Mortal Crimes 2

by Various Authors

  “Tests will begin in an hour. We’ll have a clearer indication of what we’re dealing with then.”

  “Thank you, Doctor. I’m sorry about what happened before.”

  “Don’t worry. Dealing with irate parents goes with the job.”

  Lorne found herself smiling, despite the mild insult. “Will Charlie be awake during the tests?”

  “Of course—they are primarily to measure the amount of pain your daughter is in. I’d like you to be there to comfort her, if that’s all right.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  The doctor gave a brief nod. “We’ll come and collect her when we’re ready.”

  Lorne went back to let Charlie and Katy know what was going to happen next.

  “Well, while that’s going on, I’ll go and visit Croft,” Katy said.

  “Makes sense. He’ll probably be more lucid today. You might even get a description of the men who beat him up.”

  “Hey, what’s this?” Charlie piped up, her mood seemed a little brighter after their girly chat.

  Lorne tapped the end of Charlie’s nose and winked at her. “Never you mind, Miss Nosey Parker. Your number one priority is getting yourself better.”

  Charlie eyed her suspiciously and murmured, “What, no major telling off for being stupid?”

  “Were you stupid, Charlie?”

  Her daughter’s head slipped round to face the wall. “Yes. I didn’t mean it. Simon wanted to show me the car his father had bought.”

  Katy stood up to leave. “I can sense a heavy mother-daughter talk coming on. See you in an hour or so.”

  After Katy left, Lorne sat on the edge of her daughter’s bed and put a finger under Charlie’s chin, forcing her daughter to look her in the eye. “We’ve talked about this, haven’t we, Charlie?”

  “I know I’ve let you down, Mum, but Simon said it would be a quick spin around the block…I tried to make him stop. He kept laughing at me, calling me a wuss. In the end, I tugged on his arm to try and force him to take me home and…and that’s when it happened. Why did I mess around while he was driving? Why? Now this!” She pointed down at her legs.

  “Hush now. What’s done is done. You’re alive. That’s the main thing.”

  Charlie narrowed her eyes. “Meaning? No! Simon’s not…”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but Simon didn’t make it.”

  Charlie buried her face in her trembling hands and sobbed. Lorne ran a hand over Charlie’s head, and a small lump formed in her throat.

  The awkward silence between them was disturbed by footsteps approaching on the tiled floor. Lorne glanced up at the doctor, who was observing them with a look of concern. Lorne shook her head, silently telling him not to worry.

  “We’re ready for you now, Charlie.”

  *

  Katy knocked on Croft’s door and walked into the room.

  The injured man stirred and opened a bruised eye to look at her. He seemed briefly scared by her entrance, but then recognition registered on his face and he visibly relaxed and motioned for her to sit beside him.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Sore.” He sat up and grimaced.

  “I’m sorry this happened to you. Will you take heed of the warning now?” Katy asked, lowering herself into the wooden chair next to his bed.

  “If you think that, you don’t know me.”

  Katy sighed. “These are very serious people you’re dealing with, Croft.”

  “Have you come here to reprimand me, or would you like me to share the new information I’ve just received?” A teasing look manifested in his eyes.

  Katy sat forward and teetered on the edge of the seat. “Information? What information?”

  “The information I received about half an hour ago from one of my informants,” Croft said with a smirk that he quickly seemed to regret.

  Katy snapped into detective mode, delving into her pocket and pulling out her pad and a pen. “About the traffickers, I take it?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Well, come on. Don’t draw it out,” Katy said impatiently.

  “There’s talk on the streets that another delivery is due.”

  “Due? When?” Katy asked, her pen poised ready to jot down the details. Her heart started to race at the thought of finally bringing this gang down.

  “Look at you. Your heart’s pumping like an express train, isn’t it? If we swapped places, you wouldn’t be able to give this case up, either, would you?”

  “Where?” she demanded, ignoring his comment.

