Impeding Justice (35 page)

CCTV showed the last sighting of her father’s
car, led them to believe they must have garaged it not far from the
scene as it hadn't shown up on the camera along that road. And,
they had managed to locate it in a lock up, thanks to another
witness coming forward. Forensics were on their way to it. But,
best of all, it seems The Unicorn picked a bunch of idiots to do
this work for him, as a full description of the second car,
including a patchy number plate reading, had enabled them to pick
the vehicle up on CCTV and track its journey. So, unless a swap had
taken place between sightings, then they had the area of where her
father was. An armed cordon had formed around it, though out of
sight and with no sirens used as they didn’t want to trigger an
adverse reaction. Once they managed to identify the exact building,
then they hoped to start negotiations.

Lorne’s heart thumped mixed emotions around
her body. Elated by the progress made, she feared for her father’s
safe deliverance.

When she arrived at the scene, Tony and Sean
greeted her. For a moment their concern for her overstepped the
mark of a professional, in Sean’s case she expected this, but
Tony…?

‘
Right, where are we up to?’
her abrupt question and the raising of her hand pulled them both
back in line.

‘
Still not sure of the
building, I’m afraid. There’s the car over there, by the third lamp
post along that side street on the left.’

Lorne took the binoculars from Tony and
pointed them in the direction he'd indicated.

‘
Obviously we think our
target must be the closest building to it, otherwise they would
have exposed themselves and their activities for too long to
possible witnesses. A door to door of that building, by plain
clothes is in progress, they are posing as Jehovah’s, bible
pushing. So, we’re playing the waiting game.’

‘
Seems a bit amateurish for
MI5, Tony, more like something we’d come up with.’

‘
Oh, we still use your
better ideas from time to time…’

She laughed at this and at the way he’d
winked at her. And, though nothing quelled the fear inside her, she
knew she’d regained his respect by keeping her head and not weeping
all over him, which is exactly what she felt like doing.

‘
Wait a minute,’ Tony had
taken the binoculars back and had them trained on the building.
‘Someone is coming out. Christ, there are two of them and they are
going towards the car!’ He grabbed the radio from his belt.
‘Contact agent Harvey; see if he saw which apartment those two left
and get a tail on them, now!’

The information came back as a positive. Tony
directed the agents, through a third party to proceed with extreme
caution, but to knock on that door next.

Lorne held her breath. Prayers had never been her thing,
but since this all started had shot from her to whatever ‘being’,
resided up in the sky and now she redoubled her efforts.
Please, please let him come out of
this alive!

Tony established a direct contact to the
agents.

‘
There’s no response, sir,
but we can hear something. It’s like a muffled sound you’d hear
from someone trying to speak through a gag.’

‘
Right, I’ll get a team up
there to break in. Just carry on as you were, we don’t want to
arouse suspicions and I want the best profile you can glean of all
the immediate neighbours.’

Lorne felt a reassuring grip on her arm. She
hadn’t realised she’d shut her eyes. ‘Do you want to go up
there?’

The question showed the confidence Tony felt
in her.

‘
Yes. Yes, I do. Where’s the
team coming from?’

‘
They’ll come by us. We’ll
join them as they pass.’

‘
I’ll come too,
Tony.’

Tony nodded at Sean, ‘Of course, Chief. No
problem. But, I’ll be directing operations.’

The team used the lift, that way they had
less chance of someone seeing them once they were in its confines,
and luckily the door to the apartment in question stood right next
to the lobby the lift came up into.

Lorne took the steps with Tony and Sean. They
walked as if they were ordinary visitors, chatting about this and
that and laughing over trivial things. All designed to plant a
smoke screen as to whom they really were if seen.

Nothing untoward happened. Like a demolition
gang at work the sound of the battering ram hammering the door
echoed along the corridor as they turned the corner of the third
floor. Lorne rushed forward, but Tony and Sean restrained her. The
noise brought neighbours onto the landing. Officers ushered them
back inside.

