Impeding Justice (15 page)

‘
Okay, Dad, you win. Here’s
what we’re up against, I don’t have to remind you about
confidentiality, do I?’

‘
Lorne!’

His tone reminded her of how he used to warn
her in her rebellious teenage years.

‘
I’ve heard from the guy who
has abducted Charlie, not to put too finer a point on it, we’re
dealing with the lowest of the low here.’ She went on to bring him
up to date with all that had transpired finishing off with the
latest development… ‘He carried out the bombing next door to the
Houses of Parliament this morning and he’s raised the stakes, Dad.
Actually, he keeps raising them!’

‘
So, do you believe he’s
holding Charlie as some form of ransom?’

‘
No. I think he’s holding
her as an insurance of some kind. But, he’s given me no indication
she will be returned once the money has been paid.’

‘
I’m confused. When I spoke
to you earlier you said that he had already made contact with you.
That was before Charlie was taken wasn’t it? What were his demands
then, apart from wanting £20 million?’

In
for a penny in for a pound,
she thought wondering if his experience of being an ex-DCI
might throw some light on something they had missed.

‘
He told me, if the
government didn’t pay £20million by noon today, the Houses of
Parliament would be no more. That’s it, Dad. The Superintendent has
authorised two thorough searches, but they’ve both come up
blank.’

She heard him expel a huge breath. ‘£20
million doesn’t sound a lot to me, Lorne. All right, it might have
gone up another ten million. But, governments have been held to
ransom for hundreds of millions. This is such a meagre amount. It
just doesn’t ring true.’

‘
Now you’ve mentioned it, it
does seem pretty strange. Any suggestions, Dad?’

‘
My instincts tell me
there’s a bigger picture to this lunatic's puzzle. What that
actually is? Well that, my Darling, is anybodies guess! And you say
no explosives were found?’

‘
Nothing. The Superintendent
believes it’s an idle threat, but I’m not so sure, especially after
the blast this morning!’

The Superintendent’s still a tosser by the
sounds of it then. He always did talk a lot of shit! He’s aware
that Charlie has been abducted is he?’

‘
He’s aware,
Dad.’

‘
What research have you
done?’

‘
Research? What kind of
research do you mean? Hey, it’s not taking long for your police
brain to flicker into life. I thought you’d let the cobwebs gather
and multiply for the past couple of years…’

He ignored her remark.

‘
Cast your mind back to the Bill Taylor case. Remember how
he threatened to blow up the underground?
That
turned out
to be a goddamn diversion for the bank robbery he carried out. If
it hadn’t been for a couple of our guys being on their toes that
day, he would have gotten away with millions. Luckily for us, they
saw through his little game, caught him and his gang red handed in
the bank’s vault.’

‘
Yeah, I remember, how could
I forget that? You got a commendation for arresting
him.’

‘
Yes well! Look, would you
like me to come in? I’m no use here twiddling my blasted
thumbs.’

‘
I don’t know, Dad, I’m not
SOI, Chief Roberts is!’

‘
I see. I have no grudge
with Sean. We’ve always got on well in the past. Be a love, go and
see if he has a problem with me lending a hand. I’ll stay on the
line.’

His request evoked the child in her. Once
inside this skin she’d been a little girl. Told what to do and
happy to do it. Bringing memories to the surface gave her a moment
of comfort. Pressure lifted. Dad had taken charge. He hadn’t
ordered, but said it in much the same way he might have said to the
child, Lorne: "Run and tell mummy it is raining, she has some
washing on the line." If only life had remained that simple.

‘
Dad, the Chief didn’t just
say, yes, he said: “Get your backside in here ASAP.”

‘
I’m on my way,
love.’

She had mixed emotions about his involvement.
On the one hand, there was no greater detective than her old man in
the London area. But, on the other, she knew how much Charlie meant
to him and if anything ever happened to her that he was unable to
prevent, it would more than likely end up killing him.

