Impeding Justice (8 page)

Lorne hadn’t realised she’d been nodding
vigorously during this last instruction until one of the younger
members of the crew sniggered. The Chief looked at her. Embarrassed
she dropped her head.

‘
That’s it, for now. DS Fox,
I expect you to delegate all that to the men and collate it before
bringing results to me. That’s yesterday, not tomorrow!’

Chapter Fourteen

Once back in her office the phone buzzed an
outside call coming in. Hoping it would be the Unicorn Lorne
snatched it up and snapped out her name.

‘
Lorne, it’s your father.
What’s all this I hear from Tom, Charlie’s been kidnapped and you
won’t tell him why? He has a right to know, girl, we all
do…’

The sternness of his tone unnerved her. Where
work was concerned she had never put a foot wrong with her father.
Though, family matters were a different ball game.

Although proud of her achievements he
disapproved of the way, he felt, she neglected her motherly and
wifely duties. Where her father was concerned it was a case of “do
as I say, not as I do/did!” His hypocrisy at times drove her to
distraction. But then, that was men for you, wasn’t it?

‘
Hi Dad, yeah I’m doing fine considering, thanks for
asking…’ A part of her hurt that he’d stomped over her in his size
elevens without considering what she was going through.
If anyone should know what an
invidious position I’m in, he should!

‘
Yes, yes. Well, are you
going to tell me what’s going on?’

‘
What, so you can go running
back to Tom and tell him? Grant me with some sense, Dad. I’m
telling you, like I told Tom, I cannot disclose what we know about
the case because it is a matter of state secrecy…’

‘
State secrecy? Huh! That’s
bullshit, Lorne and you know it, don’t try and pull the wool over
my eyes, young lady.’

The,
‘young
lady’
said in the tone he’d
said it didn’t bode well. ‘You have to trust me on this one, Dad.
If I tell you then I risk losing my job. The Chief has already
pulled me off the investigation. He’s in charge now. If it’s any
consolation, I really would like to tell you I could do with your
advice on a few things but my hands are tied!’

‘
Then, I’ll just have to
speak to someone who will tell me, I still have some friends in the
force, you know. Influential friends at that!’

The slamming down of the phone ended their confrontation.
Jesus, I’m surrounded by bloody angry men intent on hanging up on
me.
When are you guys gonna
give me a bloody break?

Lorne buried her aching head in her
hands.

‘
Penny for them?’ The Chief
startled her out of her bout of self-pity.

‘
Come on, I’ll treat you to
a coffee and a Nurofen down the canteen. No arguments, there’s
little we can do around here for the time being. Five minutes, I
promise. It’ll help clear the cobwebs away, take my word on
that!’

‘
How can a girl refuse such
a generous offer?’

Charlie’s abduction had obviously swept
through the station quicker than a bush fire in Oz. In the canteen,
colleagues who usually stopped by her table for a quick chat,
looked uncomfortable and avoided her eyes.

She followed the Chief to a spare table at
the rear of the canteen, overlooking the car park. They sipped at
the barely passable cup of warm liquid the canteen staff laughingly
called “Rich Roast Coffee”.

‘
My day just seems to be
going from bad to worse.’

‘
How so?’ The Chief asked,
tilting his head.

‘
Apart from the fact that my
daughter has been kidnapped and is now in the hands of a murdering
scumbag, you mean? Well, somewhere along the line I’ve managed to
piss off my husband. Who is probably sat at home right now,
fretting over his daughter’s well-being, despising me, as much as
the man who abducted her. And, if that isn’t bad enough, I’ve also
managed to upset my father… He rang just before you came into my
office.’

The Chief uttered a meaningful, ‘Oh?’

‘
Don’t worry, I didn’t tell
him anything. That’s why he is furious with me. I don’t blame him,
he above Tom, should be in the loop as he is still bound by the,
official secrets act. Anyway, he says he has friends in the Service
and he’ll find out from them. God! As if having my daughter in that
monster’s hands and losing Pete isn’t enough!’

