"Morning Sam, you're looking better today." Jack spoke earnestly, noting the new energy infusing his DI.
"Morning Jack. Do it, go ahead with the plan. Quickly, before I can change my mind." Sam announced as she bustled into the DCI's office.
"Ok, I'll talk to Phil and Zain, get something set up. How was Jo when you saw her last night? How's Abi doing now? Glad to be home?" Jack asked, acting as nonchalant about what they had just agreed to do as Sam was trying to appear.
"She's doing better Guv. Her chest infection's responding well to the antibiotics, the brain scans showed no signs of bleeding or blood clots so the doctors are offering a guarded but hopeful prognosis. They're playing it safe until the swelling and bruising goes down, then they will have a better idea about the long term prospects. Abi's fine, extremely relieved to be back home with Joey. She's being so supportive, I felt like she was the mother last night and me the daughter. Being a parent really seems to suit her."
"It'll do you no harm having her look after you for a change."
"Alice and George, Jo's parents, are staying with us too. I couldn't let them stay at some grotty bed and breakfast when the spare room is just there, ready and waiting to be filled. Plus I feel like I still have some connection with Jo by having them there." Sam wandered over to the window gazing out at the quiet road. "So what's the plan of action today with James and Lisa? Can we get another extension?" Sam turned her attention to the day ahead, needing to focus on work, knowing that if she thought of Jo she would reconsider her decision to let her colleagues attempt to lure Hugh into showing his hand.
"I don't think so, not without some solid evidence to give us reason. James has admitted to giving baby Wayne an overdose which led to his death so he's already facing a murder charge. It's looking like we're going to have to charge Lisa with Joey's abduction for now and hope we can tie Hugh into it once he implicates himself. I'll send Phil down the prison to talk to him, that ought to ruffle his feathers a bit given their history." Jack rose from his seat as Sam approached the door.
"And then what Guv?" Sam paused, turning back to Jack, not having wanted to know the details initially but suddenly needing to know every detail, to assure herself that she had made the right decision.
"And then we monitor outgoing calls and mail and Internet usage very carefully. The first sign of something being set up, we'll have people in place all over the hospital. Jo won't know anything about it but she'll be as safe as houses."
"Houses don't offer much protection against bombs, Jack. If Hugh is behind this, he's already used explosives once to distract from an abduction, who's to say he wouldn't do the same again?" Sam returned to Jack's desk, leaning on it and looking into his eyes for signs of doubt.
"There's no guarantee he won't try that but we will know everything he says, anything he arranges, we'll know about it in as much detail as the person he hires. We'll be keeping tabs on all calls in case he sets something up through someone else. Short of someone going undercover at the prison, which is impossible at this short notice, there's nothing else we can do. He's been on lockdown since the hostage situation, as much for his own safety than as punishment. It's going to take some sweet talking to convince Mr Sandford to play ball but given that we're after adding years onto Hugh's sentence, I'm hoping that might be a determining factor."
"Don't let me live to regret taking this chance Jack, please? I've almost lost her twice this year – I don't want the third time to come so close on the heels of the second. I'd rather it didn't come at all but that's not a hope I can hold onto with much determination in this line of work given Jo's tendencies to put the lives of others before her own." Sam held Jack's eye, all her commitment to her lover shining clearly in her baby blue orbs.
"I don't intend to lose anyone Sam." Jack fought not to let his gaze drop, hoping that he could deliver on his statement, refusing to promise knowing it would be an empty one which he had no guarantee of keeping.
"Long time no see Hugh. You been running into the walls in solitary? Nasty bruise you got there." Phil flopped down into a chair opposite Hugh Wallis, feeling no sympathy for the man who had obviously taken a beating – presumably at the hands of the guards avenging the death of their colleague.
"What do you want?" Hugh snarled, all pleasantries suspended in Phil's presence.
"Had any more thoughts about who could want to snatch your kid? Or why?" Phil asked, brushing aside the prisoners brusque manner.
"I thought you had them in custody, the people responsible."
