Impeding Justice (34 page)

She passed on what Tony had told her.

‘
Well that’s good.
Presumably, Tony has covered quite a lot of ground already. Look, I
know at this moment you don’t give a shit, but there is one thing
to hang on to. Baldwin – The fucking Unicorn, is dead!’

‘
Is he?’

‘
Now, come on, Lorne, we
just witnessed with our own eyes, him being blown to kingdom come.
And, he didn’t expect that, did he?’

‘
It’ll take me a long time
to believe it. I want every inch of that wreckage salvaged and gone
over with a fine tooth comb for DNA.’

‘
That goes without saying,
but have we got any to match it to? No, at least not that we know
is his for sure.’

‘
But, that was before we
knew who he was. There are records of him now. Military records,
dental records, medical records, the SAS surely didn’t leave a
stone unturned in cataloguing their men.’

‘
I
hope you’re right. But, we know they wanted him taken off their
files as if he’d never been part of their outfit, which might have
meant destroying any trace of him. You have to prepare yourself for
that. You should do the logical thing. The
only
logical
thing and accept he has gone. Your life will change now, Lorne.
Your family is safe. You are safe, The Unicorn
has gone
.
Look at that blaze, no one could survive that.’

A lingering doubt swept through her, but
then, she should expect that. The bastard had played so many tricks
in his time. She’d accept it for the moment. She had to. She needed
to concentrate on finding her dad. The alternative didn't bear
thinking about. ‘Okay, Sean, Tony has mobilised his unit’s men on
the ground, to do on foot enquiries. Is there anything else we can
do?’

‘
First thing is to inform
your team what has happened and knock them all off duty. They need
a rest and can’t contribute in any way to this part of the
investigation, MI5 are sifting the information and directing the
operations and other than that it is leg work that is
needed.’

‘
Of course. Tell them, thank
you from me. I can’t believe we’ve all been on duty…’ she looked at
her watch, ‘over forty-eight hours now. Christ, the worst forty-
eight hours of my life.’

‘
I know. After I make that
call I’ll contact the helicopter and get the pilot to come and pick
us up. The local boys can finish up here and file a report to us.
And, when we get back, you have to get some rest. I don’t like to
remind you, but it's Pete’s funeral tomorrow.’

Resting her head back, once more trying not
to vomit as the helicopter took to the skies; Lorne’s thoughts
circled a turmoil of problems. Questions she didn’t want to address
popped in and out of her sleepy mind. Uppermost, with her recent
feelings escalating for Jacques was her need to think about her
marriage, could she and Tom salvage it? It’d seemed, when they were
last together, they could talk. She had felt a love for him, but
did she love him wholeheartedly? Deep down, she couldn’t answer
yes. And, what about Charlie, were they capable as a couple of
giving her all she needed and deserved, or would their differences
get in the way again and instead of helping her to re-build her
life would they become a further destructive device? And, what of
her future career, with Pete gone and, if proof beyond doubt,
showed Baldwin alias The Unicorn, is dead, did she really want to
continue in the force?

‘
Lorne, are you okay? You
were moaning. God, Lorne this is all too much. No human being can
cope with what you have on your plate. You’re to take no part in
trying to find your father, no part whatsoever!’

‘
Oh, Sean, don’t start again.’ She closed her eyes against
the anger that surged through her.
Just let me get on with my frigging job will you?
‘Stop wrapping me in cotton wool! I’m
as capable as I’ve ever been!’

‘
I’m having no argument this
time. I gave in before, because nailing The Unicorn couldn’t go on
without you, but this can. After you’ve had a rest, you go to your
family. And, that’s an order. You’re off the case.’

Her face screwed up like she’d sucked on a
lemon. She pulled her arms around her as if to protect herself, as
Sean continued, ‘You’re too involved. And you’re full of anger and
tiredness.’

