Left or Right?
Chapter 3 – Affairs of the Heart
"Nice of you to finally join us, Mickey." Jack said gruffly once Mickey had fought his way through the traffic and made it into the station
"Sorry, Guv. A case kind of ran into me." Mickey replied taking his jacket off and running his hand through his rain-soaked hair.
"Any excuse, so fill me in on what happened."
"According to the wife, Lyndsey Andrews, she heard shouting and went downstairs where she saw a man armed wiv a knife stood in her kitchen shouting at her husband about how he was going to pay. So she ran out to get help and stopped me, not before I'd nearly ran her over."
"Did she recognise him?"
"She said not but she did say that her husband has been distracted recently and he's been working very hard, he's the assistant manager at the Leisure Centre. Kezia mentioned a break in last night."
"Jo and Terry are investigating, apparently all that's been taken is a CCTV disk, they reckon that it was an inside job."
"Bit of a coincidence, don't you think Guv?"
"Does seem a bit suspicious. Uniform are doing a house to house. Do you want to go to the Leisure Centre and speak to the manager about Mr Andrews, see if he can shed some light on what might be going on. I was going to get Jo and Terry to do it, but they'd already left."
"Yeah, sure." Mickey picked up his damp jacket and headed back out of the station and into the deluge. He ran to the car, trying to avoid another soaking but it was inevitable and he go into the car dripping wet. A shiver passed through him as he turned the engine on so he flicked the switch for the blowers and turned them up as hot as possible, hoping that it may dry him out slightly.
After getting stuck in the traffic again her arrived at the Leisure Centre forty minutes after leaving the station. Impatient to get on with the investigation, he ran across the car park standing in several puddles on the way. He entered through the main entrance and stopped for a second in the humid reception area, he could feel water soaking though his shoes and just to add to the fun of the day he realised that he would have to spend the next eight or so hours with wet feet. Joy!
"Hi, I'm DC Webb from Sun Hill, could I speak to the manager please." He asked the man in a white polo shirt with the Leisure Centres logo on who was stood behind the desk, flashing his warrant card.
"Sure, I'll just get him for you." He lent through the door behind him and called "Gary, there's another police officer here for you."
A second man came out and showed Mickey through to his office. "How can I help you?"
"I'd like to ask you a few questions about your assistant manager, Steven Andrews."
"He didn't turn up for work this morning, do you think he's involved in the break in last night?"
"We're not sure yet. I'm actually here in connection to second investigation, we believe Mr Andrews may have been abducted from his home this morning."
"My God."
"His wife mentioned that he's seemed distracted recently."
"Yeah, he has. He's been strange recently, unable to concentrate, really jumpy. I asked if something was wrong but he said that everything was fine."
"Mrs Andrews also said that he'd been working very hard and doing long hours."
The manager frowned. "Are you sure? To be honest if anything, it's been the opposite recently. He's not been staying for a second after his shift finishes, and a couple of times he'd asked to leave early, I was fine with it, let him go. It was so unusual for him to ask that I figured it must be important."
"Did you have any idea what he wanted the time of to do?"
"No, I never asked. Sorry."
"So you've no idea what was on his mind?"
"No. Well, there was one thing, I saw him a couple of weeks ago kissing a woman, who definitely wasn't Lyndsey but I could have been completely misreading the situation, I didn't say anything to him."
"What did she look like?
"Er she was medium height, slim, with brown long wavy hair."
"When was this?"
"I'm not sure, no actually it was the day we nearly had a kid drowning, it should be in the records." He sat down at the computer for a moment. "Friday the eighth of August. I was just leaving so it would have been about six thirtyish."
"Thanks. The missing CCTV tape was of the 24th yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Was Mr Andrews working that day?"
"I'm not sure, I'll check." He bent over the computer and typed a few words in. "Yes, he was the duty manager, did 8 am 'til 5pm, we close early on a Sunday
"When did he start acting strangely?"
"End of last month I think, around the twenty fourth actually."
"Thank you. We might have some more questions for you later."
"I'll be here until about six."
"Cheers." Mickey said as he was shown out.
He left the Leisure Centre to be greeted by the still pouring rain. The clouds were grey and there was no gap or break, no reprise from the down pour. Mickey made his way back to the station in better time, the morning traffic had started to ease now that everyone had got to where they were heading.
"You took your time." Jack shouted across the office.
Mickey replied with one word. "Traffic."
"Find anything?" Jo asked, she was already sat in front of the CCTV.
