“Is it possible your Mum was telling the truth?” asked Trish as she poured Dido a drink back in the air-conditioned cool of their hotel room.

“I don’t know.”

Trish handed Dido the drink and said,
“I think that we need to speak to John and update him. The last thing we need is for us to disappear into Lake Mead wearing concrete boots.”

“That would be a bummer, especially as we aren’t married yet?”

Trish looked at Dido and slowly shook her head.

“Why did you say that? Those were serious claims from where I stood.”

Dido shook her head.
“Seeing my mother after all these years brought back a load of memories. I learned very early on to know when she was, as they say, ‘being economical with the truth’.”

“I didn’t see anything?”

“Let’s call John. He knows what her tell is because I described it to him years ago in one of my videos. That was not long after he started talking to me about what a tell was. We watched poker players in tournaments, and then we went and people-watched in some cafés. I saw one woman with a facial tell that was just like hers. As you said, we need to update him anyway.”

Trish wasn’t persuaded by Dido’s explanation, but she knew that Dido’s powers of observation were several orders of magnitude greater than hers. It pissed her off, but after talking to some very experienced officers back in Durham, it is probably something that you are born with, or you spend a long time learning the skill. From her description of Dido, those officers all concluded that she was born with it.

“Ok, let’s call him,” she said after looking at the clock and working out the time difference.

“John, this is Trish. I have Dido with me. We are in our hotel room in Vegas. We went to see Dido’s father earlier. He gave us some information, but nothing that could be the killer punch. Then we went to see her mother. She gave us some run around about being trapped here.”

“Yes, John. Dido said that she told you about her ‘tell’ when you were talking about tells and body language clues. What was it?”

“Yes, she’s not telling me. She said that her mother was lying.”

As Trish listened to John talking about his discussion with Dido from some years before, a smile slowly spread over her face.
“Thanks, John. Dido was right. She did suddenly have an eye twitch. Thanks.”

“No. Things are going great. Dido will report in by email after we’ve had a late lunch.”

“See you soon, bye.”

Trish hung up the phone and turned to Dido.
“Ok, darling, you win. I remembered seeing the twitch, but to be honest, I was concentrating on what she was saying.”

Dido came and sat next to Trish. After a gentle kiss, Dido said,

“I was listening to her; then I saw her turn her face away. If you remember, I moved to the right and faced her. Then she turned back to you, and the twitch was visible. She used to lie to me about the cash that I lifted from punters on Southend Pier. She told me with a twitch that it was for my future. Then, when she didn’t think that I was watching, she’d put most of it into her purse and give the rest to my father.”

Trish sat back, thinking.
“What do we do now?”

“I think we go back out and see if she returned to work. If not, we drive past their home. I guess that she’s doing a rapid exit and heading away from here as fast as that wreck of a car that she was driving can take her.”

Trish shook her head.
“I think we should go to the home first.”

“Ok, let’s go.”

When they arrived at the address that was listed in the P.I.’s report, the garage door was wide open. Two cardboard document boxes lay open on the floor.
“It seems to me that she’s made a very hasty exit,” said Trish.

Dido stopped the car and looked at the house.
“I think that you are right, and she does not care about what they have left behind.”

“I’ll go and peer through the windows. If she left in a hurry, it would not be nice and tidy.”

Dido laughed and shook her head.
“The only time our old home was tidy was if we were having a visit from my grandparents. The rest of the time, it was a bit of a tip.”

“Which is the exact opposite of you, Miss Neat Freak?”

Dido smiled.
“That is one thing that I have to thank Fox for. He would punish me if he found even so much as a ‘hospital corner’ on my bed folded incorrectly. That drove those messy old habits out of me pretty fast.”

Trish hugged Dido before going to the house. She looked in all the windows that were accessible.

“She’s done a runner. There is a half-packed suitcase lying open on the floor in the hallway. That leaves your father and the lawyer. One is locked up in jail until tomorrow,” said Trish.

Dido sat gripping the steering wheel tightly with her eyes closed. Trish knew that this was Dido thinking hard.

After five minutes, she relaxed and opened her eyes again.
“We are done here unless you want to get hitched?”

