Chapter 1
I’m a Private Investigator. My card reads ‘Max Force – whatever it is, we can move it for you. You have a problem; I make it go away. You need help, I can get it for you. You need protection, I can keep you safe.’ All you need is money to pay me for my services.
My name is Maxine Fawcett, and I was in the police for some years before retiring. Actually, I didn’t retire but was drummed out for inappropriate behaviour with a sergeant while on a stake-out. Well, the back seat was comfy and nothing else was happening until we were both about to climax. That was when the bandits ran past us with two uniformed in chase. It shows just how misogynous the force is as he just got a wrap over the knuckles and a few pats on the back for scoring.
I took the exams and got my PI license a year later. After a couple of years, I got an office where I’m now sitting at my desk, wondering what I was going to do. As far as offices go, this one was a good find. I had been able to afford it by having a rather lucrative job, not long ago. The only problem is that some clients don’t seem to be able to find it.
The address on the card is 13 Bateman Street, Soho. The door to the stairs is between the Crown and Two Chairmen on one side, and Regulation on the other. I’m up above Regulation, but clients don’t have to walk past the kinky stuff to see me.
Although they do have to negotiate my own bit of kinky, my receptionist and business partner, Lena Tsarina. Lena was once Sergeant Leonard Sergeant, late of the SAS and recipient of several medals during a Syrian offensive, a place where he was never officially sent. Lena is a cross-dresser, a side-effect of her PTSD. She is always impeccably outrageous, tall for a woman, but slim enough. Her voice is what you would expect from a heavyweight boxer from the East End, but she is my right arm, and my self-defence instructor. She taught me to fight as if my life depended on it, getting dirty if I had to.
The office is in a very handy place, with enough different eating places within five minutes’ walk. There were a couple of pubs within a couple of minutes, the adult shop downstairs, a post-production video place across the road and an audio studio across Dean Street. If people ask me how to find me, I just tell them to find Royalty House, then turn around and my street is across the road.
I had been busy, but this game was up and down like a yo-yo. I could probably slip around the corner and dance in Sunset Strip, but I couldn’t handle all the boozy punters, preferring more genteel boys. And it was certainly one that Lena opened the door for that morning.
“Toff to see you, Maxie.”
The man tried to avoid Lena as he passed by, but with her taking up most of the doorway it was almost impossible not to make contact. I pointed him to a comfortable chair which didn’t have a view of my legs and asked him what we could do for him.
“You may, or may not, recognise me. I’m Algernon Clifton-Crabbe, the Shadow Chancellor. I’m here because the Shadow Home Secretary died a few weeks ago, and I don’t think it was from natural causes. I believe that the government has put pressure on the police to just close the file.”
“Why would they do that?”
“It wasn’t until I saw the records of the speeches in the House. James was trying to lay some heavy stuff on the Home Secretary. He was insinuating that the supposedly perfect family man had skeletons in his cupboard. A week later, he was found in his pool, drowned, with a high level of alcohol in his system. James Harding was not a heavy drinker, not like others in the House.”
“So, what do you want me to do about it? If I step on toes at the Yard, they’ll pull my licence in seconds. I might have a couple of friends who can let me know if there was pressure, but the question is obvious. Do you want me to clear your friends’ name, so making it obvious that the police are dragging their feet; or do you want me to find the dirt on the Home Secretary. If he can get someone killed and get away with it, I’ll need to be paid danger money.”
“How much?”
“Five hundred a day, minimum of ten days, in advance. No refunds and no guarantee. Oh! those are working days; I cherish my weekends. I’ll supply my report then. Do I have permission to see the scene of the crime and talk to the next-of-kin?”
I sat and watched as he wrote out a cheque for five thousand as if he was buying a pack of cigarettes. He handed it to me, along with an envelope. I opened the letter which gave me the address of the crime scene, the name of the wife and a note of introduction. I could see that he may have paid even more to have me working on the case. I wondered why.
I thanked him for his business and walked him to the door. When he had left, Lena came into the office.
“Geezer’s right up himself, Maxie, luv. Something’s off about him, though. What have you dropped us into this time?”
“He wants me to prove that the Home Secretary had the Shadow one murdered, because the Home Secretary has things in his cupboard that he doesn’t want aired.”
“Wouldn’t be difficult for the Home Secretary to arrange that. He is the oversight of the police force and the security services. He’s also in charge of immigration, lots of opportunity to bring in an assassin there.”
“Thanks, Lena. You’ve made me feel so much better about taking the case on. He paid five grand to take the case. You’d better pay the outstanding accounts before I end up like the victim, only in somebody else’s pool. Now, I have to ring the grieving widow and start to earn the cash.”
Lena took the cheque, and I heard her heels on the landing as she went off to the bank, the only place not within a five-minute walk. I rang the number on the letter. When it was answered, I asked to speak to the widow, telling the maid that I was ringing because I had just spoken to the Shadow Chancellor.
The woman who then talked to me was one I had seen in fashion magazines. She had been a model before she had married into politics and a titled family. I asked if I could see her this afternoon and talk to her about her husbands’ death. She agreed and gave me the address, their London town house. I asked her if it was possible to see the scene of the crime and she said that she would give me the keys to the country manor when she saw me, as she was finding it hard to go back there.
I rang Hassam, my usual Uber driver, booking him for the afternoon and telling him where to find me. Then I locked the office and put a sign on the door that I was out. Down on the pavement, I walked around the corner to Dean Street and the nice pizza place a little way along. Hassam joined me there, as some of his payment was a meal. We spoke about the state of the world as we ate, and then he drove me to the address I gave him, just off of Grosvenor Square.
“Going up in the world, Maxie. This area is Toff Central. I expect that the plod will be moving me on if I wait for you. How long do you think you’ll be?”
“Possibly an hour or so. You shoot off and earn some real money and I’ll wait outside for you to come back. If I’m not there, you can tell any inquisitive plod that you’re waiting for a visitor to Helen Harding, her of the boobs and blonde loveliness.”
“Her! I have pictures of her from that Vogue shoot, years ago, where they didn’t give her a lot to wear. She’s a cracker!”
I went up the steps and rang the bell. A little while passed before the woman herself answered the door. She invited me in and led me towards the back of the place. As we walked, I saw us reflected in a huge mirror. It looked like a black and white negative.
She was a stunning blonde who wore white as if it was made for her. I matched her in height and my usual colour was black, to match my raven hair. I thought that my legs were better, but then realised that she had two children since her modelling career.
At the back of the house we walked into a sunny entertaining area, with a bar, small kitchen, and plenty of easy chairs. She pointed to one while she took one opposite, a low table between us with a bunch of keys on it.
Before we got serious, she wanted to know about me and my work as a PI. She was genuinely interested as we sipped at the drinks that the maid had brought us. When we got around to her husband, she had tears in her eyes as she spoke about his last few weeks of life. She told me that he had been withdrawn and curt with her but had confided that he was looking at something serious.
“Where did he do that.”
“Here. He was frightened, I think. He kept muttering about the ‘Sect’ and would tell me that the country was being run by perverts. Although he had said that before he was withdrawn as well.”
“Is there an office here where he may have kept things?”
“It’s up on the second floor. You can look there if you want. It still makes me mad if I go in there, thinking of the people who took my husband from me and their father from our children.”
“You’re sure that he was murdered then?”
“Yes, I’m certain of it. There was no need for him to go near the pool without the kids, and he would never have got himself drunk. He was too upper crust for that. He would often complain about the drinkers in Parliament, that it was impossible to govern while sozzled.”
The maid led me to the office, and I unlocked it with one of the keys on the bunch. Inside, I stood and took it in for a few minutes. It was typical for a rich politician. The desk was antique but the computer beside it wasn’t. The screen on the top of the desk was big, and the mouse and keyboard were wi-fi. The two filing cabinets were made of mahogany to match the desk, but the chair was a very comfortable gaming chair.
I walked past two comfortable armchairs and sat at his desk. Either he was a clean freak, or the maid had been in. Then I went and looked in the filing cabinets. They were locked, but I had the keys on the ring. When I pulled the first drawer out, I just stood and wondered what was wrong. Then it struck me. All the hanging files were pulled to the front, several with corners of papers poking up. That is how they would be if you were looking for anything hidden behind them. I looked at all the drawers and they were similar. Someone had gone through them and had just closed them up when the search was unsuccessful.
