Monday's in the Dawes household was usually manic but as it was still school holidays things were a little calmer. Molly was surprised to find the top bunk empty when she woke and quickly checked the time. 9:45! She'd slept right through which meant Rebecca had presumably managed to get a decent sleep too, without nightmares. Rubbing sleep from her eyes she paid a quick visit to the bathroom to brush her teeth and went in search of the rest of the family. The four boys were in the sitting room, still in their pyjamas, eating cereal and watching Children's TV. In the kitchen her Dad was presiding over the frying pan while Rebecca sat at the table pouring tea into the two mugs from the huge family teapot. "This teapot reminds me of the old police station where my Dad worked when I was young. The desk Sergeant used to brew tea for the whole station in it. The tea was so dark and strong you could almost stand your spoon up in it." She smiled at the memory, handing a mug of hot tea over to Dave. "The nearest that thing's been to a cop shop is probably as evidence for shop liftin'. So your old man was a bobby eh? Bet he was a proper one too. Not like today, mostly those community support officer thingies round 'ere. Bloody May, cutting budgets. I didn't vote for this lot."
Deciding now would be a good time to let her presence be known before Dave went off on one of his rants, Molly took hold of the door handle. "You're right Dave. Things have changed a lot since Dad retired. Now, is there anything else I can be doing while you're busy over there?" "Just grab us a couple of plate love, and a little one for my Lucy and it'll be full English all round." Molly couldn't remember the last time her dad had made breakfast. Where was her mum? Pushing open the door fully she stepped in to view. "Good morning, something smells good." "Pull lish" explained Lucy waving her fork around. "We had no porridge so the little un agreed to a full English. There's still some bacon and sausage in the fridge if you want to make yourself some." Dave sat himself next to Lucy with a plate full of bacon, sausage, black pudding, eggs, beans and fried bread making Molly's stomach suddenly somersault, perhaps she'd stick with toast. "Where's mum?" "Belinda's having a lie in and Paul won't be out of his bed 'til dinner time at the earliest so I've been entertaining Becky here with stories about when you were Lucy's age. Can you manage there darlin'? Let me cut that bacon for you."
"Your dad's lovely." Whispered Rebecca when Molly sat down. "He's really made me feel welcome. And I managed to sleep all the way through the night for the first time in goodness knows how long." "Must be the good clean London air." laughed Dave catching the tail end of the conversation. Rebecca laughed at his joke while Molly rolled her eyes. "So what you girls up to today? Paintin' the town red? The kids'll be fine with me if you want to get out for a bit." Molly looked across at Rebecca, "I'm not sure…" "Oh, right. Forgot about that. Hang on a minute though." He left the room and Molly heard him on the stairs. He returned minutes later, his arms full of fabric. "Shazza kept buying these for your mum but they're not her thing." Taking them from him, Rebecca shook out a lilac coloured pashmina, then a sky blue one and finally a pale green one. "What d'you think Molly, maybe we could?" Taking the green one Molly stood and draped it over her hair, tucking it around her neck. Rebecca did the same with the blue, completely covering her hair and partially obscuring her face. "Well you won't get a second look on the Barking Road in those but you might gonna need to change out of your pyjamas" Dave's backhanded compliment made both women laugh. "It would be good to get out. Please." Rebecca smiled at Molly who nodded her agreement. "Yeah okay, for a bit. You sure you don't mind having the kids?"