"I think so. The manager reckons that Mr. Andrews was having an affair."
"Really?"
"Yep, apparently he saw him kissing a woman that wasn't his wife, on the eighth of August. Have you got the CCTV of that day?"
"Yes it is..." She looked through the piles of disks. "Here." She finished triumphantly, fishing it out from the pile. She stuck it in the machine.
"It was about six thirty." Jo pressed the fast forward button until they reached six thirty.
"There, that's the manager coming out." They watched him moving passed several cameras until he got to his car. He looked up and over at another car. They zoomed in and found Mr Andrews and a woman kissing. "That must be her, can we get a still image of her."
They got an image and ran it through facial recognition. "Maria Jordan, married to Craig Jordan, where do I know that name from?" Mickey wondered aloud.
Jo typed his name into the computer. "Wow, this could explain a lot. He is suspected of drug and people trafficking, making quite a name for himself in North London. Apparently he's connected to several assaults but he's never been charged with any of them. He's being investigated by Bridgeway CID, I'll give them a call."
Jo picked up the phone while Mickey continued watching the CCTV. After several minutes Jo hung up and turned back to Mickey.
"Bridgeway CID have been watching Jordan for the last two years, they suspect him of supplying about ninety percent of the cocaine and heroin used in the borough. Officially he owns a string of night clubs around North London. He moved in after the previous supplier in the area was murdered. They believe that Jordan was behind it, they arrested and charged the guy who actually shot him but could never prove that he ordered the hit. Since Jordan's firm took over the area, serious assaults have risen by sixty percent, any drug dealers who haven't paid their bills learn the hard way but they can't actually prove that Jordan is behind it. They also suspect him of being behind the death of a local thug that they thought was working for him. They've tried sending an officer in undercover but
have found in impossible to infiltrate them. The officer I spoke to also warned me that if Jordan thinks that Andrews is having an affair with his wife that Andrews is in serious danger."
"So it's looking very likely that this Jordan character is behind Andrews disappearance."
"What do we do, pay Maria Jordan a visit?" Mickey asked.
"Yeah but you need to get her on her own, don't want to tip Jordan off that we're on to him, especially if he's as dangerous as Bridgeway seem to think." Jack said.
"We've got their address , it's in Sun Hill. Shall we go 'round there and watch the place for a while, she what we come up wiv?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, be careful though. Both of you go and watch yourselves."
"Guv." Mickey and Jo grabbed their jackets and headed out to the car.
"So this guy lives in Sun Hill but works over in North Bridgeway?" Jo muttered looking down at the information sheet that she brought with her.
"Yeah, well I suppose you don't shit on your own door step, do you?"
"No, you don't want to live in a community that you're pumping class A drugs in to."
They arrived at the large detached house, set in a safe up market street and parked a few hundred yards down the road.
"I'm bored." Jo moaned, two hours later. They had sat and watched nothing happed for the entire time. Mickey had once left the car and walked past the house a few time before seeing Jordan and his wife sat together.
Finally they watched the front door open and Mr Jordan come out, get in his car and drive away. As soon as he had driven away they walked up the drive and knocked on the front door.
"Mrs Jordan?" Mickey asked as the woman that they had watched on the CCTV opened the door.
"Yes?"
"DC Mickey Webb, DC Jo Masters, Sun Hill. We're here about Steven Andrews."
"I don't know a Steven Andrews."
"This isn't you kissing him, in the Leisure Centre car park, at six thirty on the eighth of August then?" Mickey asked showing her the CCTV image. "Can we come in?"
Maria Jordan stood aside and reluctantly let Mickey and Jo in. "How long until your husband comes back?" Mickey asked, they didn't want him to turn up unexpectedly and catch them.
"A couple of hours, he's gone to one of his clubs."
"So you are having a relationship wiv Steven Andrews then?"
"Yeah, my husband will kill me if he finds out."
"When did you last see Steven?"
"The night before last. We went out for a meal."
"Where?"
"The Red Diamond, it's not round here, it's in Greenwich."
"We believe that Steven may have been abducted from his home this morning."
"What? Is he ok?" Maria said, clearly shocked.
"We don't know, he was last seen by his wife being threatened by a man wiv a knife, we found a lot of blood at the scene. Are you sure that your husband doesn't know about your affair?"
"I'd be dead if he knew."
"He hasn't been acting strangely recently them?"
"Craig? No, not really. He has had a lot of phone calls recently, he keeps on leaving the room to take them. Normally he doesn't keep anything from me."