I checked the desk drawers. The pens, pencils, and other stuff in one was as if someone had pulled them all out and just thrown them back. Nowhere had anything that a Shadow Home Secretary wouldn’t have kept. There was copies of his speeches, paperwork that I wasn’t allowed to see but read through quickly. No secret bottles of booze but a bottle of sherry and glasses on a side table.
I looked behind his pictures and certificates for a safe, then sat in the chair and looked for any signs that one may be under the carpet. Near the filing cabinets, I saw that the corner of the carpet was slightly raised, so went and pulled it back to see scuff marks in a circular pattern. They matched one of the corners of the filing cabinet. That made me look more closely at the two cabinets. Both looked as if they were fitted and screwed to the wall.
I opened the top drawer of the one with the scuff marks and put my hand in, right to the back. I felt a small lever, which I pulled, hearing a distinct click. The whole filing cabinet was able to be swung out on hidden hinges. It was ingenious. When I pulled it away from the wall, I saw the safe that I had expected. It was an old one, with a tumbler for the code and a rather large keyhole. I hadn’t found the key anywhere.
Taking one last look, I returned the cabinet to its normal position, smoothed the carpet down and locked the office before going back to the wife.
“Tell me, did anyone come and look in his office after his murder?”
“The police just looked in when they were pretending to make enquiries. Then someone from the House came by to pick up his old Cabinet papers. Funny chap, that one. He looked like someone from one of those old fifties movies, a proper gentleman. He had a bushy moustache and an accent that was hard to understand. Somewhere from the rural north, I think. Terribly cold and bleak places. Never been there and never want to.”
We had a little small talk, and I was shown to the front door by the maid. I took that opportunity to ask her if she had cleaned the masters’ office and she told me that was only done under his supervision, and she hadn’t been inside since his death. Outside, I saw Hassam waiting for me, a parking inspector watching suspiciously from along the street.
I smiled at the parking inspector as I walked to the car, getting in, and giving Hassam the address of the manor house. We went north, into Buckinghamshire, and I was deep in thought most of the way. At the manor house, I had to speak into a grill by the gates before they opened to allow us in. At the front door, a butler was waiting for me.
“Good afternoon, Miss Fawcett. I’m Jackson. Madam said that you have the run of the house should you need it. Your driver can wait here, I’ll get a maid to bring him a drink. Now, where do you want to start.”
“Thank you, Jackson. I would like to look at where the master was found, and then I would like to look at his study. Was there anywhere else he would sit to do his work?”
“He would sit in the conservatory and read, but he mainly kept to the study.”
“Did he keep it locked?”
“Not normally but did start to lock it some weeks before his death.”
“Has anyone been in there since then?”
“Only a man from the House, to check if he had Top Secret papers. Funny chap, very upper crust with a moustache like an old cavalry officer. Can’t say I liked him, nor could I understand much of what he said.”
He showed me the pool and I took a good look around it. There were no obvious signs of a struggle, so I wondered if he had been force fed the alcohol and then just carried out of the house. That meant either a strong man or two moderately strong men.
The office was locked, so I opened it with the keys. Jackson left me to work my powers of observation, saying that he would come when I pressed the buzzer on the desk. Now knowing that the office had already been searched, I didn’t bother with any of the desk drawers or filing cabinets. I was looking for just one thing, somewhere hiding a large key.
There was a safe, which one of the keys on the ring opened. If I could do that, so could the other guy. There was a few bundles of money and jewellery boxes in it which the other guy had left behind. That made me sure that he had been an agent from one of the security services or ordered not to take anything for himself.
I turned my attention to the desk. It was another antique, in oak, this time. The filing cabinets were metal and sitting proud of the wall, so not the same as the other office. I took a flashlight from my bag and examined the desk, front, sides, and in the knee well. I had to pull the chair further back to look in there. Something about the chair bothered me. It was a heavy oak one, on four legs with small casters. It was nicely padded but a long way from the gaming chair in the town house.
Curious, I laid the chair on its side and looked at the underneath. It had a wood cover to the base, with a keyhole on one side. One of the keys on the ring opened it to reveal a hiding place. Inside was the large key I was looking for, as well as some other papers. I took the lot, putting them into my bag along with the light. Closing and locking the door, I righted the chair and pushed it back into place. Then I pressed the buzzer and went into the corridor, locking the study door.
Jackson came to guide me out, asking me if I had found anything, to which I answered in the negative. I told him that I would drop the keys off with the mistress of the house and then Hassam drove us back to London. I got him to stop near the office and bought us dinner at Gopal’s Indian Restaurant. I waited until he had left before walking across the road to the office door. I went up to the landing but didn’t stop to go into the office. I carried on up the stairs to my own living quarters on the upper floor.
Opening the door to my flat, I shucked the heels and padded into the lounge area, which overlooked Bateman Street below. I stood a bit back from the window and examined the crowds below. Soho is a very busy place in the evenings and someone just standing still stood out from the rushing punters looking to tittivate their jollies. The man who was standing at the corner of Dean Street stood out. He was trying to look as if he was waiting for somebody, but it was the chunky stature and the cavalry moustache that gave him away.
I got my phone and took a picture of him as he looked at the door to the office stairs for the tenth time. Then I rang one of the friends that I had made while still in the police. He was now working as a desk sergeant at the Soho nick.
“Joe, sweetie. It’s Maxie. There’s a guy standing on the corner of Dean and Bateman who looks like he’s casing a joint. Chunky bloke with a big mo. The boys can’t miss him.”
“Right, I think he’s following me. He could be five or six. Might be good to give one of them a fright. Thanks.”
A few minutes later, a Panda Car pulled up in Dean Street and a couple of uniformed got out and spoke to Mo Man. He showed them an ID and they obviously told him to move on, with him walking down Bateman Street and into the Canwood Coffee House on the corner of Frith Street. The boys in blue got back into the Panda and drove away. Ten minutes later, a car pulled up and Mo Man got in.
It wasn’t long before he got out and walked back to the corner with Dean and his original vantage point. Ten minutes after that, my phone cheeped, and I answered.
“Maxie, the boys said that he showed them a Vice Squad ID in the name of Inspector Clifton Waters. I’ve checked with Head Office and there isn’t anyone of that name in the force. Then, just a few minutes ago, I got a call from someone saying that they’re from the Yard, telling me that they have an operation going down in Soho. I’ve been told to lay off.”
“He went to the corner of Frith and waited for a car to arrive. He spent a couple of minutes talking to someone in the back and he’s back where your boys spoke to him. Thanks for your help, Joe.”
I went to my bedside table and pulled a burner phone from the drawer. Turning it on, I waited until I had a signal and called Hassam.
“Hassam, it’s Maxie. While you were waiting for me that that town house, did anything happen that was odd?”
“Only some geezer who looked like he was a Guards officer dropped his wallet. He couldn’t be in the Guards, though. Too short.”
“Hassam, luv. Take your car in for a service tomorrow and let them find the tracker he put under the wheelarch. Don’t call me on your normal phone unless it’s just normal chat. Someone followed us today, and I only took a job this morning.”
I went back down to the office level and set the special alarms that buzzed me upstairs. Then went down to the street door to set the big bar across it. I would have to open it in the morning to let Lena in. Then, back upstairs, I double locked my flat door and closed the curtails, seeing Mo Man still waiting for something to happen.
I undressed and had a shower, cleansed, and prepared for bed. I had a cosh under the pillow and an extendable baton just under the mattress. I tried to relax but could help thinking that by taking on this job, I had kicked over an ants nest. They were probably watching the widow and picked me up then. The only thing that was odd was that I had been given two descriptions of the man outside who had searched the two offices.
I thought about what I knew about the secret services. If they were watching me, I would never know it. They used a lot of technology and usually remained invisible. Mo Man was working for someone who was either very stupid, or else they wanted me to know that I was on their radar. If the intention was to frighten me, it was working.
Marianne Gregory © 2024
Chapter 2
I woke early from an uneventful night. I peeked out of the window and Mo Man had gone. I expect that when I went back out, there would be someone else waiting to follow me. If that was the case, they could follow me back to the town house.
