Thirty Four Minutes DEAD

by Kaye, Steve Hammond

  "I will oversee the operation and will subsequently bear full responsibility for the precision surrounding its execution. I will not enter into dialogue either initially, being a silent witness like the MC team. Blyth Carson will represent the C.I.D at tonight's arrest and Brynley Stowles is there to represent M.O.D interests. Both these gentlemen will partake in verbal dialogue with Everett bearing ‘dumb’ testimony that Everett will have no problem in answering.

  “Both these gentlemen have a role which involves acting as a proverbial foil for Ms Marcia Levene of the C.I.A who will turn the screw upon Everett in her rehearsed attack role. It is important for all present to realise that at no time will Carson or Stowles proceed with a formal arrest scenario.

  Carson and Stowles will act as the decoy for Levene, who will anticipate formal arrest procedures. After she has injected her words, Everett will confess. Using this approach we will get a confession straight from the lips of the guilty party, and the Memory Camera project will not have to be evidenced in the criminal trial that will ensue. It is our prerogative to keep our research hidden at this moment in time, and as you know we have ensured that we are not obligated to reveal our exposition tactics surrounding this crime. The judicial systems of both Britain and America are in the dark concerning the MC Project and that is why the devised method to elicit confessions involves verbal confession in the presence of witnesses. Once we have got Everett's verbal confession tonight I will administer his formal arrest and then unenlightened Law enforcement staff can extract the motivating factors behind the case. After we have done our work the criminal can be returned to the conventional system for them to execute sentence.

  "I realise that the MC team members will be a little in the dark with regard to the actual implementation of our confession extraction method, but tonight's arrest will eradicate any doubts you may have.

  “It is true we are dealing with a very bright murderer in this instance, a Harvard Legal graduate, a multimillionaire who has many of the brightest Legal minds in this country and overseas in his pocket. It is true that the rain obscured tyre tread details that might have built a suspicion and it is true that Everett's Armani clothing is now as we speak being cleaned to a degree whereby murder connection details would be lost.

  We know in our enlightened position that both the dead body of Venison and the living body of Everett carry enough DNA evidence to make the identity of the murderer an absolute certainty, but we only know this through Memory Camera hindsight. Without our MC apparatus, Everett would be beyond suspicion. After all, he only had a brief conversation with the victim and Julia's MC didn't register any people witnessing the pick-up. Small fragments of information might have been gathered, but that would have given Everett time to build a Legal Defence team powerful enough to ensure the case never came to court. Without our MC breakthrough Everett would have remained a free man, a free and extremely dangerous man.

  "Our seven person collection squad will depart this venue for the Vernet Gentleman's Club at 2100 hundred hours with the MC team and myself in one car, and Levene, Stowles and Carson travelling in a second car. We will be escorted by four cars, two front and rear, that contain additional security staff. These escort staff know nothing of our research. They will follow us into Central London until two kilometres from the New Bond Street vicinity. At this point they will scatter, to re-assemble at 22:10 outside the club. Our ‘method’ does not anticipate opposition to Everett's arrest, but if this did materialise the sixteen chosen extras would cope with any disturbance very efficiently. Well, gentlemen and Ms Levene, I look forward to meeting you again when we re-convene at 20:55 outside the main entrance of this designation. We are obviously ‘house-bound’ until the reconvention".

  Vain was generally pleased with the selection criteria that had governed the arresting squad. He had a great deal of time for both Stowles and Carson. They had shown sustained enthusiasm for the MC Project since they had been made au-fait with its objectives three years ago. Stowles was hunched and looked quite unkempt in his appearance. He didn't represent a High Ranking MOD stereotype on a face value level, but his intellect and drive firmly put him into the brightest minds category in relation to the totality of project staff.

  Carson had fought hard against any racist discrimination that had tried to bar his way in the C.I.D. He had risen to the top through sheer industry and had preserved a sense of humour that made him one of the most popular project members. His first words to Vain had captured his spirit perfectly...

  "...Hiya, I'm Blyth; black, bright and according to my wife, beautiful!” Carson's up-front humour didn't intrude upon the dogged determination he showed when addressing the parameters of the criminal mind. The seminal work he had done in relation to the exploration of criminal psychology had made him an excellent choice for the project as a whole, the devising of the arrest method and the options for that nights arresting squad.

  Vain was once again pleased with Voight's pivotal role with regard to the arrest and he was most satisfied that his MC team had been chosen-to a man. If Vain alone had been selected it could have ushered in divisions through the team, and possibly have set back the Anglo-American co-operation that had so far been one of the greatest strength areas in the project.

