Car Park,
Chris Perriman – Licence CC BY-SA 2.0
Penny handed the sniper rifle system in its sports bag to Hanna and said, “Job done and I’m pretty sure they have no idea where the shots came from. Steven picked up the two casings and we left no marks on the roof. I think if we head for the station now we should be able to catch the overnight ferry to Sweden.” Hanna smiled and said, “Thank you but do you think you could do another little job for Wolfe and me before you go?” She went on to explain how they were certain that Martin had been responsible for the near-complete demise of her previous cell then told them the complete story.
Penny and Steven felt they had no choice but to agree to remove Martin for Hanna and Wolfe, but he lived fairly near to the spy they had just eliminated so a sniper shot was out. That left the other end of his daily trip to work. Unlike the spy, he was only under light protection at his home where armed police patrols passed his house at several random times a night. But the dead spy had meant the Gestapo were very active in the area. Hanna wondered if there were other people living in the area who needed investigating. Martin drove himself to his job in the offices of Berlin Transport and invariably parked in a nearby public car park and walked alone to and from his office.
Hanna’s cell had watched Martin and established his daily routine. She suggested that the best place to get to Martin would be in the car park after work. He didn’t appear to be very security aware and usually parked in a dark corner where there was no CCTV. Penny and Steven decided they needed to do a bit of their own research and borrowed a car which they parked in the car park and pretended to be a courting couple. They observed Martin stroll casually to his car completely unaware of the possibility of anyone waiting for him. Penny and Steven let him drive away before heading back to the safe house. Reporting back, Steven told Hanna, Penny and Wolfe that this was a job for him. As an SAS man he was trained for just this type of occasion. All he asked for was a commando knife.
***
Jinnie took Paolo with her on Saturday afternoon when she went to see the old factory. Alberto led the small party of directors and Paolo around the building and pointed out where Belinda had suggested kitchens, staff rooms, washrooms, toilets, dry stores, refrigerated stores, freezers, dispatch, offices and a Boardroom. Paolo was extremely sniffy, he just couldn’t see beyond the dirty spaces. Jinnie told him he had no imagination and he would change his mind when he saw Belinda’s designs.
Jinnie wandered around the building and the yard wondering just how much this would cost and could they possibly sell the idea to other restaurants. The whole project hinged on getting other people on board, it was no use having a facility capable of producing half a dozen types of meals if only one company, themselves was using it. Jinnie pressed Alberto on this point, had anyone committed to using them to produce delivery meals? Alberto shook his head and said, “No not yet. I have had a lot of interest but no one wants to commit until we can give them hard costs, guarantees on quality and drawings of what we plan. I have spoken to a large burger chain and they are tentatively interested as they don’t currently offer a delivery service.”
Jinnie said to Alberto, “I have been thinking about that. There are several garages on the other side of the yard. I wonder if we should consider using them and setting up a delivery service of our own. We could then offer it to others like that burger chain or small businesses that don’t currently offer deliveries.” “Strange,” said Alberto, “I have been thinking in that direction. I have come to the conclusion that it is probably the way we are going to be able to make progress, by offering a cooking and delivery service.” Jinnie asked, “Firstly, have you given any thoughts to the additional cost? Secondly, if we are to offer a cooking and delivery service should we also offer the telephone ordering side? There is plenty of room in the building.” Alberto replied, “Now that’s something I hadn’t considered. But even if we don’t go down that route we would need to set up a system so that restaurants can pass delivery orders on to the kitchens. Maybe we need to get Belinda to talk to the people who supplied our in-restaurant ordering system. Perhaps it could be adapted.”
“This project is growing like Topsy,” said Jinnie, “First a kitchen, then a delivery service and now an ordering business. That reminds me, how are we getting on converting to a limited company?” “Nearly there,” said Alberto, “I spoke with the accountants and solicitors yesterday and it should all be set up in a couple more days.” Paolo had been listening to the discussion and grunted, “I wonder if you might be better off setting up separate companies for the various businesses, all under a holding company. I understand that is more efficient for tax and could help if any of the bits were to struggle financially, then it wouldn’t drag the rest down. You could have the restaurants in Trattoria Trevi Restaurants Ltd, then Trattoria Trevi Kitchens Ltd., Trattoria Trevi Deliveries Ltd, and Trattoria Trevi Ordering Ltd, All under Trattoria Trevi Holdings Ltd. You really need to talk to your accountants and see if I am right. One other thing, if you go ahead with all this you are going to need a full-time experienced project manager. You all have your jobs to do and you need someone who can spend all their time setting this all up or the restaurants are going to suffer. Talk to Belinda, I bet she can recommend someone.”
