Authors: David Lowe
Showing no emotion, he walked back into the farmhouse and said to Mahoney, ‘Get our stuff. We’re getting out of here. The peelers will know we’re here by now. That bitch did a check on the Astra, so they’ll also know what we’re driving. We’ve haven’t got long before they find out what’s happened. We’ll drive to a nearby farm, steal another car and burn ours out.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Special Branch Offices,
Cheshire Headquarters,
19.15 hours, Sunday, 7
th
July
The sound of the officers’ chattering in the main ISB office was punctuated when a solemn faced George, followed by the commander of the North-West Region Counter-Terrorism Unit and Cheshire’s chief constable, Julia Hudson came out of the DCI’s office. As the bosses joined the officers, they knew something was wrong. All the officers looked at the three senior officers as they walked past them to the end of the room where George said, ‘Can I have your attention everyone. There’s been a serious development.’
The officers sitting back in their seats with their feet on the desks sat up straight, while those working on computers stopped. In a sombre moment of silence, they all continued to look at the three poker-faced senior officers as George opened the briefing, ‘I’m afraid we’ve got bad news. Two uniform officers have been found murdered at Leafield Farm. It’s about six miles from here and it looks like Maguire and Mahoney’s handiwork. The officers were among those checking the addresses we got from the husband from the safe-house they were using in Winsford. So we know they’re close by and active. Naturally, we’re pulling the uniform patrols off that line of enquiry and Cheshire’s armed response units are being deployed in the area to form roadblocks. On top of that, I’m calling for reinforcements from GMP and as we speak, DS Ray Baskin’s team are being summoned to come over here to Chester.
‘I want David Hurst and Steve Adams to go over to Leafield Farm immediately, check the scene and report back your findings. You’re both to stay out in the area to see if you can find anything that can lead us to Maguire and Mahoney. Andy Curtis’ team and the Cheshire officers, you’re to have a separate briefing as we’re bringing forward the search of Murphy’s house. As it looks like they’re bringing their events forward, we think we should bring ours forward too. Of course, before we hit Murphy’s house, it’ll take us a few more hours to set that up. We’ve just checked with Gary Baker’s team who are watching the place and he’s still there with his family,’ George looked at the commander and said, ‘Over to you sir. I’ll take Hurst and Adams out now and brief them separately.’
‘Thanks George,’ the commander said, ‘David and Steve, if you could make your way to the farm now. George will fill you in on the details as you make your way out.’
David and Steve got up from their seats. As David picked up his jacket from the back of his chair, he put his hand into the pocket to see how many clips he had left for his Glock and began to walk out of the room. As George walked over to the two officers he said, ‘Have you both got enough ammunition?’
‘I’ve got one in the Glock and three clips in my pocket,’ David said.
‘Same here,’ Steve said, ‘only I’ve got four clips.’
‘I’m sorry it’s you two,’ George said, ‘but I needed to fall back on your experience and I know both of you can use those weapons if you have to.’
‘Always the smooth talker,’ Steve said.
Giving a wry smile, George said, ‘I want you to go to the scene, look for anything that could indicate what they’ve got with them and what they’re up to. We’re convinced more than ever it’s the Royal visit they’re targeting and we need to stop them getting anywhere near Chester.’ He handed Steve a sheet of paper, ‘Here’s directions to the farm and it’s also got the details of the green Astra Maguire and Mahoney’s been using. It’s not at the farm now, so they must still be using it, but for how long is anyone’s guess. Do what you can as quickly as you can and keep me posted every step of the way.’
Steve took the paper from George and said, ‘Thanks George. We’ll be careful.’
‘Make sure you are,’ George said. As they made their way out of the main door, George watched the two officers walk up to the Special Branch car Steve had been using. Seeing the officers get into the car, George made his way back to the main briefing.
* * *
In the Vauxhall Astra, Mahoney drove back from Leafield Farm onto the A41 and turned off by Chowley in an attempt to throw the police off their scent. Passing through Chowley, sitting in the front passenger seat, Maguire saw a secluded farmhouse and said, ‘Dave, we could be in luck with that farmhouse up there on the right. We might be able to steal a car there. I could drive it and you follow me in this, then we’ll ditch the Astra and burn it out. See if you can find a side road that leads to the farm.’
