Impeding Justice (11 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two.

The Unicorn kept his face fixed in a
self-satisfying grin to match the one Abromovski wore as they
watched the weasel-like man, one of Abromovski’s accountants, count
the cash spread out on the kitchen table.

‘
Yet another success in the
Abromovski world of corruption.’ Sergei gloated.

‘
Indeed.’

A distracted reply, but The Unicorn had
numbers ticking through his brain - The ones to Sergei’s, Cayman
Island account. Another couple of hours and all of Abromovski’s
dirty money would become his. He clenched his fists in his pockets
to quell the urge to rub his hands together.

For all his clever scams, the Russian’s one
mistake is to underestimate me, he thought.

‘
Where is the
girl?’

‘
Which, girl?’

‘
It’s unwise to mess with
me, Sergei…’ Another thing about the Russian, he never expected the
unexpected. His eyes wide with shock bulged as the pressure on his
throat tightened. ‘You know which one, now, where is
she?’

Two of Sergei’s men guarding the door rushed
forward. The Unicorn tightened his grip. The Russian motioned them
to stay back.

‘
A rare, wise move,
Sergei...’ He released his grip and brushed the creases out of the
man’s black, evening jacket, collar.

‘
She’s in my room. I thought
I’d have a little fun with her tonight.’

‘
Why wasn’t she in the
auction?’

‘
She’s… She’s still too
feisty to introduce to our clients this evening. She hasn’t had
time to learn the rules…’

The Unicorn could smell the Russian’s
fear.

‘
You mean you’ve bashed her
to a pulp. Go on admit it…’

‘
I admit things did get a
little rough, but I see it as a personal challenge to break her in.
That is, providing you have no objections?’

‘
Just be careful, keep the
face clean like I taught you. What I really need is a photo of her.
If she’s a little roughed up at the moment it happens to suit my
purpose. I intend sending it to her mother. I want her to
understand that I’m a man of my word.’

‘
My men will sort it.’ He
signalled to the two men, but they looked at each other and back at
the Russian. The Unicorn sensed they didn’t want to leave their
boss alone with him. Sergei waved impatiently at them, ‘Well, what
are you waiting for? Make sure she’s awake, let her mother see how
doped up she is.’

The goons left the room just as the
accountant, who hadn’t flinched or interrupted his work regardless
of what had transpired around him, finished counting the mountain
of cash. ‘Two hundred and fifty nine thousand,’ he announced.

Sergei whistled, ‘Not bad for one evening’s
entertainment, eh?’

‘
It’ll do for starters. Get
the photo to me ASAP; I’ll be in touch soon.’

* * *

The dark, rolling tunnel Charlie fought to
stay upright in, jerked heavily and shook her body. She heard her
own groans bouncing off the walls and coming back at her. Then,
something strong forced her upright. She could do nothing to
resist.

Sharp little pains attacked her cheeks and
arms. Someone is pinching…me…

As some consciousness came to her, so did the
agony of her bruised and battered body.

She tried to form some words. Tried to tell
them to get the hell off of her, and let her sleep... In sleep the
pain misted away, niggled from a distance. She could cope with
that.

Flashes penetrated her closed eyes. A
camera…?

Chapter Twenty –Three.

‘
Ah, DI Simpkins, you do
take your job seriously, glad to find you work through the night
too.’

‘
You know what they say, no
rest for the wicked. Is that why you’re awake at this ungodly hour
too?’

Lorne bit her lip, her tiredness and worry
had interfered with her professionalism. The last thing she wanted
to do was antagonise The Unicorn.

His sick laugh grated in her ear.

‘
Tell me, Inspector, does
Charlie get her fiery nature from you or from her
father?’

‘
What have you done to her,
you evil…’

‘
Always the policewoman,
aren’t we, Inspector? Asking questions and more questions then,
answering questions with further questions. Your daughter’s a bit
high-spirited like I say. So, it is taking a while to, shall we
say, bed her in. But, rest assured we will break her in the end, I
can guarantee that much…’

‘
You bastard! What the hell
do you mean by that? Where is she? She’s thirteen for Christ's
sake. Let me take her place… I’ll be of more use to you than she
is…’

‘
Now don’t treat me like an
idiot, Inspector, you know as well as I do that your government
doesn’t deal with terrorists, although I don’t really like putting
myself in that bracket. This way, if Charlie remains with me, I
have a better chance of my demands being met, because you’ll kind
of be on my side, won’t you, Inspector?’

‘
I wouldn’t bargain on that!
You said it yourself. My government doesn’t deal with terrorists.
They know you have Charlie, but it is making no difference. I’m
trying, you have to believe me, I’m trying, but there are no
guarantees…’

‘
I’m disappointed in you,
Inspector, that’s not exactly what I wanted to hear. You had better
start pulling in some favours, if you want to see your little girl
again.’

The anger in his voice shot a fear through
her.

‘
Do you want to see Charlie
again, Inspector? Maybe I’m reading the situation wrong here. Maybe
you and hubby have had enough of the little tear-away. Is that why
you’re not pulling out all the stops to get her back?’

‘
I am pulling out all the
stops,’ She decided she must give him some hope, some reason to
keep Charlie alive… ‘ I…I’m doing everything I can to meet your
demands, talks are taking place, negotiations…’

‘
Very well, then. As long as
we have an understanding, now, give me your mobile number; I have
something interesting to send you. I think it will help you make
some decisions.’

She gave him the number. He hung up the
minute she finished reciting the last digit. She sat staring at the
receiver lying limp in her hand.

‘
Everything all right,
Inspector?’

DCI Roberts stood in her doorway.

‘
That was him.’

The Chief walked around the desk, took the
phone from her clenched fist and replaced it in its cradle.

