Curse of Thieves: Another Major Vince Hamilton Investigation

by Patricki Slaney

  'If you look over there you will see the hotel beside the beach,' he said as he pointed into the distance. 'We can't drive the whole way down there as the road finishes just ahead. I will park there, and we will have to walk.'

  He duly parked his van in a turning circle, and we walked the rest of the way. He insisted in carrying my bag.

  The hotel was set back from the beach nestled in the side of the hill. It overlooked a bay that was like a basin and which opened through a narrow outlet into the Mediterranean Sea. The diameter of the bay was about a kilometre. It was an idyllic setting and a perfect hide-away.

  My recently acquired Greek friend introduced me to the owner. He told him that he had met me while he was travelling from Athens to Rhodes, and he was to take good care of me.

  Totally safe and secure I showered, had a superb dinner and retired to bed early. After my adventures on the Blue Star Lines ferry, it was a welcome haven well away from all the dangers, and I slept the sleep of the dead.

  Chapter 23

  I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. The water in the bay looked so inviting that I went for a swim before I had my breakfast. The restaurant was situated on a balcony that extended out over the beach. It was an idyllic spot and well away from prying eyes.

  After breakfast, I telephoned Willem to get an update on the position of Whispering Legend and was relieved to hear that it was still in Bizerte. I was also told that no further boats had been stolen.

  My curiosity about the whereabouts of the motor yachts satisfied, I then turned my attention to the cars. I phoned the police monitoring centre in London. The phone rang for what seemed an age before it was answered.

  'Good Morning, Constable Fitzmorris here,' a cheery voice said.

  'Good morning; Major Hamilton here, phoning you from Rhodes.'

  'Good morning Major. I suppose that you want to know the latest on the Maserati and the Ferrari.'

  That woke me up. The last time I had talked to anybody in the police in London there was no mention of a Ferrari being on the list of stolen cars.

  'When was the Ferrari stolen?' I asked, very surprised.

  'It was taken yesterday and is now in the facility at Ham Green.'

  'Where is the Maserati at the moment?'

  'It is on a ship heading for Marmaris in Turkey.'

  'When did it leave Rhodes?'

  'It only left about forty-five minutes ago. You will be glad to hear that the tracking device is working perfectly so presumably you were able to replace the old battery with a new one?'

  'Yes; I fitted a new battery during the trip from Athens to Rhodes.'

  'The ship that the car is travelling on is getting very close to Marmaris, so it should be offloaded in about half an hour. If you call me back later in the day, I should be able to tell you where it is going.'

  'Thanks very much; I will call you back later. I will call Inspector Baird now to check if there are any developments at his end.'

  'Talk to you later.' The operator put the phone down.

  I telephoned the Inspector on his mobile.

  'DCI Baird,' a voice answered.

  'Good morning Inspector; how are you today?'

  'I'm good Vince, and what part of the world are you in this morning?'

  'I am a little town called Lindos on the island of Rhodes.'

  'Have you had an update on the location of the Maserati?'

  'Yes I have. I gather that it is on a ferry on the way to Marmaris.'

  'That's right, and in another hour we should know where it goes from there.'

  'What are your plans at the moment Inspector?'

  'I can't make any plans until I know for definite where the car is going. I have a feeling that we are getting close to the final destination of the route that the cars take. Can you call me later this morning and we can discuss the situation further?'

  'I will phone you at 1.00pm Greek time which is 11.00am your time.'

  'That should be perfect. One of my options is to fly out to Rhodes tomorrow to have a look at what is going on there, and, perhaps, even to travel to Marmaris.'

  'If you come here, I can meet you and we can work together. I presume that you are moving in a direction that your policeman's nose is taking you,' I replied smiling.

  'Something like that Vince. I will firm up my plans when I talk to you later.'

  The call finished I decided that it might be a good idea to go into the city of Rhodes and get my bearings. I went to find the owner of the hotel to ask him for his suggestions as to what was the most suitable mode of transport for my trip.

  After a discussion with him, I decided to take a taxi. I could then return later in the day on the bus. Half an hour later I was heading back the same way that I had come yesterday, but this time, I was in a well-worn black Mercedes taxi with a very chatty driver at the wheel.

  I got him to drop me off close to the international ferry port where I had arrived the previous day. I learnt that there were plenty of other locations where ferries left from, but they travelled to other places in Greece. The international terminal was larger as it had customs and immigration facilities.

  I didn't go too close to the ferry terminal as I was afraid that one of the gang might still be looking for me. If the car had gone on a ferry to Marmaris then, the enemy would assume that I might want to follow it.

  There were masses of tourists walking around the harbour, so I was able to mingle in amongst them. There were also two enormous cruise liners moored along the quayside. They towered over the locality, making everything look miniscule including one of the catamaran ferries that were tied up alongside the ferry section of the port. I learnt later that the ferry from Marmaris arrives in the morning and ties up for the day before it returns at 5.00pm in the evening. This ferry did not carry cars.

  On another quay, I found a ticket office for Dodekanisos Ferries and they were able to supply me with the information that there was only one boat a day to Marmaris that carried cars. It departed at 9.15am every morning. The ferries also only operated from mid-May to mid-October.

