William David - ForceNet

“ Mr Lever, I think you should be aware that you are possibly exposed to prosecution for conspiracy to help your brother conceal his crime and of evading arrest.”

“I have done no such thing!” I said. “I really am worried about Adrian’s whereabouts. Much as you might not agree, I am sure he has not avoided this meeting intentionally, something must be wrong. Is there anything you can do to help?”

“We can put an alert out for him, do you have a photograph?”

“I can send you one from home easily enough.”

“Do you know where he was going when you last spoke to him?” said Lloyd.

“Yes, it was just after eight this morning, I left him at home, and he was due to leave almost immediately, he was planning to go to his girlfriends where he has been staying and pick up some clean clothes, before coming on to meet with us at the office before we were scheduled to come here.”

“Where does she live?”

“I don't exactly know. It is somewhere in Pill, but I don't have an address, or for that matter a name. He was however driving a very distinctive car. A 1935 soft top MG sports in British racing green. I can give you the registration num ber. It is my car. I lent it to him when he stayed with me a few days ago.”

“I think that is all for now, said Fleet. “Do you have anything else David?” she said looking at Lloyd.

“No, not for the moment except to remind you Mr Lever to let us know immediately if you hear from your brother.”

“I am sure he will do that,” responded Withers, “similarly I hope that we can rely on you to keep us informed on progress in your investigations.”

With that Lloyd escorted us downstairs to the reception desk and bade us farewell. Back up stairs he caught up with Fleet.

“Well, what do you make of that Boss. Do you believe it, and do you believe we have been told all of it?”

“I am not sure on either account, but I think something is going on. Make sure you get the alert out on Adrian Lever and on that car, I suspect his brother might be right that something has happened to him.”

Adrian came round lying on a bed in a semi dark room. He was handcuffed and the handcuffs were linked by another set of handcuffs to the bedpost. He felt really groggy, and soon dropped unconscious again.

When he came round, the room was in almost total darkness, and it seemed that outside the window blinds it was dark, so he had obviously been out for a few hours. He yelled out, but nobody responded. As he l ay there listening he could hear no noise, no traffic, no people noises. Nobody around.

They had taken h is watch, shoes, belt, and coat. A fter what seemed like several hours he heard the crunch of tyres on gravel accompanied by the glare of headlights flashing across the window. The sound of a door opening, some subdued conversation, and then the sound of footsteps on bare floorboards coming closer. The door opened and a flood of light splashed across the room temporarily blinding him as the overhead light was switched on.

“Well Mr Lever, are you comfortable, ” said a gaunt lo oking guy with a southern drawl?

“I could do with the toilet.”

The guy who had spoken turned and said “Reg, undo him, and take him to the bathroom, but manacle his ankles before you do.”

Five minutes later he was back in the room and handcuffed to the bed again.

“Who are you?” he asked. “What do you want?”

“Oh come on L ever, don't lets play that game. You know why you are here and why we want you.”

“Are you Groucho?”

There was a slight hesitation before he answered, “Groucho? Who do you mean?”

“The person you told my brother that I should call.”

“Never heard of a man called Groucho.”

Adrian shrugged; they were not going to admit anything. “So what happens now?”

“It's not my decision as to what happens to you now but I suspect you will be going on a little air trip; that decision will be made by others and until we are told, you will stay here with us. Reg will get you some food, but don't try anything funny or you will regret it.” With that they both left the room.

There was a whispered conversation in the room next door. “Look here Mac, I’m not going to stay here and babysit this guy; it’s not my job.”

Mac slowly turned and looked at him. “Reg, I don't think you are in a position to argue. This job has not exactly gone smoothly and some people are looking to you for that. If I were you I would keep my mouth shut and do what is needed until the job is finished.”

“The stuff ups were not my fault,” whined Reg. “Dawson gave us no real heads up on what this case was all about. Anyway where do I get food from?”

“There's a MacDonald’s a mile down the road, try that, and bring back a burger and fries for me with some drinks.”

Dave Withers, Alec, and I had adjourned across the road for a coffee and a quick parley.

“Well I think that went as well as can be expected,” said Dave.

“Thanks for joining us,” I said. “Do you think they can help?”

“Well they can help trying to find your brother if he really has gone missing. Don't forget that photo they asked for. Look I have to get going, keep in touch with me and I will let you know if I hear anything.”

That left Alec and I sitting musing over our coffees. “You have been very quiet Alec. What do you think we should do now?”

“Well apart from your brother, I don't think much has changed, and hopefully he has just been delayed somewhere.”

“I hope you are right but I don't think you are. Oh! It is so frustrating, is there nothing I can do?”

“Well let’s walk back to the office and see if anything is waiting for us there.”

Back at the office everything was frustratingly normal and I retired to my office with the door shut to think. I just couldn't sit and do nothing! Who could help us? What about that guy at the MoD who came and visited us, Gordon Stewart was his name. I could call him.

I found his card and called the number on it. It went to an operator or secretary who said Gordon Stewart was not available at the moment but she would take a message.

I then called Naismith. He was not available.

May as well go home, I was not doing any good here.

As I opened the house door the ‘‘‘phone was ringing. It was inspector Lloyd.

“We have found your car,” he said. “You’re not going to like this, it had been dumped in to the Feeder canal so it is probably severely damaged. There is no sign of your brother.”

“This means that he has been kidnapped, doesn't it?”

“It looks as though that might be the case,' said Lloyd. “I have spoken to the Boss and she has agreed to our making a TV appeal and that will go out on the 7 o'clock news tonight. I need that photo!”

“I will get it now, do you have an email address I can send it to?”

“If you have my card use the address on there.”

“OK,” I said and hung up.

I quickly sorted out a couple of recent shots of Adrian from the album on my computer and emailed them to Lloyd.

Then Naismith called back. “ Mr Lever you called me?”

“Inspector Naismith, you have been showing a lot of interest in my brother. Do you know he is now missing?”

“No, I had not heard that,” said Naismith.

“Well he is and there is a public appeal for information on his whereabouts about to go out on TV.”

“Indeed,” said Naismith, “what makes you think anything is wrong, maybe he just does not want to be found? That has been my experience with him over the past week or two.”

“Look Inspector, don't lets beat about the bush. My frustration is that I don't have any contact with the people that have done this so I can't talk to them. They need to know that if any harm comes to Adrian then the information they don't want revealed will be published around the world and they cannot stop that regardless of what happens to Adrian, or me, for that matter. That is not an idle threat, both Adrian and I have pretty strong computer expertise so you can take it that the set up to reveal the information is watertight.”