Blazing Obsession (6 page)

“What are the chances of getting Georgie back quickly?” I asked.

Before answering, he did that thing with his tongue again.

“Honestly, it's hard to say. But tracing someone these days is a whole lot easier. Everyone leaves an electronic footprint. We'll get cooperation from the credit card companies and mobile phone operators, if he has one, to locate them. Finding them may not be that difficult, but this is not the main problem.”

“What is, then?”

“If they've gone abroad, it's going through the red tape and the courts that takes the time. Once we know for sure, I suggest you get hold of a family solicitor experienced in these aspects as soon as possible. DC Ashburton can give you a list to choose from.”

Sitting back, forcing the front legs of his chair off the ground and placing his hands behind his head, he said, “I don't think there's much more we can achieve tonight.” He stood and offered his hand to each of us. “We'll do all we possibly can to get your boy back safely, Ms Burrows.”

Lynne broke down again, crying uncontrollably. I tried pulling her close to me to comfort her as we stood to leave, but she brushed me off.

As we walked to the car, holding our coats above our heads to protect us from the rain, I said I'd stay at her place so if any news came in overnight I'd be on hand. She nodded.

As soon as we arrived, she disappeared to the bedroom without saying a word. Later I found her curled in the foetal position, fully clothed, her eyes shut. Her erratic and shallow breathing betrayed her concern. I lay on my back on a sofa bed in the sitting room, my mind racing, thinking about anything else that I could do to get Georgie back home.

I concluded it must have been the combination of my blackmail attempt and Lynne's pregnancy which drove Nick to abduct Georgie. On both counts, I pleaded guilty.

It concerned me, too, that I hadn't told the police or, more importantly, Lynne about employing a private investigator to spy on Nick and using the information to get him to back off hassling her. I decided to tell them both the next morning.

I woke to the sound of a coffee grinder whirring in the kitchen. By the time I got there, I saw Lynne, wearing a blue dressing gown and a towel tied in a turban around the top of her head sitting on a breakfast stool, clutching a coffee mug. She barely acknowledged me. I poured myself a cup.

I asked, “Do you want me to fix toast and scrambled eggs with your coffee?”

She shook her head. “Coffee's fine.”

“Lynne, you've got to eat something. It'll only take a few minutes. ”

She glared at me and said, “Do you think me being pregnant made Nick do this? Or maybe
you'd
said something to upset him?”

It wasn't quite an accusation, but was implied in the tone of her voice.

“I don't think so. Maybe it's just the pregnancy. To be honest, telling Georgie first wasn't a good idea. I'm certain he'd have told Nick. You should have let me tell him, or you could have told him yourself.”

“Oh, so you think it's
my
fault do you?” Some of the anger she'd displayed last night at the police station returned in her voice.

I topped up her coffee and said, “No, of course not. You know Nick's unpredictable. He needs careful handling. You said Georgie was excited about having a brother or sister and if he told Nick, that would have got right up his nose.”

“None of this would have happened if I hadn't met you.” Her voice shot up an octave or two.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

She yelled, “You, a big shot businessman, you thought you could handle Nick. You totally underestimated him. He's capable of anything. Because of you he's taken my son to… God knows where!”

“Look, I know you're a bit stressed but −”

“A bit stressed! Of course, I'm a bit bloody stressed. My son's been taken away from me… I may never see him again!”

Sobbing, she banged the coffee mug down hard on the granite worktop and stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the door behind her.

I'd lost my appetite. I sipped my coffee whilst staring out of the apartment window down towards Limehouse Basin. Last night's rain had given way to a bright, sunny spring Tuesday morning. From this vantage point, the slowly moving traffic and the even slower moving barges and ferries on the river appeared normal and ordered – such a difference from the drama unfolding before me.

I called Pat and explained that Lynne and I wouldn't be in for the rest of the week. I told her I had to deal with a family problem.

Lynne came back into the kitchen. She'd dressed and applied make-up to her cheerless face.

She said, “Now what do we do?” I ignored the contempt in her voice.

“I think it's best if you stay at home today in case Nick or Georgie make contact. I'll go down to the police station and chivvy them up. I'll call you later.

