Before Another War

Chapter Thirty-Seven

'What do you mean you couldn't catch her?' Clive asked, holding his head in his hands.

Keir's eyes darted around the room, too ashamed to make eye contact.

'They disappeared right in front of us. We were following and-'

'She was gone,' Sophie interrupted.

Clive, who was sat at his new desk, looked up. How was it so hard to catch this woman? Morgan had dropped off the face of the Earth, apparently disappearing into thin air in front of highly trained officers. He needed to solve this case, but his options were quickly running out. If he didn't, Clive would be straight back to his old job. He was a getting used to having a team of hard-working, brilliant people who did whatever he told them to. And Clive was good at it, or so he thought.

'What do we do now?' Asked Keir.

Clive didn't respond, thinking about what to say. What he wanted to suggest would be a huge mistake, and he knew it. But there wasn't much else left that he could do. He placed his arms on the desk.

'We need to track down Cyrille.'

'Cyrille?' Keir raised his eyebrows. 'We can't, there's no way to prove he's linked to this.'

'Do it,' Clive said sharply.

Keir and Sophie nodded and left the office sheepishly. Meanwhile, Clive breathed out a sigh of relief. He had a plan at least. Maybe they couldn't find Morgan, but Cyrille would know something. After all, he was involved in almost every crime that took place in the city. It would be simple. Clive would find him, get someone inside, then they could find out whatever they needed. Easy.

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'Do you think he's still coming?' Raf asked, pacing around the flat.

'He'd better be.'

The two of them had gone to Raf's place first so he could check on Roxy. After they'd walked her, Alex had had the delightful experience of meeting his neighbour. However, she had seemed to be in good spirits and didn't chastise him like usual. Maybe the flowers had put her in a better mood.

Raf sat on the sofa, his phone lying next to him, staring blankly at the TV.

'There's never anything good on anymore,' he complained, casually flicking through the channels. Alex, meanwhile, was distracted, and hoping Matt hadn't gotten into trouble. She had a way of over-thinking things. Begrudgingly, she sat down next to him.

'Try number four, the Simpsons might be on.' 

As he was looking through the channels, Raf's phone buzzed and lit up. Alex glanced over, unable to stop herself reading the message on the screen, but she soon wished she hadn't.

'Have you found anything about Sarah's parent's yet?'

Alex snatched the phone from the sofa and stood up, holding it in shaking hands. Raf felt his stomach drop, this was it. I should've told her.

'What the hell is this?' She said, reading through the messages. There were plenty of them. All her personal details, her phone number, her birthday, hell, even her bank card number. How did they get all of this?

Raf was silent as he waited for Alex to finish reading. She glared at him.'So?'

'It's not what you think.'

'What is it then?' She shouted, chucking the phone back at him.

'It's...' Raf held his head in his hands. 'He's blackmailing me.'