Archie the Royal Hot Water Bottle

  Chapter 17

  Outside the Palace Jeff was making some progress in his hunt for the graffiti artist. The solution lay there, he was sure. That skilled an artist stood out from the crowd and would choose prominent locations for their work. All Jeff had to do was find it and follow the trail. Then he'd find out who had put him up to it.

  'Oh yes,' he said to himself, 'Someone had and out of spite. I wonder how she did it?'

  Jessie thought long and hard before she telephoned Jeff but in the end she decided it was important he knew he had a rat in the ranks.

  'See a rat, smell a rat,' she said to herself as the woman constable scuttled out of the room: a mere servant had terrified her with the threat of bringing the whole protection detail to the bathroom. If she was found there she wouldn't be able to explain it away. She had no business upstairs, her post that day was in the courtyard, and given the current circumstances if she was found she'd get a grilling from the boss.

  'Thank god Davis is gone,' she thought, 'He'd give me a going over for sure.' She returned to her duty, not chastened but sorry for herself, sorry Jessie had got the better of her.

  After Jeff spoke to Jessie and she recounted the whole interview with Prentiss as Jeff had told Jessie her name was, he was glad to know who his leaker was but he was also worried that the woman would try again. Even more worrying was where she'd got her information. Only one person could have told her, Jade.

  'But when,' he thought. 'Had she spoken to Jade before she went inside?' For Jade was in custody, no bail this time. Her recklessness with the chair, which had caused serious injury to the person it had fallen on and her troubled history, had earned her a place at Her Majesty's pleasure. Prentiss was relatively new, only posted to the Palace at the beginning of the summer. She hadn't gone to New Zealand. But if she hadn't been at the Palace at the same time as Jade, how could she know her?

  Jeff decided it was time for a beer at Jade's old haunt. He went in and the place hushed. It didn't worry him, he'd get what he wanted even if they tried to give him the silent treatment. Black Jack owed Jeff due to a previous indiscretion and collection day was overdue. Jeff went to the bar, put his helmet down and ordered a drink. He could see Jack reflected in the mirror, drinking with a group of his fellow entrepreneurs. After a short time Jeff went over and sat at the table,

  'Tell them to leave Jack,' Jeff said.

  'Who the fu....'  one of the larger ones started to say but Jeff just showed his badge and the man got up and left. The rest of Jack's friends did the same. Jeff looked at Jack who was working himself up into a fit of outrage that soon evaporated as Jeff said,

  'I can make this official if you like Jack; we can do this in a small room somewhere else. Your choice.'

  Jack, who had a horror of small spaces and cops in general due to him carrying quite a large amount of dope to fulfill an outstanding order gave Jeff a greasy smile,

  'No need for that.'

  'Good, I want to know who arranged that little number on the car this morning.'

  'How should I...?' Jeff stopped him with a look,

  'Any more bullshit and we go, got it Jack?'

  Jack pulled himself back in his chair, trying to remove himself from Jeff's steady gaze,

  'A guy, Trig's the tag he goes by, I don't know him myself.'

  Jeff bored into him some more with his now steely eyes and leaned closer,

  'Who paid him?'

  'How should I know? Those blokes just spray and run...'

  Jeff didn't give him time to finish. He had Jack up on his feet while the next word died in his mouth. Jack struggled and pulled but Jeff had his upper arm in an iron grip.  He put his face close to Jack and whispered,

  'I'll break it and make it look like an accident so stop with the 'I don't knows'. You've got three seconds.'

  Jeff wrenched Jack's arm up behind his back and pushed, Jack winced,

  'All right. I know, God stop it, I said I know.'

  Jeff released the arm just enough so the circulation returned,

  'Well, who was it?'

  'Jade, it was Jade.' Jeff wasn't surprised but he did admire her resourcefulness.

  'She must have had some help Jack, being inside and all.'

  The look on Jack's face told Jeff everything, he had the link to her in his hands.