While I ate a healthy breakfast, I looked closely at the papers I had brought back with me. It was a roll of newspaper cuttings, all about different disappearances of teenage girls, a few from normal homes, but several were on the game, going off with men in a car and never being seen again. The papers went into the safe in the office and the key, with a number on a tag, went into my bag.
I unlocked the street door and was sitting at my desk when Lena came in with a coffee and cake from Canwood. She only did that if we were in the money. We sat and talked while we drank. I told her everything that had happened yesterday.
“What are you going to do, today, Maxie?”
“I’m going give the widow her keys back and then I’m going to look in the safe. What happens after that is dependent on what I find. The papers that he kept under his chair are all reports of missing girls. He was talking about perverts running the country. If they’re running a murder club, it would be enough reason to kill to keep it quiet. I’m going to call Hassam to take me to see the widow. Keep an eye out as I go and photograph anyone that you see who looks like they’re following me.”
I showed her the picture I’d taken yesterday.
“This is the guy who followed me yesterday, I think he’s five or a private operator. If he’s five, he’s being deliberately overt to put the frighteners on me. He’s yet to make contact to ensure that I’m warned off. He must have known about our visitor before he came to us. Or, they may have been watching the widow to see who turned up, seeing he was there with a tracker when Hassam was parked.”
I called Hassam to pick me up at the pizza bar for lunch again after his car had been serviced. I then called the widow to ask if I could return her keys this afternoon. If the followers were any good, they would have already bugged the phones at the exchange. I rang my salon and asked to speak to Janine. When she answered I asked if she could fit me in for a massage this morning. She made production out of checking her book and told me that I could get in if I was there before ten. That was the code that she understood.
I left the office as if I had no cares in the world, just another beautiful woman going to be pampered. I walked along Frith Street to the Groovy Salon and went in. I hung my coat on the stand near the door, where it was on view. I went to the back of the salon. Not many knew just how big this place was, as it was linked to another unmarked shop front on Romily Street. I had a small locker in a back room where I changed out of my short skirt and heels into a pair of blue jeans and sneakers. A polka dot sweater went over my blouse and I had a West Indian rasta beanie with my hair bundled in it. My bag went into a backpack, and I let myself out into Romily Street.
I had helped Janine with an early case of mine, which had allowed her to keep the shop, the side entrance, and the flats above each one. She knew that I would only ask for a favour when it was really needed. On top of that, her beauticians and stylists were the best around.
I walked to Piccadilly Circus Station and went down to the underground. There was one key on the ring that I hadn’t used. The numbers on it were for a luggage locker in Westminster Station. I got onto the train at Piccadilly, going via different trains until I reached Westminster, making sure I wasn’t followed.
I found the locker with the right number and the key fitted. Inside was brown paper bag, which I pushed into my backpack, firstly taking out another key that I had felt. The code on it was for another luggage locker, this time at Marble Arch, close to his London home. His problem wasn’t that he failed to think securely, it was that all his attempts to hide things were in a linear fashion. If I had been in his shoes, I’d have put things at random, as far away from my route home as possible.
I left the original key in the lock and walked away. Back on the underground, I went to Marble Arch and found the next locker. Inside was another paper bag with photos in it but no more keys. I made sure that I had everything in the backpack and took the tube back to Tottenham Court Road. I made a quick detour to the office, leaving the contents of the lockers with Lena, then walked back to Romily Street along Frith Street. I saw Mo Man on the corner, talking to another man, so ducked into a shop front, took out my phone and took a few pictures of them. There’s nothing like knowing more about your enemy.
They didn’t look twice at me as I went around the corner and let myself into the unmarked entrance of Groovy. I changed back into my clothes and packed my disguise into the locker. Janine gave me a quick touch-up and brushed my hair, so it looked like I had spent two hours being pampered. If the blokes outside were typical, they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
I made a show of putting my coat on as I left the main entrance and walked back to the office, with the new man shadowing me from the other side of the street. In the office, I put my bag on the desk and asked Lena to tell me what we had scored.
“Dynamite, Maxie, luv. The papers are copies of real estate contracts for rental properties, all in the outer suburbs. None are more than a six-month period and some match the time periods and areas of those newspaper reports of missing girls. The pictures show why they wanted him dead.”
There were six pictures, all taken with either a spy camera or, I suspected, one of those tiny lenses on a flexible shaft that surgeons use. I remembered that the dead man had started out as a doctor. As I looked at the pictures, it became evident that they were all taken from the same vantage point, and from the height, I suspected that it may have been an old-fashioned keyhole. They all had the same picture, taken at slight intervals. All showed the Home Secretary standing behind another guy, probably a staffer, who was bent over the back of an armchair. They were both naked and it was obvious what they were doing, made more obvious from another cabinet minister standing very close behind the Home Secretary and making it a double banger.
From the looks of the furnishings, it must have been one of the offices at Whitehall. I sat down and thought about it.
“If they’re all gay, why the missing girls.”
“Girls have arseholes as well, Maxie. Unless they have friends, who are straight.”
“We can’t keep them, Lena. Run some scans for the computer, add the real estate papers and the cuttings, and transfer the files to a USB. Then take that home with you and put it somewhere safe. Burn everything and stir up the ashes before flushing it in the loo. Delete all the files and do a disc clean. We don’t want them checking the office and finding that lot. It’s too hot to leave intact.”
As she started to copy the items I went to my computer and transferred the pictures on my phone to it, then emptying the phone memory. I sent the two best ones of Mo Man and also him talking to the other guy to her computer. I wiped the pictures and emptied the recycle bin before doing a disc clean.
“You’ve got a picture of Mo Man and another guy he was talking to this morning. Add them to the USB after you’ve had a good look at the guy. I’m going to the pizza place around the corner to meet Hassam. He had to get his car serviced this morning and I expect they found a tracker under the wheel arch.”
“These geezers are sounding more serious with every passing day, luv. And it’s just one day since the toff visited. So, no detailed phone calls, act as if nothing is unusual.”
“That’s right. I’m going to have a look in the dead man’s safe at his London home. For the life of me I can’t think what else he may have that’s as hot as what he left scattered around at tube stations.”
I checked my lipstick and left her to do what she had to do and lock up. At the pizza place I ordered a pasta salad and sat to wait for Hassam. When he turned up, he was flustered.
“Got a different car today, Maxie. Lucky that my mate had one to spare. Mine got stopped by a couple of plain-clothes boys and they defected mine on the way to get it serviced. I expect that they took the tracker because I was told not to leave the seat as they checked the lights. They gave me what looks like a proper defect notice and told me to put in a new muffler and catalytic converter. What they didn’t show me was any ID, expecting that I would just accept their story.”
“Now, that is interesting. I rang the widow and told her that I was bringing her keys back. I’ve been followed today, and it will be interesting if I get followed tomorrow. They might have decided that I didn’t find anything by the way I’ve been acting.”
“If that’s the case, what will you do about the job?”
“I’ll keep digging, but if I haven’t got something concrete, I’ll report that I couldn’t find anything out. I have moved a little way forward, but I really can’t see how I can make anything stick. When you get the bill for the car, pop in and see Lena, she’ll give you a cheque.”
We had lunch and he took me back to Grosvenor Square. When the widow let me in, I asked her if I could have a look at the office because there was something niggling at my brain. She let me find my own way and I went into the office, closing the door. I swung the filing cabinet aside and used the numbers on the tag to unlock the tumbler, which allowed me to put the key in and open the safe.
The contents of the safe almost took my breath away. There were bundles of money from different countries. There was boxes of good jewellery, things that should have been kept at the manor. The smallest item was a piece of paper with a list of names, ten with ticks beside them. The Home Secretary had a tick beside his, so I expected that all those with ticks were probably members of this ‘Sect’.
I thought about what I should do now, and what would put the enemy off. I left the safe open, after putting the list into my panties, nicely hidden. When I went back downstairs, the other man from this morning was with the widow.
“Miss Fawcett, I’m DI Abbott from the Yard.”
He showed me his ID.
“What can I do for you, Inspector?”
“We have been watching this house to make sure the grieving family are not the victims of scams. I believe that you have been given the run of the dead man’s office. Do you have anything that you have taken today?”
“Nothing, Inspector. In fact, I was just about to report on something that I have found. The dead man has a safe in his office that I doubt he told anybody about. I found a key in a safe place at the manor and have just opened it to find some cash and some very good jewellery. Would you like to have a look?”