Alberto and Jinnie looked at one another and Alberto said, “I think he is right, I have been letting things slip a bit at the restaurant and it is our main source of funding, if we lose that we will be in trouble.” Jinnie replied, “Yes, everyone is here, let’s have an impromptu meeting and see if we can get agreement on going in this direction.
It was mid-afternoon when Jinnie rang Belinda, she was in Waitrose getting her Sunday lunch and promised to ring back as soon as she got home and had put the shopping away. 30 minutes later Jinnie’s mobile phone rang and Belinda asked Jinnie if everything was OK. Jinnie said yes and explained the idea of creating delivery and ordering sections in the new premises, whichever building they choose, so she needed Belinda to include them in her design and preliminary costing. She then asked about a project manager explaining that the task was distracting them from the day-to-day running of the restaurants. Belinda said that for such a big project it was probably a good idea. However, she suggested hiring someone initially on a one or two-month rolling contract, while they sorted out the building, planning permission and the initial extent of the project. If they found that no one want to take up a ‘dark kitchen’ and delivery and the project died they didn’t want to be stuck with a project manager who was on a long contract or a permanent employee. That said, Belinda said she knew just the person, Thomas, who had worked for a building company she had worked with and had been retired on reaching 65 but wanted to work for a little longer as he still had 9 months of his mortgage to pay.
***
In Berlin, Penny was itching to get home, it was nearly Christmas and she didn’t want to be stuck in Germany over the festive season. So it was decided to hit Martin on the first suitable evening, the following Monday. Steven asked for and received black jeans, a black jacket and pullover, black trainers, black gloves and a black balaclava. Penny thought he looked menacing but Steven said anything that made him less visible in the dark corner of the car park was welcome.
Penny sat in a stolen car ready to drive Steven back to the rendezvous point. He had got out of the car five minutes earlier and disappeared completely into the shadows. Despite Penny being able to see Martin’s car she had no idea where Steven was. Another 5 minutes and Martin can trudging across the car park, hunting in his pocket for his car keys, totally unaware of the lurking danger. Penny watched him bend to unlock the driver’s door and suddenly disappear. Moments later Steven opened the passenger door and climbed into the seat next to Penny and said, “Let’s go.” Penny put the car into gear and drove casually out of the car park. Penny asked, “Did it go OK?” and Steven answered while struggling to change his clothes in the moving car. “He didn’t know what hit him. He was dead before he hit the ground. I hope Hanna can safely dispose of this commando knife as it will have his DNA on it. I expect there is blood spatter on these clothes and it will probably transfer to this car, both will need burning”.
Penny drove to the RV where Wolfe met them. Penny handed the keys of the stolen car over to another cell member who headed out into the countryside followed by another car to bring the driver back into the city. As Wolfe drove them to the safe house, Steven asked for confirmation that the car and contents would be burnt. “Of course,” said Wolfe, “we have been burning cars for years there will be no evidence left.”
Hanna greeted them at the safe house. She had a radio on, tuned to the main Ordnungspolizi wavelength and was anxious to hear confirmation that the job had been done as there was nothing on the radio. Steven smiled and said, “You have your revenge and that you have heard nothing is good news as it means the authorities haven’t found the body yet so there is no manhunt. If we leave now we can be on the morning ferry to Sweden.” Hanna looked at her watch and said, “There are no overnight trains and we can’t get you to the station in time for the last one this evening. Wolfe can drive you this evening or you can wait for the first train in the morning and get one of the later ferries.” Penny said, “I would prefer to drive overnight while there is no hue and cry.”
Penny felt relief as the ferry eased away from the dock. They had spotted several people who could have been security forces at the port, but nobody had given them a second glance and their forged paperwork and passports had been accepted without the slightest query. As it was a daytime passage they hadn’t bothered with a cabin, deciding that after breakfast in the restaurant they would find a pair of the large airline-style recliner seats until it was time for lunch.
