oOo
"I'm calling the undercover operation off," Jack declared. The DCI looked tired, but although it was two in the morning, by the time they spoke, Emma doubted he had been home asleep.
"But, sir..." she began. They couldn't give up now. Not when they were this close.
"No. It's too dangerous. I shouldn't have let it get this far in the first place." Jack rubbed a hand over his face, sounding even more tired than he looked. "He knows where you live and probably also knows that you are a police officer. You aren't safe until we've caught this guy."
"Exactly," Emma said as she got ready to argue her case. "I might as well help catch him for good. This is our best chance of drawing him out." She pointed to the letter on Jack's desk.
The ink had been partially smudged by the water and some words had been rendered illegible, but its contents were clear. It was the first page of Susan Carpenter's manuscript, along with a set of instructions for the hand-over of the remainder of the manuscript in exchange for the comparatively measly sum of 10,000 GBP.
They would need to have Susan Carpenter authenticate the piece, of course, but Emma had no doubt that it was genuine. The words, the tone and the expressions - they exactly fitted the style of the books. Along with the piece of the manuscript, a letter containing brief instructions and a mobile phone had been inside the envelope. It had been turned over to the crime lab for examination, but between the rain, Emma and the unknown driver touching the envelope, there was little chance of them finding any foreign prints or other trace evidence, much less in what little time they had available until the deadline.
"It's too dangerous," Jack told her again, as if he hadn't even listened to what she had said. Anger welled up inside her. After all they had done, after all she had done, they couldn't simply walk away now. It was too late for that. By going public as Moira Bliss, she had drawn out this maniac.
"I know that, sir." Emma began again. "But...it's just that I feel responsible for what happened. If I hadn't pretended to be Moira Bliss in the first place, none of this would have happened." Emma had had doubts before, but this was the first time, and she genuinely regretted what she had done. It suddenly seemed so pointless. She felt like she hadn't achieved anything and all she had done was put herself and her colleagues in danger. It didn't seem worth it now, not even remotely.
"Well, there is no going back now," Jack commented.
Emma was well aware of that, but the knowledge didn't ease her conscience.
"Is there any news on DC Webb?" she asked, hoping that at least Mickey would be all right. She would never forgive herself if he didn't make it.
"Nothing yet. But no news is probably good news at this point," he replied. Emma's heart sank. She hadn't known it was that serious. She still wanted to go ahead with the hand-over, but she wasn't ready to put anyone else in jeopardy either. But ultimately, it wasn't her decision to make. The extortionist might have demanded that she make the hand-over, but she couldn't and wouldn't do it without back-up.
The DCI interrupted her thoughts, "You better stay at the station tonight. It's the safest place for you at the moment."
Emma hadn't even thought of that. But it made sense. The envelope had been delivered to her apartment, he knew where she lived, possibly had followed her somehow since the press conference, Emma thought. He could have found out where she lived when she'd gone home earlier to change. Neither she nor Roger had noticed anything out of the ordinary, but at least her mind had been elsewhere.
"I better call the superintendent, now," Jack said with a sigh, clearly not looking forward to waking the superintendent at such an early hour. Emma didn't envy him.
"I think I'll have another look at Moira's fan mail," she said. Emma didn't know why, but she had the feeling that they had missed something.
oOo
By the time morning rolled around, Emma was exhausted. She had spent the last three hours reading Moira's fan mail, without making any headway, not that she even knew what she was looking for. They had identified their man, the prints on the machete were clear proof and Jo had found footage of him loitering in proximity of the murder scene. There were a few blanks left to fill in, but everyone seemed confident that John Hooper was the man they were looking for, despite the search of his room failing to turn up any evidence linking him to either crime.
Emma was just about to get another cup of coffee when Reg poked his head in to tell her that a briefing regarding the case had been called. She followed him into the briefing room, where most of CID was already gathered as well as a few of the uniformed officers of the station. Emma and Reg took their seats and waited for the briefing to start. A few more people arrived, folders were passed around, and then Superintendent Heaton began with the briefing.
"You have all received a copy of the letter that was left at PC Keane's apartment sometime yesterday. It was accompanied by a page from the missing manuscript. Miss Carpenter has authenticated the page and it is definitely from her manuscript," Heaton briefly explained the events of the night.
