Old Crackers

by Peter Bates

  “Have none of the injured young men given any descriptions of their attackers?”

  “No, Richard. None of them are speaking up at all. They probably know full well what would happen if they did do. We won’t get anything more out of any of them, that’s for sure.”

  “What about forensics?”

  “Nothing, either. The attackers wore gloves, and obviously and very deliberately chose the place of the assault very carefully. The whole thing looks very much like a professional job, and not just a fall out or disagreement on the night between two bunches of drunken fellas, which again simply leads my thinking back to Harrison or Thomas.”

  “It’s really odd that nobody saw anything, sir.”

  “Not really, Mike. Holidaymakers are here on holiday. They don’t want involvement in anything like that, and who could blame them. Any locals would largely feel the same and just wouldn’t want to get involved either. As it happens there would have been very few witnesses around, if any. Whoever did it chose their spot very carefully, and certainly wouldn’t have taken very long to do what they did.”

  The chief inspector briefly scanned the faces of his team. They were all good lads, and he knew from experience that they were all highly skilled, and could produce the correct thought processes that were essential out in the field. One way or another, he and they would solve this particular problem.

  “OK, lads. Keep at it. Keep your nose to the ground, and let me know the moment that you are onto something definite. The Harrison and Thomas gangs are high on the priority list, so keep your eyes skinned for any gang members, and ask your informants to do the same.”

  CHAPTER 30

  Chief Inspector Norman Pendleton walked smartly through his office doorway, and almost bumped into his colleague and close friend, Sergeant Joe Edwards. “Sorry Joe. Nearly knocked you over.”

  “No problem, boss. I knew that you were in a briefing session with the lads, so I was just hanging around waiting for you.”

  “Sit down, Joe.” The D.C.I. pointed to a chair. “Anything new in today?”

  “Not a lot,” replied his sergeant simply. “As you already well know, those boys were attacked just off the promenade, in a darkened alleyway, with no witnesses — at least none that have been willing to come forward — and no cameras either.”

  “I have a few ideas, Joe, but what do you think?”

  “I dunno for sure, boss. Those particular lads had a load of history, and to me, going by the looks of their injuries, it looks like they’ve crossed swords with possibly a rival local gang that knew what they were doing. To be perfectly honest, and off the record, whoever did this, did us all a very big favour. Those lads, as you know, have only recently moved up here from London, and they wouldn’t have moved here for anything other than illegal gain. Gain to them would mean all the usual things that gangs like theirs do for a living. Drug peddling, extortion, protection, theft, robbery, just to name a few of them.”

  “I tend to agree with you, Joe, and I’ve just said exactly the same thing to the lads, even though I shouldn’t, and I’m not going to waste a whole load of our time and limited resources in trying to find the perpetrators. In the meantime, I can’t ignore it completely, so get the boys to ask their contacts in town to ask around a little in case some names come up. If I don’t hear back from you within the next couple of days, we’ll probably put it on the back burner, at least for now. God knows, we’re busy enough as it is, without bad lads like that suddenly appearing on our patch. I take it that there are still not any signs of forensics anywhere on the site?”

  “No, sir. None at all.”

  “OK, Sergeant. The whole thing to me certainly looks like a very big dead end at the moment. We’ll meet up again tomorrow, and have another quick briefing. At least we need to make it look like we really are bothered about how a bunch of bad criminals managed to get themselves some broken legs. By the way, Joe, I know that there were no street cameras in the close proximity of the attack scene, but just get a couple of the lads to check the nearest ones to the place for passers-by. There probably won’t be anything that really stands out, but you never know, we’ve done just that very thing many times before, and occasionally we’ve managed to come up with an unexpected result.”

  “I will, Chief, and if we did nail someone for it, especially if it was one of the other two big gangs, it would be a real bonus and a really big win-win for us and the town. The only problem could be that even if we did get them into court, some bloody smart arsed defence lawyer would make light of it — you know, the usual thing — say that it was an accident, etcetera, etcetera. The judge would probably give them a damned community service order or a very short sentence, which they’d probably only do half of.”

  “I know what you’re saying, Sergeant, but it seems that we have no choice or any say in what happens to these criminals following a court conviction. All the money spent, all the man hours used, all the distress of victims and their families doesn’t seem to count for anything these days. Sentences should definitely be a deterrent to the bad buggers, but I agree with you, they certainly aren’t. We’ve gone from hanging ’em not that long ago, to now giving them a pack of sweets and a dummy.”

  Joe Edwards laughed, and firmly shook Norman Pendleton’s outstretched hand.

  *

  At nine-thirty in the morning, Mel Harrison put down his knife and fork, pushed the plate to the back of the table, and lit up his third cigarette of the day, before taking a deep sip of his second strong coffee. He couldn’t remember a time when his life had been as difficult as it was right now, and had been over the past several weeks. There had always been some problems. No one in his line of business ever escaped that, or passed through life and times with none at all, but just right now he seemed to have acquired a belly full of them. He knew that he needed to make some sort of constructive plan, but at the moment he was struggling to find one that made much sense or would be guaranteed to work. Because of what had happened very recently, he knew that the local coppers had him and his boys in their sights, and that to act right now whilst under a spotlight would be twice as difficult as it would normally be.

