Toxic Justice, page 16
part #18 of DI Lorne Simpkins Series
“I think you’re doing the right thing, Lorne. I’m behind you all the way.”
“Let’s go break the news to them.”
“Wait, let’s not be too hasty. We should check on Graham and Pat first, see how their interviews are panning out.”
“You’re right.”
She spent the next five minutes consulting with her colleagues. They had nothing of significance to share. Lorne instructed them to let the boys go with a firm warning.
Then she and Sean reentered Interview Room Two again, sat at the desk and started the tape. “We’ve decided to let you go with a warning this time.”
Brian, who had damp cheeks, as if he’d been crying in their absence, glanced at his mum. She drew him into her arms and grinned at Lorne. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to pin anything on my children. Maybe I should make a complaint to your superior officers.”
“That’s your prerogative, Mrs Swallow,” Sean jumped in before Lorne had a chance to defend herself.
“All I want to do now is get my kids home, where I know they’ll be out of harm’s way.”
“We still need to warn Brian and Billie about their future behaviour. These interviews and cautions will be entered on their files for future reference. Mend your ways now, Brian, before it’s too late and you end up in prison like your brother,” Lorne warned.
At the mention of her other son, Mrs Swallow narrowed her gaze at Lorne.
Lorne shrugged and ended the tape. “Shall we go next door and break the news to your daughter now? Brian, make your way back to the reception area, and your mother and sister will join you in a moment.”
After reading Billie the riot act with both her mother and the duty solicitor present, she was released as well. At the reception area, Mrs Swallow had the audacity to kick up a stink with the desk sergeant when he refused to lay on a taxi to ferry them home. Lorne ignored the woman’s pleas and ascended the stairs with Sean. They entered the incident room. Graham and Pat were discussing the interviews that had taken place with Karen.
“Okay, team. It’s been a really long day. I want to thank you all for your hard work. Let’s go home and get some rest. Tomorrow we begin afresh. I hope we don’t regret our actions in the meantime.”
The team gathered their belongings and left for the evening.
“I don’t suppose you fancy a drink?” Sean asked after she’d collected her coat from the office.
“Can we take a rain check on that, boss. It’s kind of late, and by the time I get home…”
He waved away her excuse. “Of course. Have a good evening, Lorne, and say hello to Tony for me.”
Lorne cringed. Sean would hit the roof if ever she revealed that Tony was aware of ‘that kiss’. “Take care, boss. See you in the morning. Katy should be back in tomorrow, unless little Georgina deteriorates overnight.”
“Great news. It’s been good working alongside you over the last few days, Lorne. Please don’t have sleepless nights about the decision we made today.”
“I’ll try. Goodnight, boss.” Lorne followed him out of the room, switched the light off and closed the door behind her.
During the drive home, she had a brainwave. It was inevitable that she’d have a sleepless night, but it wouldn’t be because of the actions she’d taken with Brian and Billie today.
Chapter 11
Lorne drove back into work the next morning needing matchsticks to keep her eyes open. Even dousing them with an eyebath of Optrex hadn’t helped ease the soreness. Her heart was pumping hard, however, when she drew into the car park at the station. She crossed the tarmac and spotted Katy pull in before she reached the main entrance.
“Hello, stranger. How’s Georgina?” She hugged her partner, realising how much she had missed not seeing her over the past few days.
“Nice welcome, thanks. She’s better. AJ is under strict instructions to ring me the second he thinks something isn’t right with her. Christ, I’ve turned into one of those annoying paranoid parents that always get on my nerves.”
Lorne chuckled. “You have a right to be paranoid after experiencing what you’ve been through with the poor mite.”
“Back to work, if only to take my mind off worrying what’s going to happen to our little girl next. How’s the case going?”
“It’s not.” On the trip upstairs to the incident room, Lorne briefly gave Katy the lowdown on what had come to light on the case since her enforced time off work.
“Bloody hell. I can understand why you’d let the kids off, but where do we go from here?” Katy asked once all the team were assembled around the whiteboard.
“I’ve been up all night thinking about that. Here’s what I think we should do next.”
“Go on, we’re all ears,” Katy urged.
“Katy, you and I are going to pay the older Swallow son a visit.”
Katy frowned. “In prison?”
“Yep.”
Katy shook her head and glanced around the room at the other team members. “May I ask why?”
“Just go along with me on this one. Call it a gut instinct.”
Katy groaned, just like Pete used to. “You have to give us more than that, boss.”
Lorne shrugged. “Trust me. Hey, let’s face it, after yesterday’s depressing failure, what other leads do we have?”
“But prison? How the heck is he going to help?”
“We’ll soon find out. I made the appointment last night. We’re due at Wandsworth Prison at eleven-thirty this morning.”
Katy took a sip of her coffee. “You’ve obviously got your reasons for going. Why all the secrecy?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m being secretive, just cautious after what we’ve had to contend with so far.”
Lorne parked the car, and she and Katy left the vehicle. Katy shuddered when she took in the bleak façade of the stone building.
“Have I told you how much I hate these places?”
