The Solace Farm Killings: A Snowdonia Murder Mystery (A DI Ruth Hunter Crime Thriller Book 7)

by Simon McCleave

  The driver spoke into the radio. ‘Gold Command, Gold Command. Sierra Oscar five. Over.’

  ‘Gold Command to Sierra Oscar five. Go ahead. Over.’ Drake acknowledged.

  ‘Sierra Oscar five. We have arrived at the target destination. Out.’ replied the driver. Ruth unclipped her seatbelt and then opened the door.

  Getting out slowly, she gazed up at the farmhouse. A few of the windows on the first floor were slightly ajar but there seemed to be no one around.

  Again, there were no inquisitive faces as there had been on her first visit.

  Where is everyone? Why aren’t they showing themselves?

  It wasn’t what she wanted. She had hoped that as soon as they arrived there would be some sign that the children from the farm would be allowed to leave. Some sign of movement.

  The trees to the right shook gently in the wind and then stopped as if they had registered her presence.

  She heard the faint sound of a tractor in the distance.

  This is all too reminiscent of our last visit here, Ruth thought.

  Then another gentle whoosh as the wind picked up again, and fallen leaves swirled and danced around the yard.

  Glancing to her right, she saw the four AROs fan out as they moved forward cautiously in a crouching position. The grit and stones crunched under their boots. They weren’t going any further until everything was secure.

  Ruth knew that the sight of armed officers would scare the children, but after their last visit to Solace Farm they couldn’t take any chances.

  There was a glint of light as one of the windows opened fully.

  Someone was watching them from inside.

  What the bloody hell are they playing at?

  Ruth felt her pulse quicken as she approached the front door.

  It’s too quiet, she thought.

  She knocked three times on the wooden door.

  Nothing.

  Come on. Come on.

  Moving back, she peered into a downstairs window.

  Nothing but an empty room.

  Not a single movement to indicate anyone was coming.

  She knocked again and waited.

  Taking a breath to calm her nerves, she glanced back at the AROs who had stopped about twenty yards away. One of them shook his head to indicate he hadn’t seen anything either.

  Ruth clicked her radio as she took a few steps away from the farmhouse and looked up at the first floor again.

  ‘Gold Command, Gold Command from three-six. Over.’

  ‘Gold Command. Receiving. Over.’

  ‘Three-six. I’m at the target location but there is no response. Over.’

  ‘Gold Command. Received. Proceed with caution —’

  BANG!

  Before she could react, something punched into her chest and knocked her to the ground.

  Looking up at the sky, Ruth tried to suck in breath. She’d been bloody shot. The bullet had hit her Kevlar vest and winded her.

  Get up! Get up! You’re a sitting bloody duck!

  She was still gasping. Jesus, I’m suffocating!

  CRACK! CRACK! BANG!

  The air above her exploded like a deafening fireworks display.

  Shouting, glass breaking, a scream.

  What the hell are they doing? Why are they shooting at us?

  At last she gulped a lungful of air. Thank God!

  Suddenly a pair of hands lifted her up by the bulletproof jacket.

  ‘It’s all right, ma’am, I’ve got you!’ shouted an ARO.

  The sound of gunfire was ear-splitting.

  Ruth felt her heels drag on the ground.

  The ARO pulled her away from the farmhouse to safety behind an ARV.

  ‘Gold Command from three-six. Code Zero! Code Zero! Officers under fire!’ Ruth tried to yell into her radio.

  The air was full of deafening noise and the smell of cordite.

  The ARO opened the back door of the BMW. ‘Ma’am, we need to get out of here. We’re outnumbered.’

  Ruth nodded.

  He pushed her into the back of the car.

  The side window exploded, covering them in glass.

  ‘Let’s go!’ Ruth yelled.

  All three ARVs lurched away and out of the yard at speed.

  CHAPTER 26

  Sian winced again at the gunfire from the farmhouse and outside. The window that was only two feet away from her had been shattered by a bullet about thirty seconds earlier. Pieces of glass littered the floor beneath.

