"We need to get on top of this immediately." He told Jack, Gina and Sam. "The Borough Commander wants it under control by the end of the month."
It was a tall order, CID were working flat out Jack and Sam explained, and the meeting took a more hostile mood when Adam told them that information was being leaked.
"Well, I can assure you it is not coming from uniform." Gina said.
"What are you suggesting? that anything goes wrong around here and it's automatically CID's fault?"
"I don't think there is a single officer in CID, apart from you Jack, who has their mind 100 on the job, things are bound to slip through."
"My department and my officers work twice as hard as uniform, CID is not an end of shift and you can switch off job, and well you know it." Jack answered. He was annoyed at Gina's tone.
Sam was also annoyed she was trying her best to bring some moral into the department as well juggle life as a single mum. She wasn't the only parent in the department either so she did try to be understanding. Sam felt that her line manager, DCI Meadows was supportive enough to her. The low morale throughout the whole station was understandable, given all that had happened with the fire and then Chandler killing himself. You only had to look at Debbie McAllister to see that Meadows was a supportive line manager.
"We will discuss it with them, but I agree with the DCI, I don't see how the leak could be coming from us." Sam added to what he'd said.
This was getting them nowhere and so the meeting ended. Gina was fuming at Adam.
"Thank you for backing me up." She said when the others had left.
DS Phil Hunter was out meeting a snout Ron Gregory. He didn't like the business that Gregory was in, but he was becoming accustomed to the payoff he was earning for keeping Gregory one step ahead of the game, even though he knew he was sailing close to the edge.
"Look, I need to be careful." Phil told his snout.
"No, no, Listen, I think you have misunderstood something, you no longer call the shots around here. You gave up that right when you started accepting my money."
"Meadows is watching me like a hawk. If I were you I'd change the venue for the private parties." Phil answered and drove off.
When Jack Meadows and Sam Nixon returned to CID from the meeting with Superintendent Okaro, his wife Laura was waiting to see him.
"Hi Love, what's up?" He said as he took his jacket off and sat at his desk.
"The bank statement arrived this morning, there's over £1000.00 missing, Jack." Laura answered.
"£1.075, yeah, I paid the deposit for Ben's flat for him."
"Oh I see, we can't afford a holiday this year, but you can go around lending the kids money."
"We can afford a holiday, but just not in school holidays, I can't get the time off, anyway, this could wait until I got home." He said.
"No, no it can't. I don't want you to come home." Laura said. Matter-of-factly.
"What?" Jack asked. He heard what she had said but didn't understand what she meant. It had come out of the blue without warning and shocked Jack.
"You heard, as of now I don't want to be with you, I've packed you an overnight bag.
"Laura, Ben needs to move nearer his job, we've been through all this, now we'll discuss it tonight when I get home." Jack answered.
Sam Nixon came into the room with the coffee she'd gone to make after the meeting.
"Do you need me to spell it out, Jack?" Laura asked. "OK then, our marriage is over, not that it means anything to you anyway." She shouted. "Excuse me please." She said to Sam as she left the office.
Jack didn't know where to look, he wanted the ground he was standing on to open up and swallow him. Sam put his coffee on the desk.
"Thank you. Where is everyone? I want to do a briefing."
"Guv, don't you want to go after her?" Sam asked.
"You heard the super, he wants this sorted out now."
"Guv"
Phil Hunter followed Gregory to his apartment in the new development, there weren't many people living there yet so it would be quite difficult for Meadows to mount an obbo. That meant that it was safe to pass a rough location address onto Meadows and Nixon. Word of Mrs. Meadows leaving the station in tears and the DCI being in a thunderous mood had spread like wildfire and it didn't seem like a good idea to go back with nothing. When he arrived back at the station Meadows called him into the office,
"So, what have we got then?"
"Not much really, Guv, Gregory is moving into one of the apartments on the new development, but I think that is a residential address."
"Could we set up an obbo, I mean he's taking these girls somewhere?"
"Well, there aren't a lot of people living there yet, I don't think all the flats have been sold and the development is losing money."
