A Normal November: The Freeman Files Series: Book 15

by Ted Tayler

  “Someone shot Grant as he sat outside the warehouse unit,” said Gus. “Whoever it was had been on the roof watching proceedings. My team reviewed the original investigation but could not name the sniper. What we discovered was that people spotted a red-haired man working in adjoining warehouse units.”

  “Then, on the twelfth of July, we went for a drive in the countryside with Neil and Luke,” said Rick. “We both know how that ended.”

  “How does this relate to the undercover work you’ve just completed?” asked Gus. “A man like Grant Burnside attracted attention in the media. Theo Hickerton, who ran the original investigation at Gablecross, reckoned Grant Burnside believed he was invincible. He intimidated potential witnesses, threatened their families, and punished anyone who crossed him. He thought Grant made too many enemies, and it was only a matter of time before someone killed him.”

  “I think when you spoke with that guy Curran from the National Crime Agency, it became apparent someone other than the authorities was keeping tabs on Burnside and others.”

  “That was a meeting I’ll never forget,” said Gus. “Where does Curran fit into this? He warned me off investigating the matter further.”

  The waitress arrived with a large plate of fried food, and Rick licked his lips.

  “Can I have another cup of coffee, please?” he asked her. He looked at Gus, who shook his head.

  “As you pointed out, guv,” said Rick, grabbing a large bottle of tomato ketchup, “if someone had their eye on Burnside, he didn’t make it difficult to work out he was a career criminal who never paid for his crimes. In 2010, a jury cleared him of the murder of Spencer Curtis, a forty-four-year-old gang member stabbed to death near Wroughton. In 2013, a shooting happened in front of at least four people at a snooker club in Swindon. Theo Hickerton couldn’t find anyone to say what they witnessed. They charged Grant Burnside with having blasted Blake Dixon in the chest at point-blank range with a sawn-off shotgun. Dixon was a thirty-seven-year-old drug dealer on the nightclub circuit. Yet again, Burnside walked from court a free man.”

  “Oh, he was guilty on each occasion,” said Gus. “The problem Gablecross faced was finding someone to speak out against the Burnsides or stay alive long enough to reach court if they did.”

  “The surveillance team I got seconded to were sitting on that manor house, or whatever it was, deep in the countryside,” said Rick.

  “Larcombe Manor,” said Gus. “I remember it well. So how did Avon & Somerset get clearance?”

  “Who says they asked?” said Rick. “The guys I worked with told me it was personal. Two of their senior officers defected to the charity several years ago, and then Callum Wood joined the exodus.”

  “That was the man who met us in the driveway,” said Gus. “then suggested we turn around and disappear.”

  “We set up our observation posts in a wooded area, south of the main buildings. As you know, the road we arrived on allowed us to see the upper floors of the manor house from the entrance, but the land falls away into the valley. We had a better view of what was happening in the other buildings from our hide.”

  “Were you disguised as birdwatchers?” asked Gus.

  “Not quite,” said Rick. “We used the most sophisticated kit available to a county force, and apart from satellite images, we couldn’t have got much better.”

  “Who were you watching, and why?”

  “David Scott, ex-SAS sergeant,” said Rick. “A red-haired man of fifty. Scott was a fiery beggar in his youth. A difference of opinion with a senior officer led to the SAS and Scott parting company. He had his arguments with plenty of others over the years. His friends said it was because he didn’t suffer fools gladly.”

  “That’s the who, now the why,” said Gus.

  “A bit of background first. We heard from colleagues in Somerset that a body turned up buried in a field scheduled for a solar farm. It was another SAS sergeant by the name of Dickerson. The body had been in the ground for three to four years. The last time anyone saw Dickerson alive was in September 2014 in Rotherham. Scott and Dickerson served in Iraq together a decade earlier with Task Force Black. They were with D Section of the SAS and worked with the American Delta Force in covert operations against Al Qaeda and other insurgents. They had a three-word motto–find, fix, finish.”

  “Find an insurgent, fix a time and place, and finish with a raid to take the suspect out.”

  “Got it in one,” said Rick. “If only we could do it that way.”

  “Dangerous work in treacherous conditions,” said Gus.

  “Booby-trapped buildings and vehicles,” said Rick, “plus grenades wired to doors and windows. Dickerson was supposed to clear the way for another team to move through. Instead, he signalled everything was okay, and two men died when an IED exploded. Scott blamed Dickerson.”

  “The Iraq War was a decade ago,” said Gus. “What happened in 2014?”

  “We believe Scott and others linked to the manor house carried out an operation in Yorkshire. The three little words we were discussing would sum it up. The targets weren’t insurgents but men guilty of grooming young girls and sexually exploiting them. They also trafficked underage girls to several major cities across the country. Several of these men disappeared. The person who planned and helped execute their disappearance is dead. Avon & Somerset believe they have enough evidence to charge Scott. What that charge should be is up to the Crown Prosecution Service.”

  “How does that impact on the Grant Burnside business?” asked Gus.

