Impeding Justice (22 page)

‘
Sir, please ring my dad.
Put him in the picture and tell him to contact Tom and Jade. Tell
him to get Tom to be with him. Whether that is at the station or at
home, they should be together. With all these news cameras covering
the march; this will be headlines in seconds…’

As she began to think of her husband and his
anguish and that of the rest of her family her strength came back,
as did her focus. The Chief dialled the number.

‘
Don’t put any of them on to
me I haven’t got time to cope with them, they have to console each
other, and tell them my phone has to remain free, no, order them
not to phone me…And, you had better give the forensics department a
ring, too and leave a message for Jacques Arnaud…’ In answer to the
Chief’s astonished look she said. He…he’s a special friend. His
reaction to seeing this on the TV will be to ring me
too.’

The Chief said nothing. Lorne turned her
attention away from the arguments she knew would go on when he made
contact and looked at the monitors.

They focused on an intensified reaction of
the crowd, who had become aware of the drama playing out in front
of them.

The Unicorn’s men had placed the girls at
regular intervals outside the Houses of Parliaments large entrance.
Police battled with the crowd, trying to form a cordon and push
them back.

‘
We’ve communicated with the
Inspector in charge of the security out there. He’s called Rudgely
and knows where we are up to and is taking orders from us,’ Tony
told them. ‘Obviously, his first concern is to get the crowd under
control, which we have agreed with, but he won’t do anything other
than we instruct him to do. He is a good and capable
bloke.’

Lorne leant forward. Her eyes concentrated on
the four girls. She could see they were sobbing their hearts
out.

‘
Sean, Tony, we have to do
something!’

The Chief took the opportunity to excuse
himself from whom she guessed had been her father and asked, ‘I
know Rudgely and he is a good man like you say. If you agree, we
should take dual lead on this and run everything by each other. I
think the armed response team? And, what about trying to talk to
The Unicorn? Have you a megaphone in here?'

‘
Agree. Nothing else has
been implemented so far. Yes, to armed response, but not sure about
negotiation and suggest the bomb disposal team is put on
stand-by…’

‘
I think we should
negotiate,’ Lorne said. ‘One thing, it will give the girls some
hope. They will know we are here, and The Unicorn will be less
likely to do anything if he thinks we may co-operate, or at least
are taking him seriously.’

‘
Agreed.’

‘
But, it has to be me,
Chief…’

‘
No, Lorne…’ The Chief, who
had allowed her father to listen in to the strategy they were
taking, now said his goodbyes to him having already instructed the
desk to put the word out to everyone, including forensics that
Inspector Simpkins phone was not to be used under any
circumstances.

‘
Chief, you know it has to
be me. It is me he has been talking to all this time. He won’t talk
to you… I know him. Look, I know what is at stake more than any of
you. I am not going to muck up.’

She watched as he and Tony looked at each
other and saw a nod of the Chief’s head before he handed her the
mobile.

Chapter Forty-Five.

Charlie shivered with terror. A trickle of
warm water ran down her leg and tears wet her cheeks. She looked
over at Sasha who was standing still, with her head held high and
staring straight ahead of her. The other two sobbed and pleaded.
She looked towards the men. The barrels of their machine guns,
black and menacing, looked back at her. Then she turned towards the
crowd and all the police officers. Would none of them stop this?
Would her mum be able to do anything?

‘
Mum, Dad,
please
come and save
us. I promise I’ll be a good girl in the future.’ This went over
and over in her head. Reciting it gave her comfort. They would
come. They would…

‘
Stay strong little one.’
Sasha called over.

Charlie
wondered how Sasha could be so brave. She, above them all had felt
the pain of the brutality of these men and what they were capable
of. The images of her burning family screamed horror through every
bone in Charlie’s body.

