Impeding Justice (29 page)

‘
It does sound significant
and is why I flagged it, but I haven’t a clue why it should
be.’

‘
Right, let’s analyse it.
What if the judge was at the party, but not to take part?’ Lorne
moved over to the white board and wrote –

‘
JUDGE – INTERESTED
PARTY’

↓

One of the young officers at the back of the
room chirped up, ‘But, he joined in the auction and paid to have
sex with that young girl.’

‘
Right, which may suggest, only The Unicorn knew of his
interest and he had to look as though he was just a guest. She
followed her thoughts through.

THE UNICORN PAYS MONEY BACK TO THE JUDGE

↓

THE JUDGE GETS A CUT OF THE PROFITS OF THE
AUCTION

↓

IN RETURN THE TERRORIST GOES FREE.

↓

THE JUDGE IS NOW VULNERABLE TO BLACKMAIL!

‘
But what about the jury,’
AJ asked.

‘
Well, he took a chance, granted, but a judge of his calibre
can influence any jury.’

All agreed, Lorne had something in her
theory.

‘
Good thinking, Lorne,’ DCI
Roberts said. So, if you are right, the judge is in this up to his
neck and is now a pawn for The Unicorn to use as and when he wants
to and that time is now!’

‘
Blimey, you’d have to be a
devious geezer to think of this little scam.’ The voice of the
young rookie who’d posed the first question piped up.

‘
And that is exactly what we
are dealing with.’ Lorne told him, ‘A man with a list as long as
your arm of hideous crimes and with his finger in many pies, but,
for the time being focus your minds on the fact he killed one of
your own and the terrible things he did to my daughter. Make it
personal, leave no stone unturned. This scenario, she pointed to
the board, escaped us. Don’t let anything else do that.’ Lorne
turned to the DCI, ‘Sir, I think we should take a ride over to the
judge’s residence.’

Chapter Fifty-Seven.

The Unicorn watched through an upstairs window as the judge
swung his car into the drive and looked around for his guard. There
seemed nothing hurried about the way he drove up to the house and
parked. He looked around again when he climbed out of his car, then
at his watch. Any minute now he’d be through the door, now
unbolted, which reminded him, that fucking little arsehole,
Clovelly still roamed free. Although seething at the way the lad
had outwitted him, he couldn’t help letting in a small strain of
admiration for him. He played a good cat and mouse game and hadn’t
wasted time locking the French doors, which would not have taken a
second to get through, anyway,
but where the little shit was holed up, still remained a
mystery.

‘
Sondra! Sondra… Where the
hell is everyone?’

‘
I’m here, can I help
you?’

Winwood’s face as he looked up at him hanging
over the banister and into the barrel of his gun was priceless!
‘Surely, you expected to find me here? Your beautiful, sexy wife
told me she’d phoned you.’

‘
Ye…yes, but…’ Winwood’s
head twisted round as he spoke.

‘
I hope you’re not looking
for your guard? Oh, I’ve had him occupied, gave him the treat of
his life before I sent him to his maker.'

‘
Where’s Sondra?’

‘
Oh, she’s okay,
she’s…resting. Yes, she needed her rest. She didn’t really enjoy
the film show of you and that tart, but it made her randy and now
she’s having a long sleep.’

‘
What have you
done…?’

‘
Oh, suddenly the caring
husband, are we? Not the one planning to get the hell out of here
and abandon her, after all? What happened, find you couldn’t go off
to Brazil and leave her and everything behind you?’

‘
If you’ve hurt
her…’

‘
I always hurt my women, but
they love it. Yes, I would think despite the pain she had the best
fuck she’s ever had. Ha, or going to have…’

‘
But…’

‘
Shut up! I’ve had enough
bantering words with you. I have something to show you.’ The
Unicorn sprinted down the last of the stairs keeping his gun
trained on the judge and motioned him towards his study. ‘In there,
everything is set up.’

Once inside the office The Unicorn pushed
Winwood into an armchair.

‘
I hear you’ve been down the
cop shop.’

‘
That’s right.’