Mahoney slowed down as both men looked at the farm entrance. Travelling only a few hundred yards further along the road, they saw a sign for Foxglove Farm. ‘That’s got to be it,’ Maguire said. Mahoney turned into the driveway and slowly drove towards the farm. As they approached the farm buildings Mahoney stopped the car. The two men gave a cursory look round the buildings from inside the car. No-one was in the immediate vicinity and a Ford Mondeo was parked up by a large barn. So as not to alert anyone that could be in the farmhouse, Mahoney drove slowly up to the Mondeo. Parking next to it, both got out of the Astra.
Mahoney tried the driver’s door of the Mondeo, but strangely for someone living in the countryside, it was locked. As he looked for an easy way to break into the car a woman walked round from the rear of the barn. Seeing the two Irishmen, she shouted, ‘Hey you two! What are doing with our car?’
Mahoney and Maguire stopped what they were doing and looked up at the woman. Maguire walked up to her. With a steely look, he stared straight at her. ‘I asked you what you are doing with our car?’ the woman said with a slight tremble in her voice, feeling intimidated by the stocky Irishman’s approach. Maguire said nothing. As he kept walking towards her, the woman sensed danger. She looked towards the farmhouse. Maguire was too close for her to make a run for it.
Maguire stopped walking and stood a couple of feet from her. Producing a pistol from the back of his trousers, he pointed it at her and said, ‘Is there anyone else in the house?’
Petrified, the woman stuttered out, ‘What, what are you doing? Why have you got a gun?’
‘Just answer the fucking question. Is there anyone else in the house?’ Maguire said pointing the pistol at her.
‘No, no, they’re out gathering the hay,’ the woman sobbed.
Maguire glanced up at the sky. It was a clear evening and the heat of the summer’s day had not abated. Knowing about farming from his youth in Ireland, he realised what she said rang true. ‘Good,’ he said as he shot her in the chest at point blank range. As she fell to the floor he placed the pistol at the back of her head and pulled the trigger a second time to ensure she was dead. Looking up at Mahoney, he shouted over to him, ‘Come on, we haven’t much time. Get into that Mondeo and get it started. With luck, it’ll be an hour or two before the husband finds out the bitch is dead.’
‘I’ll go into the house, and see if I can find the keys,’ Mahoney said running off to the farmhouse.
‘Hurry the fuck up,’ Maguire said, ‘I’ll make sure no one else is around that may have seen us.’
A few minutes later, Mahoney came out of the farmhouse and ran over to Maguire who was standing by the Mondeo with the pistol still in his hand. ‘I’ve found the car keys and some food to keep us going,’ he said, chewing the remnants of a slice of a freshly baked meat pie, ‘She was a good cook. This pie’s fucking lovely.’ With the keys he found on the kitchen table, Mahoney unlocked the car doors of the Mondeo. As he got into the car Maguire went back to the Astra saying, ‘Follow me and we’ll dump the Astra, then find a remote place to lie low for the evening.’
* * *
At Leafield Farm, David and Steve were studying the murder scene with the forensic pathologist. As a forensic tent had been placed over each of the officers’ bodies, they were out of view. Looking at the body of the female officer, David shook his head and said, ‘It’s those two bastards alright. It’s a trademark PIRA shooting. He’s put one through the chest, followed by one through the head to make sure. I think we should send out a public safety warning via the media for observations for the Astra as well as Maguire and Mahoney. So as not to cause a panic the IRA are back wreaking havoc on the British mainland again, we can say they’re linked to a series of armed robberies. We’ll have to stress they’re armed and dangerous and not to be approached.’
‘You’re right,’ Steve said holding aside the entrance flap to the tent over the female officer to allow David to walk through, ‘We can’t keep this under wraps. It won’t take long for news to get out two police officers have been killed. While you speak with the pathologist, I’ll call George and see if he can set up a press release.’
As they walked out of the tent, David said, ‘It doesn’t look like the male officer would have suffered much when he got shot, but the female, fuck me they’re hard hearted bastards.’
‘Seeing how the pathologist found salt deposits by her eyes and cheeks consistent with crying, she must have been pleading for her life,’ Steve said.
