Old Crackers

by Peter Bates

“Surely the coppers must have been able to pick it up quickly. They must have been informed what they were driving and where they were almost straight away.”

  “It says here that their vehicle was found in less than half an hour, just in a spot something a little short of a mile away. There was no sign at all of the robbers, and the four by four was dumped down a side street. The vehicle that they used had been reported stolen just a few minutes before the robbery took place.”

  “Their own transport, whatever it was, must have been very nearby to where they dumped the four by four then. I suppose that both vehicles would have been parked up well away from cameras,” commented Roy.

  “I guess so,” answered Terry. “That would be why they chose that location to steal that particular car. Even so, the cameras must have picked up some pictures of the four by four travelling to and from the crime scene and at the scene itself.”

  “Yes, Terry, but the any pictures won’t help any more than those around the supermarket, because of the men’s disguises.”

  “Yes, you’re probably right, Reg. I wonder though whether any locals from that area spotted the gang’s own genuine vehicle and didn’t realise that it belonged to them. I don’t think that it would be parked too far from the stolen one, but probably not in any direct sight of it.”

  “You said that there were five men, didn’t you?” asked Frank.

  Terry’s eyes were still firmly glued to the app. “That’s what it says here, mate.”

  “Interesting.” responded Frank instantly.

  “Why’s that?” demanded Terry.

  “Well, it’s a very bad crime and it’s seriously vindictive. It’s also local, and unless they were complete outsiders, which I doubt, I think we’ve got to start looking right under our noses.”

  Roy smiled briefly, his eyes lighting up as he spoke. “Franky, my old mate. I think I know what you mean.”

  Reg grinned. “Me too, but don’t let me steal your thunder, Frank. Tell us what you’re thinking.”

  Frank nodded his head slowly. “Well, lads. I think that it could well be Harrison or Thomas. My vote would go straight to Harrison. He’ll be totally peed off that Thomas pinched that powder the other day, and it was odds on that he would have had to repay the cash that they picked up for the deal, knowing as we do the strength of the dealers’ outfits. He’s had a bit of a hammering lately, and he would be itching to make his mark again.”

  “Bob on.” agreed Roy. “I was thinking along the same lines myself.”

  “Good thinking,” added Reg, “but proving that could prove a bit difficult. The coppers don’t seem to have much, and the cameras won’t be showing anything.”

  “Well,” said Norman thoughtfully. “We know that there were five men involved. At least the number fits for a start.”

  “How could we tie it to him, though?” asked Terry. “The car that they used was nicked, and whoever they were that did the job they were disguised. We’d have the same problem that the police have got.”

  Norman thought for a moment. “We have a little bit more than the police, though. We know that Harrison was very likely to do something, as Frank said earlier. We also know what sort of car he owns. He wouldn’t have driven the stolen car again after he’d used it. If he used his own vehicle to get there and back, and I don’t see why not, it would have been parked very nearby and maybe if we had a sniff around the area, we could maybe jog the memory one of the locals. Another thing, I know that the blokes that did this were disguised, but from what we have learned on Terry’s mobile, the young security lad had a real good go at them, and if that was so, there could be signs of that when we next get a look at them.”

  “OK, lads,” laughed Reg. “Let’s get into the cars and head for the Rose and Crown. We might just get lucky, and if not, we’ll enjoy a quick pint and a bit of sunshine. On the way there, let’s first park up near to the side street where the four by four was taken and just ask around the close neighbourhood. It makes sense that the gang must have parked their regular transport really close by, and that it would have been a quite noticeable 5 Series sky-blue BMW belonging to Harrison, if it really was him that did it. Come on, it certainly won’t do us any harm to make a few very discreet enquiries, and we’ve absolutely nothing to lose.”

  CHAPTER 35

  The weather was good, and a clear blue sky meant that the seating choice at the Rose and Crown once more would be outside. There was no guarantee that Harrison would arrive, and even if he did, whether he would sit outside also. It was an outside chance that he would come, but one well worth taking, and if he and his crew did turn up, they would more than likely sit outside with a good view of the car park and any new visitors.