“Oh, I'm going to tell them something which may help. Sit down for a minute. Let me explain.”

I left nothing out, finishing with, “I didn't
want
to blackmail him. I tried hard to reason with him. If he'd agreed, I'd never have had to show him the photos. You know what he's like. He wouldn't compromise. I had no option.”

She glared at me with increasing antagonism.

Eyes blazing, she said, “You lied to me. You said he'd backed off because you'd persuaded him to. Now my son's been taken away by a drug dealer. Thanks a lot!”

She stormed out of the kitchen again before I could say anything. I desperately wanted to hold her tight, tell her how much she meant to me.

I followed her. I pleaded, “I'm sorry! I'm sorry! You know I'll do anything to get Georgie back. Anything. I'll call you later.” The door slammed shut in my face mid-sentence.

Later that morning, I went back to the police station and asked to speak to DS Evans.

I told him about my meetings with Roger Pendleton and Nick. When I finished, he said, “What did Burrows say when he left you?”

“He just said, ‘I'll see.' After that, he seemed to respond. He's not harassed Lynne since. I thought I'd cracked the problem.”

“So you thought you'd
cracked the problem
? By taking the law into your own hands?” His Welsh accent heightened the sarcasm in his voice.

“Leave the video tape with me. It'll help us get the search warrants we need to search Burrows' flat.”

“Have you made any progress?”

“I suggest you come back this evening with Ms Burrows, say about six. I'll update you both then.”

He opened the door for me to go and said, “I'll think about what we do about your blackmail attempt.”

“Look, all I wanted was for him to obey the court order not to harass Lynne. It's not a big ask, is it?”

*

“We've made headway in this case. I assume you've heard nothing your end?” DS Evans appeared bullish when Lynne and I turned up at the police station that evening. She'd hardly said a word to me on the way there.

“No,” I replied, “nothing.”

“Well, it's good news and bad news. The bad news is I can confirm they've left the country.”

Lynne let out a loud, “Oh no!” and slumped further down in her chair and covered her face with her hands.

“The good news is that we know where they went. There are only four flights a day to Orlando out of Gatwick, so it easily checked out. We've confirmation they left on a British Airways flight at 11.20am on Sunday.”

DS Evans was coming down with a cold and he blew his nose noisily as Lynne started crying. I tried consoling her by trying to clutch her hand. She immediately withdrew it.

He continued, “You'll be pleased to know we got the warrants we applied for. We've searched Burrows' flat and impounded a PC, and as we speak, our computer geeks are going through the hard drive.”

“How long will that take?”

“Hard to say, but I can already tell you an unsuccessful attempt had been made to wipe out the memory. That may be significant. We'll have more information tomorrow afternoon.” He wiped his nose again and replaced his handkerchief carefully in his pocket.

“It would help if we knew which credit cards Burrows uses. Do you have any idea, Ms Burrows?”

Lynne, who'd appeared to have taken a vow of silence, stared down at the floor and shook her head.

“OK. We'll, we'll start with the most common ones and work our way through. There may be clues from the data stored on the PC once the techies have hacked into it; otherwise, it's a hell of a workload. Could take days.” He appeared resigned to this being the case.

*

I'd arranged an urgent meeting with a solicitor specialising in abduction cases and the next morning, after persuading Lynne to come with me, we were sitting opposite him in his office in Albemarle Street in Mayfair.

On the way, Lynne maintained her icy silence. I tried unsuccessfully to make conversation, but gave up.

William Groves, an urbane, bespectacled, fatherly figure confirmed that child abduction, even to a friendly country like the US, was a minefield of regulation and red tape. He told us that even if the procedures were followed meticulously, it could take the court at least three months to get a hearing and that could only happen after Georgie had been found.

“A few of the cases I've been involved in are horribly complicated. And only a minority of the three hundred UK child abductions cases a year are sorted out amicably and swiftly. A high number of cases remain unresolved many years later.”

Lynne stood, realising her hopes for a speedy reunion with Georgie had disappeared.

