
attention was drawn to the gold silk curtains at the far end of the
room, which as they swept back revealed none other than West End
actress, Dorothy Emerald.

‘
This is unbelievable.’ One
of the agents said. ‘What the hell is she doing here?’

‘
Acting as Mine Host, by the
sound of her and she is carrying it off like it’s a regular job,
which means, she is involved in the whole scam… My God…’

Tony had been cut short by the appearance on
stage of a very young, frightened girl who wobbled rather than
walked down the red-carpeted catwalk. Her fear visible in her face,
her body hardly covered she looked straight ahead.

Whistles and Haw-haws resounded through the mike, filling
the van with a sickening feeling of wolves about to tear a catch
apart.
　

‘
Jesus, she’s no more than
twelve or thirteen years old.’

A
picture of Charlie, never far from her mind, came to her and her
legs almost buckled.
Hold on,
you’re doing just great, don’t weaken.

Tony looked over his shoulder, ‘Okay?’

‘
Doing my best, bu
t…’

He nodded. The others didn’t acknowledge they
had spoken or that there might be something amiss. Lorne thanked
God for their professionalism.

Her eyes went back to the screen. A young,
famous footballer walked the first girl out of the room. Another
girl, this one huge breasted, teetered onto the catwalk, struggling
to walk in the horrendously high heels. She stumbled and fell.

‘
Like a Christian to the
Lions. Poor, bugger…’ One of the agents said. They watched as men
pawed her under pretence of getting her back on the
podium.

The bidding began at an unbelievable two
thousand pounds and finished, with a rather rotund gentleman in his
fifties, at four thousand. The girl visibly shuddered.

Lorne took a deep breath. In her career she’d dealt with
every vile, tragic, horrific and sheer revolting situation one
could possibly imagine. Her armour had been built of steel by her
third or fourth case in her rookie year and had never let her down.
A cop couldn’t afford to let it.
But, this…and with her personal involvement…
Maybe the DCI had been right.
This could crack her wide
open.

The sordid auction lasted for an hour and a
half. Relief overwhelmed Lorne as Ms Emerald drew the evening to a
close, but it didn’t stop her feeling distraught for the girls who
had been bought that night. She hadn’t wanted Charlie to be one of
them, with all her heart she hadn’t wanted that, but part of her
knew the experience hadn’t taken her out of limbo. Questions
pounded her head. If Charlie wasn’t there, then where the hell was
she? And, the investigation now involved child trafficking for sex,
and paedophilia as well as the terrorist links and the numerous
other activities they had tagged to The Unicorn and Abromovski.
Huge! And somewhere in the middle of it all was her baby…