“I’ve tasked two officers to search north along the A46 also the North and West Devon Basic Command Unit is to search their areas and liaise with the local constabulary at Taunton. Let’s cross the tees, shall we…?
“Norm…?” “Yes Chris…?”
“Who do we have at present in North Devon…?”
“Albatross is in Barnstable… He’s nosing around the all year campsites and holiday homes in the surrounding areas, due to check in at 2000. He can come east on a moment’s notice, if or when…”
“Good Stuff…”
I cast my gaze across all of the noticeboards and took in the logistics and deployment details…
“Well I think that’s everything Steve…?”
“It is… Our bases are covered as much as they can be…”
The fax machine chattered to life again:
“Confirmation from Brierley Hill-no fingerprints found on the Rover 600, none which match our three POI’s anyway. They’ll begin to strip it tomorrow…”
My cellphone rang:
“Cormorant sir…A dispatch rider is en route to you now with IMINT from Cheshire Police and imagery of the two of them taken from the CCTV at Keele Services, that was the hold up with Staffs sir… From my bible Chief, we have two positive target subjects…”
“That’s understood Cormorant. Well done to you, pass that on please…”
“Certainly sir… What’s next…?”
“Liaise with Raven… He’s in your neck of the woods…” “Will do sir…”
I addressed the group;
“We have positive IMINT on the way… Harraghy and Crown are in the UK and heading south…”
Steve reached for the closest telephone…
“I’ll get onto the Central Motorway Police Group. I want the traffic cameras along the ‘6, the ‘5 the ’42 and the ’40 scrutinised until their eyes hurt…”
“I need to speak to Robin… He needs to brief the Secretaries…”
Chapter Twenty Six
Morris walked out of the farmhouse in Wrington Hill carrying a five litre can of fuel. His plan was to drive the hire car to a secluded spot of farmland and set it ablaze. As he reached the car he noticed vehicle headlights approaching along the driveway to the house. He sprinted back to the front door and shouted,
“We’ve got company and I don’t think it’s a double-glazing salesman… Move it…!”
Marward immediately lifted the 9mm Beretta that was lying on the coffee table. Riddell headed for the back door…
The police patrol car, a local constabulary Ford Fiesta stopped under the single porch light which Morris has switched on. This wasn’t done as a courtesy, it was done to assist his own visibility. Both officers climbed out of the car as Morris reopened the front door.
“Good evening sir…”
“Good evening officers, how can I help you…?”
“We are visiting all the farms in the area as there have been a number of thefts recently: specifically farm plant and machinery. We were hoping to accompany you on a search to make sure nothing is amiss…”
“Well, we haven’t much here at the moment, certainly no machinery of any great description. We are waiting to see whether we can cultivate rapeseed you see…”
“Rapeseed…?”
“Yes officer. It’s a new crop which is very versatile. The research suggests it can be used in cooking and be refined into one of the new biofuels being investigated…”
The senior officer was well aware of rapeseed; he of course, was interested to know if the man before him did…
“I see… We’d still prefer to check with you all the same sir. We would hate for you to have to contact the local station if something is missing, particularly as we have this opportunity now…”
“Very well… Let me change my footwear and grab a coat…” “Certainly Mr…?”
“Buchan… Martin Buchan…”
Morris noticed the faint look of realisation on the younger policeman’s face. It was enough. He closed the front door over so he would not be overheard. Marward was standing against the living room wall trying to listen through an open window.
“Well…?”
“They know… Kill them both… Now…! Then we move up the timetable as I suggested earlier…”
“Right…!”
Marward pressed the send button on his RT twice. This silent action informed Riddell, who was now to the side of the property, that physical intervention was necessary. He screwed the suppressor to the Beretta and moved slowly and silently along the path; Marward did the same with his own firearm.
Morris turned all of the porch lights on, this action was to kill whatever night vision the police officers had acquired, he then nodded in Marward’s direction…
The younger constable began to realise something was very wrong when his senior colleague suddenly leaned heavily against him.
“Sarge…?”
It was to be the last word he uttered… Riddell’s shot had penetrated his skull just above his left ear; he dropped instantly, the sergeant collapsing on top of his lifeless body with a muffled cry. The sergeant was still alive and began to drag himself toward his patrol car. He wouldn’t make it. Marward walked casually from the porch, stood astride the critically injured police officer then quite deliberately fired two shots into the back of his head.
Riddell surveyed the scene,
“So now we have two cars to burn…”
Morris shook his head…
“No… On second thoughts Frank, fire up the JCB, we’ll bury both of them behind the house. We don’t want any more nosey bastards or do-gooders turning up because they may see the flames from the road. Pat, grab his legs, we’ll put the bodies in the cars first.
