Three Steps to Hell

by Mike Holman

  Tom heard what he thought was a shout a long way in the distance, followed by a sudden deep thud which he recognised immediately as a shot from a silenced firearm. The sounds probably carried some distance due to the still of the night and the proximity of the sea.

  Tom continued down the winding path very carefully, slowly and quietly in the direction of the sounds he had heard. Everything was now quiet. The path widened and became level at one point and Tom saw the entrance to what he assumed was some sort of cave secured by large iron gates. Upon examination they were locked and he felt sure that the sounds that he had heard had been from further down the path near the water. He continued down more steps towards the sea. He could now see another much much larger cave opening into the rockface. In the moonlight he could also see a small sandy beach. In his earpiece he had a message from Martin that Sweetface had arrived with back up and they were making their way towards Colmar Grounds. Tom whispered to him to warn them of laser sensors in the drive.

  The moon had cast its light across the sea, which glimmered and flickered in the darkness of the night. Could be really romantic, Tom thought to himself, if the circumstances were a bit different. Nature had created the most incredible glistening light show across the water. Tom had heard nothing more. He strained his ears to listen out for anything that might give him a clue as to what was happening down there with Evans. But, as he got lower and nearer, the sound of the heavy waves crashing onto the shore made it more and more difficult to rely on his hearing to warn him of any imminent danger. Tom felt a sudden heavy blow to the back of his head and then nothing more. Out cold.

  Carlos and Rashid were having a difficult time manhandling Tom down the remaining few steps onto the beach. Once on the beach they took Tom into the huge cave, which had been cut deep into the rocks beneath the cliffs as a result of years and years of the continual and ferocious pounding of high tides.

  “This guy’s a copper Carlos, I’m not happy with this, the place will soon be swarming with the bastards if he’s told them where he is.”

  “Shut the fuck up Rashid, whatever happens we deal with it, his radio and mobile are now in the sea so perhaps we’re one step ahead. If it wasn’t for you messing up with this little shit…,” Carlos’s gaze diverted towards Evans who was bound and gagged in the corner of the cave.

  “…Then we wouldn’t be in this situation would we? Now, we get him over by Evans tie and gag him as well and they can have a nice slow death together when the tide comes in.”

  Carlos smiled to himself, the evil side of his imagination enjoying itself to the full.

  “So how do you know this copper Rashid?”

  “It’s Lancaster he came and questioned me in the house a few days back. Maria organised it because he wanted to ask me some questions about Evans, McDonald and Davidson.”

  “Talking of Maria, where is she?” Carlos said thoughtfully.

  “I rang her when you said Carlos, she should be down here any second.”

  Whilst talking both men had managed to put Tom’s limp body in a sitting position against a rock right next to Evans who was conscious and watching but unable to make a sound due to the duct tape across his mouth. Tom was now similarly gagged and bound with a combination of thick rope and duct tape, both of which were kept in the rear of the cave for securing or repairing any crates found to be damaged when off loaded. At high tide a majority of the cave filled to a good depth allowing small vessels bringing drug deliveries to partly enter the cave and off load. Both Tom and Wayne Evans had been placed where they would very slowly drown as the tide filled that part of the cave in a few hours time.

  “Rope them firmly together by the ankles Rashid. They can watch each other drown.”

  At this point Tom started to come round. On opening his eyes his first image was of two people standing in front of him both in dark clothing wearing black ski masks which only revealed their eyes. He desperately fought to move his limbs but realised he was tied. He looked to his side and discovered that he was also roped to Evans. Both of them stared at each other in disbelief for a few seconds. Tom again tried to struggle but realised it was pointless. He looked back towards his captors and immediately behind them saw a face he had no problem in recognising.

  CHAPTER 22

  Maria Peterson moved forward, stood directly in front of him and smiled, “Well my sexy little Policeman, it didn’t have to be like this, but you had to snoop didn’t you, what a waste!”

  Tom couldn’t answer due to the duct tape across his mouth. He scowled at Maria.