  “Same place—the warehouse out on the trading estate.”

  “When? God, are you always such a pain in the arse?” Katy doodled on the pad as a way of venting her frustration.

  “I have my moments.”

  “Croft, you would try the patience of a saint. When?”

  “Okay, you win. Tonight, at nine o’clock.”

  “This source of yours—is he kosher? Guaranteed tip off, is it?”

  “Give or take on the time; it’s a guesstimate. Depends on the authorities, etc. But yes, you can take my word that this is a guaranteed tip off.”

  “Anything else?” Katy asked, her mind already forming the foundation of a plan.

  Surprised, he asked, “Isn’t that enough? In the future remind me to tell my informants that they must do better for this pretty detective I know.”

  Katy refused to blush, used to dealing with jerks like him, she shook her head and gave him one of her ‘you sad bastard’ looks.

  He got the hint and gave her a cheeky wink as she stood up to leave. “We’ll let you know what happens.” Katy waved her notebook at him before tucking it back into her jacket pocket. “Thanks for the tipoff.”

  “Let’s hope something comes of it, for the girls’ sake. Be careful out there,” she heard him say as she closed the door behind her.

  Lost in thought, she made her way through the long, narrow corridors back to the ICU, completely unaware that someone was following her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lorne settled her daughter into bed, consciously holding back her own tears. For poor Charlie the dam had broken; she was sobbing and gasping for air between sobs when Katy returned to the ward.

  “Can you stay with Charlie for a minute, Katy? I need to have another chat with the doctor.”

  “Of course.” Katy sat on the edge of the bed and held Charlie’s trembling hand, squeezing it between hers.

  As Lorne walked over to the sister’s desk she heard Katy asking Charlie about the latest music groups she liked. She felt relieved when Charlie’s crying stopped and her daughter responded enthusiastically.

  The doctor was looking at the test results when Lorne joined him. “Well?”

  “It doesn’t look good, I’m afraid. Charlie appears to have no feeling in her legs at all. Whether that will change over the coming weeks, we have no idea. The X-rays didn’t really show us anything, either.”

  “Could it be a trapped nerve?” Lorne asked more out of hope than anything else.

  “It could be. I’m sorry, but it’s going to be a waiting game over the next few weeks. A physiotherapist will get to work on Charlie tomorrow. It’s surprising what results can be obtained from manipulating the muscles, joints, and limbs.”

  “I see,” she mumbled, downhearted by the news.

  “Don’t give up—we won’t. Is her father around?” the doctor asked with a slight smile.

  “We’re divorced. Actually, Charlie lives with him.”

  “In my experience, the burden of keeping her spirits up shouldn’t be down to one person. Can you take it in turns to visit? I wouldn’t advise being here all the time; she should have different people around her—it’ll aid in her recovery in the long run.”

  Lorne cringed at the thought of asking Tom to share in the role of visiting and encouraging Charlie. It was going to be a tough enough task for her, let alone him. He wasn’t blessed with an abundance of patience, and he was
in the process of expanding his mechanics business after buying a second garage. She knew his time at present was limited. But hey, so is mine. If I can visit our one and only child, then I’m sure he can do his share, too.

  “I’ll have a word with him. I’m sure we can come up with some kind of workable schedule.”

  “Excellent. If you ever need to chat, the sister or her staff can page me. I’m always around—during the day, at least.”

  “Thank you. I’ll call Tom—her father—straight away.”

  Lorne had a brief chat with Charlie and Katy, then drew in a deep breath and wandered outside the unit to locate a public telephone.

  When Tom answered, thankfully, she informed him of their daughter’s prognosis without the usual interruptions; in fact, he was at a loss for words once she had finished running through everything the doctor had told her.

  “Tom, are you still there?” she asked quietly.

  He snuffled and then replied, “I’m here. Shit, Lorne, what are we going to do?”

  “Be there for her. I won’t be able to do this alone, Tom.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to. What kind of person do you take me for?” he snapped.

