Ok guys and gals this is my next fic in this series. This follows on from the fic, Memories of a forgotten childhood. This continues with the idea of looking more in depth at Ginas' life. Not quite so sure what is going to happen with this one just yet but hopefully the ideas will keep flowing lol. Thanks to those who reviewed my previous story it is much appreciated. Please read and review this one. Cheers!!!!!!
"Good morning everyone, I trust we are all bright eyed and bushy tailed." Alex said as she walked into the briefing room, only to be greeted by lots of blank, sleepy looks. "Or maybe not as the case may be." She added.
The relief had been out celebrating the previous night in the Seven Bells. Top brass had dipped their hands into their pockets to treat the team, since they had worked extra over time to bust a major crack dealer. They had all earned the right since the crack dealers' heavy's had landed many of them with cuts and bruises, and a couple of them in hospital.
Alex herself had ended up with a fractured wrist but that hadn't stopped her bringing down the crack dealer himself. Heaton had been very impressed by her 'heroics', which Alex had modestly put down to luck.
"Ok moving onto the first topic on our agenda. There has been a spate of street robberies on Canley high street in the last few weeks. Now the Superintendent is very keen that we get a result on this one. As far as our intelligence goes, it's a group of no more than five youths ranging from about fifteen to early twenties. They are targeting older women and as time progresses they seem to be getting more dangerous. Their last victim was Emily Price; she had a serious heart attack due to the assault and is in a serious but stable condition at St Hughes. Ok Reg and Tony you're in 21patrolling Canley high street and the surrounding area. Will and Sally you're on foot patrol on Canley High Street. The rest of you, it's the same patrols as usual." She said.
Once everyone left the briefing room, Alex headed back to the Sergeants office. She walked in to find Smithy wearing his full dress uniform and going over some case notes.
"Oh, don't we look handsome." She teased.
"Just because you're the teachers' pet doesn't mean the rest of us are; some of us actually have to work for a living." He shot back with a smirk.
Alex wacked him on the top of his arm before he pulled her into a tight hug. She kissed him passionately, and giggled as he practically ducked when she ran her hands through his carefully groomed hair.
"Oi careful, it took me ages to get my quiff righ'." He said as he quickly spiked his short brown hair again.
"Are you in court all day?" She asked him grudgingly.
"Yeah I am unfortunately. So it looks like you'll have to buy your own lunch today." He mocked.
She glared at him with her hands on her hips and he smiled cheekily at her.
"Anyway I had better be off or else I'll be late." He said as he kissed her goodbye and headed off down the hall.
Alex sat behind her desk and started on the paperwork that desperately needed doing. It was spilling out of her in-tray untidily and making the office look a mess.
A couple of hours into her shift and Alex had already had enough. She felt the need for some much deserved refs, getting up from her chair and logging out of the computer, she peered across the corridor into her Mums office. Gina was also sat at her desk looking stressed and trying to file through a lot of paper work. Alex went over and opened the door.
"You look like you could do with a coffee break." She said looking at her Mum.
"You're not wrong there." Gina said as she raised herself from her own desk.
They both walked through the corridors down to the canteen and Alex bought them both lunch. Gina relaxed a little now she was away from her office and the mountain of paperwork that awaited her. She hadn't been back long after the death of her Mother. She had decided to take a couple of weeks off as compassionate leave. Her Brother Richard had decided that he had had enough of being in hiding and wanted to come back to Sun Hill for good. They had spent most of the two weeks together catching up on each other's news.
"So, how you doing?" Alex asked.
Gina looked at her daughter with a slight smile.
"I'm fine. I'm getting back into things again now. Davey has been great and it's been nice the three of us being together again. That is him, me and Richard. It's given us a chance to talk about old times." She explained.
"Yeah, and I've finally been able to meet your brother; considering I've heard so much about him." Alex replied.
"You're a lot like him you know, in personality. Although your Dad reckons you look more like me." Gina said.
"Well if that's the case then I can't go wrong can I?" Alex smiled.
"So what are you working on at the moment then?" Gina's tone of voice changed to a much more professional one.
"Well at the moment I'm working on a case that goes back to the very early eighties. It's something that cropped up in another investigation. I haven't got much to go on to be honest, but the paperwork takes up a hell of a lot of time anyway." She said.
"Oh tell me about it. I have mountains of it sitting on my desk and it doesn't seem to be getting smaller." Gina sighed.
"Mmm... and it won't get any smaller if we sit here talking all day unfortunately." Alex said as she stood up from the table.
"I hate to admit it but you're right." Gina said in reply.
The two women made their way back to their individual offices' where Alex settled back down behind her desk. She shuffled the files sat in front of her, switched on the CD player, and began concentrating on the job in hand.
As she read over each statement she came across a name that she recognised; a name that she hoped she was wrong about. She entered his name into crimmint and read the information in front of her. Sure enough it was exactly who she thought it was. She printed the sheet and took it across to Gina.
