Ostensibly, 999 events were an attempt to forge closer links between the Emergency Services but in reality they were merely an excuse for a good drink and a chance to get involved with the local nurses.
When Benny collected Herman from the Airstrip around 8pm he saw that he was dressed in pressed blue flared denims a white T shirt. The nurses will love him, he thought.
On entering the Club Benny could see that the event was well attended. The room was jumping with the sounds of the Disco and the dance floor was packed with revellers. Benny steered Herman to a corner table where he could see several of the lads sitting with their backs to the wall studying form.
Benny introduced “Herman the German,” as he became known, and then he set about trying to get a round of drinks in. Herman started on Coca Cola but as the evening wore on pints of lager started to appear in front of him. Not long after their arrival the “Feeding frenzy” began to gather momentum. A few women, who already knew Benny and about his “Love job” with Felicity, were confident enough to sidle up to him to carry out their research. ‘Who is your mate Benny? He’s gorgeous.’
‘Oh that’s Felicity’s German cousin Herman. He’s a professional footballer who plays for Werder Bremen. He’s just flown over for a few days because he’s going to transfer to Ipswich Town.’
‘Really. Oh yeah I can see that he’s fit. Is he married?’
‘No, no, he’s single,’ said Benny.
The word spread around the club about young Herman and his reputation became embellished as the alcohol flowed through female minds. Herman found himself being claimed by a succession of young women all of whom wanted to dance with him and more besides. He was a good mover, which helped, and he was totally oblivious to the Legend that was growing around him of “Herman the West German International Footballer.” Several pints of lager began to appear for him and these built up on the “Lads table.”
Fortunately, Herman was too busy on the dance floor to drink them so the lads did their best to ensure that they did not go to waste. Around the time of “Last Orders” Herman informed Benny that he had been offered a lift back to his tent and that he would see him in the morning at the Police Station. He duly disappeared off and away into the night.
The next morning Benny was out of bed for an 8am start. He felt quite fresh and unusually he was without a hangover as he, unlike his colleagues, had moderated his intake of alcohol. He had arranged to do a “Split” duty as he was due to play football in the afternoon. This would mean 5 hours of duty in the morning and a return to duty in the evening to make up the time on his sheet. This was all, of course, subject to operational requirements. As he was in good time and had to pass the airfield on his way into the office he decided to drop in on Herman to check on him.
The Tiger Moth was there, the tent was there, but Herman could not be found. Benny thought that nothing was amiss and told himself that Herman had probably gone into town to find some breakfast. The hours passed quite quickly for Benny as he had been dispatched to deal with a couple of dwelling burglaries.
Around 11.30am he was making his way back to the office and he made a further visit to the tent. Still no Herman. He got back to the Police Station but nobody had seen hide nor hair of him. ‘Well he’s a grown man,’ thought Benny, ‘If he can fly around Europe, he can look after himself. He finished work at 1pm and then went off to play football. When Benny returned to work around 5.30pm he got stuck into some paperwork. About an hour later Benny took a call via the switchboard and it was Herman.
‘Dc Cohen. Can I help you?’ .
‘Benny its Herman.’
‘Hello Herman. How are you my friend?’
‘Good thank you. How are you?
‘I didn’t feel like work this morning. But OK now.’
‘It was a good party last night with you and your colleagues. I didn’t sleep in the tent. I stayed around a nice lady’s house instead.’
Benny told him that he had been to the tent on two occasions and that he had started to be a bit concerned about him.
‘No problem Benny. You did not have to worry about me. The lady looked after me very well but now I have to get back to the plane and get ready for my flight to Lincoln tomorrow morning. Would it be possible for you to come and get me in the car please?’ ‘No problem Herman. But where are you exactly?’ said Benny.
Herman gave Benny the address. Benny could hear that Herman was being prompted by a female voice in the background. The address seemed to ring a bell with Benny and when he arrived on the doorstep and knocked on the door it was opened by a familiar face. She was smiling and she looked blissfully contented having “looked after” Herman to the best of her ability. Pam had claimed yet another victim, having again, in a sense, skied off piste, this time with a German international, whom she had not had to select from the “Shaggomatic.”
Chapter 51 – Atonement.
It was a Monday in May 1980 and another day when Benny had been out on the round with David. Although the Fishing Season had not yet begun some private fisheries were allowing their waters to be fished. Therefore Benny’s maggot farming was once again starting to gather momentum.
On this particular day Benny decided to call in on his mother and father at the shop. They had both met Felicity and they were thrilled when they were told of the engagement. It was a busy afternoon in the shop and his mother Joyce was working in the Sub Post Office section facing a quite lengthy queue. Mrs Brookes was also serving behind the counter so on Benny’s arrival Ivor took him out back to the kitchen to make tea. Ivor looked troubled and as they were alone he said ‘I need to talk to you Benjamin but I don’t want your mother to know about what I’m going to tell you. Understood?’
Benny gave an undertaking that what was to be said would remain between them.
‘We are struggling in the shop financially because I am having to pay money to the Humble brothers.’
‘Why Dad? What for?’ said Benny.