Reaching across the table he rested a
concerned hand over hers, ‘You mustn’t blame yourself, Lorne. Blame
the system by all means. But never blame yourself. If I had my way
I would get your father on board, bring him out of retirement. His
experience would be a big help right now, but, as you know, that
wouldn’t be the Superintendent’s view. I’d never get him to agree
to it…’

Chapter Fifteen

‘
You’re shaking little one,
are you cold?’ The Unicorn, as the man had told her to call him,
mocked her. His dark, murky-brown eyes roamed over her body. ‘Nice,
and just coming into womanhood…’

Charlie stood before him, the seductive,
sluttish clothes she wore, alien to her. The four-inch high heels
causing painful spasms in her ankles and to the backs of her legs,
she strained to balance on them.

A huge hand shoved her in the back. The force
sent her tumbling to the ground. She pulled her legs into her chest
and lay as still as she could, but she couldn’t stop the quivering
of her body. New tears filled her eyes and began tumbling down her
flushed cheeks.

All her fight and wild aggression had gone.
Beaten out of her by the man’s brutish henchmen, ‘Please I’m only
thirteen! Please don’t hurt me!’

The Unicorn and the four burly thugs in the
room laughed at her, but as quick as the sound had grated her ears,
it stopped.

The room fell silent.

Confused, Charlie tilted her head to the
side, daring to sneak a look at The Unicorns’s face.

He stared back at her. A fearful shudder shot
through her aching spine. He nodded at the men standing behind her.
Then rough hands grabbed her and lifted her. Trying to understand
she looked from one to the other.

They smirked in her face. One tore at her
clothes. Then the other did the same. A scream from deep within her
released through her gaping mouth. With it came a realisation of
what they intended to do. The strength that had abandoned her
earlier came rushing back. She hissed, spat and kicked out like a
wild animal.

They showed only amusement. Her struggle
exhausted her. The Unicorn’s odious laughter filled the room.

‘
I like you. You have spunk.
Like your mother. Now, wouldn’t that be something to have her here,
too? What a dynamic threesome we would be! So, you are only
thirteen…umm, just the right age for me, isn’t she
boys?’

He bent closer to her. His breath had a sweet
tinge. His tongue slithered along her lips. It felt funny. She
shivered again.

They all laughed. Her heart jolted, pounding
her fear around her body.

Oh God, please don’t let him rape me!

He eased away from her but kept his eyes
looking deep into hers. He gestured to the others and they came
over and grabbed her arms.

Her shoulders and ribs stretched as they
dragged her across the room towards the large marble fireplace
before lifting her and throwing her like a rag doll on to the
sumptuous, maroon and gold sofa. The soft cushions comforted her,
but only for a moment.

The Unicorn swaggered towards her unbuckling
his belt. His evil smirk twisted his face into an expression
Charlie found impossible to read. A terror deeper than any she’d
felt gripped her chest. She couldn’t breathe or release the agony
knotted into her lungs.

She watched his trousers fall to the ground.
He stepped out of them then took off his tie and shirt and threw
them aside. Still she hadn’t taken a breath.

He stood over her now, his striped boxer
shorts stretched with a bulge she couldn’t take her eyes off.

He put both hands into the top of the shorts
and pushed them down. Only in pictures had Charlie ever seen a
naked man and only in diagrams in class had she seen a penis erect.
It had been something to snigger over. But now, and knowing what he
intended to do with it, she didn’t laugh but knew a deep release of
her terror. Her scream turned to a holler. It ripped her throat and
blocked out the light as she sank into a blackness that promised
safety.

* * *

Sasha cringed further into the drapes as the
door opened.

Two of the Unicorn’s men dragged the limp
body of the girl out and along the corridor. They were taking her
to one of the houses.

Sasha had gone through every painful swipe
and had experienced the deep stretching and tearing of her insides
afresh, as memories of her own capture had revisited her while
she’d listened to it happening to this girl.

But she questioned why this girl hadn’t had
the usual initiation? The one, she and all of the other girls had
suffered. Was she someone special?

