The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird

by L M Krier

  The Ice Queen’s expression was sceptical but it was Jim who spoke first.

  ‘Because the streets of Stockport are full of ex-special forces with killer dogs, wandering round speaking Serbo-bloody-Croat, or whatever you said you thought it was.’

  ‘It would be cheaper on the budget though, Jim,’ Ted tried to persuade him. ‘With my SFO skills, I could assess the situation quickly and hopefully accurately, without you having to bring anyone else in from outside.’

  ‘The “hopefully” isn’t filling me with confidence, Ted, it has to be said,’ Debra Caldwell told him. ‘Whether or not you’re going to be there in person, how safe is this operation going to be? We’ll need a full, watertight risk assessment not only for our officers, but for the public as well.’

  ‘Whatever you do, if any members of the public watching have got their mobiles out and pointing at the action, don’t let anyone hurt the bloody dog,’ Jim told him. ‘You know what the public are like with animal casualties. We’ll never hear the end of it if there are pictures of it twitching and whimpering all over social media.

  ‘Get the bloke, by any legal means. He’s our main hope of finding the Big Man and the rest of them. But don’t hurt the woofer.’

  Sometimes, no amount of good, solid police work brought the desired results. But then occasionally, though not often enough, a bit of sheer good luck moved a case on fast to its conclusion.

  Or the gods he didn’t believe in were smiling down on Ted.

  Today was one of those days.

  They’d had a few false starts. Jezza was fielding calls of possible sightings, trying to keep her patience when Chinese whispers seemed to be at work with the description.

  ‘No, Maurice, bonny lad. Brown with a short coat. Black and long-haired is a Groenendael. Similar breed, different colour. … I don’t care if the man’s all in black and looks tough, it’s the wrong type of dog.’

  ‘No, sarge, our man is definitely five eight, five nine with black hair. Not older, shorter and with white hair.’

  She was doing a lot of eye-rolling and at one point commented aloud to no one in particular, ‘Is there some kind of Belgian Shepherd convention in Stockport today? I never knew there were so many around.’

  Ted had made the time to write everything up and pass his report to Jezza. She was right. He hadn’t been on top of things so far.

  He was standing next to her desk when the main office phone rang and Mike answered it. Jezza was still on her phone, repeating yet again the description of the right dog.

  ‘Boss, a sighting that sounds hopeful, at last,’ he told Ted, a note of excitement in his voice.

  Ted crossed the office and took the call.

  ‘An area car has spotted a possible for your dog man, Ted,’ Kevin Turner told him. ‘He was walking north on the A6 then turned off to the right. It’s just possible he’s heading for Heaton Norris Park. At least that’s not too populated an area to try to apprehend him. I’ve told my officers to stay close by but to keep a low profile. It’s all the back-up I can spare you for now.’

  ‘It’s a big open space to lose him in, though. Right, we’re on our way. Can you send our Taser officers soon as, please.

  ‘Jo, you go with Virgil. Rob, you drive for me, so I can phone coordinate on the way. Vests on, everyone.’

  ‘Have fun, boys. Don’t get shot or bitten. Think of the paperwork for us poor sods left behind,’ Jezza called after them as they hurried out of the door. There was a wistful note to her voice. She always liked to be in the thick of the action.

  Ted spent the whole of the short drive glued to his phone. He needed everyone to be in the right place at the right time if this was going to go the way he wanted it to. To result in the safe apprehension of a potential witness or suspect, without serious injury to anyone involved.

  He would have liked longer to set things up. To check there was no way the man could leave the park by a different entrance. Above all, to make sure there weren’t too many members of the public around who could be put at risk.

  It was just possible the man was looking for stragglers from the cuckoo gang. Ones Ted and his team didn’t yet know about. Which would mean more than one arrest to be made. He was crossing his fingers that it was just their man on his own, exercising his dog.

