14. Imminent Threat To Life
By the time Sally crawled back across the chassis into the farm, Rook was already tearing away in a green Range Rover with his two remaining brothers. He glared at her as they raced by on the track.
Sirens wailed loudly. Sally dropped onto the track and staggered after the SUV. It reached Dungeness Road just as the first police car drew up.
Liam's dark Audi.
Rook slammed into it. There was a rending crash, the Audi's windshield fractured, the airbag slammed into Liam's face and the whole vehicle was forced sideways across the road.
"Shit!" Sally croaked and tried to speed up, her legs barely holding her weight.
The Range Rover reversed, the wheels spun then it rammed the Audi again, rolling it off the road and down an embankment into the marsh.
Red tinged Sally's vision. Her foot sank in a watery pothole and she almost fell. By the time she reached the head of the track, the Range Rover was receding rapidly to the south. She turned north, where more sirens and lights were incoming.
She turned to the Audi, lone light on the roof still flashing. Liam slumped over the deployed air bag, blinking. Sally grabbed the door and yanked. It clanked then opened on the third try. Liam twitched and blinked up at her.
"What the hell?"
"It's OK," she said, delving past him for the seatbelt clasp. "Hang in there."
"Sally?" His eyes ran over her mud-covered figure. "What happened to you?"
"Got in a fight with Roarke Rook."
The belt released and Liam gasped, hands going to his face. "Ah, shit. Airbag packs a punch. Who hit me?"
"Roarke Rook. The bastard hit us both. Come on out before you sink."
Sally took his arm and pulled. He managed to get one leg out, but it didn't hold and he sank softly into the marsh. It swallowed half his body in a second and Sally couldn't help but laugh.
He tried to push himself up, but his arm slipped and the whole side of his head sank into the mud. It only made Sally laugh harder.
"It's not funny," Liam grumbled, managing to find a firm patch of ground. "It's so damn," he searched for the right word, "wet."
Sally helped him up, sobering as a wailing police car pulled up, light bar flashing. DCI Mayhew surged from the passenger side.
"What the hell happened here?" she demanded, taking in the sinking Audi. "O'Connell? And is that Rogers?"
Sally wiped mud from her face. "Roarke Rook and his two brothers took off in a green Range Rover." She pointed south. "He tried to kill me in the marsh and he hit Liam's car."
"He tried to kill you? What did you do?"
Sally started laughing again.
"She's an officer in pursuit of her duties," Liam snapped before Sally could say something damning. "That's all you need to know right now, DCI. Now get in sodding pursuit!"
Mayhew stared at him, then slapped the patrol car roof. "Get after that vehicle!"
The patrol car shot south. Mayhew clicked her shoulder radio. "All units, intercept a green Range Rover moving south on Dungeness Road, should be heading past the reactors now." She looked at Sally. "Plate reg?"
Sally supplied the license plate number and Mayhew repeated it into the radio.
"Caution, three Rook brothers in the vehicle, highly dangerous, just involved in two officer assaults.
" Her eyes locked on Sally. "Units 3 and 4, block the Coast Drive by Greatstone.
If they get past you there, they're loose.
Unit 1, get to Lydd-on-Sea and deploy across the shingle in case they try by foot.
Unit 2, get to us here by Umberside Lodge.
And DI Gemmell, get CSM Akilota back from Dover, we'll need him for this. "
Her radio squawked back and she turned away, holding it close to her ear.
Liam put a hand on Sally's shoulder. "That bastard tried to kill you?"
She let his hand rest for a moment. It felt good; like the partnership they'd started to build on Dark Peak. "Tried's the key word there. Did you stop the van?"
He searched her eyes for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. It came right at us and we almost crashed. That's why we're late here. It was covered in blood or something?"
"Red Farb-gel." Sally smiled. "I had to think fast."
"Farb-gel?"
"It's basically silly string." Her smile spread, then faded again. "The girls in the back of the van. You have them?"
"Yeah. All five. They're with paramedics now. The brother's already en route to Rye, nearest police station."
Sally thought that through. Her pulse was finally slowing. "Good. It's people trafficking, Liam. Probably forced prostitution."
"Right, I saw their clothes." Liam rubbed his jaw. That would be the airbag impact.
She felt heat building in her throat too, where Rook had choked her. There'd be bruising, but she wasn't about to report it now. She couldn't give Mayhew any reason to take her off the case.
Instead she turned to the track leading back to Umberside Lodge.
"We don't need a warrant now, do we?"
Liam stiffened. "I don't know. That depends."
"Screw depends," Sally said, and started back along the track.
"Where do you think you're going?" Mayhew shouted from behind.