"If your husband does know about your affair, you could be in danger. Is there someone you can stay with?" Jo asked.
"My sister, she lives in Greenwich, that's how I know about The Red Diamond, I could stay with her."
"Does your husband know where she lives?"
"He knows that she lives somewhere in Greenwich but he doesn't know where, they've never met."
"Ok, pack a bag and we'll take you there now. One more question, does your husband own any buildings or land where he could be keeping Steven?"
"Yeah, there's a couple of warehouses by the river, he uses them as storage."
"Ok."
Mickey and Jo waited while Maria packed a bag and then drove her to her sister's house. They also contacted the local police station and briefed them on the situation. Then they headed back to the station.
"I think we have our suspect, Guv." Mickey said triumphantly as they walked back into CID.
"Well we've got another." Terry said, he was sat in front of the CCTV monitor.
"Ah, we had this all wrapped up." Jo said.
"Have a look at this." They all crowded around the TV and watched a man attack Steven Andrews. "This is from the day after the twenty-forth, as you can see it gets pretty heated."
"Who is he?"
"A Liam Harris, 14 Wolbourn Lane, Canley, history of theft, assault and possession. And he is also a friend of Lyndsey Andrews, they've been friends since they were children. Smithy and Tony have gone 'round to pick him up. So what makes you so sure that your guy is the abductor?"
"Well, he is quickly becoming one of the biggest criminals in North London and his wife is having an affair wiv Steven Andrews. We've taken his wife to her sister's in Greenwich and informed local police. She said that he has been taken a lot of calls privately in the last few days and he has a couple of warehouses by the river-"
"He owns numbers 17 to 20 Braidly Industrial Estate." Jo said looking up from the computer.
"I'll get some uniform down watching the place." Jack said phoning Sergeant Stone.
"Terry, you interview Harris when uniform bring him in, Mickey organise an obbo on the warehouses and Jo see what else you can find out on Jordan."
Mickey went back out into the rain and drove round to the warehouses. He parked a discreet distance away and caught sight of another unmarked car police car just down the road, uniform had arrived.
"Hiya, it's Mickey. Seen anything?" He said after calling Sergeant Stone.
"Someone's gone in, not Jordan. We got some photos of him, I'm sending it to the station, see if they can ID him."
"I'm parked by the old shoe factory."
"Yeah, we spotted you. You know the police'll arrest you for parking on the pavement."
"At least I'm parked straight, Sarge!"
"I've parked straight, you cheeky git!" Callum said in a disgruntled voice.
"Give me a ring if you see anything." Mickey replied, grinning as he hung up.
Callum phoned back ten minutes later. "I think we've got Jordan's car coming up the road. Silver BMW. Just turning into warehouse nineteen."
"Yeah. I can see him." They watched as Jordan got out of the car and looked around. He then walked over to the warehouse and disappeared inside.
Mickey waited for a minute or two before ringing Callum again.
"I'm going to have a look around, ring me if he comes out or anyone else turns up."
"Be careful. This guy is no angel."
"Sure, Sarge." Mickey got out of the car and walked towards the warehouse. He crept in through the gate and ran across the car park hiding behind parked cars as he went. He walked carefully around the building until he found a side door that was unlocked. He slowly opened it and looked in. When
he was satisfied that the area was empty her stepped and walked down the corridor passed offices, following the sound of shouting. He stopped beside the door to the main warehouse and peered around the edge, to get a good look in.
Inside the large open space was two men both armed with knives. And sat between them, tied to a chair, was Steven Andrews.
Mickey slowly backed away from the door and when he thought he was a safe distance away he took out his phone.
"Sarge, Andrews is here. He's tied up in the main warehouse with two armed me watching him. He looks like he's taken quite a beating."
"Right, Mickey, get out of there. We'll get armed response down, and organise a raid."
Callum heard a bang which sounded like Mickey's phone dropping on the ground.
"Mickey, Mickey?" Callum called urgently.
But Mickey couldn't reply, he had a hand tightly over his mouth. Craig Jordan appeared in front of him. "So," he said, "what have we caught our selves, here. Sounded to me like old bill. What do you think?" He asked to the man holding Mickey still.
"Yeah, definitely a copper. Tipping off his little copper friends by the sound of it." The man said laughing.
"So? How long until they turn up?"
"I'm not telling you anything." Mickey said as the hand was removed from his mouth.
"Maybe this will jog your memory." Jordan said as the second man brought a knife to Mickey's throat.
"Now, how long?"
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