by Koko Brown
Simon shrugged. “No idea. But she’s not happy with you.”
“Why?”
“She thinks you’re slacking. You didn’t tell her about the boy who was assaulted by the murder victim.”
Xiu’s stomach dropped a thousand feet. “What do you mean?”
“She picked up a call at your desk from a friend of yours? Some lawyer and then read through some statement the boy had done for his immigration matter.”
Xiu leapt to his feet. “Where’s she gone?”
“I don’t know. Maybe to see your lawyer friend. I honestly don’t know, mate. But you’re in for it.”
Xiu dialled Alan immediately. “What have you done?” he bellowed into the receiver.
“What do you mean? You know I was just threatened for perverting the course of justice by your boss?”
“What did you tell her?”
“I didn’t have to give her the address, I flatly refused on that, but I gave her the statement. That’s all.”
Xiu stopped. She was waiting for him to get into a car and get the address for Wen. He had to stay put. That was his best route of keeping the little boy safe from a bullet to the head.
“I’m sorry,” Xiu said the words through a heavy breath. “I shouldn’t have got angry with you.”
“I wouldn’t ever compromise you or my client. The statement doesn’t give anything away, particularly where he lives now. But it does alert her that there was another person in the room when he was being beaten by his assailant.”
Xiu sat back down again and held his forehead in his hands. He had to stay calm. The angrier he got, the easier Chambers would find it to get at him, to reveal what he knew. It desperately needed to be the other way around if he had any chance of getting to her.
Eventually, Chambers marched through the incident room and snapped her fingers in Xiu’s direction. “My office, now!”
He discreetly placed his phone from Atarah in his desk drawer, then followed at an irritatingly leisurely stroll, noted by the way Chambers slammed the door behind him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, by keeping vital information in this investigation away from me?”
Xiu blinked. “I told you already. There are people within the force that are involved with the trafficking. I can’t risk that child.”
Chambers folded her arms across her chest. “Are you implying something?”
“Not at all. I just have an obligation to that little boy over and above a dead paedo.”
She slapped her hands on the desk top. “A dead paedo? Is that how we deal with all our murder victims now? We judge them?”
“Why else was an eight-year-old, half-naked and with welts all over his body found at the murder victim’s flat? What else was Nicodeme doing except seeking sexual satisfaction? Our duty is to the innocent.”
Chambers’ eyes glittered with malice and anger. “You don’t get to be judge and jury in this job. That’s what the courts are for. You’re here to identify his murderer. And the boy’s statement does that. You know who she is.”
Xiu kept his expression neutral. “Yes.”
“What do you want me to do? You’re derailing an entire investigation for a source. What is it? Are you sleeping with her?”
“No, ma’am,” he lied.
“Then what?”
“I told you this station and this investigation are compromised by the other variables in this entire situation. I mean, Superintendent Pollard…”
Chambers’ face drained of colour. “What about him?”
“He made it clear that we had a priority to protect sources. Especially if an investigation is compromised by dirty coppers. This one is…”
Chambers’ voice was weak when she spoke. “You’ll have to give me a name. You have to, it’s vital.”
“I can’t do that, ma’am. I can’t put her at risk. As much as I can’t put that little boy at risk by identifying where he is. You’ll understand that.”
“Not if you’re preventing us from wrapping this up. Without confirmation, the investigation remains open. It means we haven’t done our job.”
“What does it matter? The boy’s identified her. Forensic confirms a female was present at the flat. Her blood is in the apartment. What else do we need from her?”
“We need to make her pay for what she’s done!” Chambers screamed. “She can’t just take lives and get away with it!”
“A man who was going to rape an eight-year-old boy is someone who deserves the full force of the law against the person who finally wiped him off the face of the earth?”
“You don’t know!” Chambers hissed. Her face mutated slightly, smoothing as an unnatural calm overtook her expression. “Well, then. If that’s your final answer. Give me your phone.”
“I can’t do that, ma’am.”