"They're prostituting girls, DCI," Sally answered. "Maybe trafficking, too. You sure that was all of them in the van? We're cleared under PACE section 17 to search."
The DCI said nothing for a moment, then cursed. "All right. Come on, O'Connell."
Mayhew broke into a jog, forcing Sally and Liam to hobble after her. Across the muddy yard, over wheel ruts left by the panel van, they reached the side door to the barn.
Padlocked.
Mayhew picked out a length of metal jutting from the piles of junk, then pulled it loose and wedged it into the loop of the padlock.
Liam looked at Sally, then Mayhew yanked down. The bar levered against the door, dragging the clasp's screws out with a rasp and forcing the door inward.
Sally sped in first.
A corridor of mildewed plasterboard led deeper, pinned with wallcharts, calendars and what looked like work schedules.
The floor was scattered with torn papers, shreds of lingerie and small colorful tubes with a bright trigger, almost like toddler toys.
Vape pens, Sally recognized. Doorways opened to left and right, and she looked into the first.
It was a box-like partition framed with more damp plasterboard, brightly lit with industrial lamps on stands. Their harsh white glow lit some kind of stage set; a rumpled double bed scattered with teddy bears, backed by a fake white panel wall with bookshelves to either side.
"What in hell?" Mayhew asked.
Thick gray cables ran along the floor to a dusty desk, where a clean rectangle lay in the dust. A spilled coffee cup lay to one side, a half-eaten sandwich in a disposable box on the other.
"Livestream porn," Sally muttered, pointing. "Laptop there. Cameras here. The girls in the van were performing, maybe being forced to. Rooks could've been making thousands a day with this set up."
Mayhew stared. "What's this got to do with the murder?"
"I don't know."
She pushed back past Liam and Mayhew and headed to the next ‘room' over.
This scene echoed the backseat bench of a London black taxi cab, more lights, some tripods, with a rear screen projecting a street retreating away.
She went to the next room, a small kitchen.
Kettle, toaster, table and four chairs. More clothes hung off chair backs, looking like costumes.
A vial rested on the plywood counter. Sally didn't touch it but ducked close, reading the information.
Her heart skipped a beat.
"Ketamine," she said.
Liam came in alongside her. "Like we found in the victim's bloodstream."
Sally straightened. Her spine ached. "Could be. It's a common sedative drug."
"Not in Kent," Mayhew said, taking a photograph. "And you're missing the cardiotoxic agent."
"We've only done a cursory search, DCI. It could be here."
Mayhew reached for the radio on her shoulder, but Sally laid one hand on her arm.
"What?" Mayhew asked.
The case revolved in Sally's head, pieces struggling to slot in like bullets into a mag. The Crab Shack. The reactor CCTV. Dogs and an engine at 3 a.m. Reactor Logistics. Reg Rook. Ketamine. There were so many pieces already, but no clear throughline. Except, maybe…
"Does section 18 clear us to search the Crab Shack on Dungeness?"
Mayhew frowned. "18's for property controlled by someone under arrest. You think the Rooks own that shack on the beach?"
Sally had to be delicate now; not lie, but not tell the whole truth about withholding earlier. "I just got confirmation from Roarke Rook that his father, Reg Rook, owned it. I think Roarke's using it now."
Mayhew's eyes narrowed. "You just got confirmation now?"
"That's right, DCI."
"Why do I doubt that? But OK, for now. What do you think they're using it for?"
Sally made the leap. "Could be a waypoint for small boat drop-offs. It explains the dogs last night. I'm betting that was the Rooks making a pick up."
Mayhew considered that for a moment. "Slow down, Rogers. You think those girls came in on small boats last night? Through this shack on Dungeness?"
"That's my working theory. It's a perfect location for storage, retrieval."
"Perfect doesn't make it true. Have you got anything solid to back it up?"
"Approve the shack search and we'll find out. We've got the van-driving brother under arrest. 18 works, and CCTV from last night could change everything."
Mayhew paused, fingers still on the transmitter for her radio. "So what's the full theory, Rogers? The Rooks did an illegal pickup then killed that boy? Busy night."
Sally hadn't worked it through that far. "Maybe. The victim could've seen something he shouldn't have. Or maybe the Rooks weren't involved at all, but they saw something, or their CCTV did."
"So they're witnesses, now?"
"I don't know, DCI. But we need the facts." Sally paused; the second time she'd used Mayhew's words against her. "We'll know once we're in the shack."
A beat passed. Then Mayhew nodded. "OK, you're authorized under 18." She handed Sally the metal bar. "But avoid excessive damage, and don't touch anything except the CCTV until Akilota gets a team out there."
Sally took the bar, fighting a grin. Now they were making progress. "Yes, ma'am."