Impeding Justice (6 page)

Their courtship had been brief, intense,
lustful and passionate. They had walked down the aisle six months
to the day of their first meeting.

Sean had coped with her dumping him by
grabbing the promotion offered to him and moving to a force two
hundred miles further north.

He’d reappeared twelve months ago. Lorne's
professional world had turned upside down when she had learned who
would be taking over on the retirement of her old DCI.

Her fears proved to be unfounded. He’d taken
her to one side, telling her that bygones were bygones and
reassured her, her job was safe.

If the news of Sean’s returning had worried
her, it had devastated Tom.

‘
Look, Tom, how many times
do I have to tell you, it’s you I love? You have nothing to worry
about where Roberts is concerned.

‘
Who are you trying to
convince?’

‘
He’s married, Tom, we’re
married. That’s the end of it, okay?

‘
Yeah, but…’

‘
No, no buts, Tom. Listen,
is Charlie home, yet?

‘
Nope.’

‘
Where is she?’

Charlie, their thirteen year old going on
thirty, seemed intent on pushing teenage rebellion to the
extreme.

‘
She rang earlier, told me a
group of them were going into town straight from school. Before I
could tell her to come straight home she’d hung up on me and her
phone miraculously died when I rang her back.’

Great! Yet another thing to worry about…

‘
I’ll ask Sergeant Harris to
get uniform to look out for her.’

‘
And if they find her, are
you going to bang her up in a cell all night?’

His attitude got to her. ‘If that’s what it
takes, Tom, that’s exactly what I’ll do.’

‘
You can’t do
that!’

‘
Like you give a toss...
You’ve made it clear you don’t want anything more to do with her
discipline. Well, I’ve got news for you, Tom. Kids stopped going to
church and singing in choirs long ago! You piss me off with your
"holier than thou" attitude. I can’t help wondering who the child
is in our family, Charlie or you!’

The sound of the phone banging down brought her back to the
reality of what she’d said.
Shit! He’ll be sulking for weeks now.

Charlie had built a reputation for herself amongst Lorne’s
colleagues, one that caused Lorne embarrassment, but the way Tom
used their daughter’s antics as a weapon, caused her hurt.
If you were any kind of mother! If
you were around more she wouldn’t be like this!

Maybe the ring of truth didn’t help, but
neither did the company Charlie kept. One or the other of them
seemed to always be up before the magistrates youth court. Charlie
had been near to it herself, but colleagues had come to the rescue
just in time and the CCTV footage of her so-called friend’s
behaviour had shocked her, not in its contents, but to think her
own daughter was involved in such hooliganism.

Her well-thumbed copy of "The guide to
successful parenting" hadn’t helped either, as none of the
suggestions had worked with Charlie.

Even a professional counselling session had
ended in disaster with Charlie lashing out physically and verbally
before bolting from the room. On that occasion, they’d punished her
by locking her in her bedroom, but Charlie had escaped through her
window, almost breaking her neck in the process.

Tom had given up after that and resorted to
firing the blame her way every time Charlie mucked up.

Well sod him! If it’s down to me to sort out
the little minx then that is exactly what I’m going to do!

Before Tom could ring back for round two, she
placed a call to the front desk

‘
Sergeant Harris, it's DI
Simpkins.’

‘
Yes, ma’am, gone missing
again has she? I’ll get the guys to keep an eye out for the young
whippersnapper.’

‘
Are you sure you’re not my
Guardian Angel in disguise?’

‘
Damn, the secrets out.
Don’t worry, ma’am, my lot’ll track her down.’

‘
Thanks, Burt, I’ll be sure
to remember you at Christmas.’

The banter had calmed her. She liked the
Sergeant. She went back to what she’d been doing, confident one of
the bobby’s on the beat would find Charlie and get her home safely
within the hour.

Chapter Ten.

‘
Have you managed to find
out anything?’

Warner laughed. ‘I forgot to tell you I have
a nickname…’

‘
Oh, what?’

‘
Mole Catcher.’

‘
Meaning you do have
something, well, get on with it the suspense is killing
me.’

‘
First up, Alan Jackson,
haven’t you ever wondered where he gets his money from?’

‘
It has been bandied about,
yes. Why, are you about to tell me something bad?’

‘
No, Alan Jackson is the son
and heir to the MP of Gloucester, Lord St John-Jackson. A multi,
multi- millionaire so far up the Prime Minister’s arse he’d need an
operation to detach the bugger.’

‘
You’re kidding me. What the
hell is he doing in the force?’

‘
Daddy has told him to make
his own way in life. He’s new to your team isn’t he?’

‘
Yeah, about six months I
suppose, why?’

‘
Rumour has it Daddy used to
give young AJ an allowance, but didn’t like the way he spent it. So
he pulled the plug. I’m discounting him, but watch your back,
Lorne, he has influential links.’

‘
Message received. Go
on.’

‘
Simon Teller is as clean as
boiled undies.’

‘
I think I know where this
is leading. I can’t believe it…’

‘
Believe it, Lorne.
Everything points to Laura Crane being your mole. You said
something about her living at home caring for her sick
mother?’

‘
That’s right.’

‘
WRONG! Her mother died five
months ago of cancer.’

‘
Jesus, but…’

‘
It’s true, her mother left
Crane the house in her will. I’ve gone through her bank accounts
and found large payments credited to her account.’

‘
How large, how many and how
often?’

Lorne listened in disbelief as he told her
payments of ten grand had found its way into Crane’s account twelve
times so far, but no set pattern as to when, the intervals between
payments varied. They had started May 2004.

‘
Shit, I’ll have to check
her personnel file, but I think that’s about the time she joined
the team. The question is: Was she vulnerable and easy to turn or
was she planted?’