  Frank looked at his watch. It was two-thirty p.m., and they had been outside now for at least an hour and a half. “It looks like they’re not coming today,” he commented quietly to his three old friends.

  “It’s looking that way,” agreed Terry. “If they’ve not arrived by three o’clock, I think we’ll call it a day. I don’t think that I can make one pint of beer last any longer than that. It’s almost finished already.”

  “Well,” added Frank, “That’s probably a good…” Frank stopped in mid-sentence, his eyes staring over Reg’s shoulder at the narrow road leading into the Pub’s grounds. “We might just be lucky, lads. Don’t look round, but a blue 5 Series BMW has just driven up and is parking up as I speak. As soon as I see the occupants leave the car, I’ll give you the nod if it’s them. In the meantime, put your hats back on, and button up your coats. I know that it’s warm, but the less noticeable we are, the better.”

  Frank waited a few seconds before speaking again. His head was slightly lowered, but his eyes were raised and fixed on the car parking area.

  “Five of them, that’s a good start. Once they get a bit closer, I’ll pick up my pint glass and take the last sip if it is them. If it’s not, I’ll just leave it and we’ll be on our way home. If it is them, Norman, you’d better nip inside the pub smartly and get us a drink each, otherwise we’ll look a bit stupid out here with four empty glasses.”

  Frank waited another twenty seconds, then whispered from behind a cupped hand. “It is them, lads. Let’s hope that they stay outside like us.”

  Roy unfolded his newspaper, took out a few of the central pages, and passed them across the table to Reg. “We can at least appear to be concentrating on these,” he said quietly, but with a big smile. “They might recognise us from the last time, but that’s not a problem if we seem to be four totally harmless old gits, and just preoccupied with the newspapers.”

  Harrison’s mood seemed to have improved considerably since the last time they had seen him, and it was very noticeable to each one of the four older men already seated. In stark contrast to his last visit, he was smiling and laughing as he led his group towards the pub. Frank, Terry and Reg all knew that there could be a certain reason for that, but as yet, none of them knew for sure. Roy had been served quickly, and arrived back at the table with a tray of drinks almost at the same time that Harrison and his group took their seats as expected, outside, and reasonably near to their own.

  “It’s bonus time,” said Frank quietly, his eyes glued to the open piece of newspaper held up in front of him.

  “I know what you mean,” murmured Roy, his own eyes also unmoving from his paper as he gently spoke the words. “There’s no doubt at all,” he added quietly.

  “Even so, we’ll stay a little longer,” muttered Terry under his breath, whilst at the same time looking well away from Harrison’s table and towards the surrounding trees. “Maybe something will come up. Let’s give it another five to ten minutes, just in case, and then we’ll go. By the way, drawing a blank with all those residents in South Shore no longer matters.”

  “Yes, mate,” grinned Frank, still staring with his eyes fixed on the newspaper. “I think we all realise that now, Terry, and I really don’t think we’ll learn anything more here that we don’t already kn
ow. I suggest that it’s time to go, mate. You never know when we might want to come back here again, and we don’t want to be noticed or to look like part of the furniture.”

  Frank rose to his feet, and without even a second glance at the nearby group of men, began the short walk to the car park. He walked slowly, deliberately giving the appearance of an elderly, partially disabled old gentleman, until he finally reached his car, unlocked it, and then slowly turned to face his three friends.

  “Back to my place, lads. I’ll make us a few butties and put some chips in the oven. I think that we need to talk a little, and maybe come up with a few new ideas.”

  The journey back home took slightly longer than the outward one. There was far more traffic on the road, and an accident on the M55 involving two articulated trucks, which were still able to pull over onto the hard shoulder. The accident wasn’t serious, but bad enough to slow down all the passing vehicles to a crawl, and it was almost five o’clock when the cars pulled up outside Frank’s bungalow.