An hour later the two women dressed in trousers, long sleeved tops and their pashminas were walking down to the market, looking in the shop windows. "We still didn't get you a bag and purse." Molly reminded, taking that as the mission for their excursion. Molly also stopped at a cash point and took out some money to give to Rebecca. "I can't, you've done so much already. I can't take your money." "Of course you can, you need something to put in that new purse. Besides, how you gonna pay for the MacDonald's without money." Molly laughed at the expression on her face. "Go on Rebecca, admit it, you're hooked. I saw you looking when we passed. We can take happy meals back for the kids. You'll be everyone's favourite Aunty. I'll send my mum a text telling her we'll bring food in." They spent another happy hour wandering and window shopping. Molly pointed out the nail bar where she used to work and the Army Recruitment Office. She told Rebecca the story behind her joining the army. "Thank goodness for Proud Mary and her loose morals then. You're the best thing that ever happened to Charles. He's so happy and his love for you is palpable." "I'm not sure what that means but thanks. I love him too and believe me I can't even begin to tell you what he and the kids have done for me." Giving Molly's arm a squeeze she turned her in the direction of MacDonald's. "Come on, I think I'm ready to try a Big Mac."
As Charles walked across the hall a phone rang. Realising it was the landline he shouted for Elvis before answering. "Hello, James speaking." He could hear breathing at the other end of the line but no one spoke. "Can I help you?" The line went dead. "Well, it's either him or some call centre but I'm inclined to go with the former." Elvis nodded agreement. "How has he got this number? I thought you were ex-directory." "We are, but Rebecca had it for Sam. He must have her phone or her address book. Thank god she never had any numbers for Molly. In fact, before they left for the US Rebecca only saw Molly at the solicitor's for the first time in four years. She was certainly surprised to see her. They didn't exactly hit it off when we were first together." "We need to get Jackson to set up a trace on that line. I can guarantee he'll phone back. The silent treatment will be to put the wind up Rebecca."
"How's it going with the ladies? Have you heard from Molly?" Charles grinned at his friend, "Apparently Dave's made another conquest. Fuck knows how he does it. Seems everything is great, Molly's family are doing what they always do and surrounding her with love. I swear that family will take anyone in." "Well they did take you in." Elvis had met Molly's family on several occasions and thought Charles lucky in his in laws, especially Nan. She was brilliant, shared his sense of humour and could drink any SF soldier under the table. He was looking forward to Lucy's party just to see her again.
They were interrupted by a shout of, "Got it!" from Spunky in the drawing room. They found him fist pumping the air and grinning as he drew lines on his board linking Martin and Armstrong. "What have you got?" "Drum roll please... Martin is only Armstrong's bloody son! There's no marriage between Armstrong and his mother, whose maiden name by the way was Pratt which apparently is Martin's real name," he couldn't help but grin when he told them. "And Armstrong wasn't named on the birth certificate, just 'father unknown' but it looks like she was some minor clerical worker in his company for a few months before Martin was born. Left suddenly with a huge settlement and a bun in the oven. Armstrong didn't openly acknowledge him but his school fees were paid by a company owned by Armstrong." "He could have been the son of one of Armstrong's close people." Charles felt the need to get everything clear before jumping to any conclusions. "Could have been, but wasn't. I found some photos of Armstrong in his teens and he's the spitting double. Seems Armstrong was badly scarred by a chemical attack when he was he was 22 and had extensive plastic surgery in America. He was also called Elias Martin then, changed his name to Armstrong when he moved to the UK." Charles was astounded, none of this information was on file or apparently known to the authorities. "Where did you get all this stuff?" he asked Spunky. "I'd love to tell you mate but all I can say is I have my sources and more than a couple of friends in slightly dubious organisations." Elvis patted him on the back and grinned, happy that they finally had the missing link. "Right, I think this calls for a celebration. Well done Spunky, great work."
