A Long Way Down

by Ken McCoy

  ‘Winnie, this is big-time criminal behaviour, not just someone wanting to take the “fun” out of funeral. They won’t stop until they’ve got me – or until I get them.’

  ‘So your detective career isn’t over yet?’

  ‘It would appear not.’

  ‘You could always leave it to the West Yorkshire Police.’

  ‘You mean Cock Robin Wood and his Merry Men?’ Sep looked at her, then across at Fiona and his colleagues, then back at her. She got the message, as did Fiona.

  ‘I’ll arrange for a guard to be put on your house, sir,’ called out Fiona.

  ‘Thanks, Fiona, but I think I’d need an army to keep this lot at bay. I reckon it’s all to do with the Charlie Santiago killing. This isn’t the work of a wronged husband. This is bigger than that. By the way, I’m guessing that the bomber is watching us right now. He’ll certainly know he didn’t get me.’

  ‘I’ll get the plain-clothes people to have a scout round to see if there’s anyone acting suspiciously.’

  Sep nodded his agreement to this. People trying not to act suspiciously usually overdid it to a degree that made them obvious to an experienced policeman.

  ‘We’re checking the mourners out right now,’ Fiona added.

  ‘I doubt if any of them was involved, although one of them might have been paid just to pass information on to whoever did it. I’m a real sitting duck – can’t even walk. I’d like you to take us back to my house to collect some stuff, then I’m leaving town for a while.’

  ‘In that case both of us are,’ added Winnie.

  The bell of a fire engine was sounding in the distance as he wheeled away from the fire and the mayhem, accompanied by Fiona who was saying, ‘DC Dickinson will be all right once the ambulance sorts him out. It’s his life’s ambition to be a hero, no one told him it might be painful.’

  ‘By the way, Fiona,’ said Sep. ‘The car thief worked at the car wash on Bentley Lane.’

  ‘Recognized the head, did you?’

  ‘I did, yes.’

  ‘Only you would recognize a severed head, sir. I suppose you suggest I take it along to the car wash in a Tesco’s bag for formal identification?’

  ‘Whatever works for you. If you’re wondering how he got my car started, he’ll have used a key. You can’t start a car like that by hot-wiring. He’ll have taken the key I gave him to some dodgy key-cutting place where they can make a record of the transponder chip that goes in the key fob. They’re not supposed to, but the dodgy ones might if it’s a valuable car. He’ll be in league with someone from the key cutter’s. They’ve most likely nicked dozens of cars using that ruse.’

  ‘But why would a car thief plant a bomb in the car?’

  ‘He didn’t. The bomb was planted by the guys who are after me. They’ll have got there before the thief to plant the bomb. They’ll have known I was coming here, because he’ll have told them as they wanted to keep tabs on me or something. The thief double-crossed them by stealing the car. He didn’t tell them that – perhaps he should have mentioned it.’

  ‘Well, he was hardly going to tell them that,’ said Fiona. Sep was a pain in the arse but he was also a source of useful information.

  ‘There’s a key place not far from Bentley Lane,’ Fiona mused. ‘He cut me one for my Vauxhall. Eastern European bloke, nice chap.’

  ‘That’s an Eastern European head under your mate’s coat,’ Sep pointed out. ‘Is Cock Robin on today?’

  ‘No, he’s on one of his many courses … probably a golf course.’ Fiona smiled at her own barb, as did Sep, who rarely let a colleague’s wit go unrewarded.

  ‘Then I suggest,’ said Sep, ‘that you tell this story to DI Renholm. Tell him you want a warrant to confiscate the key shop’s computers. Take my key. If my transponder’s recorded on there, which it shouldn’t be, you’ve broken a car thief gang. If not, do the same with all the key places in the area. You could clear up a lot of car crime in one go – which’d be one in the eye for Wood. Fiona, are you listening to me? You’re looking worried, what’s the problem?’

  Fiona was staring at his destroyed car. ‘I’m wondering how to word my insurance claim. Do I say it was damaged by a car falling on it from above?’

  ‘If you tell them it was Sep Black’s car, they’ll believe it.’

  Fiona nodded. ‘It’ll certainly add credence to the story.’

