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Back and Forth

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It was about seven in the evening when they stopped in the driveway of a terraced house in South Tottenham. DI Morton, DI Lynley and DS Raj Thakur went to the main door of Marc Hazlewood's house and rang the bell. To their relief Hazlewood opened rather quickly.

"Marc Hazlewood?" Lynley asked harshly at the half opened door. It earned Tommy such a sharp look from Cass that he obediently made a small step backwards.

"Yes?" Hazlewood replied.

All three detectives held up their warrant cards. "I'm DI Morton." Cass introduced herself. "And these are my colleagues DI Lynley and DS Thakur. We have a few questions regarding a traffic matter from this afternoon. Can we come in, Sir?"

Hazlewood opened the door and gestured them inside. "Oh, yes, of course. Come, come." He obviously did not want the neighbours to see police standing at his door.

With a small encouraging smile Cass nodded at Tommy to go on from here. Her serious eyes though clearly told him to keep his temper under control.

"Mr Hazlewood," he said. "we've learned from traffic cameras, that this late afternoon you've been driving on Victoria Embankment, from Westminster Bridge towards Horse Guards Avenue. What was your destination?"

"Well, umm, home." Hazlewood answered in amazement. "I work at the Aquarium."

"Why didn't you go on the other side and take London Bridge?"

Hazlewood chuckled. "I thought there'd be too much traffic at that time."

Lynley briefly huffed. "Well, there was a lot of traffic on Victoria Embankment at that time..."


"Oh, blimey, yes." Hazlewood chuckled again and cocked his head. This questioning was weird. "Say, what's the reason for this interrogation, Sir? Did I do something wrong? Did I run a red light, or what? Was I in the wrong toll zone? You know, I usually take the tube. I..."

"No, please be assured it was nothing like that." Cass quickly told him. "We only need some information. When you've been on Victoria Embankment you were driving behind a white van..."

"Oh, yes, I remember." Hazlewood quickly interjected. He nodded and his face turned into a grin. "In front of Scotland Yard a clown jumped out of it, let a balloon fly, and that woman who had waited there went in with him."

Tommy's eyes narrowed. He could not believe what he just had heard. "And that didn't look strange for you, Sir?"

Cass harrumphed discreetly.

Hazlewood shrugged. "Not at all. She had that paper bag with glittery paper and ribbons. She obviously had waited there to be picked up by him."

"It didn't occur to you that this could have been an abduction?" Tommy's voice was sharper than it should be. Therefore Cass put her hand on his arm and signalised him unequivocally that she would take over from here completely. She knew that Tommy's anger had started to surface.

"You mean...?" Hazlewood turned pale. "In front of... No way! No, I wasn't... well, to be honest, I was not really looking. I just saw it out of the corner of my eye. I was preoccupied with traffic. There was a bike that wanted to overtake me where it shouldn't. Such a stupid..."

The DIs looked at DS Thakur who confirmed with an almost invisible nod that the motorcyclist was no lie and his dangerous manoeuvre was documented on the CCTV footage.


"Okay." Cass said. "I understand. Back to that van in front of you - was there anything strange you may have recognised?"

"You mean apart from that clown?" Hazlewood asked.

Tommy inhaled sharply but a stern look from Cass stopped him from saying anything that would get him into trouble.

Hazlewood pondered. "Hmm..."

"A company sign, a name or such... bumper stickers, dents or scratches... the van's brand... Something like that."

"Well, it was a white van... And the windows were darkly tinted... But I don't remember any logo." Suddenly Hazlewood's face lit up. "Oh, but yes! Yes, there was a sticker with two flags. The Jamaican crossed with the Union Jack. But other than that... Umm... Oh, wait. There was another sticker above the rear wiper. A faint rainbow. But I didn't recognise any scratches or so. Really, I'm sorry. I didn't realise that this was an abduction. Otherwise I would have-"

"It's okay, Sir." Cass gave him an encouraging smile. "How long was this van in front of you? Can you tell?"