*****
Harraghy was in the disused milking shed surveying one of the two Mercedes 814 7.5 ton rigid bodied trucks… The rear load area held a fabricated steel tank which had been filled with 15,000lbs of ammonium nitrate. The two lilywhites who had been living at the old dairy for four months had successfully upgraded both vehicles’ suspensions to accommodate the weight. They had also constructed the tanks.
He was pleased with their workmanship. He nodded appreciatively as he ran his right hand along the smooth cold steel sides.
“Well done lads…A beautiful job… Your payment as arranged is on the workbench behind you…”
Both young men nodded and smiled, as they turned around to collect their reward, McCauley and Crown shot them both in the head. Their supressed Walthers had made hardly any sound…
Harraghy looked at both bodies…
“Bury them decent lads… They did us proud…”
*****
It was now 2030. Before Sarah had left for the evening she had placed the Dutch transcript on my desk, as we now knew Morris had travelled the route, the reading of it was no longer the priority it once was, and equally neither was the Dutch employment check, which had drawn a blank in any rate. The IMINT from Cheshire and Staffs was due but again the information was confirming what we already knew: Harraghy and Crown were also at large in our green and pleasant land. I had lost count of the calls I’d received congratulating me on my predictive accuracy, personally I wished they were all over the hills and far away but as Robin had said, be gracious and don’t cut them off too quickly… Oh the joys of politics.
Steve was pushing the CMPG. We needed more up to date images of the Ford Scorpio, this as well as the ongoing searches were the pressing concerns. To know where they had been was a good indicator and allowed us to confirm our fears. What we needed now was an indicator as to their destination. We were all slightly deflated with the search around Stourbridge, with the air support we had reasoned that a positive was realistic. However looking at their timetable, at 0815, twelve hours from now, their search would turn west, an area between the A449 to the A442. Looking at the search map, this area appeared more hopeful. To abandon the Rover 600 in Stourbridge, possibly in the complete opposite direction to
where the ASU was situated was classic PIRA misdirection…
Steve approaching brought me back from my thoughts… “What gives…?”
“We may have two officers missing around the search area you requested…”
“Along the A38…?” “Yes…”
“Show me on the map. I’ll task Kestrel there now… Hang on a mo’…Norm…?”
“Yes boss…?”
“Get Albatross moving north toward Bristol now, along the A38. We’ll give him the search box en route…”
“On it…!”
“Chris and Charlie…? Heads up lads, we may have a problem.”
I reached for the desk phone and called the duty officer.
“Stuart could you get me Frank Whatley and Robin; in that order please…? Thanks…”
We congregated around the map… “Steve…?”
“We believe, well I’m fairly certain, that two local police officers are missing. They were calling on the agricultural businesses and small breweries along the A38 corridor under the guise of investigating machinery thefts. There last call was here, a cluster of bungalows and a farm along Wrington Hill; that was around 1815. Avon and Somerset have been unable to reach them since. Two further patrol cars have visited their last logged call, nothing…”
“Chief…?”
“I’m bringing in Frank and his lads from SO13, also I’m tasking Kestrel and Albatross to the area. I need Robin to officially sanction it but I want them weapons fee. Chris…? Get on to Kestrel and give her the grid reference… Norm…? Do the same with Albatross please…”
My cellphone rang…
“Robin, two local law enforcement officers are missing along the search corridor, I’ve tasked Kestrel and Albatross into the search box…”
“Where…?”
“South of Bristol sir…”
“The A38 no doubt… You are requesting weapons free I take it…? Very well, consider them now weapons free…”
“Yes sir… Confirming weapons free…” “Chief... Keep me informed…”
“Yes sir…”
I cancelled the call just as Steve replaced the desk phone receiver…
“That was Frank. He has a team in Bristol… They are en route now…”
“So… Now we wait and see…” “Yes…Now we wait and see…”
I walked across to Norman; the desk in front of him was filled with images of the Escort vans.
“I know that look…!”
Norman answered thoughtfully without taking his eyes away from what appeared to me to be two identical pictures…
“Yes boss… Er, I think I’ve sussed something here…?”
Norman looked up handing me both images, “What do you think…?”
I glanced at them both, to me they were front and rear images of a Railtrack liveried van. However to give Norm the benefit of the doubt, I looked a second time and…
“Jesus…!”
“Yes boss… They are two separate vehicles… See the dent here…? I thought at first they’d just swapped the reg’ plates but looking at the other images, there are definitely four different plates and four different vans…”
“That means we have a Railtrack van unaccounted for…”
“It does, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was somewhere around Bristol or Stourbridge…”
“Good work Norm… Carry on…”
I returned to the others…
“There’s another Escort van… Norman has evidence of a fourth dressed in Railtrack livery…”
I explained his findings; Steve immediately reached for a telephone.
