Cruel Justice (DI Lorne Simpkins (Book one)) (34 page)

The chief grew tired of waiting and returned to his office.

When the call came in, Lorne asked Tracy to put it through to her office where Pete joined her.

"Yes, I know it. What time? We'll be there. No, I swear it won't be a trap. It'll just be my partner and Katherine who will be with me. Can I speak to Jade? Be brave, Jade, I'll get you out of there."

"Where does he want to meet?" Pete asked.

"Keele services on the M6. Pete, I'm going to put you in an awkward position, it's entirely up to you if you want to go through with this or not. I won't hold it against you if you disagree with my plan."

"Hey, we're partners ain't we? Come on, you can fill me in on the way. I take it we ain't dragging his sister along for the ride?" Pete held out her coat, Lorne smiled affectionately at him and slipped it on.

"You're a good man, Pete. We've got to get out of here before Roberts spots us."

"Give me your keys. I'll make out I'm nipping to the loo. I'll bring the car round the front so we can make a quick getaway."

"Okay, and I'll tell the team I'm going home to check on Charlie. That should lay a false trail for a little while."

* * *

An eerie fog stretched before them as they headed north on the motorway to the meeting point. Pete insisted on driving. Lorne's mind was full of
what if
scenarios. Her thoughts remained negative as the service station slip road loomed ahead of them.

"He'll be in the lorry park, it's over there. I don't want any heroics on your part, Pete. Let me do things my way, do you understand?"

"Yeah, I understand. It doesn't mean I have to agree with you though, does it?"

"Don't jeopardise this for me, Pete, I just want my sister back." She spotted the only car parked amongst the lorries. It was a white VW Golf — he'd changed cars. "When I get out, take down his registration number, it'll help you later on."

"Will do, boss. Don't take any unnecessary risks," Pete said, gripping her forearm.

 Lorne covered his hand with hers. "I won't. If all goes well, take care of Jade and I'll see you soon."

"I'm holding you to that. I could do without having to mould another partner into my way of thinking at my time of life."

"See you soon, partner." Lorne pecked him on the cheek, pulled the collar of her coat up around her ears and got out of the car.

The cold air made her shiver as she crossed the tarmac to the parked vehicle. Pete got out of the car and rested his arms on top of the open door.

John Scott appeared, and forced Jade in front of him. He held a knife to her throat and anxiously searched around him.

"Where's Katherine?"

Lorne stopped ten feet away from him and swallowed, hard. "She's in the car."

"Don't mess with me, Inspector. I can see your partner's alone." He pressed the point of the knife into Jade's throat and she yelped as the blood trickled from the wound. Her bright blue eyes expanded in fear.

"Okay, okay. Please, don't hurt her anymore. I'm begging you."

"You've tricked me. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill her?"

Keep your head, Lorne. Don't rise to his threats.
"If you do that, you definitely won't see your sister again. I had trouble persuading my boss to swap sisters." Scott opened his mouth to challenge her but she raised a hand to stop him. "I have a possible solution for that."

"Yeah and what's that?" Scott tightened his grip around Jade's throat.

Lorne exhaled nervously and said, "We'll do a swap of our own." The man tilted his head and appeared puzzled by her suggestion. She continued, "Set my sister free and have me as your hostage. What do you say?" Lorne fought back the bile rising in her throat.

"Who's to say he'll go for it, this boss of yours?"

"If they don't meet a deadline of seven o'clock tomorrow evening, you can kill me."

"Lorne, no!" Tears trickled down Jade's cheeks.

"Hush, Jade. I know what I'm doing. Sean won't let me down."

"Only one way to find out, Inspector. One false move, Jade, and I'll slit ya bloody throat, you hear me?" Scott snarled, reaching out his right arm. "I'll let her go when I've got you by my side."

Lorne went to him. She kissed Jade on the cheek as she passed. "Run, Jade." Scott grabbed Lorne in a choke-hold and carried out a body search for a possible concealed weapon. She went rigid under his touch and her heart sank as she watched her sister run into Pete's outstretched arms.

After finding nothing, Scott guided Lorne roughly to the Golf and threw her on the back seat. He put his knee on her tailbone and tied her hands behind her, then pulled a cloth bag over her head. The bag smelt of petrol and made her heave.

