Chapter 68
Not far from the house, in a quiet side road, a marked police vehicle slowly pulled up alongside a grey, unmarked Golf. The passenger wound his window down and the driver leaned over.
“Hi Sarge, I thought it was you. What you doing these days?”
“Hello, Jonno.” Sammy, arm resting through the window, smiled. “Nice to see you. I’m on the MIT but we’re doing a bit of surveillance at the moment.”
His colleague’s face lost some of its colour. “Oh Christ, I haven’t cocked something up, have I?”
“On this occasion...no, Jonno, we‘re well out of sight.” The DS grinned. “I’ve got someone with eyeballs on, over there somewhere.” He waved his hand vaguely. “It’s good you turned up, actually. You able to hang around for a little while? I might need a uniform to do a stop.”
Jonno looked at his partner who nodded back. “Yeah, no probs. I’ll just park up.”
A nice, sunny day, they stood on the pavement, caught up and relived former glories.
Suddenly: “Gandalph to DS Nolan.”
“Go’ead.”
“Gandalph. She’s out to her car with a small suitcase ... now back in the house.”
Sammy swiftly made for the driver’s seat.
Jonno called back as he started his vehicle. “Opposite Dragonfold Lane? I know it. I’ll hang back at the end of the road, see which way she goes,”
“Gandalph. She’s in the car. It’s an off, off, off, out of the gates, stopping for traffic and she’s gone right, right, right, onto the main road, towards Hoylake.”
The marked police car slid onto West Kirby Avenue and accelerated away from the junction. Seeing the silver Mazda MX-5 ahead of them, they activated the blues and twos, overtaking the vehicle in front, and quickly narrowed the gap. Laura Brannan, thinking they wanted to get past, braked and began to pull over. As the police vehicle mimicked her actions she realised her mistake then shoved the gear stick into second and stamped on the accelerator.
“Scramble! Alpha Romeo five five.”
“Alpha Romeo five five, scrambling. Go ahead.”
“Alpha Romeo five five, pursuing a silver Mazda MX-5 registration number Two Zero Six Alpha Kilo Lima. West Kirby Avenue towards Hoylake.”
As the control room repeated the information to patrols, Laura Brannan slammed on the brakes and turned right into a side street.
Jonno braked hard, corrected the slide, waited for the opposing vehicle to stop then gunned across the junction in pursuit. “Alpha Romeo five five, vehicle now Addisborough Road towards Grainger Street. Sixty miles an hour in a thirty zone,” the passenger calmly reported.
MIT were already following; not expecting her to reverse on herself, they were committed, their options limited.
She sped the length of Grainger Street, weaving between parked cars and oncoming traffic. Braking hard, smoke coming from the contact of road and tyres, she yanked the gears from third to second then threw in another right before accelerating hard to the end of the road where she took to the pavement and turned right yet again.
“Alpha Romeo five five, Davis Way, on the pavement and a right turn back onto West Kirby Avenue.”
Across the grass verge, wrong side of the road, towards oncoming traffic, the vehicle in front of her slammed on its brakes and slewed across the road as she spun the Mazda into the driveway of her home, caught the left-wing of the vehicle on the gatepost and slid to a halt on the stones.
Amidst the dust, she reached the door, key in the lock and slipped the latch as the marked police car came to a halt, on the pavement, blocking the gateway.
The front door slammed shut as both Uniforms left their vehicle behind and made down the side of the house to the back garden, Jonno shouting instructions into his radio as he ran. At the front, the MIT vehicles screeched to a halt and their crews swarmed out into the drive.
They strode across the gravel heading for the main door which opened revealing Laura Brannan with something in her hand. It didn’t register. By the time she’d raised her arm, it was too late. The bullet sailed between the Foetus and Sammy striking Trigger in the top of his right thigh, narrowly missing his femoral artery and family heirlooms, then smashed itself against the back of the front wall. Before anybody had a chance to scatter she’d closed the door again.
