Harry was following a lead from having tracked down Jackson's registration number to a car hire company, when her mobile phone on her desk rang out. She looked down with surprise to see that it was Doug.
"Hi Doug, how are you?" she asked.
"I'm fine sweetheart. How are you? Hope I'm not interrupting; I heard that you went to see Richie," he replied.
Eddie must have said something. "Yes, I just wanted to see if he was alright," she explained. "And I'm fine."
"Good. Listen, I had a visit from your friend James today. He wants to work on the security at The Club. He said he spoke to you about it. Do you think it wise for me to allow him access to the security?" he asked.
Okay, she should have known that, left alone with no transport, he would try to work more on the case from that end. Well, it wasn't actually a bad thing. If she could locate Borelli and bring him in for questioning relating to his involvement with other UK Mafia, then she could only hold him for so long. She would need more concrete evidence of his part in the shooting of Roberto to have a chance at charging him for murder whilst she had him there. She couldn't be in two places at once though, so she needed Dempsey to play his part that end.
"Yes, if there's one thing I can say about Dempsey, he is hot on security," she answered, remembering the events of that morning. "I know that he can come across as the brash, arrogant American at times Doug, but underneath, he really does have a good heart," she assured him.
Doug went silent for a moment. "Right, well, the security has been on my mind lately. So I'll let him go ahead then."
"He will do a thorough job. Thanks Doug," she replied.
"For what?" he came back.
She paused for thought. "Just for being there," came her reply.
"Always sweetheart," he said, "Speak later."
As she hung up the call, Spikings emerged from his office and beckoned for her to join him.
"Found anything yet?" Spikings asked, closing the door.
"Well," she folded her arms, "I've been working on tracking down a Bella Jackson. Dempsey had dealings with her in New York. Seems she was working for the Borelli's, and then, out of the blue, she turned up, err… here… yesterday."
Spikings picked up on Harry's hesitancy. "Here?" he questioned.
"Hmm, at …" Harry was aware that she had to be careful what she said at that moment "…the Country Club," she replied, glancing down at Spikings's desk.
"Your Country Club?" he said with surprise. "Douglas Anderson's Country Club?" he corrected.
She nodded.
"What was this Jackson woman doing there?" he asked.
"Looks like she was following Dempsey."
"And what was Dempsey doing there?" he went on.
She glanced up at him. "Looking for me."
Spikings gave a curt nod. He wasn't exactly surprised at that, but he was slightly concerned about what kind of trouble Dempsey had now involved Harry in. Thank heaven she hadn't tried to deal with this on her own. "So what exactly do you think she wants from Dempsey?"
Harry shrugged. "Actually sir, I'm not entirely sure. The way Dempsey tells it, there is a vendetta between Dempsey and the Borelli's, and maybe they think Dempsey knows too much. But…" she hesitated.
"But what?" Spikings prompted.
She sighed. "I don't know; I don't see where Jackson fits into all of this. If they wanted Dempsey, I'm sure there were ample opportunities to catch him off guard here before now. And why send her? She just seems to be loitering around; I'm not at all certain why. But," she pointed a finger, "there is definitely some sort of connection. If we can find her, there is a fair chance that she will lead us to them."
"Hmm." Spikings digested the information. "So how do you plan on finding this woman?"
"Well, I caught her car registration last night at The Club. I've just managed to trace it to the car hire company. I'll press them for information on where she is staying," she explained.
"Yes, you do that," Spikings replied, turning to pick up a sheet of paper from off his desk, "because I've been making a few phone calls of my own." He handed the paper to her. "Turns out this isn't the first visit we've had from the Borelli brothers. Four times they've been over here in the past year alone," he said, pointing to the sheet. "Another department has been working on this, but now we're in on it too. You'll have the full cooperation from them; number's written on the bottom there," he gestured to the sheet in her hand.
"Thanks," she smiled, turning to leave.
