Impeding Justice (23 page)

His sobs nearly undid her.

‘
Your father called…I could
do nothing…I’ve been watching it all unfold…It’s been hell…Oh,
Lorne.’

‘
I know, love. There was
nothing I could do to lighten it for you. But, now I need you. I
need you to be here.’

‘
How? The crowds, the chaos,
what is it like there? It looks as though everything for miles
around is at a standstill. They have a helicopter circling and the
traffic is all jammed up…’

‘
I’ll get the Chief to get a
police escort for you. Just get ready and await the
motorbikes…’

‘
Okay, Lorne, but don’t go,
not yet, tell me what the chances are of the devices
exploding?’

‘
Truthfully? I don’t know.
MI5 have done their best to block all the frequencies in the
immediate area. As things stand it’s looking good. It’s a case of
keeping our fingers and toes crossed and, if you’re going to ask me
if the Unicorn has a backup plan, I can’t answer that either. All
we can do is hope and pray. At the moment we have to assume that
Charlie is safe.’

‘
Oh…’

‘
Don’t give up hope,
Tom.’

‘
It's not easy…Look, tell
Charlie I love her and that I’ll be there soon.’

‘
I will, love…See you soon.’
She was just about to flip her phone shut when he shouted something
else at her.

‘
Sorry, what was that,
Tom?’

‘
I
said
, I love you, too.
And I’m sorry for being a bastard 90% of the time. It’s not easy
living with an independent, willful woman, who takes what life has
to throw at her in her stride.’

It was hard for her not to smile at his
unexpected admission and the way he still rebounded the fault on to
her. Tears misted her eyes and she whispered back, “I love you,
too, Tom. I promise, when all this is over we’ll have a good talk.
Now get your arse down here!’

She put in a quick request to the Chief, he
granted it immediately.

With Tom en route, she turned her attention
back to her only child. ‘Hi, sweetie, how you doing? Daddy’s on his
way.”

‘
When, Mum…How long will he
take? Will I die before he comes?’

‘
You won’t, Darling. Look,
the bomb squad is on its way over to you. Hey, why don’t you
introduce me to your friends?’

Her strategy worked, Charlie became animated
and visibly brightened.

‘
This is Sasha, she’s from
Romania. She’s only here because she tried to help me. He broke her
arm, Mum.’

Sasha interrupted her, ‘No, it is not your
fault I am 'ere. It is mine that you are. I became careless, I
tried to comfort 'er when I thought we are alone, I should know the
Unicorn listens into everything. I am pleased to meet you,
Charlie’s Mum.’

Lorne smiled at Sasha. ‘There is no blame to
be attached to any of you. I know that. There is only one person
responsible.’

Her heart bled for the girls, just two of
them, now. They were skin and bone. Their cheeks hollow and their
eyes sunk deep into their sockets, signs of hunger and
suffering.

She wanted to ask Sasha questions, give her
something to think about too, but she daren’t ask about her family.
She could be the one she had overheard from the black van
conversation, whose family had been killed.

‘
I’m pleased to meet you
too, Sasha. And who is this next to you?’

‘
This is, Carly. She and
Toni…’ Sasha indicated with her head towards the dead girl, ‘They
volunteered to be a part of this. Not that they knew what was in
store for us, but 'e was going to choose two of the younger
girls…’

‘
That was very brave of you,
Carly. I am sorry about what happened to Toni. It won’t happen to
you, I promise you, none of you are going to die.

‘
Mum, Sasha…Her family…Oh,
Mum…’

‘
I know. We were listening
in to you all in the van. I am so sorry, Sasha…’

‘
He forced us all to watch a
video of it this morning, Mum. It…Oh, Mum, how could anyone do such
a ghastly thing…?’

Lorne listened to her daughter’s sobs and
knew what she would get back wasn’t a rebellious, aggravating,
wind-up of a teen, but a damaged little girl. There was a long
journey ahead.