At last the door gave. Uniformed men
disappeared inside the apartment. The seconds ticked by. No smoke
wafted through the gaping hole. No smell of burning flesh.

A figure appeared and gave the all clear.
Lorne broke away from Tony and Sean. Petrol fumes choked her and a
cautionary arm stopped her progress.

‘
He’s okay, ma’am. We’re
just stripping him and making the area safe. He’ll be out in a
moment. We can’t take any chances, one spark and…’

‘
Okay, Officer, thank
you.’

Stepping back into the corridor, Tony and
Sean joined her.

‘
He’s all right.’ She told
them what the officer had said.

‘
That’s good news. But why
did they leave him, were they called off and if so, by whom? And,
don’t say The Unicorn, Lorne, even if he was alive, which he isn’t,
he hasn’t got that much compassion, he’d delight in burning your
father alive and you know it.’

Lorne shrugged. ‘I know him better than you
think, Chief. This is typical of him. Take me to the edge. Make me
think I have won, but he will have the last laugh, not me. You
haven’t seen me laugh at his supposed demise yet, have you? I would
say it is another part of some elaborate subterfuge to have you all
doubt my sanity.’

‘
Lorne, for Christ's sake,
give in will you? If you go on you’re only going to make me doubt
whether or not you are losing it. Just accept that he’s gone. There
could be any number of reasons for the men leaving. They could have
chickened out, anything. Maybe your dad might know, but act and
think logically and stop hanging on to a dead man, you sound
paranoid.’

‘
Fuck you, Sean…’

‘
Inspector…!’

An officer came through the gap followed by
her father.

‘
Dad…’ Looking like someone
who had been dunked in a tub, her father looked back at her before
rushing towards her.

‘
Are you, all right, Lorne?
Are Charlie and Jade safe?’

‘
Yes, and it's you we are
worried about. Oh, Dad, it must’ve been awful. Come
here.’

Hugging his dripping wet body to her own,
traces of petrol fumes mixed with that of soap tinged her
nostrils.

‘
I’m all right, I’ve just
been bathed by two burly officers.’ His laughter resounded down the
corridor. The three of them joined in.

Lorne introduced her father to Tony.

‘
Have you anything you can
tell us, sir? I don’t have to tell you speed is our greatest asset
at the moment, so any knowledge you can shed light on will
help.’

‘
As to why they didn’t carry
out their intentions, you mean?’ Sam asked.

‘
Anything, sir. You know how
important any little detail can be in the greater
picture.’

‘
Well, you know of course
who set this up. I can give you a good description of the two who
captured me. Other than that, they received two calls on the hour
as arranged, after the second one, they started to get agitated.
One of them seemed to want to pack it all in. The other wasn’t so
sure. I couldn’t understand what had spooked them. Suddenly, they
agreed and off they went. Not much to go on, but it's all I have.
Nothing in what they said in front of me indicated a reason why,
but they did carry out a few discussions in another room out of my
earshot. I got the impression they weren’t happy with whatever new
instruction had come over from the second call. That’s it I’m
afraid.’

‘
Could be they were told to
carry out the deed and lost the nerve for it, it
happens…’

‘
Or, Chief, The Unicorn
called them off…’

‘
The Unicorn! Haven’t you
got him, then? Has he sailed away? Surely you can get him now, he
hasn’t any hostages or any reason to stop you going after him, has
he?’

Lorne told her father about the
explosion.

‘
And, we can’t convince your
stubborn daughter that he has gone. I am worried to death over her.
She’s showing signs of paranoia…’

‘
And, Sean’s turned in to a
fucking psychiatrist! Dad, I’ll tell you my thinking later. Let’s
get you home. I need a bed. Tom’s staying at the hospital. He has a
bed allocated to him. Under the circumstances and with an armed
guard on her door, we wanted to keep Charlie confident she is
okay.’

‘
An armed guard?’

‘
Yes, and I take it, Tony,
you won’t call off any of the security on my family, not yet, not
until we have physical proof Baldwin died on that boat?’

