He remained crouched where he’d landed and surveyed the house. There was a light showing behind a drawn curtain in one downstairs room with a light flickering occasionally indicating a TV. No lights were evident in any upstairs windows. Scanning the building keenly, he spotted several of the first floor windows had not been closed having been opened to let air in during the day. It would suit him if he could get in through one of them in case Yusuf set a ground floor alarm system at night. Although there were a couple of drain pipes, they could not be relied upon to take the weight of even the lightest person. Slowly, he manoeuvred round the garden keeping in the shadows close to the boundary wall. He dropped his bag behind a bush where he could collect it later.
While he was looking for a way in, he noticed the land line telephone entry point connection attached to the wall at the rear of the house. It was as far from the lit window as was possible to get, and the opposite side of the premises. With his butterfly knife in hand, he crept forward and cut it by the connector knowing there was probably at least one mobile phone in the house. He knew that even if it was reported immediately to a phone company, it would not elicit a response for a day or two at best. Ian had told them, and Simon had seen, that there had been a mobile number shown on Petrovski’s phone for Yusuf. He was about to move further round the house in his quest for entry when he noticed a rear window was no more than two inches ajar. Considering the risk and the fact he couldn’t see a safe way to climb up to the first floor, he took a quick peek.
It was an office of some kind with a large desk in the middle of the room and a leather chair either side of it. On the desk was one main set cordless telephone which implied to Simon that there were other handsets dotted around the house which would now no longer work. Twelve mobile phones were aligned neatly next to it all connected to chargers. There were no passive alarm detectors in the two corners of the room that he could see. He eased the window slowly wider without a sound and then put his head very, very, slowly in to check the corners that were invisible to him whilst outside. None.
It looked like a main communications room, yet there was no alarm visible and the window had been left ajar. Even in a crime free area, Simon thought it was ‘pushing one’s luck’. He climbed in waiting for an audible alarm to activate. Still nothing. Moving to the shut door, he checked all round it for alarm connectors, yet found none. ‘There must be a panic alarm in here somewhere’ he thought and moved back to the desk. Searching for a foot operated one first, then he worked his way around the chairs and through the desk.
He opened the door just a fraction, and checked again for alarm contacts. It was starting to mystify him. There seemed to be no internal security alarm although there was an alarm box on the outside wall. A television was blasting out a one day cricket match direct from India in the room with the light on. Simon could see the light spilling from the open door which was illuminating part of the yawning hallway. Even in the dimly lit corners, there appeared to be no alarm control box anywhere. He crept silently to the closed door of the next room and slowly opened it. Still not a sound.
Stepping into the room he gently shut the door behind him and looked about. His little torch flashed on for a couple of seconds as he swept the beam around the room. It was some kind of store room with small step ladders, brooms, mops, buckets and shelves with cleaning products neatly lined up upon them. There were a couple of broken chairs and some old cushions that looked like they had been thrown in some time back and forgotten. A small single window was what attracted Simon. Just big enough to climb through. The crispy dried spider’s webs disclosed it had probably never been opened. He unlocked it with the key that appeared to live constantly in the lock, but had seemingly never been turned. Pushing the window open no more than an inch, he was satisfied. From outside he would be able to get his fingers around it and fully open it.
Carefully, going back into the office, he left via the window and pushed it fully closed.
128
Sunday 19th June 2011
Simon collected his bag and left the grounds by the same part of wall that he’d originally climbed. There was no one about to witness it. He walked on towards RD’s.
Dropping his bag on the ground just out of sight of the road’s guard: he walked as if he was going to cross the entrance to the cul-de-sac. Just half way, he staggered and fell over in clear sight of the sentry sitting in his box. He writhed about for a second or two on the floor as though struggling to get up. When he managed it, he started stumbling towards the sentry box as though he was still pursuing his original course, but he kept his face well down.
The man in the box had watched with mounting amusement believing Simon were a drunk, and left his preserve to put him back on course. It was going to be a kind gesture which transpired to be a grievous mistake. Simon struck him hard twice in the face before he knew he’d been hit and it was too late for him to react. His eyes watered and blurred and started to glaze over. The third punch was the really hard one aimed at his jaw. He fell to the floor unconscious.
Simon pulled his balaclava from his jacket pocket and slipped it on. Had the guard been observant enough, he would have seen that he was already wearing latex gloves.
Retrieving his bag, he used two of Ian’s supplied plasticuffs to first ‘handcuff’ the sentry’s feet together and then handcuff his hands behind him and either side of the feet ‘handcuffs’. It was a secure method tried and tested by various military units during active combat to incapacitate a combatant quickly. If a British Police Force used it there would be an almighty outcry.