I led them upstairs to the office. I could tell that the man was not happy that his subordinate had missed this one. His manner was very much that of an upper ranking officer. While Helen looked at the contents, he wanted to know how I found it. I told him that I had found the key, with the tag, in a hiding place at the manor, and that it took me some time while I was having a massage this morning, to make a guess that there must have been a safe I had missed.
He nodded as I told him, looking at the way the safe was hidden.
“A very clever security item, don’t you think. You must have great powers of observation to have found that. Do you mind if I look in your bag, to make sure you have not taken anything?”
I opened my bag, and he had a good look. I could tell that he was halfway between being upset and relieved. He could tell, at a glance, that I couldn’t have hidden anything on me, seeing that my blouse was almost see-through, and my skirt clung to my hips.
“Tell me, Miss Fawcett. What was your brief that brought you here?”
“I was tasked with looking into the death of James Harding. My employer was worried that he had been unusually upset, lately. He gave me two things to look at. The first was the likelihood that the man was murdered, and the second was that he may have hidden away items. I have yet to ask the police about the first, and the second is here, in front of you. If this sort of collection was in any other man’s safe, I would think that he was preparing for a divorce by hiding away saleable items. It’s possible that he was just keeping them secure.”
Helen finished checking the boxes and turned to Abbott with a smile.
“I think that he was just keeping them secure, Inspector. I’ve seen these items before when his parents were alive. They were all his mothers’ and are worth a fortune. Thank you, Miss Fawcett, for discovering them, I had no idea that this safe was in here, they could have remained after I sold the house and moved back to the manor.”
She invited me to have a drink with her and bade the Inspector goodbye, ushering him to the front door.
“All right, Maxine. Are you sure that my husband wasn’t murdered?”
“The jury is still out on that one. I’ll keep digging quietly, as long as Abbott stays away. He’s as much a serving copper as I am. He was following me this morning. Act as if it’s all behind you and read the papers. If I turn up anything, you’ll know about it. If I turn up dead, you’ll know that I trod on one too many toes. In the safe at the manor, you’ll find more money and jewellery. The key to that one is on the ring.”
She asked me to wait while she went back upstairs. When she came down, she thrust a bundle of new notes in my hand.
“This is a reward for finding the missing jewellery, Maxine. With my undying gratitude. The collection in that safe was last valued at around three million, and there would have been hell to pay if I hadn’t been able to produce it for probate. Use the money as you wish but stay alive to find the people who killed my husband!”
I thanked her and put the cash in my bag.
“Tell me, did James have any special friends who could have been in the security business. He was quite clever in his concealments?”
“The only one who may fit was Allan Truscott. He was in the police but has a restaurant now. We used to go there for the odd meal.”
Outside, Hassam was waiting patiently. When I got in, he asked me where I wanted to go, and I told him to take me back to the office. Before I got out, I reached into my bag and peeled a hundred from the notes and gave it to him.
“This is for the last couple of days. Come back with that invoice and Lena will give you a cheque. If anyone asks you where you’ve taken me, tell them the truth. The Square, the manor, and the Square again. The opposition already know about them, and I gave them the reason why this morning.”
In the office I thought about Allan Truscott. He had been a lecturer at Hendon when I was a rookie copper. We had hit it off in more ways than one and I had the idea that he might remember me. I wasn’t going to call him on the office phone but looked up the number of his restaurant and went up to my flat to call him on a burner. Firstly, I took the list from my panties and looked at the names on it. The ticked ones included several politicians, and a couple of high-ranking members of the force. I could see why nothing had progressed with the investigation, and why all the missing girl cases were in the cold case bin. When I got through to Allan, I told him who I was.
“Maxie, darling. Long time no hear. It’s lovely to hear your voice, it gives me goosebumps. What can I do for you?”
“I would like to speak to you about a friend of yours, Allan, but it must, and I repeat, must, look like we are having a chat about old times, as I have a shadow.”
“Ah! One of the faceless men from the dark side. Look, I’m hosting a big dinner for old friends on Saturday evening, I’ll send you an invitation by email if you give me the address. Perhaps we can talk afterwards. I have a flat above the restaurant with a big bed that’s dying to see you. I’ll put the red satin sheets on it, just for you.”
“I see that you remember me, Allan. The red ones were my favourite back then. I’ll be there on Saturday.”
I gave him the email address and smiled as I turned the burner off. I had a date on Saturday, at a dinner in a posh restaurant. I had nothing to wear and some cash in my bag. It was time to go shopping. Back in the office, I told Lena to lock up and have a good weekend, giving her the list to scan and add to the USB at home before destroying it. She looked at the ticked names.
“Dicing with death with this lot, Maxie. Our toff didn’t know what a mess of bees he was playing with when he tried to knock over the hive. I’ll check that your insurance covers my accrued leave and entitlements before I go home. I’ll see you on Monday, should you live so long.”
“They can’t knock me off on the weekend, Lena. It’s my time off when I have fun. I’ll be out on Saturday night and may not come home until Sunday. I was given some cash from the widow for finding her lost jewels, here’s half; get yourself a new kaftan, or something. I’m heading for Knightsbridge to see if I can get something suitable for a dinner and is easy to remove.”
I gave her the money and put the rest back in my bag. I left the office and walked to the tube station at Oxford Circus, making sure that I checked in shop windows as I passed. I had Mo Man some way behind me. He stayed with me on the tube until I got to Knightsbridge and watched me go into a dress shop. I was looking through a rack of evening dresses as I saw him on his phone. After a couple of minutes, he put the phone away and strode off. I was sure that Abbott had given him the word that I was safe, for now.
I spent a lovely couple of hours looking at evening dresses, finally choosing one that revealed a lot about my character, leaving very little to the imagination. With it paid for, and in a bag, I carried on to a shoe shop to get heels that would enhance its effect on Allan, knowing the sort of woman he liked. He liked the sort of woman that I was, back then. I’ve mellowed a little since that time, but I was looking forward to reliving a little of my past. Hell!! Who was I fooling. I hadn’t changed, I just wasn’t getting laid so often.
Back in my flat, I hung the dress and sorted out the minimal underwear to go with it. Then I changed into a slip dress and went out again, around the corner to Ronnie Scott’s to see who was playing there tonight.
I relaxed and had a good evening, dancing with a very elegant man who was charming and looked rich. He bought me dinner and I heard about his company in the West Country. He told me that he was staying in the Soho Hotel. He was a good companion, a good dancer, and we had a lot of laughs. I knew that he must be married seeing the pale skin where a ring would sit, but it didn’t matter to me.
I told him that I wasn’t on the game, but enjoyed life as it was presented to me. He kissed me as we danced, and I felt him growing. It was close to eleven when we walked the short distance to the hotel and up to his very nice room, this being a five-star establishment.
I was thoroughly well reamed when I showered in his ensuite, dressed, and left about one. I walked back around the corner to my flat, the streets still crowded with people having a good time. Back in the flat, I douched and put on a nightie.
In bed, I thought about the evening. He had given me his card and I had given him one of my Max Force cards. He had laughed when he saw that I was a PI, and our next bout was almost rape, as I realised that he was probably taking out some aggression on the ones his wife may have set on him.
He had apologised for being rough and I had told him that it had been good. That’s when he told me about his difficult divorce and I held him tight as he told me that he had always been a player, thinking that he could have kept it from his wife. Twenty minutes later, he made long slow love to me, and it was beautiful. When I was about to leave, he told me that I was a wonderful woman and kissed me gently, before saying that he’d give me a call when he was next in town.
I told him that I would be happy to see him again. Finding a nice man who could get it up three times in two hours wasn’t someone you would dump, now, would you?
Marianne Gregory © 2024
Chapter 3
I slept late on Saturday morning, waking up with the knowledge that I had lived to see another day, and wondered how many more I would see if I stuffed up with this case.
Allan had lectured us on surveillance and things that you would teach to rookie spies. I knew he must have been in the service and wondered how he knew James Harding. Perhaps I would find out tonight, or maybe tomorrow morning.
Today, though, was my day for some vertical, rather than horizontal jogging. I dressed in running shorts, a sports bra, and a crop top. Socks and sneakers, hair in a ponytail and a headband and I was almost ready. I just needed a bumbag with the keys, cards, and my phone, and a water bottle from the fridge, and I was off for some exercise.
