By lunchtime, it was business as usual again in the incident room, but nothing urgent was happening. Armani came and leaned on Jack’s desk.
‘I thought you might want an update. I was at St Thomas’s most of last night and again this morning. Maria Barras has serious injuries but is recovering well from the surgery. The biggest concern is a skull fracture. She is going to remain in the ICU for the time being until I can organise a transfer to a private hospital.’
‘Thanks for telling me, Ma’am.’
‘George is being charged with GBH, and it will no doubt be a custodial sentence due to the previous assaults.’
‘It’s for the best.’
Armani nodded. ‘I hope this can remain strictly between us, Jack.’
‘Of course.’ He gave her a reassuring smile. She turned to leave, then paused. ‘I suppose you heard the news this morning? DCI Morrison was at the hospital and told me that their victim had died, so his case is now a murder investigation. A press release was issued this morning.’
Jack didn’t want to overreact or show that he already knew who Morrison was. ‘He’s with Fulham CID, isn’t he?’
‘I believe so; I worked with him a while back. Right: onwards and upwards with our current investigation DS Warr, and let’s hope we get some positive results from this evening.’ She walked out of the incident room.
Laura swung round in her chair. ‘Did I hear Mark Morrison’s name mentioned?’
‘You did. His unidentified victim has died. There was a press release this morning.’
Laura immediately went back to her computer. She signalled to Jack. ‘It’s on the database... I’ve got it up now.’
Jack feigned a lack of interest. He picked up a file and pushed his chair back. ‘I’ve got to go and get this copied.’
Standing in the gents, Jack wished he had never mentioned anything to Laura about the case. She was quite capable of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person without even realising. He needed to quash any further discussion by providing a weighty distraction...
Back in the incident room, he made his pitch. ‘I mean, we won’t be offended if you say no, but if you would agree to be his godmother, Maggie and I would really love that.’
‘Wow, Jack, I am really touched,’ Laura gushed. ‘Yes, of course, I would be proud to accept, and I promise to take it very seriously. I mean, I’m not that religious, but I was confirmed. Is it going to be at a church?’
‘Yeah, and then there will be a bit of a party afterwards. Maggie is organising it, but we don’t have a date set yet. I just wanted to make sure you’d be up for it.’
Laura put her arms around him. ‘I am really moved, Jack. Please tell Maggie I will do anything to help organise the celebration.’ Sitting back down with a broad smile still on her face, Laura seemed to have forgotten all about Mark Morrison and his mysterious murder victim. The rest of the afternoon was spent preparing for the event at the YMCA.
When Jack got home, it was after ten. Maggie had already gone to bed, and the kids were sleeping soundly. Penny had left some sandwiches under cling film on the kitchen table, so he tucked into them and had a large whisky before going up.
Maggie was reading when he walked in, shrugging off his leather jacket to toss on the floor by the wardrobe. ‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’ he asked as he sat on the bed. Maggie didn’t answer, letting Jack choose how to start.
‘I have to say, Mags, Armani can be quite impressive when she tries. The YMCA Hall was only a quarter full, and there were a lot of no-shows, but those that did were very vocal. To start, a bloke stood up shouting that he wanted to know when Hammersmith Bridge was going to be working, as he was losing business.’
Maggie laughed as Jack kicked off his shoes.
‘After dealing with that, she got the message across with some real emotion, but it was the video footage that really did the job: footage of many of the young knife victims who died last year, and then photographs of the kids hanging out by school gates and in the snooker halls. As you know, I really wasn’t getting along with her, but I have to put my hand up and say she did a good job. She got a lot of positive feedback from the parents. And she got some press attention. Someone was there from the Daily Mail no less.’
‘OK, so that has to be the good news,’ Maggie said.
Jack, by now, had got down to his underpants and was standing at the open wardrobe door.
‘I needed to get Laura to keep her mouth shut about me trying to find out about the victim from the framer’s shop.’
‘My God, yes. I heard the news about him dying.’
‘I asked Laura to be Charlie’s godmother.’
‘What!’
‘You know the last thing I need is for her to start blabbing about me trying to find out about the victim.’
‘So, it’s a bribe?’ Maggie couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘She’s over the moon, Mags. I’m sorry, I know I should have discussed it with you.’
‘Of course you should have. I hardly even know Laura. And I was going to ask the matron I work with.’
‘Well, I definitely don’t know her!’ Jack grinned. ‘Look, we haven’t even set a date yet. And she offered to help with organising it.’
Maggie sighed, tossing the book aside. ‘Well, at least you have to start thinking about the christening now. We have to talk to the vicar and decide whether to do a buffet at the house or in a pub.’
‘You know me, Mags. I’ll go along with anything you suggest.’ Jack removed his old, hardly used black suit, with dress shirt beneath, from the wardrobe. ‘Do you think Mum could sort this for me? It’s all creased up and has a few stains. Or do I need to send it away?’
‘You won’t need that for a christening, Jack.’
He hesitated, deciding now was not the time to tell her about visiting the art gallery. Instead, he went into the bathroom to clean his teeth. He was saved from explaining when the baby monitor kicked in, and Maggie jumped out of bed to check on Charlie. A few moments later, Penny tapped on the bedroom door to ask for Maggie’s dressing gown. Charlie was very restless, and it could be the start of teething or colic.
‘Mum, can you do me a favour? I need my dress shirt and suit. Can you spiff them up a bit?’ He passed her Maggie’s dressing gown, together with his suit and shirt. ‘No need to tell Mags, eh.’ Penny took the items without a word.
An hour later, when Maggie returned, Jack was asleep.
Jack was the first to leave in the morning as he was on early shift. When he got to the station, he found that Armani’s YMCA event was already bearing fruit. The custody sergeant was asking for assistance as parents had been bringing in weapons they had found in their son’s bedrooms. Two officers were assigned to collect, tag and store lethal knives and machetes. There were also plastic handguns, air rifles, baseball bats, even swords... the list went on.
Armani was in high spirits, but no one was resting on their laurels. Everyone on shift had their work cut out as there had also been a break-in at a local jewellery shop. The thieves, wearing black hoods, smashed the window and stole a selection of top-end watches. Armani had Laura visit the premises and had discussed with DCI Clarke adopting the same strategy against the thieves as two other local stations. They were using undercover officers wearing Rolex watches, to draw out the thieves who were robbing in the streets, often in broad daylight.
Jack was having lunch when Laura found him standing in line. ‘Jack, I was looking for you. Something’s going down.’