Читать книгу For Evil to Flourish - Dubya Ph.D Lorimer - Страница 15

Chapter 8

Allan was busy charging the last few drill holes ready for the day's blast. Having completed the drilling, Jim Steel was lending a hand, shovelling gravel down each hole after the explosives were in place.

'Did you hear about the excitement round our way yesterday?' Jim was asking.

'No, what happened?' Allan carried on deftly preparing charges as they spoke.

'Police were all over the place. They're supposed to have arrested Benny Patterson and some of his mates. Everybody is saying it's to do with the lass that died of the overdose. Apparently Patterson had a car near his house stashed full of drugs. That's one of their tricks, you know, they get an old car, don't register it, then keep the drugs in it instead of in their house. That way, if the police find anything, they just shrug and say it's nothing to do with them, it's not their car.'

'Does that mean Patterson will get away with it?'

'Naah, not this time, the stupid bugger had the keys in his kitchen, and the police used them to find the right car, plus they reckon it's probably covered in his fingerprints. After all the publicity about that video he was in, admitting he was involved in the death of that lass, there's no way the police are going to let him walk away from this one, that's for sure.'

'Do you think that video did some good then?'

'I'm sure of it. Shamed the police into trying that bit harder I reckon, instead of just letting it fade away.'

'Yeah, well, you could be right, we'll never know for sure.'

With the last hole charged, Allan made a check with the meter before attaching the length of twin-core wire that would allow him to fire the blast from a safe distance. After reeling out around fifty metres, he checked with the meter again, ensuring everything was fine. He wouldn't attach the battery pack that he used to fire the blast until the last minute.

There would be a delay now while the road contractor cleared the public road adjacent to the blast, in case a passing vehicle were to be hit by a “flyer” from the blast. The technique they had been using was a rolling road block, rather than stopping the traffic completely, avoiding the hazards and delays that a total stoppage tended to entail.

Two site vehicles would approach the blast area from a couple of miles to the west, another two from the east, and then, co-ordinated by radio, the pairs of vehicles would position themselves two abreast to block the traffic behind, gradually slowing to a crawl. By stopping the traffic from entering the zone between the converging roadblocks while allowing traffic to exit, a clear break was created, allowing the shot to be fired safely. Following the blast, all being well and no debris on the road, the signal would be given for the blocking vehicles to speed up and normal traffic flow would resume, often with many of the drivers unaware anything out of the usual had occurred.

As soon as Allan received the signal to proceed, he connected the battery pack, then waited while Jim gave the sequence of horn blasts to indicate a shot was imminent. A final look around to confirm the road was clear, and that no pedestrians had wandered into range, and he pressed the button. There was a series of sharp cracks blurring together, the flash snaking from hole to hole, then the deep boom as the solid rock lifted and shattered. Allan quickly moved forward, checking every charge had gone off, then, satisfied there were no misfires, he indicated to Jim to give the long horn blast to signal the all-clear.

He noted that nothing had landed on the road, and gave himself a mental pat on the back. Within a couple of minutes he saw the traffic moving again, so no mishaps with the traffic management side of the job. All in all, a very good day's work.

Allan and Jim weren't quite finished yet, they had to return their equipment, particularly any unused explosives, to the magazine for safe storage. Unfortunately, as the job progressed this was taking longer and longer due to the fact that the magazine was in the opposite direction to their home, meaning that after dropping of their gear, they then had to turn about, and head back the way they had just come.

'Are you coming down the Cross Keys for a pint, Friday night?' asked Jim, as they eventually headed for home.

'Probably will, Julie and I have nothing planned.'

'You ought to be taking that wife of yours out a bit more often, give her a treat, otherwise she might be off with someone else.'

'Do you have a notion yourself, is that what your saying?'

'I wouldn't say no if she was available, she's not bad looking for her age.'

'Well she's not available, so you just behave yourself. Not that she would look twice at a young whipper-snapper like you anyway.'

'That's what you're hoping, but you can never be sure!'

'I can be sure of what would happen to you if you tried it on, that's good enough for me.'

'Oooh, you're so scary, I think I might poop my pants..... ouch!'

Allan punched him on the shoulder.

'Okay, okay, big man, I'm only kidding you!'

Allan knew Jim was only winding him up, but he started to think to himself that he could have a point, maybe he should be making more of an effort.

The keep fit regime at the gym was paying dividends for Julie. He had noticed she was a little trimmer, a bit fitter looking, he had found himself admiring her body as she stepped from the shower, or undressed for bed. A petite, attractive brunette, there had always been plenty of other guys interested, but he never seriously believed she would be tempted, though he could well be deluding himself. Jim was right, how could he be sure?

He decided to make more of an effort, arrange a nice treat some weekend. But not this weekend, that would be too obvious to Jim, who, convinced he had Allan worried, would rib him mercilessly. No, next weekend, he decided, he would take her somewhere nice.

D.I. Morrison's team were gathered in the main office,

'Ian, where do we stand with the car?'