“That's it! I've lost him. I've lost my little boy. I'll never see him again. I know it!” She swept towards the door and flung it open so wide it rocked on its hinges.

I mouthed an apology to the startled Mr Groves before following Lynne out of the office and onto the street, where I struggled to calm her, breathlessly assuring her the situation wasn't as bad as she thought.

*

I called RP. I told him about the abduction and the meeting with police and that I'd admitted to them our plan to sort out Nick. I wanted to meet up later that day. He'd have an opinion, without doubt.

His office on the second floor of a Regency building in St James's Street, off Piccadilly, resembled a colonial home in Singapore rather than an office in Mayfair. A thick flowery oriental carpet covered the wooden floorboards. Bamboo shutters at the windows, two huge ceiling fans and walls, each painted red, yellow and ochre covered with black and white photos of big game hunters displaying their trophy kill, completed the illusion.

I couldn't take my eyes off a magnificent tiger's head with snarling teeth adorning the wall behind RP's huge, oval, mahogany desk. A large brown, leather, button-backed chesterfield and two matching chairs surrounded a low coffee table.

I expected a dusky handmaiden wearing a sari to dispense the tea, but instead, an attractive thirty-something blonde secretary wearing a short skirt and high heels did the honours.

Taking in the exotic surroundings, I said, “Wow! How do you get any work done here?”

RP, as immaculately dressed as ever, grinned and said, “Are you referring to the decor or to Lucy?”

“I think both.”

“They're not too shabby, are they? Anyway, let's get down to business, shall we?”

As RP poured the tea, he said, “Since you told me about the abduction, I've come up with an idea to get Georgie back home as soon as possible
and
sort out Nick. It'll cost a few pennies, but I don't think that's a problem is it?”

“Roger, I don't care what it costs. If this isn't dealt with soon, I'm going to lose Lynne…
and
my new addition. What have you got in mind?”

RP leant forward, his earlier frivolity replaced by a more serious tone. “Nick and the boy must be found quickly. I'm not sure the police are best placed to do this. Once they get the credit card usage data, they'll know where he is, but they'll always be a few days out of date. Then we've got to rely on the Met getting the maximum co-operation from their US colleagues to follow up swiftly. I'm not convinced they will.”

“So?”

“Even if they do find them, you've then got to go through the courts. You told me that's at least three months' delay at best, right?” I nodded.

“So it seems to me the quickest route is to get Nick to return with the boy
voluntarily
.”

“Roger, you must be joking. Why would Nick do that?”

“Hear me out. Lynne'll do
anything
to get Georgie back, true? Why can't she go to Florida with you? I can get the credit card info too. I'll update
you
and you can track him down. Once you've located Burrows she can meet up with him. Tell him if he returns with Georgie, she'll give him another chance at saving their relationship – become lovebirds – possibly even set up home together again.”

“You can't be serious?”

“I know she's expecting your child, so it won't be easy to convince Burrows this is a good idea. But, he's obviously obsessed with her and of course he'll have Georgie all to himself. He
may
go for it.”

“What about the abduction and possible drug-dealing issues? Surely the police won't let them go?”

He answered without hesitation. “I admit this is the weakest part of the plan. Lynne will have to sound totally convincing when she says she's persuaded the police to drop any charges providing Nick returns with Georgie on a voluntary basis immediately. They probably won't, but she's got to persuade him there's a chance. She needs to put in an Oscar-winning performance.”

I considered the implications of what RP had said.

The obvious thought sprang into my head. “What happens when they arrive back in the UK? How does Lynne extricate herself from the position she's engineered? I can't believe she'd really want to set up home again with that sick bastard – well, at least I hope not.”

Pouring more tea, RP said, “Well this is the good bit. When they land, we'll tip off the police or do it through Crimestoppers, which is better – it's anonymous. The police will immediately arrest Burrows and charge him with the abduction. They'd possibly need more evidence for charging him with drug dealing. But given the fact he's tried to abduct the boy once, he most likely won't be granted bail.”

“How long will he get?”

“Hard to say. Based on what we know, maybe three, four years if it's proven that he planned to keep Georgie in the States long-term. You can add on a couple more years if the drug dealing is proved.”

