Impeding Justice (13 page)

‘
Be careful, Charlie. It is
better you do as they say and then you won’t get hurt. Just
remember, I am trying to help you.’

Charlie tried to take comfort from the words,
but she couldn’t.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

‘
For the tape: This is,
Inspector Lorne Simpkins. Also in the room are, Chief Inspector
Sean Roberts and our suspect, DC Laura Crane. The date is
23/10/2008 and the time is 4:45am. Please sit down, Ms
Crane.’

The woman pulled the plastic chair to another
position. The scraping of its metal legs on the tiled floor sent a
quiver through Lorne’s tattered nerves.

‘
Ms Crane, how long have you
been divulging confidential information about the Met to the man
known as, The Unicorn, the most wanted criminal of the present
time?’

‘
No comment.’

‘
Because of your selfish
actions a good officer and work colleague of yours died a couple of
days ago. How do you feel about that?’

A slight smirk tugged at the young woman’s
thin mouth. Lorne tucked her hands into her lap under the table,
quashing the temptation to knock the smirk off Crane’s face.

‘
No comment.’

‘
I wonder if you’ll be
saying that when we charge you as an accessory to
murder?’

Crane’s eyes opened wide.

‘
You can’t…’

‘
We are approaching the CPS
with our evidence as soon as their office opens. We are confident
it will stick. So…let’s see. Accessory to murder carries a five to
seven stretch, but in your case, being a bent copper, leaking
confidential information, well…’ Lorne turned to look at the Chief
hoping he’d play along with her.

‘
Looking at the fact we have
been after The Unicorn for eight years and his uncanny knack of
knowing our every move, I’d say the judge would be very interested
in where he has been getting his information from all that time.
Um…let’s see now, fifteen to twenty years in Holloway?’

The Chief leaned forward. ‘And, I wouldn’t
like to be in your shoes when the other inmates find out you were a
copper, Crane. Doesn’t bear thinking about really, does it,
Inspector?’

‘
Rubbish, I’ve only worked
for the police for two years. You can’t pin what’s happened over
the last eight years on me. And I’m saying nothing more until my
solicitor arrives. I know my rights. You bloody taught me
them.’

‘
Excuse me a moment.’ The
Chief stood up and motioned to the tape.

‘
For the tape: Chief
Inspector Roberts has left the room. Interview terminated at 4.52
am.’

The tape machine clicked.

The Chief sat back down and looked Crane in
the eye, ‘Off the record, Crane. You know you are in a hole, right?
You have information we want. Okay, you know your rights, but you
also know about the witness program…’

‘
You mean, a deal… You are
offering me a deal?’

‘
Yes, but time is limited.’
Lorne tried hard to take the edge off her impatience, but failed,
‘We cannot wait for your bloody solicitor to get here. Give us what
we want and we will get you to safety…’

‘
The Unicorn
will…’

‘
He fucking won’t, you
stupid bitch…’

‘
Lorne…’

‘
I’m sorry, sir, but for
God’s sake, Charlie’s life depends on her co-operating. Look,
Crane. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk to you like that, but wake up!
The Unicorn won’t help you. He’ll kill you. Why do you think we
kept you in the cells overnight, eh? For your own safety, that’s
why. He won’t believe you haven’t told us anything. If you are
released from here, and you will be once your solicitor gets his
teeth into us, you are dead.’

‘
You’re insane, the pair of
you. If you think you can hide me somewhere he won’t find me. The
very fact you have, will tell him I have talked. Oh, no. I’d rather
face the consequences the force is going to throw at me than the
wrath of The Unicorn.

'You truly have no idea what this guy is
capable of, do you? Well, I do.'

‘
Yes, you do, don’t you? Two
years…’ Lorne looked at the Chief. ‘Sir, it seems unlikely to me
that anyone working for the force for only two years was any use to
The Unicorn. I mean, taking in her training period and her move to
our department, that took some time, and then, how much would she
know at first? Just enough to tell him how many sugars we had in
our tea, I should think, but if she was in his employ before… How
long have you been sleeping, er, working for The Unicorn, Crane?
Were you planted in the force?’