  To get back onto the road that skirted the harbour I had to go through a narrow gap in the fencing. As I was walking through the gap, I felt something hard being pressed into my side. From all my training in the SAS, I knew immediately that it was the barrel of a gun. I had also been trained not to panic even though my assailant had a distinct advantage of having a gun. My attacker made the mistake of leaning towards me to whisper instructions in my ear. I head butted him and at the same time twisted away, breaking his grip. I darted across the road between the traffic, ran through a gate into the old town and lost myself amongst the throng of tourists milling around the ancient streets.

  The sudden move caught my attacker off-guard, and I managed to put some distance between the two of us. I kept moving through the narrow streets and the masses of people, until I came to another gate where I went back out onto the harbour. There was a boat moored stern on to the quay, selling shells and sponges. I ducked under the suspended shells and dived into the interior. It had all sorts of items hanging everywhere and was an ideal hiding place.

  I plunged under a table covered in shells and other items. I was totally hidden from view, and nobody on the quayside could see me. The owner didn't look too pleased but didn't say anything. I made a sign to him to not give my hiding place away. He looked away and went back to serving his customers.

  After about ten minutes I took a guarded look towards the quayside. I couldn't spot anybody who looked as if they were searching for me. I got out from under the table and cautiously moved towards the entrance keeping an eye out for any suspicious characters. Finally, I was able to leave the boat and join the tourists walking on the quay. I made sure that I went where the masses were going and headed up the narrowest of streets where the most people were crammed in. I finally ended up beside the aquarium and went into a hotel called, strangely enough, The Aquarium Hotel, to try and phone the Inspector. I ordered a cold beer as I w
as still shaking from my experience.

  After a bit of negotiating, I managed to get a room where I could use the phone.

  'Good news Vince; the car seems to have stopped in Marmaris and we could have found the final destination,' the Inspector said after our introductions.

  'What gives you that idea Inspector?'

  'Well, the car left the ferry port, travelled about twelve kilometres around the bay and then vanished off the screen. Its last known spot is close to a small village called Icmeler.'

  'How do you mean that it vanished?' I asked, amazed at what he had just told me.

  'Exactly that; it simply disappeared off the screen. We haven’t been able to pick up the signal again.'

  'Do you think that the battery went dead, or they found the device and removed it?'

  'The simple answer to that is, without a crystal ball, I can only guess. Until we get to Marmaris and look around, we won't be able to come up with answers to your questions.'

  'So, I take it, that you are coming out to Rhodes tomorrow?'

  'Yes, I have already booked and will be arriving around lunchtime.'

  'I, unfortunately, can't meet you as I have to stay undercover. I had another encounter with the opposition this morning, and I am going straight back to Lindos when I finish this call. I will book you into the hotel I am phoning you from, which is called The Aquarium Hotel. I will come into Rhodes town later in the day to meet you.'

  'What time will you come to see me Vince?'

  'I will telephone you before I depart from Lindos to give you a time and a venue. It would probably be best to meet in a restaurant and have dinner together.'

  'OK, I'll see you tomorrow.'

  'Have a good flight Inspector, and I'll see you tomorrow evening.'

  I paid for the use of the phone, and then left to try and find a restaurant for the following evening. There was a suitable one about fifty meters away called The Olive. I decided that this was perfectly adequate and flagged down a taxi to take me back to my hotel in Lindos.

  On the return journey, I had plenty of time to cogitate on the latest developments in my investigation. If luck was on our side, perhaps we had found the destination of all the stolen items and the headquarters of the syndicate conducting the thefts. It would be a great help having the Inspector here as two brains were definitely better than one and the Inspector had an unusually fertile brain.

  When I got back to the hotel, I went down to the beach and had another swim in the crystal blue waters of the bay. I then spent a leisurely evening drinking ice cold beer and eating the best that the Greek kitchen could serve up for me. Totally relaxed, despite the alarms of the day, I slept exceptionally well.

  Chapter 24

  I had a big but welcome surprise in the morning. When I went for my morning swim, I discovered that, during the night, a large motor yacht had dropped anchor in the bay. The boat was anchored no more than two hundred meters away from me.

  A mad thought came into my head. If Marmaris was the final destination for all the stolen items, then it wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility that this could be Peter Brown's boat, Splendiferous. I was due a bit of good fortune, and, if this was one of the boats I was after, then this would be a major piece of good fortune.

  My first thought was to swim out to check it out; however, on reflection, I decided that would be extremely unwise. If it was Splendiferous, the men who had locked me up in the storeroom in Sete would probably still be on board. They would recognize me and this time they would make sure that they got rid of me. I was so excited at seeing the large motor yacht that I had nearly made a big mistake.

  I retreated back to the hotel and asked the manager if he had a pair of binoculars he could lend me. He said that unfortunately he didn't possess such a thing but that he would borrow some from a friend of his who lived in the town. He called over one of the young waiters and gave him instruction to go and fetch them.