‘
I’d go for the first
option. Money talks, I know, but when it is a woman being used as a
mole it is usually emotional not financial.’

‘
You mean, he used the fact
that she’s no oil painting and had a lonely life to pull her
in?’

‘
Exactly, she’s
stereotypical. He wines and dines her, screws her like she’d never
dreamt would ever happen and she’s hooked. Add the “never could
earn as much money in her life,” factor and a mole is born. She’ll
do anything for him and has no inclination that one day she’ll out
live her usefulness.’

‘
You mean, he’ll kill
her?’

‘
Mess with evil and you
usually die by the hands of evil. That’s been my
experience.’

‘
If we wanted to help her,
how could we do it?’

‘
Don’t set her up. Confront
her and bang her up for a while for her own safety.’

Telling him she’d speak to the DCI, she
changed the subject and asked if there had been anything on the
bomb threat. It seemed a thorough search had taken place of the
area around the Houses of Parliament, but nothing had come to
light. This prompted her to share some further information with
him.

‘
Maybe he isn’t planning a
bomb. We’ve had reports loosely linking him to terrorism, in
particular Islamic extremists.’

‘
What? Why the fuck didn’t
you tell me this in the beginning?’

‘
We were talking moles,
remember? And…’

‘
Fuck that, Lorne, you
should have said, so am I to take it you’re thinking suicide
bomber?’

‘
It’s a possibility. Don't
you think?’

‘
I think, I’m spending far
too much time on this damn phone with you!’

She knew by now, not to expect a goodbye.
But, she began to wish she had trusted him in the first place.

Chapter Eleven
.

‘
Get Crane in
here.’

‘
I’m not sure that
is…’

‘
Now, Lorne, time is of the
essence.’

‘
Yes, sir, but I think you
are going about it in the wrong way…’

DCI Roberts
glared at her as usual he wanted action and wanted it fast. The
news of Crane’s identification as the mole had shocked him, she
could see that.

When Lorne entered the squad room she could
see no sign of Crane. John informed her Crane had called in and
said she had to take her mother to the hospital.

‘
When I reminded her about the urgency of the case, ma-am,
she seemed pretty upset about letting everyone down. She’s
volunteered to drop into forensics on her way back, see if they’ve
had any joy with the facial recognition, yet.’

‘
The minute she comes back
tell me. I’d like a word with her, nothing important, just let me
know.’

The downright liar, how dare she hide behind
her dead mother's skirt!

‘
Right, by the way, Sergeant
Harris has been looking for you, said he’d like a word in your
shell-like, ASAP.’

Lorne went into her office and closed the
door. She punched the button on the phone that would get her
through to the front desk.

‘
Sergeant Harris, it’s me.
What’s up?’

‘
Do you want the good news
or the bad news first, ma’am?’

‘
The good news first, I
suppose.’

She braced herself, as she tumbled into her chair.
What the bloody hell has Charlie done
now?

‘
We’ve found Charlie. Umm…
I’m afraid she was with a gang of hoodies causing chaos in the town
centre.’

‘
Christ, Burt, if that’s the
good news, it doesn’t bode well for the bad…’

‘
No, ma’am. I suppose I’d
better ask if you’re sitting down first before I tell
you.’

‘
Yes, Burt, I am sitting
down. You’re starting to worry me, man, get on with it. What has
that wretched girl of mine been up to now?’

‘
Well, it’s like this,
ma’am. A couple of my men saw the gang, they were about to read
them the riot act, when out of nowhere came a black 4x4. It pulled
up alongside young Charlie, the back door opened and a man leaned
out and grabbed her.’

Shit! What did he just say, a 4x4, a black
4x4? Fear smacked her in the stomach.

‘
Ma’am, are you still
there?’

She gulped in a large breath and exhaled
slowly, ‘Yes, Burt. This 4x4, give me the plate number.

‘
Er…Uniform, November,
India…’

‘
123.’

‘
You know this car, ma’am?
We were just about to run a check.’

‘
Yes, Burt, God, did no one
try to stop him!’

‘
My men were on the other
side of the gang and didn’t stand a chance, but a couple of the
youngsters tried to hold on to Charlie. One of them got a boot in
the face and a broken nose. The Officers in attendance called for
immediate back-up we activated the nearest patrol car, but we lost
the trail. Every patrol is on the lookout for the car, but one big
set back is that Charlie’s school bag containing her mobile dropped
on to the floor. If she’d had that on her…’

‘
Oh, Burt, the guy who has
taken my Charlie is an evil bastard… Oh, God! Sorry, Burt, I’ll get
back to you.’

She knew her legs wouldn’t take her as far as
the DCI’s office. Through her sea of tears she fumbled with the
phone, found his emergency direct line button and pushed it.

‘
Lorne…?’

Her scream bounced off the walls and came
back at her…

‘
HE’S GOT MY DAUGHTER. THE
BASTARD HAS GOT CHARLIE.’

Chapter Twelve.

‘
Everyone, as you
were!’

Lorne wiped her eyes. Hearing the DCI taking
charge and clearing her team from her doorway gave some normality
back to her.

John gave her shoulders a last squeeze.

‘
Right, Fox, settle the team
down. Tell them I will brief them as soon as Lorne has told me what
happened.’

‘
Now, Lorne, give me a full
report.’

She knew this drill. Make the distressed cop
get back into professional mode. Better than a slap around the face
to calm hysteria.

She told him all she knew. ‘Sean, what the
hell is that sick bastard going to do with her? She’s a thirteen
year old girl, for fuck sake!’

‘
Let’s not speculate. First,
ring Tom and let him know. Get him in here if that’s what you both
want.’

Everything by the book...

With shaking fingers she managed to speed
dial Tom. ‘Tom… Oh Tom, Charlie… She’s been snatched…’