‘
No, I’ll keep them in
place, don’t worry…’

‘
But…’ The Chief looked
frustrated.

‘
Chief, I understand where
you are coming from but, though I have only known Lorne for a short
time, I have learned to trust her instincts. And, I don’t see
anything paranoid in following police procedure and not jumping to
conclusions. Everything must have proven evidence before it becomes
a truth. Text book stuff, sir, don’t you agree?’

Sean had the good grace to blush and agree.
Lorne could’ve hugged Tony. She’d begun to doubt her own
sanity.

Chapter Sixty-Six.

Henry, Lorne's border collie threw himself at
her the minute she stepped into her Minton-tiled hallway. ‘Hi,
sweetpea, been dying for a wee, have you?’

He whimpered, turned and bounded towards the
back door that led out to her beloved, yet neglected garden. She
watched the dog relieve himself over her fragrant Lavender plant,
not having the heart or the energy to chastise him. She leant her
head against the doorframe and her eyes drifted up to heaven.

She picked out the brightest star twinkling
against the black backdrop. As tears trickled down her cheeks, she
started talking to her best friend. “I’ll miss you, big guy. I hope
you’re going to watch over me in troubled times. I look forward to
being partners with you again one day, not too soon though,
eh?’

She gasped as a shooting star whizzed downwards. Was it a
sign he was letting her know he was still around!
I hope so!

A few minutes later Henry decided he’d had
enough of peeing and relieving himself and wanted the warmth of the
house again, he nuzzled her hand. She felt a strange reluctance to
leave the stars.

Relaxing with the remains of her glass of Chardonnay after
finishing a thrown together omelette she sat back. Too tired to
sleep and with her mind probing her like an interrogator:
Was Baldwin dead? And, even though
the signs were good, how would Charlie really be when all this was
over? Then her marriage: Would she and Tom ever be happy
again?
She reached for her
mobile.

The phone was answered on the very first ring, ‘’Allo,
Cherie. I was so worried about you.
Ca
va
?’

‘
I’m okay, Jacques. I just
needed to hear a friendly voice.’

‘
Where are you?’

She told him she was at home and how Tom had
stayed at the hospital. ‘I need to talk to you, Jacques. I’m very
confused.’

Her throat constricted making it hard to
swallow. I’m like a fucking dog begging for something I think is
better than I’ve got!

This thought stopped her blurting out how she
felt.

‘
Jacques…I need to see you.’
The husky words came out before she could stop them. His silence
unnerved her. ‘Jacques?’

‘
When?’ he
whispered.

She cleared her clogged throat, ‘I’ll see you
at Pete’s funeral tomorrow?’ At his quiet, ‘yes’ she said. ‘I
thought perhaps after… I’ll go back with Tom to the hospital and
leave there around sevenish. I know a little pub; it’s on the other
side of Hyde Park. Could we both get a cab and meet up at Speakers
Corner?’

‘
Mais
oui…
Of course, but I will walk through
the park, I love it there and by then the fresh air will do me
good.’

‘
Okay, the pub’s only a
couple of streets from there so we can walk to it, I’ll see you
then, Jacques.’

‘
But, Cherie, what is this
all about?’

‘
I can’t discuss it now.
Like I say, I am confused. It is about my future… I need advice, or
maybe, my mind making up? Oh, I don’t know… I may have read the
signs wrong and you are shocked…’

‘
No, you may be confused,
but you ’ave not mis-read the signs, ma Cherie, if the signs you
’ave read are about ’ow I feel about you.’

‘
Oh, Jacques…’

‘
You sound so tired, ma Cherie, you must try to get some
sleep. Until tomorrow then,
Bonne
nuit,
Cherie, sleep well.
Je t’aime, Cherie, je
t’aime!’

Closing her phone she had a rush of
embarrassment that she’d dared to contact him and make how she felt
clear, and a feeling of sadness and guilt over Tom, but overriding
both of these, a wonderful happiness filled her at the words he’d
whispered when he said goodbye.