Impeding Justice (12 page)

‘
Um, unlikely. The MI5 guys
we worked with are supposed to be the best. As far as I know
everything went without a hitch.’

‘
What other reason should we
be considering, Tony. I’m open to suggestions?’

‘
Well, hypothetically
speaking, what if one of the MP’s we clocked at the party tonight
told the Unicorn or Abromovski that the Houses of Parliament was
being swept today?’

‘
Another inside job you
mean?’

‘
Could be.’

‘
Look, I know we aren’t
supposed to step on toes, but MI5 might not keep us in the loop. So
I’m going to get our guys to run checks on the partygoers. Just to
make sure nothing is missed, or… dare I say it? Hidden? If for some
reason our way is blocked, can I call on you for some
help?’

‘
Don’t hesitate. Our
computers are at your disposal, on this case anyway! We’ve got till
noon right?’

‘
Right.’ She glanced at her
watch. 4.30 am.

‘
Let me consult with a
couple of my colleagues, see what we can come up with. I’ll get
back to you soon, okay!’

‘
Okay, speak to you soon.’
Not wanting to be cut off she withdrew the phone from her ear, but
not before she heard him say:

‘
Hey, Lorne, keep your chin
up!’

She couldn’t answer him. His unexpected
compassion had hit a nerve. She slammed the phone down.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

Lorne strode down to the Chief’s office. The
brisk walk, though not far, did the trick. She felt in control
again.

With no secretary on guard at this ungodly
hour she rapped her knuckles on the door and walked in.

DCI Robert’s usual healthy colour had drained
from his face. His head shook in disagreement, ‘No, sir, no he
didn’t, look, you’ll be the first person I contact, sir.’

Lorne hesitated by the door unsure whether to
intrude or not but Roberts beckoned her in to take a seat.

‘
Yes, actually she’s coping
pretty damn well, far better than I would if I was in her
situation. Yes, sir…’ he threw the phone back in its
cradle.

‘
That bad, huh?’

‘
Forgive me for what I’m
about to say, but that man can be such an arsehole at
times.’

‘
Go on surprise me, what has
our dear leader said now?’

‘
Apparently, we’ve, to put
it nicely, messed up. He asked if we could’ve made a mistake along
the way. He even suggested The Unicorn informed us his intended
target was the building next door instead of the Houses of
Parliament itself.’

‘
He’s a dipshit. What did he
say about the party guest list?’

The Chief took on the pose of Rodin’s
Thinker.

‘
You did tell him, didn’t
you?’

‘
Do you know what? What with
the bomb and everything, it completely slipped my mind.’

‘
That’s shameful. You
hypocrite! God, there’d be hell to pay if I ever kept you out of
the loop like that Sean Roberts!’

‘
That’s right, there would,
so don’t ever consider it. But, on this occasion, I believe I’m
doing the right thing. I’d rather go to him with the full picture
in place. This is a case of do as I say and not as I do, Inspector,
right?’

‘
As far as I know you’ve
told the Superintendent everything…’

‘
Good. So what did Tony
Warner have to say?’

‘
Nothing really, he was as
surprised as we were about the bombing. I’ve told him our
intentions and he’s volunteered to help if we come unstuck with
anything flagging up "classified information". I can’t help feeling
a little blessed to have him on our side.’

‘
Yes, he is an
asset…’

‘
Well, what happens, now?
Should we head over to the bomb site?’

'To be honest we are caught between a rock
and a hard place at the moment. We could go over there, look,
there’s something else. You probably won’t be surprised, but the
Unicorns new terms are being given no consideration at all. We are
expected to track him down before the deadline.’

‘
And just how do they expect
us to do that? We don’t even know who this bloody character is for
fuck’s sake.’

‘
I know, I know. There’s got
to be something obvious we’re missing.’

‘
Like what?’

‘
I don’t know, Lorne, but
there has to be something, let’s do some more
brainstorming.’

More brainstorming, like we haven’t done
enough already! Lorne arranged for a couple of coffees to be sent
in while they set about re-evaluating every tiny piece of
information they’d collected on the case so far.

‘
What about the plastic
surgeon? Do you think we missed something in his files?’

‘
I don’t think, so, but we
could get one of the officers to go through everything again. It’s
all still archived. Nothing has been released back to the family or
his partners as yet … Wait a minute, Laura Crane… has she been
interviewed? Has anyone reported back?’

‘
Not that I know of,
everything has moved so fast, I did schedule for DS Fox to
interview her, but he may have low-prioritised it.’

The DCI picked up his phone and buzzed the
squad room.

‘
Right. Leave it with me.
No, unless there is anything significant, leave it until the next
briefing. Good.’

‘
It seems they did try, but
she is refusing to co-operate. Said something about not wanting the
duty solicitor, but her own solicitor can’t make it until the
morning. Fox had held it for the next briefing. Told him that is
fine, there is no need for him to bother us with every little
thing. It will only undermine any decisions he needs to take if we
are tied up.’

‘
Right, but what if we
offered her some kind of deal? She’s our best shot, sir. She knows
him and probably intimately. If we could get her to
talk…’

‘
You mean a witness
program?’

‘
Yes, scare her into
realising how dangerous her position is.’

‘
You’re right, Lorne. You
can almost feel sorry for the stupid cow. She’s lost her job, the
respect of her colleagues and any friendships she made here, but
they are nothing to compare with what The Unicorn will have in
store for her the minute we release her. She is a dead woman and
that gives us a strong bargaining position. Let’s do
it….’

Chapter Twenty –Seven.

‘
Wakey, wakey. Rise and
shine little one!’

