The Olympus Project

by Ted Tayler

  About three minutes after a couple of boys had set off again towards the Visitor Centre, warmed with a cup of coffee or tea; across the bleak stretch of moorland a single red anorak appeared. Colin saw it was a girl of about fifteen, blonde hair plastered to her head with the rain. She was limping.

  Sir Godfrey walked quickly towards her and with one arm around her shoulders and the other under her legs he swept her off her feet and hurried back to the Range Rover. Colin watched as the girl almost collapsed onto the blanket; she was too tired to be aware of any danger. Initially, Colin thought Sir Godfrey was going to drive off immediately, but he leaned into the back and started to touch the young girl.

  Colin looked in both directions; there were no anoraks in sight. It was now or never! He was up and running, his field glasses bouncing on his chest and the rucksack hitting his back with every step. He covered the distance between his hiding place and the Range Rover quicker than he could have imagined. The girl was lying on her back; her anorak was off and Sir Godfrey was talking to her softly:-

  “Jessica” he said “I’m just going to loosen your clothing. I’m worried about your core body temperature; you might be suffering from exposure. I recommend we get you warmed up with a brisk massage.”

  Sir Godfrey was startled when he heard Colin scrambling on the wet grass and loose stones; it was difficult for him to stop once he reached the vehicle.

  “What the hell!” he began, but Colin had hold of him by the front of his coat. It was no contest. The younger man overpowered him in seconds. Colin was tempted to brain him there and then; there were enough small rocks at hand to do the job. The red face of the man beneath him and the heavy breathing he had heard when he was leaning over the defenceless girl was evidence enough for Colin; there was no first aid coming her way. Sir Godfrey was aroused and planning to rape her.

  Colin bundled Penrose into the passenger seat of the Range Rover and twisting his arms back over his head he handcuffed him to the headrest; he wasn’t going anywhere. Sir Godfrey was cursing and swearing; telling Colin what would happen to him when his friend the Lord Lieutenant heard about this outrage. Colin had heard enough; he grabbed a roll of duct tape from the rucksack and once he had torn off a strip and roughly wrapped it over the old man’s mouth, silence reigned.

  In the back of the vehicle Jessica was still confused and barely conscious; Colin realised that she didn’t have a clue what was going on. He found one of the flasks in the hamper had plenty of tea to spare; he poured her a cup and added a couple of lumps of sugar. Penrose had come well prepared! Colin eased Jessica out of the Range Rover and gathered up the blanket. He wrapped it around her shoulders and encouraged her to finish up the warm drink.

  Colin looked out across the moorland behind the vehicle and spotted some more dots of colour perhaps two hundred yards away. He left Jessica the flask and some food. He pointed off in the direction of the approaching youngster and said her mates would be along in a minute; they would help her get back safely to the Visitor Centre.

  “Where are you going?” she asked “what happened to the other man?”

  “He had a bit of a nasty turn I’m afraid” said Colin “I’m going to have to rush him off to get him seen to.”

  “Okay” the young girl said “I hope he’s alright; he was so keen to help. I was feeling faint and so cold. I must have gone for a minute or two” then nodding at the cup she was cradling in both hands she smiled up at him “thanks for this.”

  Colin gave her shoulder a squeeze; he didn’t tell her what a lucky escape she’d had. He fished a pair of gloves out of his pocket and put them on. He closed the rear door and climbed into the driver’s seat of the Range Rover; he found the keys in Sir Godfrey’s jacket. The old man started to writhe around trying to get free; Colin thumped him hard in the stomach and told him to stop wasting his time.

  Once they were under way he started to re-evaluate his plans. He was doing things off the cuff today and that wasn’t the norm. The map had shown the disused tin mine was on the route that the walkers could be taking so hiding up there for a while was out of the question. Colin drove back towards the top of Tor Royal Lane. There were about two hour’s daylight left. Sir Godfrey was a frequent visitor to Princeton and the Range Rover wouldn’t attract much attention parked outside his own house, but it was too risky to take him back there just yet.