  “You found evidence of a sniper on the roof of the building, opposite the spot where Burnside died. A witness saw a red-haired man in the vicinity of the ladder at the side of that building. The sniper crossed rough ground near a lake to reach the industrial estate. We have obtained images of Scott in Rotherham in September 2014, which Avon & Somerset believe are of the same man. The clincher came from what happened in early June 2014. Larcombe Manor has a hospital on-site, heaven knows why, but Scott went to the Royal United in Bath because of a lung infection. The doctor diagnosed Legionnaire’s disease. They thought Scott must have ingested droplets of water carrying the bacteria when he spent time near stagnant water. That puts him squarely in the Cheney Manor area at the end of May. Scott was the man who killed Grant Burnside. As for Dickerson, if he met Scott in Yorkshire and knowing their history, Avon & Somerset believe Scott and others brought Dickerson to Larcombe Manor and killed him or ferried him south to dispose of the body.”

  “How did Dickerson die?” asked Gus.

  “Blunt force trauma to the side of the head. The pathologist thought it resembled a wound caused by a rifle butt.”

  “Your undercover work might have allowed us to put a tick against the only case we weren’t able to solve,” said Gus. “Thanks, Rick. I look forward to hearing officially from Geoff Mercer. I presume he’s not sitting on your report until the dust settles so he can bury it?”

  “The boys at Portishead have a way to go before getting Scott to court,” said Rick, using his last piece of bread to wipe the plate clean. “They have a retired High Court judge on the payroll at the Manor.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out for an update on the David Scott case,” said Gus.

  “Rusty,” said Rick. “He answers to Rusty.”

  EPILOGUE

  Gus drove Rick back to his flat and dropped him at the door.

  “Take a sweater with you when you go to the seaside chasing those illegal immigrants, Rick,” he said. “The evenings are getting chilly. I’ll keep in touch.”

  Only a matter of minutes later, Gus turned into the London Road car park. He skipped up the steps to the front door and made his way to Reception. When he reached the mezzanine, Vera Butler nodded towards the folders on her desk.

  “Alex Hardy dropped these in ten minutes ago, Gus. Geoff is free if you want to pop in. Kenneth is with the PCC and won’t be available until after lunch.”

  “Many thanks, Vera,” said Gus, gathering the files
without stopping for a chat. He tapped on Geoff Mercer’s door.

  “Come in,” said Geoff. “Gus, it’s usually good to see you, but Vera suggested I looked at these files before you got here.”

  Geoff handed Gus a sheet of file with two sheets of paper inside.

  On November the ninth, 2010, a woman's body was found in a storage cupboard on an abandoned industrial site near Smethwick. She had been suffocated. Molly Phelps, twenty-two years old, had been dead for several days. Originally from Paisley in Scotland, Molly’s parents said their daughter was trying to get a lift home for the weekend and never arrived. The photograph they gave the police showed Molly wearing a gold choker chain with a cross. Police found no jewellery with the body.

  Gus stared at the photo of the young girl. There was no mistake. The hair colouring was different, but Stan Jones would have been reminded of Tara Laing the second he set eyes on the poor girl. Gus turned over the sheet.

  On November twentieth, 2013, a dog walker found Sammy Yendall, twenty-two, near Wentwood Forest in Monmouthshire. The similarities were there again. Gus sighed. What did he take as a trophy this time? The cause of death differed from the others, and the violence was more significant. Sammy had been struck several times with a hammer or similar object on the skull and about her face. The killer wanted to obliterate her facial features. Her family, from Newport, said she always wore a charm bracelet by Pandora that at last count had eleven charms.

  “Alex received more information after you left the office, Gus,” said Geoff. “There‘s another sheet here he left with Vera.”

  Luke and Neil had visited young Stan’s bedroom in Ponting Street. The camera itself had gone, but the window sill held evidence someone had fixed something there for a lengthy period. Stan’s father hadn’t been inside his son’s room since he was thirteen.

  Luke checked the bedside table drawer, under the bed, and both inside and on top of the wardrobe. He found no sign of any trophies. Neil had taken Stan Jones downstairs to look at the mail awaiting his son’s return. His subscription for the Swindon Advertiser be due for renewal in mid-November.

  “Grim reading, Gus,” said Geoff.

  “We need to find Jones before he strikes again,” said Gus.

  “We owe it to any girl out there who reminds him of Tara Laing. They deserve to be allowed to look forward to a normal November.”

  You have just finished reading ‘A Normal November,’

  the fifteenth book in the series featuring ‘The Freeman Files’.

  The sixteenth book in the series ‘Into The Sunlight’ will follow.

  Feel free to Tweet about any of my books, and please tell your friends about them. Every writer likes to receive a review; it’s our lifeblood. If you can, then please do.

  About The Author

  Ted Tayler is the international best-selling author of the Freeman Files and Phoenix series:

  “Gus Freeman’s cold case investigations are carried out with reasoned deduction rather than bursts of frantic action. His intuitive detection skills and the strong Crime Review Team he nurtures soon become an irresistible force. In each book, romance, humour, and country life intersperse with an unsolved murder.”

