No Middle Ground

by Jack Slater

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Pete’s phone rang as soon as he broke the connection with Graham. He glanced at the screen and accepted the call. ‘Ben?’

  ‘I’ve been onto the shop security guys. They confirm he went in there a couple of minutes ago. He’s gone up to the restaurant and picked up a drink he’s currently queueing to pay for.’

  ‘OK, thanks.’ He ended the call and turned to Jane, Dick and the two uniformed officers who had joined him. ‘Are you two armed?’ he asked the two PCs.

  The smaller one nodded. ‘Taser.’

  The other one shook his head. ‘Just the baton, Sarge.’

  ‘He’s in the restaurant upstairs, getting himself a drink.’

  ‘I bet he needs it after all that running,’ Dick said. ‘He’s not exactly built like Mo Farrer.’

  ‘No,’ Pete agreed. ‘But, he’s amongst a lot of people we can’t afford to put in danger. And make no mistake, as soon as he realises we’ve spotted him, they’ll all be in danger. He may or may not be armed but he won’t hesitate to hurt somebody if it gets him what he wants. Or even just for the fun of it.’

  ‘So, what do we do, boss?’ Jane asked.

  ‘Unfortunately, there’s only one way we can play this. Wait for him to come out and take him on the street – hopefully by surprise. Until then, we split up and cover all the exits. Jane, you and I’ll take the west entrance. Dick, you take the north, which is where he went in. You two cover the main one – just stroll casually up and down past it every half a minute or so, staying close-up but out of sight between passes. I’ll call in some reinforcements.’ He took out his phone and dialled. In moments he was through to the duty sergeant.

  ‘Andy, it’s Pete.’ He explained the situation briefly. ‘So we need a couple more Taser officers down here pronto. And it’ll be a case of deploying it immediately – forget the niceties.’

  ‘By niceties, you mean protocol?’

  ‘If you want to be pedantic in a situation guaranteed to put the public in danger, yes. That’s exactly what I mean.’

  ‘Right. I’ll send Nikki French and Justin Davis.’

  ‘Nikki’s already at the courthouse,’ Pete reminded him.

  ‘So’s Justin. I take it that’s no longer a priority, though?’

  ‘No, we’ve cleared it.’

  ‘Right. I’ll have them with you in two or three minutes, at a guess.’

  ‘On their way here, can you get them to check the row of garages they’ll pass and make sure all of them are actually locked?’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘The Southam brothers might have borrowed one of them. Left a getaway vehicle in there.’

  ‘OK. Will do.’

  Pete ended the call. ‘Reinforcements are on the way,’ he told the others. Let’s get into position. I don’t know where the restaurant is in there – what view he’d have if he sat by a window.’

  ‘It looks out over the west side up there,’ Jane told him, nodding towards the building.

  Pete made sure they all knew what their target looked like. ‘Right, let’s move.’

  *

  Standing with Jane close to a display window to one side of the department store doorway, Pete had his back to the doors allowing Jane to look over his shoulder – or rather past it, considering her height – as they conversed in low voices. Jane had avoided mentioning Tommy, trying to keep Pete focussed on the job in hand.

  ‘How do you reckon he’s planning to get away from here?’ she asked. ‘I mean they’ll meet up somewhere obviously, but how’s he getting from here to wherever without being spotted? He’d guess there’s cameras round here.’

  Pete was about to reply when his phone rang. He took it out and answered it.

  ‘Pete, its Graham. I’ve got a four by four towing a box trailer – the type burger stands use – and a dark red Ford Focus coming out of there within the timeframe. The Focus turned out onto the ring road and then off towards Topsham Road.’

  ‘Well, they’re not going to drag a trailer around so, unless they nicked the whole package from the lanes, the Focus is our…’ He paused, about to say ‘boy,’ but that was too close to the truth for comfort.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Graham, glossing over the point. ‘That’s what I thought.’

  ‘So, do we know where he’s going?’

  ‘No. He went up there about five minutes ago, but he hasn’t passed the school yet.’

  ‘He must have turned off, then. Can you put an alert out? Do not engage but follow and report.’

  ‘No problem.’

  ‘Cheers, Graham.’ He ended the call. ‘My guess,’ he said to Jane. ‘He’s swinging around to pick Adrian up. Which means he’s got to come out here pretty soon.’