  “Oh dear you look a little upset Tom, my my I wonder why?”

  She looked towards Carlos.

  “Take the gag off him, let him talk to me.”

  “Maria, we haven’t got time to waste playing silly games!”

  She glared at Carlos.

  “Shut up Carlos, do as I’ve asked and now.”

  Carlos removed the tape from Tom’s mouth. Tom grimaced with pain as he did so.

  “There Tom, anything to say?”

  “Maria, this is pointless. Others know I am here, none of you have any chance of getting away with murdering the two of us, you’ll spend the rest of your days in prison, you know you will.”

  “No, no, no Tom, we’re far too clever for that. We would know if anyone was coming after you. There are numerous laser sensors in the drive, the grounds and on this path. They trigger to my mobile. That’s how I knew someone else was here other than Evans. You clever man, you avoided the one in the drive but you missed the ones on the path.”

  Tom’s heart sank. His hopes of being imminently freed and saved from this current treacherous situation diminished considerably at the thought of Sweetface and the Alpington guys being caught out by the other laser sensors. As well as his own self preservation he was worried about the danger they might face and would blame himself if they were killed or seriously injured. Shit, he thought to himself. Unable to move, unable to warn them or attract any attention at all, he was at a complete loss as to how to turn this situation around.

  Maria moved closer, right up in front of him, bent down and gave him a kiss on his forehead. Tom tried to turn his head away but was unable to do so.

  “Bye bye lover,” she said.

  “Hey, by the way Tom your little friend here came armed tonight and took a couple of shots at my guys here. Didn’t help him much though he’s come off worse I think. He has to die for that, doesn’t he Tom? A nice slow death to teach him a lesson.”

  “Maria you have a soft heart deep down, I’ve experienced it, you won’t be able to do this. What are you going to do, shoot us?”

  “Oh no Tom, far too easy and quick. This area is completely submerged under sea water at high tide, you will both slowly but surely drown. It’s what I call a green killing because you’re recycled as fish food,” she laughed to herself. Carlos had also found that moderately amusing and started to laugh.

  “Maria you’re not that sort of person, I don’t think deep down you really want to harm anyone.”

  Carlos found this even more amusing and laughed out loud.

  “You’re more of a fool than I thought Lancaster,” he shouted.

  Maria smiled at Tom.

  “Never did get to know me very well did you Tom, soft hearted eh? Let me show you the me you never saw.”

  Maria looked towards Carlos, grinned and winked.

  “Do you want to say it or shall I?”

  Carlos looked at Evans and spoke only to say, “Hoy, moriras” (today you will die).

  From inside her coat she took out a silenced pistol walked up to Evans and placed the barrel directly onto his forehead.

  Tom shouted, “Maria don’t do this, there are other ways to sort this out.” Evans’ eyes emitted complete terror. She pulled the trigger. Evans’ body went completely limp slumped next to Tom, blood dripping across his face from the entry wound on his forehead.

  “There you are Tom, executed in front of your very eyes. He deserved that.
So what were you saying about my soft heart?”

  With that she placed the gun directly on Tom’s right knee and again pulled the trigger. Tom screamed out in pain and almost passed out again. “There you go bleed to death instead. Drowning, bleeding to death, I don’t know which one suits you best so a bit of both,” she said.

  The vibrate mode on Maria’s mobile activated. She went to her pocket and took out her phone. She looked towards Carlos and Rashid.

  “The sensor on the path has triggered towards the top cave.”

  “Get out of here now Rashid, you’re on your own, you know the path and the grounds, so go now, this instant. If you make it past whoever is up there contact PL immediately. He will look after you and will know what to do. If you get caught and talk you’re a dead man.”

  “What about you two?”

  “Oh we’re always well prepared, we’ll be fine, we’ve had contingency plans for years.”

  “But I’m the only one without a weapon.”

  “Be clever then, now fuck off before I shoot you myself.”