He opened his desk drawer and, reaching inside, he pulled out a white foolscap piece of paper and wrote in bold strokes with his Mont Blanc pen.

“What I think we need to do is this. Point one: assuming Burrows uses a credit card, the police can get a warrant to get the information from the provider if they suspect criminal activity. I can get the same information as the police. Don't ask how.

“Point two: I'll keep you updated with the data so you can track him. The information will always be two or three days out of date, so it won't be easy but at least you're on the ground in the same State. Means a bit of legwork for you.”

Scribbling down the next item, he said, “Remember, no one's more motivated than us, which is more than can be said for the Orlando Police Department or any other PD for that matter. To them it's just another job. Believe me, they've got their hands full with their current crime rates.”

When he finished scribbling, he said, “Point three: once you've found him, you'll need to arrange a reunion with Lynne and she can turn on the charm. Convince him to return voluntarily.”

“How can I do that? He'll kill me if he spots me in Florida.” As I spoke, I had a brainwave. “I wonder if Alisha would come with us? She could set up the meeting. She'd be a great support for Lynne, too.”

“Makes sense. You're starting to think like a detective now.”

“What happens if he doesn't want to play ball?”

“Well, it's still a result, isn't it? I know we still have to go through the courts to get the boy back to the UK. But we'd have located him and we can keep the pressure on the legal eagles to get the case heard quickly. From what your family lawyer said, it'll mean just three months' delay after we've found them. And its likely Lynne can be with her son every day until the US court allows them to return.”

I'd been telling myself for the last two days that I'd do
anything
to get Georgie back.

Now I'd have to prove it.

“Roger, this is way out of my league. Let me discuss this with Lynne and Alisha.”

“Sure. Oh, before you go, let me show you our inner sanctum. I don't show this to all my clients but I thought you'd appreciate it. It's recently been fitted out with the latest gizmos.”

He took me through a side door to a room resembling Mission Control in Houston – split-screen monitors, computers flashing red, green and blue lights and recording equipment, which made my latest Bang and Olufsen hifi system look antique.

Five or six young men and women, dressed mainly in jeans and T-shirts, earnestly scanned the monitors or tapped at keyboards.

“This is the way things are going. You have to be one step ahead of the bad guys these days.”

*

I arranged to meet up with Alisha and Lynne later that evening, but first, I visited DS Evans.

In the same interview room, he briefed me on progress and told me they'd had a breakthrough. He explained they'd discovered credit card details on Nick's PC, which although incomplete, pointed to one of the major providers. The police had a team working closely with them, but had no information yet.

I had mixed feelings about this. The police appeared to be making progress, but if they got to Nick first, we'd be caught up in an extradition process which didn't have a good track record as far as getting swift results were concerned.

“The breakthrough I referred to is that, following a search of Burrows' dustbin at the rear of his flat, we found a set of kitchen scales with a smidgen of a white substance on them and it wasn't baking powder. It's been analysed by the lab and their report confirms traces of cocaine.” He ran his tongue around his teeth for the hundredth time before continuing.

“Of course, anyone could have placed these scales in his bin, but together with the video tape evidence you brought in, there probably is a case to answer. You don't use scales unless you're breaking down drugs into marketable packets.”

I felt we were getting somewhere at last.

I said, “What's the position on getting Burrows extradited from the US now we can add the possibility of drug dealing to the abduction case?”

“A lot better. But it's not a nailed-on certainty. We've got to convince our friends across the pond there's enough evidence to justify, what they call, ‘probable cause'. And I'm sure you've discovered that extradition isn't straightforward. And we've still got to find him.”

*

The meeting at my place with Lynne and Alisha didn't start well. Over an Indian takeaway I put forward RP's proposal.

Lynne spoke first. “So, this is your new
plan,
is it?” I ignored the sarcasm. I'd gone through it as patiently and as calmly as I could. She questioned every aspect. When I got to the part about her having to suggest to Nick that they try to re-kindle their relationship, she lost it.

“You want me to do what? Are you crazy? Have you any idea how ludicrous this whole idea is?”