As they moved to the kitchen, Elvis began to speculate, "The chemical burns Armstrong got, do you think he was already involved with arms even then? This might take the team at the Hague even further back with his crimes which can only be a good thing." "Hmm, could also be why Martin likes using chemicals to maim his victims, his step-father and ex girlfriends. God knows how many he's hurt in that way. Thank fuck he hadn't got to that point with Rebecca." They gathered up several bottles of beer and headed back, only getting half way across the hall when the phone rang again, following the same routine, silence, breathing and then the line going dead. Once again the caller waited for Charles to ask if he could help before hanging up. The lads were all gathered in the drawing room for a briefing so Charles brewed the coffee and carried it through to them, adding the tin of broken biscuits to the tray. "In case any of you haven't guessed, those two phone calls were more than likely Martin trying to mess with Rebecca's head which means he still thinks she's here. Jackson, can you get a trace on it? I doubt he'll give up his game any time soon." Grinning, Jackson was in his element. This is what he excelled at. "The watchers are still out there too only they had to move when the old biddy from number 2 came out and knocked on their window. Presumably to find out what they were doing there." "Oh yes, old Martha is notorious for moving people on. We get a lot of Austen fans and location scouts using the Crescent. She gets a bit possessive about her parking space. Where are they now?" "Outside number 19. Different car but the same two blokes." Charles started to laugh; a real belly laugh and it took him a couple of minutes to get himself under control. "They'll not last long there. Martha will have the Police on them for kerb crawling or immoral behaviour. The local gossip is that Gilly and her husband at 19 are swingers. Very risqué." Mansfield's eyes lit up at this and Charles could see he was gearing up to ask questions so forestalled him. "They aren't of course but they quite like the notoriety. Now, next steps. As Martin – Metin whatever believes Rebecca to be here, I think it's safe to carry on with our plans. Brains, Fingers, Mansfield you head down to London and liaise with Molly. She'll let you know what's needed down there. Elvis can you get in touch with Sumner, see what's been gleaned from the arrests made the other night and Spunky can you Spanner, and Dino get in touch with any contacts you might have, see if we can identify the watchers. Peanut you're on monitors for the time being, okay?" Getting affirmative answers from everyone he left them to it and went to let Manny out for a run around the garden.
He could do with going for a long run himself he thought as he watched the dog work his way around the garden, sniffing out familiar smells. When he got to the children's playhouse, however, he stopped. Circling the little structure he cocked his leg and peed on the door. He had never done that before, understanding the playhouse belonged to the children he always left it alone. It had their scent on it so he didn't need to mark it as his. As he watched, the big dog continued to sniff around the playhouse and the garden shed next to it. Something was obviously disturbing him. Charles walked into the garden, "What have you found boy? What's going on?" Hearing his voice the dog began to bark, pawing at the playhouse door. Suddenly wary, Charles called the dog back inside, closing the door and calling for Elvis and Spanner. "Someone's been in the back garden, near or more likely in the children's play house." "How the hell have they managed to get in? We've got cameras watching everywhere; we're monitoring 24/7." Elvis was having difficulty believing what Charles was saying. "Spanner, get Dino to go back through the tapes of the back for the last 24 hours and then come back in here." Spanner went off to do what he was asked and Elvis and Charles continued to stare out of the window at the playhouse. "What makes you think some one's been in it?" "Manny. He must have smelt a strange scent on it because he peed on it, marking it as his territory. He's never done that before with any of the children's things. Something doesn't feel right."
With the return of Spanner the three men began plotting out various scenarios and what responsive action they should take in each case. Could they deal with it themselves or did they need outside support. Spanner was the weapons and explosives expert of the team so Charles and Elvis looked to him as leader on this one. He began to write down hypotheses, looking at best to worst case scenario. The lads from 2 Section came in carrying their Burgens. "We're off Bossman. Any message for the wife?" Mansfield shook his hand and gave him a manly pat on the arm. "Just tell her to keep her eyes open and stay safe." "You do know you're giving us the most dangerous mission," complained Fingers, "anything can happen in that London." Grinning Charles shook his hand. "Well the same goes for you then, keep your eyes open and stay safe." He turned to the final member of the trio. "I know, stay focussed, stay alert, stay alive. Duly noted Boss. I'll try and keep the kids out of mischief." As he said kids, he inclined his head to indicate Fingers and Mansfield who were heading for the door. "Thanks Brains. Keep me updated, okay. There shouldn't be any problem down there but you just never know with this guy." He walked the men to the door, taking time to scan the street and clock the watchers as he waved them off.