‘But the fucker still took it,’ David said as anger swelled inside him on seeing the dead colleague.
As Steve was about to ring George to arrange the press release, one of the forensic science officers came out of the house and called out to the officers. Walking up to them she removed her white mask that blended in with the white, all-in-one forensic science suit she was wearing. ‘I’ve got some good news,’ she said, ‘if you can say there’s any good news at this scene.’
‘What is it?’ David asked.
‘I’ve found explosive reside in the kitchen and it looks like plastic explosives,’ she said with a cautious tone in her voice, ‘It not much and I’m not committing myself until I’ve done extensive tests, but I’d say it’s semtex.’
‘That’s confirmed they’re planning to blow something up,’ David said, ‘Did you find anything else?’
‘We’ve got plenty of fingerprints that we’ve been able to match up to Maguire and Mahoney, so we know they were here,’ the forensic scientist said, ‘and as well as the gunshot residue on the walls in the hallway, we’ve got the empty cartridges. They contained rifle slug ammunition, the same that looks like that which killed the officers.’
‘Fuck me,’ David said, his lips tightening at the realisation that as well as explosives, Maguire and Mahoney had heavy weaponry, ‘that sounds like they’ve got a pump action shotgun. Thanks for that, I’ll report back to my DI and I’ll let you know what he decides.’ David took out his mobile phone and rang George, telling him what was found at the scene and requested the press release.
‘I’ll box off the press release. I’m on my way to the farm as you speak and I’ll be there in about five minutes,’ George said, ‘Tell the uniform officers not to allow anyone else on the scene until I get there and you two can get off and search the area for Maguire and Mahoney. If you find them, take no chances, report back straight away and wait until you get support from Cheshire’s firearms unit.’
* * *
As they were sat on their own in the kitchen of his home, Murphy said to his wife, ‘We’re going to have to move out tonight.’ Annoyed his plans had gone wrong, he was frantically wringing his hands as he said, ‘They’ve arrested the six I brought over to Liverpool, Danny and Michael are still in the cells after the botched kidnap of that Special Branch detective’s sister and I can’t raise Michael McCullagh. Rory’s still on the run and they’ll know by now that I arranged for their tout in Manchester to be killed. Then to top it all off, I see Jimmy and Dave’s photo’s on the news, along with the appeal for information of their whereabouts. That tells me it’s time we got out of here.’
‘It might not be that bad,’ his wife said sitting opposite Murphy. She reached across the kitchen table and reassuringly held his hands. ‘They haven’t arrested you yet. They might not have enough on you and that could give us a couple of days to make arrangements to get out of here rather than make a quick run for it now.’
Murphy squeezed his wife hands and smiled. ‘I wish I had your confidence, but when I saw Jimmy and Dave’s pictures on the news there was a reporter standing outside the entrance to the Leafield Farm holiday let they were supposed to be staying the night in. The soft bastards have only gone and murdered two unarmed uniform peelers at the farm. It’ll be only a matter of time before they trace it back to one of my companies. The reporter said Jimmy and Dave are wanted for a number of armed robberies, but the police are lying. They obviously don’t want it known there’s Irish terrorists operating on the British mainland again. And that, my love, means the peelers are hurting right now. You know they’ve been watching us for the last few days. I reckon they’ve got enough on me for us to expect the knock anytime now.’
‘What do you plan to do?’
‘Ring Sheila in Liverpool. Tell her the dress you made for her is ready and you’re leaving now for a final fitting. I told her that if you say this, she’ll know the shit’s hit the fan. Take the suitcase in the hallway. It’s got some clothes for us two. Once you’re at Sheila’s wait until you hear from me. They’ll be following you, so stay calm and do what you would normally do if you were going to Sheila’s. When you leave, I’ll make it obvious that I’m still in the house, so you shouldn’t get stopped to see if I’m hiding in the back of the car. I’ll bring whatever else we need with me later.’
‘What about the kids?’
‘They’re eighteen and twenty, so they can look after themselves. Once it’s safe, we can make arrangements for them to join us later. As they know nothing of our affairs they can’t tell the peelers anything if they’re questioned. Just in case they do bring you in, ask for Gerry Daley. He’s the solicitor who works in Liverpool. Play dumb and say nothing until Gerry gets there.’
* * *