Lucifer's Apostles

Lucifer's Apostles Episode 24

Tank’s day had been packed. He had just finished coordinating raids on the homes and workplaces of Samuel Beckett, Lucas Brady, Nigel Tarver, Yasmine Afshar, and Christopher Katrakis. Nigel Tarver was Juliette’s husband, and now a suspect, while Yasmine was Nadia Shahi’s partner. Although she was only missing, she was on Ned’s list which had been accurate. Katrakis, Beckett and Brady had gone into hiding. It was frustrating, Tank. How did Katrakis know, and who had alerted him?

He looked at his phone. He had a missed call from Katie. He called her, and she answered, “Hi, Tank, we have something from the latest victim’s body”.

Tank would take any break in the case, saying, “Do you want me to come to you”?

“No, I realise that you are busy. The unsub drops the corpses onto a tarp in his van. You have read my autopsy reports on Juliette Tarver and Janelle Sommerville,” Katie went on, not waiting for a reply, “Rope fibres were found on both, as well as some dirt traces. More on Janelle than Juliette because we believe he cleaned Juliette at the church. I found the same fibres on Destinee’s corpse. She has rope fibres and traces of dirt from the tarp. This time, there were skin cells under three of her fingernails. She scratched someone”.

Tank pumped his fists in excitement. “Can you get trace DNA on it?” he asked.

“It has been sent to the lab with expedite on it from Bill Clements”, she replied.

“Thanks, Katie. Can I call you back? I need to get onto Bill”? He hung up and rang Bill immediately, “I need a massive favour”.

“Anything Tank” Bill replied.

“You’re not going to like it. Have you told Joe Hawkins about Katie’s DNA request?” Tank asked.

“No, and I know where you are going with this. I have told you I trust Joe, why don’t you?” Bill enquired.

“I agree it’s several people that could be the mole. Professionally, I shouldn’t have told you, but I need to be able to trust somebody. You came to me about the task force. How much influence did Joe have on individuals? He came to me and told me Louise needed help. You told me he went to you”. Tank was desperate to get his point across.

“He told me he wanted Louise Harrigan on the case as a profiler and computer analyst. You know I’m not a massive fan of profilers. Not all cops are the same, but I respected his wishes. I rang Toomey over at missing persons, and he said O’Donnell had been working the Juliette Tarver case. He seemed the obvious choice. I contacted Myers from the Personal Standards Command at his home. Of course, as you can imagine, he was unhappy talking to me. They’ve never been interested in Owen. Myers didn’t even know who he was”. Bill paused before continuing, “I know you, Tank. You get a bone, and you chew on it. Most of the time, you’re right. I don’t think you are this time, but this is huge. I said I would do you a favour and I’ll forget that I haven’t told Joe about the DNA. It’s against my better judgement as I believe on this occasion you are chewing on the wrong bone”.

“You know me too well, Bill. You have to realise everything I know I learnt from a cranky old sergeant when I was still a rookie”, Tank told him.

Bill laughed, “That cranky old sergeant didn’t teach you half the things you know, Tank. You had learnt more than most on the streets of Kings Cross before I had even heard of you. I thought I was getting an inexperienced, know-it-all rookie when you transferred to our squad here. My assumption, you know how much I love those, was entirely wrong. You came here and taught me a thing or two. A gentle bear walked into our division, and over the years, you’ve made us all better people just for meeting you. I know how much losing Pete this morning would be eating you up. You were partners for a long time. I’m here if you need to talk”.

“Thanks, I know how hard this favour is”, Tank said. “I don’t trust anyone now besides you and Katie. We’ve got two good men lying on tables in the morgue. Four people were killed in one day. Somebody knew we were coming, but neither Louise nor Ned knew. Ned could steal my life savings and wipe out my entire identity, but is he crooked? He was. I doubt he is any more. He wouldn’t try and set a trap without telling Louise, yet he gave me the number of Kypoira. He is loyal to her, like a puppy to their master. He loves her unconditionally”, Tank told Bill.