  In the last hour, his lads had heard on the grapevine about a bunch of boys moving very recently into Blackpool from the big smoke, and that the gang had been very quickly and severely disabled somewhere quite near to the promenade, down a back street. It was odds on that it had been Jed Thomas’ crew, probably making a big statement about the area to an incoming rival gang. Whoever had done it didn’t matter. It was certainly an unexpected bonus for himself and his men, but it also highlighted the fact that if it was Thomas, it was he and not himself that was now taking control of the town. One way or another, Thomas’ outfit needed to be eliminated and taken out of the picture. That was for certain. He had to get himself and his gang back on top of the league. A meeting with the lads down at the pub could be useful. He wasn’t used to taking advice from anybody, and although he would never say so to their faces, Bob, Alan, Gary and Kenny weren’t exactly stupid. Between the five of them they would surely come up with something useful. He pushed his dying cigarette into the ashtray, quickly lit another one, and switched on his mobile phone.

  Within fifteen minutes of making the four calls, Harrison was settled in his BMW, and keeping well within speed limits, making his way to the Rose and Crown. Anywhere in or around town wouldn’t be safe from watchers, and he was well aware that some of his own people could have easily switched sides to Thomas if the money or threats from him were sufficient to persuade them to. Cash certainly influenced loyalty, and this wasn’t the best time to take chances. The journey to the Rose and Crown could take up to forty-five minutes, depending on the volume of traffic on the roads, and he pressed a switch on the radio, spun the dial, and selected a 1980s pop music channel. Right now, some good old music could only serve to calm him down and to settle down his troubled mind.

  Luckily the day was fine, the traffic fairly light, and the jo
urney time was just a little over thirty minutes. Once more, Harrison chose to sit at an outside table. Only one other was occupied, and the car park was almost empty. As he peered at the bar menu card, four old guys shuffled slowly from the car park and made their way to the pub’s main door. After having a quick look inside, all four moved back towards a nearby table and flopped unsteadily down on the chairs. Harrison grinned, and after collecting a pint of Guinness, and lighting another cigarette, he allowed himself a brief smile. The day was getting better already.

  Just ten minutes later, and as Jed Harrison was lighting another cigarette, he glanced sideways and then spotted four younger men that had suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision on the edge of the car park. Taken totally by surprise at how quickly his team had all arrived, he couldn’t resist the yell.

  “Hi lads. Bloody hell, fellas. You’ve all made good time.”

  Bob grinned back at him. He was now no more than just a few yards away, and leading the other three gang members directly to the table.

  “As it happens, we all probably felt the need for a get together, boss, and we were going to call you, just about the time that you called us. We were ready to go, and already in the cars.”

  “Good lad,” responded Harrison, his spirits lifting once more to a higher level. “Tell you what, Bob. I’ll even get the drinks in.”

  Bob threw a second glance at his boss. This was unusual, very unusual. Bob couldn’t ever remember a time when Mel Harrison had gone to the bar himself, other than for taking money rather than spending it.

  He waited until the other three friends had arrived and were seated, before leaning gently across the table and speaking quietly.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, lads, but the boss is getting the drinks in. Despite everything that’s going on at the moment, today he seems to be in a decent mood.”

  “That’s a bloody first,” muttered Gary. “I can’t recall him ever doing that before. Maybe the guy has had some good news. I guess we’ll soon find out, anyway.”

  “Be careful, though,” added Kenny. “He’s a bit up and down at the moment and it doesn’t take much to change his mood.”

  Mel Harrison was still smiling when he returned to the table several minutes later with a tray of drinks. The big man sat down, fished into his jacket pockets, pulled out a cigarette pack and a lighter, then lit one up, blowing another large puff of white smoke out into the early evening air.

  “Glad you came soon, lads. I’ve been thinking that we need to do something about what’s going on in town. Don’t forget, too, that there’s still a big issue about our young relatives being knocked off. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t have a plan, and I’m open to ideas from you lads. Whatever plan we finally come up with, it’s got to be good. So good that there will be no chance of us boys getting pulled in for it. There’s no way are we going to do time for anything that we do.”

  “I certainly agree with that,” nodded Alan. “We wouldn’t be the first blokes ever to work out the perfect crime, but anyone that achieves just that is extremely rare. It’s even rarer indeed, especially these days, with all the forensics and cameras that are in use now. The only ones that ever get away with jobs like that, are people who would normally be completely under the copper’s radar, and have no history of violence. We certainly don’t fit into those categories, and never will do.”

  “True,” agreed Kenny with a big smile, “but the plus side is that I don’t really think that the coppers would go overboard in searching for the killers of a group of men like Jed Thomas’ crew. Just like us, the coppers would be very relieved that they were out of the way.”