A
moan to the side of her took her attention. One of the girls who
had volunteered to be here had collapsed. Sasha spoke to her.
‘Toni,
Vă rugăm să se ridice
în picioare, dragă, nu-i lasa sa vezi frica. Au curaj. Totul va fi
bine
.

‘
What are you saying? Is she
all right?’

‘
I’m trying to tell ’er to
’ave courage. They will come to save us, I know that, Charlie.
Everything will work out. Look, there are television cameras. The
whole world will know what is ’appening. Something will be done, I
promise you.’

The goon standing next to the girl roughly
hauled her to her feet. She collapsed again and this time the man
punished her by striking her head with the butt of his gun.

‘
That’s enough.’ The Unicorn
shouted, ‘If she wants to die on her knees let her. This my pretty
ones, will go off in exactly two minutes. That is, if I haven’t
heard from your mother by then,’ he said, addressing Charlie. In
his hand she saw a small device and guessed it must be a detonator.
He thrust it high above his head, making sure the crowd got a good
look.

* * *

‘
Tony, any chance you can
jam that bloody device of his?’ Not thinking he could but clutching
at straws, Lorne’s hands shook as she scrolled down through the
contacts on her phone searching for The Unicorn's number. She
pressed the loud speaker button so they could all hear his
response.

‘
Depends on what frequency
he’s using, but we will try. Ready?’ he asked her.

The Unicorn’s name on her screen lit up again
as she flipped her phone open. She let her finger hover over the
ring button.

‘
Ring him, Lorne, time’s
marching on.’ Tony urged, he picked up the binoculars around his
neck and focused them on the scene.

* * *

The agent operating the camera focused on The
Unicorn. His image beamed out from the monitors.

A smug smile stretched across his face as he
answered his phone.

‘
Ah! The Inspector calls at
last. Ringing to have a final word with your daughter,
Lorne?’

The Chief nudged Lorne, warning her to remain
calm.

‘
We need more
time.’

‘
Time? Ah, such a valuable commodity, don’t you think? You
have exactly one minute to come up with the £30 million or
BABOOM
. Bye, bye, Charlie.’ His chilling laugh rippled the hair
on Lorne’s neck. She stared in horror as she saw him start to toy
with the top of the device in his right hand. She almost dropped
the phone from her shaking hand, as his tormenting, callous words
registered.

‘
Tell us what else we can
do, to prevent you from going through with this?’

‘
I’m assuming you have no intention of obliging me with my
request? That’s a shame, Inspector, such pretty girls. Do you have
any idea what damage a piece of
Semtex
can do? I can
tell you truthfully, it ain't pretty.’

‘
Please. I’m begging you,
please let them go, they have their whole lives ahead of
them…’

‘
And, what do I get in
return?’

‘
Me. You get me.’

‘
You.
And what would I
do with
you,
Inspector?’

The Chief and Tony shook their heads in
disagreement. ‘Don’t go there, Lorne.’ Roberts mouthed.

‘
Anything you like.’ She
said ignoring them.

‘
Hmmm, now there’s a
thought. I must say, Police pussy sounds very tempting.’

‘
No Mum, don’t do it.’
Charlie cried out after hearing The Unicorn’s side of the
conversation.

The sound of her daughter’s terrified voice
drove her on. ‘I’m right here, about fifty feet away. If you agree,
I will walk over towards you, but once you see me, you must let
Charlie and the other girls go free.’

‘
The odds aren’t great,
release four and get one copper as a replacement. That’s hardly a
good deal, Inspector, now is it?’

‘
It’s the best I can come up
with…’

Bong, bong, bong
. Big
Ben began to chime midday…

‘
Times up! Where’s my £30
million, Inspector?’

‘
We haven’t got it.’ Lorne
said her tone flat with failure. ‘There must be something else…We
could…’

‘
I’m not
listening…’

As he spoke he strode over to the girl on her
knees, placed a handgun to her temple and pulled the trigger.

