As if in passing, John broke from his conversation with Ginger and called to her, “By the way, be careful with the gun, it’s loaded and the safety is normally off,” and then continued his conversation.
33
Wednesday 8th June 2011
Alison was starting to get extremely worried by things she had heard and seen when a small light in the middle of the room flickered and a bleeper that Ginger had in his top jacket pocket went off twice.
“You expecting anyone?”
“Yes. Sorry Ginger, forgot to mention it. Gordon.”
“I’ll be out the front for a couple of minutes then,” and Ginger seemed to evaporate as he left the table and disappeared through the door having lowered the flap on the bar as he left.
“Am I going to get some more surprises?”
“Very probably.”
The door from the alley burst open and a man strode into the room that did not look that dissimilar to John in both features and clothing. He looked straight at John and said, “Hi John, see you’ve got a drink already. We staying here in the green room today?”
Alison believed she had established in her own mind that the room was more a bluish colour. His voice was rasping and he sounded slightly out of breath.
“Yeah. We’re happy here. Gordon, I’d like you to meet Alison, Alison this is Gordon.”
Alison looked sideways at John and with no irony said, “How old was I when Gordon last saw me?”
Gordon laughed freely and without inhibition before saying, “You’re just like your old man, stroppy and sarcastic. I think you were about a year old.”
“Brilliant!”
Ginger, who had released the secure catch on the door from the alley by pressing a button next to the small CCTV (Close Circuit Television) screen that he had checked first to make sure he was permitting entry to a welcome visitor, came back into the room. He greeted Gordon and put a pint down on the table for him.
Gordon said, “Your old man told me you’d joined up. How did you get teamed up with ‘Black John’?”
Alison said, “I really am starting to wonder now. I honestly don’t know. I’ve never actually believed in fate.”
Gordon had swallowed nearly half his pint and had somehow managed to get a whitish froth on his top lip which his tongue cleared in one sluggish sweep. “At least you’ll learn a lot. Might not be stuff you want to know, but you’ll definitely learn a lot.”
All three men were lolling in their seats chatting and drinking and Alison, who was sitting as befitted a respectable young lady wearing a two-piece suit and court shoes, listened in intently but did not join in the conversation.
Ginger was soon onto his feet and said, “I’ve got to go into the bar to help the missus, it’s a busy time. Help yourselves to drinks when you want them. I’ll see you later,” and with that he glided out of the room.
Gordon said, “Right, down to business, you could have got this information without my input, I presume there is an ulterior motive?” He slid a sealed envelope that suddenly materialised in one of his hands across the table to John who put it into an inside pocket.
“Yes. Someone has been making not very discreet enquiries about me, mainly my habits.”
Gordon guffawed, “You don’t have habits, any ideas who?”
“No, but I thought I would give you a heads up so you could let the others know. Soon as I find out anything, you’ll be the first to know. I’ll fill Alison in, because she is with me and because of her old man.”
“I presumed that’s why she was here.”
Alison could hold off no longer, “What the hell are you two talking about? What are you going to tell me?”
John replied, “I promise I will tell you before we get back today. Have a little more patience.”
Gordon said, “You still take all the precautions?”
“Yeah: and a couple of my own. I feel confident, but better safe than sorry.”
Alison was angry and seething inside but wasn’t sure whether she should say something else to let the two of them know how she felt. So instead, she got up and went round to the little bar and from under the counter took a bottle of vodka. Putting at least a double into a tumbler, she added what remained of her original orange juice. Then she slouched back to her seat like a stroppy teenager having decided to say nothing. The two men appeared to Alison to be talking in riddles, but she still listened to what they were saying and took in most of what was said.
At 1.30pm, Ginger came back into the bar carrying a tray with three simple curries on, and two more pints. Placing the pints in front of the men and the plates onto the table in front of the little group told them, “Help yourselves to the eating irons on the bar, I can’t stop, it’s still heaving out there and Sylvia is struggling.” With that, he turned and was gone again.
As if in passing, John said to Alison, “It’s his wife, the only person he’s frightened of.”
Alison had calmed down, and got the knives and forks for all three who were soon making short shrift of the food.
Whilst they ate, Gordon grilled Alison about why she had joined the Police, what she had done so far and what her ambitions were. John quietly listened to her answers without passing comment or asking any additional questions. She began to mellow with the help of the Vodka and talked quite freely to Gordon whom she was really starting to like, and he began to gently tease her comparing her traits with her Father’s. When she managed to actually put a question to him though, he seemed to simply dodge the answer with some flippant remark that led to another question for her. Alison would later realise that he had found out a lot about her and her personal life and that she had learnt practically nothing about him.
Ginger came back into the bar and joined them for enough time to say their farewells and Gordon left via the rear door once Ginger had released the lock. A few minutes later, John and Alison vacated the premises going down the alley leaving by the postern gate and straight across the small road before moving towards the junction and the Vauxhall.