* * *

"Tracy, yeah it's Pete."

"Hold on a minute, boss," the sergeant said.

"Where are you, Pete?" Roberts bellowed.

"I have Jade. I'm on the M6 at Keele services. Send a vehicle to pick her up ASAP. I need to stay on Scott's tail, sir."

"Pete, where's Lorne? What the bloody hell are you playing at?"

 "With J.S., I'll fill you in when you get here, Chief."

"Stay where you are. We'll be there in a couple of hours."

"With respect, sir, we'll be inside in the warm. I've got a young lady who's cold and hungry." Pete smiled at Jade and patted her hand.

"Okay. See you soon."

 "Come on, Jade. Now stop worrying, that sister of yours is made of strong stuff. It's not like we don't know where they're heading."

Jade gave Pete a weak smile before she turned to see the white car exiting the car park.

Chapter Fifty

A couple of hours into the long trip Lorne drifted off to sleep.

"Wake up, Inspector. We're here," Scott whispered in her ear.

The cloth bag remained over her head until they were inside the building. An orange glow lit the room and cast shadows off objects she guessed were furniture. When he tore off the bag, her eyes stung and were slow to adjust.

At first glance the cabin appeared primitive but on further inspection it had everything they needed. Threadbare blankets layered a hand-carved bed. A two-seater sofa was positioned next to the tiny cast-iron wood-burning stove. A small slatted table with two dining chairs sat in the centre of the room. A small kitchen, if you could call it that, was at one end, a two-ring stove running off a propane gas bottle, the only form of equipment in the tiny area. An old earthenware sink was precariously propped up on two wooden pillars.

A curtain had been pulled across one wall, which Lorne presumed hid the bathroom or toilet. A few red scatter rugs added warmth and comfort, while velvet curtains, more suited to a Victorian parlour, hung at the two windows.

"Welcome to your temporary new home, Lorne." Scott laughed nastily and untied her hands. He forced her into one of the two dining chairs, then retied her hands around the back of it.

"Where are we?" Lorne said, feigning ignorance of their location.

"In a forest, north of where we started off from, that's all you need to know, Inspector." J.S. headed out the door.

Lorne frantically played with the ropes around her wrist, wriggling first one way then the other, but it proved hopeless. The slightest movement and she felt her skin shredding painfully.

* * *

Pete prepared himself for a dressing down when he spotted the chief enter the café.

"Hello, chief. You made good time."

"We'll talk about this later, Pete. Let's get Jade out of here. Tracy's waiting outside to take you back to London. Did he hurt you, Jade?"

Her hand touched her throat where the knife had cut her, but she pulled her shoulders back and her eyes met his. "Not really, Sean. But I doubt if Lorne will be so lucky. Please, get her back quickly."

"Jade, I don't often say this, but you have my word on that." He cleared the lump in his throat and escorted Jade out to the waiting vehicle.

When Sean returned, he turned on Pete as they watched Tracy drive Scott's latest victim away. "Right, now she's out of the way, do you mind telling me what the hell is going on?"

"It's easy really, chief. Lorne felt she'd have more control over Scott if she was with him."

"And you went along with that? I can't believe you did that, Pete."

"You don't know how persuasive the Inspector can be, sir. I've got every confidence in her negotiating skills."

"Fill me in. There's not a lot I can do about it now, but I'm warning you, when this is all over, you and Inspector Simpkins will regret leaving me out of the loop. It was a reckless course of action and totally against procedure."

"Yes, boss. Well, we already know where the grandparent's cabin is. We're banking on Scott taking her there. We'll organise an ART unit and surprise them in the morning. Lorne, sorry, Inspector Simpkins is gonna feed him a line that a swap is still gonna take place. Hopefully, he won't be suspecting any movement from our end."

"What makes you so sure he'll head for the cabin?" Roberts still angry at what had transpired glared at him.

"Seemed like it was the only place the kids felt secure and happy. That's the impression the boss got after seeing the scrapbook, anyway. You know her instincts are usually pretty good, sir."

 "I've yet to see any evidence of that, Sergeant, or have you forgotten that I'm the new kid on the block?"

