Impeding Justice (14 page)

‘
Lorne?’

‘
I’m here. Yes, the guy
called, you should be here, Tom…’

‘
What use would that be? I
would only be in the way. But, Lorne, think how it is for me,
please. I know you are doing all you can, just keep me in the loop.
I can’t bear it…’

‘
Oh, Tom, I’m sorry. I will,
the moment I have any news. There is such a lot going on. All I
know is she is safe. He has made contact and assured me of that. I
heard her voice…’

‘
What? What did she say, are
you sure she is all right?’

‘
Yes, she just called out my
name…’

‘
Okay, Lorne. I’m sorry. I
know you have to keep it together. Don’t forget, ring me. I’ll
contact your dad and let him know you have heard. Oh God, what a
bloody nightmare, it’s been nearly ten hours since she was taken.
What the hell are we going to do?’

‘
I must continue to do my
job, Tom, it is all we can do. Look, try and get some rest I have
to go. And, I promise I’ll call you if there are any new
developments.’

Although she had detected some softening in
his attitude there still remained an atmosphere, something she
couldn’t put her finger on. It was wrapped up in how he didn’t feel
the need to be with her. And, if she was truthful, in this, their
hour of real need, her desire to be with him wasn’t that strong
either. He put the phone down after curtly saying: ‘See that you
do, Lorne.’

‘
Safe to come in now,
Inspector?’

‘
Yes, sir, sorry about that.
Poor Tom, it must be hell being at home wondering…’

Neither of the two men commented.

The Chief urged AJ to tell them what he
had.

‘
I’ll start with, Judge
Walter Winwood, We’re all aware how influential he is. There’s a
lot of information out there about him, so I’ve decided to look at
his case files more thoroughly later, if that’s okay with you, gov?
I’d like to go over what we’ve discovered about the other guys
first.’

‘
The ball is in your court,
AJ, fire away.’

‘
Phillip Solly. Football
player, in the Premier league, presently serving an eight month ban
for refusing to take a drug test, he has a clean record as far as
we’re concerned. Press coverage is a regular event in his life as
he enjoys partying, women etc…

Paul Solomon, aid to the Home Secretary. He’s
married with two children in their late teens. My mate at the press
office says there’s plenty of hints as to him not being too fussy
whom he shares a bed with, bats on both sides, so to speak, and age
isn’t a consideration, but nothing proven that they can go to press
with yet! They think there's connections with him and his wife
belonging to a swingers club, but they are clever with it and
haven’t given enough away to cause a scandal.’

"I’d rather we dealt in factual events,
AJ.’

‘
It’s interesting though,
sir. If any of it is true, The Unicorn or Abromovski could be using
the knowledge of his antics in some way. What with him being the
personal aid to the Home Secretary. The possibilities of his
usefulness to them are endless: Legalities surrounding immigrants -
lay out of the Houses of Parliament - who will be where at any
given time…’

Lorne stretched as she spoke. Looking out of
the window she watched the sun coming up over the towering
buildings of London.

‘
Of course, if all what AJ
is speculating is true, then he is a grave danger to our security,
but MI6 must be on to that, surely?’

‘
If they are, they're not
sharing.’

‘
As is typical. Okay, what
else have you managed to find out about him, AJ, anything
specific?’

‘
I’ll keep digging, but at
the moment his public persona is exemplary, sir. There are a couple
of interesting councillors in the mix though. And these just happen
to work in the planning department of Knightsbridge
Council.’

‘
Jesus Christ! Abromovski
certainly is well connected, isn’t he?’ Lorne mumbled under her
breath.

‘
Yes, running down the list
we’ve got: The Judge, two Solicitors, Paul Solomon, two Planning
Officers, three Property Developers and the Notorious
Footballer…’

‘
And, a Partridge in a Pear
Tree…’

‘
I know, Lorne, but let’s
keep the faith. Something has got to give.’

‘
You’re right. But, if it
doesn’t give soon, sir…’

‘
I’ve had some co-operation
from the MI5 guys.’ AJ butted in. ‘They are sending over a copy of
the tapes, I’m going to look through them just to check we haven’t
missed anyone.’

‘
Good. Just remember, the
clock is ticking and we’ve only got five hours before the
deadline.’

‘
Yes, ma’am.’

Roberts looked at his watch. ‘Good God, where
has the last hour gone. In fact, for that matter, where has the
whole bloody night gone?’

Chapter Thirty
.

‘
Are the vests ready, Gary?
The Unicorn asked his head minder.

The trestle tables he walked between sagged with the weight
of the military equipment, ammunition and arms, he’d
acquired
through Abromovski and other contacts. Their cost in
monetary terms had been high, but he knew the outcome would far
outweigh the cost and the satisfaction would be
mind-blowing.

‘
Yes, boss. Four vests just like you wanted. Have you
decided which girls you want to use for this little
exercise
?’

The
Unicorn savoured
the moment, enjoying the charged atmosphere of the room. Excitement
seared his blood, after all it wasn’t every day one had the British
Government jumping through hoops like crazed dogs.

‘
I have two in mind so far,
the other two I’m finding it difficult to decide upon.’

‘
Can I ask which two you
have chosen?’

‘
The copper’s daughter is one. I want rid of her, she’s more
trouble than she’s fucking worth and I can’t bear to have her round
me any longer. English girls are too feisty for my liking. And,
Sasha, yes,
darling
Sasha… It will give me great pleasure
to use her. I am bored with her anyway, she has it coming, I taped
a conversation she had with the cop’s daughter. She’ll live to
regret her betraying words.’

He had a sudden irritation run through him as
the men in the room copied his sardonic laugh. Their forced loyalty
didn’t fool him. Trust is a dirty word.