‘
Well, don’t keep me in
suspenders, judge. I’m dying to know what you told
them.’

‘
What we agreed… I told them
what we agreed, I didn’t renage on our plan.’

‘
I’m glad to hear it. What’s
up…Why are you acting so nervous, Walter?’

‘
Wouldn’t you, if you had a
gun pointed at you?’

‘
I’ve never found myself in
such a tedious position, so I can’t really answer that. Anyway,
let’s get on.’ He went over to the television set and switched it
on before flicking a button on the camcorder he had set up on a
stool next to it. The screen flickered into life.’

The sickening image of Sondra’s dead, naked
body caused a gasp of horror from the judge.

‘
Oh, suddenly found some
feeling for the bitch have we? I thought you told me you despised
her. Well, that is just after I gave her the fucking of her life,
so she died happy, but wait, I have a treat for you.’

The film moved on to the guard moving towards
the body, his penis erect, but losing its hardness with every move.
What followed caused the judge to vomit and clutch his stomach.

The Unicorn laughed out loud. Then catching
the judge off guard he grabbed his head in a vice-like grip and
again forced him to watch the TV. Walter cried out in pain and the
sick dribbled from the side of his mouth, he started choking on his
own vomit as he watched a naked Scrivens pumping Sondra. ‘No
please. Stop…! I can’t watch anymore.’

* * *

Simon Clovelly crept down the stairs and
stood listening in the hallway. He only needed to take a couple
more steps and he’d be at the front door. The sound of a man
pleading stopped him. He had a view through to the office as the
door was ajar. Seeing the man who’d captured him brandishing a gun
in the face of an older man, he hesitated, wondering if there might
be something he could do to help him, but after catching sight of
the TV screen knew there wasn’t.

From his hiding place in a ali-baba wash
basket, in the corner of a cloakroom at the top of the stairs,
where smelly underwear and dirty gardening clothes had formed a
camouflage for him, he’d heard the exchange between the man in the
chair, he assumed to be the judge and owner of the house, and the
boss man. He’d heard the boss man’s footsteps going down the stairs
and then, after all had gone quiet, he’d decided it was reasonably
safe to make his escape. That escape seemed all the more probable
after peeping through the landing window and seeing the activity
building up outside the gate. Relief had spurred him on. He
couldn’t jeopardise his freedom now.

He
turned to carry on towards the front door and smashed straight into
a marble pedestal, sending the bust of some old wag resembling
Shakespeare crashing to the ground.
Shit!

His steps to the door slowed in his mind as
if he walked through water, but he made it.

‘
Stay right where you are,
arsehole.’

Simon turned thinking the words were aimed at
him, but the boss man hadn’t come out of the room. He knew he
intended to. Making one last effort he grabbed the door, flung
himself through it and banged it shut behind him.

‘
GET DOWN, NOW…SPREAD YOUR
FEET AND ARMS!’

‘
It’s me, Simon Clovelly,
The Prime Minister’s s…

A searing pain grated through the bones of
his shoulder and his body hit the ground, ‘Oh, God….’

* * *

The Unicorn pulled his arm back through the
smashed window and hit the floor as a hail of bullets shattered the
rest of the frame.

When the barrage stopped he looked over at
the judge cowering in a heap of misery under his desk. Bullet holes
sprouting tufts of horse hair, peppered the back of the chair he’d
been sitting in. Ha! I bet that’s the quickest that fucker’s ever
moved. The hated laughter threatened, he swallowed it down. He
couldn’t give in to it.

‘
You’ll have to give
yourself up, these guys are well-trained, and you’re done for, MR
UNICORN!’

‘
Ha, don’t make me laugh,
Winwood. These guys aren’t the elite. I was one of the elite. These
guys aren’t even fit enough to wipe my old squads arses. So don’t
try and play mind games with me, do you hear me? Now get up.’ He
yanked the man by the scruff and pushed him into the lounge. The
sight of the bodies lying on the floor caused the judge to puke
again.

‘
Funny, I felt like doing
the same thing when I saw her naked.’

‘
You, bastard!’

