CHAPTER 24
Almost immediately my phone beeped at me, which saved me from talking to Blake.

CCTV 5 up bsbl bats.

Oh. Baseball bats. I showed the text to my companion, and he grunted.

“We’re on, then. Buckle in”

I caught his mood, and put my seat belt on.

Goat in Smugglers one tango obsing

“Chris is in the Smuggler’s, Blake. One of the targets has eyeballs on it”

“Hang on, girl. I might have to move. Keep me up to speed”

A long wait to the next update left me fidgeting in my seat, and Blake put his hand on mine and squeezed. I glared at him.

“I know, girl, but chill. There is sod-all we can do right now but be calm and wait. We do this right? For Dai?”

Dai fucking Pritchard in my case, but I knew he meant Dai Gould, so I just nodded and gave him a squeeze back.

“Aye, mate. For Dai”

Van 4 up multi stry goat on way

“This is it, Blake. They’re parked up in the same place as before, idiots. Chris is on his way”

“Hang on, then”

As smooth as ever, as quick as all hell, we were on the road as Elaine sent a series of short but clear texts, and as we parked up again just round the corner from the huge glorified urinal, she undid the passenger door and waved me into the back seat.

“Lost fucking signal, girl. You still got reception, Blake?”

“Aye, three bars, clear as”

His phone rang just then, and after very few words from him, he turned to Elaine.

“Control’s on this one, Ma’am. Evans is following on foot, just about to enter the stairwell. Van’s just driven off”

“Eh?”

She was wound up so tight I thought she would snap, and I realised Pritchard’s involvement was doing to her exactly what it had done to me. Blake stayed outwardly calm as she switched her own phone off and on again.

“They haven’t got the van on camera. They haven’t got the occupants. Fucking blind spot!”

“Get the ANPR on it now!”

“Already done, they said”

Whatever she had done to her phone had worked, as it came to life in the most sickening of ways, shouting and grunting followed a couple of solid thumps that I realised were from the bats we had been warned about. Shitting hell. Elaine grabbed her radio, shouting “ALL UNITS CAR PARK GO GO GO!”

She was out of the door, face contorted, and sprinting as if the Devil was coming up behind her. Blake and I were almost as quick, and he passed her on the car park stairs, asp out and ready as I tried to force speed I didn’t have out of my legs.

I caught up with them as Rob and Candice arrived, two pools of liquid on the floor in front of them, one of them dark and sticky. Blood, obviously, and beyond it was what was left of the belt Mam had sewed so carefully.

Fuck!

Elaine was fiddling with her radio, muttering in between gasps, and I turned mine up as well, just as she reined herself in and reached for her work mobile instead.

“Control, it’s me. Find him”

She looked around us as the whole team gathered by the two pools, and turned the phone to speaker mode. Tinny, but it worked.

“ANPR ping, Ma’am, west out of city centre. Will vector the plain units. Two traffic cars en route”

Almost immediately her other phone came to life, and she hit speaker mode on that as well.

“Tie the fucker properly, butt! Cunt just tried to bite me!”

Elaine looked round us all again, before grabbing the work phone again.

“Control? GPS tracker on Mr O’Connor’s phone?”

“Wait one”

It felt like forever, but they came straight back.

“Lansdowne Road, Ma’am”

“Thanks, Control”

“And CCTV just picked the van up at junction with Cowbridge Road West”

Elaine looked round again.

“Go! Move!”

We clattered back down the stairs, and she was still shouting directions to the nick

“Get the Traffic boys to stay off the blues and twos, Control. What’s their driving like?”

“Steady, Ma’am. Careful, like”

“OK. We will form up in convoy in the unmarked cars. Get Traffic to sit behind us. We’ll look for a place for a hard stop, and they can come through and light them up, aye?”

“Aye. Yes. Just lost the GPS, Ma’am”

She almost screamed, then caught herself again before stuffing both phones away, the one tied to Chris now silent. A glare at Blake.

“Get us there, boy, and fucking sharpish”

I wasn’t buckled in before he took off, and I suspect Elaine’s door wasn’t actually closed, but we went bloody fast on blues but no twos until we were nearly at the road in question, and I saw the team cars slot in behind us one by one.

Her breathing was like a train, but she was still doing her best to be calm.

“We’ll look for a place to do this, butt, and then I want it done neatly. Hard stop, full impact, aye? How far ahead are they, Control?”

Tinny over her mobile, but it lost none of the tension I could feel coming from the radio room.

“CCTV has them about four hundred yards ahead of you, Ma’am”

She lowered the handset and took several deep and slow breaths, clearly trying to centre herself, find the calm she needed.

“Both Traffic units are behind you now, Ma’am”

“Thank you Control. Could you alert the air unit just in case?”

