A Real Job

by David Lowe

  David kept mulling over in his mind the best approach on how to get things into motion. Who should he pass his thoughts onto? Should it be George or Jenny Richmond? He knew if he contacted George, he was keeping it in-house, but George had a previous good working relationship with Alec Harvey and that could compromise the investigation into finding the mole. He knew George would contact Alec Harvey, who would have his own ideas that could influence George. If he told Jenny, George would be bound to follow her orders, but it might put a strain on his relationship with his DI who may be offended David did not trust him by approaching him first. It was a dilemma. This was about doing the right thing, as well as taking the right approach with two senior officers that respected him. The issue was too important. Lives had already been lost. He could not discuss with George what had happened that morning in Ireland. As they left the M6 motorway, David instructed Tony to pull up. He decided it was best to call Jenny Richmond outside the car, out of earshot of Tony.

  * * *

  As night fell the heat of the summer’s day began to recede as did David’s temper. The chat with Jenny on the way back to Chester helped. He learnt why only MI5 officers had to stay with Sayfel and not him or anyone else from the ISB. On top of that, Jenny agreed with him as to who could be passing information onto the Real IRA. She told him she would instruct George on the best approach to take in the investigation into the mole. There was another good reason to look forward to getting back to the Special Branch office in Chester, Jenny told him Debbie was there. Once Jenny knew Sayfel was working in collusion with the Real IRA, she sent Debbie over from Manchester straight away to work with David to prepare the path for George’s investigations.

  As well as the stresses of the day, tiredness was beginning to tell on him. Walking into Cheshire’s main ISB office where the DC’s and DS’s worked, he was unable to stop yawning. ‘Are we keeping you up?’ Gary Baker asked, sat with his feet up on his desk drinking a mug of herbal tea.

  ‘I’m sorry, I’m knackered, it’s been a long day,’ David said looking for a vacant seat next to Gary.

  ‘There’s a seat here,’ Gary said taking his feet off his desk and reaching over to a chair. ‘Dominic’s put the kettle on so we can have a brew while we debrief what happened tonight.’ He looked over to the officer and in a loud voice said, ‘Dom, get the sarge a drink. He feels too tired to do it himself.’

  ‘It’s alright, I’ll make it,’ David said getting out of his seat thinking to himself, ‘Cheeky fucker, if only he knew.’

  ‘It’s alright sarge,’ Dominic said, ‘I’ll show you proper Cheshire hospitality. What do you want? We’ve got a range of herbal teas . . .’

  ‘A nice strong coffee for me please,’ David said interrupting the officer who had walked over to the table and was switching the kettle on to bring it back to the boil.

  ‘We’ve only got decaff, is that OK?’

  ‘Only if you can put three heaped spoons of sugar in it,’ David said. Thinking there had to be a limit to Gary Baker’s team’s attitude to a healthy lifestyle, he was finding it hard to believe that a CID office had no proper coffee.

  ‘We’ve got sweetener. Is that alright for you?’

  ‘Leave it mate, I’ll get a proper coffee when I get to my hotel, wherever that is!’ David said shaking his head.

  Gary turned to David and said, ‘Oh I forgot to tell you, there’s an MI5 officer here to see you. She’s in with Alec at the moment updating him on our job and she wants a word with you. It’s most probably to give you a bollocking for telling MI5 where they could stick their suggestion that you pull off that Sayfel character. I wouldn’t mind a bollocking off her. A nice bit of skirt she is too.’ Picking up the message left on his desk, Gary handed it over to David saying, ‘You never know you could be in there.’

  Not being in the mood for banter and offended by the sexist overtones of Gary’s comments, David snatched it out of his hand. Looking at the message, he immediately recognised the handwriting and said, ‘For your information, as you put it, I am in there. The skirt, as you call her, is Debbie Heron and she’s my girlfriend. While you and your team might be on a health kick purging your bodies of impurities, you should also clean out the impurities in your mind, I don’t appreciate your sexist attitude.’

  ‘Sorry Davey. No offence was meant. I didn’t know,’ Gary said flinching away from the officer while holding his hands up apologetically.