"We've got the people who had Joey yeah but to me, they don't seem the type to mastermind an abduction like this. You're a profiler, how about I tell you how it went down and you give me your professional opinion on what sort of person could be behind it?" Phil waited for some sort of response but received only a curt grunt that could have been affirmative or negative. "Ok, Abigail Nixon agrees to visit you here. That same day, just after she's left the prison, she visits a café which has the window blown out by a car bomb soon after she sits down at a table. In the ensuing panic, baby Joey goes missing, taken by a woman who conveniently happens to be in the café too. The woman takes the baby next door to where her boyfriend is waiting for her. He leaves via the front entrance, unnoticed in the melee after the explosion. She waits for a few hours until the coast is clear and then leaves by the back door, hiding the baby under her jacket. She's saying it was all planned, her and her boyfriend did it to replace her dead son who the boyfriend had fed heroin to and that you had been boasting about making Sam's daughter pregnant and not really caring about the boy. James, the boyfriend, an old buddy of yours actually, is a small time drugs pusher with a minor sideline in stealing cars. He won't tell us where he got the explosives from but he certainly hasn't got the intelligence or patience to make a bomb himself. Lisa is a tragic young Mum who just lost the son she doted on, with no previous convictions, not even so much as a parking ticket. That sound feasible to you?" Again he waited to see if Hugh would be drawn, making it appear as though he was really asking for his opinion before getting around to mentioning the real reason for his visit.
Lowering his voice, as though confiding in a friend rather than addressing a convicted manipulator, Phil continued, "Sam's really gone through the wringer with this one; Abi was injured in the blast – serious enough cuts to warrant a blood transfusion, Joey was abducted and her fiancée, Jo Masters, was seriously injured in a bridge collapse whilst trying to talk Lisa out of jumping off it, thinking that she had Joey in her arms. Jo's in a critical condition in St Hugh's, she suffered concussion, multiple fractures and hypothermia from being in the freezing cold water for so long. I'm sure you can appreciate that Sam would like some closure and we're asking you, as a profiler, for your opinion to get that closure. Sam obviously is too close to offer an objective opinion."
"And you think I'm not? Joey is my son too." Hugh growled pausing a while before saying any more, letting Phil think he wasn't interested in offering an opinion. "I'd say it was a fairly cut and dried case DS Hunter. People do all sorts of things when they're desperate; murder, steal, turn to unlikely partners for comfort. So Sam's engaged to a woman is she?" The juxtaposition of the two comments was no coincidence, Hugh leaving the insinuation hanging in the air. "I'm afraid I can't be of any further help to you." Hugh retreated into sullen silence but Phil was content to leave, knowing that he had sewn the seed he had intended to plant.
"It's done Guv, he tried to act like he didn't care but he bought it alright. Shoulda seen his face, he could have turned milk sour." Phil reported in as he left the prison.
"Good work Phil, we'll start monitoring the calls and mail from now and hope we get something to pin on him." Jack told the detective before instructing him to return to the station.
"How kind of you to bring my breakfast to me personally. And I see you've made sure it's liberally decorated with added extras from all the officers." Hugh baited the prison officer, Robert McAdam, charged with delivering his meal to him.
"Shut it Wallis unless you want to have another 'fall'." The gruff, burly Scotsman barked intentionally tipping the bowl of food into Hugh's lap where he sat on the bed. "Now look what you've done, you clumsy shit. Clean that crap up."
"I've got a proposition for you, one which will guarantee your path and mine never have to cross again." Hugh calmly mentioned, ignoring the discomfort of lukewarm porridge soaking through his jeans.
"And why in hell's name would I want to do anything for you?"
"Well my presence here is so obviously distasteful to you, I'd have thought you'd have jumped at the chance to see the back of me. Besides, if you don't your wife might have to find out about the special bond you and Jack Mitchell have built up. Does she know you're playing hide the salami with an HIV positive inmate? Come to think of it, does the governor know? And before you even think about beating me into submission, I've already sent a copy of my evidence to a solicitor who, if he doesn't hear from me this afternoon, will send compromising photos to your dear wife, Sarah, Governor Sandford and numerous tabloid newspapers." Hugh sat back watching the colour drain from Robert's face before anger infused it with a cerise hue.
"You bastard. Think you can blackmail me? You don't know the first thing about me." Robert raised his fist aiming to rain blows down on Hugh from his elevated position.
"Is that so? So your address isn't 23 High Hill Road, Canley then? Your wife doesn't go the Fitness First gym on Becks Lane every Wednesday and Friday mornings and shop at Waitrose on Thursdays? And this isn't a picture of you and Jack in a very intimate embrace?" The prison officers fist dropped to his side as though made of lead, knowing that he had no alternative but to listen to Hugh's proposition.
"What is it you want?"
"A transfer and a blind eye turned when I go missing. In return, I will send you every copy and the data card these photos are stored on with a promise that you'll never hear from me again unless you go back on our arrangement – in which case you'll have more to worry about than some poxy photos." Glee flashed through Hugh's eyes triumphantly.
"I'll need a few days and I can't guarantee I can arrange to have you transferred but if it means I don't have to see your ugly face ever again, you have my word that I'll give it my best shot." Robert turned and walked from the cell, locking the door behind him without another glance at the inhabitant, his mind working overtime to think how he could have got himself into such a situation.