  “You’re probably right,” commented Gary, “but it’s not a chance I’d like to take. Apart from anything else, the coppers would immediately focus on us, knowing what they do about the connection to the dead kids, and the rivalry between our two outfits.”

  “OK, Gary, I understand that,” joined in Bob again, “but there must be a way. Somehow whatever we do has definitely got to look like an accident, or maybe we could find a way to hide the crime completely.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Mel, leaning forward in his chair.

  “If there was an accident, or if there were no bodies to discover, there would be no crime.”

  “Maybe Bob’s got a good point, Mel,” agreed Gary.

  “Well,” agreed Harrison. “Maybe he has. At least it’s a start. Let’s keep talking, we’ve loads of time. That’s what we’re here for.”

  Harrison reached into his jacket inside pocket and pulled out the folded paper list of potential ‘elimination methods’ that he had worked on at home. Most would fit in with what Bob had just said.

  “I really wanted to hear what ideas you guys would come up with. This is a list of some ideas that I drew up earlier. Bearing in mind what Bob just said, I’m sure that we’re on the right track now. Just have a quick look and tell me what you think.”

  Harrison unfolded the paper and turning it round to face Bob, he handed it to him.

  CHAPTER 31

  Norman Pemberton sat at his desk and let out a deep sigh. The desk was strewn with paper, documents, and files. Ninety percent of it was petty crime and minor road incidents, and ninety percent of that was easily handled by the lads out on the street. The odd one was tricky, but they usually found the answers quite easily, and drummed up enough witnesses and sufficient relatively simple evidence to deal with it. The other ten percent was a nightmare, and ironically took up ninety percent of his time. He’d learned and seen many things during his time in the force, but sometimes now it seemed that he and his men had far more restrictions than the criminals. Everything that he and they did was under massive scrutiny. ‘You can’t say this. You can’t do that’. At one time the idea was to get criminals off the street, and away from the rest of the population that were law abiding and would never hurt a fly. His old fella had told him that there was also a time, many years ago, when the coppers out on the street would hand out a few clips around the head to solve a local problem. Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to be doing, but it had been certainly effective, and wouldn’t have resulted in a case against the officer, rather than the real offender. Their hands were certainly tied now, and even when the bad guys were sent down, prison was nothing like as punishing as it used to be.

  He opened up two files initially. The first concerned the young lads that had been found near to the promenade with broken legs and a lot of bruising. There was nothing new added to it, and he really didn’t expect there to be. It was certainly not a priority case, given the circumstances of their visit to the town. He still had a good idea of who would have committed the crime, but nothing in the way of evidence that would link either of the gangs to the scene. In the meantime, he had enough other problems to deal with, and he placed the file to one side, and glanced at the others.

  There were several motoring accidents in and around the area, but all were being easily handled by his team and the traffic lads. A few burglaries had sprung up recently in the South Shore area, and some of the lads were currently investigating the various premises, and checking on any local criminals with previous. Nine out of ten cases like those would be put down to a serial burglar that probably wouldn’t live too far away, and several were already under scrutiny. A minor blood stain at the point of entry in one of the houses could well prove conclusive. The stain was so minute that whoever left it there would probably not have even noticed. The scopes had seen it though, and it was very likely that the retrieved DNA would reveal the identity of the burglar. That could well tie the perpetrator into the other local cases and Norman and his men could then move on to the next one.

  He wished that he really had the time to turn all of his attention to the tricky gang situation in Blackpool. That was far worse even than the burglaries, and potentially extremely bad indeed. His job was never ending.

  *

  “I couldn’t believe my luck,” grinned Terry. “I was on my way to t
he local supermarket when I got held up in the traffic. Next thing, I realised that I was just two places behind Mel Harrison’s car. I pulled down the sun visor, covering up the upper half of my face, and then began pressing the buttons on my mobile phone to get you lads out there quickly. I can’t believe that you even caught me up as well before we got to the Rose and Crown. It was lucky too, that Harrison drove extremely casually, and I could keep unseen and at a decent distance between the cars once we had got past Preston. You lot must have all come out of the traps like a bat out of hell.”

  “We bloody did!” laughed Reg. “At this rate we might even take up rally-driving.”

  “We were all lucky,” added Frank. “For once the traffic wasn’t too bad, and we were able to catch you up quite quickly.”

  “The whole thing was a real bonus, a great break for us. Even the outside pub layout was perfect. Not too near to him to be noticeable and not too far away that we couldn’t hear most of what was being said.”

  “I guess that being well away from his own turf, he probably felt completely safe, and he certainly didn’t recognise us from the last time.”

  “He did look very preoccupied,” added Terry.

  “Did anyone get any pics?” asked Frank.

  “I got a couple of sneakies,” laughed Reg, “even though we didn’t really need any.”

  “No, probably not,” agreed Terry, looking to the others, “but at least it shows that Reg is still on the ball.”

  “Maybe I am,” smiled Reg, “’cause I got one when he took a paper out of his pocket, opened it up, and gave it to one of his blokes. The angle that I took it from might be a bit dodgy, but with a bit of luck we can make some sense of whatever it was.”