‘Tax,’ said Ivor ‘They are taxing me £100 per week out of the till.’
Ivor explained that about 18 months ago he was alone in the shop manning the Off Licence when he received a visit from two local thugs called Levi and Sidney Humble who threatened that they would set fire to the shop unless he paid them a regular amount. He flatly refused their demand but before they could take any further action against Ivor they were interrupted by some local lads who came into the shop. So the Humbles had left.
A couple of nights later a small fire was set at the side of the stockroom which Ivor spotted quickly and was able to extinguish. But this was clearly a warning from the Humbles. Ivor had told Benny’s mother Joyce nothing of the threat and he explained the fire away by putting it down to local kids playing with matches.
After that warning, the Humbles had returned and they had once again delivered their threat in the face of which Ivor felt that he had to agree to pay them £100 a week tax from the till. This had by now been going on for several months until the present day. The Humbles were now pressing for an increase of the tax to £150 per week. Ivor had carried this secret alone and it had clearly had an adverse effect on him both physically and mentally. It had also seriously eroded his self-respect.
‘The bastards,’ said Benny. ‘This can’t go on Dad. What do you want to do about it?’
‘No Police Benjamin. I couldn’t bring such shame on myself or the family.’
‘Have they hit you at all Dad?’
‘No there was no need to son. Like a coward I gave in to them.’
Ivor began to weep silently and the tears were tumbling down his cheeks. Benny had never seen his father like this before. In Benny’s eyes he was always the tough, no nonsense, paratrooper who didn’t suffer fools. Now he was distraught, almost a broken man. Benny was furious that these bastards had tormented his father to the extent that he had been too terrified to do anything other than their bidding. Ivor and Joyce, over several years, had worked long hours to develop a business so that they had s
omething to pass on to Benny and David and any grandchildren that came along. In Jewish life the family has great importance and it is fundamental to all that matters. So even though the Cohen’s were not particularly devout worshippers, the attitude was deeply ingrained in their psyche. Benny therefore felt very strongly that this was not only an attack on Ivor, it was an attack on Joyce and the entire Family. He was sick to his stomach. The Humbles were going to pay dearly.
He also knew what the likely outcome would be if he were to report the matter to the local Police. It would be his father’s word against that of the Humbles. They might be arrested and interviewed but they would say nothing to the Police and there would be no independent evidence to corroborate his father’s allegation.
There was always the possibility of a “Sting” operation but this was 1980. There were no sophisticated listening devices or cameras available unless the investigation was of an extremely serious nature. Benny and Ivor regarded their case as serious enough to deploy such tactics. But would the local CID?
Benny simply had no faith that they would do anything other than a basic investigation and once he had told them about it he would have no means of influencing matters himself. This would leave the Humbles free to torment Ivor and Joyce ad infinitum.
No, Benny would see to it that they paid heavily and was determined that he would deal with them quietly, in his own time and in his own way. If, as a Police officer, that made him a hypocrite, then so be it. The Family comes above all else.
‘When do the Humbles collect the money from you Dad?’
‘On a Thursday evening when it’s quiet in the shop. They usually do their own shopping, take some cans of beer which they don’t pay for. Then they expect me to just give them the money out of the till. ’
‘Dad. I’m going to deal with this myself. I’ll bow to your wishes. I’m not going to do it officially through the Police but I will hurt them badly so that they don’t come back. Whatever you may hear has happened to them, don’t be alarmed. This has to stay between us. I won’t even involve David. We can’t have threats to the family. Agreed?’
‘Yes Benjamin but be careful please.’ said Ivor.’ I don’t want to have to say Kaddish for you my boy.’
‘I promise you Dad that that will not be necessary. But these scum need to be dealt with and to be truly effective I will have to step outside the law to do it.’
‘I understand my boy. You will know the best way,’ said Ivor.
Benny remained at his parent’s home for the rest of the day and he shared a meal with them. During the evening Joyce took him to one side and she expressed the fact that she was worried about Ivor who had not appeared well for several months. Benny knew the reason for that, of course, but he could not provide an explanation to his mother. He would take drastic action to eradicate the poison and Joyce would learn nothing of the problem and how it had been solved.
Benny drove back that evening to Lee-over-sands and he was thinking all the while about the action he had to take before the Humbles pressed Ivor for more money on Thursday. He wondered why Ivor had not felt able to tell him about the problem before. Benny berated himself for the fact that he had not visited his parents often enough. Had he done so, the Humbles might not have had the confidence to threaten his father and make his life miserable. He was ashamed of himself but he was determined to take revenge. Who did these bastards think they were?
Of course he knew the Humbles from his time spent working in the shop before he had joined the Police. They were in their late 20s, large and stocky with black slicked back hair. All dealer boots and braces. They were parasites who lived with their extended family on a semi- permanent caravan site only a few hundred yards from the shop and they would steal anything that they could lay their grubby hands on.
He knew that Levi Humble was the brains of the outfit and, from what Ivor had told him, he had been the prime mover as far as the extortion was concerned. Benny decided that he would obtain the best outcome by targeting Levi, and he knew the best place to begin his search for him.