  Tied to a chair, Sian knew she was very vulnerable. She had tried in vain to rock over the chair so she could get on to the floor. Another bullet hit the window frame with a deafening thud.

  What the hell is going on? I’m going to get bloody shot sitting here.

  It didn’t make any sense. She couldn’t see anything from the window of the makeshift office. They wouldn’t be mounting an armed assault on the farm, would they? North Wales Police wouldn’t send in armed officers with children and an officer on the premises.

  Glancing towards the window, Sian saw something glint in the light. A large shard of broken glass the size of a kitchen knife. It was lying just inside the window frame.

  That will do nicely.

  Jerking her hips to the right, she managed to shuffle the chair towards it. It was slow progress, gaining only half an inch at a time.

  She stopped for a moment.

  An eerie silence filled the air. An absence of noise.

  The gunfire has stopped, she thought.

  Why? She had no idea, but she didn’t have time to think. Her mind was solely focused on getting that shard of glass, cutting the ropes that tied her, and making some kind of escape.

  Sian finally reached the window. With a final few jolts of her hips, she manoeuvred the chair so that her back was facing the windowsill. Stretching her fingers behind her, she managed to grasp the glass. It cut into the palm of her hand. She didn’t care – it was the least of her worries. She slowly inched the chair away from the window until she was near her original position.

  As she manipulated the glass with her fingers, she could now hold it like a knife. Moving it up and down, she felt the sharp edge cutting into the rope.

  Bloody hell! This might actually work. I thought it was just in films.

  Suddenly the doors burst open.

  Two men thundered in carrying a woman. Her floral dress was saturated with blood. She had been shot and was whimpering like a wounded animal.

  They laid her on a long desk and began to press towels against her gunshot wound. Even in her limited experience, Sian could see that it didn’t look good.

  The blood was flowing out of a hole in the woman’s stomach and dripping noisily onto the wooden floor.

  A moment later, Rachel strode in. She looked over at Sian suspiciously.

  ‘Going somewhere?’ Rachel asked, indicating that the chair had moved from its original position.

  ‘Just trying to dodge bullets. Which is difficult when you’re like this,’ Sian snarled back at her.

  Please don’t let that bitch see the glass.

  Rachel went over to the woman and looked down at the wound. ‘How bad is it?’ She asked as she took her hand.

  ‘Don’t let me die, Rachel,’ the woman whispered. She was terrified.

  The men continued to try to apply pressure to the wound with towels. Sian could see they were fighting a losing battle.

  Rachel took two steps backwards, put her hands together and bowed her head. ‘You have given us a sign that the Kingdom of Heaven is coming once again, Oh Lord. Please look upon Eve here today and her actions in defending your name. Her sacrifice makes her worthy of joining us all in the Kingdom of Heaven on that anointed day.’

  Sian was aware that her fingers were becoming numb from the rope. She was scared that she might drop the glass unless she could free herself soon.

  One of the men felt Eve’s neck for signs of a pulse. He then looked over at Rachel and shook his head. ‘She’s gone.
’

  Rachel nodded. ‘We must find a place to bury her. But not where the others are buried. She deserves more than that.’

  What others? Sian thought.

  CHAPTER 27

  Ruth sipped at her sweet tea as she sat in the kitchen of the cottage. She was still feeling shaken from being shot. A female doctor pushed and tapped at her chest while listening with a stethoscope.

  ‘Thankfully, I don’t think there’s any lasting damage, but you’re going to have a whopping bruise there for a while,’ she declared with a kind smile.

  ‘Thank you,’ Ruth said as the doctor moved away.

  Looking down, she wiped off another tiny piece of glass from her trousers. No harm done, but what about Sian? Had they hurt her? How were they going to get her out of there in one piece? Why had she put herself in that position?

  The ambush was a clear sign that the occupants of Solace Farm had no intention of leaving, or letting anyone from The Family leave either. With so many weapons, it was going to be very difficult and dangerous to take the farm using force. There had already been rumblings of bringing in an SAS unit who were experts in taking and securing locations. However, Ruth worried that both Sian and the children would be in the middle of such an operation.