“Are you going to leave it like that?” replied Trish while ignoring the mention of getting married.

“Yes. They are nothing but trouble. I’m done with them. They will remember that their son was turned into a Eunuch because of their greed and avarice for the rest of their lives.”

“I don’t know how you can wash your hands with them like that?” said Trish.

“Sorry, darling. It is how I have to compartmentalise my life just to remain sane. One day at a time. It is how I managed to survive those years at the mercy of Fox and friends. We have gotten some information from him about the people in Essex, which was one of the reasons for coming here. The other is in the hands of the Parole Board and the State Department.”

Trish smiled and hugged Dido again. She was doing a lot of that, but Dido’s fragile mental state was right there before her very eyes.

“As Fox said in court, I’m damaged goods and always will be thanks to him. Like Chrissy, we have to take one day at a time when we get stressed just to survive. Thankfully, as time has gone by, the instances of me having a PTSD moment are getting fewer and fewer. Chrissy,”

Dido sighed and looked sad.
“Even after more than two years since her attack, she is still very fragile, but thanks to John, she is getting help and is, as you have seen for yourself, getting better.”

“How did you manage to give evidence? All those horrific incidents that were dragged up by the prosecution? It must have been hard to remain in control?”

“You can thank my shrink for that. She introduced me to self-hypnosis. I focused only on taking him down. Those horrific events were all part of the plan to defeat Fox. If they did it, then it effectively took an arrow out of Fox’s quiver. Nothing else mattered at that time. It was scary, I can tell you, and I don’t want to even think of having to do that. The CPS were very unsure about my ability to testify, so they staged a mock trial complete with a barrister who played the role of Fox perfectly. I passed their test with flying colours. This all happened over the Easter break. It was filmed, and watching my reaction to the questioning was scary beyond belief, but it taught me a lot, including my own tell. After that, they let me work with them to work out the order and way the evidence was introduced. To be honest, that was harder than facing Fox himself.”

“You have a tell?”

“I do, but I’m not saying what it is. You’ve seen it many times, but clearly, it has not registered with you. Let’s speak no more about it, ok?”

“Darling, I know that it hurts, but I’m here for you now, and I’ll always be here for you, and yes, I won’t mention it again until we have graduated.”

This time, Trish kissed Dido. It was not a peck on the lips.

“Let’s go home,” said a slightly breathless Dido.
“Tonight, if possible.”

Trish’s smile said an emphatic ‘yes’.

As luck would have it, there was space on that night’s flight to London.

“John? What are you doing here?” said Dido as she and Trish emerged from the Arrivals Hall at Heathrow Terminal 5 the next afternoon.

“I came to meet you. Is there something wrong with that?”
He smiled.
“Besides, you need a lift to wherever from here. Chauffeur John Proudfoot at your service!”
He gave them a slight bow.

Both of them hugged John. Dido kissed him on the cheek. John turned away and loaded their bags into the back of the BMW. He’d been to the supermarket and bought some essential groceries for Dido and Trish. He was always looking out for his ‘adopted’ daughters.

As he drove away from Heathrow Terminal 5, John said,
“I won’t ask for a debrief today. I’ll take you home and leave you both to recover and decide what your next steps are. Chrissy is with her therapist today. They have gone shopping in Milton Keynes for the day. When you are ready, you know where we are.”

Dido chuckled and said,
“And you don’t bite…”

John smiled.
“There is an email waiting for you when you recover from your flight. It has some of my thoughts on getting the lowdown on the gang that raped Chrissy. But… by the tags on your bags, it seems that you might have at least gotten some sleep on the flight.”

Then he said,
“Trish, if you want to duck out and go back north, then we’ll understand.”

“Thanks, John. I do need to go home and make at least a token appearance in the office. If there is anything I can do to help, then I’m only a phone call away.”

“Can you stay the night?” asked Dido.

“I think so. If I get the early train to Newcastle, I can connect back to Durham and be in the office before the DI tomorrow morning, which will surprise him as he likes to work on Saturday mornings when the office is quiet to catch up on paperwork.”

Dido mentally groaned. She knew that the early train left King’s Cross before 06:00.