  ‘Did you hear what I just said about a warrant for the computer? And you’ll need to take a computer expert with you.’

  ‘Yes, I’ll do that, thanks. I really liked that car you know … sixty-five miles a gallon. I only filled up once a month.’

  ‘I quite liked mine as well, Fiona. By the way, Mrs Santiago was at the funeral, did you notice her? We got a photograph. We’ll send you a copy of her photo to your phone.’

  He turned to Winnie. ‘We can do that, can’t we?’

  ‘If she gives me her phone number, I can do it now.’

  ‘Also,’ said Sep, ‘this crutch thing’s a bit tiring. What I need is a car that’s converted to carry a wheelchair with me sitting in it, preferably a four-by-four. Where could we hire one of those?’

  ‘I’ll make enquiries.’

  ‘Let Fiona know what you find. The police can pay for it.’

  ‘I assume I’m doing the driving?’

  ‘Correct.’

  ‘It’s nice to be wanted. I’m hoping we’re going abroad. Nice villa somewhere hot. Is it near the sea?’

  ‘Quite near.’

  ‘Do us both good, a bit of sunshine. Are we going through the tunnel? I’ve never been through the tunnel, or the ferry. I don’t mind the ferry. Where are we going?’

  ‘Scarborough.’

  SEVENTEEN

  Sep parked his wheelchair next to Fiona’s desk in the police station. ‘They’re bound to have followed us here and they’ll be keeping a watch on my house as well. So, how do I get my stuff?’

  ‘You don’t. I get it for you,’ said Fiona. ‘Just give me a list of what you need and where it all is. I’ll bring it back here in a holdall.’

  Fiona was on her mobile, tracking down a mobility vehicle. She covered the receiver with her palm and said to Sep, ‘I’m on to that mobility place in Crossgates that Winnie mentioned. They’ve got a Mercedes Sprinter van converted to carry a wheelchair without collapsing it. It has a wheelchair lift and everything. Do you know if you qualify for a mobility allowance?’

  ‘No idea. How much to hire it for a month?’

  ‘At least a thousand, I should think.’

  ‘We’ll take it. If I don’t get that allowance I’ll claim it back on expenses.’

  ‘I wouldn’t hold your breath.’

  ‘Or from Mrs Boswell,’ added Sep.

  ‘It strikes me she’s the main reason you’re sticking with this.’

  ‘I’m sticking with it because it’s my job, just as it’s your job.’

  Fifteen minutes later the Mercedes had been ordered and paid for courtesy of the Cold Case Unit, much to Fiona’s amazement.

  ‘They think like I do,’ Sep had explained to her. ‘This could end up being a serious result for the unit. I’ve been offered two detective constables to join our team.’

  ‘Are you going to take them?’

  ‘That’s not actually up to me. I’ve just said I’d like to carry on for a bit on my own, along with you and Winnie.’

  ‘Winnie? Is she being paid or something?’

  ‘Two hundred a week in the hand, as a consultant/informer/carer, call it what you like. She may well be worth it, if only for one piece of information. All I need to do now is for me and Winnie to get away in the Merc without them knowing I’m in it.’

  ‘In that case, it’ll be as well if the Merc doesn’t come anywhere near this station.’

  ‘If the police can get me and Winnie to the mobility place, say, in a vid van,’ suggested Sep, ‘without us being followed, we can pick up the Merc and get straight off.’

  ‘OK, sounds l
ike a plan. Yes, I’ll arrange that.’

  Fiona enjoyed being part of such subterfuge. ‘I’ll drive to your house to pick up your stuff with a big copper in the car wearing your coat and hat and using a crutch. They’ll think that’s you.’

  ‘I never wear hats.’

  ‘You would today, it’s raining.’

  ‘We both go in, but only I come out, so they’ll think you’re in the house. By that time we have the video van waiting back here with you and Winnie already in it. I’ll throw you your bag of stuff, then you both shoot straight off in the video van to pick up the Merc. No one in their right mind’s going to tail a video van. In any case, you’ll be followed by an unmarked car keeping an eye out just in case.’

  Two hours later they were around the back of the mobility shop in Leeds, where Winnie had done all the paperwork and Sep was figuring out how to work the lift by using a remote control.

