Impeding Justice (17 page)

The door of interview room two lay wide open.
The doctor stood just inside. Laura Crane’s body sprawled out on
the floor at his feet. Her unseeing, half closed eyes, stared a
mocking accusation at Lorne.

Chapter Thirty-Five.

The blood in Lorne’s veins chilled. He had done it. And,
inside their, so called, protective area.
My God, there is no stopping him.

‘
What happened…?’

Her question met a wall of silence. Sergeant
Harris stood looking at her. His worried expression had turned to
something akin to terror.

‘
Burt…?

‘
Sorry, ma’am…I…I did
everything to the book, I wasn’t to know…

‘
Okay, Burt, take it slowly.
Tell me what happened from the beginning. No one is accusing
you.’

A man came to the desk. He introduced himself
as Crane’s solicitor. Said he had been called in to see her and he
needed to interview her before she went to Court to face her
charges this morning. I didn’t know him, but he had all the right
papers with him and I had been informed earlier that she had
refused to be interviewed with the duty solicitor present, but had
said her own would be here this morning. I asked him to wait in
this interview room. I went to tell Crane he was here. She didn’t
object, but came with me and greeted him as if she knew him. He
asked if I would be kind enough to fetch two coffees from the
machine. I obliged. I mean, it wasn’t an unusual request. Then I
left them to it. The next thing I know, he buzzed to say they were
finished. I sent WPC Sullivan to let him out and take Crane back to
her cell…’

‘
Did Sullivan find the body?
Was the solicitor still with her?’

‘
Sullivan came running to me
shouting, “Sergeant, Crane’s not well. She’s fainted.” I told her
to put a call out for the Doc and stay on the desk. I came down
here. When the doctor arrived I went to call you…’

‘
And the solicitor, did he
leave? Did you get his name?’

The Sergeant, who had regained some of his
composure as he related events, drained of colour and took on the
look of a frightened man again.

‘
I don’t know…I was caught
up in all of this…I presume he left…I can’t remember his name. I’m
sorry, ma’am…’

‘
Right, Burt, go and find
WPC Sullivan. Find out if the man left the building. Check the
signing-in book for his name. Run the CCTV tapes for this room and
for the car park. Let’s get an ID on him and his vehicle and get
things in motion to trace him. Send two officers down here to
protect and make the crime scene safe and get forensics here ASAP.
After that, and, as soon as you can, both you and Sullivan write up
your reports while everything is still fresh in your minds. Dot all
the I's and cross the t's, don’t leave anything out. Try to
remember every word spoken then, if there is an enquiry, you will
be ready.’

‘
Yes, ma’am.’

The Police Doctor, a very approachable, mild
mannered kind of guy in his mid-thirties and six-foot-five,
stripped off his latex gloves and towering over her said, ‘I’m
sorry, there was nothing I could do. I’d say she has been dead for
around twenty minutes.’

‘
Cause of death?’

‘
At a guess, some kind of
quick acting poison, Cyanide perhaps…’

‘
Cyanide?’

‘
Yes, it’s becoming quite
common nowadays… Mostly linked to terrorist deaths. The post mortem
will confirm or deny…’

‘
Yes, I’ll get Jacques
Arnaud to do the post. We need people we can trust on this one. It
is very sensitive, Doctor, and linked to an ongoing investigation.
It couldn’t have passed your notice that the dead woman is a
serving officer?’

‘
No, it didn’t, I recognised
her, of course. What was she doing in custody?’

‘
I’m afraid I cannot say too
much. Just to say we caught her out leaking information, but the
case is going to be very high profile, top secret. You know what
that means? Do as I told the Sergeant, make your report as thorough
and detailed as you can and because of the security surrounding
everything, do it here and hand it in. Don’t take it home to
do.’

The doctor left just as the police officers
arrived armed with tape to cordon off the room.