"Already done, Ma’am, and I will have a dog unit with you in about---ah, he’s tagged on with the second Traffic car now”

“You are a star!”

“Needs doing, Ma’am”

“Listening, thank you”

Our leader was coming back to us after the panic I had seen in the car park, thank the gods. I made sure my cuffs were loaded, the sound of the ratchets unnaturally loud to my ears, and ran my hands over my stab vest, checking yet again that everything was there and ready for use.

Elaine took a few more deep breaths, then turned to Blake.

“Start closing the distance. Time to stop this lot”

We slowly edged up towards the van, and as the road straightened, Elaine took the radio.

“Marked units, stop them, GO GO GO!”

Two Traffic cars howled past us, blues and twos on, and I clearly saw Bryn’s profile in the passenger seat of the first one, asp already raised. Blake lit up our own sound and light show, as did all the others, and I saw that Barry wasn’t subtle in stopping the Transit, clearly making contact as Bryn’s door burst open. I was out and running as soon as our own car stopped on the footpath beside the van’s nearside, and nearly did myself an injury on Elaine’s door. All around was the sound of smashing glass, breaking windows, as I somehow managed to get past her. She was tugging at the loading door on the side, obviously focussed on getting to Chris, but I had the front passenger door in my sights.

Its window went in with one swing of the asp, and I grabbed the handle just as someone tried to come out, and he simply came with the door I hauled open, and that is when I dropped my bloody baton. I took a big handful of his sleeve, grabbing for my spray, and gave him a sizeable sample right in the bloody face as Blake shot past me.

Down to the ground, go for the pin, there’s my stick, give him a good one across the back of the thighs, where’s fucking Chris? Bryn arrived and got some cuffs on the bastard, and things finally began to slow down. Screaming, dog barking, my breath thundering in my ears almost as loudly as my heartbeat, and Barry holding me.

“He’s alive, girl. Work mode now, yes? Police, professional. Breathe and focus. I have called in an ambulance for him”

Bryn called from where he had my man in ground pin and cuffs.

“Barry? Look who it is!”

He turned the bastard’s face towards us, and Barry shone a torch on it.

“What a fucking non-surprise. I always knew you were a cunt, Pritchard”

He turned to me. “Go and have a talk with your boss, Di. We’ll make sure this one is properly secured”

I turned away, before I saw anything I didn’t have to, and found my way to the back of the van, where Rob was cradling Chris. He was a mess, blood pouring from a number of cuts to his face, and I reached out for his hand.

“Hello, my love. I was never really one for rough trade, you know but well, for the queen I’m anybody’s”

He couldn’t manage more than that before the tears came, but he was trying. I got out of the van again, stepping past five cuffed and leg-strapped figures lying face down, broken glass crunching under my shoes, and found our boss. Police, Di, professional.

“Ambulance on way, Ma’am. We might want to sit the prisoners up. Positional asphyxia, yeah?”

She looked ready to explode, eyes going everywhere, and I could read her mind: let the bastards suffocate, but she obviously had her own ‘police, professional’ tape loop going, and gave the word for our catch to be moved into safer positions.

Finally, she drew a long, shuddering breath. “How’s Chris?”

I shrugged. “Bruised. He’s already making shit jokes about getting a bit of rough, and doing it for the queen, but he’s really shaken”

“Get him off in the ambulance as soon as, girl. Right, let’s see who we’ve got, and get the formal bit over with, once I catch my breath”

As soon as they had all been properly searched, all pocket contents and anything else of interest bagged, they were sat up, and she produced her own torch.

“Right! I am Inspector Elaine Powell of the Dyfed-Powys Police, on secondment to South Wales, just so you know. All five of you are under arrest on suspicion of kidnap, rape, grievous bodily harm, assault, and that will do for Custody purposes. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you fail to mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand? Yes? OK, let’s see who you are!”

She walked down the line of prisoners.

“Matthew Hansen, I believe”

“And you are Jamie Richard Evans”

“Lift his head—Oh! Dai Pritchard. Not nice, Dai. Candice! Got a spit kit?”

“So you must be… Hello, once more, Robert Evans”

“Fuck you, you fat dyke!”

“Not nice, MISTER Evans. Not nice at all, so you can take this as your one and only warning under section 5 of the Public Order Act. I believe you may be familiar with the law”

There was utter contempt in her voice, but I felt that she was trying to cover up her gloating. What shocked me was that neither of my former acquaintances seemed to recognise me.

One left, and when his head was lifted to the light, Elaine froze. Nearly five seconds passed before she spoke again, and her tone was fittingly glacial.

“Joe Evans. Hello! We haven’t met, but I believe you might know my sister”