  “I’m sorry. I know you’re very busy; I am too, do you think we can work something out for Charlie’s sake?”

  “Of course. I can come down and spend the day with her today, if it’ll help.”

  Relief filled her. “That’d be great, Tom. How long will you be?”

  “I’ll be there in an hour. We’ll have a chat then.”

  For the next hour, Lorne and Katy did an excellent job of keeping Charlie’s mind off her injuries. Charlie insisted they tell her about some of the cases they had worked on in the past. Lorne was careful not to divulge too much about the more gruesome cases she’d worked on, and Katy took her lead to do the same. Approximately an hour later, Tom walked through the doors to the ICU. He looked as if he hadn’t slept or shaved for weeks. Lorne felt guilty for calling him, but then he had a right to know what was going on with Charlie, and it had been his decision to come to the hospital to be with his daughter, not hers.

  Lorne and Katy left approximately thirty minutes later. Charlie seemed happy to be left alone with her dad. “I’ll call you this afternoon,” Lorne told her daughter before leaving.

  Once they were settled in the car and on the way home, Katy said, “You haven’t asked how things went with Croft.”

  Lorne glanced sideways as she navigated the bollards at road works in the road. “Umm…I’ve been a little preoccupied, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I’ve been dying to tell you. He’s had contact with his informant.”

  “What? In the hospital?”

  Katy shrugged. “Maybe they rang up pretending to be a family member.”

  “Perhaps. Go on.”

  “There’s another delivery due tonight.”

  “Shit! Where?”

  “Apparently the same place as before, around nine o’clock, give or take,” Katy told her.

  Lorne was quiet for a few seconds as things slotted into place in her mind. “If I get Tom to stay with Charlie for the rest of the day, we could go down there this evening.”

  “We? Meaning who?”

  “You, me, and Tony. I don’t think it would be wise for us two going down there alone, do you?”

  Katy shook her head vigorously. “Not after what happened to Croft, no. Will Tony be up for it?”

  “You bet. He wants this stopped as much as we do, even more so since that four-by-four drove us off the road. That reminds me, I must sort dad’s car out—I’m not sure I can drive around in the van much longer.” She tapped the steering wheel with her fist. “I should’ve asked Tom if he would repair it.”

  “I wouldn’t, if I were in your shoes.”

  Puzzled, Lorne asked, “Why?”

  “It might highlight how dangerous the P.I. business can be, and he might think twice about letting Charlie stay with you at the weekends.”

  “Good point. It’s not been much of a birthday for you so far, has it?”

  “Will you stop it! I’m having the time of my life.”

  Lorne laughed and shook her head. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

  “Nonsense. Really, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  *

  Tension hung heavy in the air as darkness fell around them like an ominous warning.

  Between them, they had agreed that Tony should take charge of the covert operation—he was the expert, after all. At the scene, he coordinated their positions with few words and plenty of pointing. Once or twice, Lorne and Katy glanced at each other with a look that said ‘he’s in his element, we better do as we’re told or else.’

  By the time the lorry pulled up at the yard, they had been in position for a full fifteen minutes. Two men opened the large gates while the driver steered the vehicle through the opening. The gates shut behind the lorry and then Lorne, Katy, and Tony moved into their second allocated positions. Tony had sourced good viewing spots for them all. Once the gates were opened again, they would have to sprint back to their original positions before the gang spotted them. From this angle, they could observe what was happening and would be able to decide when to make the appropriate move back to safety.

  Lorne crouched down by a spy hole in the tin fence. She saw the three men move to the rear of the lorry, laughing and sharing dirty jokes as they unlatched the back of the truck. Her heart rate escalated when she heard the frightened squeals of several young women. Straining, she could faintly hear what sounded like frightened jabbering in a language that sounded Asian. She heard some form of scraping on the floor of the lorry, as if containers or boxes were being moved, then one of the men shouted at whoever was inside to “get a move on.”