Along Frith Street is a park. It is called Soho Square because they couldn’t find anyone from Soho who was well known enough to call it anything else. It was vaguely square with a track that was about sixty metres to a side, so the circuit is about two hundred and some meters a lap. I usually did about five laps on a Saturday morning, jogging past all the sleeping forms from last nights’ revelry and making sure I didn’t step in any old vomit.
When I had finished, I went back towards Bateman Street. Sometimes, I would have a bite in Nando’s but today I went straight past it to Old Compton Street and Balan’s Number 34. Seeing that I wouldn’t be eating until late this evening, I ordered a Full English Breakfast and a cup of coffee. I can hear those health nuts telling me that I’ve just burnt off the calories that I’m about to put back on. I can’t help being perfectly proportioned. That’s what a lot of men have called me.
The meal was delicious, but I always feel guilty when I cut a bit off a Cumberland sausage. The one on my plate was nearly the same dimensions as the body part that I had experienced last night. It wouldn’t be a patch on what I may experience tonight if I get lucky. Allan, from what I remembered, was hung like a stallion, the longest one I’ve ever seen. He had been married twice when he last took me to bed, and I suppose that he had time enough to be married another couple of times since.
I was sure that I hadn’t been followed today, at least, not by Waters and Abbott. After my lunch, I walked back to the office and up to my flat, stopping and looking at reflections in shop windows at random. I spent the afternoon thinking about the case.
When I roused myself to get ready, I ran a bath with scented oils and luxuriated. I had a safety razor and worked on my pits and any stubble around the groin. With the dress I was going to wear, I needed to be as shaved as a babies bottom. When I was ready to dress, it didn’t take very long. A red G-string to match the dress, then the dress itself. There was no way a girl could wear a bra with it, so I was glad that I was keeping myself in shape. Just the red stilettos and a clutch was all that was needed to finish it off. I did have a coat and a shoulder bag with a bra, top, skirt, flats, and tights for Sunday, just in case.
I called an Uber, not Hassam this time. He took me to the restaurant and even opened the door to let me out after I had paid. I think he just wanted a good look to remember when he was home. I walked into the restaurant lobby and checked the shoulder bag and my coat. Allan came out and greeted me like the lover had had been, several times before. The intervening years had been good to him.
He took my hand and led me into the main room.
“The big party are old friends; some you may know from the force. If you want, I can put you on a table by yourself?”
“No, Allan. I would like to sit with the others. There are a few I remember. That one near the end, what’s his name, it’s slipped my mind?”
“That’s Barry Bishop. He didn’t last long as a copper, now has a small PI business like yourself. Does work for politicians, mainly research.”
“Can you set a place on the end, next to him, please. He and I have to meet.”
We spoke of times gone by, and our expectation for the near future as a place was set. Allan gave me a kiss as he wished me a pleasant meal, and I walked behind Mister Bishop and the waiter pulled the chair out for me to sit down.
“Good evening, Mister Bishop. Or should I say DI Abbott. Do you have other ID that says you are CS Churchman, or you could be CI Vicar. You at least had enough training to make the pretence believable to a Joe Public, but your mate Waters stood out like a fox in a henhouse.”
“Miss Fawcett! You have me at a disadvantage.”
“That’s the aim, Barry. What I want to know is why you and your mate have been following me and putting your nose in my business for the last few days. Don’t give me any client secrecy bullshit. I know that you were tasked by someone in the government, maybe a staffer from the Home Secretary.”
If I was him, I’d never play poker, as his face showed that I had hit the bull.
“I was asked to follow the Shadow Chancellor and then switch to any PI or police officer he spoke to, then report back.”
“Have you reported back?”
“Not yet, it is the weekend, you know. If anyone wanted to invade, I’d pick Saturday lunchtime as the window of opportunity.”
“Well, now you can report that the Shadow Chancellor asked a PI to look for missing gems, which she found after your operative missed. It wasn’t too difficult, when you follow the trail correctly, instead of playing silly buggers by pretending to be part of a force you’d never pass muster for.”
He had the wit to look bashful.
“I’m sorry, Miss Fawcett. You obviously have a similar background, seeing that you had the invitation tonight.”
“Yes, Allan and I go way back to my days at Hendon. I will be reporting to my client that I found the gems and the widow was very happy to see them. What will you be telling yours?”
“That he hired a PI to look for lost gems, of course. His task of looking into the man’s death is a dead end, as I’m sure you already know. The Yard has already closed the file and the inquest will conclude an accidental drowning caused by intoxication.”
“I’m sure it will. Allan tells me that you do research for government departments, that must be very tedious, even if it is on a level your man could work at?”
While we ate the delicious meal, he told me about the sort of things that he was asked to look at. I would go up the wall if I had to conduct background checks, title searches for compulsory acquisitions, keeping an eye on errant children of MPs. It was informative, as it told me that he was just a dogsbody who had been picked as being already on the books. I had wondered if he had been five, acting overtly to put the frighteners on me. I realised that he was just unused to actual sleuthing.
I spoke to others at the table, some that I had worked with, and a couple who had worked on me. My dress seemed to be very popular, especially the part where it was supported by my breasts. There was no further talk about the dead politician and I tried to remember all of the names and the positions that were offered as we chatted.
There were a couple who struck me as properly un-chatty. They were likely five or in specialist squads. One guy was obviously on an Armed Response Team, being the sort of build that had been a favourite of mine when I was younger and less choosy. As the evening drew to a close, and some said goodnight, Barry stood and put his hand on my shoulder.
“It’s been lovely speaking to you, Maxine. I just wish that we could have met in better circumstances. Here’s my card, should you want to give me a call. I know where you live.”
As I watched him walk out, I wondered about the man. Was he as stupid as he had owned up to be, or did he have a deeper side. In the end, it was just Allan and me, sipping wine as the staff cleared the table. He clinked my glass with his and smiled.
“Do you remember the last time I cooked for you, Maxie?”
“I do, indeed, Allan, dear. That was the time I had you for entrée and you had me for dessert.”
“And very tasty you were, my sweet. Do you want to talk about your problem now, or later?”
“I was asked to look into the death of your friend, James Harding, last week. He was murdered, you know.”
“I guessed that already. He was skating on thin ice but there was nothing I could tell him that could put a stop to his quest to discredit the Home Secretary. He’d been the Shadow for some time, but never fully appreciated the power that you can wield in the job. Poor James, Helen would be heartbroken.”
“I can tell you that she is getting over it, slowly, and is likely to go back to the manor and sell the place on Grosvenor Square. With the estate and the title, plus her beauty, I doubt that it will be long before she has new suitors at her door.”
“What did you do for her?”
“I was asked to look into his death, but to do that I needed to see if I could find what he had squirrelled away. In the course of doing that, Barry Bishop and his offsider took great delight in following me everywhere, with his mate pretending to be a staffer looking for any government papers that James had in his possession. In my searches at his London home and the Manor, I came across safes with cash and his mother’s gem collection. That was in a safe in London that his wife didn’t know existed. She was very grateful when I showed it to her. Also present, at the time, was Barry Bishop with the ID of a DI Abbott from the Yard.”
“Oh dear! Barry would have been mortified when you sat beside him tonight.”
“Actually, he was pretty good about it in the end. I hope he reports that I was just looking for the gems, as it looks like the murder will never be fully investigated.”
“Have you any idea who the murderer is?”
“Have you heard about the ‘Sect’?”
His face was serious.
“You had better be careful if they’re involved. It is, as far as I know, a secret club of politicians and other invitees, who play hard, on the quiet. I have heard of wild orgies and drunken parties that last for days when the House isn’t sitting.”
“You friend had a list of likely members; did you have anything to do with that?”
“I did jot a list for him to stay clear of, yes.”
“Did he ask about anything else?”
He looked me in the eye.
“He did ask about where he could find real estate details, yes. What have you found?”
“A bundle of news clippings on cases of missing girls, a sheaf of real estate short term leases that mainly relate to the times of the missing girls for one. And some photos taken with a spy camera of the HS humping a male staffer while being humped by one of the cabinet members.”
He sat back in his chair and his mouth was open. When he had gathered his wits, he was very serious.
“James had a lot more nerve than I gave him credit for. Where are these items, now?”
“Burnt to a crisp, they were far too hot to hang on to?”