  He was relieved to hear one of the Taser officers on their way was PC Susan Heap. He knew she was reliable. Accurate. He thought it was a racing certainty they’d have to stop the man by force, if he was all the things Ted thought he was. But he was equally as anxious to stop the dog. A specialist officer was on his way, with the means to control the brute whether or not they managed to drop it.

  Ted would have loved to have had the resources at his disposal to form a cordon round the park. But he didn’t. All they could do was wait and go over what they planned to do.

  Virgil went for a walk round inside the park, to see what he could see. As usual, he offered himself as the least cop-looking one of them all. Luckily, the way the dog man had gone meant he wouldn’t have a clear view of the road to see any vehicles arriving.

  Susan Heap and the second Taser officer turned up not long after the others, leaving their vehicle a short way back so it was less obvious. The dog van wasn’t long after them and parked behind.

  ‘He’s let the dog off to do its stuff, boss. He’s even picked up after it and put it in the bin, like a good citizen,’ Virgil told him via his mobile. ‘He’s clearly not planning on staying long, though. He’s called it back and put it back on the lead. Now heading back in your direction.’

  ‘Is it the right person? Does he match the description?’ Ted asked him. ‘We don’t want to finish up Tasering some innocent dog walker.’

  Virgil repeated back Ted’s earlier description and added, ‘Let’s just say there’s something about the two of them that makes me want to give them a wide berth. I won’t follow him straight away. I get the feeling he’s observant enough to spot anything like that.’

  Then he laughed loudly, a rich dark chuckle, and said, ‘You too, honey. I’ll be home as soon as I can.’

  He rang off. Ted assumed he’d seen or felt the man’s eyes on him and was trying to make it look innocent enough. A man calling his wife or girlfriend before setting off for home, after pausing for a driving break and a leg-stretch.

  Ted spent a moment talking to Susan Heap and Laurie Bailey, the other Taser officer. Checking Taser range. Making sure his own timing was spot on in manoeuvring the man into exactly the place where he wanted to have a confrontation, if one was coming. Part of him hoping this was just an average dog walker. The other part was praying they’d get their man in the slim hope he might give them more information about the Big Man.

  Then the man came into view, holding the dog on a short lead, walking briskly. Ted stepped forward, holding up his ID as he said, ‘Excuse me, please. Police. I wonder if I could have a quick word with you?’

  The man’s reflexes were as fast as Ted had imagined them to be. His left hand slid down the lead to release the catch, while his right one reached round behind his back.

  Susan and Laurie moved as one, Tasers raised, both shouting a clear warning.

  ‘Taser! Taser! Taser!’

  As the dog bounded forward, bunching its muscles ready to spring at Ted, Laurie’s shot hit it smack in the chest. It half flipped in the air with a terrible yelp, before thumping to the ground, hard, where it lay twitching and trembling.

  Susan’s reactions were as fast and her aim as good. The man’s hand hadn’t had time to reappear before her shot took him down. Before he’d gathered his forces enough to do anything, both she and Laurie were on him, pinning his arms behind him and cuffing them, using a foot to clear the handgun which had clearly been in the rear waistband of his trousers.

  The dog handler let them get clear before rushing over with his catch pole to make sure the dog was under control well before it started to regain its senses.

  ‘Can I have your name, please, sir?’
Ted asked the man, his tone civil.

  All he got was a vitriolic outburst in a language which meant nothing to him. But everything was being recorded on both Susan and Laurie’s bodycams, so with luck they could find a translator to watch the footage and tell them what it meant.

  ‘I have to tell you that you’re being arrested for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life,’ he cautioned him, then went on, ‘You’ll now be taken to the station where you will have the chance to consult with a solicitor. Do you understand what I’ve told you, sir?’

  He didn’t understand a word of what the man spat at him. But he could make an educated guess at its meaning.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Ted insisted on travelling back in the area car with Susan and Laurie. He’d had the man they’d arrested installed in the rear seat, hands cuffed behind him, seatbelt securely on, and Ted sitting next to him. He instructed Jo and Virgil to drive directly in front, Rob to bring up the rear.