Conducting a quick search of the sentinel, Simon found and removed the Glock 19 handgun from his shoulder holster and a modern mobile from his inside pocket. It was Simon’s favourite make of handgun and he considered keeping it, but instead placed both items over the wall of the first house after turning the mobile off. Then dragging the unconscious man unceremoniously to the rear of the sentry box, he left him on the concrete pavement and out of sight to anyone passing the cul-de-sac’s entrance. To make sure he didn’t upset any of his plans, Simon put a strip of duct tape over his gaping mouth.
Simon bore the man no ill will as he was just a paid lackey doing a job, but to be carrying a firearm in an English street with no consequence as to Police action was perturbing. He probably had no idea what Richard Davies was up to and didn’t care if he was being paid well enough. Being knocked unconscious was no real problem, but if someone did call the Police or an ambulance, he would struggle to explain what he had been doing. Simon relied on the premise that all five houses in the cul-de-sac were owned by people who did not want Police prying into their affairs: and he moved on to the wide open gates of Richard Davies.
He stood before the gates and regarded the drive with prudence. There was no obvious security. No one walking in the grounds, no CCTV and no alarm. Moving back to the sentry box he looked inside. Just a single telephone on a shelf in a corner with a tangled cord and no numbers to dial. It was a simple ‘pick up to call’ telephone, but to who and where? Not even a video system to contact anyone. Simon could not accept that a person of Richard Davies’s reputation would rely solely on one person. He did not like the idea of ambling up the drive where he would be a sitting duck. Instead, he went a few yards to the right of the gates and found a tree that appeared to have been grown specifically to be climbed. Even carrying a bag posed him no additional problem as he shinned up it and then transferred to sit on top of the wall. Still nothing moved in the grounds so he lowered himself down into the front garden.
It was a very large house, modelled badly on a French chateau with turrets set at each corner and surrounded by what appeared to be several acres of well nurtured gardens. Simon felt confident to walk in them taking very few precautions. As he approached the back of the house, he soon concluded that it was square in structure. At the very rear and set a clear fifty yards away from the back door and directly in line with it, was a summer house. It looked big enough to accommodat
e a small family on its own. He heard soft music coming from a radio inside, and cautiously approached.
It was a two story structure, an open plan room upstairs and one down with a separate bathroom. There was a simple stable type wooden front door with a small square insert glass panel that faced the main building, and a large picture window downstairs that looked out further towards the rear of the garden. Upstairs, there was a single window to each side and another larger window that was above the front door and level with the back door of the ‘chateau’. All the windows were devoid of curtains. Noiselessly approaching the rear, he glanced into the lit downstairs window and saw two men sitting at a wooden square table playing cards.
Clearly visible in one corner of the room was a small drop leaf table housing a kettle, a five-litre bottle of water, a collection of odd mugs, a jar of coffee and a bottle of milk: ‘the essentials of life’ reasoned Simon. On the floor, next to the table was a simple telephone which Simon concluded was obviously connected to the sentry box. He knew he could not surprise both and incapacitate them without probably a fair amount of noise and even gun play. It was nearly 2am and Simon was hoping that it was the time that the man in the sentry box would be changed.
Moving to observe the stable door, he sat with his back to a tree where he could just see into the room through the small glass pane and waited. One thing Simon could do with little effort was to watch and wait.
2am came and went and they still played cards. He thought he’d wait till after 3am and then reassess his plans if still no movement. If the three had started at 9pm they may be doing three hours each which would be a logical time. At 2.45am the cards were put onto the table, and one of the men climbed the open plan stairs to the upstairs room, a bedroom, for three hours sleep. The other started to make a cup of coffee and picked up the phone as he waited for the kettle to boil. It looked like 3am was the change over time. Simon waited for him to call the man from upstairs to go and check why the phone hadn’t been answered.
He returned it to its cradle, and poured the water into the mug. No reaction at all when it hadn’t been answered. He’d have been court martialled in the army for ignoring it.
129
Sunday 19th June 2011
Simon waited, and just prior to 3am the door opened, and the man came out. He made no more than two yards from the door before Simon touched him with an electronic Taser sending fifty thousand odd volts careering through his body. Shuddering involuntarily, he collapsed to the floor where he suffered the additional indignity of being struck on the side of his head with the sentry’s large Maglite torch. His body had gone into mild convulsions, but was recovering quickly and the Maglite ensured the opposite. He was unconscious on the floor and Simon trussed him up in the same manner as the first sentry. Again, on a cursory search, Simon found him to be sporting a Glock 19 which he put to the side of the door under a shrub.
Waiting ten minutes more: which was the amount of time he estimated it would take for the man to reach the sentry box, have a quick chat and then for the other to return, Simon entered the summer house.
A voice called from upstairs, “Can’t you ever stay awake just once. If Grigoriev came round, we’d all be for it.”
Simon grunted in reply.
“Useless shit. Bring me a coffee when you come up.”
Turning the kettle on, he boiled the water and when the kettle clicked off, he held the switch down forcing it to override and boil the water a little longer. Pouring the boiling water into the two biggest mugs he could see, he started up the stairs.