Lorne took a moment to catch her breath. Her
actions and instructions had been driven robot-like from her. Her
mind had closed to the horrors trying to undo her. But, now they
flooded in. This cruel, callous man seemed capable of anything and
he still held her Charlie! She leant against the wall. Her strength
drained from her.

‘
Are you all right,
ma’am?’

She had no time to answer. The swish of air
caught her body in its draught and the ominous bang of a door left
to swing back on its self-closing hinges shocked her out of her
feeling of dismay.

‘
Ma’am, he’s still
here…’

The Sergeant came towards her. ‘His name is
Reynolds. Mark Reynolds and Sullivan said he came out of the toilet
as soon as I had gone to the interview room to check on Crane and
asked her to direct him to the interview room where Abromovski was
being interviewed. He said he was representing him, too. He is
still in the bloody building!’

Chapter Thirty-Six.

It took minutes to cross over to the west
interview rooms where the partygoers were being interviewed.

Fearing for the safety of the Chief or
Abromovski, or both, Lorne didn’t stand on ceremony, but barged
straight into the room.

‘
Excuse me, sir. Mark
Reynolds, you are under arrest for the suspected murder of Laura
Crane.’

The silence following her words didn’t last
long. The screeching of chair legs on the wooden floor and shouts
of: ‘What the hell are you talking about,’ and, ‘For God’s sake,
Lorne…’ almost unnerved her, but she kept it together.

‘
For the tape, sir. This is
Inspector Lorne Simpkins. I have entered the room to arrest, Mark
Reynolds, whom I presume has already been identified as being
present, on suspicion of murder.’ She directed the rest of her
speech at Mark Reynolds. ‘I am basing my suspicion on the fact that
moments after you left her, Laura Crane collapsed and died. The
police doctor informs me, she did not die of natural causes.’ She
turned to the police officer she had brought with her. ‘Take him to
the cells...’

‘
You can’t do this, you
fucking tart. You have no proof…’

Wondering what had happened to his posh
accent, Lorne sought to frighten him into submission, ‘You forget,
we have CCTV in all of our interview rooms. A little rusty on
procedures, are we?’

‘
But…’

‘
Handcuff him, officer.’
Lorne leant over the Chief and picked up the phone on the desk. She
buzzed the front office and requested another officer attend. ‘He
is to be treated as extremely dangerous,’ she told the officer
before instructing him to make sure to strip search him and bag all
his clothing for forensics.’

‘
You’re foolish if you think you can pin this on me… Camera,
or no fucking camera. One of your officers let me out. Crane was
all right, then. A bit distraught, but that’s to be expected. She
fainted, that’s all. I left the policewoman to take care of her…
Perhaps
she
did something… From what I know,
anyone of you had more than enough reason to want revenge on her.
Besides, would I still be here if I had done that...?’

As the officer moved forward, Reynolds gave
in. ‘All right, all right, but I want a solicitor here now with my
client and I want to call one for myself, too.’ He turned to
Abromovski. ‘In the meantime, Sergei, say nothing. No comment,
right?’

‘
For the tape, I am
suspending this interview for Mr Abromovski to arrange to have a
solicitor to be with him. The time is 9.50am.’ A still shocked, DCI
Roberts said.

Reynolds bent to retrieve his briefcase.

‘
Leave that there, sir. It
will be searched, forensics will scan it for evidence and, if a
full charge is made, it will be logged as an exhibit.’

Lorne allowed herself a glance at Abromovski.
The terror on his face sunk a satisfying revenge into the pit of
her stomach. She could not resist capitalising on it, ‘Play with
fire gentlemen and you invariably end up getting burned by it.
Carry out disgusting deeds for The Unicorn and you end up in
prison, while he gets off scot free. That is, unless you’d like to
make your lives easier by sharing some information with us on his
whereabouts and activities?’

‘
Of course, if you were to
do that it would help your own causes considerably.’ The Chief
added.

Abromovski’s interest piqued at the veiled
proposal, but Reynolds’ remained defiant.

‘
What cause? You have nothing on us,
nothing
whatsoever! And, who the hell is The Unicorn?

