Chapter 5

We had been on the A3 for a while and then turned off just before Guildford. He must have been reading my mind.

“It’s no good seeing where we go, Maxine. We have been using tonight’s venue for a few months and will find somewhere else for when we next meet. We don’t stay anywhere for more than six months.”

“Obviously nowhere that’s cheap, though.”

“You’re right there. There is a lot of money involved, much of what we do is on the public purse. You have no idea what you can hide inside military and security spending. It helps that we try to have the Home Secretary, the Minister of Defence, and the Chancellor from both parties in the group.”

“Wasn’t your friend James the Shadow Home Secretary? Surely, he wasn’t in the group?”

“Silly beggar could have had it all. We deal in the long term, it will be a couple of elections before he was likely to be the Home Secretary, plenty of time to feather his nest and be an integral part of our little band. We have time to groom a new replacement. There are a couple in the House who might fit. He would have been perfect, though, brilliant mind but stubborn.”

We slowed down and turned into a driveway leading to an imposing manor. He smiled.

“Welcome to the venue, Maxine. Now you’ll see who are in charge.”

At the door, the driver pressed a button on the consol, and I felt the seat belt loosen. Algernon had got out and came around to my side to open the door. I grabbed my clutch and slid out, with him holding out his hand to help me stand. The front door was open, and I saw the car disappearing back towards the gates as we went up the steps. He closed the door and took my coat to hung it on a hall stand. I put my clutch on a side table, and he put his hand on my spine as he escorted me into the dining room.

Inside, there was a long table, set for dinner. Sitting at the table was the Home Secretary, the Chancellor, the Minister of Defence, and the other minister that I had seen in the pictures, humping the HS. As I looked, I saw the Chief Super, Georges’ boss, sitting with George beside him, looking distinctly uncomfortable. There was a couple of other high-ranking police, and a couple of military looking types.

Some of Algernon’s colleagues were there, the Shadow Minister of Defence and a couple of other Shadow Cabinet members. One that surprised me was a High Court judge. I gave them all a big smile and said hello. One by one they said hello to me, with their ranking in the group obvious and they took it in turn, with the Home Secretary leading off. When they had gone around the table, he clapped his hands and Algernon pulled out a seat for me, before sitting at the last place.

The pretty boys who came out of the kitchen must be the ‘wives’ that had been alluded to, as one was the front boy in the photos. They were not invited to the meal, and some of the diners had a feel of their butts as they served the soup, wearing frilly maids costumes.

It was strange, knowing what I was here for, with these powerful men discussing world affairs in front of me. George kept glancing my way, with a pained expression on his face. When the meal was over, some of them left the room to have a cigar, while the rest of us sat at the table with some brandy.

Finally, the one thing I was waiting for happened. The two military types stood behind me, one pulling out my chair while the other gripped my arm.

“Now, young lady, we come to the ceremonial part of the night.”

They marched me out of the room to what looked like a scullery, where one produced handcuffs and cuffed one wrist to an exposed pipe. The judge came in as they left.

“Something you expected, Maxine, from the lack of screaming?”

“When I saw the men, I realised that my silence had to mean my death, Judge. What happens now?”

“Now, I have the pleasure in getting you naked, and then I retire to the lounge room to get naked myself, along with all the others. There, we will draw straws for who gets to rape you first. There are a few who might just play with their wives, but I expect that the lure of your pretty arse may get them to play with you.”

“That won’t be happening here, would it? It seems to be very low class for masters of the universe?”

“Oh, no. When we have sorted it out, you will be taken to the ceremonial bedroom to be fastened in place. My friends don’t like surprises. At that time, we will all be naked. After we have all had our fun, your old friend Hounslowe will be the last man standing and then he will fulfil his initiation task by taking you out of this world. By that time, I expect that we would have all heard your screams. I find that part of it so invigorating. Now, please pop those dainty shoes off and kick them to me.”

I did as he asked, and then, with my free hand, undid the two buttons when he told me to, kicking the dress away from me. He then had me remove the G-string. In the end, I was standing there, naked, without him needing to come close. He gathered up my clothes and went to leave the room.

“It’s no use screaming for help. We choose our venues with care. There are no houses within a close enough distance. I’ll see you when we come to take you on your last walk.”

