Impeding Justice (7 page)

‘
Christ, Lorne! What…
Who…?’

‘
It’s to do with a case I’ve
been working on and…’

‘
Not that, Wacko, bastard
Unicorn…’

‘
Yes, Tom. He’s got our
Charlie…Oh, God, He’s…’

‘
I told you, Lorne. You’re
to blame! I fucking told you to give the case up.’

His reaction, though predictable, appalled
her. ‘You can’t blame me any more than I blame myself, Tom.’

‘
Has he contacted you? Made
any demands?’

‘
No, he hasn’t contacted
since, God! Is it still today, I mean…’ She looked at her watch,
11pm. ‘He contacted earlier, before…that is why I’ve had to stay
on…’

‘
What did he say,
then?’

‘
I can’t tell you, Tom, I’m
sorry, security…’

‘
Fuck that. Did he threaten
to take Charlie?’

‘
No…’

‘
But you know what he’s
planning, right?’

‘
Tom…I can’t
say…’

‘
Then, I’ll find someone who
can…’

Lorne sat staring at the telephone.

‘
Is he coming
over?’

‘
No, sir, at least, I don’t
think so. He thinks I know something and I’m not keeping him in the
loop. I think he’ll get in touch with my dad and use him to go over
our heads.’

‘
Well, if it keeps him
occupied. His reaction is normal, Lorne, well, ish. I’d have
thought he’d have wanted to be with you, I…’

The phone cut into whatever he was going to
say to her. For a moment she felt glad it had, but the moment
didn’t last…

‘
DI Simpkins…’

‘
Inspector, how are
you?’

‘
Where is she? Where is my
daughter? She’s nothing to do with this, let her go.’

Roberts tapped her on the shoulder. He
motioned to her to keep talking.

He left the office. She knew he’d put into
motion the tracing of the call.

‘
Why, Inspector, how rude of you to forget your manners,
what you should have said was, let her go
please
or
even
pretty
please
.’

He laughed and Lorne found herself at a loss
as to how to continue the conversation.

Roberts had stepped back into the office. He
must have seen her struggle. He took the phone and pressed the loud
speaker button.

‘
This is Chief Inspector
Sean Roberts, to whom am I speaking?’

‘
Nice try, lover boy. I am
right aren’t I? You and the Inspector there, used to be lovers many
years ago, didn’t you? You see I do my homework well! Nice for you
two to be working alongside one another again, plenty of chance for
a quick shag over your desk, eh?’ His enjoyment of his own joke
cracked his cruel, bitter and twisted laugh over the
line.

‘
Let the girl go, what do
you hope to accomplish holding onto her?’

‘
You coppers have got to be
the dumbest people on this planet. She’s not going anywhere. Let’s
just say she’s my insurance policy shall we? If I hang onto her,
then I know that my request will be so much easier to
achieve.’

‘
Mum, help me…’

‘
CHARLIE…I’M HERE, DON’T BE SCARED
BABY….’
　

‘
Charlie. Such a cute name,
bit of a tomboy is she, Inspector? Never mind we’ll soon knock that
out of her.’ His voice changed as he barked out an order to someone
in the room, ‘Take her away and get her ready.’

‘
You lay one hand on her, You crazy fucker and
I’ll…’

DCI Roberts waved his hands and shook his
head. Lorne realised her mistake when she heard The Unicorn’s
reaction to her words as he gave another sharp order, ‘Bring her
here.’

Lorne froze as Charlie’s voice full of spirit
came down the line again, ‘Leave me alone.’ Then, she heard a
spitting noise and Charlie screamed, ‘Bastard!’

Lorne, held her breath…
No, Charlie….don’t…

‘
Why you little…’

Lorne couldn’t bear it as a thwacking sound,
almost drowned by Charlie’s harrowing cries, filled her heart with
dread. Before she had time to react the line went dead.

With her whole body numb with terror, Lorne’s
mind seared with the knowledge she could do nothing to help her
daughter. ‘Why did she fight, it made things worse?’