  The only shadow area involving arrest team selection seemed to arrive in the form of Marcia Levene. That morning had been the first time Vain's MC team had met the woman, and whilst she had seemed to register Voight's words with admirable intense scrutiny she represented a ‘new face’ at a time when everyone's mind was upon the arrest. She was to a level, through no fault of her own, an intrusion - someone who had disrupted the collective concentration of the ‘familiar face’ interactions. Before this morning Natassia Overson had represented CIA female involvement and her project commitment had seemed beyond dispute. Vain presumed she had been taken ill, because she wouldn't have missed the arrest execution for the world!

  The afternoon passed slowly for the MC team. Tavini had challenged Vain to a game of Real Tennis in the court on the Lower Floor, and had proceeded to hammer the Englishman without breaking sweat. Ko-Chai had immersed himself in an eighteenth century novel detailing Rococo French aesthetics, before witnessing the Tavini massacre in its latter stages. None of the team could concentrate enough to continue their research. Their minds were on that night’s arrest and they knew that their vault extension work, whilst approaching completion could wait a day or so until after the initial criminal scalp had been pinned on the door!

  The team members took a light meal together at nineteen hundred hours before they retired to their rooms to attire for the ‘main event’ that would shortly take place.

  The team arrived collectively, shortly before the reconvention deadline. Voight, Carson and Stowles were already in readiness as were the escort party. Marcia Levene was the last to arrive, appearing with Leif Denison. The latter proceeded to wish the seven good fortune and finished with a line of typical Denison delivery - go get that head folks. This one's for Venison.

  The arrest squad departed Designation B and progressed toward Central London. No one spoke because all minds were fixed on their impending encounter with Everett. The escort cars scattered at the appointed place and all seven of the arrest party knew that their quarry was now a matter of minutes away. Vain wished Voight good luck as their car slowed to a halt outside the Vernet Gentlemen's Club.

  The seven arrest party members proceeded through the club’s main entrance at 22:01 and Voight approached the door staff flashing his high-ranking credentials badge. As one of the door staff asked for Voight to pause for a moment while he read the badge Voight snapped...

  "Read it but be quick. You aren't going to hold up this momentous event with your remedial education. Now where can we find Royston Sandford Everett?"

  Taken aback, the door person replied...

  "Er, he's in the Trevallier Cocktail Bar, Sir. He won't be very pleased, Sir. He has invited some very eminent guests tonight. I wouldn't ad
vise you to…"

  Voight cut in.

  "Bollocks. The Trevallier is sign posted over there, let's go".

  It was the first time Vain had heard Voight utter a word that bordered upon expletive fare, but he saw the glint of determination in the mans eyes and realised that nothing would get in the way of his handling of the arrest, especially time wasting advice from a well meaning member of the club's staff. Vain was pleased that the organisational side of the arrest was in such capable hands.

  The arrest squad entered the Trevallier Cocktail Bar and were greeted by a sight that illuminated Everett at the peak of his vanity. His words dominated the whole Bar and a crowd of eleven drooling associates hung on his every word...

  "...and I didn't choose that moment to illuminate my prowess in that merchandise realm. I merely waited until the ignorant fool had given me enough ammunition to fully hang, draw and quarter him! I mean what ignoramus would engage in a dialogue with me on the merits of a transportation method that is so archaic that it renders the extoller positively Bronze Age in comparison with MSE. I mean…"

  Stowles, speaking from the squad's position on the fringes of the associates cut short Everett...

  "Mr Royston Sandford-Everett we would like you to accompany us to our investigation station to answer some questions concerning the murder of Ms Julia Maria Venison".

  Everett didn't flinch in his retort...

  "Does your rudeness know no boundaries? First you interrupt a private dialogue at this private Gentlemen's establishment and then you have the audacity to associate me with a crime I know nothing about, concerning a woman I've never heard of. I thank you not!”

  Carson added support to his partner’s request...

  "It is in your interest to accompany us Mr Everett. We merely pursue an inquiry and have to address every avenue in our attempt to eliminate the innocent and find the guilty".

  "Oh, so it's a team effort - the hunchback and the black man. Well that just makes things worse, doesn't it? I mean you could have sent a well-presented delegation to ask me to talk to you about your ludicrous hypothesis, but no! Instead you send Quasimodo and an excuse for a man who I can't fully discern in this half-light. Now look around you and you will see four of the most eminent lawyers in this country who will block this pathetic initial arrest attempt and then turn the tables on you when I sue for defamation of character".

  Whilst Everett's attack on the arrest squad continued, Vain felt the anger welling up inside him. He hated Everett even more now. Not only had he cruelly illuminated the poor physical condition of Stowles in a malicious fashion but he had added to this by his pathetic racist attack on Carson. Everett's ‘yes men’ associates had added a background of sustained laughter during the course of his condemnation.

  It was that moment that the previously quiet Marcia Levene chose to play her and the team's trump card. Speaking from the shadows she commented...

  "You have a choice now Royston, shattered, tattered or battered?"

  Everett's smug face changed in an instant. Then, thinking his actions had been physically witnessed, he returned to the raving wild-eyed Everett of the previous evening.

