The reports were typed up by 17:00, both of them were worn out. Sally rang and booked a table at the Carvery. On their return the rest of the evening was spent listening to music, the lights in the living room were on low. Neither of them spoke, Sally was tired, Dave’s mind was working overtime. They were in bed by 21:30. With Sally gone to work in the morning, Dave printed out the reports, he created four copies of each one, the Brigadier was the first one to be called, he asked him to arrange a meeting for tomorrow, he said the report was ready, a joint meeting would be required with Jane Goodley, he said it didn’t have to be secure. The Brigadier suggested he email over the report, “there are two reports, it amounts to over forty pages, I will give you plenty of time to read them.” The next call was to Marius, he immediately wanted to know if Dave had any more information. “No, nothing new, Marius, if I wanted to talk to your friends, how long would it take to arrange a meeting and where would it be held?” “We usually meet in the evenings in one of the nightclubs before it opens, it isn’t always the same place. If it was an emergency, then maybe the same day. Dave, tell me what is going on.” “I’m sorry Marius, I can’t at the moment, I will do when ever I can. I may call again tomorrow.” The meeting in London was arranged for 14:30, when Sally came in from work, he checked if she wanted to go with him tomorrow. “Bloody right I want to go, I spent ages on the reports.” Both were smartly dressed, they sat in first class, Dave read through the reports for a final time. It was too late to change anything, he wanted to have the facts and figures fresh in his mind. They arrived at the MOD an hour early, plenty time to eat in the staff restaurant. They were escorted down to the basement, the Brigadier and Jane Goodley were deep in conversation when they were shown in. Following the usual greetings, Dave handed round the main report. While it was being read, he poured four coffees, he put a cup, by each seat, Sally took the time to read her report again. It was forty minutes before they had been read. “Excellent work, it explains a lot, we can move on from here,” the Brigadier nodded his head in agreement. “This information can be passed on to the chief constables of the various areas to act on. I will inform the Home Secretary this afternoon. What is in the second report you haven’t shown us?” “It’s much more of a threat, it explains how Peter Farrell was to take over Birmingham, the threat is still current, read it, ask any questions, once you have finished we will discuss a way forward.” Sally passed round the report, it was read in silence. “You haven’t put any recommendations at the end of the report,” Jane Goodley looked at him for an explanation. “This is why I am here, I have a proposal, but, it may not be what you want to hear.” There was silence in the room, “I can arrange for the weapons to be tracked, the drugs will more than likely have already been sold or are being sold. When they are located, I can arrange for them to be retrieved.” “No. that isn’t going to happen this time, the Home Secretary will not approve another escapade similar to Liverpool.” “In that case, I have nothing further to add. Sally and I have done what was asked, you know where everything was sold, with a bit of research, it won’t be too difficult to find the weapons. There is also a list of the dealers who were sold the drugs, the police can easily track them down.” He closed his briefcase, drained the last bit of coffee from his cup, and stood up. “If there is nothing else, we will go. You know where we are when you need us.” Holding the door open for Sally, they left the basement, and made their way outside. Sally could tell he was angry. “They’re bloody fools, the police will go bumbling in, they won’t find any weapons, in a few weeks, they will call us, say they need our help. It will take twice as long and be much harder to get the guns back.” Sally sat opposite Dave on the way home, his face changed as the journey progressed, he was planning something. Later he sat in the kitchen as Sally prepared their meal, a bottle of wine was open, “would you like to go to a nightclub tomorrow evening?” “You’re a bit old for strutting your stuff on a dance floor, you’ve never asked me before, the clubs in Loughborough aren’t up to much.” “Not here, Birmingham.” “What are you planning?” “I want to have a chat with Marius and a few friends, they usually meet in a nightclub before it opens.” “It’s time you explained what is going on in your head.” “There are two items I want to talk to them about, I’m going, I wondered if you wanted to join me? I will be armed, not because I think there will be any trouble, I want to let them know who is in charge.” “What makes you think you can boss around the main players in Birmingham?” “Come along and see, it will be interesting to see how far they will go to protect their empires.” “There definitely won’t be any shooting?” “Not unless they start it.” Sally agreed to go along. He phoned Marius, the meeting was arranged for 21:00, Dave and Sally were to be picked up from New Street station thirty minutes before. He said he would be armed and under no circumstances would he hand over his gun.