‘
There are wicked, evil
people in the world, Charlie, we cannot know how their minds work,
but we won’t let them win. Sasha, we will do our best to help
you…’

‘
Yeah, she can come live
with us, can’t she, Mum?’

‘
We’ll see, sweetheart.
We’ll see…’

The chatter carried on, back and forth. To her right, Lorne
could see the bomb squad.
What
the hell are they doing, why are they taking so long to move
in?

Her mobile rang. ‘Lorne, how are you
doing?’

‘
Not bad, considering,
Chief. What's happening? Haven’t you given the go-ahead for the
bomb disposal, yet?’

‘
Any minute now. We’ve had
some intelligence in. Abromovski is dead. Murdered. And, not very
pleasantly, you will be glad to hear.’

‘
Oh, that’s what you call
good and bad news. With him dead, he can’t be made to squeal. I’ll
get the details later, but, Chief, why is there a delay? I want my
daughter safe…’

A hand touched her shoulder. She whizzed
round straight into Tom’s arms.

‘
Is she all
right?’

‘
She’s okay while I am
talking to her, love.’ He held her tightly to him. A warmth seeped
through her. ‘I’m so glad you are here, Tom.’

‘
What are we going to
do?’

‘
Keep her talking, love.
Keep her spirits up. I’m just getting an update from
Roberts.’

Tom turned and called over to Charlie. ‘I’m
here, sweetheart, everything’s going to be okay.’

‘
Chief…’

‘
It will happen. They’re
ready to move…Look, there are things going on.’ He told her about
the abduction of the Prime Minister’s Son.

‘
Is that what all this is
about?’

‘
We don’t know. But, we have
some details of how The Unicorn got away. He hijacked a car. The
driver is still unconscious. Everything possible is being done to
trace the car and, Lorne…’

A crack startled everyone into silence.
Charlie slumped to the ground.

Chapter Forty-Seven.

Lorne ducked under the tape and rushed
towards Charlie. She got as far as the blue and white crime tape,
but an officer grabbed her arm.

‘
You can’t go over there,
madam.’

She fished out her ID card and flashed it at
them. They stood aside.

A disorientated voice called out to her, she
looked around, then realised it was coming from her phone.

‘
Lorne, we can see what’s
happened. Tell us Charlie is not…’

Her life stood still. She didn’t have an
answer for herself let alone Sean.

‘
Lorne…’

She closed the lid, couldn’t deal with
anything or anyone other than Charlie at the moment.

‘
I’m here, my darling, Mum’s
here…’

She lifted Charlie’s injured head and placed
it gently on her lap and rocked her back and forth as she had when
she’d been a babe in arms. Her hand skimmed over her child’s wound.
She could hear her own voice, trembling, saying her daughter’s name
over and over. Above her the distraught voices of the other girls,
calling out for help. All of them, sitting targets.

Charlie still had a strong pulse. Lorne
assessed the wound and found it didn’t look too bad. She prayed in
this second shooting within twenty-four hours that the scenario
wouldn’t be the same.

‘
Lorne…’ Tom’s voice hollow
and full of anguish came to her from way off. His face reflected
the same trauma she felt. He stood as if turned into a statue, she
knew shock had a hold of him and worried about the affect that can
have on a person. She called over to one of the nearby officers and
asked him to check on her husband.

‘
Charlie, sweetheart, can
you hear me?’ As she spoke she saw the officer taking care of Tom,
someone had produced a fold-up chair for him to sit down on and he
had a glass of water in his hand. He lifted his other one in an
effort to let her know he was okay.

Her mobile buzzed again, she flipped the lid
to hear Sean’s traumatised voice, ‘Lorne? Lorne, is Charlie all
right?

‘
She’s been shot... Oh,
Sean, help me get the bomb squad into action, please…’

‘
Oh, my God! I’m coming
back.’

‘
No.
You have to stay
on the
bastard’s
tail
,
Sean, get the
maniac
who did this to my little girl.’

‘
Lorne? Is she…is she
dead?’

She could tell from his tone how painful the
words had been to voice.