  ‘This is just brilliant,’ he was saying. ‘I was thinking it might be an enclosed van but it has windows in the back and even some parking brackets for the chair so I don’t roll around when we’re moving. You just have to adjust them to suit the chair.’

  ‘I’ll do that, sir,’ said the man from the shop. ‘Are you going far in it?’

  ‘Yes, we’re heading up north to the Scottish Highlands.’

  ‘Beautiful part of the world, sir. Fair old journey though.’

  ‘Yeah, three hundred and fifty miles, give or take.’

  ‘Well, this is the ideal vehicle for such a journey. We have branches in Glasgow and Inverness, if you have any problems.’

  Winnie made no comment. Tactical lies are necessary when people are trying to track you down. Scarborough was on the coast, sixty-five miles due east at that end of the A64 – an excellent road which starts and finishes in Yorkshire. Exactly where they were staying she had no idea. Sep’s mobile buzzed. Fiona’s name showed on the screen.

  ‘Hiya.’

  ‘You were followed up to the cop shop on York Road. That’s why the vid van pulled in there for five minutes. The tail car drove on.’

  ‘Yeah, we did wonder.’

  ‘We had two cars with you. One car on him and one with you. We tailed his car but ended up in a pub car park on the Wetherby Road. The driver’s still in the pub. Silly sod’s drinking pints of strong lager. When he gets going again we’re going to pull him for drink driving.’

  ‘So we pick up a live one. That’ll be really handy, especially if he’s over the limit and we can hold him.’

  ‘The way he’s putting it away it won’t be a problem, unless someone else picks him up. We’ve got a backup car on its way to help us follow any car that comes to pick him up.’

  ‘You’ll need to think of a reason to stop both cars and apprehend everyone in them.’

  ‘If only I had your imagination, sir.’

  ‘Just tell them you’ve got both cars reported as stolen. You can always apologize a few hours later when you find out the computer’s on the blink, by which time you’ll have checked their mugshots and maybe held them on suspicion of something else. Let’s face it, we already know they’re villains.’

  ‘Is that what you’d do, sir?’

  ‘Of course. Always take full advantage of the power invested in you. So, we’re clear to leave here right now, are we?’

  ‘Oh yes. I’m parked just up the road from you. I’ll be following you for a few miles to keep an eye out for further villains. I’m in a white Astra.’

  ‘Thanks, Fiona.’

  ‘By the way, sir. I’m back on the Cold Case Unit, if only to look after you.’

  ‘Well, you’re doing a good job of that so far.’

  Newby Cottage was in open country a mile and a half west of Scarborough and about half a mile off the A171. Winnie had no idea where they were headed. She’d been given a postcode for the satnav and had followed its instructions right up to them leaving a paved road when the satnav lady said, ‘You have now reached your destination.’

  She drove through a gate that seemed to open and close for their convenience and drove along what was little more than a cart track.

  ‘Is it me or has the satnav told me wrong?’

  ‘No, this is the way, not far now.’

  The track was running through a wood that opened out into fields. To their right, on a hillside, was an old cottage in a state of disrepair.

  ‘Please tell me that’s not it.’

  ‘That’s it,’ said Sep.

  ‘Really? Well, has it got all mod cons?’

  ‘It’s got water and electricity, a telephone and proper plumbing and it’s got a Sky dish around the back and Internet connection.’

  ‘Whose is it?’

  ‘Mine. I bought it blind for a real knockdown price. I own all these fields as well. There’s an old guy called Elijah living there – a real handyman. He looks after the place. Believe it or not it’s in much better condition now than when I bought it. Hopefully he’ll have made a start on the roof before the winter sets in.’

  ‘Elijah?’

  ‘That’s right. I call him Eli.’

  ‘Is Eli trustworthy?’

  ‘Yeah, he’s a reformed burglar, but I’d trust him with my life. He was a jobbing builder before he took to burglary. His trouble was he used to go back and burgle the houses he’d worked on. I never had any problem finding him. Lucky for me he’s a much better builder than he was a burglar.’

  ‘Burglar? Bloody hell, Sep! How old is he?’

  ‘In his seventies I should think. Very active man for his age.’