For a moment, panic stood on the edge of the ring waiting to climb the ropes but training kicked in. Sammy, the Foetus and Soapy dragged Trigger out of the drive behind the cover of the wall and laid him down. “Oh fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I think it got me nuts. I think it got me nuts!”
Soapy calmed him down as best he could. “Stop whinging. It didn’t. Missed them by a mile.”
“You fucking lying bastard! It got me nuts. I’m fairly certain.”
Soapy ripped open the soaking wet hole in Trigger’s pants, took off his T-shirt and stuffed it against the wound. “Somebody give me something else, please!” he shouted.
He looked at Trigger. “Unless you had three balls it’s not got your nuts. Half your dick’s missing though.”
“Fuck off! I dress to the left,” Trigger snorted. “And don’t make me laugh again, it hurts.”
At the back of the house, the sliding door on the kitchen extension shattered as another bullet whizzed up the garden scattering Jonno and his partner into the undergrowth. Sirens could be heard in the distance. As he stuck his head up for another look, she raised the gun again. He felt the round zip past him, felt the change in air pressure. With his colleague, he threw himself over the fence into the adjoining garden. When he stood up, he had multiple trickles of blood running down his arms, the result of his encounter with a rose bush.
Police vehicles began to block the road off. The ambulance siren came closer.
Two ARVs arrived, swiftly followed by another.
One of them seemed to take charge of the others. It was Rocky, the Red Team TL. “Punchy, Davo, use next door to get eyes on the back and look out for the two uniform lads round there.” They got up from cover and disappeared. He and Sammy discussed the situation with urgency.
Rocky had a quick look around. “Can’t see any other supervision here, Sarge, so you’re the Bronze Commander.” He didn’t get to finish. Another gunshot, duller this time.
“Rocky to Punchy. What’s happenin’? Over”
“Punchy. It wasn’t us so it must have been her. Hang on, we need to move position.”
The paramedics were dealing with Trigger. Once they’d cut his pants off, he tried to surreptitiously check his testicles. She looked at him and grinned. “It’s ok. It’s all still there, believe me.” She gave him a complimentary admiring look to make him feel better.
“Punchy Rocky. She’s slumped against the kitchen cabinets. There’s a weapon on the floor beside her. Looks like she’s shot herself in the chest. Her blouse is covered in blood.”
“What side of the house is best for an entry, Punchy?”
“Your left, takes you straight to the kitchen.”
Rocky looked at Sammy who’d been speaking to the control room. “Time for a decision, Sarge. Normally, we’d contain and wait for the entry team but there’s a chance she might still be alive so it’s the old duty of care matter kicking in. Punchy, meself and Corky, over there, are all Team members anyway so I’d suggest we do the entry. I’ll leave two at the front just in case. We’ll go straight down the side of the house then do a quick dynamic risk assessment, as they say, and get in there.”
Sammy stared back at him. “Are you going now?”
Rocky grinned back. “Only when you tell the control room you’ve authorised it. And if they try to bottle out, tell them it’s too late we’ve already gone.”
The two ARVs swiftly covered the ground up the narrow path at the end of which they halted briefly whilst Punchy joined them.
Davo, his partner, covered the kitchen from further up the garden. Rocky carefully took in the interior. The scene as reported. He called out to her, identifying himself. No reply. Again. No response.
They entered swiftly, carefully picking their way around the furniture; Punchy covered the open doorway into the hall. Rocky slid the pistol across the floor with his foot. Weapon on his back, he checked Laura Brannan for signs of life.
“Rocky to DS Nolan, kitchen cleared. One suspect down, self-inflicted. Require paramedics urgently. Over.”
At the front, Trigger was loaded into the ambulance as another arrived. Quickly briefed, the medical team were waved down the side entrance and got to work. Rocky made the weapon on the floor safe.
Sammy managed a smile as Thurstan, clearly shocked at the turn of events, approached him. “Not what either of us expected, eh, Boss?”