  “The core message in my Phoenix novels is that justice is failing today. The Phoenix believes criminals should pay for their crimes; the current system fails to deliver the correct punishment. His fellow Olympus agents help redress the balance.”

  “Life is all about balance. Good and evil, love and loss, laughter, and tears. I think of myself as a storyteller, and with each successive book, I hope I get better at it. Readers tell me it feels like we’re across the table from one another, and I’m chatting with them. There are more stories left to tell.”

  Ted Tayler lives in West Wiltshire, England, where many of his stories are based. Born in 1945, Ted’s been married to Lynne since 1971. They have three children and four grandchildren.

  Acknowledgements

  The love and support of my family; without them, this would have been impossible.

  The Phoenix Club

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  Thanks again for reading. Until the next time.

  The Final Straw

  An only child, unloved and unwanted by his parents, Colin Bailey, is a bitter, emotionally damaged young man. He’s hell-bent on exacting revenge on anyone who has stopped him becoming the person he believes was his destiny. What sets Colin apart is his intellect and meticulous planning. Detective Phil Hounsell pursues his man relentlessly while trying to avoid the small town in which he works sliding further and further into the grip of two rival gangs.

  A devastating event in Colin’s life provides the final straw that herald’s a bloodbath. Can Phil prevent it from happening, or will he, too, be a victim? This tale of revenge spans two decades, yet the police are chasing shadows; it builds in pace and tension to a thrilling climax against the backdrop of a quiet West Country town.

  Unfinished Business

  The sequel to the award-winning ‘The Final Straw’ sees Colin Bailey return to the UK after a decade abroad. With a new name and a new face, he still has scores to settle. His meticulous planning takes him ingeniously across Scotland and the North of England, ticking names off his list with the police completely baffled.

  DCI Phil Hounsell pitted his wits against Colin before, so he is sent to Durham, where he teams up with super intelligent young DS Zara Wheeler; together, they track their man to Manchester and then eventually south to Bath. The final scenes take place on the Roman city streets; Phil Hounsell’s family is threatened. In a dramatic conclusion reminiscent of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, the two men struggle above the historic Pulteney Weir's foaming waters.

  A Sting In The Tale

  A collection of twelve short stories, each with an unexpected twist at the end. Love stories, ghost stories, and tales of revenge sprinkled with a touch of humour.

  For young or old, there is something for everyone from the elderly bookshop owner with an unusual talent and his summer of love with a young schoolteacher. To the haunting account of the journey on the last bus back to town from the heart of the countryside. Each story has characters and situations you will recognise. But will you identify the 'sting in the tale' before you turn that final page?

  The Phoenix Series

  The Olympus Project

  Rescued by strangers from a watery grave and given a new identity.

  The Phoenix is a stone-cold killer.

  An ideal fit for the Olympus Project, a secret organisation fighting injustice.

  With hard, fast action and a cast of characters you can reach out and touch, this is the thriller series for which you’ve been searching.

  Gold, Silver, and Bombs

  The eyes of the world are on London 2012.

  British security services anticipate an organised terror attack.

  Safety is paramount. What if the real danger comes from a lone wolf?

  Don’t miss the page-turning intensity of the second story in this gripping series.

  Nothing Is Ever Forever

  The action never slows. The tension never slackens.

  The Phoenix stares death in the face once more.

  Detectives Hounsell and Wheeler return.

  The past threatens to catch up with Phoenix.

  What will the future hold for the Project? What dramas lie ahead? After all, nothing is ever forever.

  In The Lap Of The Gods

  Olympus battle vicious gangsters on home soil. The body count rises.

  Dimitar Marinov cements his reputation as the most brutal criminal to have set foot on UK soil.

  Phoenix and Athena attend their first meeting with Zeus and the other Gods.

  If you’re a fan of savage, underworld criminals, fas
t-paced action and intense characters, then you’ll enjoy following the Olympus Project and its fight against evil. Take a deep breath; once you start, you’ll want to keep turning pages until the end.

  The Price Of Treachery

  The Olympians and the Titans are in a power struggle.

  A traitor inside Larcombe Manor must be uncovered.

  There’s a new life to protect as Athena prepares to become a mother.

  These story threads in book five are woven together to produce a rich tapestry of good and evil.

  Life’s all about balance. So who will win the day to face ‘A New Dawn’ that awaits?

  A New Dawn

  A rogue cosmetic surgeon causes the deaths of several patients.

  Drug dealers target young children. The school gates are the latest point-of-sale.

  The Project’s leaders need to strengthen the organisation after the recent attempted coup.

  The Titans may have been defeated, but a new era dawns. But, unfortunately, the nightmares are far from over.

  Who is the mastermind behind this network? Can Olympus prevent it from gaining a stranglehold? Time will tell.

  Something Wicked Draws Near

  Newly-weds Phoenix and Athena battle The Grid and its leader Hugo Hanigan.

  Olympus seeks fresh faces to join the Gods and provide finance for its missions.