"Given the short time deadline, there is no chance that we'll be able to raise the funds in time, even if we wanted to, so we'll have to play it risky and catch him in the act. We assume that this man," Jack indicated Hooper's picture on the whiteboard. "will be there to collect the money, We do not know how or where the hand-over will take place. A pay-as-you-go mobile has been delivered along with the letters. PC Keane was told to expect a call at exactly 8 a.m," Jack continued.
Emma checked her watch, as did most people in the room. They had a little under two hours left until the call. Even though they couldn't really prepare for the hand-over in advance, there would still be plenty to do.
"In order to preserve PC Keane's cover, which we have to assume is still intact," Sam stressed, "she will return to her flat and take the call there, just in case Hooper or an accomplice is following her or watching her apartment. Tony and Reg, you'll follow her there. Stay with her, but keep your distance and stay in radio contact. Sally and Sergeant Stone are already in the building across the street and will take over from you there. Terry and I will co-ordinate everything," Sam said, explaining the details of the operation that had been set up rather hurriedly. "Timing is everything. Our goal is to make an arrest as early as possible."
"This is a high risk operation. We cannot exclude the possibility that Hooper has planted more bombs, which may or may not be remote controlled. Keep your eyes open and look out for anyone acting suspiciously. Hooper could have accomplices," Sam continued explaining the roles of everyone involved. Emma stopped listening. They had been over everything before the briefing. She would be watched at all times, and the wire would allow them to hear every word she said. Still, it was risky, but Emma didn't fear so much for her own safety as for that of her colleagues. Hooper could have killed her; he had had more than one chance. He could have killed her with the machete or later when she had returned home alone, but he hadn't. She believed that the real target of the bomb in the car had been Sam and Mickey, in an attempt to scare her.
The briefing finished a few minutes later without her having paid much attention. She checked her watch again. The briefing had taken almost forty-five minutes in all and the time of the call was approaching. Emma was starting to feel nervous, but tried to hide her anxiety when Tony and Reg walked up to her, seemingly excited and in good spirits. Emma forced a smile on her face.
"Nervous?" Tony asked.
"A bit," she lied.
"I would be if I were you," Reg said, clearly pleased that it wasn't him. "I just spoke with Sally. She says everything's clear on their end."
Emma hadn't expected much else, but she was still relieved. "Let's get going then." she said with far more confidence than she felt.
oOo
Sally was bored and tired. She had been called away from a nice relaxing bath only to sit in a vacant apartment, staring out into a dark street. The fact that Stone hadn't said a word the entire time wasn't helping. She was itching to ask him about the Blue Parrot again, even though he had made it clear that he wasn't going to tell her what he'd been doing there.
"Did you know that Carol Sanders works at the Blue Parrot? She met John Hooper there." Sally hadn't known how to begin a conversation that was bound to be awkward, so she had decided to bluntly plunge forward.
Stone turned his head from the window and looked at her, one eyebrow raised.
"That's interesting," he commented after a long pause. Sally tried to figure out what he was thinking, but as always, the sergeant was impossible to read. "I think you and I will have to pay them another visit."
Sally was about to reply when a car pulled up in front of Emma's building. Both watched as Emma climbed out, unlocked the front door and slipped inside. A few minutes later, the radio came to life. It was Emma, checking in and making sure that the wire was set up correctly and that they were receiving her.
According to her, everything was quiet at the apartment - nothing out of the ordinary. So far so good. Stone confirmed that they hadn't seen anything either. It was now 7.12 a.m. Sally and Stone continued to wait in silence, neither of them raising the topic of the Blue Parrot again. It was something they were going to deal with later, after the hand-over had gone down.
oOo
Emma sank down on the couch in her small living room, still wearing her coat. She placed the unregistered mobile phone on the table in front of her. She sighed nervously. She had never felt this tense and vulnerable inside her own home, despite finding the door locked and everything untouched, just the way she had left it the previous afternoon. There was no sign anyone had entered it without her permission, yet she could almost feel another presence in the room with her. Emma got up, paced nervously, only to sit down again a few moments later. She didn't manage to keep still for very long before she got up once again, deciding that she had plenty of time to make herself a cup of tea. She was almost through with the cup when the cell phone in front of her chirped, telling her that she had received a text message. It was three minutes to eight. Emma read the message with trembling fingers.