Lorne sniggered. “Once or twice over the years, I seem to recall. Would you rather stay in the car and wait for me?”
“No. I’ll be fine once I’m inside. Maybe it harks back to my days as a child. Mum and Dad took me to Devon on holiday, and we ended up in Princetown, you know, where the legendary Dartmoor Prison is located.”
“Really? They thought it would be a great place to visit with children? Do you think they were trying to keep you in line?”
“Whatever their reasons were behind the visit, it did the trick. I think they were as shocked as I was when we came across the bloody prisoners working in a large group near a forest. Nearly made me poo my pants.”
It was Lorne’s turn to shudder. “Wow, I bet it did. How old were you?”
“I think around five or six at the time. It wasn’t just seeing them that scared the crap out of me. There was a damn mist surrounding them that really freaked me out. It was seriously like a scene out of one of those old horror movies. You know, the ones with Boris Karloff.”
“We used to visit my gran some weekends, and she let us stay up every Saturday night to watch the Double Bills of Horror movies with her. So yeah, I know exactly what you’re referring to.”
“Wow, I wish my gran had done that.”
Lorne laughed. “They got a bit samey after a while. I can imagine how porn movies get, not that I know, of course.”
Katy gave her a sideways glance. “Who are you trying to kid?”
“Get outta here. Why would I want to watch that trash when I have a ravishing hunk at home, servicing my every need?”
Katy laughed so hard small tears ran down her cheeks. “Sorry, I don’t mean to laugh. I’m just imagining Tony’s face if ever he overheard you saying that.”
“Okay, enough laughing at my expense. Let’s get back to work.”
They strode towards the main entrance. Lorne introduced herself to the prison officer on guard. Lorne and Katy went through the scanners and afterwards the guard searched their handbags before leading them down a long corridor. He deposited them in a small room with an equally small table at its centre. Lorne and Katy took a seat each on one side of the table and waited patiently for Dylan to join them.
When the young man arrived, Lorne expected him to have chains on his ankles. He didn’t, although he was handcuffed. The guard placed him in the chair opposite Lorne and Katy. Dylan had a look of arrogance about him, sporting spiky blond hair and a thin beard running around the outline of his jaw that Lorne perceived as weird. The prison officer stepped back and leant against the wall.
“Hello, Dylan. My name is Detective Inspector Lorne Warner, and this is my partner, Detective Sergeant Katy Foster. Thank you for agreeing to see us today.”
“No worries, it gets me out of my cell for a while. What’s this about?”
“We were wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling us a little bit about your brother and sister.”
He inclined his head, puzzled. “Billie and Brian?”
“That’s right.”
“Why? What have they done?”
“Are you in contact with your family, Dylan?”
“When it suits. What have they been up to? It must be something bad if you’ve come to see me.”
“We have reason to believe they’ve been bullying other kids, and in some cases those kids have gone on to kill themselves.”
“Fuck me! Are you serious?”
“Oi, less of the language, Swallow,” the officer reprimanded him.
“Sorry. That just came as such a shock. They’re good kids, they wouldn’t be involved in something like this.”
“Good kids don’t usually get expelled from school, Dylan.”
“Whoa, I didn’t know about that. When?”
“At the end of the last school year, I believe. You seem very surprised by the news.”
“Too bloody right. Honestly, I never thought they’d have it in them to be bad.”
Lorne shrugged. “Maybe what you went down for has influenced their behaviour.”
“Why is everything down to me? I get enough of that shitty talk from my mother without hearing it from you as well.”
“I take it your mother isn’t a great support then?”
“Nope. She hasn’t been in touch since the day I was in court.”
“Are you surprised by that?”
“Not really. Mum is, well, just Mum. If you do something that doesn’t please her then you suffer the consequences.” His gaze dropped to his clenched hands in front of him.
Lorne thought this was a strange way to describe his mother. She needed to know more. “Care to enlighten us as to what you mean by that?”
He remained silent. Lorne could tell he was thinking over her question. Maybe he was pondering what to say without it coming across as sounding bitter because his family hadn’t visited him.
“Dylan?” she prompted, after witnessing a range of emotions flooding his face.
“Yep, sorry. I can’t say anything else. It gets me too choked up.”
“Please open up to us, for your siblings’ sakes.”
“Don’t try and guilt-trip me, lady. I don’t owe my family a damn thing.”
She winced. Just when she thought she had him onside and hoped he’d open up to her, he reverted back to being arrogant again. She needed to try a different tack.
“Did your mother know what you were up to, before you got caught, Dylan?”
His gaze rose to lock with hers, his silence deafening.
Lorne smiled, trying to get the lad to confide in her. “Dylan? What aren’t you telling us?”
He shook his head and stared at the table, his hands clenching and unclenching rhythmically as his anxiety rose. “She was behind it.”
Lorne swiftly faced Katy, her heart rate increasing at the confession. “Behind what? You getting caught or behind the armed robbery you were involved in?”
He let a large breath out through his thin lips. “It was her idea. She urged me to take the blame so she could stay with Brian and Billie.”
