CHAPTER 31
I looked down at his hand, and then at his eyes, trying to hold my courage close and tight so that it couldn’t escape. Blake just nodded, and turned to my parents.

“Baby steps at the moment, Mark, Dot. Di’s the one in the driving seat”

That gave me something else to talk about, which I urgently needed.

“I’ll leave you in that seat, mate. Mam, when I was riding with Bryn and Barry, that spell I did in Traffic? When they went for it, I just shut my eyes and hung on, but this lad, he is SO smooth, and I think he’s even quicker than those two. When he wants to, he can REALLY cover the ground”

Once again, that laughter, something I was starting to enjoy hearing.

“Barry wasn’t hanging around with that stop, was he? Did you see the damage to their car’s wing? I thought he was going to push the van right into ours”

I found myself laughing, and with a squeeze of his hand I gave my side.

“Dad, we had to stop it in a hurry, so we had some unmarked cars followed by two marked ones from Traffic, so when Elaine said the word, they came past like shi--- like bats out of hell. Blake here, he runs us onto the verge, gets right by their front nearside so they can’t run. I doubt this one saw, but I nearly did myself an injury on the front door, Elaine was out that quick! Did you clock Bryn, mate?”

“Eyes on the road, Di”

“Yeah. Well, he already had his asp---his baton, Mam. He already had it out and ready, not wound up at all, was he? U thought they’d given the van a good clout! Did the trick”

Dad was sitting quietly just listening, and after I had turned to throw a grin at Blake, he said his own piece.

“Thank you, son. Really thank you. For the first time in far too long, something for her to smile at, for us two as well. Thank you”

He sighed, taking off his glasses to wipe his eyes.

“No assumptions from me, son, but wherever this goes, whatever happens with the two of you, you will always find our door open. Dot? You think we can have pudding?”

“I hadn’t done any, love”

“Then, if it is all right with everyone, the pub down the road does a very good line in afters. You up for that, you two?”

And so our quiet night in turned into a reasonably refreshed session in the local pub, a large part of it gathered round the video pub quiz machine arguing and groaning over the answers. That may sound odd, but Mam worked the controls as Dad stood behind her, arms around her waist, and I just leant back into Blake, as he gave me back my life, and only a second after that thought I realised it wasn’t just me. My parents were being healed as well.

Breakfast was smiles again, smiles and more laughter. Two men argued about rugby, two women grinned and pretended to be bored. Another smooth ride into work, and a very knowing smile from Candice, who was filling the urn as we walked in together.

“Took you two long enough! Brew in a bit, if someone could pop out and grab some milk. Those people with your brother, boy, they drink tea like it’s going out of fashion”

I grabbed my purse. “I’ll do it, girl. Anything else we need?”

“Some biccies be good. I’m off with Rhys, once he’s in. Got some ‘further to’ statements to get from some of the medics for Vernon and Omar, and then we’ve got a pile of work to do with the other victims”

At least a dozen, those had been the words on the telly.

“That been divvied up? The news last night was saying at least twelve”

Yeah. Rob and Alun are off to a couple now, and Sammy’s left us a list of who’s got what today. Not like paperwork, really, is it? I mean, it is paperwork, writing and that, but each one of them, well, I can’t help seeing that bastard Evan’s face, grinning”

I grinned in turn. “Which bastard Evans, Candice?”

“Does it bloody well matter? They’re all bastards. Tell you what; when we’ve got this one wrapped up, someone really needs to pop up to Carmarthen, let Elaine knows how it’s going. Oh, hi, Ellen. Busy day for you as well?”

The new arrival dumped her bag and coat next to a terminal and came over to the urn. Candice shrugged.

“As soon as one of these two gets their arse down the shop for some milk we’ll have a brew”

“Ta. I think I’ve got numbers printed on my eyeballs, so if there’s a chance of a black coffee, it’ll help me kick-start my brain. You two stopped dancing round each other, then?”

Was I making it that obvious? Sod them all; I was out the door like a shot.

Weeks of hard work followed, and while it wasn’t as exciting as the initial investigation had been, or the arrests, it was still absorbing, as were the three additional rape victims who came forward following the BBC and newspaper reports.