34
Wednesday 8th June 2011
The car snuck away from the kerb and off down the road and Alison got a fleeting glimpse of the front of a public house decked out with hanging baskets over hung with a low thatched roof. Tables and chairs were dotted about randomly in the front garden surrounded by people eating and drinking and enjoying convivial company. ‘Nice’, she thought, ‘no wonder he was busy.’
“When are you going to ‘fill me in’?”
“We’ll get well South of Crawley, and then we can stop in Storrington.”
John took a different route back, but soon arrived in Storrington and parked in a car park behind some shops. Walking together, they went into a small tea room where they were lucky to find one small empty table by a window. John sat where he could see the front door and have a view out of the large picture window. Then both had proper tea out of a tea pot, and through a strainer. The only way John could drink it and enjoy it.
“I don’t believe your Dad has ever told you what he did for a short time when he was in the Met, but he thinks the time is right for you to know.”
“Are you saying you’re in touch with him?”
“Of course.” Before Alison could say anything more, John continued, “Some time ago, there was a war going on in Angola and a man in the UK saw a way of making some money by recruiting ex-military personnel to go out and fight.”
“Yeah. Ginger told me.”
“They believed it was sanctioned by the Government and they were promised good money but the guy had no intention whatsoever of paying any of them. It transpired he was in collusion with a couple of junior politicians and civil servants who were all out to make as much money as they could by fair means or foul. Ginger was one of the men who went out to Angola.
The guy took a lot of money from the Angolan Government and then when it looked like the rebels were getting the upper hand, he shopped all the mercenaries’ positions and objectives, so the
y were caught and killed. What he didn’t know was that during the fighting, the Angolan Government were so grateful that they had given the fighters each a gold ring inset with nine diamonds which was worth a lot of money. The official Prime Minister at the time controlled the diamond mines and gave Ginger a large bag of uncut diamonds for getting him to safety. After they were all killed, Ginger managed to get the rings to a contact in Zimbabwe and then back to the UK. Ginger has probably told you what happened next.”
Alison nodded, “Some.”
“Well, your old man was working at the Yard and there were a few of us at your christening,”
Alison interrupted saying, “Either I’m younger than I thought or you’re older than you look.”
John continued without affront or comment. “After Ginger arrived, we made some enquiries and soon found out that the guy was probably controlling some foreign hit men. Your old man put a team together who he could trust in order that we could do something about them. Then a ranking officer at the Yard with little intelligence who had never done a proper day’s Police work in his life without making sure his back was fully covered, decided that the Home Office should be informed, and naturally, it all went pear shaped.
Someone found where we had secured Ginger, and tried to kill him. He was quite sprightly in those days and managed to jump out of a window with his Police minder and get away. We worked hard and found out that a lot of the people we were after lived in the Midlands. While we were there, one of the team got run down after the Chief Constable who had been informed of us working in his area, failed to arrange a backup team although agreeing with the Met Commissioner to provide one.”
John paused in quiet contemplation for a few seconds before continuing, “We soon discovered the guy had some powerful friends that he had ‘bought’ and they were happy to see us fail.” Sipping his tea, he scanned the small room, and stared out of the window with glistening eyes still remembering his friend.
“Perseverance put a lot of major people out of jobs and some in prison, and they weren’t happy. There are still some that would like to see the hit men who got away earn their keep by eliminating a few of the team and that’s why we have to be careful.”
Alison said, “So is my Dad a target then?”
“It’s possible, and because you are starting to become a little well known, you may become one too because you are his daughter. The reason I’m telling you is because somebody has been making some obvious and blatant enquiries about me in places I frequent in and around Chichester. They do not seem to be trying to hide the fact which is strange in itself. That’s why I’ve told Gordon and Ginger, in order that they can take extra precautions and let the others know. You should just be aware about what’s happening around you, and not let too many people know your movements. Gordon found out an awful lot about you in the pub considering what you discovered about him.”
Alison said, “The gun under the bar is a bit over the top. What if the locals do a licensing visit and find it? I kind of feel I should do something about it.”
“Ginger is probably the main target and needs an equaliser, and the local law probably don’t even know that room exists as you can only get in from the rear if the door is released. The door behind the bar has to be released as well. Both doors have steel inserts so would be hard to break down. There’s also a record at NSY (New Scotland Yard) of a licence for the gun so it is legal.”
John saw no reason to tell her that a condition of its possession was that it should be kept unloaded in a locked and secured cabinet.
Alison was quiet as she thought for a few minutes before asking, “Is all this the reason I was put on the Armstrong enquiry and teamed up with you?”
“Your old man still has clout.”
“Another thing Ginger told me is that my Dad owns a tenth of the pub, what’s that all about?”
John slurped the remnants of his cup of tea avoiding the few tea leaves that had somehow defied the strainer, and then tried to force another cup from the dregs in the tea pot without success.