When he closed the door, I didn’t hear any key turning. I put my free hand up to my hair and retrieved the clip. It was a bit of a moment as I had to do this without losing my grip on the disguised key. I managed to release my wrist from the handcuff and then thought about my next move. I went to the door and gently opened it, seeing nobody on the other side.

If I was in a scullery, there must be a door to the outside somewhere close. It was cold outside, and I was naked, but being cold was better than being stone cold in the ground. I padded along the corridor until I found the back door. It was locked, but the key was in place. I unlocked it and opened the door. Luckily, it wasn’t alarmed. I relocked it, once I was outside, and threw the key into the shrubbery.

When I looked around, I could see some outhouses. One looked like a barn. If I could get into that, I could hide in the dark and hope that the cavalry was going to turn up. I crept, gingerly on bare feet, to the building and found an unlocked door. Slipping inside, I pulled the door closed behind me.

The place was a wreck, with gaps in the roof that allowed enough moonlight in for me to see where I was. There was a ladder to a loft, and I hoped that there was some straw that I could cover my cooling body with. The ladder was ancient and rickety, but I made it to the upper level. There was some old straw there and I laid down and covered myself with some.

It was quite a while before I heard a roar of rage from the house, followed by shouting. About the same time that I heard that I realised that I wasn’t alone in the straw. I had some ratty companions.

They would have been looking for me in the house first. They wouldn’t come outside while they were naked. Before long I heard the three staffers calling to each other as they looked in the shrubbery with flashlights. I was quietly laying in my straw as a very large rat came into view. I slowly reached to my hair and extracted one of my hair pins. The rat was getting closer as the voices and lights got close to the barn.

When the rat was close enough, I stabbed it in the eye with the pin and it dropped dead. I reached out and picked it up by the tail, then tossed it down to the floor. It didn’t take long for other rats to find it and a fight broke out for which one was going to eat it.

The door to the barn was pushed open and one of the staffer maids shone the light in and screamed. He pulled the door shut quickly and they moved away from the barn. I could hear shouting and swearing from the house. Five minutes later the outside of the barn lit up as if the sun had risen and I heard more shouting. This time the loud voices were saying, “Police, armed police, down on the ground!” The cavalry had arrived.

I stayed in place while they secured the house and then I heard Allan calling out.

“Maxie, are you out here? Call out if you can hear me. The tracker says you’re close but can’t pinpoint you.”

I called out that I was in the barn and the door was pulled open. The bright lights caused the rats to dive for cover.

“Maxie, it’s Allan and we’ve got them all in cuffs in the house.”

“I’m up the stairs in the hay, Allan. I’m naked but I don’t think that a roll in the hay is right for the moment. Can you send someone for my coat, it’s on the hallstand. I don’t know where my dress is. It’s the one I wore last Saturday.”

Five minutes later the coat had arrived, and Allan brought it up the ladder for me. I was almost too cold to stand so he told the officers to lower their lights while he helped me stand and put the coat on. That done, he held me close and told me that it was all over.

“Not yet, Allan. There’s one man down there who is totally innocent. He was supposed to kill me tonight, as his initiation. If he had refused, he would have been killed. He’s the one in charge of the murder case. I’ll identify him, and we can let him get dressed and arrest Algernon for the murder. It will be fitting that he makes the arrest.”

He helped me to go down to ground level and one of the police produced my shoes, dress, and G-string. They let me find a corner of the barn to get dressed, which didn’t take long. Allan led me around the house to the front door and introduced me to the officer in charge of the raid. I picked up my clutch and took my phone out.

“Firstly, the phone has been on record from the time Algernon got into the car. The car had a seat belt in the back that you couldn’t take off unless the driver pressed a button. I think that you might find DNA traces of some of the missing girls. Now, I need to identify George Hounslowe for you, so he can arrest the murderer of James Harding.”

He took me to the dining room where they were all sitting there, naked, and handcuffed. I pointed to George, and he was taken out of the room before his cuffs were removed and one of the officers went with him when he went to get dressed. I stood in the lounge next to a fire, warming up, and the guy who I had jogged with came in. He had a police windcheater on but was otherwise in plain clothes.

“You’ve done well, Maxie. When I had a look at that information you gave us, I was staggered. They already had a team at one of those other houses and found a body buried in the garden. The pictures could have been photoshopped, but I saw the front man as a maid, tonight, so it becomes totally believable. All those on Allans’ list that were ticked are here. I don’t know how James discovered which ones were Sect members, but he didn’t pick Algernon.”