‘
She is her mother’s
daughter, Lorne. Let’s hope her spirit helps her to get through all
this and doesn’t hamper her survival.’

‘
What do you suppose he
meant about getting her ready? What was that all about?’

Her own deductions concerning The Unicorn’s
method of carrying out his earlier threat hit Lorne like a bullet
between the eyes. ‘No… Oh God, No… A human bomb! Christ, Sean,
we’ve got to find her… Oh, God help us…’

‘
Lorne, calm down. Okay, I
know I’m asking the virtual impossible, but try. You’re racing
ahead of yourself. I’ll get one of the officers to take you home. I
am taking over the case.’

She didn’t argue with him taking over, knew
she would not be allowed to handle things, not now. Knew too, the
Chief had gone back into professional mode. She had to do the same,
she had to block out the horrific theory pounding around her brain.
If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to convince him not to send her
home. She had to stay and have her finger on the button. Yes, he’d
be in charge, but she could guide him, make sure he made all the
right moves.

Chapter Thirteen.

Opening the door to the squad room hushed the
buzz of conversation which Lorne guessed centred around the whys
and wherefores of Charlie’s kidnap, and the fact Tom hadn’t arrived
to be with her when she most needed him.

She’d told herself, as they’d walked towards
the room to remain quiet and allow the DCI to take charge. That
changed within seconds as the far door opened and DC Crane walked
through.

‘
Arrest that woman
immediately!’

The file Crane carried fluttered to the
ground. The images in black and white print floated out. A vile
hatred welled up inside Lorne. Crane stood stupefied, in the
doorway.

Nobody moved until the Chief reinforced
Lorne’s order. As soon as he did, Crane made as if to take flight,
but two officers sitting nearby grabbed her.

Lorne reached her in seconds and hit out with
a vicious swipe.

‘
You disgust me. I just hope
it was worth it, Crane.’

‘
Oh, it was, Inspector, it
was.’ Her tongue licked the blood that ran from her lip.

‘
Laura Crane, you are under
arrest for aiding and abetting a known criminal and knowingly
hampering police whilst carrying out their duties.’ Lorne didn’t
take her eyes from Cranes as she continued, ‘Take her down. I want
her held in custody overnight. We’ll interview her later. Get the
desk Sergeant to read her, her rights and book her in. I want you
two back here ASAP. The DCI has an important briefing for you all.
Oh, by the way, tell the Sergeant to put in his report that she
slipped and banged her lip whilst trying to get away, but that she
is not to be charged with resisting arrest.’

No one objected to the lie.

‘
Right, can everybody hear
me?’

The DCI always started a brief in this way
even though there was no reason why anyone wouldn’t be able to. The
two detectives were back and all the squad sat rigid with
attention.

The Chief explained what they knew so far
about the kidnap and how Crane had been uncovered as an internal
Mole.

‘
Therefore, you will all
understand when I tell you I am taking over the case.’

‘
What’s our next step, sir?’
John asked.

‘
May I? Lorne
asked.

The DCI nodded and sat on the corner of the
nearest desk.

‘
First we check the file,
Crane dropped. DC Teller, I see you have gathered it
up.’

Lorne took the file from him and opened it.
‘It’s not easy to be sure, but I suspect Crane has doctored them.
Teller, after the briefing take them back to forensics and get
another set. When we have the true results we’ll be in a better
position of finding this scumbag. Right; I want you to hear it from
me. The Chief taking over is only temporary. I will keep abreast of
everything and stay close to the DCI so I am ready to step back
into the lead once… Well…’

‘
Okay,’ DCI Roberts stood
up. ‘We have to keep our eye on the ball at all times. Anything,
anything at all you find, no matter how inconsequential you think
it is I want you to run it by me. Got it?’

‘
Yes, sir.’

‘
Time is of the essence here
people. So what do we know about this guy so far?’ Pointing to the
charts lining the far wall he went through the main areas of
knowledge.