Usually, after the Unicorn was done, ten or
more would take their perverted pleasure before the girl would be
taken to one of the houses to recover. But then, most of the girls
didn’t get the so called "privilege" of being fucked by the
Unicorn. Did he intend to keep this one for himself, as she herself
was kept?

Recovery meant a steady stream of drugs
starting with cannabis and working up to heroin. Beatings around
the body area ensured submission, until hooked on the substances,
the girls resisted no more and worked hard to earn their fix.

Escape was impossible. Death was the only
release from the grip of the Unicorn.

Sasha’s survival instinct had her hoping the
Unicorn did intend to have the girl take her place. Keeping the man
satisfied took all her time. Time, even knowing the risks, she
could spend planning her escape.

A choking sound pulled her back from her
thoughts. She peeped out. The girl had come round and had vomited.
One of the thugs kicked her in the stomach. Her pitiful cry no
louder than that of a baby, ripped through Sasha’s heart, the poor
girl did not know what real suffering was. Not yet, but she
would…

Chapter Sixteen.

‘
Lorne, it’s Tony Warner,
how are things going your end?’

‘
Not good. I’m not in charge
of the case anymore, I…’

‘
How come? Has something
happened that I should be aware of?’

‘
I thought the Chief would
have rung you. It’s my daughter…’

She started to tell him what had happened,
but didn’t get past saying the Unicorn had Charlie…

‘
WHAT? When? How? Do you
know where he’s holding her? Why in God’s name didn’t you ring me
straight away?’

‘
Whoa, hang on a minute.
Tell me, did you learn your interrogation technique from the
Gestapo?’

‘
Sorry, Lorne, I seem to be
saying that a lot to you today, don’t I?’

‘
Right, let’s go through the
answers one by one, shall we?’ She ran through the incidents as
they had happened, finishing by telling him about the arrest of
Crane and that the DCI had taken over the case…

‘
This DCI, he’s all right,
is he?’

‘
Cards on the table, I’m not
going to lie to you, we’ve had our ups and downs in the past,’ she
allowed herself a wry smile at this pun, but wasn’t about to share
with him any historical details of her relationship with the DCI.
‘However, all has been well lately. Yeah, he’s a good man, Tony,
but before you rush off to phone him, what did you ring about? I’m
still keeping a finger in the pie as you can imagine.’

‘
Yes, well, look, I didn’t
say, but I’m sorry about what is going on. Try not to worry, we’ll
get the bastard…Look, a mate of mine in MI5 sent me what they have
on this Abromovski. He’s been a very naughty boy in the last few
months. I told you before, how he kept meeting up with this guy we
presume to be The Unicorn? Well, that’s not all they know about
him. It looks like he’s been supplying terrorists based in this
country with explosives and arms!’

‘
That ties in with our
Unicorn theory then, and gives us a reason for the link between the
two.’

‘
Yes, the information is
these are British born Muslims intent on tearing this country
apart. We believe them to be responsible for the riots in Bradford
a couple of years ago. And the general suspicion is that Abromovski
supplied the explosives used by the terrorists in the 7/7 bombings.
There’s no hard factual evidence, but you were right to suspect the
terrorist link.’

‘
But, it still begs the
question, what the hell is a Russian hoping to achieve by supplying
Islamic extremists with ammunition?’

The fear she’d dared not visit earlier
clutched her stomach.

‘
Good question. We suspect
he’s ‘a player’. A man with money to spend and a sadistic streak to
feed, he wouldn’t be fussed about who suffers or what beliefs or
culture the people he is funding are from, he’d just crave the
excitement and the pleasure when the deed is done.’

‘
Sick Bastard! If it’s not a
stupid question, why haven’t your lot picked these guys up
yet?’

‘
It’s not from want of
trying, we’ve picked up Abromovski a couple of times for
questioning but every time we bring him in he comes heavily
protected by a high class brief. One that just happens to know all
the appropriate loop holes needed to make a mockery of the justice
system.’