Neither Trish nor Dido talked about the case that evening. They were both suffering from jet lag and went to bed very early. They held each other until they fell asleep just as the sun was setting over London.

A bleary-eyed Trish said goodbye to Dido at King’s Cross at 05:40 the following morning.
“Have you set the alarm on your phone?” said Dido.
“The last thing we want is for you to wake up in Edinburgh…”

The information display showed that the train only called at Stevenage and Newcastle before arriving in Edinburgh.

“Yes, I have. It is set for 07:30. That way, I can get a coffee before getting off the train.
They kissed on the platform until a whistle was blown.
“Go, and I’ll talk to you tonight,” said Dido.

Trish got on the train just before the doors closed. She waved at Dido as the train silently moved towards the tunnels at the end of the station.

The train had disappeared into the blackness of the Gasworks Tunnel for at least a minute before she moved. The lure of John’s house and a cooked breakfast was proving irresistible.

Dido pushed her plate away and sat back contentedly. John smiled and tossed her the tea towel to dry the dishes.

Dido knew that she’d have to work to be fed. She’d do the dishes and tell John about the trip to Vegas.

At the end of the operation, John put the last of the cutlery in the drawer before commenting. As usual, he let Dido speak uninterrupted. Chrissy was learning to listen and not interrupt the speaker.

“Did you believe the story your mother spun at you?” asked Chrissy.

“Not really…. Ok, I did for long enough for her to pack some things and leg it.”

He nodded his head in agreement.
“The parole board has not announced their decision on your father yet, so in the event of it being successful, she will have to be close by but not too close.”

“That’s what I was thinking. There are hundreds of places to stay in Vegas, but I don’t think that she would stay there. There is always the chance of us seeing her car, even if it is parked at one of the casino’s huge car parks. I think that she’s gone north to a place called Ely. You drive right past the prison to the turning for Ely. That way, if he gets parole, he can get away without having to return to Vegas. I-15 goes to Salt Lake City, or you can go around the far end of Lake Mead into Arizona. There are plenty of options, or that’s what the map tells me.”

John smiled.
“That’s what I was thinking. I’ll make a call to the PI who found them in the first place. He can check out the prison, and if your father is released, what happened to them after he walked through the gates.”

Before Dido could object, John said,
“That is of secondary importance. I’ll get my Essex-based friend on the tail of the people your father fingered. One or two of them should still be around and active in an OCG. He always said to me, ‘You can always take people out of Essex, but sooner or later, they’ll return. As the TV show says, ‘the only way is Essex’.[1]”

“I have some news of my own,” he added with a grin on his face.

“The idea of a criminal organisation supplying vehicles for crime is gaining some traction in the NCA. At this very moment, there is a small team of officers pulling all sorts of information out of HOLMES [2] relating to vehicles that have been used in all sorts of criminal operations. This includes where they were stolen and the location of the vehicles that they cloned the plates from.”

“I see that would help them, but what use is it to us?” asked Chrissy.

“Conspiracy. The people supplying the getaway cars can be charged as accomplices to the crime, and if someone unfortunately died during the crime, the suppliers can be charged with manslaughter. They are hoping that sort of threat would be sufficient to turn them to become an informant.”

Dido just dismissed it out of hand.

“Why did you do that?” asked Chrissy.

“Did Marcus spill the beans? No, he didn’t… or he didn’t reveal names. I think that there is some form of Omerta operating in at least that gang. How else could they have remained unknown to the police for so long? I suspect the same goes for the vehicle suppliers. After all, they have dirt on all the main OCGs. If they ratted on the people they supply to, all hell would break loose in the underworld. The murder count would run into hundreds and would not be something that could be hidden from the public. Besides, these people are very, very careful about being linked to the gangs that commit the crimes. That gives them plausible deniability for crimes that are committed by others.”

“I think that Dido is right. These two gangs are going to be tough nuts to crack. The NCA is making progress, but it is slow,” said John.

“Do you think that we’ll ever find the thugs who destroyed my life?” said a clearly down Chrissy.

Dido reached across the table and took her hand.
“I know that John is with me on this when I say that we will not stop until you have justice.”