Anger! Too bloody right she was angry. Wouldn’t he
be
? In the last forty-eight
hours her whole life had been turned upside down and pulled inside
out, she had a God given
right
to be angry,
didn’t she? And, it’s not over, yet! How would he feel if
his
dad sat somewhere doused in petrol with just a flick of a
lighter needed to burn him to death! Or his partner had passed away
in
his
arms? Or, if it had been
his
daughter subjected
to violence and repeated rape and left to die wrapped in a suicide
vest? And to crown it all, how would he be feeling if
his
nephew had been born into this shitty world with a heart
defect!
Too right she was
fucking angry!

‘
Anger is what
keeps
me chasing
bastards like that.’ She pointed down towards the massive blaze at
sea. ‘It keeps me from going under and, I think I am entitled to be
eaten up with it at this moment in time. I
can
function in
my job while I remain angry at the injustice of it all and want to
put it all right!’

‘
Point taken, I
guess.’

‘
Thank you. You know, a
thought has just occurred to me. I still have that Skype number.
What if we tried that again?’

‘
I doubt it will work now.
I’d say Baldwin deleted it the moment the call
finished.’

‘
You may be right, but it
has to be worth a try.’

‘
I wouldn’t advise it,
Lorne. Let’s think it through. Just supposing the boat hadn’t blown
up. You wouldn’t ring then, you’d have no need to. You’d just play
a waiting game knowing in a few hours you would know where your
father is. The man with your father doesn’t know the boat has blown
up. If you get through, he will think it strange and might become
agitated. This will be a new twist for him. Something he doesn’t
know how to handle. I doubt he had a contact line to his boss so he
wouldn’t be able to turn to him for advice. No. I think he’d cut
and run, but before he did, he may carry out the job in
hand.’

She could see the logic in all of this and
told herself she needed to think through her ideas before voicing
them. Her phone buzzing took away the need to say anything to show
she realised this.

‘
Ma’am, it’s AJ. I’m on my
way home, but though it might me irrelevant now I thought I’d let
you know I did some digging on the make-up of the yacht. I
contacted the builders, De Vries and got her spec, in case we
needed it.’

‘
Good thinking, AJ, it could
have been useful. Was there a reason you thought you should tell me
this now?’

‘
Well, in a way. I just
can’t believe he’s gone, and one specific piece of information
keeps niggling at me. The yacht had a full-sized
garage…’

‘
I don’t understand, what
difference does that make?’

‘
Well, I keep thinking of
all the things, which would facilitate an escape, which could be
stored in it.’

Lorne sat up. ‘What sort of things?’

‘
Jet skis, dinghys and…
Well, it’s a bit James Bondish, but, a miniature submarine
even.’

‘
But, he didn’t know about
the bomb, so he’d hardly be prepared to evacuate, unless he’d
already decided to do so, but no, he couldn’t have. He had a plan
in place. We had agreed… But then, would he, could he trust us? I
mean, there’s more than us interested, what if he believed MI5
would carry on tracing him and the ruse was to just get far enough
out for no one to notice him leaving the boat? It blowing up could
have been a bonus for him, one he didn’t expect, but a welcome one,
all the same… Look, thanks, AJ. Leave it with me. I’ll run it all
past Tony Warner. You’ve done a good job through all of this, AJ.
Thank you. Now, go home and get some rest and I’ll see you
tomorrow.’

Both Tony and the Chief found gaping holes in
the theory and told her she had to accept the truth, if she didn’t,
she’d never find peace of mind. She knew it would be a long time
before she could, but she would try. She had to.

Chapter Sixty-five.

At the hospital she found a different Charlie
than she’d ever dealt with. A girl who had turned into a woman
overnight. This hurt a little as the thought of what had escalated
this process sickened her, but Charlie’s new found maturity helped
them both.

‘
Mum! Oh, mum, you’re safe!
What’s happened?

‘
He’s gone, darling. The
Unicorn is dead. You have nothing to fear from him ever again.’ She
hoped she sounded convincing. ‘Where’s, dad?’

‘
He popped down the corridor
to get a coffee. He’s only been gone a minute. He’s suffering, Mum.
And, you know, I want to say I’m sorry. Sorry that I have put you
both through hell, but I’m going to change, Mum, I
promise.’