  'Let's go Jack, you've got a date. I can't thank you enough for agreeing to come and meet my boss.'

  According to Jack's version of events the conspiracy to graffiti the car began when Jade phoned Jack from the remand centre, raving about wanting to get at Jeff and Crystal. The graffiti idea had been Jack's which surprised Jeff because it would need someone to get the artist into the locked courtyard and distract the whole security detail while he worked. Crystal wanted the dagger artwork.

  Jack had found the artist Trig, who had been rounded up and was giving his inquisitors the silent treatment in another room. Trig created and executed the design, Jack paid him and told Jade she owed him for it. Jack would not say how Trig got into the Palace. 

  So, three conspirators were identified but, Jeff thought, 'There has to be at least one more.'

  When the Police had finished interviewing Jade, the artist and his erstwhile patron, many charges were laid against the three and Jeff went back to work but how the lapse in security happened was unresolved. The officers on duty in the courtyard that night were Prentiss and two male officers. All said they were awake and alert the whole shift. Jeff knew someone had to be lying.

  Over the next few days Jeff put together a chart of Prentiss' shifts and the leaks to the media. Some dates corresponded but not all. Then he called in a favour at MI5 and had her discreetly followed. Nothing showed after a week. MI5 begged off claiming more important work. Jeff couldn't argue. He watched Prentiss himself and decided not to act on Jessie's information as yet.

  The old advice to keep your friends close and your enemies closer seemed appropriate so he ensured Prentiss was rostered with him every day. He made her his shadow. As a result she was with Crystal much more than previously, she had access to Crystal's rooms and complete information about her movements: information worth a great deal to the wrong kind of newspaper or someone who wanted to get at her. When Jeff went away to attend meetings or complete paperwork he left her outside Crystal's apartment. Jeff waited for Prentiss to slip up.

  During the day Crystal's rooms were, to the uninformed, empty. To the cogniscenti they were occupied by a plethora of objects who were awake and alert. The objects included Archie and Terri of course who had struck up a close friendship with the mirror and their particular marble shelf. The hairbrushes were also very friendly so Archie and Terri spent part of each day chatting and exchanging stories. The mirror in particular was interested in their travels as, it said with regret,

  'I've never been anywhere.'

  Archie and Terri were less convinced of the delights of travel after their extended stay in New Zealand but they were happy to share their experiences. A new member of the room turned up one morning, a nail file that usually lived on Crystal's dressing table. Jessie had decided it should be in the bathroom and it joined a number of other objects in a small, pretty floral pot that stood on a marble stand next to the basin. The marble stand was near the door, giving all its objects a clear view of the bedroom. 

  It was a voluble object that began to annoy Archie and Terri with its constant stream of chatter until late one day as they were waiting for Crystal to return from university the nail file hissed out,

  'Look at this, it's that woman Prentiss and another one of them. The cheeky buggers, they're going through Crystal's drawers.'

  The mirror said to Archie and Terri,

  'They're not supposed to be in her room, are they?'

  'No,' Terri replied, 'They're not.' Terri and Archie had had more than one private talk about Prentiss since her encounter with Jessie and about Jessie's threat to push the panic button. Every room had one, the bathroom's was on the wall above where A
rchie and Terri lay. They could see it and Terri whispered to Archie,

  'What happens if someone pushes it?'

  'They all come running I suppose...You don't....Terri that would be...' He smiled, 'Let's do it.'

  Archie and Terri couldn't move any distance but their arms could reach the button, which was big and red. They wiggled and stretched, their fingers reached the bottom of the button which they pushed with all their might.

  They saw the button go in but there was no sound. They pushed again, no sound. Puzzled, they waited, but not for long, Jeff burst through the door catching Prentiss with her hands in Crystal's desk. Her companion, Simpson, was rifling through her underwear drawer.

  Both of them looked as though the world had ended. Their world had, it had just gone up in silent flames.