‘
I think you know who he is.
And, as to whether we have something on you or not, we will see. In
the meantime, bear in mind co-operation is looked upon very
favourably.’ The Chief replied.

Lorne followed the officers taking Reynolds
down. As they reached the reception area he asked to be allowed to
make a telephone call.

‘
I know my rights,
Inspector…’

Lorne nodded, they led him to the back office
and releasing his cuffs, they waited while he used his mobile.

‘
That’s okay, mate, take
your time. There’s no hurry, I’ve got all day.’

He turned towards Lorne as he emphasised
those last words. She got the message intended for her. His
victorious smile further sunk any hope she had of getting the
information they desperately needed. But, she tried to keep that
despair from her expression as he leered at her.

‘
Suck my dick,
Inspector’.

She gave him a withering look, took his
mobile off him, handed it to one of the officers and waited until
he was safely cuffed again before she left the officers to carry
out the instructions she’d given them. Part of her wished she could
stick around and witness him suffering the indignity of the search,
in fact, she’d gladly don the rubber gloves herself, to complete
his humiliation. But she knew everything had to be done by the
book.

She sought out the Chief. He had remained
with Abromovski. This time she knocked on the door before
entering.

‘
Can I have a word in
private, sir?’

She told him all that had happened, as she
knew it, concerning the death of Crane and about Reynold’s call to
his solicitor.

‘
The bastard! We thought we
had her protected by keeping her in. There’s going to be hell to
pay. You know that don’t you?’

‘
Yes, Chief, there’s bound
to be an enquiry, but I stand by what we decided, how could we know
the very solicitor, she herself rang, would murder her?’

‘
She probably rang The
Unicorn and he sent Reynolds along. I feel sorry for her though,
she was bloody used. It’s just a pity the poor bitch couldn’t see
it.’

Lorne, thinking of Pete and Charlie, couldn’t
go along the pity line, but she didn’t say so.

‘
Anyway, we’re having none
of Reynolds’ delaying tactics. Time is too short. Once he is in the
custody garb, we’ll get the duty solicitor and start the interview.
If he isn’t happy we’ll give him a chance to get his own in
immediately or carry on. We have no choice and we won’t give him
any either.’

Lorne nodded. With all they had at stake
there could be no comeback from them taking this step.

‘
In the meantime, Lorne, go
along all of the interview rooms and see how things are going, then
get what you have back to me and to your father, let’s make sure we
keep him in the loop so he can be mulling everything over while we
are busy with Reynolds.’

The mention of her Dad, reminded her of her
original reason for seeking out the doctor. She made a quick call
to Sergeant Harris and asked him to see everything was taken care
of for her in that department before she started the rounds of the
interview rooms.

Frustration built in her as she found the
interviewers were coming up against a wall of silence until at
last, she came to the room where the footballer was.

One of the officers carrying out the
interview stepped out of the room to update her. ‘He’s singing as
sweetly as that pop star he’s reported to be shagging, ma’am.’

‘
Good. What have you got so
far?’

Nothing of what he told her helped with
regards to information about the Unicorn. Philip Solly’s
involvement had been as they expected, that of an overpaid prick
wanting his thrills however he could get them and, as a lure to
others like him, to indulge at a later date.

Lorne experienced a deep shock as she
listened to the depravity of exactly what had been going on and how
young the girl she’d seen him ‘buy’ had been. Thirteen! He’d
insisted it was his first time at the house and he had been
appalled once he’d found out the girl’s age. He’d stated he’d not
had anything sexually to do with her and had instead all he'd done
was comforted her. She had told him of her plight and that of the
other girls. The appalling tale of rape, drugs, violence, near
starvation and families being held hostage, brought the bile to
Lorne’s throat and deepened her fear for Charlie.

‘
Everything all right,
Inspector?’

The Chief’s voice was a welcome distraction.
She motioned to the DC to return to the room and continue with the
interview. She relayed the information she’d just heard to the
Chief.