“Well thought, Maxie. If the HS gets it into his head to make a proper search of your office, the less found, the better. You know, you would have been a great credit to the force, if you had just kept your knees together.”
“If I had kept my knees together, we wouldn’t be sitting here like this, with me wondering whether your red satin sheets are still as slippery as I remember them.”
“Come on, then. Let’s go and find out. I love the dress; it looks so good on you.”
“I look even better without it, and that just takes two buttons. If you can’t find them, I’ll help you.”
He told the maître ‘d to lock up when he left, and I reclaimed my shoulder bag before he took my hand and led me up to his quarters. In his bedroom he kissed me in his special way, some tongue but a lot of hands elsewhere. I could feel him against me and some of the old magic started to happen. I helped him undress and he found the two buttons easily. The satin sheets were as slippery as ever, and we took it slow and easy.
He was as big as I remembered, and I swear that I could feel it against my diaphragm when I took deep breaths. He took half an hour bringing me to the point of no return, before he shot his load, and we held each other close. We cuddled and slept, and he made good use of his morning glory when we woke up. I could tell that he was happy to have me around, once more.
In the mid-morning, we had a shower together and got dressed. I had the fresh things to put on and folded the evening dress and put it in the bag, along with the heels. They had done the job that they were bought for and would be a good addition to the wardrobe.
We went down to the restaurant where the early Sunday staff were getting the place ready for the Sunday lunch crowd. Allan gave a few orders and we sat at a table and talked while we waited for our breakfast.
“Maxie, dear one. If I didn’t know how much you like variation, I’d ask you to marry me.”
“No way! You’re too much of a man for one woman. How many have you worn out now?”
“Four, I think. I often wondered why they left me.”
“They left you to recuperate. You should let them have a month off, every two, so that they could recover. Now, what are we going to do about my problem? I noticed a couple of your friends, last night, who had the distinct air of spookage.”
“Leave that with me for a while. I know how to get in touch. I expect that you have copies of all the documents somewhere, probably a USB or Cloud account. If I find someone to help, they’ll get in touch and give you a couple of days to retrieve the package. They will give you a code word. Your pick.”
“Tell them it’s Condor. That’s a suitable bit of spook light reading. So, I just spin my wheels until then, and just make sure I stay alive.”
“That’s about it. You could go through the motions and check with the Yard to find out the state of play with the drowning. That would be the prudent thing to do next week. That way you can tell your client that his money was well spent. The opposition leaks like a sieve, so don’t tell him anything else. That way, both you and he have a chance of staying alive. Tell me, the list I jotted for James, did he add anything?”
“Quite a few ticks, including the HS, so I think that he had figured out several members. How long ago did you write it for him, it looked a bit scrappy.”
“It would have been almost a year, I think. It really was just a list of people he should stay clear of, not going off and playing at spy. He was always headstrong when he had a mission.”
We ate the breakfast, enough that I wouldn’t need anything until tonight. Then, I claimed my coat and he escorted me to the door, waving at a cab going by. When he held the door for me, he used his other arm to hold me while we kissed.
“Take care of yourself, Maxine love. I would hate to have to attend your funeral.”
On the way home, I thought about that. Did the old reprobate have feelings for me other than just for sex? The other thought that crossed my mind was why I went to bed so easily with nice men. It made me think of Lord Bertie. He may not have been as virile as the men I had experienced this weekend, but was a lot more comfortable to be with.
That afternoon I went jogging the Soho Square again, to burn off the calories I had ingested since my last run. Then, I sat in the office and wrote notes on the case so far for my client. Then did the books for the tax time, later in the year. I had the five thousand I could put as income, and then managed to write most of it off on wages and expenses.
When I locked the office and street door, I went to my flat and had a leisurely bath, then nuked an easy meal as I didn’t need much to eat. I watched a bit of mindless television and had an early night, to be ready for my work in the morning. It had been a wonderful weekend, without a weak end in sight.
On Monday morning, I had opened the street door and the office, and was browsing the internet for the PI business on the card that Barry had given me. Sure enough, he was there, listed as being highly professional and gave a list of testimonials, mainly from the government of the day. That was something I would never put online, as it told everyone who you had helped when they were in trouble. There, again, the government was always in trouble, so I suppose that his list was allowable.
As I idly looked at the list, I saw a name that wasn’t government, yet was on the list I had memorised. It was my client, but he hadn’t had a tick. Now, why did Allan warn James of his own cabinet member? We had taken on the job at face value, so I now used the computer to look up the history of Algernon Clifton-Crabbe.
I started, as I usually did, by looking up the birth certificate. There, I found that his father was Sir Thomas Clifton. He had been a firebrand in his day. He was reputed to have stood up to Maggie Thatcher over the Falklands, demanding that we just gave the damn Argies the islands and not to waste any money on a war. Looking at his entry in Wikipedia, I saw that he had not always been conservative. He had been a coal mine owner before the troubles, and a staunch supporter of the unions while they kept in their place.
It had been the miners’ strike that switched him. I suspected that his men coming out against the mine owners was enough to lose his support. He had stood in his constituency as an independent conservative and beat the government backed candidate. He was a back bencher under Heath, until Thatcher had contested the leadership and won.
He had been divorced from his first wife. I read between the lines and surmised that he hadn’t been very good to live with. His second wife, Alice Crabbe, was the mother of Algernon. She was a curate’s daughter and was never mentioned again after the marriage certificate. I gathered that both were still alive.
Algernon had the usual upbringing for a child of a Member of Parliament. He went to primary school and then on to a boarding school until he went to Eton. I doubt that he saw his father from the time he was eleven, unless it was on television. He did Accounting at Oxford, but didn’t get a high degree, enough I suppose to run a country should he get into power.
The odd thing was that he was at Oxford with several members of the current Cabinet. Most of the Shadow Cabinet having gone to Cambridge. I looked at the Oxford papers during the time he was there and found that he had been quite a naughty boy, along with the Home Secretary. There was a report of the two of them being brought up to a magistrate for indecent assault on a young girl from a local tearoom. The case was dismissed when the girl withdrew her complaint. That usually happens when someone steps in brandishing cash.
With all that in mind, I wondered if him coming to us was a double bluff. I couldn’t see him trying to blame his old friend, unless they had a falling out. He was quick to pay me whatever I charged, and that can be a sign that something isn’t right.
My mind wandered along odd paths, and I found that I thought that Algernon would be the one person who could easily get close to James. Maybe a Micky Finn in a cup of coffee, then letting the other goons in to finish the job. So far, there wasn’t anything to link the HS with the murder, just his allegation.
If friend Algy was in cahoots with the HS, he would have had both the motive and the opportunity. I had the Who, I had the What (booze and a pool), I had the Where, and I could guess the Why. I wondered if James had finally twigged that his friend and colleague was as bad as the rest of them and confronted him at the manor. It would be interesting to read the forensics report, to see if there was any signs of a blow, prior to the drowning. One that couldn’t be fobbed off as being caused by him falling in.
I rang the number for the manor and asked Jackson if he had been in the house when the master had died. He told me that he had asked for a couple of days off, as he needed to come to London to have an overnight sleep test, as his doctor had diagnosed sleep apnoea. He had discovered the master the next day when he had returned.
I decided to follow Allan’s advice. I called the Yard and asked to speak to the murder squad, then asked to speak to the Chief Inspector in charge of the case. When I got through, I explained who I was and asked if I could have an appointment to speak to them about the death of the Shadow Home Secretary, on behalf of my client, the Shadow Chancellor, to make sure that the death was a genuine accident, not suicide or even murder, as my client had his doubts.
It helped that I had worked with this particular CI, when he was just a sergeant, and I was a new policewoman. He remembered me, and he told me it was fondly, as it had been our assignation on the back seat of the stake-out car that brought him to the attention of the misogynous upper ranks. He even told me that he was looking forward to seeing me again.
Marianne Gregory © 2024
Chapter 4
The appointment was for nine on Tuesday, so I rang Hassam to book him from eight until twelve. He told me that he had his car back and it was now a lot quieter. Lena wanted to know how my weekend was, so I told her that I had been invited to the dinner on Saturday evening and met Barry Bishop, AKA DI Abbott, and had a frank discussion with him.
