Part 15 (2/2)
”But it's just one woman and one police station,” a man barked, who Barrett knew to make police decisions at the very top table. ”Surely we can just make an example of a few rotten apples in one rotten barrel?”
”Well, let's see now, Alistair: we've got police cover-ups, falsifying evidence and statements to the public; we've got lies about murder cases both past and present. Oh, and some kind of b.l.o.o.d.y magician on the payroll!”
”Psychic,” Barrett couldn't help but interject.
”Excuse me, Commander?” his superior snapped.
”She's a psychic, Sir, ... you know, a medium - talks to the dead and all that...” he said, his voice trailing off.
”Oh. Well now, that's wonderful, Commander; perhaps you and this b.i.t.c.h can get a circus act on the road after all this!”
Barrett kept his mouth shut and made a mental note to continue to do so.
”How much backing have we got to do what might need to be done?”
”The Prime Minister wouldn't even tolerate the suggestion of impropriety,” the first suited man said with a heavy sigh.
”b.l.o.o.d.y boy scout,” the second man snapped.
”This..., Chalmers,” Barrett's boss asked him, looking down at his notes. ”How much can we rely on the man?”
”Superintendant Chalmers is a career officer, Sir; he's a company man.”
”It's too bad that the first case didn't happen on his watch. Then we could just lay everything at his door and be done with it,” the politician sighed.
”And this Parkes woman? When we discredit her, how hard is she going to kick back?”
”I couldn't say, Sir,” Barrett answered honestly.
”Didn't she get an officer killed on the first case?” the second suit asked hopefully.
”An officer did die, yes, Sir - a DI Karl Meyers,” Barrett replied. ”By coincidence the man's son is the lead officer on the new case.”
”Can we use him to get at the woman?”
”The word is that she is helping the son on the new case,” Barrett replied with a wince as the words sunk in around the room.
”Jesus H Christ, what the h.e.l.l sort of division are you running here, Barrett?”
”I can a.s.sure you all that this was done without my knowledge,” he answered meekly.
”Well then. That's Chalmers, the Parkes woman and DI Meyers who all need to take the blame and then the fall, Barrett. I don't care how you do it but I want this mess purged, and quickly, before we add your name to the list.”
”I'm sorry, Sir, just what exactly do you mean?” Barrett asked. ”I want to be of service, honestly I do, but I don't want to be hung out to dry here with a whole barrage of culpable denials down the line.”
”Barrett, just get it done; whatever it takes - whatever.”
With that, the three men left and Barrett was left with three problems and no solutions. This wasn't the movies and he wasn't about to start tampering with brake lines, but he had to deal with a mess of Chalmers' making and he was going to have to get his hands dirty.
Jane knew that what Jessica was asking was as near to impossible as it got. She could no more talk to her boss's deceased mother via a psychic link than she could pick up the phone and dial heaven direct. She'd tried to gently explain this fact, but Jessica wasn't in the mood to listen. Jane cursed herself for wanting to help and agreeing to try.
They were sitting in Jessica's office with the door locked and the staff under strict instructions to give their boss some privacy. She had told them that she was in with the VAT man and was to be disturbed under no circ.u.mstances.
”Have you got something intensely personal belonging to your mother?” she asked.
Jessica removed a silver St Christopher medal from around her neck and pa.s.sed it warily across the desk. ”She wore this until the day she died; she never took it off.”
”Look, Jessica,” Jane tried again. ”This really isn't going to work. It's not something that can be controlled like that.”
”I understand, Jane, but please try; it can't hurt, can it? It's..., it's important that I speak to her.”
Jane sighed and cleared her mind. She gripped the medallion gently but firmly in her hand and opened herself up. Maybe she would get lucky; maybe the G.o.ds would be smiling just this once, and she would find the woman that she was looking for against all odds.