‘
NO…Oh, God, No…’

Blood and pieces of brain stained the
pavement. The girl’s body shuddered and for a split second, stilled
and remained upright before falling forward.

Lorne tasted the bile in her throat. She
looked from Tony to the Chief then back at the monitors. Chaos had
broken out. The crowd, held back at a safe distance and until now
kept calm and gently dispersed, broke into a frenzy of pushing and
screaming as they realised the mad man they had been watching was
headed towards them. The cordon gave way under pressure. People ran
in all directions. The sheer force of them meant they got nearer to
the scene rather than further away.

‘
I’ve lost him, he’s
vanished.’ Tony shouted, anxiously scanning the crowd through the
binoculars.

Lorne shouted down her phone. ‘Don’t do it,
don’t do it…Please…’

Her phone went dead. She snapped it shut and spoke to the
agents, ‘If you can do it, block that signal
now
.’

‘
We’re blocking all
available frequencies, but we don’t know…’

Lorne never heard the last bit. She was out
of the van running like she had never run before. Seconds later,
the Chief and Tony joined her. When they reached the black van The
Unicorn was nowhere to be seen. Tony wrenched open the doors.
Sprawled inside they saw the executed body of a man in his
thirties.

Tony radioed through to Inspector Rugdley and
instructed him to send some officers over to protect the crime
scene.

‘
We’ve lost him. Fuck, what
is he playing at? Why did he take off? Was it me saying I was close
by? The bastard is unfathomable. Look, I’m going over to Charlie, I
have to reach her. Whatever is going to happen, I am going to be
with her when it does.’

‘
Absolutely not, Lorne. I
forbid you to go near to her until the bomb disposal team have done
their job. They are standing by. Let’s go back over to the van to
see what is happening, see if it is possible to give them the go
ahead. Maybe the henchmen have left, too… did anyone see if they
had?’

‘
Yes,’ Tony said, ‘The
Unicorn turned to them, indicated something with his gun and they
followed him. As he disappeared, my heart was in my mouth, I
thought they would start shooting, either the girls or into the
police cordon, but as that had broken up they didn’t have
to.

‘
In that case, Lorne, if the
police have the crowd back and under control, you can go near
enough so Charlie can see you and you can talk to her and the
girls. Try to keep them calm and explain about what the bomb squad
will do.’

‘
Thanks, Chief. And what are
your intentions?’

‘
I’ll set up road, airport
and seaport alerts. Every major getaway will be blocked to him. We
have a good image of his face so that will be circulated and I’ll
get some of the police not needed in the cordon to try to find out
which direction he headed in. He can’t have got far, not in this
lot and someone would have seen him leave and in what
vehicle.’

As Lorne set off Tony’s radio burst into
life. Inspector Rugdely’s voice came over.

‘
We have a problem. A big
problem. I’m with a crowd now who are telling me one of them was
taken by force by your man and his henchmen.’

‘
A hostage, you mean? Bloody
hell, didn’t he have enough with the girls?’

‘
This wasn’t just any
hostage. This was none other than the Prime Minister’s son, Simon
Clovelly…’

Chapter
Forty-Six.

‘
Mum… Oh, Mum…’

Lorne fought against the urge to run forward
and gather her sobbing, terrified child in her arms, but she had to
follow the orders of the officers in charge of the scene to remain
thirty feet away. It felt like the worst possible child abuse
ever.

‘
Help me, Mum….Help me. I’m
scared…I don’t want to die….’

Charlie’s cries tugged at her thundering
heart.

‘
Don’t worry, darling. It
will be all right. We have men coming over to you. Bomb disposal
men. They will make you all safe and then I can come to you. I’m
ringing your Dad, he’ll come too.’

‘
Tom, it’s me. Oh, Tom… Are
you watching the television? Can you see us? Get over here,
Tom…’

‘
Lorne…Oh, thank God. Is she
going to be all right? Can I come? I need to be with you both.
Please tell me she is going to be all right…’