  Tom was now totally unaware of what was being said, he could barely stand the pain, his knee was bleeding profusely and due to being tied up he was unable to stop the bleeding in any way other than fully straightening his two legs which were bound at the ankles. This slightly closed the wound but didn’t do much to help. The subsequent pain was so severe whilst trying to do this that he once again lost consciousness.

  “So what do we do Maria?”

  “This is my mess Carlos, I am going to confront them. I’ll have to use my incredible looks and feminine charm to get out of this.” She smiled to herself.

  “How the hell are you going to do that?”

  “Never you mind but while I’m doing so get into the shadows and be gone. If I manage to talk my way out of it and get away, I’ll be in touch. Use PL as a contact. If not, I will need some serious help from an exceptionally good solicitor at the police station, I think you can organise that can’t you?”

  “No problem,” Carlos raised his ski mask and kissed Maria on both cheeks.

  “Good luck.”

  “And you, don’t worry about me, go on, now, this instant!”

  Carlos disappeared out of the cave into the shadows of the night.

  Both Carlos and Rashid knew the path, rocks and grounds better than anyone and used that knowledge to make their way individually back up the cliffs, keeping to the shadows and rocks to stay away from the main part of the path.

  Sweetface had brought with him four other Officers, DS Taylor, DC Jones and two Uniformed Officers. Tom’s screams when shot in the knee had done them a favour. They were at the top cave and spread out to take up positions along the path. Sweetface had moved down the path a little further away from the others. He was suddenly aware of a woman running towards him screaming for help. He shone his torch in her direction and realised it was Maria Peterson. As she approached him she recognised him.

  “Constable Sweeting, Constable Sweeting, please help. Tom is down there he has been shot, he’s in a bad way and there’s another person down there dead. I don’t know what’s happened, please please help.” She grabbed hold of Sweetface’s arm. “Come on, come on, you have to do something.”

  “Calm down Mrs Peterson, what the hell are you doing down here?”

  “My alarms were triggered which woke me up, I came outside and heard shots. I came down to the bottom cave, Tom’s in there, he’s been shot and another man is dead. I saw a man in a ski mask running off into the darkness. Come on, please help.” All the time she was pulling Sweetface down the steps trying to confuse him and succeeding.

  “Hold on,” he ordered sternly.

  By this time the other four were behind him.

  Suddenly in the shadows all of them heard the sound of falling rocks like heavy boulders being dislodged on the cliff adjacent to the path. Three of them pointed flashlights in the general direction and picked out the shape of a person in dark clothing wearing some form of ski mask.

  Maria immediately recognised the figure as Rashid by the outline, build and clothing.

  “That’s him, that’s him, the one who shot poor Tom, get him, get him.”

  DC Jones and one of the Uniformed Officers clambered across the rocks towards him. Rashid desperately tried to regain his footing but unfortunately was unable to do so. Try as hard as he could he couldn’t get away. He was arrested by the two Officers without a struggle. He refused to talk and was quickly searched for weapons.

  “No gun Sarge!,” DC Jones shouted to DS Taylor.

  “He’s probably thrown it in the sea,” shouted Maria and again started pulling at Sweetface’s arm.

  DS Taylor instructed DC Jones and one of the Uniformed Officers to take Rashid up to the house and to wait there. DS Taylor, Sweetface and the other Officer followed Maria down to the cave.

  She showed them the entrance to the cave and pointed to where Tom lay unconscious and Evans lay dead.

  “Christ almighty!” Sweetface exclaimed.

  “Give me a hand to get them free.”

  He checked Evans for a pulse but there was nothing, which was no surprise given the bullet hole in the centre of his forehead. Sweetface tried to awaken Tom with the PC’s help, whilst DS Taylor kept a close eye on Maria.

  “What the hell happened here Mrs Peterson?”

