Impeding Justice (32 page)

‘
In a way it has. I mean, I
never expected to have my daughter on my side. I thought she’d hate
me. What is it in me that would risk that?’

‘
Well, whatever it is, Charlie has it, so I wouldn’t worry.
God, I’m glad I’ll be long retired before she hits the department.
Two of
you
would be the death of me!’

She managed a smile. ‘Right, ETA is set at
around 40 minutes and he has a head start on us of around fifteen.
Is the pilot trying for clearance to fly a shorter route?’

‘
Yes, and, we’ve fixed it so
no other aircraft gets the same clearance, so we could catch up at
least ten of those minutes on him.’

The Chief’s phone buzzed. His conversation
intrigued Lorne. He clicked the lid back into place.

‘
Well, it seems Ramon, one
of the henchmen survived. Hit in the legs only. He’s had his rights
read because he’s blurting out loads of stuff, which he might think
better of once he has time to think things through. But I’ve told
them not to interview him, just get him seen to. I want one of us
in on any interrogation. Also, as we thought, three bodies,
horrific scene as you’d expect, apparently one or two of the locals
are vomiting all over the place! And, in the office, from where The
Unicorn shot Clovelly, a dvd was going round and round showing
disgusting activity with Sondra Winwood's dead body. Presumably,
the sick bastard was taking delight in showing the recording to
Winwood when all hell broke out.’

They each took to their own thoughts for a
time and sat back. The pilot gave them a new ETA of twenty minutes
before they next spoke.

‘
Lorne, I know I took over
back there, but let’s work this as a partnership from now on; is
that okay with you?’

‘
For now, but when we’re on
the ground, you know how that can muddle things. Especially when
we’re dealing with officers we don’t know and who haven’t a clue
about us. I’ll take on second command then. Leave the pecking order
in place so as not to cause any confusion amongst the lower
ranks.’

‘
Agreed. I’ll get onto
Portsmouth. They should locate the boat for us and give us a
landing pad location and have an escort ready for us. Also, I think
I’ll tell them to get an ART holed up somewhere nearby, so they’re
ready to back us up. I’ll use the code name, Unicorn, okay? Oh, by
the way, have you still got the gun?’

‘
Yes, and yes.’

‘
Good. I ran it by the
powers that be at headquarters whilst you were getting in position
and I haven’t retracted it, yet. I’m armed, too. But, Lorne, well I
know I shouldn’t have to, but I do feel the need to warn you. Don’t
let your personal involvement get in the way of your better
judgment. I want a clean arrest, or if he meets his end, no
come-back.’

‘
Noted, gov. While you
contact Portsmouth I’ll touch base with MI5. Tony should be in the
picture.’

The screen of her phone showed she’d missed a
call, she was about to tap into the menu to see who it was when it
rang.

'Allo, Cherie, ’ow are things going?'

'Hi, Jacques, not a good line, I’m up in a
helicopter.’

‘
And, you are not alone, I
take it?’

‘
That’s right. Listen,
thanks for helping Charlie. Dad says your friend’s visit has made
all the difference, it was very thoughtful of you.’

‘
C’est
rien
, it is nothing,
Cherie. It was my pleasure. It is what she needed,
non
?’

‘
Yes, look, I can’t talk now. Things are starting to come
together.’ Just hearing his voice had bubbled her emotions to the
surface.
What kind of hold has
he got over me?

‘
Okay, I just want you to be
aware of one thing, Cherie. You are never far from my thoughts. God
be with you, Cherie.’ He ended the call by blowing a kiss down the
phone.

She closed her phone. Why did life suck so much? Another
time and place and she would have been knocking down his bedroom
door. Had hers and Tom’s marriage been stronger she wouldn’t be
having these foolish thoughts. Recently she had asked herself a
simple question,
did her heart
race when Tom spoke to her, the way it did when Jacques engaged her
in conversation?
The answer
categorically, was no. But, then again, did she have the courage to
rectify the situation? Could the grass be greener on the other
side?

