She was visiting her mother in St Albans, he had booked into a hotel in Cambridge so they arranged to meet in Stevenage on the Saturday night at a Chinese restaurant that her mother had been to with some friends recently. She was determined to end their relationship that night for good and took a scalpel from her medical bag that she always had with her, wrapped surgical tape around the handle and put it into her hand bag along with her make-up. She also prepared a syringe with a dose of benzodiazepines, enough to immobilise him until she was ready to end his life.
They met at the restaurant, had a meal and she told him that it was all over. He was clearly annoyed but didn’t show any emotion, at least not in public. He paid the bill and said that he would walk her back to her car and as they walked down the High Street, she saw her chance. She stopped at the entrance to the service yard and said
“I’m sorry Phillip, it was fun whilst it lasted but it’s over.”
He put his arms around her and started to say something but she had taken the syringe out of her handbag and before he knew what was happening, had thrust it into his backside.
He became unsteady on his feet and she guided him through the gap between the wall and the security barrier and in to the service yard, out of sight of the street. He sat down on the concrete surface of the yard and tried to speak, she put her fingers to his lips and undid his fly. She took out the scalpel from her handbag and made the fatal cut with her right hand whilst holding the top of his trousers over the cut, with her left hand so that she didn’t get covered in the plume of blood that was spouting out.
She did up his fly and belt and took everything that might identify him out of his pockets. Finally she removed his wristwatch, checked that there was no blood visible on her clothes and walked to her mother’s car that she had borrowed for the night and drove away.”
I asked her if she knew the names of the other couriers that Phillip Austen was using and she said that she had met one of them once, a Corporal in one of the infantry regiments based at Paderborn, name of Rich or Richie Law. He was taking packages to Harrow.
“With the two names I’ve already got that’s three for Captain Wright to investigate in Germany so that should satisfy my brief from the Brigadier.”
Mick asked him if he had any job interviews lined up yet.
“Nothing yet, the agency that are supposed to be helping haven’t come up with anything so it looks as if it’s down to me.”
Mick took out the application form that Sue had printed off the previous Saturday and put it on Andrews’s desk.
“This might be of interest, Sue has mentioned your situation to her boss and he would like to meet you. Can’t do any harm, at least it will give you some insight into what the business world is like.”
“Thanks, I’ll certainly give it some thought, thank Sue for me.”
That night Mick told Sue that he had given Andrew the application form and also that Rachel Bond had suggested that he take some leave.
“Can you get some time off do you think?”
“I’ll check my diary tomorrow, I can’t think of anything offhand that somebody else couldn’t cope with.”
“Well, see what you can do, a week in the sun would be nice.”
*
The following Monday Andrew received a telephone call from Captain Wright. The elderly neighbour had indeed taken in another cardboard tube and had rang the Military Police who collected it immediately. Three days later the tube was delivered to Hatfield police station by special courier. Mick and Andrew opened it and put the diamonds they found into a jiffy bag.
Andrew then rang Colonel Swanepoel in Bloemfontein and they agreed that the two lots of diamonds would be taken to the South African Embassy in London for the onward journey.
*
Sue spent the whole of the next Friday evening on her laptop looking for a suitable holiday but couldn’t find anything that really appealed. The next day she went into the local travel agents and after about two hours booked a ten day holiday in Cyprus in a rather luxurious hotel, paying quite a bit more than she had intended but as Mick pointed out, they had just had a windfall of nearly a thousand pounds from his father’s estate.
Mick spent Monday and Tuesday making sure that everything was in order and briefed the team on the last couple of things they need to do.
Andrew took the train into London and delivered the diamonds to Johann Brummer at the South African embassy and then flew to Germany to sort out his affairs there.
Mick and Sue drove to Luton airport early on the Wednesday morning and had an uneventful flight. They collected the pre-booked hire car and made their way to the hotel, arriving in time for a late lunch
They had a wonderful holiday, sunbathing around the hotel pool under the palm trees, touring around in the hire car, going up into the Troudos Mountains and into Paphos once or twice to eat at the harbour restaurants.
When they returned to work they both had news waiting for them. Sue’s boss told her that he and one of the directors from Munich had interviewed Andrew for the position of Chief Investigating Officer. They were very impressed with him and had offered him the position which he had accepted and would start on the second of January when he officially left the army.
Mick was called up to Rachel Bond’s office the moment he got in.
“Sit down Michael,” she said. “Did you have a good holiday?”
“Very nice thank you Ma’am. What’s the latest news?”
“Karen Hennessy won’t be sentenced for the murder of Phillip Austen. She committed suicide in her cell last night.”
Mick slumped down in his chair, struggling to take in what he had just been told.
“How on earth did that happen?” he said.
“There will be a proper inquest of course but early indications are that she found a short length of electrical cable that had been dropped by an electrician doing some work in the exercise yard. Apparently she stripped off the plastic covering to expose the copper wires. That night, after lights out, she wound the wires around the wrist on her left hand and using a tea-spoon made a tourniquet which she turned and turned until it cut through her wrist and severed the artery. She had pulled the blanket over her and had lain on her hand so that it was out of sight. They didn’t discover that she was dead until this morning.”
“All that work for nothing,” said Mick.
“You mustn’t think of it those terms Michael. You did an excellent job in tracking her down and bringing her to justice, what happed in the remand prison was totally out of our control.”
“I know you’re right of course Ma’am but I just feel cheated somehow.”
The Paderborn Connection Page 19