She waited for the doorway to open before stepping across the threshold. Time slowed in the pendulum swing of the scythe's blade and the Shadow World turned into sepia tones. She had tried to find individuals before on the side of the doorway but the world was too large to track down a single person. Faces flooded at her with dizzying speed, and cold tentacles brushed her skin, leaving icy burns that scarred her flesh. She tried to stand against the tirade as the dead pushed at the small gap that she opened, their spirits thudding heavily against her barriers, desperate to force their way free.
She knew almost instantly that this had been a mistake. There was turmoil here like she had never seen before. The dead were surging in a tornado of chaos and she was going to drown here if she didn't get out. Dimly, she was aware of Jessica's voice someway off in the distance, but she could not answer the woman now. The spirits tore at her in desperation and Jane pushed hard at the barrier to close the door with everything that she had. Her recent troubles had hardened her will and strengthened her gift beyond anything that she had been capable of before and it took every ounce of her to force the door shut despite the clawing fingers. And then suddenly it was done.
She stood panting with her hands on her knees, regardless of the fact that she was not really here and any tiredness was all in her mind. With the door closed, she started to catch a scent, something familiar that she hadn't come looking for: it was him.
She followed his trail on instinct, tracking him carefully so as not to alert him to her presence. She was fairly confident now that she could remain undetected, but that didn't stop her from walking as lightly as possible.
His path was narrow and surrounded by darkness. The forest thicket was twisted with wickedly sharp thorns and rotting roots. The smell was rancid and almost overpowering as she followed in his footsteps. There were images off to the side, leering out of the shadows, bright halos of light that soon descended into faces splattered with blood and tortured pain. These were his victims and how he saw them: women who offered him salvation, only to then show their true faces of betrayal.
She walked further into the black heart of his forest, determined to catch sight of something useful, something real to bring him down.
She looked down to see that the forest floor had given way to a stone corridor. She was suddenly inside and so was he. Footsteps echoed off the walls as he walked casually, watching his surroundings. She caught sight of framed pictures hanging in antique frames. The hallway was long and there were multiple doors along the way. The building was old and had a feel of structure and organisation about it. She could hear mumbling voices but they were too fuzzy to make out clearly. He strode purposefully and without fear of discovery as though he was allowed to be here.
Jane tried to look around the outskirts of his vision to catch something identifiable. He paused by a door and suddenly she was sure that he had felt her presence. She froze on the spot and tried to blend into the background of his mind. It seemed like an age before he opened the door and stepped through.
Inside was a huge room full of buzzing people. They seemed smaller and, for a moment, she wondered just how far away they were, before she spotted the fact that they were all female and all wearing the same outfits with sewn badges on the blazers; it was a girls' school and the man was looking out over an ocean of glowing halos.
On a whim, Danny decided to make a few calls and purchase a couple of tickets to the big fight in a couple of weeks' time. Nathan was a big boxing fan and for the first time, Danny thought it might be about time that he started taking some advice concerning his private life. It couldn't hurt, after all.
Bradshaw had slipped away earlier on, after their meeting with Chalmers. The FBI man claimed that he had a little private business to attend to before they'd meet up again later.
The American had certainly proven himself useful when dealing with the superintendant but he was still largely a mystery and Danny did not like unsolved problems.
He was parked up discreetly waiting for Jane. He'd finally gotten hold of her after a day of unanswered phone calls and had been relieved to do so. However, the broken story had screwed all of them and the investigation. Faircliff Police Station was under siege from the national press and every kind of local pressure group demanding answers. The Crucifier case was rapidly becoming smothered under a blanket of bureaucracy and nothing was going to get done anytime soon. Whatever Jane had planned was now going to be their last throw of the dice before Barrett and the suits shut them all down and hung them all out to dry.
He looked up as Jane emerged from the delivery door of the large pet store. She hurried her way across the car park in the most conspicuous attempt at being inconspicuous that he had ever seen.
”What are you doing?” he asked, grinning as she jumped into the car.
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