Dave hadn’t said he wanted Sally to be carrying a gun as well as him, he had decided to leave it until they were getting ready. She was excited, but at the same time scared. He suggested to Sally she wore a tee shirt and a polo shirt with a coat on top. “Put this on,” he passed her the shoulder holster, “I thought it was only you who would be armed. “Might as well get you used to it.” That morning, a letter from MI5 had arrived confirming Sally’s employment together with a training schedule. Dave tightened the holster to fit Sally, “put the gun in and try pulling it out again.” Sally tried several times until she felt confident, “now try it in the back of your jeans, sometimes it’s easier and more comfortable.” She preferred it in the holster. “I’ll give you it when we have left the station and on the way to the club.” They were wrapped and put in his old backpack. They stood outside the station waiting for Marius, he was five minutes late. One of his bodyguards was in the front, “Marius, I will be taking a gun out the backpack and putting it in my holster, Sally will do the same. Tell your man in the front not to panic.” Their coats covered the guns, at the nightclub, what looked like bouncers were already in position. There was a door on the ground floor, stairs led up to the club on the first floor, staff were getting ready for the night. Dave thought these places looked rough when the normal lights were on. They were led through a door and up another flight of stairs. Two huge men in black suits were in front of the door, coats and jackets were hung over the backs of chairs. Marius motioned for Dave and Sally to take their coats off. Dave was first, the sight of the gun brought one of the men rushing towards him, he saw him coming, dropped down enough so when he made contact, Dave could rise up using the momentum to flip him over, within seconds his gun was pointing at the head of the man in a now dusty black suit on the floor. Sally pulled her gun out and pointed it at the other man. The door they had been guarding opened. A tall muscular West Indian shouted at the two men. Dave put his gun away and helped his victim up off the floor. Sally kept hers out until she Saw Dave shaking the mans hand. “No hard feelings.” Marius led the way, Dave looked round the room as he entered, Sally was behind him, the cream of Birmingham’s underworld was sitting round the table. The room was well lit, Marius found a chair for Sally and sat down. There were now two empty chairs at the end of the table. All eyes were on Dave, he didn’t sit down. “You all know who I am, you may not know my name, but you will be aware of my capabilities. My name is Dave, and this is Sally. Before I start, I want to make one thing clear, if any of you ever think of coming after me for any reason, remember what took place in Liverpool. I have a team who will extract revenge in the event of something happening to either of us.” He waited before carrying on. “Now you know the rules, let’s get down to business, first and most importantly, there is a shortage of coffee in here.” The West Indian called out, the door opened, he said to bring in coffees for everyone. “I don’t know your names, other than Marius, and I’m not interested who you are. The reason I asked to see you, is to warn you, there may be trouble coming.” Someone said there wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle. “I’m trying to prevent you being involved. Let me tell you the outline of what has happened.” He gave them most of the facts he had gathered. When he had finished the coffee arrived, he and Sally drank theirs while he let them argue amongst themselves as to what was to be done. Dave stood up again, the room went quiet. “I will tell you what you are going to do. Nothing, absolutely nothing. If you go chasing whoever you think it is, you will draw the police towards you, that will cause disruption to your activities. You know the police only let you carry on as it keeps the city quiet. If they take one of you out, it causes more problems when the void is being filled. There is a fight for the territory, people are shot, sometimes killed. I want you to be my eyes and ears, the police will go in heavy handed, probably raiding a few houses or clubs, I want to know what is being said following these raids. Every bit of gossip, or piece of information helps. Pass it through Marius. I offered to undertake the job, but for the moment, the police are handling it, they don’t like my methods. Find out from the dealers and prostitutes what’s going on. Hopefully when I’m called in, I have all the information needed. If any of you have any questions, please ask, it will be too late once I have gone.” Dave was asked for names, he refused. Another asked him why he was doing this for them. “It’s not for you, I want the guns off the streets, with your help, we both win.” When there were no more questions, he and Sally waited outside the room while Marius and the others discussed what Dave had said. They talked to the two who were still standing outside the door. The one who had gone for Dave said he liked the move he had done. “It’s an easy one for a smaller person to flip a much bigger attacker.” Sally who was feeling colder, slipped on her coat. Music could be heard from downstairs. Marius came out the room, he called for his car to be at the front door in five minutes. On the way back to the station, he thanked Dave. “I will email what I have at the end of each day, some days, there might be nothing.” On the train back to Leicester Sally wanted to know how he did it, yesterday, he was talking to senior employees of the government, the next day to gangsters. “Everybody is the same, I talk in a frank and honest manner, usually it works in my favour.” She was worn out when Dave switched off the engine at home, He made her a milky drink, she was almost asleep when he took it upstairs. He went Ubering the next day, he didn’t do much, he visited several different cafes in between jobs, he was back home by 16:00, Sally was in the shower. He talked about London, “I will be there tomorrow, do you want to come with me, start your training, I have to impart some of my knowledge into the researchers then look at some cases they are stuck on. We could go down tonight or have an early start in the morning.” “Drive to Luton in the morning and take the train from there, I don’t want to waste a night in the hotel, I’m still tired from last night.”