  ‘If he gets active with me, he won’t reach his eighties.’

  ‘No, he’s past all that, but don’t play cards with him, not for money. He’ll clean you out in ten minutes.’

  ‘Well, I can’t imagine anyone tracking you down here.’

  ‘If they do, we’ll see them coming, Winnie. Eli will have seen this car as soon as it left the main road. Right now he’ll be standing at the door watching out for us.’

  ‘How will he know?’

  ‘I told him we were coming. I had a few CCTV cameras positioned in the trees and linked to a monitor in the cottage. Whenever there’s a movement big enough for it to be a vehicle or even a person the monitor beeps. Eli rigged it all up for me.’

  ‘Why? Is he on the run or something?’

  ‘No, he’s as clean as a whistle now. It’s for me. There’ve been times in the past when I’ve needed somewhere to hole up without travelling halfway round the world; I’m not very popular with the villains on my patch, so when I get leave I like to go to ground. This is ideal because I’m near enough to home to get back quickly and I can stay in contact through a computer – Skype and all that stuff.’

  ‘Contact with who?’

  ‘With Fiona and my daughter, Phoebe – with you, if I’d come on my own.’

  ‘Fiona and Phoebe know about this place, do they?’

  ‘No, but they know I won’t be far away. Winnie, these bastards have tried to run me down, stab me in my sleep and blow me up. I need to keep on their backs, but from a safe place.’

  ‘If you do see anyone approaching, what do you do?’

  ‘First of all they have to stop at the locked gate where we can see them. I have a wireless connection to a speaker set in the gatepost. I ask them their business.’

  ‘I wondered how we got through there with no trouble.’

  ‘I’d already told Eli we’d be arriving about now and what vehicle to expect us in. If we see trouble arriving, there’s another track at the back leading to the road. We can be clear before they get here.’

  ‘What if they come at night and we can’t see them clearly?’

  ‘We have lights out there as well as cameras. The beauty of it is, Winnie, that only three people in the whole world know I own this this place. You, me and Eli. How is anyone going to find out where I am?’

  ‘What if Eli blabs?’

  ‘I’ve told him not to and, unlike you, he does as he’s to
ld. Eli’s a loner. People around here think he lives here on his own like some sort of hermit. He goes shopping once a week on an old track bike. If he has any problems, he can ring me.’

  ‘Does he ring you often?’

  ‘He never rings me. I always ring him. He owes me a big favour, Winnie. He’ll never let me down. Plus, I let him live there for nothing in exchange for him maintaining the place.’

  ‘How long have you had the place?’

  ‘A few years.’

  ‘God, you’re a secretive bugger, Black.’

  ‘And yet still alive.’

  EIGHTEEN

  Eli was indeed standing in the doorway with a loaded shotgun. Sep slid open the side door of the van and shouted at him.

  ‘Who the hell do you think you are, Davy Crockett?’

  ‘Just protecting the old homestead.’

  ‘If the police find you with that gun, you’ll need protecting.’

  ‘I’ve got a licence for it for clay pigeon shooting.’

  ‘They gave you a licence with your record?’

  ‘My sheet’s been clean for eighteen years, which is better than some of the guys in that shooting club. What’s with the wheelchair? You a full-time cripple now?’

  ‘No, I just help them out when they’re busy.’

  Sep pressed the switch on his remote that sent out the lift platform. He began to ease his chair out on to it when Winnie yelled at him.

  ‘Sep, you idiot! Stop!’

  She had appeared by his side to make sure he got down safely, with it being his first time.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘The lift’s not quite lined up yet and you’re a foot from the edge – you’ve got to wait for it to click into position. Another turn of the wheel and you’d have been over. Then we’d have had a broken wheelchair and you might have had a broken leg!’

  ‘OK, calm down. I get the message.’

  ‘Turn the motor off and turn the wheel with your hands. That’s what you’re supposed to do for fine manoeuvring. Did you not listen to the man at the mobility place?’

  ‘Is that what he said?’

  ‘Yes, I assume that’s Eli pointing a gun at me?’

  ‘That’s Eli but his gun’s broken and pointing down, so don’t worry.’ Sep looked up at the house that appeared derelict and unloved.