“I’ll give Myers another call and ask about our genius. I love messing with someone’s weekend when they hate me so much. There is nothing professional between us. He was going out with Colleen before I stole his girl off him and married her”, Bill laughed. “He’s never gotten over it even though he’s married with a tribe of grandkids. Remember my offer, anytime you need to talk”, Bill said and hung up.

Tank rang Katie back and asked if she could discretely do the same as he had asked Bill. She said she had not even thought of sending a copy to anyone yet. Her findings were not final. She had notified Bill about the DNA, which had been all. She told him there had been a change of plans tonight. She had been called to a family dinner by her brother Aleks, and she did not expect him to go even though she would enjoy his company if he did. Tank surprised her by saying that he would love to accompany her. The distraction from today’s events would be a blessing.

Katie told him to come to her apartment anyway, even if he could not make dinner. She said she would drop the spare key into him on her way to the dinner. If he happened to be coming, they could go together.

When Tank finished talking to Katie, he was on the police radio, seeing how the raids were going. Nothing was promising on any of the fronts. He told everyone that if there were vehicles owned by any of them, including delivery vans from Becketts hardware store, to impound them.

His phone vibrated, and he looked at the caller’s I.D. It was Bill, who informed him that the Professional Standards was not investigating Louise Harrigan. They did have an active investigation running on Chief Superintendent Joseph Hawkins.

***

Nadine Kerr had been chained and laid on her bed in bedroom three. The same routine would happen with her. She would be fed tomorrow for dinner. Jacko brought in three bottles of water as it was extremely humid.

The two men had met Shannon, who would be helping Snake capture more hostages. Krishna was already in training, meaning Tommy would be assigned to help Shannon. Ruby told Snake and Jacko that they were on notice. Any more muck-ups would be their last as partners. She told Snake that she had recently employed Shannon as security for one of her brothels. Snake thought that he would run and hide if she came near him while she was a bouncer.

Snake visited Sally, and he could tell she had been crying when he entered her room. He had gone to a fuel station, bought a clear cylinder that said Happy Birthday on the outside, and had a fake rose and a small dog inside. He took it from behind his back and gave it to her.

“Happy Birthday again, I’m sorry it’s not Georgy. If I’d taken Georgy from your mother’s house, you would’ve made me take her back. You can cuddle it and pretend”, he told her.

Sally tried to smile. It was not the happy smile she had greeted him with earlier. She missed her mother and knew she would be broken-hearted today. She thought Georgy was the most important thing in her life. She realised today that her mother was. She reached out and took the cylinder. “Thank you”, was all she could manage before crying. “I’m sorry, I just miss my mum”.

“Don’t ever apologise to me”, Snake said to her. He held up her chin with his index finger. Sally winced, and he took away his finger immediately. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was just going to say you never have to say you’re sorry”.

She looked up, “Would you call her and let me talk to her if I promised I didn’t scream or tell her anything, please?” she pleaded.

“Sally, don’t ask the impossible. I understand you miss your mother. Why don’t you ever talk about your father?” he asked.

“He left us when I was six. We have never seen him since. Mum had contact with him after he went. He never wanted anything to do with us. Mum remarried after eight years. She seems happy even though you never really know. You never actually like your parent’s partners at the start, even if they are the nicest people in the world. Now we talk, that’s all that should matter”, Sally finished.

“It’s not easy being a kid in a broken family. My parents divorced when I was thirteen, and both remarried. I’ve divorced myself. Luckily, I have no kids in the marriage, although I have a son with another woman. We didn’t last either. I mustn’t be the world’s greatest catch”, Snake said with a smile.

“What’s his name, and how old is he?” Sally asked with genuine interest.

“It’s Jordie, and he’s seven. I usually have him every second weekend”, Snake confided. “I’ve been a little busy and haven’t had him for a while”.

“I bet he’s a cutie like his dad. Does he have a pet?” she asked. “He would love a little bunny rabbit. I had a black and white one when I was a kid. We put him in his cage of a night, and all day, he would hop around our backyard, digging up Mum’s garden. It would be wrong to keep him locked up night and day”. She stopped when she realised what she had said, “That wasn’t meant to be aimed at you”.

“It should have been Sally. I got you into this mess, and I’m going to get you out”, Snake said with a determined resolution not to break.