IC - 28 - The Big Smoke - Simon and Jocelyn

[Mephistophilis]

'You think you have enough to apply for an Emergency Protection Order?' he asks. 'We could get you in front of a judge by this afternoon.'

OOC:   Regina was removed from the Balfours under the same legislation. Kris could roll Law to get an idea of his chances of succeeding and what the ramifications might be.

[Philulhu]

Law (54%) 1d100

For God’s sake!

[Philulhu]

”I think it’s worth a try,” said Kris. ”Hopefully the success of getting an order for Regina will stand us in good stead.”

[Mephistophilis]

'Well get yourself back here and I'll arrange an emergency hearing with the Family Court. We'll get Bucks Social Services involved as well...' His voice trails off.

'Wait a minute, did you say Louise Hayman, doesn't she live in London?'

His voice rises, 'Are you conducting unauthorised surveillance on the Met's turf?'

[Philulhu]

I feel this is something Kris would know as a serving officer, but I’m not up to date on jurisdictional niceties.

”Sorry, Sir, but my concern was for the child. Miss Leigh and Dr Eagleton needed back-up, so we could ascertain whether the child was safe,” replied Kris, through gritted teeth.

[Mephistophilis]

'Hmm...' Malone doesn't seem particularly convinced by Kris's explanation but he doesn't say anything more about it. 'That complicates things a bit. If you can get yourself to...yes, here it is, Bromley County Court, I can contact...Lewisham Social Services, get them involved. Have a social worker meet you there. But it'll be up to you and your team to convince the judge the child's in imminent danger. If you fail that'll tip off Balfour, if you're right.' Then, almost as an afterthought he adds, 'And don't let the Met catch you. They don't take kindly to outside forces on their territory. I could do without a phone call about whatever you've been up to. Got it?'

OOC:   I'm no expert but my understanding is that British police forces are able to operate anywhere in the country (it isn't like the US) but it is considered polite to let the local force know that you're carrying out operations in their area. So Kris hasn't really done anything wrong.

[Philulhu]

”Got it,” replied Kris. Obviously Malone planned to deny all knowledge of what they’d been up to, if it came down to it.

Kris goodbye to Malone and ended the call. Then he quickly called Jocelyn to the others about the latest development.

[Mr. Handy]

"The nail bar's open for business now," says Jocelyn. "It's a gamble to try to get an Emergency Protection Order, and it will tip our hand, but it could work. The only problem is that Balfour would resort to Plan C. He just needs a child. Any child. We'll need eyes on him at all times once he's aware that this avenue is closed to him. Once he tries to grab a child, we can catch him in the act."

[Silver Priest]

"I don't see any feasible way to gain custody of Ms. Hayman's child. We have no evidence of any intent to harm her. It only worked with Regina due to the recent kidnapping, but even that was difficult for me to persuade social services of-- and I am rather persuasive. I'm no expert, but I find it difficult to believe there's a judge in this country who would side with us based off our interpretation of Balfour's interpretation of Biblical fables.

"There's also the point that Balfour just needs a child, and I seem to recall a few youngsters among his congregation. They'll almost certainly be at the service with their families. I'm not suggesting it would be easy for him to convince their parents to hand them over, but he has significant sway over his followers, and there's a decent chance one of them would go along with his plan.

"The way I see it, we have two options.Option A; find a way to get the service canceled. Option B: Get to Ms. Hayman and find a way to make her flip. Exceptionally difficult I suspect, but her testimony could be invaluable."

[Philulhu]

Kris sighed. ”Well, I’ve got Malone expecting me to head to court to meet a social worker, so what do you suggest we do?” he asked.

[Silver Priest]

"Call him back and tell him you don't have a case as it stands," Simon advises. "He'd appreciate not having egg on his face. Frankly were I the judge in charge of this I'd laugh us out of court. The best evidence we have is Johnny Zero's actions, and if I recall Balfour threw him to the wolves to disassociate him from the rest of the church.