  Katy waved to get Lorne’s attention. “Can you see anything?” Katy mouthed.

  “Not a lot. You?” Lorne mouthed back.

  Katy shook her head in frustration. Lorne held a finger up, telling Katy to wait a moment as she watched a line of girls leave the lorry and walk towards the huge warehouse. She counted until the last person was shoved through the door and it slammed shut behind them. Twenty-five scared, frantic young girls, clinging to each other as if their lives depended on it, disappeared into the warehouse and out of sight. Lorne looked over at Tony, his face set like stone. He held a hand up, ordering her to remain in place. She wanted to dive in and rescue the girls when the men punched each other in the arm before they entered the warehouse. The gesture sickened her; it wasn’t difficult to understand what their deviant intentions were.

  The second the warehouse door shut, Tony made his move. He did his best; however, his prosthetic leg hampered his ability to run in a crouched position. There was a window to the right of the door just in front of where Lorne and Katy were positioned. With his back pressed against the wall, Tony slowly craned his neck to look inside the warehouse.

  Lorne was on tenterhooks. What if the men changed their minds and came barging out of there and caught him? What then? Without realising she had done it, she crossed her fingers on both hands.

  “Hey! Don’t worry—he’ll be fine,” Katy called over in a hushed voice.

  “It’s natural, I’m a born worrier,” she replied, not taking her eyes off her husband.

  Tony ducked under the window and positioned himself on the other side. Lorne suspected it was to gain a better view. She saw him wince on more than one occasion, and looked down at his hands, his fists were continually clenching open and shut.

  She saw Tony wave a hand, motioning Katy and her to duck just before one of the overweight men threw open the warehouse door. The man zipped up the fly on his jeans and took a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. Lighting one up, he leaned back against the door and blew out a satisfied smoke ring.

  You sick bastard! If that is the only way you can get your fucking kicks. Lorne shook her head in disgust before the seriousness of the situation hit home. Tony w
as about five feet from the guy; one tiny movement could alert him, and that would be game over. Another couple of puffs, and fatman disappeared inside again. Lorne frantically urged Tony to get out of there before another of the criminals came outside for a fag.

  Tony rejoined them. “We’d better move back before they shift the truck out.”

  “What’s going on?” Katy naïvely asked.

  Neither of them filled her in until they were safely back in the van. “Katy, I can’t believe you’d ask such a thing. What do you think those guys were doing in there?” Even in the dim interior light, Lorne could see a tinge of colour seeping into Katy’s embarrassed face.

  “Sorry, I didn’t make myself very clear. It doesn’t take much imagination to know what was going on in there. What I should have said was, ‘could you make out anything else?’ The layout of the warehouse, for instance. Whether the girls were kept there for long, or shipped out immediately,” Katy said, giving Lorne the evil eye.

  Tony let out an exasperated breath. “At the back of the warehouse, I could just make out some form of…cage, I suppose, for want of a better word. It looked like there were some very thin mattresses in the cage, but I couldn’t be certain.”

  “How could they keep the girls here, even for a day or two? Maybe we should make a call to the council, see what they have to say about this, I’m sure they aren’t aware of what’s going on here.” Lorne said, although she had a feeling that getting in touch with the authorities would alter nothing. She sensed that a few backhanders were possibly flying around, it wouldn’t be the first time, as Lorne was all too aware.

  Tony shrugged. “It’s worth a try, but I sense it will be a pointless exercise. You wouldn’t treat animals like that.” Tony thumbed behind him. “All right, I didn’t expect these girls to be treated like princesses; still, at the moment, after travelling for probably two to three weeks, they’re lined up, and those three guys are screwing them every which way.”

  “Please stop! Tony, I don’t want to know,” Lorne said, pushing down the bile burning her throat.

  The van remained silent all the way back to the house, each of them lost in their own individual thoughts.