This got the reaction Lorne was after. Crane
jumped up and tried to slap her around the face. The Chief read her
intention and grabbed her wrist before she made contact, ‘We can
put cuffs on you, Crane...’

‘
No, you can’t. And, you
both bloody know it. You are violating my rights. I have a right to
have my solicitor present and I am demanding that any interview
should take place after he gets here.’

‘
We are not interviewing
you. The tape is off. We are trying to help you to see sense. If
you will be interviewed willingly and you help us to catch The
Unicorn you'll be looked upon as a valued witness, and as such will
be protected at the highest level and all charges will be dropped
against you.’

‘
I don’t trust you, sir…’
Her tone denied the respect the title warranted. ‘I would rather
take my chances with The Unicorn.’

Lorne decided to take her on woman to woman,
cat-fight fashion. She just hoped she had the Chief's backing.

‘
So, how long have you been
sleeping with The Unicorn then? Or were you...ummm, too old for
him? Or maybe you were just too damn ugly for him. That’s it, isn’t
it? You weren’t sleeping with him at all. You supplied information
in exchange for a promise of a leg-over… You’re pathetic. What?
Never had a boyfriend you could take home to mummy, eh? Oh, we know
he paid you well, but he still kept you dangling with that promise
didn’t he, Crane?’

‘
Inspector…’

Lorne reeled around and glared at the Chief,
willing him to let her continue. She saw he had perched himself on
the edge of his chair, ready. He didn’t relax back, but to her
relief he nodded his consent for her to continue.

‘
I bet he made you all sorts
of promises. Arranged to have theatre tickets sent to you and then
backed out at the last minute, made reservations at top restaurants
only to call you ten minutes before the date to cancel? Go on, tell
me I’m right, Laura?’

Tears started to run down Laura Crane’s face.
Her chin dropped onto her chest. She didn’t say anything. She
didn’t have to. Lorne felt confident she was right on all
counts.

She softened her tone, ‘Why, Laura? Why let
yourself be manipulated by this vile man?’ Crane continued to
sniffle. Compassion crept a small way into Lorne, but then,
Charlie’s smiling face flashed in her mind and she knew how
imperative it was to continue. Inhaling deeply she asked, ‘Do you
think your mother would have been proud of you? Did she know what
you were up to?’

‘
Leave mum out of
this.’

‘
Why should I, you
didn’t!’

‘
It was because of mum, I
did it…’

‘
It was? Do tell, Crane,
we’re all ears?’

‘
She was dying, she needed
care. I wanted her to have the best treatment available. That’s why
I did it. I did it all for her, not for me.’

‘
So you decided to sell your
soul to the devil, did she know or were you too embarrassed or was
it the shame that prevented you from telling her?’

‘
It just never cropped up,
that’s all.’

‘
Your mother must have had
an idea what salary you were on. And you’re telling me that she
never once questioned where you got the extra money from that you
lavished on her palliative treatment?’

‘
No. You don’t understand. I
lost my mother long before she died. The drugs were so strong, her
brain shut down. Unless you’ve lived with someone dying of terminal
cancer, you can’t possibly know what it’s like,
Inspector.’

‘
Oh I know what it’s like,
Crane. You forget my mother died of cancer last year, but unlike
you, I didn’t make a deal with Satan to get her through
it.’

‘
Maybe that’s the difference
between us. I happened to love my mother.’

Lorne winced. The times she’d had to cry off
visiting her mother slapped her in the face. She hadn’t dealt with
it all, yet. Thankfully the Chief intervened.

‘
Listen, Crane, we’re
running out of time, are you going to tell us who this guy is and
how we can find him or not? This is a one time only offer, no
response now and the deal’s off.’

‘
For the very last time,
sir, NO COMMENT…’

Crane started to laugh. A harrowing
hysterical laugh that sent shivers up Lorne’s spine.