It was early afternoon when the ferry docked in Ystad. The foot passenger were allowed off the ferry first and there not being very many of them they were quickly through immigration and customs. Walking out into the arrivals hall they quickly saw the chauffeur who completely ignored them looking past them at the exit doors from the customs. Steven took Penny’s hand and walked straight past him without acknowledging him and headed for the short-term car park where they waited just inside the stairwell to the upper stories. It was a spot where they could watch the exit from the arrivals building and not be seen.
Penny said to Steven, “Do you think he has seen a watcher?” “Almost certainly,” he replied, “If I was him I would pretend whoever I was meeting wasn’t on the ferry and make a fuss on the phone before heading back to my car. If he comes out alone we will let him head for his car, make sure he is not being followed and then join him in the car. If he is followed we could take the followers out, but that would confirm something was going on. Alternatively, we could just get the train to Malmö.”
Twenty minutes later, the flow of foot passengers had completely dried up and the Chauffeur came out of the arrivals building clearly moaning into his mobile phone. He walked past the couple in the stairwell and said, “Give it 5 minutes, if no one has followed me come up to level 3, otherwise you’re on the train and someone will meet you at the station,” before climbing the stairs.
Steven said, “This is where I could do with one of those glocks we had in Berlin.” As they waited, no one came out of the building, so they climbed the stairs. The chauffeur threw their bags in the boot and suggested they get down into the footwell. That way if anyone was watching the car park exit they would only see the driver and the missed pickup ruse would still be plausible. After leaving the car park the Chauffeur suggested they stay down for a few minutes until he was sure they weren’t being followed. A few minutes later he said he hadn’t spotted anyone so they could get up.
The chauffeur explained that he had recognised a German agent in the arrivals hall from photographs the embassy kept of all known agents. Although he was unsure if the German was there because he knew him or was just on a regular watch of people coming off the ferry. He continued, saying the agent had shown no sign of recognising him or the couple as they came out of customs, he thought it better to play it safe hence his action at the port. He said he thought it best if he took them directly to the airport where their flight tickets were awaiting collection at the BA desk. He swapped their ‘German’ passports for the British ones they has used for their outward journey.
Penny and Steven had no problem picking up their flight tickets, checking in for the flight to Heathrow and were delighted to see they were once again in Business Class. As they were rather early for the flight they were directed to the Business Class lounge with its comfortable seating, free drinks and food. Steven, who followed the good old British Army maxim of never refusing a meal as you never knew when the next one was coming, tucked into a serving of chicken curry and a British beer. Jinnie had a tuna sandwich and a Pepsi Max which she had taken a liking to when it was the only soft drink that Jinnie had had in the fridge when she had lived in Cambridge.
As they boarded the BA flight Jinnie noticed it was the same crew as their outward trip. The stewardess at the top of door of the aircraft glanced at their boarding cards and directed them to the Business Class seats with a cheery, “Welcome back on board Mr and Mrs Hollis, I trust you enjoyed Malmö.” Penny replied, “Yes our visit was excellent thank you and we found it quite exhilarating.” No sooner than they were seated did the cabin manager introduce himself to them saying, “Welcome aboard Mr and Mrs Hollins. When we land in London there are special arrangements in place for you and you will be deplaned first and met at the door of the aircraft. Only I and the Business Class crew are aware of this arrangement but we are only 50% full this afternoon so it should be simple to organise.”
Penny actually enjoyed the airline meal, it was what her mum would have called a ‘high tea’, a crustless sandwich, two filled finger rolls, a scone with clotted cream and jam and a tartlet filled with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Penny was amazed to see Steven demolish his before she had got to the scone. The cabin manager asked if he would like some more and he accepted another sandwich and rolls while downing four cups of coffee. As the plane taxied to its stand at Heathrow, the captain welcomed passengers to London and gave the current time followed by the cabin manager who announced that Business Class passengers would be deplaned first and apologised that there might be a slight delay.
The plane halted at its allotted stand and the cabin manager told them to grab their bags from the overhead lockers and led them to the aircraft door. Once opened, Penny and Steven followed an anonymous man down the emergency steps at the head of the air bridge and into a black Jaguar waiting at the bottom. Their bags went into the boot and the driver said, “Next stop No 10, the American ambassador is with the PM and wants a full report of your mission.”
In Chapter 13 – Merry Christmas.
© WorthingGooner 2022