‘
Hi, Tony, any news? Lorne
asked as she rang the next person on her ‘to ring’ list.

‘
We’re trying our darndest
to find out why he’s raised the demand. We’re tracing all the calls
made from Abromovski’s houses, but nothing has surfaced so far!
Anything your end?’

‘
We think we’ve found a bit
of a lead but I could do with some help from MI5’s database. We
have the facial recognition from the CCTV image taken when he had
me and Pete trapped in the alley. I thought you could run it
alongside the photo you gave me… And, we’ve had it flashed to the
ports and the airports to see if their computers have picked up
anything, but the response has been too slow for my liking. So, if
you guys could stick a rocket up their arses that would be a help,
too.

‘
Right, I’m in the area.
I’ll pop in and pick up a copy. But, on the ports etc… I personally
think it is a waste of time. Do you know if he has had any
surgery?’

‘
We suspect he has, but I
don’t know how much or how recent. A couple of years ago we found a
plastic surgeon murdered in an alley. The Unicorn is in the frame
for that…’

‘
Right, I’ll get our guys on
to running both sets of photos through the available databases,
including Interpol. If anything flags up you’ll be the first to
know. Even if they turn out to be just seventy per cent accurate
I’ll give you the names. You can sort through what we dig up.
Something might ring a bell with you.’

‘
That’s great, Tony. I’ll
make sure reception gets a copy right away.’

Chapter Thirty-Two.

‘
It’s great to have you on
board, sir.’ Roberts said, smiling from ear to ear as he shook
Lorne’s father’s hand.

"I’m afraid the rank ceased the minute I took
retirement, Chief. It’s plain old Sam nowadays.’

‘
That’ll take a while to get
used to. You’ll have to forgive me if I slip back to my old ways.’
Sean Roberts struggled to disguise his shock at how his ex-boss had
aged since his retirement.

Sam nodded. His attention focused on scanning
around the bustling room rather than exchanging small talk. His
reason didn’t pass Sean by.

‘
She’s in her office, Sam.
She’s taking five minutes to clear her head. She might not readily
admit to it, but I’m sure she’ll be delighted and relieved to see
you.’

‘
How’s she really holding
up, Chief?’

‘
To be honest, she’s a
braver person than me. She has her moments. Who wouldn’t, but
ultimately, I’d say her mind is on the job about ninety per cent on
the time. Considering what she’s been through in the last
forty-eight hours or so I don’t think that’s a bad statistic, do
you?’

The pride showed on Sam’s face without him
expressing it.

‘
She’s a tower of strength.
I don’t know what I would do without her. Especially since… Anyway,
is it all right if I have a brief chat with her for five minutes or
so, just to reassure myself that she is indeed, bearing up
okay?’

Sean knew Sam had been about to refer to the
loss of his wife, but being the professional he was he’d pulled
himself back. Lorne had told him how lost he had been since her
death. In some ways, he suspected being involved with the case
would be good for him.

‘
By all means. I’ll get one
of the guys to fetch you a couple of coffees from the canteen. I
remember you don’t go for this instant crap from the machine. And,
forgive me for repeating myself, si…Sam, but it’s an absolute
pleasure to have you on board.’

* * *

‘
Dad, that was quick! I
thought you left your Superman powers behind you when you retired
from the force… Oh, Dad…’

His arms wrapped her in comfort.

‘
There, there, my brave one.
The quicker you let things out, the quicker we can get down to
finding Charlie. You should’ve called me in before.’

His hand stroked the back of her head, the
way it had done so many times before throughout her childhood. She
looked up at him. He had tears in his eyes.

‘
Come on, sweetheart, it's
good to cry, but you know what would happen if Charlie caught you
doing so, she’d take the mickey out of you for months. Here, dry
your eyes. Dig deep for your resolve.’

As she left the comfort of his arms someone
knocked on her door.