‘
Okay, Lorne, what did he
say this time?’

She took him through the conversation. As she
finished her mobile tinkled indicating a message coming in.

Their eyes met and fear bounded between them
like a high voltage electrical current. Roberts rushed to stand
beside her. She tentatively opened her phone afraid of what she
would see.

‘
Oh, God!’

Charlie, a battered and bruised, spaced out,
Charlie. Her darling, baby…

‘
Jesus, what the hell have
they done to her, Sean?’ She crumbled into his chest.

‘
She’s strong, Lorne, we’ll
get to her soon, I promise you. Just hang on in there.’

She could feel his hand stroking the back of
her head as if she were a child.

Her phone tinkled again. Roberts grabbed it
and read aloud:

If
you want to see your daughter alive, get me £30 mill
by
noon. Yes, that’s right. The price just went up,
Inspector!

Her fear and heartache melted away to be
replaced with a terrible anger.

‘
Right, that’s it! If that
arsehole wants a fight then he’s gonna damn well get one! When we
track the bastard down I’m gonna rip his balls off one by one and
shove them down his slimy throat.’

‘
That-a-girl, Lorne, that’s
the kind of spirit I expect from you. Umm…promise me one thing,
though?’

‘
What’s that,
Chief?’

He stood by her office door with one leg
crossed over the other.

‘
When we catch the bastard,
just make sure I’m not around when you turn him from a Unicorn into
a Eunuch, the mere thought of it brings tears to my
eyes.’

She laughed with him, but checked it as soon
as it had started. She dare not unleash any emotions, even
light-hearted ones. If she did, she feared she’d not be able to
stop. Laughter would turn to tears and tears to screams and she
would be crushed.

Chapter Twenty-Four

‘
Right, listen
up.’

A sea of tired faces stared back at Lorne and
the DCI.

‘
The stakes have just been
upped.’ The inspector has received a phone call and two messages
from The Unicorn.’ The DCI went through the details of the call and
the messages before handing over to Lorne.

Lorne first reported on what had happened
during the stake-out. ‘Now, all of the so called guests were very
well-known, or high profile people. MI6 are taking up the
investigations into them and all information is now to be shared
between us, so we will soon know everything about their lives and
backgrounds. This is big and it has to be handled with care so no
treading on the toes of the agents involved. One mistake, one hint
we are on to them could prove to be disastrous. These are people
who could shut the operation down in an instant. Our investigation
stays with The Unicorn and… And, our main priority remains to find
Charlie. Simon, see if you can pick up a trace on the
messages.’

She threw him the phone and he almost dropped
it.

‘
The Inspector is right. We
share everything, but we each have our own priorities, and like she
said, Charlie is ours. Anything to report on the CCTV footage of
the 4x4, yet?’

‘
Yes, we’ve completed our
search of the tapes. The vehicle was dumped on level 2. Forensics
have scanned the area and the vehicle is in and being stripped as
we speak, so a report should be in from that quarter very soon.
There is a clear view of the occupants bundling, who we assume to
be Charlie, up one level.’ John paused and looked at Lorne. She
nodded at him to continue.

‘
From there, they broke into
a Mercedes and used that to continue their journey to wherever. It
has been reported as missing and the woman claiming to be the owner
checks out. We have uniform keeping an eye out for it as well as
alerting all manned CCTV operators, so any sightings will be
reported back.’

‘
Keep on top of that, John,
there’s every possibility the vehicle could lead us to The
Unicorn.’

‘
Hey, quiet everybody,
listen to this!’

Julie Saunders, the youngest member of
Lorne’s team, pointed the remote at the portable TV in the corner
of the room. The volume shot up and everyone stared at the
screen.

Sky news had a breaking news yellow banner
running along the bottom of the screen that read:

A bomb has exploded in a building next to the
Houses of Parliament.

A reporter shouted a live update over the
noise of the sirens and against a backdrop of flashing blue
lights.

‘…
As you can see behind me,
half the front of the building was blown away in the blast. Sources
tell me that no warning, I repeat, no warning call was received.
Luckily, this happened at four am this morning. Can you imagine
what sort of casualties we would be looking at, if this had
happened four maybe five hours from now?’

‘
As you say, one can only
imagine, Scott. Have the authorities given any indication of who is
responsible and why this bomb was planted?’ The newscaster at the
studio was asking, his eyes glued to the computer screen in front
of him, keeping an eye on the news coming through the A.P.
wires.

‘
I’m afraid it’s chaos at
the moment as you can see. No one has arrived from any official
source and there is no spokesman from the emergency services as
yet.’

The correspondent signed off giving the time
as 4.25am. The newscaster stated they would stay with the situation
and update every few minutes or sooner if something specific
happened.

Chapter Twenty-Five.

Every available phone in the incident room
started to ring. Lorne looked at the Chief and raised her eyes to
the ceiling. Here we go!

‘
It’s the Superintendent for
you, sir.' AJ shouted.

‘
It’s Tony Warner for you,
ma’am.’ DS Fox said, offering Lorne his phone.

They both set off for their respective
offices to take the calls.

‘
I take it you heard the
news, Tony?’

‘
Yes, any idea why he’s
pulled this stunt, Inspector?’

‘
Christ knows. He sent a
photo of Charlie to my mobile and followed it with one increasing
his demand to thirty million.’

‘
Shit. Dare I ask how
Charlie looked?’

‘
Pretty roughed up and full
of drugs. Who would do that to a thirteen year old
girl…’

She swallowed hard.

‘
What can I say? You know as
well as I do how dangerous this criminal is, Lorne. You say he’s
upped the price, did he say why, or give any other
ultimatum?’

‘
I don’t know, unless…It’s a
bit of a long shot. What if he found out the party was being
observed tonight. That would piss him off!’