It was cramped in the back of the Fiesta, Trevor drove quickly, the roads were quiet, it was cold, but not frosty. He followed the signs to the military section in the hospital, Sally gave him the money before getting out. He counted it, then drove off. Sally pushed open the door, at reception she said she was here to see Sergeant David Stretton, “he is only expecting one visitor, who are you please?” “I’m his partner Sally Fellowes, this is our mutual friend Olivia Parkes.” She made a phone call, to see if Olivia could be admitted. A locked door was opened, a nurse asked them to follow her. “He’s been messed about a bit, don’t be shocked when you see him.” Olivia held on to Sally’s arm, she didn’t know how she would react. Sally screamed when she saw Dave, her knees gave way, Olivia held on to her, Dave’s head was swollen, his hair had been shaved off, large wads of cotton were taped to the top of his head and above his left ear. There were more tears, Sally hugged him on his right side, she kissed him for as long as he would let her. “What happened last night, I want you to tell me?” Dave said he had been set up, “I walked into a trap, there were four of them, I didn’t hear the three behind me until it was too late, they put a bag over my head and hit me twice with something hard, then I was shot and thrown in the docks, fortunately someone heard me and pulled me out. That’s about it.” Olivia was now sitting on the bed opposite Sally. “Where were you shot?” Dave pointed to just below his left shoulder, Sally tried to pull away the gown to look, “undo the gown at the back, you can pull it off me then.” Where he had pointed to was now covered in a bruise about three inches across. “I had on a Kevlar vest, it stopped the bullet but left a bit of a bruise.” Sally gently touched the bruise, “What has the doctor said, how long will you be in for?” “I’m going home with you tonight, as soon as I am dressed and have made a couple of calls, we will take a taxi home. “I can get Michael to collect us, he could be here in an hour.” While she was out in the corridor phoning, Sally helped Dave dress, “we’ll talk about this in the morning before I go to work.”
Dave now dressed, said for them both to be quiet as he made a call, it was late in the evening, but he didn’t care. Jane Goodley answered the phone, she wasn’t happy at being disturbed, Dave didn’t bother saying good evening or apologising for the time of the call. “I was nearly killed last night because of you, I was hit with an iron bar and then shot, it’s only because I take precautions that I am phoning you tonight. The police force up there leaks like a bloody sieve. I was set up. I am going to tell you what has to be done tonight. There needs to be a press release saying the person who was shot on Saturday night and thrown into the Royal Albert Dock, having been transferred to the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, for specialist treatment, has died following a sudden deterioration in his condition. Efforts are underway to identify who he was and inform his next of kin.” He waited for her to write everything down. “That has to go to the Liverpool Echo and any other local papers, if the nationals pick it up, so much the better. There is something else you need to do, somewhere in Merseyside or the surrounding area, a man will have been admitted to hospital with a broken leg, I want his name and address by tomorrow morning. I broke the leg of one of the attackers with a kick, it will be lower leg.” He made sure she had all the information and hung up, Olivia whispered to Sally asking who he had been on the phone to, Sally shook her head. Dave next phoned Trevor, “I have a job for you on Wednesday, a long day, just driving and watching, £300 plus your petrol, yes or no?” He waited for an answer, “Fine, I will give you more details tomorrow.” “If you are thinking about working, you can forget it,” “I’ll rest for a couple of days, I will be better by then.” Olivia had gone to find coffees and returned with three plastic cups. Dave swung his legs off the bed and stood up, he bent his knees a couple of times, he didn’t say how much his head hurt.
He was discharged with painkillers and instructions to change the dressings daily. Sally had been given more in a bag, the stitches would dissolve as the cuts healed. Dave sat in the back with Sally, she held his hand the whole way. It was well after midnight when he slowly climbed the stairs and fell into bed.