“When we wound the job up, we found the nearest and dearest of all Ginger’s dead mercenary mates and unobtrusively gave each of them a ring as supplied by the Angolans. One of them, a lovely girl, wouldn’t take it, and told Ginger to do something with it that would benefit him and the team. Your old man set him up with his current identity and we found the pub which was for sale, and he bought it on the proceeds of selling her ring and his own ring. Ginger had always had an inkling ostensibly to run a pub. He was a couple of grand short and didn’t want to use the bag of diamonds at that time for various reasons. So, the whole team put in just two hundred quid each which was a lot of money in those days to an impoverished copper. Ginger set up an account and puts some of his hard-earned cash into it, and when we retire, we can take a tenth of it.”
“That’s a bit iffy for Police to be involved with?”
“Why? It’s an investment. Lots of Police have investments that they can cash in when they want. Ours is slightly different, it can only be cashed in when we retire.”
“So because my Dad is still in the job, he will get a tenth when he retires, and so will you.”
“Yes, sort of, there are only four of us still serving, and the others have taken theirs.”
“What’s happened to the bag of diamonds?”
“That’s a long story. I’ll keep it brief. Ginger had to be careful with how he dealt with them so as not to attract attention. Someone knew a dodgy diamond dealer and with some inducement, he had them cut in Holland. Then they were sold and investment bonds were bought. The values rocketed. Ginger, using his second alias, and via different countries, bought a large plot of land in Kent which has over the years been developed to accommodate injured and retired military personnel. Some are trained in different disciplines and then subsidised when they set up their own businesses. There are specialists in numerous fields who can experiment there, and develop new products. Many make money and when they can afford it, put money back into the unit. Self-perpetuating.”
“I think I understand.”
“Sometimes we take large amounts out for bits of kit like the Sat Nav gizmo in the car. At any one time, we can see where other people’s cars are by looking on it. We have radios in the cars linked to each other through Ian our technical wizard who owns and works in his own specialist company, and our cars are looked after by Bill, our mechanic. All paid for out of the fund.”
“That can’t be cheap?”
“Think what a bag of about 100 large uncut diamonds would be worth.”
Alison was perplexed, so much information, she’d never had any clue as to what her Dad had done during his service. It was something she hadn’t bothered to enquire of him. She had always thought he had been in offices doing boring paper work as he made his way up the promotions ladder, and now she knew so much more, she wondered what else he had been involved in.
“More tea?” said the plump owner come waitress, pulling Alison back from her thoughts.
“Not for me thanks.”
John said, “No thanks, just the bill,” and paid straight away.
Alison seemed preoccupied with her thoughts as they walked back towards his car.
“Something troubling you?”
“Yes. Stupid really. He’s had…er.., no, he’s got all that money. Runs an apparently successful pub but can’t put decent lighting in a room.”
John burst out laughing. “I thought you had worked that out. Try and think about it logically. How we got there. Weather conditions. Security. That sort of thing.”
Back at the car, they got in in silence. It was soon tearing back through leafy country roads to Chichester.
“Well. Have you worked it out?”
“I think I actually might have done.”
As they strolled towards the office, John said, “Go on then, enlighten me.”
“Ginger, or whatever his real name is, is worried someone might try to do him harm by enteri
ng down that small passage. He’ll see them coming on the CCTV and would have the gun ready. If it’s sunny outside, anyone coming in would be at a disadvantage because their eyes would need to adjust to the gloom. How’s that?”
“Pretty good. See. You can think things out if you try. Piper.”
“Piper?”
“Ginger.”
35
Wednesday 8th June 2011
They ambled into the office a few minutes prior to the meeting’s alleged start time knowing they would still have plenty of time before the two senior officers arrived to have a chat to Paul. Opening the envelope from Gordon, John found a copy of a Gas bill in the name of Armstrong that was dated three days before his lifeless body had been found. There was a separate piece of paper showing a completed direct debit mandate in a neat, slightly forward slanting style of writing by Armstrong which showed his banking details. On a small collection of other papers was a request from Armstrong to the Gas board in his practiced hand that his bungalow be connected to the main gas supply and their reply. It was stated that he would have to make a financial commitment and he acknowledged by disclosing a debit card’s details.
John gave the items to Alison who perused them quickly, and then passed them to Paul. He glanced casually at them not breaking conversation with John on the merits of his day out in Crawley and whether or not he had been drinking a decent real ale. In passing, he threw the fact into the conversation that all Armstrong’s financial details had been requested from a Credit Reference firm and were already on file. The producing statement would be available to the office in the next couple of days. John did not seem to be that interested, nor in fact did Paul. At the front of his mind was that John had some ulterior motive in going to Crawley, and that he would only be privy to it if John fancied telling him.
Jimmy came rushing in ten minutes late for the meeting’s start time, and was happy to see he had beaten both Prodow and Groves. He had been at the Lab with the toxicologist for most of the afternoon, and had learnt more about poisons than he thought was probably good for him. Now he knew how to administer and use certain ubiquitous poisons to kill people and leave very little trace. His mind had wandered on his journey back to the station to a short list of possible candidates to practice on, of which Groves was premier. Paul gave him the papers that the two investigators had collected, and he sat down and entered them into an exhibit book with gusto which he completed as Prodow and Groves strode into the room exactly 15 minutes late.
An Urgent Murder Page 10