  “Never mind that, help Tom, aren’t you going to help your colleague, stop him bleeding,” Maria shouted and feigned panic in an effort to keep them from suspecting her in any way. All the time desperately hoping and praying that they would not be able to rouse Tom so he couldn’t tell them that it was her who had shot him and also killed Wayne Evans. A perilous situation for her, she wanted to get out of there now. Her pistol was well hidden within her clothing but she had to wait for the right opportunity to get a chance of using it and getting away.

  “We need an ambulance, paramedic or something,” screamed Maria, putting on a wonderful act.

  “Mrs Peterson calm down that’s what I’m trying to do,” shouted DS Taylor, the sound of the crashing waves and the rising tide making communication between each of them more and more difficult.

  “Dave, can you get a mobile or radio signal, I’m getting nothing.”

  “No nothing Sarge.”

  “Don’t be so stupid,” Maria shouted at them, “We are in a cave of course there’s no signal, come, I’ll take you to the house you can use the phone there for whatever you want and your other colleagues can use the house. You might get a signal on the path.” She had a plan in mind, grabbed DS Taylor by the arm and pulled him towards the entrance to the cave.

  “Are you two okay here with Tom, Dave?”

  “Yeah fine Sarge, you go and get help but watch her, she’s a devious woman well involved I expect. We’ll do what we can for him to stop the bleeding.”

  Maria glared at Sweetface but chose not to respond, her mind being totally occupied on her plan for a swift, successful and permanent departure from Colmar Grounds. She knew that this evening would be the catalyst to an immediate arrest, a massive investigation, a search of the house, offices and all buildings, further arrests and a murder enquiry. She hadn’t even managed yet to move everything incriminating. Thus, a major haul of cocaine worth millions, large amounts of cash, weapons and many other tools of her trade would be discovered promising her a long and uncomfortable prison sentence and she feared bail would be highly unlikely pending any trial. Another problem would be the discovery of a few items that she had told police had left the house with her husband Colin on the morning of his disappearance including his briefcase, wallet, diary etc. and the obvious additional murder enquiry that would follow on from that. No, she had to get out of there tonight before being searched or arrested. She couldn’t believe her luck that she hadn’t yet been searched. Of course she was fully aware she had one big advantage at this very moment, a loaded and silenced pistol. Having grown up in a country where the police are armed 24/7, she had always
found it quite laughable that British Police were not armed on the whole and had to call in specialist Firearms Officers when firearms incidents arose. Luckily she knew in a place like East Point that locating armed Officers would take a bit of time, especially when coupled with the communications difficulties that faced them because of its isolated position.

  Luckily Martin’s brain was working well that night. He had heard bits and pieces of what was going on and had received an update from DC Jones regarding one person being arrested who was refusing to say anything and had no weapon. Martin had also been made aware that Tom had been shot and another person lay dead. In the absence of any instructions from Tom he had made a personal decision to call for firearms back up, (an armed response vehicle). Also a traffic car to block the junction of the main A693 Coast Road with the East Point Road in case there was any vehicular movement from the scene. He had arranged for a Senior Officer to be called out which would probably be DI Lowe if they could get hold of him, a tracker dog and Scenes of Crime as it would be a murder scene. However, the most urgent and most important had been his call for paramedics or an ambulance for Tom which was on its way.

  It wasn’t long before Martin was informed that the traffic car and a firearms team, (ARV), were also on their way and he updated DC Jones by mobile as radio reception was still poor even at the house.

  Just as DC Jones had received this information and was putting his mobile back in his pocket he saw DS Taylor and Maria Peterson approaching the house. He shouted the information across to his Sergeant that he’d just received from Martin. The firearms’ team concerned Maria and she knew she had to act quickly.

  “Oh, I’m terribly sorry she shouted to DC Jones I forgot the front door was locked, I always keep it locked especially as I was really spooked by the trip alarms being triggered. I’ll open up and you can go indoors and use whatever facilities you want.”

  Rashid had had his ski mask removed and was glaring at Maria. She totally avoided his stare and convincingly treated him as if he were a complete stranger.

  They all walked into the hall and she showed them into Colin’s office.