IC - 26 - Calm Before the Storm - Everyone

[Mephistophilis]

Monday morning, 15th March 2010, High Wycombe Police Station

Two days since Regina Balfour was rescued.

Stopping off at the Yew Tree, they take a few minutes of hammering on the door to wake the decorator. He looks knackered and reeks of stale alcohol. 'Oh, it's you. Thought you'd have sent someone last night,' he grumbles. Jocelyn throws him the keys and joins Kris and Simon in their tour through the greatest hits of the Canadian chanteuse.

-----

At the station there's a diesel generator chugging away in the car park and the power is back on. In the incident room half the computers are gone and lots of the evidence has been boxed up and stacked in the corner. There's no sign of Malone but DC Burke is leaning over the shoulder of a young female uniformed officer, a leering smile on his face.

Burke looks up as they walk in. 'Where the fuck have you been Sapru? There's about a tonne of paperwork here with your name on it.'

[Mr. Handy]

"The power went out in Slough too," says Jocelyn. "The outages are spreading. Any updates on the case?"

[Philulhu]

”Professional as ever,” Kris snapped back at Burke. He glanced at the young WPC then back at Burke and said slyly, ”How’re the IPCC getting on with that sexual harassment case?”

[Mephistophilis]

'Fuck off Kris,' retorts Burke. He reluctantly takes one final look down the uniformed officer's top, before hauling himself over to another computer.

'Case is over. All solved. We're closing everything down. Time for DC Sapru to stop pissing about playing RoboCop and do some paperwork.' He starts booting up the desktop, 'Still no internet so we've only got the local files,' he grumbles. 'But plenty for you and your consultants to be getting those reports started.' He glances up at their blank faces, 'Oh, and the DI left something for you, it's over there.' He points to an A4 manila envelope sitting on an otherwise empty table.

Kris strolls over, he notes it isn't addressed. He rips it open. There's a single sheet of A4 paper, printed rather than handwritten, unsigned. It is a series of bullet points:

- JZ - Banbury custody - bail hearing AM - unlikely
- RB - S44 EPO - lost parent copy - appeal in 72hrs
- Rev B - Ch Insp go for 2 man surv team - 24hrs only - Grey & Adebayo depld

Kris knows that S44 EPO means that there's an Emergency Protection Order under Section 44 of the Children Act, sounds like Malone did talk to Goldfarb and she's got a court order to keep Regina in an emergency placement, at least for the next few days. Looks like Goldfarb 'forgot' to file notice to the Balfours so they'll still have a chance to appeal if they find out - they have 72hrs to do so.

He also knows that Chris Adebayo is a pretty diligent if somewhat pedestrian uniformed officer who sometimes helps out the CID on surveillance and other special assignments. Ollie Grey of course he's all to familiar with, looks like Malone might have authorised carrying a firearm on this stakeout. They must have got through to him on some level!

[Philulhu]

Without looking at Burke but holding up a middle finger in his direction, Kris showed the note to Jocelyn and Simon. ”A bit of progress,” he said, explaining the details.

[Silver Priest]

Simon is mollified somewhat by this news. "Looks like Regina will be safe, at least. I suppose we can hope that it's enough to deter Balfour-- he is a narcissist after all, and no doubt he'd like to sacrifice his own child to prove he's the Lord's favored or some such.Though it's not something I believe we can rely on. If we had the time I'd suggest making a list of all the church members with young children, but I doubt we have the time or, frankly, ability to observe all of them the day of the ritual.

"Zero's also likely to stay in jail, even with Balfour's high priced lawyer, which is also a positive; he strikes me as one of Balfour's most trusted agents, and he was trying to do something for him yesterday. Perhaps we should try and get his mother in here to talk some sense into him. She was a definite sore spot for him. But on the other hand he may be too far gone to consider flipping now. It may be worth a try, but I'd not get our hopes up.

"I don't know about this surveillance team but I assume they're good, dependable agents. Is it worth giving either of them a heads up about what to expect?"

[Mr. Handy]

"It does say Johnny Zero is unlikely to get bail," says Jocelyn, "but we might want to make sure. I know my testimony of his actions during the pursuit could be helpful in making certain he stays locked up for good. Plus, his mother is likely to be there, so we could talk to her there. Then we can join in on the surveillance. It's a shame it was only authorised for 24 hours, but we can take over once Grey and Adebayo are done. Kris, you'd know them better than we would. We may also want to talk to Lucy at some point today."

[Philulhu]

”Making sure Zero stays behind bars seems to the first place to start,” replied Kris. “Grey and Adebayo are solid, but we might try to swing past to talk to them, brief them on what we know.”

Can Kris try calling the CPS to find out what time the hearing is?

[Mephistophilis]

Kris calls up Banbury Magistrates' Court and finds out that Johnny's case is listed to be heard at 10am. Given what he's been accused of it wouldn't be surprising if his case was sent to the Crown Court for trial. Then the Magistrate would just have to decide on bail, which seems unlikely given he was attempting to escape from the police.

[Silver Priest]

"Sounds as though normal conditions would indicate he'd stay in jail, but I would wager most who did what he did are not represented by such high priced solicitors." Simon points out. "I don't think it can hurt to swing by and try to make sure he remains behind bars. I'm more concerned as to why Balfour is going to such lengths to spring him, however. My best assessment is that he's deathly afraid of Johnny flipping-- given what he knows-- and is pulling out all the stops to convince the man to stay silent. I wish we could find a way to get him talking, but he's a brick wall. He's willing to condemn himself and countless other people to hell to satisfy Balfour, who is probably some sort of a twisted father figure to him. The only vulnerability I see is his mother, and I'm not convinced even she could sway him."

[Mr. Handy]

"That's a good point," says Jocelyn. "Balfour will want to make sure he doesn't talk. That's presumably why he hired that expensive solicitor. He may even go so far as to kill Johnny if he thinks he's said too much. We'd better get down there, just in case. His mother may very well be there. I'll drive."

[Philulhu]

Kris went off to see if there was a car they could use…

[Mephistophilis]

Civilian contractors run the service vehicle pool at the police station. They share a look of alarm as Kris wanders down looking for a vehicle. 'Ah, Kris, what happened to your own car?' one of them asks, knowingly.

[Philulhu]

”I left it parked in a tree, thanks to the blackout last night,” said Kris. “I’ll try and look after this one a bit better. But you seem to have got word about that anyway, so shall we skip the chat so I can get on with my work?” He smiled thinly.

[Mephistophilis]

'Sure, your car's in the pound when you want it back. I'm sure we can waive the recovery fee.' She returns his weak smile. 'But seriously, you're getting a bit of a reputation. Please take care of this one'

She points out a white Astra. Unmarked. But it's clearly seen better days. Kris gets the feeling he's not popular with the car pool guys. He can't imagine why, he's only crashed one service vehicle. And his own car. But then Jocelyn managed to smash up her own car and the Rev Balfour's. Actually, they are going through vehicles at quite a rate aren't they?

[Philulhu]

Kris eyed up the Astra. ”Thanks,” he said dryly, then pocketed the keys and went off to find Jocelyn and Simon.

[Mr. Handy]

I succeeded at my Drive Auto rolls, though I had to spend Luck for one of them. The car was damaged by the hailstones. Not my fault!

[Silver Priest]

"Ready to go, then?"asks Simon.

[Philulhu]

”Yeah,” replied Kris. ”Let’s go and see what Johnny’s got to say to the judge.”

[Mr. Handy]

"I'll drive," says Jocelyn. "I'm unlikely to wreck it, and if the worst does happen, they won't be able to blame it on you."