'Bought for cash five months ago, boss,' replied Ian, 'Never registered, taxed or insured by the new owner, so although we believe it was Patterson's, we may struggle to prove it. However, his fingerprints are all over the driver's side of the car, his prints are on the car keys and items in the car, including the packaging used for illegal drugs. And of course the fact that the keys were in his kitchen should make it easy to confirm that he is the main user of the vehicle.'

'And the drugs themselves?'

'Approximately one kilogram of cannabis, one hundred and fifty grams of cocaine, approximately eighty grams of heroin, a handful of ecstasy tablets, and..... one hundred millilitres of liquid ecstasy, a.k.a, Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, implicated in the death of Linda Hope.'

'Okay, things look promising there. How about the interviews with McCall and Oldman?'

'Surprisingly it was McCall who cracked first. However, once we had his statement, and told Oldman that he was up to the neck in it along with Patterson, he changed his tune and was desperate to shift all the blame onto Patterson. They both state that it was Patterson who picked up the girls, he was the one with access to the flat, he supplied the drugs, he dumped Linda in the bathroom when she was sick, and he drove the others to another party without seeking any medical help for the girls. It has to be said, of course, that neither of the others did anything to help the girls either.'

'But we haven't managed to get any connection to Darren Hill, who we presumably still believe to have supplied the drugs to Patterson?'

'I'm afraid not, boss, none of them are brave enough to go down that road, the buck always stops with Patterson. The unregistered phone that was in the car is definitely the same one that was used to threaten Liz Kingsley, and Patterson's prints are on that as well, so we have him for the intimidation, but, there is still an unregistered phone unaccounted for. I'm guessing here, but I suspect these phones were being used to set up deals involving drugs or prostitutes, and I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to find someone like Darren Hill has the other one, but McCall and Oldman are pleading ignorance.'

'What about the older guy that Liz Kingsley thought had called at the flat while she was there?'

'Complete blank, no idea who I was talking about apparently. Of course it's possible that with the effects of drugs and alcohol, she simply imagined it, and yet somehow I got the feeling they were hiding something.'

'Yes, when I interviewed Patterson it was the same story,' said Ann, 'He's genuinely worried now that he sees the trouble he's in, but still too frightened of the Hills to talk. I very much doubt that we'll get any more on them at this time. None the less, I think we can be quite pleased with the way things have gone, we can look forward to a nice weekend off. Apart from Brian of course!'

'Yeah, somebody has to hold the fort while you lot are skiving!'

The others responded with a good natured chorus of jeers, all having had to take their turn at working weekends recently.

'Right, as senior officer, I say we adjourn this meeting for the time being, and reconvene in half an hour at the Swan Inn.' said Ann, displaying the kind of leadership and decision-making qualities that made her so popular with her team, 'And Brian will get the first round in since he's earning all the overtime this weekend!'

At the Cross Keys inn later that evening, Allan, Jim and Chalky Whiteside were also discussing the Linda Hope case over a pint. A friend of Chalky's from the neighbourhood watch scheme had been speaking to a friend in the police, who had confirmed that Benny Patterson and two of his pals had been arrested, and there was sufficient evidence to ensure that Patterson, at least, would be going to trial. The same source also confirmed that the police had nothing on Darren Hill.

'Do you think the video of Benny Patterson made any difference to him being arrested?' Chalky was asking Allan.

'Jim and I were talking about that earlier, the truth is, we'll never know for sure. Personally I doubt it, they would never be able to use something like that as evidence, because he was effectively being tortured. He would have to have said something that wasn't already known, and which could then be checked out by the police and proved to be correct.'

'I still think it did some good because it shamed the police into going the extra mile.' said Jim, 'The video was being mentioned in the media, and people were demanding action against Patterson and Hill. Personally, I'm convinced it had some benefit.'

'Well,' said Chalky, 'We'll see the next time it happens.'

'You think there will be a next time, Chalky?' asked Allan.

'As long as there's a chance that the video of Patterson helped things along, I would be surprised if there wasn't a repeat. I'm guessing, of course.' he added quickly, before greeting the landlady of the Cross Keys with a smile,

'Hi Vera, you're looking particularly gorgeous tonight!

Vera Anderson was almost as wide as she was tall, and unlikely to win any beauty contests in the foreseeable future, but she gave a delighted laugh before playfully flicking Chalky with the cloth she carried on her shoulder.

'Douglas,' she called to her husband behind the bar, 'Don't give Chalky any more drink, he's obviously had too much already!'

'Get away with you, Vera, you know you're the best looking woman in the place.' insisted Chalky, a complement somewhat diminished by the absence of any female competition in the bar at that moment in time, however Vera had other matters on her mind.

'We're having a quiz in a couple of weeks time, the Keys against the Barge Inn, can I put your names down for the team?'

'Not mine, you can't!' spluttered Jim into his beer, 'The football team's my thinkology limit.'

Allan laughed, 'Me too! I reckon Chalky is your man for that job, though, he's a smart-arse!' Before he could protest, Vera had Chalky's name added to her list.

'I've roped in Rob and Elsie Histon, plus Chalky here, but if no-one else volunteers, I'll be back to see you boys,'She said, wagging a finger at Allan and Jim, 'So don't think you're off the hook yet!' And with that, she swept off.