As he neared the top, he saw two basic single beds with no bedding, just bare mattresses, facing each other as there was no other way in the space available to place them. The one with the head closest to the stairs was occupied by a fully clothed man and he didn’t see Simon coming. He heard him, and started to sit up expecting his coffee. As he turned and saw Simon, he took the full two mugs of boiling water in his face. From going for his gun, his hands involuntarily went to his face. He couldn’t see and his eyes were streaming and his whole face was burning. Using the Maglite, with slightly less ferocity than previously, he struck the man knocking him unconscious and so relieving him of the searing pain the water had caused.
Retrieving the still holstered Glock 19, and a new type ‘smartphone’ from the man, Simon used plasticuffs to truss him up and some duct tape to keep him quiet should he come round too soon. If Richard Davies had supplied the guns, Simon conceded he had taste in weapons. They were not cheap guns if bought legally, and if illegal the price could be astronomical. Placing the gun and disabled phone with the others under the shrub he decided he would retain all three firearms if he had the chance later. He was still carrying the Lithuanians MP-443 gun which he knew worked fine and he needed to complete his plan. Time was now of the essence that he should get into the house.
While he had been in his hotel room, Simon had casually trawled the internet and discovered that Richard Davies was on his fourth wife and had a total of five children, but none with the latest. All the children had stayed with their respective Mothers who had all been made financially secure in non-acrimonious divorces. Yusuf had acted on behalf of all of them. Simon found out from ‘Wikipedia’ that there was a flat in an upmarket part of Manhattan and a boat moored in Puerto Banus. The web site claimed that his current wife, Jacqueline, preferred America, and it suited RD as he could search for wife number five with gusto. Simon knew most of what he had found out was rumour and ambiguity. He was just hoping that RD was alone.
He searched for an unlocked or open window, but couldn’t find one. All the ground floor windows were secure and having seen all the upstairs windows were shut, he had no alternative but to break in which he really did not want to do. He recovered his bag and took out a glass cutter formed inside a set of four suction cups with a handle in the middle. Also in the bag was a large piece of mica which he thought he would try first. At the double-glazed back door, he put his hand on the handle with the intention of trying to place the mica between the door jamb and the door lock to prize it to open. The lock was a Yale type which was susceptible to mica.
The door opened: it wasn’t even locked.
130
Sunday 19th June 2011
It was closing in fast on 3.30 in the morning when Alison awoke with a start. Whatever Carol had given her earlier had worked up until now. Normally, she slept undisturbed throughout the night without any assistance from any pills, but for some reason, she was wide awake and desperate for water. Her mouth was as dry as old sticks. She gingerly got out of bed and padded bare footed delicately towards the kitchen. A light was visible from beneath the door to the lounge and attracted her like a moth. Without thinking, she opened the door with the intention of turning it off. John was lying supine on one of his recliners with a book in his hands, and was also wide awake. On the side table next to him were a couple of mobiles, a glass and a bottle of wine.
Alison froze in the doorway.
“Either come in or go back to bed, but please shut the door. I don’t want to disturb Carol.”
She checked quickly that she was modestly attired, and walked in.
“What are you doing up at this time of night?” and lowered herself tentatively into an armchair.
“I’m waiting to see if Simon calls.”
“Where is he?”
“Birmingham.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Making some enquiries.”
“Why didn’t he say goodbye to me before he went?”
“Not being too delicate about it, you were slightly drunk and dosed up on pills. He didn’t fancy a fight.”
She looked disdainfully at him for a few seconds, “I’m not really that bad” and then sullenly after a couple more seconds, “am I?”
The door opened, and Carol walked in wearing John’s thick ‘Guinness’ dressing gown and carrying an unbranded one which she draped over Alison.
“You’re not. The pair of yo
u could wake Old Nick himself.”
“I’m sorry I woke you.”
“Any word yet from Simon?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m going to make some tea. Do either of you want one?”
Both replied “Yes please” in unison.
*
Simon stepped inside and waited and listened. Then he went through the kitchen and into the hallway. He heard water splashing. Keeping close to the wall, he started along the hallway which was in effect a wide corridor. Listening at each door he passed, he soon arrived at the front of the house. The corridor turned into a large vestibule with two equally opposed slightly curved stairways facing the front door. It was a square building with a covered quadrangle in the middle. That’s where the splashing noise was coming from. Having done a complete circuit and arriving back at the entrance to the kitchen he looked for a way into the ‘central piazza.’
He hadn’t seen it on his first lap. When he got back to the stairs he saw the door set into the wood panelling level with the ornate entrance. Unhurriedly he opened it a couple of inches and peered in. There was a paved plaza of sorts with a centralised swimming pool with subdued underwater blue lighting giving it a spectral aura. A naked woman was leisurely swimming up and down. She was in her early thirties and as Simon noted, was in perfect physical shape. A pile of clothes was on a poolside lounger. There was no sign of anyone else.
An Urgent Murder Page 41