  Half-an-hour later I was equipped with a reasonably good pair of binoculars and was watching the motor yacht from the bar area which overlooked the beach. My first assessment was that it looked identical to Peter Brown's boat. What encouraged me even more was that the side panels of the cabin were painted royal blue. I remembered that when I had gone on board the boat in the Sete boatyard I had got royal blue paint on my hands and my clothes.

  After watching the boat for about two hours, I established that there were three crewmen on board. I also trained my electronic listening device on the boat and ratified that the men on board were speaking Italian. So far, everything was adding up. As the boat swung on its anchor, the stern came into my view. The name on the motor yacht was HABIBI. It didn't take too much intelligence on my part to realise that this was an Arabic name. I was pretty certain that I had stumbled on Splendiferous.

  Lindos bay was a logical place for them to come if indeed Marmaris was the location of the headquarters. It was only about two hours away from their final destination, and it was a private and secluded bay. An ideal hiding place for concealing a stolen boat.

  I had brought a new transponder with me for an occasion such as was now presented to me. I needed to get on board to plant the device? I would keep the boat under observation in case an opportunity arose.

  Around lunchtime, I telephoned Willem in Holland to tell him that I thought that I had tracked down the motor yacht that we knew as Splendiferous. I explained that I had a spare tracking device with me and that I would try and put the unit on board if the occasion arose. I gave him the details of the signal just in case I was successful. He was as amazed as I was that I had just stumbled across the boat.

  I telephoned the Inspector at The Aquarium Hotel to give him the news. He said that he would come out and see me rather than the other way around. About 6.00pm, he was dropped off by a taxi.

  How good it was to have company and also to have the Inspector as part of my team.

  'What are your plans Vince,' the Inspector asked me once we were sitting down in my observation post in the beach bar and I had told him about the arrival of the boat..

  'If the opportunity arises I want to place a new tracking device on board the motor yacht.'

  'If there is a crew member on board that won't be possible,' he said.

  'That's the problem, but I am hopeful that they may go ashore for a beer or a meal as they have been on board for quite a time now.'

  'We have nothing to lose by waiting here and observing what develops.'

  'I have nothing else to do so I might as well be patient. If they do go ashore, the boat will be between them and us so they won't be able to see me if I go on board.'

  'As we sit here, I can bring you up to date on what has been going on in London since I last talked to you,' the Inspector said as he sat down opposite me.

  'Another of the luxury cars fitted with a tracking device has been stolen today.' This news surprised me as I thought that it would be just one every week. 'Any more motor yachts gone missing?' he inquired.

  'Not that I know of, unless one was nicked last night.'

  'In fact, if you don't mind keeping watch on the boat I will go and get my laptop to see if I have any new emails. I have been so involved with monitoring Splendiferous today that I haven't checked them.'

  I left the Inspector in the bar and went to get my laptop. I connected to the hotel's internet connection and booted up.

  There was a message from Farid, in Tunisia, informing me that Whispering Legend had been put back in the water; however, it was still in Bizerte. Farid also gave me a vital piece of new information; the boat had been renamed Golden Spirit. He also mentioned that I wouldn't recognize the name as it had been written in Arabic on the stern. He also wrote that a lot of gold coloured stripes were now on the side. Hopefully, the batteries in the tracking device would last until it arrived in the eastern Mediterranean.

  There were a few other personal emails, but nothing from Willem so presumably that meant the thieves hadn’t stolen any more motor yach
ts.

  I went back to the bar to join the Inspector, picking up two cold beers on the way.

  'Have you any news for me Vince?'

  'Yes I have an update on Whispering Legend. It is now back in the water and has been renamed Golden Spirit, but the name on the boat is in Arabic so we can't read the name.'

  'Have you told your friend Willem in Holland that it has been re-launched?'

  'Not yet; I will phone him later.'

  At around 7.30pm, just when we were thinking of having something to eat, we saw one of the crew manoeuvre the rubber inflatable alongside. The two other crew members joined him on the stern platform. They then all climbed aboard and set off for the landing stage at the other side of the bay. Their decision to go ashore for a meal was the opportunity I had been waiting for as they were obviously going ashore for a few hours. I now had at least a two-hour window during which I could place the device on the yacht.

  I debated whether it would be best to take a dinghy over to the boat or to swim. I decided the safer option was to swim.

  The hotel had wet suits and flippers for hire, so they supplied me with all that I needed for the swim. The boat was only about two hundred meters from the beach so, even though I wasn't a particularly strong swimmer I should be OK. If I got into trouble, the Inspector could always come out and rescue me!

  I wrapped up the tracking device in a plastic bag, sealing it with tape that the hotel had available. It wasn't heavy, so I was able to carry it while I swam without sinking to the bottom of the bay.

  I had one last look to make sure that none of them had returned before I set off on my mission.

  There was a ladder hanging over the back of the boat, so it was a simple job to climb on board. There was an unlocked small external door to the right of the stern deck. I opened the door and found a cavernous locker stuffed with fenders and ropes. I pulled most of the stuff out and then switched on the tracking device. I pushed it in as far as I could reach and concealed it under a canvas tarpaulin which looked as if it had been there for years. I repacked the locker so as it looked just as I had found it, and headed back to the shore.