  Nick came in and looked at her. ‘Boss, you need to come and see this.’

  Ruth got up and followed him out, through the downstairs to the living room where a television was permanently on the BBC News 24 channel.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Ruth asked, but she could see that Drake and several others were watching and listening intently.

  A newscaster looked into the camera. ‘To update anyone who is just joining us, we are bringing you live pictures from the siege at Solace Farm in Snowdonia, North Wales, where we believe there was a gun battle between armed police and the occupants about twenty minutes ago. As of yet we have no news of any casualties. We are now going over live to one of the occupants of Solace Farm, Rachel Ryan. Rachel, I understand that you are calling us from inside the farm. Can you tell us what has happened up there this morning?

  ‘Hello. All I know is that about half an hour ago, armed police attacked us at the farm. We had no warning that they were coming. We have women and children in here. We did eventually have to defend ourselves with the firearms that we’ve got but we didn’t have a choice.’

  ‘Okay, thank you. So you’re confirming that you had no warning from North Wales Police that they were coming, or any requests for you to leave the farm peacefully first? Is that correct?’ the newscaster asked.

  ‘Yes that is correct. They just opened fire on us,’ Rachel replied.

  Ruth shot Drake and Nick a thunderous look. Now she knew exactly why Rachel had tricked them into going to the farm earlier and then ambushed them. It was a blatant attempt to manipulate the media against the police and portray those in Solace Farm as victims.

  ‘Do you have any casualties at the farm, Rachel?’ the newscaster asked.

  ‘Yes. My friend Eve died from a gunshot wound about five minutes ago. And we have prayed for her ...’ Rachel said.

  The newscaster looked visibly shocked by what she had said. ‘I’m terribly sorry to hear that, Rachel. And this was a gunshot from outside the farm, fired by a police officer?’

  ‘Yes. If I’m honest, I’m surprised that there weren’t more deaths here. The children are utterly terrified. All we wanted was to be left alone and now this has happened.’

  Ruth shook her head as she looked over at Nick – this is not good.

  WITH THE OFFICE NOW clear, Sian was using every scrap of energy that she possessed to cut the ropes from her wrists and arms. It was agony. Her hands were covered in cuts where the sharp glass had slipped in her fingers, and there were stinging burns on her arms and wrists from where she had twisted against the rope.

  There was a noise from outside. Sian froze for a second and listened but she couldn’t risk stopping for long.

  There were voices from down the corridor. Children maybe. And then they were gone. She pulled at the ropes and felt them give a little.

  Come on! Come on!

  The muscles in her fingers and hands ached. She was nearly there. Her mind flashed forward to what she was going to do when she got free. Escape? Or try to take down Rachel Ryan? Would the rest of the group surrender if their psychopathic leader was gone?

  Suddenly the ropes gave way. There was a blissful feeling of distance and freedom in her arms.

  Bingo! Thank God!

  The rope fell away. Sian rubbed the skin and muscles on her wrists and massaged her fingers back to life.

  As she tried to stand, the muscles in her legs began to give way. She took a breath and regained her balance. She knew what she had to do - nullify Rachel Ryan as an overwhelming presence on the farm. Quite how she was going to do that, she wasn’t sure.

  Reaching down to the chair, Sian took the sharp piece of glass that she had used to cut the rope. She wasn’t going out there unarmed.

  Pushing open the flimsy door to the office, she peered slowly out into the corridor. It was quiet and empty. She took a tentative step forward. The floorboard under her foot creaked loudly and she froze.

  Bollocks!

  When she was certain that no one had heard her, she began to creep past some of the empty bedrooms in the female quarters.

  Looking left, she saw a bedroom with a bunk bed that clearly belonged to two girls. The walls had been painted a subtle shade of pink and adorned with crayon drawings. A few soft toys had been carefully positioned by the pillows on each of the beds. The room looked inviting and tidy. However, the white curtains were billowing in the wind because the window pane had been destroyed by bullets. On a small fluffy rug were shards of glass that hadn’t been cleared up since the gun battle.