“What? She was the mastermind behind the robbery and asked you to take the fall for her, is that what you’re telling me, Dylan?”
“Yes. As soon as the court case was over, she dumped me. I haven’t seen any of them since I got here. She’s a bitch in my eyes. A scheming, conniving bitch.”
“Who is capable of what?”
His eyes widened. “You name it. I’m sorry Brian and Billie are still with her. She’ll turn them into Mini-Mes of her. She’s keen to live her life through her kids. She feels she missed out marrying our father when she was so young and is keen to reclaim her life. She used me. Wanted me to do the armed robbery to get the cash needed for her to start over somewhere new.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you dob her in to the police or during your court case? Why take the blame for something she was instrumental in putting together?”
“Because of the kids. She uses them as pawns in her mind games. Always makes it clear that they would be taken into care if she got banged up.”
“That’s terrible. Now she’s using the kids, encouraging them to bully other pupils to get her kicks, is that what you’re telling me?”
“Hey, I don’t know the ins and outs. I only know those kids used to be good. No idea what has happened to them since I’ve been banged up in here, because they’ve all cast me aside.”
“Sorry to hear that. Are you sure your mother would use Brian and Billie in this way?”
“Why not? She did it to me. If I hadn’t screwed up on the day, who knows what she would have asked me to do for her next? My suggestion would be to get the kids away from her, and quickly.”
Lorne nodded. “I interviewed your brother and sister yesterday about the crimes we’re investigating and I had my doubts when I saw how devastated they were during the course of the interviews.”
“Was Mum there?”
“Yes, legally she had to be.”
“I bet she tried to put the boot in somehow, to make sure the interviews went off course, right?”
Lorne nodded. “She tried. I didn’t allow her to win, though.”
“Good. It takes a strong will to combat her. She’s manipulative, says one thing one minute then changes her mind the next. She expects you to go along with her plans or else…”
“Or else what, Dylan? Do you know to what extremes your mother would go to?”
“It never came to that. She used the kids as an excuse for not taking the blame. I love my kid brother and sister. I don’t hold a grudge with them; they’ve got no say in whether they come and visit me or not. You need to get them away from her, quick smart. She’s an evil bitch. It’s only a matter of time before she uses them to achieve what she wants. Usually, that’s for money. It was in my task anyway.”
“Let me tell you where we stand. We brought your sister and brother in for questioning regarding three suicides of children in the area. On each of the kids’ phones we found a text message, telling them to end their lives. We had no way of tracing the calls because—”
“They came from burner phones, right?” Dylan finished off for her.
“That’s right. We also took the victims’ laptops in to be examined and discovered they each had threatening emails from an ISP that led back to your home address. We presumed it was Billie and Brian sending those emails. Are you telling me it could be your mother?”
“There’s no could be about it. I reckon it’s a nail-on possibility. You’re barking up the wrong tree if you think it’s the kids. It’s her you need to pull in for questioning. She’s laughing at you.”
“Not for long. Thanks for your time and for being so open with us, Dylan. I’ll have a word with the CPS, see if we can arrange some kind of deal or retrial for you.”
His eyes widened. “You’d do that?”
“Of course. You’d need to out your mother, though. Do you think you could do that?”
“After the way she’s ditched me, too damn right. I hope she gets what’s coming to her. Thank you for getting to her before she could use Billie and Brian. Sounds like they’re going to get away by the skin of their teeth.”
“Thanks to what you’ve told us.” Lorne reached across the desk and shook his hand vigorously.
Lorne and Katy raced back to the car. They were halfway between the prison and the station when Lorne received a call on her mobile. She answered it via the Bluetooth connection. “DI Warner.”
“Hello, this is Mrs Lowe. Is it possible for you to drop by and see me? It’s urgent.”
“Of course. Everything all right, Mrs Lowe?”
“For now. I need your expertise to decide what to do next. Please, I’d rather not discuss this over the phone, Inspector.”
“We’ll be with you in around fifteen minutes.”
“I appreciate it. See you then.”
Lorne ended the call and put her foot down. “Sounds bloody ominous.”
“What about Mrs Swallow? Shall we call it in, get someone else to pick her up?”
“She can wait another half an hour or so. I personally want the pleasure of seeing her gobsmacked face when we arrive at her door to arrest her.”
Chapter 12
The car skidded to a halt. Lorne and Katy sprinted through the main hallway and into the reception office. “Mrs Lowe rang, requesting to see us,” Lorne told the startled receptionist.
“Come right through, she told us to expect you.”
The receptionist lifted the hatch in the counter and then pushed open the door to Mrs Lowe’s office. When Lorne and Katy entered, Mrs Lowe thanked the receptionist and then broke down in tears.
“Whatever is the matter, Mrs Lowe?”
“It was horrible. My nerves are still in tatters.” She held up her shaking hand to prove her point.
“I’m lost. You’re going to have to tell us what this is all about.”
“One of the pupils found his way up onto the roof of the building. He was going to jump.” She sobbed and buried her head in her hands.