  ‘And don’t fucking call me Davey, it’s David to you,’ David said as his weariness lowered his tolerance threshold.

  ‘I’m sorry, I really am.’

  ‘Apologies accepted,’ David snapped back at Gary, ‘I’ll go and join them. Are you coming Gazza?’

  ‘Do you think I should?’ Gary said realising this was not the time to bite at David’s attempt at sarcasm.

  ‘Well I wouldn’t ask you otherwise would I?’ David said in a curt manner.

  The two walked to Alec’s office where Gary tentatively knocked on the door. Shaking his head at Gary’s timidity, David gave three loud raps on the door. Before he received a reply, he walked into the office where he saw Alec sitting behind his desk with Debbie sat in one of the seats in front of the desk.

  Alec smiled at David’s brusque manner as he entered and said, ‘And a good evening to you too. Come in, make yourselves comfortable and tell me all that happened this evening.’

  ‘I’m sure Debbie’s filled you in on what Murphy got up to and the significance of who he met up with?’ David said.

  ‘Yes she has,’ Alec said, ‘I just wanted to know if you had another slant on what happened tonight?’

  ‘As I’ve already briefed MI5, Debbie will have given you the full SP,’ David said.

  ‘Not quite all,’ Alec replied, ‘What happened to Sayfel when he left the pub?’

  ‘Sayfel was followed by MI5 and traced to a flat in the New Cross area of Birmingham,’ Debbie said to the three officers, ‘He’s a target in a dedicated MI5 operation. At this stage, there’s no requirement for the Branch to be involved. Jenny Richmond emphasised that there is still a need for him to be left loose to give us the opportunity to see if we can tie him into any other Al Qaeda operations and operatives. That’s why you were told to break off your pursuit this evening.

  ‘Murphy left the pub five minutes after Sayfel and his two associates carrying an attaché case. As you know Gary, he returned to his home address after the meeting. Members of Gary’s team are still keeping him under surveillance, but as he sent his wife out as a decoy, we’ve got to assume he may have found out we’re onto him or it could be that he’s extremely surveillance conscious. That doesn’t stop us from monitoring his movements. It’s just means we have to be very careful. This may prohibit us from burgling and bugging his home and possibly his business premises. This weekend, MI5 are bringing up some equipment that may help us listen in to what’s being said without having to enter any premises. I can’t promise when that’ll be.

  ‘Going by what you saw in the pub in Yoxall, we believe that Sayfel handed over money to Murphy. That means Al Qaeda’s bankrolling the Real IRA. I know they’re the most unlikely of bed follows, but I can see Sayfel’s logic. By financing the Real IRA all he has to do is liaise with Murphy while focusing on Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups preparations. In other words, through Sayfel, Al Qaeda are starting a terror war in Britain on two fronts. Our other intelligence reports suggest the Real IRA is planning a two-pronged attack. One possible and highly likely target is the evening function at the Grosvenor Hotel in Chester that Prince William’s attending and the second prong of their attack could be an attempt on Alan Trevelyan’s life. He was the Court of Appeal judge who turned down McCrossan and O’Byrne’s appeal against conviction in nineteen ninety-seven. It’s important we stop them so they can’t show how close they can get to the powerful on the British mainland.’

 
‘Thanks Debbie. You’re right, we’ve got to stop them from getting anywhere near that function by getting as much evidence as we can and fast. We need enough to arrest at the very least, so we can hold them for at least seven days,’ Alec said. Seeing David give another long yawn, he added, ‘I can see you’re tired David. That’s understandable seeing how you were in Ireland this morning and then come over here. I suggest we call it a day and David and Gary can join the surveillance operation in the morning,’ Alec said.

  As Alec spoke David and Debbie looked at each other. ‘How did you know I was in Ireland this morning?’ David asked, ‘I never told you that.’

  ‘And neither did I,’ Debbie said.