‘
What about Sasha’s
family?’

He
hadn’t missed Gary’s reaction to him naming Sasha as one of the
girls, his question didn't surprise him, but why did Gary appear to
be in such turmoil? He studied him closer. Saw the slight reddening
of his cheeks and noted the beads of sweat glistening on his
forehead.
No, it’s not
possible, is it? Could this fool be in love with the whore?
He was used to his men thinking with
their dicks, but he hadn’t seen this coming, not with
Gary!

‘
What about
them?’

Gary looked even more uncomfortable.

‘
Well I…I just wondered if
you wanted me to tell our guys to set them free?’

‘
Do we
ever
let the families go,
Gary?’

‘
No, but…’

‘
You
know
what has to be done or do you need me
to
spell
it out for you?’

He took a step closer to his head minder. Was
Gary trying to undermine him?

‘
All
four
members of the family?’

‘
Gary!
You’re starting
to piss me off. What the fuck’s wrong with you? Not going soft on
me are you? Too busy thinking with that puny dick of yours, instead
of this…’ He jabbed a finger at Gary’s sweating brow and took
another step nearer.

The two men stood toe to toe, nose to
nose.

Gary backed down. ‘I’ll get it organised
straight away, boss.’

‘
Kill the kids first, I want the parents to suffer and make
sure it’s filmed. Before Sasha dies, I want her to see and
understand how I treat people who betray me. I want her to see her
family perishing. In fact, we’ll show
all
the girls how we
deal with people who go against me.’

Satisfied he’d crushed Gary’s rebellion, but not happy with
what might lie behind it, he continued, ‘I want the girls we use to
be dressed like soldiers. We’ll call them "our little soldiers of
death". Have them ready by eleven thirty. Organise the film show
for eleven. If you have to knock seven bells of shit out of them to
keep them in line, feel free to do so. After noon today, they will
be of no further use to me. It won’t matter how
pretty
they
look when they meet their maker!’

He
left the warehouse and headed back towards London in the chauffeur
driven stretch Limo he’d
borrowed
from
Abromovski
…

* * *

Sasha lay next to Charlie. Sweat stood out on
her forehead. Charlie’s nearness comforted her. They shared the
same bed, being the only spare bed available when she'd been shoved
back in this room with the rest of the girls.

The air hung heavy with animosity. She understood. These
poor girls would naturally resent the position she'd unwillingly
held. If only they knew.
But,
why? Why had two of the minders grabbed her and dragged her back
here?

She closed her eyes, but she didn’t want to
sleep again. Not to dream. Her mind refused to rest. Something had
been different about the dream this time. It had been more real,
like a premonition. She clenched her hands together in front of
her. It had been a while since she’d prayed to God. What was the
point? He’d done little to help her so far. Despite these thoughts,
she felt an intense obligation to pray hard for her family’s
safety.

As the words touched her lips tears rolled
down her face, ‘Be safe, muma and papa. Be safe Jordi and Johan.
I’ll love you always and pray that I’ll see you again soon and we
will be together again, safe and well in Romania in our tiny flat.
God bless you all and always remember ’ow much I love you!’

Charlie woke beside her. ‘Sorry, I didn’t
mean to wake you. I…’

‘
That’s all right, I was
only napping. Are you okay, Sasha? You seem so sad.’

Sasha felt Charlie wipe a tear from her
cheek, ‘I’m fine, Charlie. I’m being very silly.’

‘
It’s not silly to cry. It’s
understandable with everything that's going on, I mean… We’re being
treated like convicts.’

‘
I
know and I fear for my safety little one. The other girls will not
take kindly to my being ’ere again. It puzzles me, why I ’ave been
put back ’ere? For months I ’ave been at ’
is
beck and call,
why ’as ’e discarded me like a well-used oil rag?’

‘
Just be thankful you’re no
longer up there with him. And, don’t worry about this lot either.
I’ll make sure they don’t hurt you. My mum taught me some nifty
karate moves. I might not be able to use them on the goons, but I
could certainly wipe the floor with this lot.’

‘
Sssshhh.’

The sound had come from the bunk above
them.

Charlie pointed a finger upwards towards it
and mouthed, ‘She’s first.’

They giggled at this and cuddled each other.
They didn't let go and drifted off to sleep wrapped in each other’s
arms.

Chapter Thirty-One.

‘
Simon have you got my
mobile?’

‘
Yes, ma’am, it’s right
here.’

Simon handed the phone to Lorne. ‘You had a
text message come through a little while ago. I took the liberty of
seeing who it was from, ma’am.’

‘
And?’

‘
I didn’t read it, it's from
your father. I only checked because I thought it might have been
from The Unicorn, ma’am.’

‘
Fair enough. Thanks, Simon.
DS Fox, any news on that bloody facial recognition yet?’

‘
I’ve heard back from the
ports nothing has surfaced on their wanted list, I’m still waiting
for the airport authorities to get back to me.’

‘
I’ll get on to agent Warner
see if he can hurry things along a bit, we’re spending far too much
time on this and getting nowhere fast. Chief, I’d better ring dad
back. I expect Tom has been on to him.’

‘
Of course, Inspector, your
father must be worried sick about you, send him my
regards.’

She grabbed a glass of water from the large
water cooler in the corner en route to her office. Searching
through the drawer in her desk she located a strip of tablets. Her
head thumped with pain.

‘
Hi, Dad, it’s
me.’

‘
Lorne, what the
hell
is going on? I’ve
tried getting in touch with a few of my old contacts, but nobody’s
willing or able to enlighten me on anything. Damn it girl, I have a
right to know! Charlie
is
my granddaughter
after all!’

He sounded as though he was on the verge of
breaking point. Guilt wrapped itself around her like an unwanted
straight jacket.