Vernon Pugh had washed himself raw in shame, and I had thought his reaction extreme, but here were three young men so wound up in fear, pain and shame that they hadn’t even seen a doctor. I should have hit Pritchard a few more times when I had had the opportunity. Candice had been spot on. Bastards, all of them.

Blake was distant throughout, but not in a bad way. He didn’t grab at me for a cuddle, nor snatch a kiss, but didn’t step back when I stepped forward, clearly not bothered by being with soiled goods, and at the same time letting me find my own way at my own pace. He smiled a lot, and more and more it was with the family. He and Dad were clearly good mates by then, and Mam seemed to enjoy cooking for more then the three of us.

Finally, FINALLY, we had the last statement sorted, the disclosure bundles signed off, all the exhibits labelled, and Sean and Ellen were muttering happily at their shared desk as they finally got a handle on Ashley Evans’ business dealings. I got permission from Sammy, and drove the long, damp miles to Carmarthen.

Elaine’s new office was much bigger than she had been given in Cardiff, compete with a PA and room for guests to sit. Somebody clearly held her in high opinion in Dyfed-Powys, and there was no way I would argue against that.

“Di!”

Sod protocol---I gave her as solid a hug as I could manage. She returned it with interest, a broad grin on her face, and set a coffee machine going, a real filter thingy with ground coffee rather than some granules from a jar. Once we were settled with our cups, I decided to get right to the important stuff.

“I’ll get straight to the point, Lainey. Oh, bloody good coffee, this”

“The point, Diane?”

“Oh yes. Hansen tried to claim he was only a driver, right up to when we mentioned the DNA from Omar’s rape, as well as the bite marks, some of them. You’ll laugh, but, well, I am absolutely sure the tape caught his brief saying ‘Oh fuck’ when we disclosed it to him. Hansen then went on some snivelling rant about how his partner was abusing him due to her addiction to Evil Drugs, and how the balance of his mind was disturbed, and his brief kept saying that he advised his client not to answer, and in the end just sat there with his head in his hands”

I covered my face with the cup, really enjoying the aroma.

“Thing is, his partner, aye? Adele Hughes? She comes out of it the next morning, off her face when she was nicked, innit, and she gives chapter and verse about where he gets the speed and the coke and the crack from, and she stitches her beloved up like a bloody kipper! So we put it to the boy himself, and mention the prints and bugger it, I almost felt sorry for the brief!”

Elaine shrugged. “Duty solicitor, aye? Got handed it like the proverbial shitty stick”

U couldn’t hold the anger down at that.

“That’s the thing, Lainey. No duty solicitor, innit? Fucking Councillor Ashley Evans’ own legal people, innit? Ashley bastard Evans!”

She stared down into her own cup for ten, fifteen seconds, and when she spoke it was almost a whisper.

“Would he be…?”

I gave my anger its head. “Another rapist? What do you think?”

“Sorry, Diane”

U saw Blake in my mind’s eye, and I wasn’t a whore, not soiled goods, and I could feel myself snarling.

“Yes. Not the same idiot girl now, am I? Anyway, Pritchard and the other bent bastard, they go no comment, no surprises there, and Jamie Evans, well, he decides to be a twat, all sorts of threats about doing you for assault, and Blake, oh dear me, he remembers what you said about leaving them their teeth for matching the bites…”

Blake in my thoughts, laughter bubbling up, memories of an angry rapist with a bandaged face.

“You broke his cheekbone and nose, Lainey. Hell of a wallop!”

“Well, Chris was, you know, and—”

I groped for Mam’s words. What were they? Oh yes.

“Yes, we all know, and chwarae teg to you. I learned that one for you, Elaine. Fair play indeed. So Blake’s all dead pan, and he just says that you were complying with your own briefing, that reasonable force be used up to the limitation of getting bite impressions, and his have come back, and, well, gives him a Special Warning and asks for him to account for his teeth having been in the shoulders of at least four men and, well, reality hits him, aye? I thought the brief was going to puke, he was that green. That one’s broken too, innit. The last one…”

I knew I had to be careful. She held secrets on this one, I was sure, and it would be all too easy to break them, and if that happened she would be broken as well.