  The surveillance team hadn’t found much evidence of Sir Godfrey forming many social contacts in the area; clearly the Lord Lieutenant and possibly a few other notables were acquaintances that a creep like Penrose would butter up to, but Colin doubted if the ordinary man in the street would bat an eyelid if the Range Rover was parked up in the countryside, somewhere off the beaten track. There were a couple of unnamed roads and tracks within a five minute drive towards Two Bridges, so Colin headed off to find a suitable hiding place until it got dark. It would give him a chance to put the finishing touches to his new plan for Sir Godfrey.

  CHAPTER 17

  The rain was still falling. The dark clouds that heralded the night seemed to almost touch the roof of the farm buildings he could just make out in the distance. Colin sat huddled up in the driver’s seat, while Sir Godfrey Penrose huffed and puffed next to him. It was time to move!

  Colin took the minor road back through the sparsely built up area surrounding Princeton and edged the Range Rover into its parking place outside the cottage. He killed the lights as he approached, in order to keep his arrival a secret from anyone poking a nose through a window in a nearby property just prior to drawing the curtains and battening down the hatches for a long autumn evening.

  He looked at the key ring in the ignition; there were half a dozen other keys on the chain. He was in luck. He got out, flicked through the options, picked one and opened the front door. He quickly went back to the passenger door and stared hard at Sir Godfrey; a pair of beady frightened eyes stared back.

  “We’re going inside now Penrose; don’t cause me any grief.”

  Colin grabbed the holdall from the back of the vehicle and then released the old man from the headrest. He bundled him in through the front door of the cottage. With a quick glance around to check the coast was clear, he closed the door behind them.

  “Right; let’s get you sorted” he said. The old man was in some discomfort due to the length of time and the awkward manner in which he had been handcuffed; some parts were numb; others had the life coming back to them. Some parts need emptying. All in all he wasn’t a happy bunny! Colin wasn’t in the mood to sympathise.

  He dragged the old man upstairs into a bedroom and shoved him onto the bed. The handcuffs were retrieved from his coat pocket and Sir Godfrey found himself firmly secured once more.

  “I’ve got to make this place look as if it’s shut up tight for the night” said Colin “so you’ll have to lie there while I’m working.

  Sir Godfrey mumbled something; but the duct tape made it unintelligible. Colin wasn’t listening anyway, he was drawing curtains, switching on a light or two and wondering what was on the TV. He channel hopped for a couple of minutes but nothing took his fancy; he spotted a CD player and a collection of albums, mostly classical. He found a copy of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ among them and put it on. It wasn’t Iron Maiden or Judas Priest, but it would have to do.

  Colin wandered around the cottage, peering into drawers and cupboards. There was no particular reason for this search; he was just being nosy. He didn’t expect to discover anything to further incriminate Sir Godfrey down here in Devon. The surveillance boys hadn’t found anything on any of his phones or computers to suggest he was into pornography via a digital medium. He was a ‘hands-on’ kind of guy, pure and simple. But not so pure obviously!

  When he was fed up with mooching around the cottage he opened the holdall he had left in the hallway when they had entered the cottage. There was a camera, several lengths of rope, a vial of something or other and a cloth; a packet of condoms and some wet wipes. Colin stopped rummaging
. He had seen enough. Sir Godfrey had been going to take his time with this victim; it was probably chloroform or something similar in the vial that he had planned to knock Jessica out with; long enough to get her to a remote spot and do what he liked with her, and then take pictures of the poor girl too!

  Colin went back to the bedroom and looked in on Sir Godfrey. He had wet himself; Colin shook his head and tutted.

  “Oh dear” he said “I suppose I’d better get on with it. No sense keeping you waiting any longer. You have been abusing young people since your early days in the Territorial Army; fortunately for young Jessica today, I managed to stop you adding another victim to the list. How many others there were between the TA and today, perhaps we’ll never know. You might find it amusing to learn that your secret was uncovered by accident. When you worked with Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans you failed to defend the moral obligation this country owes its service personnel when they finish active duty. Veterans were left to struggle, mentally and financially on your watch, while you were sitting pretty.