“Give it to me!” she screamed again.
Xiu sat calmly, looking at her as if she’d simply grown horns. “I can’t do that, ma’am. The safety of those two persons is paramount, more so than this investigation.”
Chambers pressed a button on her intercom. “Get in here, will you.”
Two DS officers entered the office.
Chambers pointed at him with a shaking finger. “Arrest him.”
The DSs stared at her, then at Xiu. “What?” one echoed, sounding stupid.
“I said arrest him. Perverting the course of justice. Disobeying a direct command from a superior officer… Arrest him. Put him downstairs in one of the cells until he changes his mind.”
The officers didn’t seem to understand what was being said. Xiu got to his feet. “It’s all right, lads. I’ll come with you.”
He walked out of the office, followed by the two officers and Andrews caught his expression. He mouthed P at him and again Andrews gave him a short nod.
Chambers followed them to the cells in the station. Xiu hoped Andrews’ savvy would be enough for the man to get his second mobile phone from his desk and keep it with him.
The desk sergeant stared at Xiu when he stood in front of it, his hands cuffed behind his back. “Are you lot having a late fucking April Fool’s Day or what?”
Chambers raised her eyebrows. “I want you to book him in. He’s compromised an investigation and he is perverting the course of justice. Today, please.”
The desk sergeant blinked. “Fuck me, what a morning. All right, Jiang. You heard your superior. Empty your pockets.”
He shrugged his shoulders and one of the DS officers uncuffed him to let him empty his pockets.
“Where’s your jacket?” Chambers demanded.
“Upstairs?”
She nodded to one of the DSs. “Go and get that. Bring it down here. I want the pockets emptied.”
The DS disappeared back upstairs. Xiu had a panicked moment where he thought of things he’d written down instead of leaving it as a note on his smartphone and remembered that he’d emptied everything out before he’d arrived this morning.
“Watch as well, please,” the desk sergeant said with a weary sigh.
“Don’t give me that look,” Chambers snapped. “He’s forcing me to do this. Using Pollard as an example of why we need to overlook crimes.”
The desk sergeant’s face tightened slightly. “What does Pollard know about policing? He hasn’t done any in so long…”
“Right?” Chambers’ agreed with a bitchy laugh. “He doesn’t know shit and one of my own is obstructing an investigation. No bitch is worth it.”
Xiu caught the desk sergeant’s eye and the man sent him the barest of winks. “I need his phone,” Chambers ordered, as the sergeant began making a note of all his belongings.
“Got to log it properly first. Procedure, ma’am.”
“Now!”
The sergeant paused in his notes. “Ma’am, you’re locking him up for perverting the course of justice. I will log his phone properly first and then, you will make your proper request through the correct channels. Ma’am.”
Chambers snatched the phone
from the desk and pointed a finger at the sergeant. “Fuck off. And book him.”
She stormed out of the cells, leaving Xiu with the sergeant. “Sorry, son,” the sergeant said with a heavy sigh. “Orders is orders. I’ll make a note that Chambers took your mobile, so it’s not here. Anyone you want to call?”
“Yeah, actually. Can you buzz me up to Andrews?”
The sergeant tilted his head in his direction and handed over the phone. Xiu dialled his extension and waited for it to connect.
“DC Andrews.”
“Did you get it?”
Andrews whispered into the phone. “I did. It’s with me, but I’m about to put it somewhere else as she’s about to come for me as well. Fuck!” he squeaked. “She’s going through your desk!”
“Did you get what I said, Andrews. About P?”
“Oh. Ooh. Yes, I do now.”
“Get hold of Shannon and let her know what we’ve got to do. Tonight has to go ahead, whatever happens. If we wait, you don’t know what will happen. We can’t risk it.”
“I got it. I’m going to have to go!”
“Get Shannon.”
“Yes, yes, yes. Bye.”
Xiu put the phone down and gazed at the desk sergeant. “Thank you for that.”
