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28th March 2014
Thurstan sat himself down in Chalkie’s Office.
“Mervyn! How’s things going?”
“Who told you?”
“Well, it’s a long story but I met your sister in Sainsbury’s.” Thurstan smiled.
Chalkie sighed. “That woman just can’t stop gabbing.”
“Does your wife call you Mervyn?” Thurstan was feeling playful.
“No, we met in the Army so she’s always called me Chalkie.” He caught the enquiring look. “It’s my mum’s fault. She was very fond of her great uncle back in Jamaica so I got stuck with it.”
“Never thought of a name change?”
“I did once but the wife thought Dash Riprock was a bit over the top.” He smiled. “What about you... Stan?”
Thurstan grimaced. “Oooh, below the belt but point taken. Back to business. Where are we up to?”
“Well, we’ve had a bit of a breakthrough,” Chalkie, magnanimous in victory, pointed at his cup with an enquiring look. The DCI shook his head. “House-to-house came up with a report of a black BMW seen in the early hours of the morning. It was stationary on Crank Road opposite the no-entry signs to Abbey Road. The witness is a local man cycling home from work. Didn’t get a registration number. Just thought it odd. He can say there were only two on board, but he didn’t get a great look at them. Just said he thought they were both men and the driver looked foreign.”
“Looked foreign? In what way?” Thurstan looked quizzical.
“Can’t say.” Chalkie paused and looked apologetic before continuing. “It was just an impression. Anyway, we trawled the systems for anything involving a black BMW and Camera Enforcement came up with the image of one bursting the lights on the East Lancs junction with Rainford bypass. We checked the number plate and it now shows up as stolen.”
Chalkie lifted his hand to halt Thurstan who was about to interrupt. “There’s more. The PNC has a marker on it showing the vehicle was recovered by West Mids from a scrap yard they raided as part of a Forcewide operation later that day. Seems it was about to be crushed. No reports on it at the time and it took them two weeks to locate the owner because he was out of the country on business.
“Meanwhile, the DI in charge wasn’t happy, so he had forensic give it the once over straight away. They retrieved a few samples and we’ve now run them against those we took from Monica.” He paused for effect. “There’s no doubt, Thurstan. She was in the boot of that car.”
The DCI put his ‘I’m impressed’ face on. “Good news, Chalkie. I take it they have someone in custody?”
“Yep.” He leant back in his chair twiddling a pen. “Several, but the main interest to us is the owner of the scrap yard and a Lithuanian worker. Their fingerprints are the only ones from the workers there found in and on the vehicle. Not quite damning evidence, given the nature of the place, but it gives us something to target. I’ve sent Lizzie and Fred down to do a first interview.”
“Good cop, bad cop?” Thurstan chuckled.
Chalkie smiled back. “You could say that. Not sure which is which. They’re both good at this sort of thing. Fred just adds a little touch of physical street cred, I always think.”
“I’m sure he does. What other enquiries are you making? Routes back? Probably motorway would be the first port of call.”
“We’re all over it.” The DI drained his coffee and grimaced. “Ikky and the Strolling Bone are doing Lymm Services to Crewe inclusive, and the Foetus and Spud are doing Keele to Hilton Park. From the location of the scrap yard, our suspects would have come off the motorway just after Hilton Park. That’s it really, except to say Lizzie and Fred are going to liaise with West Mids and access their intel system.”
“Great!” Thurstan rose from the chair. “At least I’ll have some good news to tell the Chief this afternoon. I’d best get something to eat, he’s brought the meeting forward to one o’clock. You ready for anything?”
Chalkie nodded, stood up and dragged his jacket off the back of the chair.
Thurstan stared out of the window. “Shame nothing actionable came back from the NCA regarding MacMahon.”
Chalkie shrugged. “Yeah, but my mate’s pretty certain it’s not an outside crew. Says their contacts are impeccable. Suggests we either look again ‘in house’ or we look out of the box.”
Signing out, they walked along the main corridor towards the lifts. Behind them, Arthur pressed the remote and the office telly sprang to life; the national news main story was the multiple raids carried out in various parts of the country by the ‘Anti- Terror’ Police and Specialist Firearms Officers. Arms and explosives had been recovered and fifteen suspects were in custody.