“Thank you, guys. That means a lot to me.”

“These gangs will remain as far apart as possible just because of the potential for being roped in as accomplices. Zero face-to-face meetings, all communication over the dark web and the same for money transfers using cryptocurrencies. With that degree of separation, the CPS will have a huge uphill task to prove conspiracy. To the gang committing a crime, the suppliers of vehicles are no different to going and buying food from a supermarket,” said Dido.

“That’s some pronouncement,” said John.

“But very true, don’t you agree, John?” said a smiling Dido.

John grinned back at his protégé.
“That is a good description of the most likely scenario.”

After a moment’s pause, he added,
“But one that any decent ‘brief’ will put forward to the judge and, in my estimation, would win. With that degree of separation, they can make a good case for not knowing what the vehicle was going to be used for… especially if their genuine business is renting cars and vans.”

He let that sink in for a minute.

John sat back and grinned.
“That last bit is the key point, isn’t it?” said Dido.

“That’s my reading of the situation. I wonder if the NCA people are thinking the same?”

“It makes sense… adding that genuine business into the mix is the perfect cover.”

Dido turned to Chrissy.
“If you add in a property maintenance organisation, you can easily model the sort of organisation that was behind the cleaning of your home. It could be a group of companies to maintain local knowledge. Those companies already exist all over the country. They don’t need to know about the others in a different part of the country. Again, maintaining the requisite degrees of separation is paramount.”

John laughed.
“That course is having a very positive effect on you, isn’t it?”

“It just allows me to try to think of the big picture when needed, just like you taught me to do when I was starting to look for Fox. I was so focused on him as a person that I never thought about who he was in contact with or where he lived until later.”

John stood up and did a bow. All three of them laughed.
It lightened the atmosphere considerably.

Dido’s latest ideas about the possibility of a real vehicle hire company were transmitted to the team at the NCA by John the next working day. He didn’t get a response, but he wasn’t expecting one. He wanted to sow a seed. It was for others to tend it after that. He was impressed at how she’d analysed the new data and presented it to him in a decisive but not forceful way. That was how she’d have to work as a criminologist in the future. Her university course was working wonders on her analytical skills, which were formidable beforehand. The rough edges had been smoothed off without affecting her skills.

In between preparing for her final year as an undergraduate student, Dido had engaged a few of her underworld contacts in the search for such a company or companies that could be behind the renting of vehicles to be used in the execution of crimes. Dido didn’t forget her parents in Vegas or somewhere in that part of the world. She initiated a search for them to check on their story about being controlled by the Vegas underworld.

Now that she’d had some time to think about it and after the ‘tell’ of her mother, she guessed that it was just another lie. One and a half Bitcoin was, in her opinion, well worth it just to find out one way or the other. If it resulted in nothing, then so be it. She had other, more important things to do than worry about her useless parents.

Trish came down to London a few days before the start of their final year. It was an emotional reunion for both of them.

Over a celebratory dinner, Dido produced two small boxes that were covered in black velvet. Trish knew exactly what was in them.

“What have you gone and done?”

A grinning Dido said,
“I wanted to show you that I’m in this… whatever it is, for the long term.”

Trish sat silently. Her eyes were on the boxes.

“Don’t worry, darling, there is a chain along with the ring. We can wear them under our clothes.”

Trish still could not take her eyes off the two boxes. Dido reached forward and opened one. Inside was an engagement ring. A large diamond with five small ones in the setting around it looked up at Trish. Coiled around the edge was a long gold chain.

“Do you like it?”

All Trish could do was nod her head. She tried to speak, but the sounds that came out of her mouth made no sense whatsoever.

The next morning, Dido saw that the box containing Trish’s ring was empty. That was the signal for Dido to thread the chain through her ring and put it around her neck.

Their final year was going to be interesting, hard work and everything else, but with the woman she loved at her side, it would never be dull.

[1] The Only Way is Essex: A UK Reality TV show that premiered in 2010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Only_Way_Is_Essex_series_1

[2] HOLMES: The ‘Home Office Large Major Enquiry System’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOLMES_2