“That makes two of each now, so this one is either around Stourbridge or Bristol… I’m rechecking the DVLA findings…”
“Aye Chris…Let’s do that…”
Chris returned almost at once with a rather disturbed look on his face.
“They’re not Merc’ vans; they’re trucks…See…?
I read the report, Chris was right: the Mercedes 814 was indeed a rigid bodied truck. I rang Robin…
“Sir we need to re-evaluate… We have discovered a fourth small Escort Van…”
“The same description Chief…?”
“Yes sir, Identical to the three found at Brasted, this one has Railtrack livery…We believe it to be in our search area…”
“What else…?”
“The DVLA have it wrong; the Mercedes vans are infact 7.5 ton trucks…”
The phone line was quiet, Robin was clearly weighing up his options, finally he said…
“I see…I’m on my way in Chief, collect your data, I need to set up a briefing…”
*****
Kestrel pulled her car into a layby slowly and silently, lowered the front passenger door window and listened…Allowing herself to relax a little, she unscrewed the lid from a bottle of water and tore the cellophane wrapping from a pre-packed sandwich. She was five hundred metres away from the last property the two police officers had reported from.
Stacy Maynard had worked as an IMINT officer for four years before moving into the field twelve months earlier. The investigations she had previously been involved with had been low level drug movements from mainland Europe entering the UK by sea through small east coast marinas. Stacy had a keen eye and a natural gift for investigation. Assessing the threat quickly, she established that the farm opposite was legitimate: the distinct bovine smell and cattle noises emanating from the adjacent field were enough for her.
Now she would wait, Albatross had given his ETA as 2130, half an hour from now, with a team from SO13 due from Bristol within the same timeframe. Finishing her sandwich, she was disturbed by the flickering of oncoming headlights in her rear view mirror, shortly after she was passed by a large box van closely followed by a smaller van in white. She failed to notice the livery on the side.
My cellphone rang… “Section Chief”
“Snipe sir… We have IMINT of the target vehicle leaving an NCP multi-storey very close to Newcastle Central Station: two occupants, our two target subjects… Timed at 1045…”
“Roger that Snipe, good work…We need you to rattle the ferry companies cage, find out how long they’ve been employed and check their paperwork…”
“Righto… At this time of night it will mean pulling their HR staff in…?”
“Just the senior ones John… Let’s see if one or two of their staff have been complicit shall we…?”
“Ok…I’ll head over there now…”
I ended the call and informed the men of the confirmation. Again this information was written on the boards, together with the details of Robert Morris’s movements. We were now able to complete the picture…
“I have Kestrel, I’m putting her on speaker…”
Chris pressed the green button on the device in the centre of the table…
“Carry on Stacy…”
“Sir, Albatross is with me now; we are waiting on SO13… A recce suggests this property is legit. We are about to speak to the owners…”
“Ok Kestrel, you are both weapons free…Dry clean first, understood…?”
“Understood sir…”
Steve walked from his office…
“SO13 have turned on to Wrington Hill…five minutes tops…”
“Good…Kestrel and Albatross are speaking to the owners now, they believe this is a negative but it will give us a more conclusive time- frame…”
Steve nodded in response… At 2140 Kestrel rang back…
“Confirmed sir, negative… Inspector Collins has something to add…”
“Chief we’ve had the E.D. dogs out and they haven’t batted an eyelid, there’s nothing here…We have the worksheet for the two constables so we are to begin a process of elimination. The next property on their list is a mile along the road; we’re heading there now…”
I looked across the table… “Steve…?”
“Very well Inspector, we’ll await your call…” “Yes sir…Out…”
Collectively we had r
easoned that the two uniformed officers would have called in when approaching the next property on their list, we were all a little surprised this hadn’t been done… Driving a vehicle being taken by surprise would have been difficult; unless a sniper had been used of course, but that scenario seemed highly unlikely. You would think to maintain a low profile the assumed targets would be drawn in, especially as now we were dealing with experienced PIRA field personnel.
Stacy led the convoy back along Wrington Hill then turned left travelling on a long narrow driveway bringing the car to a stop twenty metres or so from the front aspect of the house. Turning off the Vauxhall Astra’s interior light, she opened the driver’s door and stepped out… Nothing… Total silence… Unholstering her 9mm Walther she subconsciously slipped off the safety and retained her grip on the sidearm with her right hand…
Bearings: The Compass Trilogy Part One Page 29