There were no words from Sally in the morning, she let him sleep. At 10:00 he got up and showered, he had to be careful to avoid getting his head wet, once dressed he had breakfast and made a coffee to take upstairs. His first job was to check his emails, there were a few to be gone through, he started with the one from Jane Goodley, there was a list of five names of people admitted to hospital for a broken leg. He needed more information but that would come later. He rang the Brigadier to thank him for arranging his transfer, he said the ID he had used was now dead and could he arrange for a new one. He said about the call last night, “I want her to know as little as possible about the next moves, it’s not that I don’t trust her, she puts to much faith in other people. I will do things my way. Is there any news on my funding, I think by the end of the week, I will have to start spending, can you speak to her and see what the Home Secretary is going to do, if he doesn’t play ball, do you think the MOD will fund the operation? I’ve already shelled out more than £2k of my own money.” “I’ll ask the question and get back to you.”
He spoke to Trevor saying they were going to Yorkshire on Wednesday, “separate cars, we will be trailing a lorry, we need to be in position by 08:30.” Dave said where they would meet, have a coffee and set out what was to happen.
In Liverpool Peter Farrell was being given an update on the activities from Saturday night. Billy said he had been shot and thrown in the docks, one of his guys had broken his leg in the fight but was taken to a hospital outside Liverpool. It all went well. “It fucking didn’t all go well, he’s still fucking alive, he had a bullet proof vest on. Now he is in a hospital in fucking Birmingham. The fucker had better die there or someone else will.” “Do you want me to send some people and finish him off?” “And then have the plod from Birmingham crawling all over the place, leave him, make sure the lorries are started every day and ready to move if the shit hits the fan. It won’t come from the local police, they know which side their bread is buttered on.”
Dave didn’t do much else that day, he had lunch and more painkillers, he lay on the sofa, his eyes closed, he wasn’t sleeping, he was deep in thought. He was still there when Sally came in, she kissed him and asked how he felt. “Better, and thank you for all you did yesterday.” She took off her coat and sat beside him, “Seriously Dave, do you have to do this, can’t you pass this over for someone else to figure out?” “No, I’m almost there, Wednesday hopefully will make it all much clearer, I also have a score to settle,” he rubbed where the bruise was. “I promise to be much more careful, I will be using other people I know to carry out anything that is dangerous.” Sally looked at the dressings and said they needed to be changed, “come into the kitchen, the light is better.” She peeled off the tape and gently eased off the dressing, it was sticking to dried blood on his head. With warm water she managed to take the dressings off. She cleaned off the rest of the dried blood, “they don’t look too bad, the sack over your head might have help protect you a little.” This time a slightly smaller dressing was used. Next the bruise was examined, it didn’t look any different, Dave said it wasn’t any worse. It was a quick meal that night, they were both tired, after she had phoned Olivia to thank her for her help yesterday, it was time for an early night. In bed she snuggled into Dave, his arm was round her as she fell asleep. It was late on Tuesday morning when they woke, Sally went to make coffee, Dave asked her to bring his phone upstairs, he wanted to see if his death had been reported. The report was there in the online version, there was a picture of the docks and a report created round the information Jane Goodley had released. He passed over his phone for Sally to look at, “I don’t want to read it, it gives me a funny feeling.” The phone was handed back. “What do you want to do today?” He thought for a moment before saying a long walk would be good, Lunch was in a pub in Barrow upon Soar, he kept a woolly hat on to cover the dressings, before a walk along the old towpath. There were very few people about, they enjoyed the peace and tranquillity. As they walked back, Sally wanted to know what he would be doing tomorrow. “Trevor and I will be following a lorry full of weapons, I want to see where it goes, it should be straight to Kent, but I have my suspicions.”