  ‘It would be good if we could pick up both at the same time,’ Jane said.

  ‘It would be perfect,’ Pete agreed. ‘But it ain’t going to happen, is it? Too many possibilities to cover discretely in the time we’ve got.’

  ‘That’s the trouble – we need eyes every-bloody-where.’

  ‘The eyes we’ve got. Graham. It’s bodies we need everywhere right now.’

  ‘Talking of which…’ She nodded over his shoulder. He turned to see Nikki French and a tall, slender male officer walking towards them. Raising a hand, he indicated the male should join Dick Feeney while Nikki continued towards him and Jane.

  They split up without breaking stride and moments later the small dark-haired female officer joined them. ‘Hello, Sarge. What’s occurring?’

  ‘Did you find anything interesting in the lanes on the way here?’

  She shrugged. ‘One of the garages was empty, but that’s not unusual at this time of day. Oh, and the second body in the court house is confirmed as the chaperone who was with Tommy.’

  ‘Shit.’ He’d suspected it, but to have it confirmed was still a blow. The man didn’t deserve that, whoever he was. ‘Empty empty or just no vehicle in it?’

  ‘The second option.’

  ‘So, tools and so on still there?’

  She nodded.

  ‘And unlocked.’

  ‘Well, now you put it that way…’

  ‘We suspect the Southam brothers were using one of those garages to store a get-away vehicle – a dark red Focus to be precise – while they were in the court house.’

  ‘So, why are we hanging about outside a department store?’

  ‘Because one of them’s in the café inside.’

  ‘And you want taser officers on each door for when he comes out,’ she concluded. ‘I’ve heard their reputation but I’ve never come across them directly.’

  ‘You don’t want to if you can help it,’ Pete told her. ‘They aren’t nice blokes.’

  ‘Boss,’ Jane said, something in her tone catching Pete’s attention instantly. ‘He’s here.’

  Nikki spun around at the same instant as Pete.

  Southam had taken off his jacket and tie while he was in the store. The jacket now hung over his shoulder from his left hand.

  ‘Taser,’ Nikki shouted automatically. ‘Stop or I’ll fire.’

  Southam swung round sharply, the jacket coming down off his shoulder, swinging out like a matador’s cape. He caught it with the other hand, holding it at arm’s length.

  Nikki fired the Taser, but its charge wasn’t powerful enough to strike through the loose-held jacket. It billowed in front of him and he let it fall, charging them as a shout sounded from behind him. The two officers at the main entrance came into view, but too far away to help as Southam’s thick arm shot out like a steel bar, catching Nikki across the throat and driving her down. He shoulder-charged Jane, behind her, knocking her backwards too.

  The two women were blocking Pete. He spun, leaping back around Jane, one hand rebounding off the plate glass window as his foot hit the low sill, powering him across behind her. As she fell, her head clipped his trailing foot, but it didn’t affect his trajectory. He came at Southam from a high angle, arms wrapping around the man’s b
ull neck as his collar bone hit a meaty shoulder. Southam tried to turn with the impact but his momentum was all wrong. He staggered sideways. Pete swung across his back, pulling him down. He felt the resistance go out of the bigger man as he spun around, feet going out from under him.

  Pete hit the ground on his back, still clinging to Southam’s neck. Southam came down hard, his spine across Pete’s already sore ribs as he drove an elbow hard and fast at Pete’s crotch. Only a buck of his hips saved him from an agonising injury but then Southam was twisting, turning in his grip until they faced each other. A big fist drove deep into Pete’s gut. He coughed as the air was punched out of him, but still refused to let go. Then Southam changed tack. He bared his teeth in a snarl and slammed his head down, open-jawed at Pete’s face. The hard enamel of his front teeth struck Pete’s cheek bone and he clamped them shut, nose pushing against Pete’s tightly closed eye. Pain seared through Pete’s face. He felt warm liquid running into his eye socket and down the side of his face towards his ear. Saliva or blood, he didn’t know. And he didn’t want to. Either way, he had to get the man off him. Then he heard a meaty impact and Southam’s jaws opened as he reared back. Pete turned his head, fearing a head-butt, but it didn’t come. Instead, another impact and Southam went rigid on top of him like a man in the throes of climax. Pete’s eyes opened. The two uniforms from the main store entrance were standing over them, the smaller one with Taser drawn and fired, his finger still firm on the trigger. As he released it his companion dropped a knee onto Southam’s legs, grabbed his arms and snapped on a pair of cuffs.