Lulled from her sleep, Charlie blinked. The
bright lights above her pierced her fragile eyes as she adjusted to
the light and became fully awake. Awareness gripped and locked her
in terror. The man bending over her, his eyes brimming with mocking
hatred, featured in snapshots flooding her memory, and what he’d
subjected her to filled her with horror. She remembered his name –
The Unicorn, and wondered again why he had such a nickname.

‘
It is time for your
medicine, little one…’

His sour laughter trembled through her and
echoed off the walls, but then, she realised it wasn’t just him
laughing. Two other men were standing near the door. Their stance
made them look like guards and each followed the Unicorn’s lead in
laughing at her.

She tried to concentrate. What did he mean
her medicine?

Her surroundings came into focus as he
straightened up. The room reminded her of the Pop Stars’ bedrooms
she’d seen in her magazines, rich and sumptuous. Deep gold, satin
sheets covered her naked body.

Without warning the Unicorn snatched the
cover from her. It billowed out before landing in a heap behind
him. She cowered in fear and embarrassment, ‘No…no... Please
don’t.’

The men mimicked her and the Unicorn laughed.
His eyes travelled the length of her slight body. She scrunched
backwards into the pillows.

‘
Enough! Let us get on with
it!’

The room fell silent and the men moved
forward, one each side of the bed. They grabbed her arms and
stretched her out. She wriggled and kicked and begged, but she
didn’t have the strength to match theirs.

The Unicorn opened a drawer next to the bed.
Something glinted in the light. Charlie turned her head. Her voice
would not release the scream mounting inside her. It threatened to
choke her as it strangled in her throat.

A spray of clear liquid squirted from the
syringe. It dropped like raindrops on to her arm. Then, the needle
plunged into her skin.

Her mind calling out to her mum gave her the
courage to speak: ‘Please don’t. Please ring my mum again. She’ll
give you everything you want. She’s a very important person….’

‘
You should be a comedienne
little one. She’s not so important, otherwise she would have
bargained for your life by now…’

The phial emptied into her.

‘
She is. She’s in the police. She’s an Inspector and my
grandfather used to be a Chief Inspector. Between them they have
many contacts… Important people… Just ring her,
please!’

Her voice sounded strange, far away, like she
was in a long tunnel and the words hadn't formed until they'd
reached the end. Her head felt hazy.

‘
You stupid bitch! Don’t you
think I know who your mother is and what she does? Why do you think
I had you picked up? Take her to the bathroom!’

She couldn’t find the strength to struggle
against the men dragging her or summon any will to do so.

Steam dampened her face when they pushed her
through the doors and a gentler pair of hands steadied her.
Gradually, the face of a pretty young woman came into focus. Her
voice had a cruel edge to it but her expression denied this, she
winked and placed a finger to her lips urging Charlie to be quiet
and compliant.

‘
Come on, get into the bath.
Hurry up, bitch…’

Charlie felt a feeling of safety descend her
as the woman helped her to climb over the side of the bath and sink
into the hot comforting water.

The woman leant over to give Charlie the soap
and a sponge and whispered: ‘My name is Sasha. I want to help you.
Do as I say and you won’t get hurt.’

Charlie nodded, but her fear made her
question the woman’s motives.

Is it possible someone could help me get out
or was this girl, with a face of an angel, here to give me false
hopes, trap me into a false sense of security?

Sasha smiled as she pushed one of the buttons on the edge
of the tub. The tub erupted like flowing lava escaping from a
dormant volcano. Charlie relaxed, but after a moment felt repulsed
and disgusted, she tensed as the bubbles tickled her in places she
knew had changed forever and would never again be considered
her
private and
personal
parts.

Sasha gave her a look of pity which told she
understood.

‘
We can talk better with the
noise, just enjoy it, it won’t hurt you, Sweetie.’ She
said.

Charlie relaxed and allowed the water to
soothe away the clawing pain between her legs. Her eyes closed, but
her head started to spin so she opened them again and had the weird
sensation she’d just come off a Waltzer ride at the fair.

‘
What have they given
me?’

‘
Heroin. You will get used
to it, although it will feel strange to begin with.’

‘
I
don’t
want
to get used to it.’

A loud thud on the door made her shudder with
fear. She had spoken too loudly.

‘
What’s going on in
there?’

Sasha put her finger to Charlie’s mouth and
then took it away again.

‘
Sorry, the water was too
hot that’s all, everything is fine." Sasha shouted.

‘
I have a pain between my
legs. Why is that, have they raped me?’ she whispered the question,
but part of her didn’t want to know the answer.

Sasha nodded. Charlie saw tears well in her
eyes.

‘
I am sorry, I could not
stop them. I am just like you. They abducted me from my home town
in Romania. They smuggled me here in the back of a lorry with
fifteen other girls. Only they are all together and I have to be
here for him. He rapes me several times a day.’

Charlie gasped.

‘
Oh, I… I shouldn’t have
told you. You are so young.’

Her hand brushed Charlie’s cheek.

‘
It won’t happen to you,
Charlie, you have my word. I will help you to escape.’

‘
How, and well, if it is
possible, why haven’t you escaped before now?’

‘
There will be a time, we will find an opportunity. You’ll
have to be patient. And me, I
can’t
escape because
they have my family and if I even attempt to, they have warned me
my family will be murdered. Burned at the stake… ’

‘
Oh, no…’

The door burst open.

‘
Come on, that’s enough. Now
get out of there and get dressed.’

Charlie ducked under the water.

‘
Please, one more minute, I
haven’t washed her hair, yet.’

‘
You’ve got thirty
seconds.’

Not able to hold her breath any longer
Charlie emerged to find the man staring at her body. His eyes
lingered menacingly. Her insides cringed and she knew at that
moment, there were different types of rape a man could impose on a
woman.