“That’s what got him killed. He was supposed to join the group but refused. George will arrest his murderer tonight.”

While I warmed up, the officer in charge was listening to the recording on my phone. He was easily able to read the double meanings, and when he got to the place where we entered the house, he fast forwarded until there were more voices. The Sect had stood in the hallway while they discussed what they were going to do with me. The Home Secretary had decided that I would be buried under the roses ‘with the other one.’

“Miss Fawcett, you won’t mind if we keep your phone for a couple of days. That admission, alone, is enough to arrest the Home Secretary for one murder and link him to others. We’ve already found one body at another of the houses, and it will take some weeks to work through them all. It’s going to be a long night, but we’ll do everything by the book. Did anyone tell you what was going to happen?”

“The judge told me that they all got naked and drew straws for who would rape me first. He said that there was a ceremonial bed, somewhere. George Hounslowe was supposed to kill me as his initiation. I expect that every one of them has killed, as a way to bind them to the Sect.”

“Exactly my thought, Miss Fawcett. I’ve called for a couple of prisoner transport vehicles to take this lot away. I would like you to stay out of sight when the inevitable reporters arrive. Allan can take you home when it’s clear.”

I turned to my spook friend.

“What took you so long?”

“It was a big operation to set up. It took me and my boss a few hours to convince the PM to allow us to arrest his colleagues, but when he realised that he had no choice, it all moved pretty quickly. There was surveillance on all of the Sect when they made their way here, as well as the tracker that proved that you were on your way. It took a while to amass the raiding party and surround the house, then it all happened at the same time. It was funny that all these naked men were yelling that they’d have our jobs and that they were our masters. The raiding party had been warned who they would come up against and to make sure they carried out the task given them.”

George came into the room, now dressed and with a look of anguish on his face.

“Maxie, I thought that they were going to make me kill you. If I had refused, we would have both been dead. Did you have other evidence that it was Algernon that killed James?”

“Only the fact that he employed me to look into the case to test your discretion. That was why you got the invitation for the party. On the way here, he told me that once you were in the Sect, you’ll be promoted and would end up as Assistant Commissioner, no doubt with your boss in charge.”

“Thank you. Now, I’m going to do my job.”

He walked firmly to the dining room. We followed him as he stood in front of Algernon and formally arrested him for the murder of James Harding. When Algy started to protest, an officer, standing behind him pressed the barbs of a taser to his shoulder.

“I’d be quiet, scum! Unless you want to feel another charge, right here, right now!”

Algernon went quiet, and he was bundled out to a waiting prison van. The Chief Super then formally arrested the rest of the Sect on suspicion of murder, with them all taken out to the vans. I had to smile, as it would be cold in those vans when you’re naked. The three staffer maids were charged with accessory to murder and joined the others in the vans.

Allan stood with me, looking out of the lounge window, as the vans left the grounds in the glare of flashing camera and TV lights, his arm around my shoulder. I snuggled against him, just happy to be alive and warm again. The CS then walked to the gate to give a press conference to the waiting reporters.

He came back as they packed up and left, off to get their stories into the Sunday papers and the film on the early news. As he was walking back towards the house, a small convoy of forensic investigation vans came in and the police on the gates closed them.

I was given time to go to the toilet and check my make-up. After that, I was sitting in the lounge with a sergeant and his recorder, giving my statement from the time Algernon had walked into the office.

It was about three in the morning when the gates were opened to allow Allan to drive through, with me beside him. He took me to his place, where he brought me back to the real world with his care. We didn’t have any sex, but him cuddling me was enough to let me believe that I was now safe. We slept until midday, and then went down for lunch, with the staff pussyfooting around us.

The Sunday papers had pictures of the front of the country house, and some with the prisoner vans leaving. The CS had told them that the situation was that a group of murderers had been arrested, while in the process of another murder, and that there would be digging at these grounds, and others, for bodies. He had told them that any further announcements regarding names would be made by the PM in the fullness of time. That put the cat among the pigeons.

He did tell them, however, that Algernon Clifton-Crabbe had been arrested for the murder of James Harding, and that CI Hounslowe would give a press conference when he was able, but would be working through the night, as well as the next few days, to collect the evidence.

I asked Allan whether I would be needed to give evidence.