  ‘Do you think we’re all in the dark here in the sticks? We have our sources too,’ Alec said laughing. ‘Come on, it’s been a long day. Gary, get your team to start watching Murphy’s business premises early in the morning. I’ll come in tomorrow and after I’ve finished with the meetings arranged for the morning, we can go through any developments and start our plan of attack on how to sort these Irish buggers out. I have to meet the Chief at ten tomorrow morning, so I don’t know how long that will take, but once it’s finished I’ll come out to see how you’re getting on.’

  Debbie and David said their goodbyes to Alec and Gary and walked out of the building. ‘My car’s parked just over here,’ Debbie said to David as she linked her arm into his. ‘There’s something about Alec I can’t put my finger on. He seems OK and I know George likes him, but it’s been a few years since they’ve worked together. I’d love to know how he knew you were in Ireland this morning?’

  ‘George must have told him,’ David said taking a cigarette out of his pocket.

  ‘George is under strict orders from Jenny not to tell anyone,’ she said letting go of David’s arm as he put his lighter to his mouth to light his cigarette. ‘You know George better than me, but I don’t think he would mention anything to Alec if he’s been ordered not to.’

  David put his lighter back into his pocket and took a drag of his cigarette. Exhaling the spent smoke he said, ‘I agree, it wouldn’t be like George to pass on information when ordered not to. Not even an old boys’ network can break his silence. I get the feeling you don’t trust Alec?’

  ‘I can’t say for sure at the moment, but there’s something about him I can’t put my finger on. I get the feeling he’s hiding something and I definitely get the feeling he’s not happy to have a couple of outsiders working in his Special Branch office.’

  ‘I think he’s the mole. I was thinking about it on the drive back from Yoxall and I rang Jenny earlier to tell her.’

  Debbie gave a wry smile and said, ‘Jenny’s crafty. She told me about the meet between Murphy and Sayfel and told me to get over to Chester straight away and meet you. She never told me you thought Alec was the mole. She obviously wanted to see what my impression of him was before she told me.’

  As they approached Debbie’s black convertible Saab, David said, ‘I think we should ring George and check out if he told Alec.’

  ‘Let’s go to the hotel and worry about that tomorrow,’ Debbie said putting her arms around David.

  ‘We’ll have to find somewhere first and book in for the night.’

  ‘Courtesy of Jenny, it’s all sorted,’ Debbie said, ‘She’s booked us a suite at the Grosvenor for a few nights. The bill’s on her, or I should say it’s on her team’s account. She got it on the back of the Royal visit, saying that we need to be close for checking security details. Now come here.’ Debbie kissed David passionately and said, ‘That’s just for starters, you’ve got to see what I’ve got for you tonight.’

  * * *

  ‘This is the life. Contacting room service and getting a full English breakfast while wearing these plush bath robes,’ Debbie said biting on a piece of toast ladled with marmalade, ‘I love the selection of toiletries in the bathroom, and that shower. It was like being under a waterfall. While I was in the shower, I was thinking about Alec. He claims to have an appointment with his chief constable at ten this morning over the security arrangements for the Royal visit, but I thought DI McCullagh was making all of the arrangements?’.

  ‘He is, but I suppose it’s like my office. You know there’s times we have to include Edge in proceedings he’s not directly involved in. After all, Harvey’s the head of the Cheshire’s ISB and will need to know what’s going on.’

  ‘I just think it’s strange we’re in the middle of major developments on this investigation where a major Real IRA suspect is running around his force area making who knows what arrangements, especially after Murphy met one of the country’s most wanted terrorists yet Alec feels like he has to tell his Chief Constable in person the latest round of security developments for next week’s Royal visit. I’d have thought Murphy was his priority and left briefing the chief on the latest preparations for the visit to McCullagh. While you’re out watching Murphy, I’ll keep an eye on Alec.’

  ‘That’s a good idea, especially if he is the mole’

  ‘Who else could it be? Who else knew of the surveillance authorities?’

  ‘McCullagh. He was with Alec when Gary and I went into Alec’s office with the requests.’

  ‘What’s this McCullagh like?’