“Elaine, what happened with him? FME says he has a lot of scars, old ones, and you can see in his face, one of his eyes droops, innit? He’s had at least one really bad kicking? And he knew your sister, you said?”

Her whole manner became guarded. “I gave you the story there already, Diane”

“No you didn’t, Inspector Powell. You gave me half a story”

She sighed. “You know about my sister Sarah?”

“We’ve spoken before, innit? She’s a transsexual, got done over by Pritchard and the other arsehole”

“About right. She was going out with Joe Evans for a while, or rather he was using her for a bit of fun, aye? Well, one day she wakes up to what he really is, and she goes to tell him so long, that’s it, goodbye, aye?”

“Aye. Yes…”

“And he gropes her, finds out she’s not what it says on the tin, and then he beats the shit out of her, puts her into hospital, which is where she meets the other two, who tell her her fortune. That’s all”

And that’s not all of it, is it, Inspector Powell? Careful, DC Owens.

“Then totally by coincidence Joe Evans gets the kicking from hell. Don’t answer that one, I don’t need to be told. He kept asking where you were, and every time there was a noise at the door he jumped. Gave us some version of how the balance of his mind was disturbed by having had a kicking because he rejected a nancy boy, and he just had to hit back, and you know how it is. Couldn’t we understand that? I think he’s not the full box, Elaine. Honest opinion, he’s going to be sectioned. No!”

She was out of her seat, and I am sure I saw the same face that Jamie Evans had, just before she had broken half of his own. I had my hand up—calm, cool, Inspector; police, professional.

“Inspector Patel thinks we can get him banged away on public safety grounds. That’s him down. Hansen’s folded, Jamie Evans hasn’t got a snowball’s and he knows it, and while the other two shits will still push for a trial, there’s more. That Range Rover, they had cuffs and leg-straps in it. And we have their DNA, or at least Pritchard’s, from Omar’s clothing. They’re both swimming, but it’s in shit creek. Job’s a good’un”

“Diane, thanks”

I chose my next words with care.

“Give your Sarah my love, Elaine”

She thought for a few more seconds of silence.

“I don’t think I will, Di. Don’t take this the wrong way, but, well, old wounds, still healing? If it doesn’t make the national news, she doesn’t need to know. I will make one prediction, though: our two ex-colleagues will plead when it comes to the day. Now, are you willing to have a little chat about something else? Ashley Evans?”

What was she on about? “What about him?”

“My Super has been getting more than a few phone calls, same with the boss over your way. Persecution of his family, police vendetta, all that. My boss is displeased”

I knew all that, and I was probably feeling a bit defensive.

“Well, that’s not our fault---“

“Shut up, Di. Please. The boss was talking about cold cases. His words. Things have changed, attitudes have changed. He would like a chat with you”

You are joking, Inspector Powell, I thought, but she clearly wasn’t.

“You mean?”

“Aye. If Ashley fucking Evans thinks his family’s being picked on, let’s show him what that means. You with me?”

I sat in silence for my own thoughts to settle. I had joined the force, taken on The Job, in order to find and destroy two pieces of filth masquerading as police officers, and that had turned out so much better than I could have dreamt. Who was Ashley Evans, anyway? Did he have this woman on his side?

Did he have Blake?

I nodded.

“Come with me, then. Adele? Just off to see the Super, aye?”

We walked twenty or thirty yards through the building to another office, where Elaine had a quiet word with another PA, who made the necessary call and then ushered us into another comfortably furnished room. A tall man stood up to shake Elaine’s hand, and she turned to indicate me.

“Boss? This is the young lady I mentioned to you. DC Diane Owens, Superintendent Elias”

He smiled at me, really smiled rather than just arranged his lips for courtesy’s sake.

“Welcome, Detective Constable. Elaine has been bringing me up to date with events in South Wales. Would you be happy to give me a run through?”

I could and did, with the generous application of rather a lot of censorship. He nodded.

“I was a lot younger ten years ago, Diane. A lot less sure of myself. Too easily influenced by heads that may have been older, but not necessarily wiser. I remember your case”

He looked at me in silence for a short while, and then asked one simple question.

“What can you and your team tell us about Ashley Evans?”