  “Go straight through the bungalow and into the garden,” ordered Frank, opening the front door. “I’ll bring out the drinks in a minute and then get the oven chips on. Make yourselves at home.”

  Reg laughed. “Bloody good service in this restaurant.”

  “I believe the tips for the staff in here aren’t bad either,” joked Frank, loudly returning his laugh.

  Balancing a tray of full wine glasses, he was quickly out into the garden, and in a moment, setting it down on the table in front of his three friends.

  “You’ve all got smiling faces,” he laughed again.

  “We should have,” barked Terry. “I think we’ve had a really good result today. Not bad for a group of old codgers.”

  “It looks like the young security guard did well, despite being totally outnumbered,” began Roy.

  “He did do well,” agreed Terry. “He certainly left his mark.”

  “Well,” added Reg, “there’s absolutely no doubt that it was Harrison and his crew. Every one of them had visible injuries, and they were only the bits we could see, like faces and forearms. I’ll bet there were a lot more bruises and cuts on their bodies that we couldn’t see.”

  “Should we be telling Norman Pendleton?” asked Frank.

  “We could,” replied Roy, thoughtfully, “but it doesn’t amount to tangible proof. We know it was them, because it simply makes sense, but Norman would need a hell of a lot more than that to go on. The gang were all disguised really well and wore gloves when they pinched the dosh and finally floored the lad. Norman would end up bringing them all in, then getting a big stream of ‘No comments.’ at interview. He would know it was them, just as we do, but proving it would be very improbable.”

  “Who on earth decided that ‘No comment’ was an acceptable answer from a potential criminal?” asked Terry, shaking his head as he spoke.

  “Politicians, probably,” smiled Reg. “Our once very proud and respected nation has become one of the softest on Earth. We’ve simply just made everything easier for criminals. Nobody seems to think about the victims any more, and the crims’ rights seem to outweigh those of the innocent people who are victimised. Everything has to be so damned politically correct it’s really unbelievable.”

  “I don’t suppose it will ever change now.”

  “I don’t know, Frank. I just hope that one day we’ll get some political leader that gets tough. One that says ‘enough is enough’, and sets about making sure that crime doesn’t pay. Longer served sentences would be a good start, and surely would be a serious deterrent. I think that would turn it all around. If burglars got a minimum five years served for every burglary, I’m damn sure that they would think twice about doing it.”

  “You’re absolutely right, Reg,” grinned Roy. “In the meantime, let’s do what we can to get Harrison and Thomas off the map. I still don’t think it would do any harm, by the way, to let Norman Pendleton know what we know, even if he can’t do anything about it. It may be that he could somehow trace the bag of cash that they lifted. They have it, so it must be somewhere unless they’ve unloaded it immediately, which I doubt very much. Sometimes Norman can do things that we can’t do.”

  “Not so often.” laughed Terry, turning on his mobile phone, and pressing several buttons.

  It took almost a full minute for Terry to get his call put through to the chief inspector.

  “Hi, Terry.”

  “Good day to you, Norman. How’s it going?”

  “Usual stuff, Terry. A couple of burglaries, and we’re still working hard on the cash robbery from the security van.”

  “I guessed that would be priority, Norman. It’s actually the reason why I’m calling you.”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve solved that one?”

  Terry laughed into his mobile. “It’s funny you should say that, Norman. We reckon that we know exactly who did it, but any evidence seems to be non-existent at this moment. Even so, I’ll give you an update, and tell you exactly what we’ve got.”

  “Go on,” pressed Norman, his phone tight against his ear.