"We're on," she told her colleagues who were listening in. "Canley Shopping Mall car park in twenty minutes. He'll send further instructions then."
"Received," Sergeant Stone's voice in her ear replied. "We'll follow you at a distance. It's going to be close, but we'll try to get there ahead of you."
Emma slipped her keys and the mobile into one of her coat pockets and quickly left her apartment. Twenty minutes would be cutting it close, so she needed to hurry.
oOo
Despite many nervous glances in the rear-view mirror, Emma hadn't detected anyone following her on the drive to the mall. Without incident and just on time, she pulled into the car park. At the early hour, she easily found a free spot near the exit.
"I'm there and waiting for instructions," she informed her back-up. "I don't think I've been followed." Emma glanced through the car window, trying to ascertain if anyone was watching her. There were few cars in the car park, but Hooper could be hiding inside any one of them.
"We haven't seen anyone either, but we lost you at an intersection. Our ETA should be about five minutes. Sam and Terry are on their way as well but they're having some trouble with the receiver on their end." Great, Emma thought. She was about to head out into a place filled with people to meet a dangerous psychopath who might just blow them all up all the while CID was trying to get their equipment plugged in straight. If there was indeed a bomb, they would probably be hearing about it on the news, Emma thought darkly when the phone in her lap announced the arrival of another text message. It was equally succinct as the first one.
Junghans' Jewlery Store. 90 seconds.
Emma climbed out of the car and started running.
oOo
Emma ran through the mall, zigzagging around shoppers, ignoring the odd looks she was getting. She didn't know what was going to happen if she didn't make it in time. The extortionist hadn't made any specific threats, but Emma wasn't very keen to find out, even though she knew from the many times she had patrolled the mall that she would have to be very lucky to remain within the time limit. The jeweller's shop specified in the message was on the second level of the mall. Emma reached the escalator, having decided against taking the elevator and began jogging up the steps. A woman yelled at her when Emma rudely shoved past her, but she didn't have time to apologize. Up ahead a more serious problem was waiting for her. A mall security guard had positioned himself at the front of the escalator, arms crossed in front of his chest, a scowl on his face. Three more steps and she would run straight into him. Emma was mentally running through her options only to fail to come up with anything workable. She was no match for him physically - he outweighed her by at least fifty pounds. She couldn't possibly shove him out of the way and there was no time for explanations, not that anyone would believe her anyways. She had barely reached the top of the escalator when the security guard grabbed her by the forearm and pulled her aside.
"Not so fast young lady." He stopped her.
Emma desperately tried to break free of his grip, without any success. Not knowing what else to do, she kicked him in the shin, but he only laughed.
"Just where do you think you are going?" he asked her.
Emma could only hope that her colleagues were hearing what was going on and would find some way to intervene. Emma threw a quick glance back down to the lower level, but while she was attracting quite a few on-lookers, there was no familiar face in the crowd.
"Please, you have to let me go. It is an emergency," Emma pleaded. What if Hooper had planted another bomb, somewhere in the building, she wondered. Dozens of people could be injured or killed.
"Let's see what you have in your bag instead," he replied good-naturedly, clueless about the gravity of the situation.
"I swear, I didn't steal anything. Just let me go!" She tried to break free once again, knowing already that she would be wasting her breath. Why weren't Stone and Sally answering on the radio? Had something gone wrong with the operation? Were her colleagues in trouble? Questions over questions raced through her mind.
"Please, there might be a bomb in the building." Emma resorted to the only option her panicked mind could come up with. She was bound to cause a mass panic that way and the operation would definitely go bust, but she didn't have any other choice, without back-up and faced with an unknown threat from a dangerous psychopath.
"Do you know how serious this is?" the security guard questioned. "You will be in big trouble if this turns out to be a hoax."
"I'm serious. I'm a police officer," Emma stated as calmly as she could. "And no, I can't prove it, but you have to get everyone out. Now!" Emma put as much authority into her words as she possibly could and it seemed to be working. Disbelief made way to alarm and fear on the security guard's face and he reached for his radio. While he spoke, Emma looked around again. The crowd around them had gotten bigger but there was still no sign of back-up. She couldn't help the feeling that something must have gone dreadfully wrong for her colleagues to leave her hanging like this.
TBC