He was gone before Sally woke, he had left a note on the kitchen table saying he loved her. He was again wearing a woolly hat to cover the cuts, Trevor was waiting at the agreed meeting point, they had coffee as Dave explained, “we are trailing a lorry, it should be going to Kent, but we will see. There are two ways it can go to reach the A1M, we need to cover both ways. The lorry is a flatbed with a container on the back, he gave Trevor the registration number of the lorry that was always used. From the logs, it usually leaves between 09:00 and 09:30. we need to be in position before then. We won’t be able to park anywhere near the exit, it is all double yellow lines. Find a place before the motorway, he will more than likely take the south route, but who knows, I will cover the north. Phone as soon as you pick him up, I will do the same if I see him. The split up and went to find places to wait. At 09:40, Dave’s phone rang, Trevor was a few cars behind him going south at a steady 50mph, Dave said he would catch him up and swap over. They would change over every fifteen minutes, always keeping a few cars behind. Just after 13:00 the lorry pulled off the motorway, Dave guessed it was for his break, he pulled into a layby on a side road, there were other lorries there including another army truck, Trevor drove through the layby, Dave carried on, he stopped in a farm entrance a little further on. Dave was out his car and beckoned Trevor to stop. “The other truck has normal plates, it’s not an army lorry, what do we do now?” “I need to see what’s happening there, get ready to move the minute I call you, I am going to cross the road and walk and crawl back up to the layby, there is a wall that will give me shelter.” It took him twenty minutes before he was level with the two lorries, they were backed up to each other, he was only the width of the road and another ten feet away. The doors were open, blocking what was going on, Dave knew exactly what was happening, when the transfer was complete, the doors were shut, he saw a fresh tag being fitted to the lorry, they were using the missing tag machine. He phoned Trevor, “move into the layby, follow the other truck when it leaves, we don’t need the first one anymore. I’ll move back and then set off, let me know which road you are on.” The lorry headed back up the A1M, then on to the M62 towards Manchester and Liverpool. There was no problem following on the motorway, the issues would come if it turned off onto smaller quieter roads. That happened just after Ormskirk, fortunately it was now dark, all they would see in the mirrors would be car headlights. It was only his Satnav that told him where he was, somewhere between Ormskirk and Formby, he called Trevor, “close up, I think along here they are going to turn off, we have to be near their destination. I’ll tell you when, you try to see what the sign says, don’t hang up.” A few minutes later he shouted down the phone that they had just turned off to the right. Trevor put his full beam on, saw a sign on the right hand side and the tail lights of the lorry disappearing. “Jericho Farm, the name is Jericho Farm.” Dave drove on to Formby, Trevor was right behind him. “That’s it, there’s nothing more to do tonight,” He passed over £400 to Trevor, “that will cover your fuel as well, thanks for all your help today.” He found a pub to eat in, he hadn’t had anything since 08:00. Before he set off, he phoned Sally, he said the day had gone well and he felt OK. He asked her if she would do a couple of things for him. “There is an email from Jane Goodley with five names of people admitted with broken legs on Saturday night, can you find the addresses and look to see where in Liverpool they are. Then from my notes, find the driver of the lorry who takes the weapons to Kent, the information is in my note pad, check his army record, I want to know his address or where he lived, I suspect it is Liverpool, see if it is near any of the broken legs. Lastly, there is a farm between Ormskirk and Formby, Jericho Farm,” he spelt it out, “can you find out who owns it. I will be home in two or three hours.”
Sally set about finding all the information she could by the time Dave got home. It was after 22:00 when he walked in the door, Sally opened a tin of soup and put a ‘ping’ meal in the microwave, as he ate, she examined the cuts on his head, “the scabs are looking better. Tell me how you got on.” Dave gave her a quick version of what had taken place and where the weapons now were. “Did you have any success with the names?” “Yes and no, the two names were easy, the farm not so much, you will have to see what you can find out, I hit a dead end, the owners are hiding behind an overseas company.” Finishing the food, they went upstairs, Sally had written down the names of the hospital admissions and their addresses. Underneath was the name and former address of the driver. “That’s where his mum still lives, he is located in army accommodation in Catterick Garrison. He has a wife and two children. Dave looked for a postcode near to the mother, he checked online with Google Maps, one was two streets away, he looked at the other information from the hospital records, he was twenty nine. Sally said she was going to bed and said he should do the same, he said he wouldn’t be long. Dave looked over the information on the farm, it had been bought by a company registered in Belize, there would be no way of tracing the owners that way. He leaned back on the chair and closed his eyes, the sales process was going through his mind. Contact must have been made with the estate agents, to view the property and then the purchase. He spent some time letting software hack into the estate agents website. Once in he took ages trying to find the information he had been looking for. There was disappointment, all communications and correspondence were done through a firm of solicitors. Finding a way into their systems would have to wait. He continued looking for a break, reading through the pages of correspondence he saw a phone number, he wrote it down, should he call it, or wait until morning and have it traced. He decided on the latter, looking at the clock, it was now 01:00, he closed the laptop and went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.
© 10210ken 2025