Jack's ears pricked up, he didn't really want a bed-sit and if he and Laura were going to split up then he wanted somewhere nice to live.
"Right, who are the developers?"
"Oh, it's OK Guv, I am on it, and I am watching him." Hunter answered.
"Just tell me Phil, Please."
Uniform had arrested one of Gregory's running boys and Inspector Gina Gold went upstairs to inform CID, Jack was looking through the accommodation section of the paper when she went in.
"Do you think Laura meant it then?" she asked
"Leave it." Jack snapped. "What did you want?"
"To tell you we have Tariq ferros in custody."
"What for?"
"Possession. Look you either want them arrested or you don't."
"Right, get uniform to interview him, there's no-one from CID available, and I am going."
"Right Sir." Gina answered. "Aren't you on-call tonight?"
"Yes." He snapped at her again, "Just. just let me deal with this, please? Is the Super back yet?" He was tense and Gina could see it.
"No, he's not. Jack, do you need anything? I'll cover tonight if you want."
"Would you? Just for a few hours, while I charge my phone and speak to her."
At that she went back downstairs and Jack left the station. He had been a tower of support to more than a few officers in times of crisis over the years. He'd seen so many copper's marriages breakdown but he never thought his own would. 28 years had to be a record of some sort for a police officer, and a record in itself for a teacher, but to put the two together. Laura meant everything to him, oh they'd had their ups-and-downs but they'd always got through it. He drove home, but she didn't want to speak to him, she wanted some space so he found a bed and breakfast for the night. He didn't want to upset either of the kids just now, not until they talked about it properly themselves.
Gina Gold should have knocked off by the time Adam Okaro returned from his meeting at Scotland Yard, but she wanted to make sure that he knew what was going on, because Jack probably wouldn't say anything.
"Hi, what are you still doing here?" Adam asked.
"I'm covering the on-call for Jack for a few hours, a crisis at home."
"Jack? Jack Meadows?" Adam was surprised,
"It must be a pretty serious crisis." "Oh, it is, I
think, especially when you've been together as long as they have,
30 years nearly."
"They've split up? I didn't even know they were having problems. Did you?"
"er, I don't think Jack knew either!"
Adam had been following up leads from Scotland Yard on the Gregory case. Ron Gregory was a very dangerous man and he'd been moving around London slipping through the net for some time now. Adam had also started to have suspicions the mole in Sun Hill was actually Phil Hunter. Given the stress that Meadows was clearly under right now, Adam decided to check the property development out for himself. He was at a property viewing when he met Jack.
"What are you doing here, Jack" he asked
"Looking at a flat for myself and to check out if we could set up an obbo."
"They are nice
apartments."
"I just need somewhere to live, kind of soon." Jack answered
When Adam tried to negotiate with the developers they didn't want to have anything to do with the police, and it looked as though the obbo was off. Jack had more luck and had rented the flat directly opposite Gregory's and from his new bedroom window could see straight into Gregory's.
Borough Commander Filtzwilliam had called in at Sun Hill again to talk to the senior officers about the case, she wanted Gregory watched at all times.
"Go back to the developers; we need them to agree to an observation."
"Actually, I have just rented one on the other side of the street; we could run it from there, M'am." Jack said.
"Oh Jack." Adam said, "Are you sure you want to do that, with everything else that is going on."
"No, it sounds perfect, and given the seriousness of the crime I say we run with it." Fitzwilliam answered. "What else is going on anyway?"
Jack looked away uncomfortably, he didn't feel that now was the time or the place to discuss it. Adam answered though.
"It's personal
M'am. I'll run with it as long as it's not going to make
things any more difficult for you Jack."
'No, it's fine; I want this wrapped up as quickly as possible."
Ron Gregory was looking for a new conquest and Joanna Sharpe fitted the description requested by one of his associates. Ron didn't realize the she was a copper's kid and carried on with planning her abduction. He followed her to and from school for a week and watched what she liked to do and eat. She was so young and innocent.
He had Phil Hunter well and truly in his pocket now, and Hunter was aware that he knew who the beloved Cindy was, and where to find her. That was his insurance against Hunter.