“I doubt it, Maxie. With one already charged with murder, and all of them under investigation for who knows how many others, the real evidence was collected by James, God rest his soul. In the eyes of the law, all you did was collect it together and present it to a contact. That contact is part of a special force outside the remit of the regular police, mostly working in counterterrorism. They will also remain out of the limelight. As far as you’re concerned, you can get on with your own business come Monday.”

“That’s a relief. It was frightening but it did prove to me something that Lena told me during the week. She told me that I was brave. I didn’t believe her until I stayed cool as Algernon was telling me that I wouldn’t live out the night, even if it was couched in friendly conversation.”

He put his hand on mine and then told me that I was one of the bravest and most wonderful women he had ever met. I know I blushed. After lunch, he took me home. He parked in Bateman Street, and I kissed him before getting out of the car. As I went to the front door, I could see the looks that a girl in an evening dress gets when she arrives home the next day. Today, though, it didn’t bother me. I was gorgeous, alluring, and alive. Very much alive!

In my flat, I took off the dress and put it in the bin. If I kept it, it would remind me of last night, and I didn’t need reminding. I realised that it had been just a few hours of what Lena must have experienced for weeks. I ran a bath with a bath bomb and laid in it for a long time, soaking and washing every orifice. Then I put on a nightie and got into my own bed for a rest.

I woke just before six that evening, so turned on the TV and put on a warm robe to sit and watch the news. It was full of the arrests, with the PM giving a statement from Number Ten. He named each and every member of the Sect, and described what they had been up to, including defrauding the country to feather their own nests, on top of the murders. The two military types were in charge of the two regiments that mattered.

One was in charge of the SAS, who would be able to quell any future revolt, while the other was in charge of the Guards, who could put the royals under house arrest should the Sect want to take over completely. As such, those two had a charge of treason added to their list, with the PM stating that all serving MPs in the group may find that added, as well.

He stated that there was enough evidence to convict Algernon for the murder of James, and he thanked all of the police and special forces personnel who put together the raid last night. He especially thanked ‘a member of the public’ who had brought all of this to the attention of the authorities and who had risked their life to do so.

I raised my cup of cocoa to the screen and thanked him. I went to bed early and slept well, only to wake, in the early hours, feeling cold and scared. I pulled a quilt out of the cupboard and warmed up well enough to go back to sleep.

I woke early, had a shower, and dressed in my black blouse, black leather jeans and black boots. I took care with my hair and make-up. After I had unlocked the main door, I opened the office and sat at my desk, wondering what to do now. I turned on the computer and was resting my brain with FreeCell when Lena came in and almost lifted me out of the chair to hug.

“Maxie, you almost gave me a heart attack. I saw the news on Sunday morning and a policeman answered your phone. I thought that you were dead, but he managed to tell me that they just had your mobile to transcribe the recording on it. He wouldn’t tell me anything else. Now, tell Lena everything!”

So, I did.

Over the next few weeks, we got some safe jobs to do. The police brought back my phone and continued building cases against all of the Sect. It took several weeks to search every house that had been rented. It turned out that the real estate agent was the brother of the Home Secretary, and that James had obtained the information by telling him that he was looking for a property and that his friend, the HS, had recommended the brother.

In the end, the timeline was established. The HS and Algy had got together around six years before and thought up the Sect. They had decided that it needed something to bind each new member tight enough to never leave or blab. They rented the first house, and each killed a hooker, the bodies of both being found. After that, each new member had to kill the girls they collected, after each one had raped her. Without James, there was a total of twelve bodies found, all linked by the rental agreements to either a Sect member or one of the staffers.

There were, of course, many articles and editorials that put the government in a bad light, with their support plummeting. In the end, the PM called an election. That gave me one of the best jobs I had worked on. Helen engaged me and Lena to be her personal assistants after she announced that she would stand as an independent in the electorate that her husband had won as a conservative. She paid us the going rate for the six weeks of campaigning, with a nice bonus when she won with a good margin. She did give us the odd job afterwards, looking into problems that her constituents were having.

The government was returned, but on a knife edge majority, so needing the independents as allies, something she used to her advantage to add services to her electorate. After that, our high profile did wonders for Max Force, and customers were able to find the office much easier. Lena found that acceptance of her persona was able to let her start to forget her time in the field of battle. I found that the constant work helped me to forget my own fears. I just made sure I stayed warm.

Marianne Gregory © 2024