“I don’t know what you’ve done to put a rocket up Chambers’ arse, but I’m not going to step in the line of fire for you. I’ll make sure you get something from the canteen.”
Xiu walked with the sergeant to a cell and sat down in the sparse enclosure.
He’d been here before. On his entry to the force, he’d tried to imagine what it would be like for a person who had no idea what it was to be arrested, to wait for help to get out, and failed miserably. He always thought he’d be on the side of right, and that would ensure he stayed out of a cell.
How wrong he’d been. Very wrong.
TWENTY-TWO
“This feels very open,” Shannon said in Atarah’s ear. The discreet electronic device blended with Atarah’s skin, and hid under a swath of Atarah’s straightened hair.
“That’s because it is open,” Atarah answered softly. She waited in a hired car, in a side street not too far from the golf course. She couldn’t believe that Xiu was still being held in a cell for not giving her up to that bitch Chambers. It narrowed their playing field ever so slightly, but at the very least, they had a secure unit to fall upon Gael whenever he admitted what he’d done. It would be up to Atarah to get him to do that. They needed positive confirmation of his involvement in the trafficking before the unit would be able to sweep in to arrest him.
“If you feel at risk, or you feel like he’s going to go for you, you know the code word. The armed response won’t let him shoot you.”
“Proximity is going to be an issue,” Atarah told her. “I’d have to move very fast to not be shot from all angles. Gael won’t come alone. The problem is whether he’s told Sybilla or not.”
“Not,” Andrews confirmed. “Chambers is still in the office. She’s waiting for Xiu to break.”
“Good luck with that,” Atarah snorted. If there was anyone who could keep a secret under pressure, it was Xiu.
Three cars whizzed past her, in the direction of the golf club. Atarah took a breath and followed the cars inside. Gael stepped out first, dressed in a sharp grey suit and a deep blood-red tie. Three men followed him, also dressed in sharp suits. Another four exited from the other two cars, and stationed themselves at the entrance of the golf club and stood on either side of Gael’s car.
Atarah stepped out and zipped up her jacket. Gael’s smile, bright and as false as dentures in his olive-toned face, greeted her.
“Hello, Atarah.” He oozed insincerity. “You’re looking well.”
“Thanks.”
“Thank you for coming to meet me. Now, Sybilla will be very happy that you’ve decided to surrender yourself.”
“On the premise that she gets to end my life first, right?”
He inclined his head. “Of course. My wife is very keen on tidying loose ends.”
“Where is she?”
“Unavailable,” Gael explained, spreading his hands wide. “As you can see, it’s just the boys. Less one, obviously.” His expression hardened briefly. “It was unwise of you to interfere with Nicodeme.”
“Unwise for who? Me?” Atarah pretended to be offended. “All I did was save your wife from explaining why merchandise is being soiled.”
Gael waved a hand away. “You know it was one boy…”
“That you know of. And he didn’t like boys. He liked little girls,” Atarah corrected him. “And you let him. Did Sybilla know you were giving him a side benefit in underage girls so you could have your own side benefit in adults?”
Gael’s face changed colour. “Spoils of war.”
“What war?” She laughed bitterly, tucking her hands into her pockets. Gael’s men handled their weapons. Gael waved a hand for them to calm down and they all relaxed.
“The business of people is something that most aren’t equipped for, my dear. Now if you had made yourself available to me…”
“No, thank you,” she said with a smile. “I prefer my sex to be consensual.”
Gael laughed. “Shame. I believed you would have enjoyed a fight. Anyway, come along, Atarah, Sybilla will want to have her own words with you.”
“Why?”
“This is her world, my dear, and we are all just living in it. It was her idea to do this and it’s proved to be simple, despite this weak government’s pretence of a hard line on immigration. Once people are in the country, we can get them anywhere. We relied on Nicodeme for his work to get people into France. Now, if you sort yourself out, if Sybilla doesn’t kill you for what you did to Nicodeme, then I suppose we may be able to move forward. Make the business stronger. Expand a little more. Until then, we are scaling back. So get into the car, please.”