Sally went to find the training section, Dave made for his office, his talk was due to start at 10:00. He sat drinking coffee going over his presentation. In the lecture theatre there were around thirty attendees. On a white board behind him he had written in large letters, ‘Idealism or Money’. The talk was about why people betray their country, he explained, idealists were much harder to track down, whereas those who did it only for money usually gave away clues, expensive holidays, new cars, house extensions. Dave spent almost an hour talking about ways to look for possible traitors. On finishing, everyone filed out except one person who remained seated. Jane Goodley stayed where she had been sitting, Dave sat along from her. “Why did you walk out on Tuesday?” “I didn’t, we had finished, I had done my job, you have the information, it’s a police job now.” “David, you walked out once you realised you wouldn’t get your own way.” “The police will screw it up, who ever has the weapons will be scared off, they won’t be found. Not by the police anyway.” “What do you mean by that?” “Nothing,” “are you planning something?” “How can I, I’m not being paid to carry on, why would I work for nothing?” “You don’t walk away, it’s not your style, if you’re not working on this, you have other people doing it for you.” “I don’t have any money to pay them.” “Whatever it is, it had better not hinder the police operation.” She left him sitting there, he sat for around ten minutes before leaving. Cases for him to look at had been left on his desk, looking through them he made notes in the margins where he suggested a new direction or further investigation into a suspect. He managed to look at only one before he wanted lunch, Sally was just finishing hers, she was with three other people, excusing herself, she sat with Dave, he asked how it was going. “I’ll tell you about it later, but I’ve spent the last hour shooting,” Dave could tell by her voice she had enjoyed it. “Jane Goodley and I aren’t best friends, she thinks we walked out the meeting on Tuesday.” “You did.” She squeezed his leg under the table then rejoined the table she had been on. There was a smile as she left to carry on with her training. In the afternoon, having read through another case, he called in the researcher, they discussed where to look next, “follow the money, keep looking, there will be a way forward.” A message pinged up on his laptop as they talked, he was being called upstairs to see Jane Goodley again. There was no coffee offered this time, “David, I am in a difficult position, I know you are up to something, what it is I will find out. I should formally warn you to stop now, and if you persist, cancel our work agreement. If you were employed here, you would be suspended pending an investigation. I’m not stupid enough to jeopardise our relationship. I hope you will look at it similarly. You are good, but you aren’t above the law, please remember that.” “I’m not sure where you got the idea there is something going on.” She opened a folder and passed over a picture of him and Sally entering the nightclub. “We were having a night out, celebrating the end of the case.” “If you do anything to hinder the police investigation, I will pass this over to them.” She picked up the picture, putting it back in the folder. “I have no intention of going into Birmingham unless it is when I am driving for Uber. Are you trailing me? I will be gone if you are, I don’t like being watched.” “No, we were watching the club.”
Sally was waiting for him when he returned to his office, she had a coffee and was smiling, Dave wasn’t, she could see he wasn’t happy. “What’s happened?” “I’ve just had a bollocking, she knows we were in Birmingham on Wednesday, I’ve been told to keep out of it, if I don’t she will inform the police I’m interfering.” “What are you going to do?” “Carry on, I said I wouldn’t go into Birmingham unless it was in my cab. I will keep to my word. I can’t help it if other people send me emails.” He smiled as he said it.
© 10210ken 2025