  “Well, Norman, we know from the brief information we got hold of that one of the young security guards had a really good go at the robbers. This afternoon we called in at the Rose and Crown. It’s a pub just a few miles from Southport, and we visit it on a regular basis. Whilst we were in there, Harrison and his mob walked in and took seats near to where we were sitting. Luckily, they don’t know us and certainly wouldn’t see us old buggers as any sort of threat to them. There were five of them, and although they were mostly covered up, they were all showing signs of some sort of fight. A few big bruises here and there, plus several cuts and scrapes. Whatever or whoever caused them, we don’t know for certain, but Harrison, who’s usually quite a miserable bugger, was buoyant and full of it, despite the wound markings on him and his group. If you put two and two together, I think it all adds up that it was them that performed the robbery, and that they are now showing the marks that the young security lad left on them. I know that it’s not cast iron, Norman, but the big finger certainly points directly at them. Obviously, we have no idea where the bag of cash could be right now, and the gang’s physical condition could easily be explained away by them if you did actually interview them. They’d probably just say that they had been attacked down some back street by some gang or other. I don’t know how you could prove that they were the robbers unless you found the actual bag, but because you know the gang well, maybe you have some knowledge of where they would be most likely to stash it away.”

  “That’s brilliant, Terry. Like you, I wish we had concrete evidence, even though your circumstantial stuff is overwhelming. Whoever they were that pulled the robbery were well covered up and unidentifiable, so the security lad would have a problem with picking them out from any photos. At least I do know now where to concentrate some of our resources, and I’ll get the word out to my lads to watch them like hawks. With a bit of luck, they might just lead us to wherever they’ve temporarily dumped and hidden the cash. I might even be able to get hold of a search warrant for Harrison’s house, and maybe even those of his crew members, but without any cameras, fingerprints or DNA evidence around the scene, that could be very difficult to obtain.”

  “I understand your difficulties, Norman, but at least you don’t need to waste time on other enquiry lines. We’re ninety-nine-point nine percent certain it was them. It’s just a huge matter of proving it, and that’s not going to be easy. We old lads will keep an eye out too, and we’ll give you a shout if anything crops up that’ll help your enquiry.”

  “Thanks, Terry. Really appreciate it. Give my best to the other lads too. I wish you were all still here with me on the case. One way or another, we need to get these bad devils off the street for good.”

  CHAPTER 36

  Jed Thomas leaned back in his comfortable, upholstered chair, and once again picked up the local newspaper that lay on the large table. He re-read the front page, and then sl
owly raised his eyes, glancing in turn at the five faces that were staring blankly into his own.

  “This has got to be Harrison,” he finally spoke, almost under his breath. “Can’t be anyone else, or we’d know about it, I’m sure. In any case, who else would dare to do that on our patch?”

  “In my opinion, and as far as I’m aware, there is no one else,” nodded Tony in agreement, “unless they are complete outsiders, and don’t know the score in Blackpool.”

  “Which is unlikely,” said Thomas. “We’ve enough people out on the street and any outsiders would have been spotted before now. Harrison’s probably skint after we nicked his drugs, and desperate to pull some money in. You’d think he’d have learned his lesson by now.”

  “I think you’re right, boss,” agreed Patrick. “He probably wants to make a statement too; after all that we’ve done to him lately.”

  Jed Thomas laughed. “Maybe he does, but making a statement to us is a very big mistake.”

  “You’re right, mate,” joined in Ted. “He’s not in our class.”

  “Junior school. That’s where he is, the bloke’s still in junior school,” grinned Tony.

  “He’ll get a good caning from us, that’s for sure,” joined in Graham with a big smile on his face.

  “I think that’s just a matter of time,” nodded Jed. “The coppers are crawling around all over the place at the moment, so we’ll just pick our time carefully, but when we do, Harrison will wish that he’d never been born.”

  “What’s next then, boss?” asked Ted.

  “I’m not dead sure, Ted. We’ll go about our normal business for a few days, and keep our ears to the ground whilst we’re out and about. Ask the lads that you know out on the street to keep us up to date on any Harrison sightings, in case we have to move quickly and do something sooner rather than later. I’ve a strong feeling that he’ll go to ground at the moment, but that’s only a guess. Either way, the man is living on borrowed time right now, and it’s simply a matter of when and not if we take out both him and his crew.”