"Oh and Harry," he said before she reached the door.
"Yes Sir?"
"Let me know as soon as you find out where she is. You can take Chas with you for the surveillance," he informed her.
"Is that necessary? Just for surveillance?" she asked. Involving Chas in this might just complicate things further.
"Yes Sergeant, this is a Mafia mob we're tracking down now," he warned, "it's not quite the same as hunting grouse in the English countryside."
She gave a sarcastic smile. Not the Country Club gibes again!
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Dempsey sat down to a feast of a roast dinner in front of him. Plates of vegetables, potatoes, roast beef and other strange foods he hadn't seen before were spread out over the dining table.
"Wow Mrs B, is this all just for you and me?"
"Yes of course, don't stand on ceremony, dig in. A young man needs a good meal inside him," she replied.
Dempsey began to pile his plate up with food as Mrs Bennett sat next to him, watching.
"Don't forget the Yorkshire puddings Mr Dempsey," she urged. "It's a crime not to have Yorkshire puddings with roast beef."
"Puddings?" he questioned.
"Yorkshire puddings," she stressed, reaching across to pick one up with her fork and place it on Dempsey's plate.
He looked at it slightly dubiously.
"They are good," she assured him. "I'm famous for my Yorkshire puddings Mr Dempsey. Here, you need lots of gravy over it," she said, picking up the gravy boat.
He shrugged and decided to give it a go, digging into the Yorkshire pudding with gusto.
He took a mouthful and glanced up at her after a few chews. "Mmm, not bad. Yorkshire puddings eh," he said, returning to his dinner.
Mrs Bennett smiled and began to transfer food to her own plate.
"Looks like I'll be leaving you soon," he said regretfully.
"But you'll be staying locally, won't you?"
"Hopefully," he replied.
"Well then, you must come back for Sunday dinner with Miss Harriet. I haven't seen her for a while," she said.
He smiled. "That'd be great."
The roast dinner was going down a treat with Dempsey. He couldn't remember the last time he had enjoyed a home cooked meal so much.
"Now, this is what you call a real English welcome," Dempsey commented.
Mrs Bennett glowed with the compliment. "There's pudding for afters too," she said.
He paused, and looked up at her. "Mrs B, you're spoiling me!"
She smiled and patted his arm.
So that's what it was like to have an English mother.
He smiled back and began eating again. "At this rate though, I'm gonna need to find the nearest gym!" he chuckled.
Just as he was considering helping himself to another Yorkshire pudding, a phone call came through on his cell phone. He checked the number before answering; it was Doug.
"I'm just gonna take this call out here Mrs B," he said, rising from his seat and heading for the hallway. "Save me some more of those Yorkshire puddings though, will ya?"
He left the kitchen and climbed the stairs, opening his cell phone and answering it on the way up.
"Dempsey."
"This is Doug," came the reply, "I've managed to arrange for you to meet with Brian at the farm this afternoon at five. Does that suit?" he asked.
"Yeah," Dempsey's face lit up with a smile.
"When would you like to move into the house?" Doug went on.
Wow, things were really going his way. "Today?"
Doug went silent for a moment before he replied. "I'm busy until three. I can meet you at the house around half past, run through everything with you and hand over the keys then."
"Sure. Great. Appreciate it," Dempsey answered.
"Not a problem," Doug replied, and then the phone went dead.
"Comin' back for those Yorkshire puddings now Mrs B!" Dempsey shouted out enthusiastically, bounding back down the stairs.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
By mid afternoon, Harry had got her hands on the name and location of the hotel where Jackson was staying, and was pulling up outside the building with Chas by her side.
The hotel was situated on a fairly narrow backstreet, just off a busy main road lined with shops and restaurants. It was a small, family owned business with its own Italian restaurant at the front. Although the hotel was nothing much to look at, it seemed clean and well-kept.