“I don’t want to,” she said, edging back to the safety of her own vehicle. Gael took two steps forward and lunged for her, grabbing her by the throat.
“That’s what I like to hear,” he breathed into her cheek. “That fight. You should have worked for me, rather than Sybilla.”
Atarah cracked her elbow into his jaw and he dropped to his knees, spitting blood into the gravel. “You don’t get to put your hands on me.”
Gael laughed, muttering through his now-injured jaw. “Perks, my dear, perks. I have had enough talking, get into the car.”
In her ear, Shannon said, “Get him to call her by name. Quickly.”
“And take me where?” Atarah spoke directly to Gael. “The station?”
He froze briefly. “Why would you go there?”
“That’s where she works, isn’t it? Isn’t her name Chambers? A copper.” Atarah spoke to the four men surrounding them. “Did he tell you that? That you’re working for a copper?”
One of them men shifted uncomfortably. “Is that true?”
“She’s lying!” he spat.
“Why would I? Why would I know that name if I was? Isn’t Chambers your wife?”
“It doesn’t matter who she is, don’t you all get paid?” Gael roared. “Get her in the car!”
One of the men caught Atarah by the arm and placed her in the 4x4 Gael had driven into the club. He pressed an index finger to the window. “You’re a stupid bitch. You shouldn’t have named her. Now a lot of men will have to die.”
“Atarah, get down!” Shannon whispered in her ear.
“ARMED RESPONSE! PUT YOUR WEAPONS ON THE GROUND!”
The resounding cry seemed to surround the vehicle. The warning shout came again, and Gael leapt into the 4x4. He started the vehicle and sped away from the golf course. Rocking in the back seat of the raised car, Atarah struggled to sit upright.
“What are you doing?” she yelled at him.
“You brought the filth with you! You cunt!”
His voice was panicked and grew louder as he thundered through the course back to the main road. “You�
�ve just signed a death warrant for yourself and for your copper friend. What’s his name, Xiu Jiang?”
“Do you know where you are?” Shannon begged in her ear. “We can’t see you!”
For God’s sake, they couldn’t see a speeding vehicle?
“What are you doing?” Atarah asked again. “You can’t outrun armed response, they’re going to catch you! It’s over for you and Chambers!”
“How did you find out who she was? I knew she was being careless. All that concern over Nicodeme, and for what? To be caught out by you? I knew we were wrong to trust you, just as Nicodeme said.”
“Nicodeme was afraid of any female over the age of ten who could fight,” Atarah spat, remembering what he had done to Saoirse, and that Gael and Sybilla had let him. “How could you? How did you sleep at night, knowing what he’d done? You’ve got children!”
Gael took a sharp right and sent her sprawling to the floor. “Yes, who are far away from any of this nonsense. They have the best because we gave them the best. You are not taking that from me. I will dispose of you myself as soon as I get away from…”
A popping noise burst through the interior of the car, and Gael struggled to control the car. “What the fuck?” he screeched, the car tilting to the rear right before it flipped to its side. Her earpiece fell out, bounding round, and then it flew out of the vehicle.
Atarah slammed into broken glass and tarmac as the car came skidding to a halt. In the haze of pain, she heard a familiar voice.
“Dada, is Rae okay?”
“She will be,” Lonán reassured her. “Atarah, can you hear me, sweetheart?”
“Give me a minute,” she muttered, trying to sit up and crying out in pain. That felt like a dislocated shoulder. “Maybe longer than a minute. What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Why did you bring Saoirse?”
“We couldn’t risk you,” he called out. “I’m calling an ambulance.”
“Yes, please, thank you.”
Gael groaned in the front. “I should have killed you on sight,” he muttered. “It would have been kismet if I had, after all my doubts about you.”
“Too late. You’re better off giving up your wife. Let her swing for it. Plead innocence.”