“The upshot, I think, is that he’ll report that I found the gems and that my involvement is over. I have an appointment tomorrow at the Yard, to speak to the one in charge of the case. It’s a nice coincidence that I knew him in the force. Or, should I saw, he knew me in a carnal way. It might give me some leverage.”
“You teach me something about womanhood every day, Maxie. I never realised that you could create a circle of lifelong friends by laying on your back. With blokes, you just forget them, and it’s usually a good thing. I bet that you were a witch of some kind in an earlier life, taking the essence of a man’s personality into you, along with his seed.”
“That’s deep thinking for you, Lena. What did you buy with your bonus?”
“I saw a lovely kaftan that was reasonable, but, and don’t laugh at this, I ended up buying a very expensive La Perla nightie that will become a reflection of my own desire to be the woman that my body will never allow me to be. I wore it last night and slept like a baby, even without the usual dreams of being in a gun battle.”
“That’s lovely, I’m glad that it does that for you. I don’t know what it’s like to have someone dropping bombs on me. It’s bad enough with this case, where we have somebody who could wipe me from the world if I step on too many toes. I’ve tried to show them that I’m no problem, so that they’ll leave me alone long enough to catch them.”
“Don’t put yourself down, Maxine. You’re as brave as many of the men I fought with, and you’re cleverer than most. Most soldiers aren’t brave, they just use the equipment they’re given better than the enemy. It doesn’t take bravery to drop bombs or pilot a drone from miles away, it takes a skillset. You have a skillset developed from your police training, but you have more than that. You have an insight and follow your gut feelings.”
“How come you’ve walked in, today, with such deep thoughts?”
“It must be the time of the month.”
We spent the rest of the day on the computers, looking at the newspaper reports of the murder, or, as they put it, the unfortunate accident. There was one article that mentioned a bruise on his face, with the reporter thinking that he had fallen over and knocked himself out before rolling into the pool. That’s when I realised that my client had told me that James had ‘gone swimming’ and I hadn’t asked if he was wearing swimming trunks or was just skinny-dipping. I would have to ask if he had been found fully clothed, as none of the reports mentioned it.
On Tuesday morning I had my breakfast and was waiting outside the kinky shop when Hassam pulled up. He had taken the opportunity to have the car detailed and, for once, it didn’t smell of old kebabs. We arrived outside New Scotland Yard in plenty of time, as I knew that it would take a while to be processed if I was to be allowed inside. I told Hassam to go and earn some money and that I would ring him when I came out.
He went off and I walked into the reception and told the sergeant on the desk that I was here to see CI Hounslowe. He made the call and then asked me if I knew the way to the murder squad offices. I said that I had been at the Yard some years ago, so he took my picture and produced a tag that would allow me to open the right doors.
As I navigated my way into the labyrinth, I smiled as I remembered the last, and only time I had been here. It was a very short visit, when I had been drummed out of the force and called a slut by one of the men on that list that James had, one of those with a tick. I guess that if he hadn’t been in the company of other high-ranking officers, I might have been invited to a ‘party’.
George Hounslowe greeted me with a handshake and an invitation to sit.
“Good morning, Miss Fawcett, you really haven’t changed a bit; just as lovely as ever.”
“Thank you, Chief Inspector, you’re looking pretty good yourself, although all the desk time seems to be creeping up on you.”
“You’re right about that. Company car and deskwork are the bane of an upper ranks. Now, call me George like old times and I’ll call you Maxie, and we can see what we can do to help you.”
“Right, George. I have been asked to check the state of play with the death of the James Harding. There are some who think it may have been murder. I’ve been told that the case is now closed and ready for the coroner. What can you tell me?”
“Look, Maxie. Officially all I can say is that the death has been classed as accidental.”
“And unofficially?”
He stood and went to the door, making sure that nobody was close. Then he came back and sat in a chair beside me and lowered his voice.
“Maxie, as a murder squad officer, I would have fully investigated the death, with an eye to it being a murder. Unfortunately, before I was sent to the crime scene, I was called into the office of one of my superiors and told to treat the case as an accident. It really wasn’t the right thing to do, but this officer is crucial in my promotional aspirations.”
“I suppose that’s the same man that drummed me out of the force?”
“I couldn’t possibly confirm that, Maxie.”
“Did he say where the pressure came from?”
“He did mention the House.”
“The House? Not the Government?”
“Is there a difference?”
“If the pressure was bipartisan, it points to a certain group who get together for fun and games.”
“I know who you mean, but that doesn’t change my orders. If my boss is a member, then I’m as much in danger as the victim if I don’t follow orders. Now, on my desk is the file, I feel a need to go to the toilet. Can you wait until I get back?”
“Certainly, George. Have a stroke for me.”
He left the room, and I got my phone out and looked at the file, taking pictures of every page as quickly as I could. I was sitting, as demurely as I could when he came back.
“That’s better. Now, where were we?”
“You were going to tell me about the crime scene. Was he clothed, in trunks, or naked?”
“He was fully dressed. Why?”
“Because nobody goes swimming fully dressed unless it’s a drunken party.”
“He did have enough alcohol in his system to knock out a horse.”
“Did you check whether there had been a party the evening before?”
“Yes, and no, there wasn’t. He did have a visitor, though.”
“Someone he knew?”
“Yes, his old friend Algernon Clifton-Crabbe. I interviewed him and he told me that Jackson had let him out around ten-thirty and the victim was still in his office.”
“Did you talk to Jackson?”
“I didn’t have to, he’s there almost twenty-four-seven.”
“Not that night, he wasn’t. He was in London having a sleep test in a clinic.”
His mouth dropped open.
“Oh shit!”
“Look, George. I’ll keep looking into this, but I’ll try to stay under the radar. If your boss asks, and he will, you’ve convinced me that it was an accident and that I’ll be reporting that to my client.”
“Your client is?”
“I shouldn’t tell you, George, but it’s Algernon. I’m beginning to believe that it’s a double bluff to make sure he’s not put into the frame. He told me that the Home Secretary had it organised.”
“Is there enough to let you believe that?”
“There certainly is, more than enough.”
“Be careful, Maxie. You were given the short end of the stick, but I was too blinded by the attention I got to back you up. The boss thinks that I’m in his pocket, but he’d toss me out like an old bit of lint if I don’t follow orders.”
We stood and I kissed him on the cheek.
“Keep your head down, Georgie, and we may both come out of this covered in glory. Are you man enough to take things to a head if I get the evidence.”
“For you, Maxie, I’m man enough for anything. If it’s watertight, I’ll take it further up the ladder.”
“If I do get it, I’ll tell you which rung. Some are populated with the same gang as your boss.”
“That bad, is it? It looks like I’m in it up to my neck, already. I’ll just have to take a big breath when the time comes.”
“Thanks, George, I’ll keep in touch.”
I made my way back to the front desk and handed my badge to the sergeant. He bade me good morning and I went out into fresh air, knowing that I had put a lot of faith in George, hoping that he was still the basically good copper he had been when we worked together.
Instead of calling Hassam, I flagged a taxi and told the driver to take me to Harrods. There, I made my way to the toilets and locked myself in a cubicle, sitting to do my business while looking through the pages of the file on my phone.
I saw the forensic report and the crime scene pictures. He did have a bruise on his jaw that could have been made by a fist. If I had wanted to knock him out, I would have used the heel of my hand, rather than the knuckles. There had been an open bottle of whiskey in his study, with two glasses, one having Algernon’s fingerprints on. If he had done it, he was supremely confident that the Sect would make sure he got off. That made me wonder why he came to me in the first place.
I was touching up my make-up when a thought came to me. What if it was all a test of George, to make sure that he was a fit member of the Sect? I doubt that I was considered able to locate any findings that James could have amassed. The jewels were a sidebar to the main game. I wondered if I was expected to head for the Yard as soon as I took the case and see what I was told.
My being at the Yard today would have been noted, and I expect that I would get a call from Algernon soon, to check on my progress. He only asked about the death, not the jewels, so I’ll just tell him that I’ve reached a dead end.
I called Hassam to meet me at Harrods and waited for him. When I got to the office, I blue-toothed Lenas’ phone and sent her the pictures of the file.
“Download these tonight when you get home and add them to the USB. These are the contents of the case file. I was told that it was considered by upper management that it was an accident. The upper manager is a Sect member, and he told my contact that he had been told to bury the case by the House. I take that as from the Sect.”
“What now?”