The Chief brought her out of her reverie.
‘Right, all is in place in Portsmouth. The pilot has contact with
their base so they are directing him. ‘You all right, Lorne?’

‘
Huh? Oh, yes, good. Now,
Warner…’

She could tell she hadn’t convinced him one
iota because he insisted on probing further, ‘Is there something I
should know about? I mean is there something going on between you
and Jacques?’

Was that jealousy she detected in his tone?
‘Such as?’

‘
Are you two having an
affair by any chance?’

‘
Sorry? Since we took to the
air have you changed your vocation? Have you declared yourself to
be my marriage counsellor or something?’

‘
You’re right; your private
life is your own concern. I consider myself suitably reprimanded,
Inspector. How about we get back to business?’

‘
Suits me.’ She pressed the
number allocated to Warner and brought him up to speed. ‘Do you
know anything about what we can expect to face at
Portsmouth?’

‘
Well, we haven’t a full
reconnaissance on the boat, you're correct with its mooring. Have
the coastguard police been mobilised?’

‘
No, not yet, but it might
be an idea.’

‘
That way you could stop him
landing. Get the boat impounded. I should do that now; you only
have ten minutes or so.’ Tony suggested.

Why
the hell hadn’t
they thought of that?
‘Good
idea. Anything else you can help us with? Oh, by the way, our man
is Baldwin, I’m positive of it.’

‘
Right. I’ll give you a run
down on anything you need to know about him. First he was one of
the elite SAS. What he doesn’t know about escape isn’t worth
knowing. He’s the best of the best, which explains a lot.
Obviously, too, he built up a catalogue of contacts all over the
world. Some have gone bad like him, so may be coming into play now.
You have to think like him, Lorne. This isn’t your ordinary
criminal. Look, I’ll run everything through again, try to get a
layout for the boat in case you’re not in time to stop him landing
on it and everything I can dig up on him. I’ll get back to
you.’

Feeling like an idiot for just accepting The
Unicorn was going to land on a boat and not having a plan to stop
him, she told the Chief what Tony had said.

‘
It’s all in hand. The
Portsmouth lot said they would get on to it. Don’t worry, Lorne,
we’re going to get him and we don’t need MI5 to tell us how to do
our job.’

Umm, the second time the green-eyed monster
had reared its ugly head. She’d have to watch Sean.

She put that question out of her mind and
dialled her team to put them in the picture. They could tell her
nothing more than Warner had. ‘Oh, by the way, AJ, you’d better let
the Superintendent know what’s going on.’

‘
I would if he were here,
ma’am. One minute he was here keeping a watchful eye on things, the
next second he told me he had an appointment with someone. When I
asked how I could contact him, he said he’d be in touch with us,
soon.’

‘
Did he say who the
appointment was with?’

‘
That’s a negative, ma’am.
Look…’

AJ went quiet for so long, Lorne called out
to him and then, took the phone from her ear to check the
connection.

‘
Sorry, ma’am. I feel a bit
of an idiot saying this, so I’ve come into another room. It’s just
that, well, the Superintendent seemed very mysterious, sort of
shifty. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, ma’am, but it has worried
me.’

‘
Okay, AJ keep me informed.’
She closed the phone and turned to her boss. A quizzical eyebrow
rose high into her fringe.

‘
What’s that look,
for?’

She looked down at the green fields full of
grazing cows speeding past beneath them, conscious she needed to
phrase her response carefully. ‘AJ just informed me the
Superintendent has taken off somewhere.’

Her words hung in the air for a good few
minutes before Roberts picked up on her unspoken meaning.

‘
You think he’s involved in
this somehow?’

She shrugged and remained quiet, watching
Roberts mull over the idea. His facial expression changed
constantly.

Chapter Sixty-Two.