‘
1. He became high profile
about eight years ago as a result of a murder of one of the drug
barons in which he was implicated.

2. His methods are gruesome as evidenced by
the way this baron and subsequent suspected victims met their end.
We have one burnt alive, others who had their throats cut, and two
were found with their penis cut off and stuck into their mouths.
The removal of the genitals had taken place before they died and
both loss of blood and asphyxiation contributed to their
deaths.

3. He has killed two police officers. One of
them, just out of Hendon and a godson of Inspector Simpkins, the
other, our colleague and Inspector Simpkins’ partner, Pete.

To sum up, we are dealing with a thug who
doesn’t give a shit about human life and enjoys cat and mouse and
mind games. He likes to live on the edge and enjoys the thrill of
just evading capture by the skin of his teeth in some instances.
From his record of deals and takeovers we can assume he desires
wealth and power at any cost.

Now, for the worst trait of all… He is
playing a terrifying game with Inspector Simpkins. His possible
reason for this is to profile his personality traits, which he
hopes will have us cow-towing to his every need and afraid of what
he will do next…’

Lorne sat down heavily. The Chief looked over
to her. She nodded for him to continue.

‘
He has been one step ahead
of us because of Crane’s activities, but she is out of the equation
now. Okay, is there anything I am missing? Obviously, Inspector
Simpkins has kept me up-to-date with regular briefings, but what
isn’t on the board?’

‘
We have a file of possible
links, sir. I have mentioned some to you, but we have only charted
what we have very strong evidence of the Unicorn being involved in.
The rest we have filed.’

‘
Right, Lorne. Thank you,
John, get those files to me after the briefing. Anything, in
particular, that is getting near to going on the chart?’

‘
Yes, sir, a couple of years
ago the body of a Plastic Surgeon who worked in Harley Street was
found. His eyes and mouth had been glued shut and his throat had
been slit from ear to ear.’

‘
Okay, John, so what makes
you suspect the Unicorn has anything to do with that?’

‘
We had a sighting of him in
the vicinity as we were chasing him at the time. The theory is:
He’d had a face-lift done by the Surgeon and was afraid of him
becoming a witness as we were closing in on him. We have gone along
those lines a couple of times as there is no other reason the
facial recognition keeps coming back blank, but we haven’t total
proof.’

‘
Let’s get that one on the
chart. And, when we get the images from forensics I want every
known plastic surgeon in the country questioned.’

‘
Yes, sir.’

‘
Now, has anything new come
to light from his most recent activity, not the kidnap, but the
alley incident?’

‘
The bullets that killed
Pete were not from the gun set in motion on the roof, that gun must
have gone with the Unicorn, but forensics have traced the serial
number of the one he left behind. It is from a consignment hijacked
during transportation from the army base at Bovington.’ John closed
his black book with a snap. ‘That and the CCTV footage concerning
the get-away vehicle and its Russian owner and the images which you
already know of, is it, I’m afraid. Very little to go
on.’

‘
I wouldn’t say that. We
have a possible military connection with the gun and could have a
mole in that quarter. Follow that up with the MP’s ASAP, find out
everything you can about the theft…’

‘
And, what about Charlie’s
abduction, have you had a chance to look over the CCTV footage,
yet?’ Lorne interrupted, trying to override the feeling of
uselessness she harboured.

‘
We have uniform collecting
all they can from the surrounding shops and the street camera,
ma-am and the Social Worker is booked for tomorrow when the other
members of the gang are due to be questioned.’ John looked from her
to the Chief.

The Chief nodded. ‘Good. Get someone on to
that as soon as the films arrive. Plus, I want every car park
within a four or five mile radius checked for Abromovski’s car. We
have to assume it has out lived its usefulness and he exchanged
vehicles. Once found, check all CCTV of the area and bring the
vehicle in for forensics to give it a thorough going over. In the
meantime, assign two of your best to question Crane. I want
everything she knows about Unicorn on this chart by morning. His
habits, how often he baths, even how he fucks!’