IC - 24 - They Think It's All Over

[Mephistophilis]

Sunday afternoon, 14th March 2010, High Wycombe Police Station

One day since Regina Balfour was rescued.

There is a relaxed atmosphere back at the station when they return. Officers are starting to pack up files into boxes. DI Malone explains that in the absence of Johnny Zero there's not much more for them to do. He offers them a drink, to mark the end of the case. He notes that Regina remains in the custody of social services for the moment but Balfour's lawyers are putting a lot of pressure on them to let her go.

Word has come back from the Metropolitan Police in London about the two addresses they visited. Louise Hayman is not known to them, runs a nail bar in Southwark, says she hasn't had any contact with Johnny for years and only knew him in passing back then. Steve Brown is known, used to run with the same crowd as Johnny back in the day, convictions for drug possession and dealing a decade ago but nothing since. Not on the Met's radar and currently working as a support worker in a drugs charity. He says Johnny was round a few months ago - asking about a few of their contacts from the bad old days and he got the sense he was after a gun. Steve says he didn't tell him anything.

What do you want to do?

[Mr. Handy]

Let's get Rachel's statement first. Hopefully that will delay Regina being returned to her parents, as it implicates Balfour and connects him to Johnny.

[Philulhu]

Agreed - that seems like the course of action most likely to stymie Balfour.

[Silver Priest]

Sounds good. Is there anyway we can press charges on Balfour for assault on Simon and threatening Jocelyn? Even if the charges are thrown out, I'm guessing it makes it that much more difficult for Balfour to get Regina back when he's facing them, and even the best lawyers probablly cannot get them tossed in less than a week.

[Philulhu]

It wouldn’t hurt to make a statement so it can be submitted as evidence against Balfour. The more we have, the more difficult it would life for him.

[Mephistophilis]

Later in the afternoon Rachel comes in to the station and makes a statement. There's not much more to it than they've already heard from her. She minimises any supernatural experiences but talks about Balfour's prophecies regarding the end of the world and making a sacrifice. She turns over what notes she has but they're pretty sparse and mostly filled with character studies of various church members.

Simon and Jocelyn also give brief statements about Balfour's attack and threats against them.

DI Malone looks pretty sceptical when shown the statements. He doesn't think it is likely they'll be able to press charges against Balfour with what they've got on him but he reluctantly agrees to run it past the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers. They'll get back to him by tomorrow. Until then Regina remains in the care of social services.

What else will you do? There's not much time left for Sunday but you've got Monday which will be a full working day. Don't think you've looked into James Williams in Wycombe.

[Mr. Handy]

Then we should definitely look into him next.

[Silver Priest]

Simon wishes to protest, but he gets the sense Malone just wants this entire matter dropped. Hopefully the Crown would think different, but if nothing else at least they've kept Regina away from Balfour for another day. They only had to stall for one more, now. Of course the Balfour problem still needed to be dealt with more permanently or this would likely just end up happening again.And for that they needed to find Johnny Zero. He was their best hope of getting something about the reverend's intentions.

In the meantime, he joins the others into looking into James Williams.

"It occurs to me that as a Hail Mary we could look into that reporter woman." He tells Kris and Jocelyn. "She seems a vulture like most reporters. If Balfour's about to get Regina back and we have exhausted all other options we may wish to speak with her and tell her what we know about Balfour. She's a sympathetic source but I doubt she could resist a good exclusive. I'm highly reluctant to do this, however, given this would almost certainly destroy both your careers and have severe blowback on mine. One would hope temporarily, but still."

[Mr. Handy]

"Let's not do that if we can help it, says Jocelyn. "She's already proven herself to be on Balfour's side. I wouldn't give much for our chances of convincing her, and if we failed, we'd be finished. I'd sooner try to convince Balfour himself first."

[Silver Priest]

"That's a good point." Simon considers. "Perhaps going to someone in the press in general, one preferably less biased. Even without all of the unusual tricks Balfour employs that would make us sound deranged, we likely have enough to spin a tale of a dangerous religious fanatic who should not have access to children. He attacked me, has connections with groups on a watchlist, and associates with gun slinging criminals. Ideally we'll be able to solve this without taking this step, but I'm not sure. DI Malone seems to want to chose the matter. Rachel may be our only hope, presuming she does not go as insane as Lewiston did. Finding Zero could help as well though, and hopefully this James Williams knows something we can use."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, he's probably our best bet on getting a line on Johnny Zero," says Jocelyn.

[Philulhu]

”Let’s not hang around then,” said Kris. He took a seat at a nearby computer, logged into the PNC and started searching for James Williams.

(65%) 1d100

Edit: ffs…

[Mephistophilis]

Kris is struggling with the PNC this morning and it takes him an age to remember his login and get it all fired up. There's a multitude of James Williams in the system and it takes Kris even longer to remember that he has the mobile number listed as 'Phil' to cross-reference against. This brings up a hit for a James Williams living in the Micklefield area to the east of High Wycombe. He knows it's a multiracial area of primarily council housing, there's a fair amount of poverty but nowhere near the crime of estates like Castlefield. Williams has nothing else on the PNC except for a speeding caution in the late '90s.

[Philulhu]

”I’ve found him,” said Kris, rubbing his temples. He wasn’t sure if it was eye strain or just the teeth-grinding patience required to try to get the information out of the PNC system, but either way he was pretty sure that setting about the terminal with a cricket bat would be a good way to resolve it!

Resisting the urge, he jotted down the address and pushed his chair away from the desk. ’Let’s go,” he said, pulling out his car keys and heading for the door.

[Mr. Handy]

"Let's go," says Jocelyn, grabbing her stuff and following him. "Shall we bring AFOs? Johnny could be there, and we can presume he's armed and dangerous. But we also want to make sure we bring him in alive. We'll need nonlethal weapons."

[Silver Priest]

"As law enforcement, I defer to your judgement," Simon says. "I'd prefer not to go in loud, but given the kind of people Balfour and Johnny are involved with I fear the chances of this sort having a weapon could be high. On the other hand, he has no real record suggesting violence."

[Philulhu]

”Good idea,” said Kris, swerving off in the DI Malone’s office to get authorisation for the AFO’s to join them.

[Mephistophilis]

7pm Sunday 14th March 2010, Micklefield Road, High Wycombe

One day since Regina Balfour was rescued.



Kris, Jocelyn, and Simon pitch up outside a small block of 1980s-built flats in the Micklefield area of High Wycombe, accompanied by two AFOs, including PC Ollie Grey. They can hear him muttering to the other AFO about 'overtime.' Both AFOs have their submachineguns but are also armed with tasers and CS gas.

The address they have for James Williams is number 2. There can't be many flats in the complex but they don't know which floor. The ground floor entrance to the complex is screened behind a rattan fence with an opening next to what looks like a bin store. The first floor flats, of which there appear to be two, have balconies overlooking the car park, also with a rattan railing or fencing. There are two dormer-style windows coming out of the pitched roof, above the two balconies, and one of these has a small grey-painted metal balcony of its own.

There's a white BMW 3 series in the single parking space for number 2 in front of the fence, 2005 plate.

[Mr. Handy]

"It's probably Williams's car," says Jocelyn, "but let's check to make sure. If it's not his, we need to know whose it is. It does seem like a rather expensive car for this area."

[Philulhu]

Kris put a call into the control room. ”Control - can you run a reg check for me? It’s a white BMW 3 series,” and he gave the registration number of the vehicle parked in front of them.