‘
Oh, darling. I wish I could
hug you, but I’m afraid of hurting you. But, I don’t want you
taking the blame. Yes, you were a handful, but nothing more than
any other teenager. Me and your dad didn’t handle you well,
especially me, with my job…’

‘
But, I understand now. I
didn’t before, I was pig-headed and kicked against your discipline.
But now… Well… Mum, I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you.
Proud of the long hours you do to make this a better world for
young people to live in. You fight the evil I didn’t even know
existed. And, I have made up my mind, that not only am I going to
support you in your work, by behaving and helping around the house,
but I am going to take up a career in the police, so I can carry on
where you will have to leave off soon.’

‘
Cheeky, madam, I may seem
it and feel it, but I’m not near retiring age yet, you
know.’

They both laughed. Tom came through the door
at that moment and the joy of her relief in the way Charlie coped
with everything sent Lorne into his arms. All doubts dispelled for
the moment. After a welcome hug, she had a pang of guilt. Her
father still faced grave danger and she needed to be out there
helping to find him, but she couldn’t tell Charlie that. She sensed
Charlie’s new found strength held together by a fragile resolve
could be easily shattered. She decided to make light of her
imminent departure.

‘
Right, first thing you need
to know about this glamorous career you are thinking of emulating
is, there’s always mountains of paperwork to do, and, it has to be
done as soon as the job is in the bag, so nothing is missed in
recording the events. Otherwise, when your case comes to court you
could lose it on something you didn’t note down. This means, I have
to leave and get that part of the job done. But, after that, I am
taking a holiday and can devote myself to you, darling. I
promise.’

‘
Okay, Mum. I hear ya. I
hope you mean it about the holiday. It would be great to go away
somewhere. I want to talk to you… I mean, well, I know I’ll have
that counsellor woman, but I want to talk to you. I need you to put
some things right for me… Oh, I can’t explain, but…’

‘
There’s no need for you to
explain, love. I know what happened. And, yes, we will talk all you
want to. I’ll be here for you. Perhaps a cruise in the sunshine
would be the ideal holiday for us, what do you think?’

‘
Mum! I might have grown up,
but I’m not ancient, those things are for the blue- rinse
brigade!’

Lorne laughed, ‘No, they’re not. There’s a
lot of young people on them and they offer a peaceful surrounding,
as well as lots of girlie stuff like body massage and facials and
nails and saunas, and meditation… And, laying around the pool… Oh
it sounds wonderful, my idea of heaven.’

‘
Umm, put like that… I never
thought of those things. I’ll allow you to look into
it…’

Lorne smiled and gently kissed her daughter’s
swollen cheek. ‘I love you, darling. See you soon, eh? Tom, love,
would you walk with me out to my car, you’ll be all right for a
moment won’t you, darling?’

‘
Yes, Mum, now I’ve seen you
I think I could go to sleep again. A proper sleep this time though,
not one involving drugs. Oh, by the way, Mum, will you find out how
Sasha is and think about what I said before, you know when… Well,
about taking care of her in the future?’

‘
Yes and yes. In fact the
second request goes without saying, perhaps we’ll take her on that
holiday with us, but that’s up to you, if you want it to be just
the two of us, then that’s how it will be. See you soon.’ She blew
a kiss to Charlie and left with Tom.

Once out of earshot she told Tom what was
happening. Shocked speechless he took her in his arms. It felt
good. She hugged him back and forced the doubts from her mind. If
she had to make this work, she would, or at least she’d give it as
much effort she’d given to tracking down The Unicorn, surely that
would be enough, wouldn’t it?

A check in with Tony, gave her fresh hope. He
had a strong lead. A young person had belatedly reported to his
parents, seeing a car swerving in front of another one bringing it
to a halt. He’d told them, two men got out of the front car and
forced the second driver into their car, before one of them drove
the man’s car away. He said they drove at great speed down the
Tottenham Court Road.