"Phew!" Hazlewood blew up his cheeks and thought for a while. "Blackfriars Bridge, I think. I turned northbound and... no, wait. I've recognised the flag stickers again at a red light at the junction with Fleet Street. But I'm afraid I didn't really look out for it."

"It's okay, Sir. You've helped us a lot. Thank you very much." Cass gave him her card. "If you remember anything else concerning that van, please feel free to call me immediately. Thanks for your time, Mr Hazlewood."

"No bother, Ma'am."


The tour to South Tottenham and back to the Met took them about one hour including the conversation with Hazlewood. On their way back Mick called them. He had the results of the log-in track of Barbara's mobile phone. He also sent a map with entries and Cass checked it on her tablet.

"You see," Mick said "at Russell Square there's the last entry. After that the phone did not log in anywhere else until now."

"Thank you, Mick." Cass disconnected. "Well, that's not exactly a lot..."

Tommy slumped back into his back seat, sighed deeply and stared out of the side window with sad eyes. "They've switched it off." he whispered more to himself and was glad he could not see the pitiful faces of the people in the front seats. This whole affair was enough torture anyway.

Unfortunately this was not the only setback. Returning to DI Morton's office they also learned from DC McCormick that face recognition was not able to uncover the painted face of the clown. But even for the dark-skinned driver it did not find any useful matches.

"Bugger." Tommy grumbled. He dropped onto the nearest office chair and desperately rubbed his weary eyes with both hands.

"Or good." Cass put in. "At least he's not registered in the rogues' gallery." It earned her another undefined grumble from Tommy. "Tommy, there still is the chance that this is just a delusion. Maybe Barbara actually had waited for the clown." Tommy's forehead furrowed but he let her go on. "You've said she was on her way to a birthday party."

"Yes, but she's said she'd called a cab."

"Maybe you've misinterpreted her words?"

"I don't believe so, Cass." Tommy swallowed before he quietly went on. "And it did not look as if she had expected a clown dragging her into a van. And why should she turn off her phone? Or cut off my calls? She always picks up when I call her." Bewilderment and pain was written all over his face.

Cass nodded. "I see." She shot a reprimanding glare towards McCormick who sat at his desk with a juicy smirk on his face. "Right. Then let's focus on the van owners."


"Okay." Quickly DI Lynley logged in at a computer to open the short list of six vans. "I have narrowed the van owners down to six, four of them are promising. These are the names we should start with." he said. "It's William McGuire, Elsbeth Zimmerman, Nolan Stevens and Andrew Bond. And Tim Clemence and Georgina Cook, but I think we should start with Andrew Bond. He lives... umm... 100 Westminster Bridge Road." Raj whistled appreciatively. "That's not too far away from here." Tommy jumped up and caught DI Morton's austere eyes.

"Tommy, we don't go there yet." Cass raised a silencing hand to prevent him from an overhasty reply. "Background research comes first. At least the most necessary background."

Lynley slumped back in his chair and groaned. With both hands he rubbed his face in annoyance but being a detective, he knew that Cass was right, and so he agreed.

"I know that it's already two hours ago." Cass said, softer this time. "But that makes it all the more important to check their backgrounds first. And we don't want any more surprises today, do we?"

"No, we don't. Of course not. You're right. I'll share the list."

"Good." Cass turned to her team. "Listen. Tommy looks for Andrew Bond. Raj, it's William McGuire for you, McCormick... McCormick, is there anything interesting on your phone?"

"Sorry, Ma'am. Just telling my wife that I'll be late today."

DI Morton shook her head in disbelief. "Yeah, like all of us, McCormick. It comes with the job. Anyway, you'll look for Elsbeth Zimmerman. And Castle, you'll check on... what was the fourth name?"

"Nolan Stevens." Castle said.

"Right. Phil, you'll check the other two. Good luck. You have twenty minutes. Tops. I'll go and briefly inform the Chief Super."


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