  My superiors felt that you needed to be brought to account; in order to have the best evidence available they started digging. As soon as the truth was discovered and statements taken from the men and women you molested, it was agreed that your account could not be settled; it had to be closed.”

  As Colin was speaking, Sir Godfrey’s eyes grew wider and wider as he realised just how much this man knew about him. Who were his superiors? What statements was he on about? Account closed? All these thoughts crowded into his head and as he finally grasped the seriousness of his situation he crawled away from Colin until he was hugging the headboard; trying in vain to get away from the devil that was standing at the foot of his bed.

  “We’re going to take a little trip” said Colin.

  He left Sir Godfrey and went down to the lounge. He emptied his rucksack onto the carpet and started to replace the items one by one; he checked that those things he needed to have quickly to hand were stashed at the top. He resumed his search of the cottage to see if there was anything he could use that could be identified as belonging to Penrose. When the police inevitably found him, the fewer unexplained items the better.

  In the spare bedroom he found what he was looking for. Sir Godfrey didn’t get any overnight guests it would appear; the bed was unmade and piled up with clutter. The floor space was littered with unopened cardboard boxes that looked like they hadn’t been touched since the old man had moved in. Colin collected a tent, a groundsheet, a lamp, propane cooking stove, matches, paper plates and plastic cutlery. Returning downstairs to the kitchen he found some cans, a tin opener, and a mug. He put some coffee granules into a ziplock bag and ripped a trash bag off a roll he found in a cupboard.

  Colin reviewed what he had gathered and thought it was enough to convince people that Sir Godfrey had only intended to be spending one night in the great outdoors and was expecting to be home by the following evening. It all fitted with his usual itinerary that saw him scuttling back to London on the train on Monday in time for his first board meeting on Tuesday.

  As he passed the bathroom on his way to add his haul to the contents of his rucksack he put his head around the door; perfect, Penrose had brought a wash bag down from London for his face flannel, soap, tooth brush, tooth paste, razor and shaving gel. Just a couple more things to find and everything was set!

  Colin located the drinks cabinet and selected a bottle of ten year old malt. The fridge had a two litre container of milk that was virtually empty; so he emptied the last few dregs and washed it out. He filled it with cold water from the tap. All he had to do now was load everything into the Range Rover and they could get going.

  He turned off all the downstairs lights. His first job was to transfer the rucksack, the equipment and the holdall into the Range Rover. The holdall now held additional odds and ends like the bottled water, the whisky and the wash bag to reduce the amount he needed to carry. There was no sign of any activity anywhere within a few hundred yards either side of the cottage. The coast was clear!

  Colin went upstairs and released Sir Godfrey and led him downstairs. With a quick check before he stepped out of the doorway, he pushed the old man into the cold night air. Once he was tethered to the headrest again Colin returned indoors. He tidied the bedclothes upstairs, switched off all the lights, and turned off the CD player after returning the CD to its case and replacing it on the pile where he had found it.

  He shut the door behind him; neither man was going to be back this way so he double checked it was securely locked out of habit. In darkness, Colin drove away from the cottage. When he was well clear he switched on his headlights and made towards Tor Royal Lane. He turned off the lane onto one of the many unnamed roads on the moors and after about fifteen minutes he was alongside Crazy Well Pool. He left Sir Godfrey in the Range Rover and carried all the equipment into the field. It was about a two minute walk.

  Colin got the lamp going and then set about erecting the tent and stacking all the provisions at the rear, covering the lot with the groundsheet. He got the whisky bottle out of the holdall and put it on the ground by the tent flap, placing the trash bag underneath it ready for later. It was time to invite Sir Godfrey to join him!

  The old man stumbled and almost fell several times as he was dragged across the rough ground. He was whimpering; with no idea what was in store for him. Colin thought that this was just what his victims had felt over the years and now it was his turn. Colin shivered; not in reaction to his thoughts but because the temperature was dropping fast.