“Now I finish the report to our client as he wanted it in the first place. Then we wait for him to call, I would think that it would be sometime later in the week. In the meantime, we carry on and be prepared. Let’s close up and get some lunch. Your choice.”
I know that I should never let her choose. We ended up at Little Italy where she ordered the Tagliata Di Manzo, while I had the Baked Aubergine Parmigiana. We took our time and had a couple of glasses of vino. It was a good job I still had some of that roll of cash.
“We may be close to the end of this case. If my female intuition is right, I think that there will be an ending inside ten days,”
That afternoon, I was looking up Algernon. He had been a boxing champion at Oxford but hadn’t gone on with it. His rise to the Shadow Cabinet was interesting. He had worked in a legal office for a while, and then had stood for a backwater constituency, which he won with a very slim margin. He had worked hard for the people and won the next election with a big margin. The party had shifted him to a better area for the election after that, with a good chance of taking it.
After winning that one, he became a secretary for a minister, with his next step being a low-level minister for a couple of years, after a shakeup. With many of his colleagues he had never been in power, and with the way his party was going, would be unlikely to see what it’s like for some years to come. Of course, if we cracked open the Sect, there would be a lot of by-elections to hold, unless the PM took the plunge and went with a full election.
Late, that afternoon, I had a call on my mobile. All the caller asked was for me to call Allan. I went up to my flat and used the burner to call him. He was terse.
“Maxie, take some time out and go for a jog in Soho Square tomorrow. Get there about one. Take your copy of the evidence. Best of luck.”
I went back down to the office and pulled another USB from my drawer.
“Lena, put that file on the USB and hang on to it. Take this one, put everything on it and bring it in tomorrow. Things are moving with the good guys,”
I had a quiet night and was in the office when Lena came in and put the USB on my desk. When it got towards midday, I called down to the pizza place to order two specials to be delivered. While we waited, I went up to the flat and changed into jogging gear, putting the USB in my bum bag.
After the pizza, I brushed my teeth and then left Lena in charge, walking towards the Square. I took it easy and had done two laps before I stopped to take a sip from my water bottle. As I had it to my lips, a guy in running gear appeared beside me, like magic.
“Isn’t that a Condor over there?”
“I believe it’s a sparrow, Condors live a long way away. You going to join me in a jog?”
We ran, side by side, and spoke whenever there was no others around.
“Do you have the evidence?”
“USB in my bag.”
“Will it bury the Sect?”
“If everything leads to what it looks like. It will take some digging at various houses to see if there’s bodies.”
“Did you find who killed James Harding?”
“I think it was his pal, Algernon Clifton-Crabbe. The police file is on the stick and the evidence in that points his way. He lied when questioned about his visit on the night of the killing. He said that the butler let him out, but the butler was in a London clinic that night.”
“When we stop at the bench, sit down, and take out a tissue, palming the stick. Then pass it to me. I will give you a little something in return. It’s a tracker that you press together to turn on and then swallow. Use it if you think that you’re going to be taken off the street. If you get a chance, call Allan, and let him know if you get an invitation out of the blue. The tracker lasts for twelve hours and is not reusable, seeing where it had spent that time.”
I did as he asked, and we exchanged small items as covertly as we could. We then ran another lap or two before he told me it was good to run with me and peeled off near where I had first seen him. I continued for another slow lap and then made my way back to the office. I went upstairs and had a shower, then dressed and went down to see what had happened. Lena had a note for me.
“Some copper called George rang to tell you that he was invited to a party on Saturday night. He said that it would advance his career. By the sound of it, he was calling from a public phone in a tube station.”
On Friday morning, we had the visit that I had predicted. Algernon came into the office to ask what I had found out. I told him that I had completed my investigations and gave him the report I had written. Of course, it was a load of old bollocks, but I had been trained by the Met, so knew how to make a three-line report fill two pages. He read it through and smiled.
“Excellent work, Miss Fawcett. I’m sorry to have sent you on a wild goose chase, but I had to know, for sure, that the police were actually doing their job. Would you allow me to take you to dinner on Saturday evening. I’ll send a car for you at seven. Please say yes, it’s a little party that a few friends and their wives are having. You’ll be home before midnight.”
“I would love to, sir. Is it formal or more casual?”
“I think that you would have something stunning, so surprise me. It’s in a private house, so don’t go over the top.”
When he had gone, I went up to the flat and called Allan on the burner. I was as terse as him.
“Saturday night dinner party, private house. He’s sending a car. CI Hounslowe has been invited to a party as well. Could be his final test.”
“Don’t forget to take your pill.”
I wished Lena a good weekend and she gave me a hug.
“Be careful and don’t forget your lessons. I hope to see you on Monday morning.”
I took it slow on Saturday, a long bath and sitting around in a set of PJs for most of the day. I took a long while getting ready. The dress, shoes and G-string were the same as last Saturday evening. It was calculated to show that I wasn’t wearing a wire. For the same reason, I chose earrings that were thin wire, unable to include anything electric.
I took a long while on my hair. I put it up in almost a beehive, held together with two very sharp hair pins and a clip that doubled as a disguised handcuff key. I had a clutch but only put my ID, phone that I had made sure was fully charged, and door key in it, along with things expected a woman to be carrying.
Just before seven, I pressed the two sides of the transmitter and felt it click. I hoped that it was working as I swallowed it with a glass of water. I put on my coat and went down to stand on the pavement after locking everything up. The car arrived on the dot of seven and the driver got out and opened the back door for me, making sure I was belted up before he closed it and got back in the front, driving off and heading west.
We got to Grosvenor Square, and he pulled up at a place on the opposite side of the square to the victims’ home. He got out and went to knock on the door. I went to release my seat belt as it was a little tight and found that there was no lifter. I was effectively held in the seat. I reached into my clutch and turned the phone on to record, putting the clutch on the seat beside me.
When Algernon came out, the driver held the other back door open and he sat himself beside me, a big smile on his face.
“I’m glad you could come, Miss Fawcett. Knowing your history, I think you’ll enjoy some of the events planned for tonight. There will be several guests that you will know when we arrive. It’s going to be a bit ceremonial later on. Your old back-seat buddy will be there, it’s his initiation night.”
“Initiation? Is he joining the masons, or something?”
“Something more powerful than the masons of today. We have a select group who basically run the country. He will be a junior member, soon to be promoted in the police and destined to be an Assistant Commissioner.”
“That seems too certain to be real, Algernon. Surely nobody could predict that number of promotions.”
“When he’s a member, there comes a certainty that you wouldn’t believe.”
Why is it that when the bad guy knows that you can’t get away, he has the need to boast. I suppose that he was telling me something he could never tell his wife. I relaxed, not letting him know that I was fully aware of the situation.
“How can you run the country, Algernon? That’s not possible when you’re in opposition?”
“I am a member of the group that is bipartisan. No matter what party is in power, it’s the same group that run things from the background. We do have our Prime Ministers who we put up front as figureheads, but all they do is maintain a smokescreen for the real power. As you’ll find out, tonight.”
“So, why me. How do you know I won’t go to the papers with this? The tabloids would love it, even if it wasn’t true.”
“Because your silence will be obtained tonight.”
“I’m not for buying off, you know.”
“You’ll lay low after tonight. When you see who’s at the party, you’ll stay quiet, of that, I’m sure!”
“Should I have packed an overnight bag? This evening sounds like it might be an all-nighter. I hate going home the next morning, dressed to kill. It’s so demeaning when people on the street see you, all having their lewd thoughts of what you’ve been up to.”
“Never fear, Maxie. No-one will have lewd thoughts about you. In fact, I think that there will be several there, tonight, who will only think about you with a sense of satisfaction.”
I sat quietly for a while, thinking about my predicament. He had said that there would be ceremony. That would mean that my death would be the great finale. Time enough, I hoped, for the cavalry to arrive. At this point I had no idea if there would be any cavalry. If I ended up in a grave in the garden, they would be able to find me if the tracker was still sending. I had to remain looking stupid.
“Any idea what’s on the menu? I only ate light at lunch, so that I didn’t spoil my appetite.”
“I haven’t seen the menu, but I expect that there will be something good. We use staffers who have cooking skills to cater at these events. They are very good at what they do and a few of them are wives of the members, so nothing gets into the public eye.”
Marianne Gregory © 2024
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