  ‘Legs too,’ Pete gasped.

  The man complied, wrapping a leg restraint several times around Southam’s calves.

  ‘Another.’ Pete slapped the big man’s thighs.

  ‘You all right, boss?’ Jane asked, sitting up.

  ‘Yes. Nikki?’ Pete asked, wiping the fluid from his face. A glance down told him it was at least mostly blood. His own.

  With Southam fully trussed they finally rolled him off Pete, allowing him to stand. PC French was clambering to her feet at the same time. ‘Sarge?’

  Southam groaned on the ground between them and started to struggle but quickly found it was getting him nowhere. As the man with the Taser called for the van to transport the prisoner back to the station, Southam rolled over to face them. ‘You think this is going to get your boy back, Gayle?’ he snarled. ‘No fucking way. All you’ve done is put him at more risk. Stevie will do whatever it takes to get me out.’

  ‘And you know as well as I do, we don’t negotiate,’ Pete told him despite the twisting feeling of nausea in his stomach. ‘All your brother will do if he hurts Tommy is increase both of your sentences.’

  ‘I hope there’s plenty of shelves in that kid’s room,’ Southam sneered. ‘You’re going to need a good bit of space and a whole lot of jars to pickle all the bits of him Steve’s going to send you until you let me go.’

  Pete looked up at the man with the Taser. ‘Add threatening a police officer to the charge sheet,’ he said. ‘Along with resisting arrest, public affray, vehicle theft, arson, kidnapping – three counts, murder – two counts and, best of all: conspiracy to perform acts of terrorism.’

  ‘Hey,’ Southam protested. ‘What fucking terrorism?’

  ‘I’ll let you think on that,’ Pete told him. ‘And on the fact that you’re going to be in my house now, so you better play nice or you might have an accident before you come out again.’

  ‘That’s threats,’ Southam protested. ‘You all heard him.’

  ‘Eh?’ said Jane.

  ‘What?’ Nikki asked.

  The two uniforms shrugged almost as one. ‘Can’t hear a thing over all this racket round here.’

  ‘Police fucking brutality,’ snarled Southam.

  ‘Well, you should know about brutality,’ Jane said. ‘All you and your brother have done over the years.’

  ‘Allegedly,’ he sneered.

  ‘And provably,’ she corrected. ‘That’s why you were in Morpeth, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Oh, you been looking me up?’ he grinned. ‘Like a real man, do you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That’s why I try to avoid the likes of you.’

  ‘You don’t know what you’re missing till you try it, Ginge.’

  Jane looked up at the others. ‘Crowd round, folks,’ she said. ‘I don’t want any witnesses to what I’m about to do.’

  The others grinned and moved to surround the prone man.

  Southam saw what was happening. ‘Hey,’ he shouted. ‘Police brutality. Somebody film this.’

  ‘You’re repeating yourself, Adrian,’ Jane told him. ‘And nobody’s interested in a nonce like you anyway.’

  She looked up carefully and placed a heel over his crotch, toes on his stomach. She began to apply pressure. ‘Aargh,’ Southam yelled.

  ‘You pussy,’ Jane sneered. ‘Don’t like it coming back at you, do you?’

  ‘Steady,’ Pete warned.

  ‘Oh, thanks, boss.’ Jane put out a hand to grasp his upper arm as she pushed down harder with her foot.

  ‘Bastards,’ Southam shouted.

  ‘Born and practicing, to quote a mate of mine,’ Jane agreed. ‘Get used to it. Your life’s going to be one long round of suffering from now on. They don’t like kiddy-fiddlers in clink. As big as you might be on the streets, you never know when there’ll be somebody with a shiv waiting around the next corner in there. You think on that before you open your ugly trap again.’ She removed her foot from his crotch and grimaced. ‘I need to clean my shoe now.’