  "You were there! You bastards. Why didn't you stop me? For Christ's sake you let me do it - you bastards!”

  With Everett's confession the giggling yes men physically withdrew and Voight's team encircled Everett. They locked their arms around a man who was screaming his outrage. Turning to his associates he cried...

  "They let me do it! They let me do it! Look, you've got to help me gentlemen. Pearce, you'll help won't you? For Christ's sake Philbey, Hamilton help me, help me!”

  His pleas fell on deaf ears. The associates were already departing. Everett was dragged to the awaiting car and a smile flickered on Vain's face as he saw Julia's tormentor roughly forced into the security vehicle. Vain picked the neckerchief up off the pavement. RSE was woven into the garment and it seemed to be a fitting souvenir for their first operation concerning MC retribution.

  THREE

  Leif Denison had called a Review Meeting in the Lower Chamber for 0900 a.m. The purpose of this gathering was to assess the Everett arrest, comment on how the conventional MC-ignorant police force were handling the case, divulge the ensuing plan of action and conclude by detailing the social function that would take place that night in Designation B. All bar one of the England-based MC-Project staff would be in attendance.

  After the thirty-eight staff members had taken their seats Denison addressed the assembly.

  "Congratulations. The Memory Camera Project team have triumphed. Our dedication and endeavour have been rewarded with the first sick animal being placed in the long stay sick pen.

  “I feel ‘sick animal’ is a fitting description for Royston Sandford Everett, and my only regret concerning this case is that Britain fails to utilise the death penalty for this type of offence.

  "Mr Voight's method of arrest proved flawless with the Carson-Stowles foil perfectly setting up the Levene hammer-blow. I know that some of the initiated doubted whether the guilty would crumble when their own words were thrown back at them, but the quick thinking Everett was hooked as soon as Ms Levene had quoted his evil "shattered, tattered or battered" option. Mr Voight's method is foolproof. We don't always need words to elicit confession, and could for example pick upon a non-verbal action or mannerism the killer displayed when they perpetrated their crime. In both verbally and non-verbally determined instances we merely need to select the correct ‘tactical’ hammer-blow. The hammer-blow that we could not have seen or heard without our MC breakthrough, and the hammer-blow which makes the killer believe they were physically witnessed while they were slaughtering their victim.

  "Everett was handed over to the British Police Authorities at 22:22 last night. He had to have a Lawyer appointed for him because his usual Legal associate Mr Dorian Pearce had been present at the Vernet Gentlemen's Club, had heard his confession and had consequently refused his services. Our inside sources have informed us that Everett has been refused bail, has opted to plead guilty and has been sedated because he collapsed at 06:04 this morning when he was undergoing sustained questioning. A motive has not been established and it appears at this initial stage that Everett simply hated women.

  "You are probably wondering how we know so much in such a short space of time! Well my friends, the answer will illustrate to you how well networked the MC Project is. If you look around the Chamber, you will work out that we are a person short. Yes, we are one person down, and that is because the thirty-ninth MC Project member is as we speak awakening Everett ready to carry on with his role as the appointed Lawyer for this murderer!”

  The Lower Chamber erupted in laughter, with the project members not being able to hide their amusement when imagining Everett being defended by one of their number.

  "Before collapsing, Everett repeated time after time "they were there, they heard me" but each time ‘our man’ reminded him that the issue was murder not an imaginary audience!

  “Our man is going to apply for Diminished Responsibility in court, but we all know that the Prosecution will tear that to shreds in this instance, successfully applying for premeditated murder in the first degree. When he is found guilty the judge is likely to opt for a twenty-five year minimum sentence. The Judicial system of this country normally award lenient sentences when the rich offend in relation to drugs or tax evasion, but this leniency will be replaced by vengeance when silver spoon killer Everett stands in the dock. He has let the Higher Classes down, betrayed them, and the judge will consequently go for his jugular!

  "This first test case has been exciting, fulfilling all our expectations and justifying our belief in the MC Project. Now the intensive Memory Camera operation really gets going. Tomorrow, most of you will be relieved of any duties for a ten-day period. This rest represents the calm before the storm. You will need time to relax, to see your loved ones and to gain strength for when we reconvene. After the ten-day lull period is over, the onsl
aught will start. For three weeks we will stay based around London, and then for the next five weeks we will relocate our operation to Designation J in Chicago.

  In both locations we will be uncovering more Everetts and scoring more ‘instant hits’. Before we reveal our MC findings to a global audience, we need to have a proven track record of success, of undisputed criminal scalps pinned to the door. In both locations, the project team will be split into three functional groups.

  “Gregory Vain's team will continue their research on the MC Vault extension and apparatus modifications. Barring sleep, the only time they will suspend their research is when a victim arrives and they have to implement direct MC operations.