The Unicorn ignored his comment and threw him
onto the sofa. Then, he took his mobile from his pocket pushed a
number and yelled into the mouthpiece, ‘Where the hell are you?
.... I don’t care, get here ASAP. We’ve got company. There’s a pool
at the rear. Pick me up there.’ He flipped the phone shut and
started to pace up and down.

He looked over at the judge amused by the
devastation etched on his face. The man mumbled, ‘Sondra, forgive
me for getting us into this bloody mess.’ Then, moaned and started
to rub his left arm.

Bloody fool’s having a heart attack!

Chapter Fifty-Eight.

‘
Inspector, Tyler,’ Lorne
spoke to Mark Tyler, the officer in charge of operations. ‘There
have been no shots for a while. Can’t you deploy two officers to
get the lad out of there, he’s injured and we don’t know how
badly?’

Tyler looked up from the plans of the house,
he, Lorne and DCI Roberts had been studying stretched over the
DCI’s car bonnet.

‘
It’s too risky. I’d be
sending my men into a death trap.’

‘
Don’t forget who he is,
Inspector, I think the PM would not rate your men over his
son…’

‘
Well, I do…’

‘
For fuck’s
sake!’

‘
Lorne…’

She turned to
the DCI, ‘I don’t give a damn for your bloody politics. One child
has had her life ruined already today by that bastard! And, I don’t
have to remind you how I view that as the child’s parent or, how
I’d view those who could have saved her and didn’t, so I think I
have a right to speak up on the PM’s behalf…’

‘
All right, all right. I
understand your emotions are running high, DI Simpkins, but you
have to think rationally about this…’

‘
There is no rationality,
Inspector Tyler, where The Unicorn is concerned. There’s plenty of
cover around the gatehouse and you could set up a couple of
shooters to keep a barrage of shots firing off towards the house to
make sure the bastard has to keep his head down. It would take
seconds to get the boy out on a stretcher.’

‘
You’re right.’ Mark Tyler
snapped out his orders to his men.

Yeah, right or not, she had Tyler afraid of
the consequences if he didn’t act and that is why he had, but at
least it’d worked.

The operation to get Simon out succeeded.
Lorne had an overwhelming urge to say she told them so, but
contented herself with having a smug look on her face. The
paramedics took charge of Simon and words filtered over that his
shoulder bones had splintered, but he’d make it and was a lad of
courage. He had a lot of useful information and thought that more
important, refusing pain killing injections until he’d told them
what he knew.

Lorne’s smugness didn’t last long. The DCI
pulled her to one side, ‘Lorne, you allowed your emotions to
intervene there and undermined a man of twelve years experience
with leading his team and one proud of his record of never having
lost one of them. Any more stunts like that and I’ll relieve you of
your duties again. You are showing signs of not having the
clear-cut thinking skills needed to bring this case to a
conclusion.’

Mortified, Lorne gave him a look that would
kill at ten paces, but muttered, ‘Yes, sir,’ to keep to
convention.

Christ, these fucking men had some ego to
nurse. And, they’d do so even at the expense of someone’s life!

‘
Right, everyone, the lad
told my men that this Unicorn geezer has the judge held captive in
the study, that’s here.’ Tyler, seeming to have recovered, tapped
the plan with his pen and circled the study window. ‘This is also
where the shots came from, but of course he could have left that
area by now. This,’ he circled another window, ‘is the lounge,
where there are a number of bodies and it is the room from which
our lad gained access to the house, through these French doors,
here.’

The forefinger on his left hand tapped up and
down as he expressed his thoughts. His eyes darted around the plan.
Seeking out the entrances/exits available to them on the ground
floor, he circled each one as he went and pointed them out with his
pen aimed at the house. ‘There’s just too many for us to cover them
all. But…’ He shouted orders to members of his team and dispatched
them around the perimeter with instructions to cover what they
could. ‘There’s more back-up on the way, but keep your eyes peeled
and your ears tuned into your radios. Don’t wait for the order to
shoot, but make sure of your target. You all know what Judge
Winwood looks like, so don’t let me have to report back that he has
taken a hit from one of my men.’