Richard Wiseman - To Kill Or Be Killed

Back at DIC centre activity was intense. Diane was exhausted and Jack wasn’t due back until nine in the morning. Cobb was still being searched for and nothing was showing up. A full London cab check was being done. CCTV watchers had been taken out of the rooms and sent to cab companies with pictures. Every CCTV camera was being checked, but there were too many hours of footage and not enough people. Diane had called in every DIC watcher in the country to work the night shift and log into the system to check an area’s film footage. She had excluded McKie and Jaz from the mailing list. When a section of the city had been checked and cleared from one time to another it was automatically logged. Diane had been in contact with the coastguard and Navy, but the stolen boat had not been seen. It was dark though and a boat without lights at night was invisible except to radar, but she needed a visual check.

When Deany, Ellie and Liam got to Albany they were faced with only thirty interviews, but Deany knew who he was looking for. They looked in each cell until they found the fat girl and thin guy.

It was three in the morning when the club goers arrested in the fight were allowed to leave, some cautioned, some pending trial.

Leah and Jack, ‘Leash’s’ friends were taken to an interview room. All three DIC came in and sat down.

“Is this about that man ‘Leash’ hooked up with?” Jack asked.

“Whoa! Slow down mate. Have you seen this man?”

“Yeah that’s the man Leash was with tonight!” Leah practically shouted. “Oh my god he’s not a murderer is he?”

Ellie sat down in front of Leah. “Who’s ‘Leash’?”

“She’s my friend. I share a house with her on Fortress Road, number 23. Is she in danger?”

The three DIC looked at each other. Liam left the room.

“Tell us what happened tonight, from the beginning.”

“Hadn’t you better go and help her.”

“My colleague will deal with that right now. Tell me about this man.”

Outside Liam spoke to the Superintendent, who in turn called armed response. Liam called Diane and she told him to let the armed police handle it. She knew they were tired and didn’t want casualties. Liam was relieved. He went back into the room.

“… then they went for a drink and didn’t come back and then the fight broke out, that’s all I know.” Leah ended and looked at Liam.

“Armed response are going to deal with it, Diane says we step aside on this one, tiredness can kill and all that.”

“Oh my god poor ‘Leash’”

“According to CCTV footage she happily got on the motorbike with him.”

“Typical ‘Leash’ always looking for excitement.”

Jack said and shook his head in disbelief.

“Well she’s found it now, probably too much.” Ellie said.

“Is there anything to eat, I’m starving.” Leah said. The three DIC officers and her friend Jack gave her withering looks.

South West Coast of England

Close to Torbay

4 a.m.

April 19th

Stanton’s eyes were glazing over. He’d pushed the boat as fast as he could and the currents down the west coast had helped him. He was low on fuel and exhausted. He’d taken off the wet clothes and put on Dean’s waterproofs. The clothes weren’t drying. The yellow rubber trousers and top were uncomfortable and he’d taken the boots off. Dean had no other clothes on the boat. He wanted to get to the mouth of the Thames before day light, but knew he wasn’t going to make it. He couldn’t take the boat through channel waters in daylight as he assumed the boat’s owner and the passenger would be reported missing and air sea recue, coastguard and lifeboats would be alerted on the assumption that the boat had run into trouble. He was unaware of Dean’s survival.

Come daylight the Navy would be scouring the ocean. He had to have another plan, a plan B. He didn’t want to get back on land. He fancied sailing in and sailing out. He ran into less people that way and he liked it. He might be tired, but in the dark at sea he felt safe from capture.

Once he’d turned the boat left at, right angles, skirting the needles and land’s End he calculated the time and fuel and knew he wouldn’t make the Thames Estuary by daylight.

He put the boat on autopilot and made a coffee then he checked the charts. Southampton was not too far away, full of boats. He could moor up, dump this craft and steal another. The navy wouldn’t be looking in a harbour for it. He checked the currents on the chart. It looked complicated and could take hours, what he needed was an open harbour in a bay. He ran his finger back along from Southampton and stopped it at Torquay. It was close enough for the fuel to last as well. He had made up his mind.

London

4 a.m.

April 19th

The smash of the door had woken Aliesha from a sweet dream. She didn’t have time to get out of bed before an armed policeman with an MP5 shone his barrel torch in her face and screamed at her not to move. There were shouts of ‘clear’ all over the house and she was dragged, wrapped in her duvet down to the lounge. They’d let her dress, cuffed her and taken her to Albany Street. She was left alone in the interview room for half an hour. Tony Deany, Ellie and Liam had been called back to Euston Tower, where they gratefully went to their rooms and slept. Tony didn’t even take his clothes off he just laid down on the bed and fell asleep.

The wait at Albany Street station for Aliesha was for Diane Peters and the DIC psychologist Else Patrick to arrive. Else wasn’t happy at being woken up and called out in the early hours.

Else was a PhD in Psychology, Masters in Psychotherapy and had numerous qualifications in Occupational Health. She was a sixty year old short blonde woman from Lancashire. Her short, neat stature, belied a giant mind, but she was a woman of regular habits and disliked being woken at odd hours.

She and Diane were let into the locked interview room. They both sat down opposite Aliesha. Diane put, stereotypically, a brown cardboard docket on the table.

“Who are you two, you don’t look like police?”

“I’m Mrs Peters and this is Mrs Patrick, we’re from a government agency.”

“Oh spooks eh?” Else raised an eyebrow.

“We’d like to know about Peter Mason, the man you took home from the nightclub.”

“There’s nothing to tell. He came to the hair salon, where I work, I cut his hair, and I fancied him so I told him the night club I was going to. When I got there he was sat at the bar, I got off with him and he wanted to go back to my place. We went to my house had sex and when I woke up he’d gone.” Aliesha spread both hands out in ‘a that’s it’ manner.

“Did he tell you anything about himself?”

“Not much?”

“He told you his real name at the salon though?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t lie!” Diane’s voice was like a whiplash in the room and left a thick echo for a moment.

“I’m not lying.”

“He booked and paid for his hair cut in the name of Marc Townshend, but you knew he was Peter Mason. So he must have told you later. That tells me there’s some connection between you that’s more than casual sex for both of you.”

“Clever bitch aren’t you.” Aliesha folded her arms and stared into mid distance.

“If Peter Mason told you his name then you’re either lucky to be alive or you mean something to him and I’d bet on the latter and as that’s true it means you can tell me about him.”

“I’m telling you nothing. You have nothing on me and you’ll have to let me go in twenty four hours.”

“That’s not true. I’ve got a link between you and Mason and that means I can hold you on the prevention of terrorism act. I can hold you here for 42 days, well when I say here I mean I can have you put in a prison cell and transported between there and here every day, so don’t get cocky with me Miss Jones!”