The following night Benny, who had made his excuses to Felicity, was standing in the darker recesses of the beer garden of the Swan pub in Ongar. He was hoping for a sighting of Levi whom he knew from his local knowledge regularly drank in that pub most evenings. Sidney, although a giant of a man, was a non- drinker. So Benny did not expect him to be there.
After an hour or so of watching the windows Benny got a sighting of Levi who appeared in the Saloon bar. It became evident that there was a darts match in progress and that Levi was taking part. It was then just a matter of vigilance. He lost sight of his quarry on a few occasions but, as he had taken up a position in the garden which afforded him a view of the front door to the pub, he was confident that Levi had not taken his leave. Around closing time the clientele in the pub had thinned out considerably but Benny could still see Levi at the bar chatting to the bar-maid. Benny had come armed with a tile hammer and he knew exactly what he was going to do with it.
Around 10.30pm Benny saw Levi deal with the last couple of mouthfuls of his beer, and he then made his way to the front door. Benny had the door in view and he waited in order to ascertain Levi’s direction of travel. He knew that Levi lived on the caravan site and he was correct in his anticipation that he would make his way down Mill lane. He knew that the lane was devoid of street lighting and that it was an ideal location for Benny to deal with him.
When Benny was confident that nobody else was leaving the pub he made his move to follow Levi along the lane. Benny had plotted his course through an adjacent field and he was able to shadow Levi from a distance. This enabled him to stay in cover and to retain his night vision.
The lane was about 400 yards long and Benny had planned that his escape route would be across the meadow, through the playing fields and across the school grounds to emerge some half a mile away in the car park of the village hall where he had left his car. If, by chance, he were to be seen at that location he should not be associated with the scene of the attack.
Benny could see Levi’s silhouette as he made his way along the lane. He was some 20 feet away from him as Benny emerged out onto the path behind him and he moved stealthily towards Levi who was humming to himself as he staggered along the lane. By this time Benny had taken the hammer from his pocket and it was poised within his fist to deliver his judgement on the menacing behaviour that the evil shit had inflicted on his father.
As he reached his target, Benny raised his arm and he punched the hammer into his skull. Levi fell to the floor moaning as he did so. Benny delivered two more blows to Levi’s head. They hit home, with considerable power. Benny had made his point with cold calm and utterly ruthless precision. Benny had not uttered a single word in the process. He did not care whether Levi survived the attack. That was up to him. But he knew that it would definitely curtail his activities and Levi Humble would no longer be in any fit state to terrorise Ivor further.
Benny was satisfied with his evening’s work. He was high on adrenaline and he felt empowered in much the same way as he had been when as a 15 year old he had punched that prick of a Subaltern in the Officers Mess. Nobody should ever be able to threaten him or his family and get away with it. Benny was truly alive!
Benny swiftly made his escape through the fields and after five minutes he emerged, unseen, into the car park where he took off his boiler suit and trainers and put them in a large hessian sack. This, he put into the boot of his car. Benny then drove back towards Lee-over-sands and en route he threw the hammer from a road bridge into the river Roding. As he got nearer home he parked the car near the airstrip and then he walked to a remote corner where he hid the sack among some brambles.
He then went back to his flat, which was empty. He showered thoroughly before going to bed. He had achieved a lot to be proud of that day. The matter was settled and Benny very soon succumbed to the sleep of the innocent.
Chapter 52 – Aftermath.
The following d
ay was a rest day and uppermost in Benny’s mind was the need to dispose of the boiler suit and trainers. After a light breakfast he drove to the airstrip and, as far as he could tell, he managed to retrieve the sack from the bushes without being observed. He drove out to a remote spot on the marshes where he built a small fire and burned the sack and its contents to a cinder.
He then went back to the flat to carry out some domestic chores and to do his daily hour of study in preparation for the forthcoming Sergeant’s examination. Benny was quite calm about the situation. He had taken action to solve a serious family problem and he felt not a shred of pity or remorse. Levi Humble was scum and he had deserved everything that had come to him. Benny found no difficulty in justifying his actions to himself.
At lunchtime he was watching the Regional News on the television when he saw a report of a man having been found murdered in Mill Lane, Ongar. The victim was not identified by name as the family had yet to be informed of the death.
Benny told himself that he had to stay firm and not worry. There were probably many people who would have reason to kill Levi Humble and there would be no reason for him to be a suspect. He knew that once Ivor had learned of his fate he would assume that Benny had taken action. Ivor would be concerned for him, of course, but Benny knew that he would say nothing.
By the evening bulletin the situation had moved on to the stage where Levi Humble was being named as the victim and that he was a much loved character and member of the local Gipsy community. One hypothesis put forward by the media was that the Police suspected that his death was due to a feud with another family of Travellers. Benny was rather pleased by that. Keep thinking along those lines boys, thought Benny, Humble was an evil shit, worthy of no more than a very basic investigation.
The next day Benny reported for work at 2pm for the late shift. He soon learned from Vic Woodward that each Division had been requested to supply two detectives for secondment to a Murder investigation in Ongar and that morning Kevin Kelly and Brian Wells had been selected.
An Oik's Progress Page 23