Wiping her eyes, she backed up, smiled at her
father then, called out to the person to enter. Julie Saunders
walked in carrying a tray holding two cups of milky coffee and a
couple of kit kat bars.

‘
This is a surprise. Thanks,
Julie.’ She looked down at the tray, gave a brief laugh and then,
burst into tears again.

‘
Are you all right,
darling?’

‘
I’m being silly, Dad, just
ignore me. Kit Kats were Pete’s favourites. Usually the chunky
variety. That’s why I called him ‘chunky’. God, I miss him so much!
I’ve been like a lost soul without him.’

‘
I know these will sound
like empty words right now, but it will get easier, Lorne. Right,
let’s get back to what I am here for before I start blubbing with
you.’

‘
Yes, you’re right, Dad,
thanks…’

‘
I don’t suppose you’ve told
the Chief about our conversation, yet?’

‘
Are you kidding, you said
you would be half an hour, five minutes later you’re standing in my
office. I didn’t even have time to nip to the loo!’

She smiled as he shrugged his shoulders.
‘Come on you. Let’s see what the Chief makes of your
suggestion.’

* * *

‘
God, that’s something I
never even considered, it’s certainly plausible.’ The Chief shouted
across the office to DS Fox, ‘John, get me a list of any major
events going on in the Capital today.’

‘
Such as, Chief?’

‘
I
don’t know… Rallies, demonstration marches there must be something
going on out there today, John. There’s
always
something
going on in London…’

‘
Okay, sir, leave it with
me.’

‘
Good man. Hey, sorry, I
didn’t mean to snap. It’s been a long day for us all.’

The banter and general clattering of
keyboards that had become quiet at the irritation in the Chief’s
voice started up again. DS Fox acknowledged the apology with a nod,
‘You can say that again, Chief.’

Chapter Thirty-Three.

For the next half an hour the three of them
scrutinised every detail of the case. One or two things seemed to
be slotting into place. But, for the most part it was as if they
were trying to assemble a 5000 piece puzzle and some of the most
important pieces had gone missing.

‘
So we’ve established that a
select clientele use that particular house, do we know how often?’
Sam asked.

‘
No, not really, the event
we staked was billed as a party, but turned out to be some kind of
auction of human flesh. In my opinion, this wasn’t the first time
one of these events had taken place, but as to how long these
parties have been going on or how often, is anyone’s
guess!’

‘
Maybe they’ve discovered a
new way to market their brothels, found a niche in the market,
trying it out, to see how profitable it can be.’ Sam studied the
list for a moment and then, let out a slow whistle.

‘
What is it,
Dad?’

‘
He’s bent and
him.’

He pointed to a couple of the names. Lorne
glanced at the sheet and gave her dad a puzzled look. ‘Bent, as in
gay or bent as in, corrupt?’

‘
Bent as in corrupt… The
only person who doesn’t fit into this scenario is this footballer
lad. So what is his part?’

The Chief was the first to throw a suggestion
in the air, ‘Well, it's common knowledge how much these guys earn.
He probably has a lot of money burning a big hole in his Gucci
trousers. He has a reputation for partying and having a bevy of
women on his arm. Could be a drug or gambling connection…’

‘
What if Abromovski invited
the footballer, hoping he’d encourage his mates to tag along next
time?’ Lorne said.

AJ approached at that moment waving a piece
of paper in his right hand.

‘
Found anything relevant,
AJ?’

‘
I’d say something major,
ma’am, but maybe that’s just my take on it. Going through the tapes
I came across a face I recognised. It took me a while to figure out
who the guy is. A certain Glen Waverley…’

‘
Who?’ Lorne and the Chief
asked in unison.

‘
You mean, Chief
Superintendent, Glen Waverley, of Kent Constabulary, formerly of
the Met. Promoted sideways instead of demoted because
of…’

Lorne looked at her father. ‘My God!’

‘
Hold it right there! Chief
Superintendent, you say?’