  Colin removed the handcuffs and put them in his pocket for the time being. He ordered Sir Godfrey to remove his clothing. When the old man shook his head and mumbled something behind the duct tape Colin thumped him hard in his flabby stomach; the old man crumpled and collapsed to his knees, all the wind taken out of him.

  “Do it!” said Colin “you’re going for a swim.”

  He watched the old man closely as he started to undress. In the rucksack Colin had stashed a coiled length of rope and a flashlight at the very top. He removed these two items and when the old man was naked he tied the rope securely around both his wrists. With the flashlight clipped onto his jacket leaving his hands free, Colin led Sir Godfrey across the grass to Crazy Well Pool and pushed him in. Then he walked along the side of the pool dragging the old man through the water. With his arms tied and stretched out in front of him it was virtually impossible for his captive to do anything about his predicament. He was dragged through the freezing cold water for what must have felt like hours, but was only several minutes.

  Colin knew what was happening to Penrose. His physical condition was poor; his skin was blue and puffy before he went into the water. He was currently displaying symptoms of cold shock, breathing rapidly through the nose, inhaling water every time his head went under the surface. His blood pressure was increasing massively and the strain on his heart would finish him off eventually. It was time for the next stage of the plan.

  Colin turned around and started back towards where the tent was pitched. Sir Godfrey floundered in the shallow waters at the edge and struggled to get to his feet. He had to crawl across the grass behind Colin; his legs just wouldn’t work. His body was shutting down. Colin unscrewed the top of the whisky bottle.

  “Fancy a swig?” asked Colin.

  The old man was in a heap about two yards in front of him. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was trembling violently. Colin gathered up the old man’s clothes and stuffed them into the trash bag. He put the bag under the ground sheet with the rest of the things at the back of the tent. He dragged Sir Godfrey into the tent; it was a tight squeeze for a one man tent, but Colin wasn’t planning on staying the night. He went back for the whisky bottle and after ripping the duct tape from his captive’s face he started pouring the contents down his throat, past his chattering teeth. Time and again Sir Godfrey gagged and each time Colin waited patiently until he could continue pouring. When the bottle was empty
he laid it on the ground by Penrose. He removed the rope and leaving the tent flap open to the elements he backed out of the tent and started to gather his things together.

  He looked into the tent. Sir Godfrey was no longer shivering. His core temperature was dropping fast. The shock of the cold water, the alcohol and the prospect of spending a night in the countryside naked was all adding up to one thing; Penelope Penrose was going to have her weekends in Stowmarket all to herself from now on.

  Colin waited until midnight; inside the tent, nothing stirred. He left the lamp on; it might survive until tomorrow, no matter if it didn’t. The Range Rover was parked up by the side of the road and locked up nice and secure. The keys were now in Sir Godfrey’s jacket pocket along with the rest of his clothes in the trash bag. Colin lifted his rucksack onto his back and set off across country towards Shaugh Prior. Eight miles at night, pretty much due south, Colin thought he might get his own tent pitched and his head down for a couple of hours. There was no chance of a lie-in! He had to make that return leg from Shaugh Prior to Plymouth early in the morning. No rest for the wicked!

  It was noon and Colin was travelling back to Bath Spa, looking forward to a hot shower, a decent meal and a few hours ‘catch up’ sleep this afternoon. He skimmed through the newspaper he had bought on the platform while he was waiting for his train. There was a lot of coverage of potential strikes by terrorists on mainland UK; all airports and government buildings were taking extra security precautions. Across the pond Wall Street was about to be occupied by people protesting about the financial crisis. Colin knew there wouldn’t be anything in there yet about Sir Godfrey Penrose. It was far too early.

  Colin had trudged on through the night, eventually finding his way to Shaugh Prior. His timing wasn’t far off; he was settled down for his short kip well before four o’clock. He was awake by seven and packed everything away as quickly as he could. It was cold and his fingers were slower to respond to what he asked of them than normal. He got himself warm soon enough as he walked and jogged his way back towards Plymouth. He got to the station not long after half past ten and fifteen minutes later he was stowing his rucksack and finding a seat on a train that would have him back in the Roman city by two o’clock at the latest.