‘
No, I think it’s just a
graze. She has a pulse but the paramedics can’t come near. She’s
still trussed up in this fucking vest.’

‘
Are you with, her? Tell me,
Lorne, have you gone beyond the cordon?’

‘
Yes, she’s lying in my lap,
like a little angel. Oh, God, Please don’t take her to be one just
yet.’

‘
All right, now, keep calm.
I want you to hang up the phone. I need to speak with someone,
okay?’

Without replying she hung up.

* * *

Roberts pulled over to the side of the road
and rang the incident room. ‘It’s Chief Roberts; put Sam Collins on
the phone, immediately.’ His fingers drummed on the steering
wheel.

‘
Chief, hi. How’s it
going?’

Roberts detected a note of caution in Sam’s
voice and wondered how to proceed.

‘
I take it you haven’t seen
the latest news?’

‘
I’ve just walked back into
the office. I’ve been observing the interviews, why?’

‘
Oh God, Sam, where the fuck
do I begin? Look, you need to follow what’s happening, put the TV
on, but first, Sam, I… Well, I can’t dress it up. Things have taken
a horrific turn. Charlie is in danger, she is a human bomb outside
Parliament with three…two other girls. She’s been shot…Lorne’s with
her…’

‘
What! Christ, couldn’t
someone have told me, how bad is it, is she…’

‘
No, she’s injured, not
dead. I’ve spoken to Lorne on her mobile, she says the bullet
grazed Charlie. It sounds like he’s playing games.’ A noise like a
sigh holding a moan registered through his earpiece. ‘Sam…Sam, you
okay, Sam?’

‘
Yes, I had to sit down, oh,
dear God. Tell me everything is under control, Sean; tell me you’re
going to bring this to a good conclusion.’

‘
You know the answer, Sam.
You know me and you know Lorne.’

‘
Yes, I do…wait a minute,
the news is coming on. The breaking news banner says someone has
kidnapped the Prime Minister’s son! Is that true?’

‘
It’s true all right. I’m
tracking the vehicle now, at least I was, but there’s plenty of
squad cars mobilised. Sam, I need your help, do you have a visual
on screen of Lorne?’

‘
Yes, God, Sean, she’s
behind the cordon…’

‘
I know. I need you to talk
her out of there, Sam.’

‘
I’ll be wasting my time.
Put yourself in her position, if that was your child in there,
you’d do everything possible to comfort them, wouldn’t
you?’

The Chief hesitated but only for a second,
‘You’re probably right, Sam. Can you at least try? A sniper hit
Charlie; they could take a pot shot at Lorne, too.’

‘
We’re talking about a very
stubborn woman here, Sean.’

‘
I know. You don’t have to
bloody tell me how stubborn she can be.’

‘
I’ll see what I can do. I take it there’s no danger in
ringing her mobile? Is that
Tom
sitting on the
edge of the cordon?’

‘
Yes, Lorne called him for
moral support, the aim was to help keep Charlie’s mind off the vest
and no, no danger, I checked with the bomb squad before I rang
her.’

‘
Good, what are our chances
here, Sean? I mean is there a possibility of the vests
exploding?’

‘
MI5 agents are blocking the
frequency, but knowing The Unicorn he’s bound to have some kind of
backup plan up his sleeve. He’s already used one of them, the
sniper. That’s why I’m urging you to help me get your daughter out
of there.’

‘
I understand, Sean, leave
it with me. I’ll get back to you in a while. We have been gathering
some intriguing facts from the interviews.’

‘
Great! I’ll give it another
half an hour out here, and then I’ll return to base. Thanks for
your help, Sam, do your best, eh?’

Chapter Forty-Eight.

‘
Why are you doing this to
me?’

Simon Clovelly’s voice, muffled by the canvas
hood covering his head, irritated The Unicorn; he couldn’t take the
kid’s constant whinging.

‘
Didn’t they teach you
anything at that posh school of yours? You’re what is known in the
trade, as a valuable bargaining tool.’

‘
It won’t work. My father
never bargains with kidnappers or terrorists.’