"Mum, something's come up in my investigation that I think you should have a look at." Alex said as she entered the office and handed her Mum the sheet of paper.
Gina read over it and her blood ran cold.
"Am I right in saying that he's your Dad?" Alex added.
Gina glanced up at her and then nodded her head. She gestured at Alex to sit down, So Alex did as she was told and waited for her Mum to speak.
"What exactly is the case that you're reviewing?" Gina asked calmly.
"It's a robbery from a bank job in April 1980. There were three men involved and a getaway driver. They killed one of the guards and paralysed another before making off with almost two hundred thousand pounds. A few days ago I picked up this guy in his late fifties, early sixties, for beating another older bloke. I wasn't able to get anything really out of him, so started doing a bit of digging and that's when I got involved in the re-investigation of this case. I didn't realise that your Dad was involved until just now." Alex explained.
Gina re-read the sheet of paper in front of her.
"I knew my father was a criminal but I always thought he was low level. I didn't think he would ever get caught up in something like this." Gina exclaimed.
"Well it's certainly a detailed and varied CV he built for himself." Alex commented.
"Mmm... How far into the investigation are you?" Asked Gina.
"Not very far yet. I'm just doing the background checks first." Alex replied.
"Would you mind if I assisted?" Gina asked cautiously. She didn't want Alex to feel like she was breathing down her neck.
"No of course I wouldn't mind. Actually if there's anything you can tell me about your Dad and the company he kept, it would be helpful to the case." Alex said.
"Well there's not an awful lot I can tell you to be honest. I mean you already know that he tried to avoid responsibility for us as much as possible; he used to leave the house early in the morning and not come back until late in the night." Gina said bitterly.
"What would he do when he went out?" Enquired Alex.
"When I was about ten I used to think bookies worked fifteen hour days, because that's exactly what he would work. I realised soon after though that he was working, just not within the boundaries of the law. He made his business successful but it still wasn't enough for him. He became greedy and that's when he started to money launder and, although I'm not sure how, he used to fix results for some of his 'clients'." She explained whilst Alex listened intently.
"How do you mean fix results?" Alex asked curiously.
"When I was fifteen I left school and went to work in one of my Dads' shops, as you know. Quite often some shady character would come in looking for him but they would never place a proper bet. My Dad would always take them into the back, spend about half an hour with them, and then they would leave. He would leave me in charge shortly after and head out somewhere himself. He never told me where he was going, so one day I thought I would follow him."
"So what happened?" Alex butted in.
"Well I followed him to a race track. They were racing dogs and training them. He approached this bloke, they seemed quite pally, and anyway they looked at two dogs that looked very much identical. The other bloke from the bookies arrived and gave the two dogs the once over and then handed my Dad a large amount of money." Gina continued to explain.
"Ok, so what happened next?" Alex asked, very intrigued.
"Well at first I wasn't sure what was going on. I found out that the dog was named Golden girl, and was due to race the following Saturday. I wanted to find out what was going on, so that Saturday I went to the races. My Father was one of the bookies taking bets; the odds for Golden girl were really good against the other dogs that she was racing, and it looked set for her to win. Anyway a lot of people agreed and placed their bets on her. Unfortunately she came in last, which obviously meant that my Father didn't pay out. A couple of week's later Golden girl was racing again, and the exact same thing happened. The odds were good but she came in last. I was really suspicious by this time, because a dog with those kinds of odds doesn't lose two races in a row. So for dogs with a reputation for losing, the odds aren't great, so in the next race I think the odds were something like 20/1. It was at this race I saw the guy who gave my Father the money. He hadn't been to any other races until then. He went up to about five bookies and placed a bet of £200 on Golden girl. This time when the race ended, it was Golden girl that won. The guy won £20,000 in total, which at the very end he split with my Father. It turned out that they had been racing two dogs. One dog obviously wasn't a racer at all which meant it got a reputation as a loser and then when the odds were high they would race the second dog and place the bets themselves." Gina finished.
"Wow clever scam." Alex sounded amazed.
"Yeah it was but I thought that that was the sum and total of his illegal activities. I never thought for a moment that he would get involved in something as big as a bank job." Gina replied, looking down at the sheet of paper in her hand again.
"What are the chances, do you think, that he could have been forced in to it?" Alex asked.
"There is a very small chance. My Father never did anything he didn't want to." Gina said with a sigh.
"Well I really want to talk to this bloke, Jeremy Samuels. He was the getaway driver and also the victim of the assault the other day." Alex explained as she stood up.
"Have you got an address or anything for him?" Gina asked as she grabbed her coat and belt.
"Yes he lives at number 22 Jamaica lane." Alex read from a note she had made in her notebook earlier.
"Right well let's start there first then." Gina said as she switched her office light off and headed down the corridor.