"I tried to dig up evidence towards threats towards the service to see if we could pressure Malone to shut it down for public safety." He tries to recall if he found enough over the last evening of browsing the horrors of social media. "Failing that... I think our best course of action is to try and flip Hayman. If I get her alone and bluff her that the police know all about the plot, and only if she cooperates will she ever see her daughter again, I'm reasonably confident she'd cooperate. Perhaps not enough to bet the world on mind, but I see vanishingly few other options otherwise."

[Mr. Handy]

"Trying to flip her is a big gamble too," says Jocelyn, "but if anyone can manage it, it's you. We don't know how dedicated a cult member she is. We know she's paranoid, though, and we can use that against her. She doesn't know how much we know, but if she thinks we already know everything, she may realise it's over. Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll physically assault us. That would let us remove her from the board."

[Silver Priest]

"Yes well, I'm not the best at persuasion, I should note. Oddly enough many find me a bit of a pontificating blowhard, if my teacher evaluations are anything to go by. But true talent is often hard to recognize.

And what I do know is the human mind. Ms. Hayman strikes me a true believer that the end of the world is coming and that sinners will be judged. She wishes to avoid this, for her own well being but more importantly for her young child. If we're correct Balfour has convinced her to offer up her child as an act of selfless love that will be smiled upon by God et cetera, et cetera. But if I can convince her that the police now know of Balfour's intentions and her daughter will be taken away from her never to be seen again unless she cooperates-- well, I believe that I can either compel her cooperation or get her to admit something incriminating we can use.

"Now, what you can assist me with is getting her alone. Hopefully they take lunch soon and her coworker dips out, whereupon I will make my move."

[Mephistophilis]

Searching online for threats against the church service would be a Computer Use or a Library Use (probably more the latter which you're better at).

[Silver Priest]

1d100

[Philulhu]

What time is it?

[Mr. Handy]

"If there are any customers in the shop, or if any enter, it won't work there," says Jocelyn. "We may be better off maintaining surveillance until they make a move for the daughter and then intervening. I'm not certain that an emergency protection order won't be granted, though. We only need to stall them for one more day, and then it'll be too late. We've seen enough of their behavior and can tie it to the cult and its criminal elements, and we can always play the terrorism card. I'm hoping the court would err on the side of caution and not want to be responsible for the death of a child, or worse, because they didn't listen when they were specifically warned. All we're asking for is 24 hours. That's not that much."

[Silver Priest]

"We'll have to wait until the store is empty or she leaves," says Simon. "I do still like the idea of confronting her. I'm skeptical any judge would give us a protective order; we saw Lindsay went that route and tried to legitimately remove Regina from her family and it failed because she had no actionable evidence. Neither do we. Even if we did, sort of getting the service canceled there's no way Balfour won't have access to more children in his congregation. And I strongly suspect it makes no real difference to Balfour what child he uses-- he'll likely be able to justify using a teenager if he had to in in his zealotry. And we know that even if we forced him to cancel the service he'd just try it again later, and his cult would stick with him, just like they did before.

"The only permanent solution as I see it is to flip someone on the inside, and Louise may be our best option." He insists.

[Mr. Handy]

"Could we try both?" suggests Jocelyn. "First we could try to get the protective order, and then we could try to flip Louise, whether or not we're successful. She may actually be grateful if we are, because she won't have to sacrifice her daughter. Balfour will try to go after another child himself when he can't get his hands on her, but that's when we can make our move on him, and we'll have him dead to rights."

[Philulhu]

”OK, so I’m still going to court? I don’t need to ring Malone and tell him we’ve had a change of heart?” asked Kris. ”Good, because I don’t want to have to listen to him lecture me on why my employment will be severely curtailed!”

He pulled out his phone to check the route to the Court. “I’ll have to get the bus,” he said. “But at least there’s a Sainsbo’s nearby - I can grab some deodorant there before I go into court!”