  *

  Minutes later Pete hurried across to a seat a few paces away and dropped onto it, the pain in his cheek now a deep, sickening ache but even that overpowered by his fear for his son. The van had gone, taking Adrian Southam and two of the uniformed officers with it. The other two had dispersed across the precinct. Jane joined Pete on the bench, Dick Feeney standing close by as he leaned forward, head hanging, elbows on his knees and a handkerchief clamped to his face with one hand.

  ‘What do we do now?’ He looked up at her with a haunted expression. Saw the concern in her eyes. ’Was he serious, do you think? About what his brother would do to Tommy?’

  ‘Nah,’ she said. ‘Bluster and bull-shit, that’s all. He’s a bully. It’s what he does. And it looks like what we do now is take you to hospital.’

  The pain in Pete’s cheek came back into focus. He checked the handkerchief. It was deeply stained with blood. He reapplied it to his face. At least bleeding would flush out any infection from Southam’s teeth. ‘But what if what he said was true anyway? I wouldn’t put it past either of them.’

  ‘We need to catch him ASAP then, don’t we?’

  ‘Yeah, I wish.’

  ‘Well, we know what he’s driving. We’ve got an alert out for him. His brother’s not going to tell us where they were planning to meet but we know it’s got to be close. If we spread out… We’ve got plenty of bobbies in town right now. I’ll put a call in.’ She took out her phone and called the station. ‘Sarge it’s Jane Bennett. Have you recalled your people from the court house yet? Good. We need them to spread out around the city centre ASAP. The Southam brothers were planning to meet up somewhere close to Princesshay. The younger one, with Tommy, is in a dark red Focus.’ She paused as Fairweather responded. ‘OK. Thanks, Sarge.’ She closed the connection. ‘It’s all in place.’

  He nodded. ‘I just hope to God they catch him.’

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Another thought struck Pete even as he spoke.

  They’d just arrested Adrian Southam. His younger brother, a paedophile and suspected child killer, was out there somewhere with Tommy. There were three possibilities of what he might do when he found out they’d got Adrian. He might run, but Pete seriously doubted it. It just wasn’t their style. He might hurt Tommy as Adrian had threatened. Or he might go after either Annie or Louise.

  ‘Shit,’ he breathed.

  ‘What
’s up?’ Jane asked.

  ‘Where are Jill and Dave?’

  ‘Dave’s at the RDE. Mrs Turnbull woke up. He’s there to interview her.’

  ‘What a thing to wake up to,’ Dick said with a grimace.

  Pete ignored him. ‘And Jill?’

  ‘She went to Hanson’s to take over from us.’

  Pete calculated quickly. ‘OK.’ He took out his phone and dialled. Hung on while it rang several times. ‘Come on,’ he muttered. ‘Pick up, for God’s sake.’

  Finally, the connection was made.

  ‘Boss?’

  ‘Dave. Wind up that interview if you haven’t already and get over to CDU. Check on Lou for me. Don’t tell her anything’s wrong but there’s a chance Steve Southam might be on the way there and if he is, he won’t be going just to say hello so keep a surreptitious eye on her.’

  ‘Right, boss.’

  Pete ended the call and made another. This one was picked up on the second ring.

  ‘Jill. Have you found anything at Hanson’s?’

  ‘There’s nothing here. He must keep the stuff somewhere else.’

  ‘He’s self-employed and the place isn’t exactly stuffed. Why would he need somewhere else? Never mind. I need you to get yourself over to Annie’s school. We’ve got Adrian Southam in custody but his brother’s still in the wind. I don’t want him getting anywhere near her. But nor do I want to scare her so keep an eye from outside the school, OK?’

  ‘Will do.’

  Pete ended the call and put his phone away. All they had to do now was find his son and Steve Southam. The trouble with that was that, as soon as the elder brother missed whatever rendezvous they’d arranged, he would know something was wrong and he would at least suspect what it was, which left Tommy’s safety very much on the line.

  His phone rang again almost before he’d finished the thought. He took it out.

  DCI.

  ‘Shit.’ Much as he didn’t want to, knowing what was probably coming, he had to take the call. He tapped the icon to accept. ‘Sir?’

  ‘My office. Now.’

  ‘Sir, I…’

  ‘I don’t care. Get here. Now.’

  The call was cut off before Pete could say anymore.