  Now that he’d seen the man close to, he was convinced his theory about special forces was right. He knew all too well, from his training with Mr Green, that such a man could kill with his bare hands even when handcuffed from the front. It would be much harder with his hands behind him, but still theoretically possible.

  Ted also knew that the man would be trained to escape at any cost, including his own life, and that would be his primary objective now.

  The weapon they’d recovered at the scene was a Beretta Px4 Storm, now in an evidence bag and firmly locked in the boot of the area car. It was a semi-automatic pistol, in wide use by law enforcement units, the military and special forces.

  Ted tried again to ascertain whether or not the man spoke any English. He didn’t get an answer in any language. He didn’t expect to. If anything, the man looked faintly amused by the whole thing.

  Once they arrived at the station, Ted took the unusual step of having the man locked in a cell immediately, rather than put into an interview room. He also had the handcuffs left on for now.

  He went straight to the Ice Queen’s office. He’d have to square any and all such departure from procedure with her. Luckily, she’d also done a couple of training courses with Mr Green in her own Firearms days, so she was unlikely to go against Ted’s evaluation of the risks surrounding their suspect. She’d want to know his reasoning, clearly, but he was fairly sure she’d trust his judgement.

  ‘He obligingly gave us a reason to have him remanded in custody. But I’d like a Firearms watch on him throughout while he’s our responsibility,’ he told her, after he’d outlined the arrest. ‘Preferably two officers at all times.’

  ‘You really rate him as dangerous as that?’

  ‘I do. We were very lucky with the arrest. He clearly wasn’t expecting us to turn up Taser-ready. If we hadn’t, there would probably have been fatalities on our side. And the reason I want him keeping cuffed, if we can, is that he won’t need a weapon to kill someone. We can’t take that risk.’

  ‘How are you going to proceed if you don’t know if he can understand what’s being said to him? We have to be so careful with this one. To draw the fine line between avoiding risks and not breaching his rights.’

  ‘We’ll try a translation app with him to see if we can at least find what language he does speak, then try to get an interpreter. But I’m serious, Debs. I want an armed presence while he’s interviewed. Can I have one?’

  ‘Leave it with me.’

  He went next to stick his head round Kevin’s door.

  ‘Bloody hell, Ted, that was a close call. What if he’d had time to get his gun out?’ He’d clearly already heard all about it.

  ‘I know. But Susan and Laurie were excellent. I’ve just been to see Her Majesty to get Firearms in while we interview him. Can you please make sure everyone knows that this bloke can kill with his bare hands as easily as with that Beretta. I don’t want anyone forgetting that or underestimating him.

  ‘If we get done at a halfway decent time tonight we’ll probably go for a bevvy to celebrate getting him, if you want to join us. I’d personally like to buy Susan and Laurie one, if they’re free.’

  He was feeling pleased, though aware there was still a long way to go. He took the stairs two at a time to go up to the main office. His team members were visibly buzzing. They were possibly one step closer to tracking down the drugs gang, and the elusive Big Man.

  ‘A swift one, after work, if we get finished in time. My shout,’ he told them. ‘Meanwhile I’m waiting on Firearms before we even attempt to interview our man. He’s to be considered as high risk at all times, even when cuffed.

  ‘The first priority, once the AFOs arrive, is to establish what languages he speaks and find a way to caution him. I’m going to conduct the interviews myself. Steve, I’d like you with me on this one. You’re probably the fastest on your phone looking things up. I’d narrowed down half a dozen languages which sounded about right for what he said to the dog. We also need to factor in Albanian, from what Ian told me, although what I heard didn’t sound like what the translation into Albanian came out as when I was looking. It’s probable he speaks more than one language.

  ‘Once we’re ready to go, you and I will have a very quick briefing. I’m not putting you at any risk, but it is important that, more than ever, in a situation like we’ll be facing, you do exactly as you’re told at all times. Forget rank. With something like this, the AFOs have the final say on everything, even over me as SIO.’

  He went back to his office while he waited. He wanted to start by up looking which military forces used the Beretta model the man had been carrying. That might help to narrow down his country of origin.

