Kasim veered left again, heading along the other side of the unit towards the central area where the cars were. Ahead, the flicker of blue lights, the wail of sirens. Patrols arriving. He’d be harder to corner there and she was so close. She willed herself on, her heart pounding in her chest, breath raw in her throat, lungs screaming, and as they rounded the corner into the open space, in view of her car and the cab, Rachel lunged. She caught his jacket, held on, he strained forward but she pulled on his shoulder, got purchase, then she was on him, knocking him over. Sat on his back, yanked his wrists behind him, fishing the cuffs from her pocket and snapping them on, gasping, ‘You are nicked.’
Janet was at her side, hands on hips, a peculiar look on her face. ‘You mad bitch!’ she spat the words. Her face was wide with anger, or maybe fear. She was pissed off, whichever. ‘You could have killed us both. You stupid cow.’
‘You’re all right, aren’t you?’ Rachel peered up at her. ‘Nothing broken.’
Janet shook her head in disgust, walked a few steps away, then swung back. ‘That was dangerous driving.’
‘Nobody died.’
‘Screw you. Next time I’ll take the bus,’ Janet said, still furious.
Rachel blew out, winded, got to her feet, dizzy now and her calf muscles cramping. ‘How’s the car?’ she said.
‘Buggered. They’ll want a proper look at everything.’ Janet gestured to the patrols. The collision would have to be investigated. The cars examined. They would both be breathalysed – standard practice in any collision involving an officer. Rachel was sure she’d be clear.
‘I know. Need my bag, though,’ Rachel said. ‘Watch him, will you.’
‘You really don’t give a shit, do you?’ Janet said. Rachel didn’t reply. ‘Where’d you learn to run like that, anyroad?’
Langley. Always running away from something, away from aggro, trouble, away from Dad, or running after Dom.
‘Lads,’ Janet called to the uniforms, told them to take Kasim to the station and get him settled.
Rachel got her bag and went to see what everyone was goggling at, all clustered round the front of the taxi. Torches out, Janet with them. Rachel was shivering, sweat chilling her skin, the rain finding its way down the back of her neck.
‘Look at this,’ someone said as Rachel reached them. They moved aside to allow her access to the driver’s door. A uniform trained his torch on the open glove compartment. Rachel saw the pile of baggies, each containing light brown powder. Street heroin. Brilliant! ‘A nice little earner,’ she said to Janet. ‘The dispatcher reckoned Lisa was a regular. Maybe it wasn’t just the lift home she wanted.’ She grinned.
Janet still had her sour face on. Christ! There was no pleasing some people.
22
JANET SET THE alarm for half five. Ade groaning as it woke him too. The bedroom was cold, the heating didn’t come on for another hour. Once she was downstairs, she made porridge and a mug of tea. She wanted toast, but there were only a few slices of bread left. Barely enough for the girls’ sandwiches. In fact, if they wanted toast, too, Ade would have go out to the corner shop for another loaf. Janet didn’t want him accusing her of taking bread out of the mouths of their babes.
Still dark, and the rain of the night before had frozen leaving ice on her windscreen. Janet scraped it off, letting the car heater run to warm up the inside. In theory. Something dicky with the thermostat and never time to get it seen to, so it was like driving a fridge freezer to work. She drove slowly, wise to the patches of black ice on the road. Still smarting as she recalled Rachel’s antics behind the wheel and her cavalier attitude.
Although everyone was busy preparing for the raid, she managed to grab Gill’s attention for a few minutes, wanting her to do something about Rachel Bailey. ‘She didn’t need to act like bloody Jenson Button. I’d radioed control. There were half a dozen patrols could have done the job. I can’t do six weeks of this, Gill.’
‘Were you hurt?’
‘I was petrified, and she ignored me when I told her to slow down. I could have been hurt. It was a miracle I wasn’t. And you could have been visiting Ade with a death message.’
Gill raised an eyebrow. ‘Not the teeniest bit exciting?’
Janet gave her a baleful look. ‘Are you mad?’
Through the window Janet saw Rachel at her desk. Noticed her glance quickly away. Could she tell that Janet was still pissed off? You’d never have guessed Rachel had been up half the night in the aftermath of her Top Gear stunt. News of her escapade had spread through the nick like wildfire and her desk had been festooned with a large chequerboard flag and a mashed-up dinky model of a police car.
‘Very fitting,’ Gill had said when she spied it. ‘Down by lunchtime.’ She allowed the team their horseplay and practical jokes but expected the office to look like a place of work, to reflect their professionalism.
‘It’s pushed things forward,’ Gill told Janet, ‘the cabbie, the drugs.’
‘We’d have got there anyway, but Bailey had to be centre stage, acting like a one-man SWAT team. She’s doing my head in. You know what she said about the victim’s mother? “Should have been sterilized at birth”.’
‘We all have our opinions.’ Gill started moving towards the office door.
‘Yeah, but we don’t all say them out loud. Aren’t you the slightest bit bothered that she trashed the car?’
‘That is a black mark,’ Gill agreed, ‘but you know they palm us off with the old jalopies; it was never going to make it through the MOT.’
‘They probably won’t replace it,’ Janet said.
‘That’s for me to worry about.’
‘They’ll be giving us scooters next,’ Janet said.
‘I can just see it, Rachel on pillion.’
‘Funny.’
‘You OK?’ Andy said, meeting Janet in the corridor.
‘No, I’m not,’ she said. ‘I think she was wrong to drive like that with me in the car. If she’d been on her own…’
‘Her funeral,’ he said.
‘Exactly.’
He smiled and Janet smiled in return and felt that lurch again. ‘And I’d happily send flowers but-’ She shook her head.
‘Impetuous,’ he said of Rachel.
‘And then some: headstrong, tactless.’ Like Taisie, Janet thought. Though a wilder streak in Rachel, something dark there, something damaged even. No excuses, Janet told herself; she nearly killed me.
‘And Gill?’ Andy asked.
‘Pleased with the upshot, given I’ve no visible scars.’
‘But psychologically…’ He grinned, taking the piss.
‘Oh, already a lost cause,’ she joked.
‘Glad you’re OK, though.’
‘Me an’ all. See you down there.’ And she carried on to the stairs.
They’d got their body armour on, and personal safety equipment to hand. Rachel had picked up the keys to an old saloon before Janet could beat her to it. Janet hadn’t bothered with any chummy greetings, too fed up with Rachel’s blasé attitude and the fact that Gill hadn’t given Janet the backing she wanted, apparently still set on forcing them to work together.
‘How’s the whiplash?’ Rachel said.
Cheeky cow. ‘Keys,’ Janet held out her hand.
‘Why can’t I-’
‘You are kidding! I’d rather walk there on my knees than get in that thing with you at the wheel.’
‘I promise I’ll-’
‘Keys.’ She was adamant.
‘I’ve done the advanced driving course,’ Rachel said.
‘Bully for you. I’d never have guessed.’ Janet stuck her hand out again.
‘I get carsick in the passenger seat.’
‘Bring a sick bag.’