  These girls deserve better than this, Sian thought.

  Where the hell will I find Rachel? The chapel? Sian thought angrily. It was time to put a stop to all this madness and let these children have a chance at a decent and relatively normal life. She was aware that when she had first visited she had seen the simplicity of life on the farm as appealing. However, things had taken a dark turn since then.

  Trying to get her bearings in the farmhouse, Sian knew that if she turned right she would come to the corridor that led down to the chapel.

  As she moved closer to the chapel, the corridor became darker and colder. The wind from outside blew, and the building’s structure creaked and groaned as it moved.

  Up ahead, she saw a figure slumped against a wall. The man looked no more than twenty. He was holding a shotgun that dangled loosely by his side. As she got closer, she could see he looked scared and tired.

  With her head down she approached the man who had barely acknowledged her presence. He might even have assumed that she was just another member of The Family heading for the chapel.

  Checking in both directions, Sian could see that there was no one else around. She moved swiftly and reached the man, pushing the sharp glass against his neck before he realised what was happening. ‘Give me your fucking gun very slowly before I cut your throat,’ she whispered.

  The man’s eyes widened as he nodded and handed her the shotgun without the slightest resistance. She actually felt sorry for him.

  Pushing him down the corridor, she then shoved him into a small room that seemed to be a storage space of cleaning products, toilet rolls etc.

  ‘Get in here,’ she growled.

  Pushing him down onto the floor, Sian gave him her best ‘psycho’ stare.

  ‘I’m going to be outside. If you make a noise or come out, I will blow your bloody head off. Understand?’ she snapped.

  The man nodded, as the colour drained from his face.

  Sian left, closing the door behind her and locking it with the rusty key that was already in the old-fashioned lock.

  Clicking open the shotgun, she checked that there was a cartridge in both barrels. Having accompanied her uncles and grandfather on various s
hoots as a teenager, she knew her way around a shotgun. In fact she used to tease Ruth that she had shot more guns than her, a London Met detective.

  The brass-plated steel bases indicated the shotgun was loaded.

  Right, let’s do this.

  CHAPTER 28

  Ruth could see that Llancastell CID was quickly being edged out of the operation to bring an end to the Solace Farm siege. She didn’t resent this – an armed siege on this scale wasn’t something that any CID officer in the country would have dealt with before. And she had personal reasons for wanting the experts to be in charge now. She wanted Sian out of there alive.

  The national media coverage was reaching fever pitch and North Wales Police were taking a hammering in both the press and on social media. Drake had fielded calls from the Chief Constable who had now decided that he needed to be on site.

  The influx of tactical firearms officers, negotiators, and specialists from the British Army meant that the cottage and surrounding area now resembled a military camp.

  Suddenly there was a thunderous noise from the sky. Ruth took a few steps outside to see where it was coming from, although within seconds she recognised the sound.

  A helicopter.

  As it hovered and then began to land in the field about two hundred yards away, Ruth could see that it wasn’t a police helicopter. It was a black Eurocopter Dauphin. As it touched down, throwing grass and leaves into the air, the rear doors opened. Within seconds, about eight men dressed head to toe in black protective equipment jumped out and ran to an area where they assembled.

  It was the Special Air Service, the SAS. They were the elite, special forces unit of the British Army.

  Ruth noticed that the officers were all wearing breathing equipment. It made her shudder for a second. She knew that meant they were going to use CS gas, or something similar, to incapacitate the people at Solace Farm. The SAS had been using CS gas as a prelude to their operations as far back as their infamous assault on the Iranian Embassy in 1980.

  Ruth hated feeling this helpless. The operation was completely out of her hands and she wasn’t used to that. She shuddered to think of Sian being held against her will, while the farm filled with CS gas and SAS officers fought a gun battle with a fanatical Christian sect. It sounded so dangerous that it made her feel sick.