  Anyone being arrested would normally be required to turn out their pockets while they were being booked in. On Ted’s instructions, they hadn’t even followed that procedure yet. Ted didn’t want him fishing in his pockets without an armed presence. It meant they had no ID for him. No driving licence, passport, nothing. So no clue as to his identity, nor his nationality.

  The first user country listed for the gun model was Albania. The information under that entry worried him. ‘Albanian army and special forces.’

  He searched a bit further and found Batalioni i Operacioneve Speciale, or BOS. Nicknamed ‘The Unit’. Their motto, ‘We better die for something than live for nothing’, sent a chill through him.

  On a total whim, he took his phone out, made a call and, more in hope than anticipation, left a message on the answering service which picked it up.

  He didn’t expect an answer so he went back to his own research. He was surprised when he was interrupted, not five minutes later, by a call from a masked number.

  ‘What the bloody hell are you doing bothering me, Gayboy?’ Green’s voice snapped at him. ‘What part of retired do you not understand?’

  ‘Sorry, Mr Green,’ Ted tried to sound suitably contrite. ‘Thanks for calling back, though. I just needed some info and I thought you’d know. Can you tell me anything about the Albanian special forces?’

  ‘The Unit? Steer clear, Gayboy. Punching way above your weight there. You thought The Regiment were bad? That lot are worse.’

  The Regiment was the SAS. Green’s old army unit. They had a formidable reputation. If he was saying the BOS were worse, then Ted hadn’t overreacted with his precautions.

  Ted heard a small but insistent voice in the background over the phone.

  ‘Poppo? Are you coming back to play now?’

  ‘I’m coming in just a minute,’ Green’s tone changed beyond recognition as he responded to the child, then he barked back at Ted, ‘Now piss off and let me get on with enjoying my retirement. And don’t call again unless it’s urgent. Haven’t you heard of Google?’

  While he had his phone in his hand, Ted tried another call. He wasn’t in the least surprised when it went straight to voicemail.

  ‘Hi, it’s Ted.’ Then he groaned inwardly. Trev would know exactly who was calling him, which was probably why he was
n’t answering. He pressed hurriedly on. ‘Will you be back today? Only I may be a bit late. I’ve got a tricky interview coming up, then I want to take the team for a quick one. They’ve played a blinder today.’

  For a moment, he couldn’t think how best to end the call. He didn’t want to gush or sound desperate. He settled for, ‘Hope to see you later. Take care.’

  It was a bit lame, as bridge-building went, but it would have to do for now.

  ‘I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job. I’ve done it, and I never appreciated that,’ Ted told the two AFOs who been assigned to watching their suspect. ‘But I have good reason to believe this man is special forces. Which means that even without a visible weapon, he is to be treated as a serious risk and a threat to life.

  ‘We haven’t even searched him yet as I judged the risk to be unacceptably high to do so without armed back-up. We’ll do it now you’re here, then we can crack on.’

  The two officers were young. Ted didn’t know them by sight. There was no reason for them to know he was an ex-SFO. The way they were looking at him said they didn’t. But he knew they were up against a dangerous and sophisticated gang and he wanted to raise their awareness of the risk.

  He’d had a call from the dog handler shortly before he came downstairs to start the interview. He told him the dog had been scanned and didn’t have a microchip, as was required by law. But its collar was fitted with a GPS tracker. Which meant that its owner, or anyone else with access to the system, would know where the dog was at any given moment. So they might well know by now that it was in the hands of the police.

  Steve was next to Ted, standing close, as the man was brought from the holding cells to be booked in and empty his pockets. Ted had been fairly sure he wouldn’t be carrying anything which could identify him and he was right. All he had was a simple pay-as-you-go burner phone, no doubt with no stored numbers, which was unlikely to tell them much.

  Ted was as vigilant as either of the AFOs as the man carefully and slowly emptied his pockets. He was no fool, although he showed no real concern. He must have known that the wrong move could get him shot.