As
they approached the Marina they both peered down on the scene below
them. The beauty of the mooring site with boats of all sizes
bobbing on the gentle lapping waves of the turquoise sea took
Lorne’s breath away. The quayside posed a contrasting picture and
brought her back to reality. Here several squad cars, and
ambulances, with lights flashing formed a cordon around the area.
As they lost height she ignored the rumbling of her innards and
peered down at the boats. One yacht stood out from the rest. A huge
white monster of extravagance with a helicopter sitting on a
landing pad at the back end of it, her heart sank.
The eagle has landed, so to
speak!

The Chief spotted it at the same time and
asked the pilot, through his headphone how far away they had to
land.

‘
It seems we have clearance
for that dock over there, can you see it, that wide expanse of
concrete?’

‘
Yes, that’s brilliant; it
means we’ll be within yards of him and the squad. I take it the
armed response have been activated?’

‘
I’ll check. Are you ready
for this? I mean, we look like we're going to be flung into the
thick of it, whereas I’d hoped the boat had been impounded and we’d
deal with him on land, which would have been easier.’

‘
Me, too. But, yes, as long
as we nail the bastard, and surely with the resources we have in
place, he’s going nowhere. With the coastguard police at sea and
our lot on land we have him surrounded. And, if he takes to the air
again, we’ll be on his tail. I think we’ve got him, Chief, I just
hope we bring this to a conclusion without suffering any
losses.'

‘
Right, the ART are getting
into position. In the first instance, Lorne, I think we should get
as near as possible, then you try to talk him into giving up, how
does that sit with you?’

‘
Yeah, if we must, though I
don’t give much for my chances. Personally, I’d like to shoot him
on sight, but then again, I’d have a nice life knowing we have him
holed up in a secure prison in solitary. Don’t think he’s planned
for that somehow.’

A dip in their height stopped the
conversation. Lorne swallowed hard and shut her eyes, trying to
fight the queasy feeling from becoming a full blown vomit.

Once down, an officer met them and directed
them around the dock and took them to join the squad. The
helicopter took off. The pilot had instructions to wait at a nearby
airfield, they couldn’t risk The Unicorn firing at it and putting
it out of action.

Once safely shielded behind the cordon, Lorne
realised she could not use the mega phone to make contact. The
sheer size of the boat meant it had moored further out at sea than
the impression they’d gained from their view from the air.

‘
Chief, I’m going to have to
go out in a boat. I’ve no chance from here of talking to him unless
he rings me, which is a possibility of course as he must have seen
us land.’

‘
I don’t like that idea,
Lorne. Look, let’s give him a moment or two. Like you say, he knows
we’re here, I’m sure of it.’

No sooner had the Chief finished speaking
than her phone rang. The private number displayed had become a
trade mark for his calls, him being the only one she communicated
with who used this tactic.

She went for his jugular. ‘Baldwin, we have
you surrounded. I think you know the game is up. You can play this
whichever way you want, but as I see it, you have two scenarios.
You give yourself up or you end up dead.’

‘
Ha, how did you become so
delusional? I expect more from you, Inspector. Let’s rewind shall
we? Not two hours ago you had me surrounded, but that didn’t do you
any good, did it? I soon turned the table on you and had you
cowering like an animal in a doorway…’

‘
Yeah, but you bottled it.
You could’ve taken me out, but the madness inside you took over, it
beat you…’

‘
Shut up, bitch! I chose to
leave you. ME, do you hear? I took out who I needed to, but for you
I have an end planned I can’t deny myself. You deserve more. You’ve
never given up, but I intend making you. You’re on my list. On the
very top of it, but when the time is right, I won’t just blow your
head off. Oh, no, nothing as quick as that…’

‘
You’re never going to get
the chance, so don’t preen yourself. By the way, you failed on the
score of taking them out. Ramon survived and he’s squealing. Add
what he gives us, to what Reynolds has spilled and you’re an open
book. Your identity is confirmed, your bank accounts, your skills,
your friends, everything. You can’t take a shit we wouldn’t know
about. You’re one fucked arsehole!’