"Well, I can't go in; I might bump into Jackson. Over to you Chas; see if you can find out where her room is, but be discrete for now," Harry warned. Chas got out of the car and turned at the open car door to speak to her.
"What about you? She could spot you here," he pointed out.
She wrinkled her nose. "It's unlikely, besides," she reached across the dashboard to pick up a pair of sunglasses, "I'll wear these."
"You're a master of disguise Harry," Chas teased, closing the car door and heading towards the hotel entrance.
While Chas was inside the hotel, Harry checked on the camera equipment and took some time to examine the front of the building. They would have a fairly good view of both the entrance and the windows of the hotel rooms... at the front of the hotel anyway. She just hoped that Jackson was staying in one of those front rooms.
When Chas returned however, she was to be disappointed.
He had entered the reception area and assessed the front desk while waiting to speak to the receptionist. Seeing his chance to take a look at the register, he had sent the woman on an errand into the back room to look for a spare iron, before reaching over the desk to take a quick note of Jackson's room number. After a swift scan of the key pegs, he had also noted that Jackson's key was unfortunately missing; they wouldn't have a chance to search her room as she was obviously still in it. Chas had then familiarized himself with the layout of the hotel rooms and the location of the one in which Jackson was staying, before returning to Harry.
"She's in the room but it's not this side. There's a car park around the back; we should get a good view from there," he informed her.
The car park was however, not that big and only had two cars in it at that point. This would leave them extremely exposed and suspicious looking if they were to sit in the car for any length of time.
"Hmm, any ideas?" Harry asked Chas.
"Leave the surveillance to me," he suggested. "At least then if I'm spotted, they won't know who I am."
"Not a chance," she replied, scanning the back windows of the building and the surrounding area. She had to get started on this today at least. They needed to figure out Jackson's comings and goings, and hopefully find out who she was collaborating with. Okay, what would Dempsey do? She had to think outside the box. Then she spotted inspiration and, while in one respect her mind was working overtime to bring her plan to fruition, another part of her brain was telling herself that she was out of her mind. The former won; she abruptly got out of the car.
"Stay here; I'll be back shortly. I've had an idea," she said to Chas.
"Do you think that's wise?" he asked, watching as she rushed across the car park and disappeared around the front of the hotel. "Guess so," he concluded wryly.
It was nearly another twenty minutes before Harry returned and slipped back into the driver's seat a little sheepishly.
"What have you done?" Chas asked, watching her.
She took in a deep breath. "Well, put it this way, I think we won't be alone in this car park for long."
Harry was right; within the next half an hour, cars began filling up the spaces in the car park. An hour later, and the whole car park was practically full with cars conveniently concealing their presence.
"How did you do it?" Chas asked, intrigued.
Harry just smiled at him mysteriously.
The curtains in Jackson's room had been drawn now since Harry and Chas had arrived a few hours ago.
"What on earth is she doing in there?" Harry said with frustration.
"Do you think she knows we're here?" Chas asked.
"I doubt it. There's been no evidence of movement at all coming from that room," she answered.
"Maybe she had a late night last night and is still sleeping," he suggested.
Harry checked her watch. It seemed very late for her to still be in bed. "Or maybe she's keeping a low profile for some reason."
It was over another hour before they finally saw the curtains move. The car park had become so packed with cars that, when more arrived and found there were no free spaces, there was chaos as they tried to turn around in the confined space of the entrance. This led ultimately to a shouting match between two drivers. The curtains opened and, to their delight, it was a man who glanced out of the window angrily. Harry grabbed the camera and took a series of shots.
"Did you get any good pictures?" Chas asked.
"Yes," she replied excitedly. "All we need now is a positive ID of a Borelli. Let's get these back to the office," she said, beginning the tedious task of untangling themselves from the barricade of cars.
As they left the car park and joined the main road, Chas noticed a sign stuck to a wall. On it was written, in bold black marker pen,
"FREE PARKING, THIS WAY."
Another chapter coming very soon.