Albany Street Police Station London
3 a.m.
April 19th
It had taken much less time than Tony Deany had expected to get through the interviews at The Underworld Night Club. They had worked through a hundred or so club goers. They showed Mason’s photograph and asked a set pattern of questions.
“Do you recognise this man?”
“Did you see this man in the club?”
“Did you see this man talking to anyone in the club?”
A number of ‘are you sure?’ questions were added. If they had seen him the ‘where?’, ‘what was he doing?’ and other related questions were added. Trained in observation the DIC duty team members, tired as they were, applied their full training to the task, checking body language and tone of voice at various points.
They came up blank. He had been seen and with a girl, but none of the people interviewed knew her.
“Well that’s that.” Deany said wearily. “I can’t believe that we didn’t get a single link or lead.”
“Time to get back and get some rest.” Ellie yawned.
“Oh no. We’ve to go to the police station and interview the people they arrested. They’ve had a hard time containing them as it goes.” Liam said, he was logged into his laptop.
“Didn’t another duty team go?” Deany was tetchy and tired.
“No. DIC are at full stretch right now.” Liam replied.
“I take it they checked the CCTV here?” Deany asked exasperated.
“Yeah. Tape went over when we started. Look.” Deany and Ellie looked over his shoulder at the isolated footage on the laptop screen. The footage showed Mason arriving, the next clip showed the girl arriving with friends, the short conversation and the walk to the band room, the final clips were of their return to the bar a little later, their quick leave taking and lastly Mason leaving with a jacket.”
“Well for one we need to find the thin guy and the fat girl. Second he started the fight to get the jacket, but dropped it. What did he take?”
“Keys!” Ellie shouted then added, “ Bike keys it’s a heavy metal club. He took a motorbike.”
Liam tapped in a message, check tube station footage for motorbike for Mason’s leaving time. The reply was swift, Easy, we have Mason and girl on motorbike leaving. Registration PN07 GYP. Will have camera checks on road CCTV for last hours run through. Good Luck. Diane.
“We’d better get going to Albany Street.” Liam said.
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.