  ‘He seems alright. I only had a brief chat with him. He’s been a Branch man for most of his service and he seems really committed to the job.’

  ‘We can’t eliminate him either. It might have been him who tipped off Murphy.’

  ‘If you asked me to put money on who it is, I’d say it was Alec.’

  ‘That’s good enough for me. By the way, I forgot to tell you, I’ve been invited over to Liverpool tonight for Siobhan’s birthday. Apparently it’s a girls’ only night. I’m supposed to have the day off today, but with what happened last night, I’ve a few things to sort out before I go over to Liverpool. Siobhan’s arranged a makeover for us this afternoon, but now I don’t know what time I’ll get there.’

  ‘Just sort out what you have to do this morning and let me babysit whatever it is that you may have to do for the rest of the day. You go over to Liverpool and enjoy yourself. You’ll have a good night. Some of her friends are a good laugh. I reckon you’ll end up at one of those clubs frequented by the footballers and wannabe Wags at the Albert Dock as our Siobhan likes it down there. If you do, make sure you’ve got plenty of money with you.’ David put his breakfast on the bedside table, got off the bed and reached into the side pocket of his jeans that were hanging over one of the chairs in the room. Pulling out his wallet, he took out a bundle of notes and handed Debbie two hundred pounds, saying, ‘Put this towards some drinks. Make sure you’ve got twenty pounds for the taxi home tonight.’

  ‘Put your money away,’ Debbie said, affronted at what she saw as a display of old fashioned machismo, ‘I’m an independent girl with my own means.’

  ‘I don’t care. Where I come from, we look after our women. I wouldn’t give a shit if you were a millionaire, I’d still make sure you’re looked after. Now take it, as some of this is to get our Siobhan a drink.’

  Grabbing the money out of his hand Debbie said, ‘I’m not going to argue with you. I wouldn’t want to dent that archaic working class pride of yours.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Murphy’s Business Offices, Runcorn,

  09.40 hours, Saturday, 7th July

  ‘Murphy’s in the office. He arrived about eight forty this morning,’ Tony said, briefing both Gary and David as they arrived at the static surveillance point, an empty office block opposite Murphy’s business premises. ‘This is the best obs spot we could get at such short notice. We couldn’t get any techies in last night to burgle and bug the place. The security’s too tight and he’s had security guards on masse looking after the place. It’s been a similar pattern at his other warehouses in the county. As we think this is
the nerve centre of his construction business, we’ve concentrated our attention here. It’s been busy since early morning with a number of lorries coming and going, but he’s not been seen coming out yet,’

  ‘Thanks Tony,’ David said looking at the yard area, ‘It is busy for a Saturday morning. Is this the usual volume of traffic for a Saturday morning?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Tony said, ‘we only got the authorities yesterday evening to keep obs on him. So we haven’t been watching this place until this morning.’

  ‘That’s true,’ David said, taking hold of the high-density binoculars with specially coated lenses to prevent reflecting any glare. ‘The sun’s strong today. Where about are his offices?

  ‘Just over there to the left of where you’re looking now,’ Tony said pointing to the office block in the haulage yard.

  ‘I’ve got them. Where the fuck is he? Come on Declan show your ugly face,’ David said passing the binoculars to Gary, ‘If only we could get a little closer to those offices that would be a start.’ Silent, he thought for a moment then excitedly said, ‘I’ve got it! Gary what access does your team have to specialist vehicles?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You know, do you have access to the likes of taxis or marked up delivery vans?’

  ‘Only very limited access I’m afraid. As our Chief’s slashed the Special Branch budget, we have to rely on the budget we get directly from the Home Office. Even then, it doesn’t stretch to us having luxuries like decoy vehicles. I know, because Alec moans about it all the time.’

  ‘Leave it to me,’ David said as he got out his mobile phone from his jacket pocket and began scrolling down to Steve Adams’ number. Pressing the call button, once he received a reply he said, ‘Stevey, how’s it going?’

  ‘Apart from having to work with hundreds like you, I can’t grumble. I get the feeling this isn’t a personal call, you obviously want a favour.’