‘
You know what, Crane. I
reckon if we snapped you in half you’d have "desperation" running
through you like a stick of rock. You’re one sick desperate bitch
and that’s the one thing The Unicorn cottoned on to, your bloody
desperation. I just hope your mother isn’t turning in her grave
right now.’

‘
That’d be difficult,
Inspector. She was cremated.’

‘
Figure of speech, Crane,
but I wouldn’t expect you to comprehend a simple thing like that.
Oh and by the way, if that bastard hurts my daughter it’s your hide
I’m coming after, of that you can be certain.’

‘
So, he’s got your daughter
has he? Well, as you said, Inspector, he does like his girls
young!’

Her laughter crackled out again.

The Chief rose and he looked at his watch.
His body language told of his rage as he opened the door and barked
at the young officer standing outside. ‘Lock her up again!’

Lorne followed him out. Her hopes dashed. Her
heart felt heavier than ever.

She too, looked at her watch, 5.30am – only 6
½ hours to go.

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

‘
What have we
got?’

Everyone stood to attention as they stepped
into the squad room and the CI roared out his question. Several
officers scrabbled around their desks for information obtained in
their absence.

‘
Sir, we’ve located the
Merc. A patrol car spotted it by the river on a waste site just
inside the Kent border. That’s the good news. The bad news is the
car was burned to a crisp.’

Roberts raised his eyes towards the
discoloured smoky ceiling, ‘I suppose I half expected that. This
guy does very little to make our job easy, does he? What about the
Inspector’s phone?’

Simon shook his head, ‘No lead there, Chief. He used a pay
as you go phone to contact the Inspector. Thanks to
Crane,
he’s likely to know the ins and outs of our procedures,
surveillance techniques and the way we gain information. He’s bound
to know a pay as you go mobile is nigh impossible to
trace.’

‘
The list, Jackson, tell me
you’ve got some good news on that front, at least?’

‘
I have, sir, but I thought
you wanted to treat the info as sensitive.’

‘
You’re right. We’ll go over
it in the Inspector’s office afterwards. Anyone else got anything
they want to contribute?’

DS Fox stepped forward. ‘Yes, the facial
recognition file has come back from forensics. A couple of the guys
are going over it now, checking with the airlines and ports that
sort of thing, sir.’

‘
Good. Follow through with
that and let me know ASAP what they come up with. Anything else
come to light with regard to the bomb, Saunders?’

"Nothing yet, sir, just a lot of speculation
so far, the press are putting Al Queda in the frame.’

‘
Well, it makes a change for us to be ahead of the press,
doesn’t it? And, we don’t want anything of our suspicions out
there, yet, so let them think we agree by our silence. Right, come
with us, AJ, we’ll take a look at what you’ve managed to dig up on
our fine
upstanding
citizens
!’

As the three of them headed towards Lorne’s
office the phone on her desk started ringing. She quickened her
pace as the two men slowed down behind her.

‘
We’ll give the Inspector a
bit of space to answer it.’

As soon as she knew who it was, Lorne
appreciated the Chief’s thoughtfulness.

‘
Yes, Tom, I was just about
to ring you. As you can imagine things have been a tad chaotic
around here…’

‘
What do you think
I’ve
been bloody going
through all night, Lorne?’

‘
I sympathise, honestly I
do. Look it’s hard on both of us, but I’m trying my darndest to get
Charlie back.’

‘
Have you heard from her or
the guy who has kidnapped her?’

She hesitated: Should I tell him about the
photos I've received? What would I do if this was a stranger I was
dealing with? Would I tell them I had evidence their daughter is
safe?

Of course I would. But then, I know how Tom
is likely to react.

If he demanded to see the photos no matter
how awful they are, he’d be well within his rights! She couldn’t.
No, I can't do that to him. What would it accomplish anyway? Jesus,
talk about being between a rock and a bloody hard place!