"I know, sir. But then it ain't the first time you've worked together, is it? She's also bloody-minded, you'll remember that trait, too. She's had that since I've known her."

"I sense you're fishing, Pete. In the past, the Inspector wasn't the type to rush in and ask questions later, which is exactly what she's done here. How's Scott going to contact us, have you thought about that? Do you know if he has a mobile? Do we have evidence of that? If he's still stuck in the Seventies, I doubt he'll be up to date with gadgets from this century."

"Um, no, Chief. Didn't really think about that." Pete dipped his chin, embarrassed by the admission.

"Perhaps that's why I'm the DCI and you're still a sergeant, Pete. It's my job to assess situations thoroughly before rushing in like … Oh, I don't know, amateur sleuths on a murder mystery weekend."

"Yes, Chief."

They dashed across the car park and stopped outside the chief's car.

"We'll get in touch with the armed response team and contact the local police. You better come with me. We'll leave Lorne's car here, she can drive it back to London herself if everything goes according to plan." Roberts shook his head as they both got in the car.

Chapter Fifty-One

John Scott returned to the cabin carrying half a dozen freshly cut logs for the stove. Lorne shivered but was relieved he'd thought about fighting the chill of the damp, cold cabin.

After he stuffed the wood into the stove, Lorne asked, "Why? Why now, John?"
Now will be an ideal opportunity to get a conversation going with him, and hopefully gain his confidence.

Choosing to ignore her, he continued blowing and poking the fire.

Lorne tried again, this time she used a much softer tone. "Why wait all these years, John?"

The fire roared into life, he closed the door and stood up. He pulled the sofa closer to the fire and sat on the edge, his elbows resting on his knees, rubbing his chilled hands together. "Why not?" He stared into the fire.

"Come on, John. Something must've triggered the feelings you'd suppressed for years. What was it?"

Still staring at the blaze, his fingers interlocked as though he was fighting something back. "Okay, if you must know, Inspector. I started working for Toni about six months ago." He fell silent again.

"And?" she prompted, quietly.

"And. I picked up a fare, a woman I recognised from my
not
so happy childhood."

She
knew
it. "That would be Belinda Greenaway?"

"That's right. Only, I thought it was her sister, Doreen Nicholls. I picked her up from one of the ranks in town, so I didn't have a clue what her name was. Picked her up a few times after that and the more I saw her the more annoyed I became."

"So, when did you realise you'd made a mistake?"

"It was in the paper. I didn't know they were identical twins. I thought I was going mad. I realised I must've killed the wrong woman."

"How did that make you feel?"

"Angry. Foolish. Determined to right the wrongs."

"You took a risk turning up at Doreen's house, didn't you? You nearly got caught?"

"I did. How was I to know, the old dear would be on the phone to you when I knocked on her door? That's when I realised I had to keep a close eye on you, Inspector. You're smart, I knew it wouldn't take you long to figure things out. But I threw a spanner in the works when I killed Kim Charlton, didn't I?" He turned to look at her.

"It spun the investigation in another direction, if that's what you mean? Why did you kill Kim?" she asked, her eyes searching his.

"She was a slut!" Scott screwed up his eyes and appeared to be reliving the events.

"Why did you think that?"

"I knew Wacko fancied her. We got talking one day and he called her a prick-tease. On the odd occasion I picked her up she used to tell me what the pair of 'em got up to. I did the world a favour getting rid of that one, believe me."

"If she disgusted you that much why didn't you just refuse the fare? Why kill her? She was only sixteen."

Scott appeared agitated and wrung his hands together as he spoke. "Ha! Sixteen going on bloody thirty, you mean. That night, the night I killed her. She flagged me down, said Wacko hadn't turned up. I told her he was delayed and he'd come back for her in a while. She wasn't happy about that and wanted to get home, so she opened the back door and climbed in my cab. She sat in the centre of the back seat so I could watch her in my mirror." He fell silent again.

Lorne coaxed him further. "And, what happened then, John?"

"She was a slut. She started playing with herself, you know down her knickers, started moaning and saying things to me, getting me going. She told me to drive down an alley and get in the back with her,
to satisfy
her, she said." His head shook from side to side as the memory played out in his mind.