Three Faces of West (2013) (13 page)

“Look.” He commented pointing straight ahead. A small figure popped up tentatively, not easy to spot but just enough for one to see if they were close enough, and they were looking for something. The person crawled out of the bushes to greet both men, Hudson tried to make out who it was with each step taken, but he could not be sure for the second,

“It’s one of the wardens.” He said clearly observing the white short sleeved shirt, black tie and trousers. West on the other hand appeared to know exactly who they were approaching, whoever this person was, they were clearly connected to West and it was something Hudson did not know about. To John the hair seemed familiar, the body, the face, until only a few yards away the identity of the person snapped into Hudson’s mind hitting him like a mental express train. It wasn’t a warden,

“Grey!!! It’s Maxwell Grey!!! How the hell?!!-‘

“Careful John.” Interrupted West.

“What do you mean ‘be careful’? I’m going to warn the authorities!”

John half turned to sprint back to the prison when he felt a sharp tug on his jacket shoulder. Looking round Jack’s clenched hand gripped him like a vice,

“What are you doing?!!” John shouted. He did not take kindly to being restrained. The two men faced each other with Grey looking on. The tension between them quietly rising to near breaking point,

“I warn you John, don’t bother.”

“What do you mean don’t bother? There’s a dangerous man standing there!!”

West looked on without comment. The eye contact between the two men seemed to echo far louder than any words. Then suddenly, as before the pieces of the morning’s events struck home,

“Why hasn’t he run?” Asked John pointing to the static Grey, “Why did he not stay hidden when we arrived? Did he expect to see us here?”

West glanced at Grey and then back at John.

“Well?” He queried

Jack hesitated for a second before answering, “Don’t bother informing the authorities.”

Then it hit John, “He did didn’t he? He was expecting you. It was you all along!!”

West, now taken at a slight disadvantage decided the best thing given the situation was to come clean,

“Yes he is. He’s here because I asked him to.”

“You helped him escape didn’t you? That’s what the sudden phone call was about!!”

Jack confirmed John’s allegation as truth,

“Yes, but it was for a reason.”

John just stood there stunned. Well aware that they in company with a dangerous criminal, he could not believe that West was it seemed in league with a terrorist. A chilly wind blew over all three as the revelations came out. But this reason, what exactly was it? Surely it must be connected to previous events, most notably the Finnin murder and the King’s Cross bomb plot,

“He’s a terrorist, he poses a threat to security, and you just let him out.”

Jack noticed his partner’s inability to accept the circumstance. But there were other factors to this,

“Listen, I’m taking Grey to a safe house-‘

“You what?!”

“I’m taking Grey to a safe house. I want you to carry on with investigations.”

John responded defensively,

“You can’t tell me what to do! Do you just expect me to walk away as if nothing has happened and leave you with someone you helped to escape?”

“That’s exactly what I expect you to do. Look I’m well aware of whom and what he is, but believe me there’s some things you best not know about. He needs to be out, but for now we need to protect him.”

This time it was John’s turn to hesitate. The whole thing sounded very suspicious, and against his better judgement. Faced with the delicate choice as to what to believe,

“I don’t like this.” He said

“I know. Trust me here; this is just the tip of a very large iceberg.”

He was prepared to give his friend the benefit of the doubt. Staking everything, his professionalism, even his freedom on the trust and past knowledge of working with Jack he could only hope his faith had not been misplaced. He gave Jack a word of caution,

“If this goes wrong….”

Cutting in, Jack tried to reassure his friend, “It won’t, we need to know who we are dealing with here. I’ll get Grey off somewhere secure for the time being. For now he is a vital link in all of this.”

“All of what?” Queried John,

“You’ll find out sooner rather than later. Can you carry on while I do this? I can meet up with you later.”

John submitted to the request. He wasn’t too happy about it but that was the situation he found himself in at the present time,

“I can go to Finchley to investigate that kid’s name, who was it?”

“David. OK good idea. I’ll join you when we have Grey secure.”

John moved away but turned back. Without saying a word West cut him off before he spoke,

“There is more to this trust me. I would like you in the picture but there are just some things even you are not privileged to know about. All I ask is that you place your trust in me, you do trust me don’t you?”

John looked for a second before turning away to walk back to the car. West turned back to his “prisoner” he had helped to liberate,

“Good that’s stalled him for now.” He thought to himself. Striding toward Grey he had to get him as far from the prison compound as possible,

“Let’s get you out of here, this way.”

Leading Grey away a pre-designated route, he made his escape with the terrorist. The plan had gone like clockwork, but was the price his career in the security service and his friendship with John?

Chapter 8:

Finchley 3:00pm, West arrives in a quiet street, nothing out of the ordinary from the outset really. Walking down the street he clearly was looking for a specific place as he strolled down the tree lined pavement. The houses, all upper middle class Victorian, had the distinctive architecture of the period, tall doors and large bay windows, all very well to do. He only stopped outside one residence when he recognised the silver car that John had driven away from the prison. Looking up at the property outside it was certainly intimidating, matching the style of all the other buildings. The car door opened beside West as Hudson who had been there for a few minutes stepped out to join his partner,

“You got Grey off safely?” He asked begrudgingly,

“Yes, he’s OK for now.”

John did not want to probe further. He knew the intelligence community was connected and interconnected with everything else. He knew his place,

“What do you think? Shell we go and find out about this David?”

West hesitated for a second, he had yet another revelation,

“I’ve had word from HQ. They’ve done some digging in relation to David’s background. Turns out that his second name is Finnin.”

“What?” Replied John,

West continued in his revelation, “David is Finnin’s nephew. That’s how he got the internship in the Whitehall offices. Family ties and all that.”

“We need to see him fast then.”

“Yes.”

They proceeded to the front door. As usual for flats it had a panel beside the main entrance where one could be buzzed into the correct apartment. They looked on eventually deciding to press one button in the hope that they could catch the young man. Pressing button number 4 the intercom crackled and buzzed as a woman’s voice radioed over the speaker,

“Yes?”

West began his introduction, “We are here to see David Finnin, does he live here?”

The reply came through, “No he lives in flat number 7 upstairs. Who are you?”

“We can’t say who we really are.” Commented John quietly. Jack agreed,

“We are police officers. We need to speak to Mr Finnin urgently.” He hoped the deception would be enough.

No answer came from the door as both men got out their security passes just in case of security cameras. Hopefully the clarity would not be good enough to blow the lie. It didn’t, the door clicked allowing the two men entry.

“Looks like it worked.” Remarked John quietly.

They proceeded through the door to find themselves in a small foyer. Shutting the door behind them the moved on into an entrance hall. It seemed respectable enough, carpeted floor, post boxes on the wall, nothing really out of the ordinary. Ahead of them lay a staircase, Jack noticing its presence just as one of the flat doors on the right opened up. A lady appeared, presumably the same one they had spoken to outside. She was young, around 28-ish blond hair,

“You want to speak to Mr Finnin?” She asked,

“Yes.” Replied Jack, “We need to speak to him urgently.”

“You’re the police?”

Jack continues with the deception, “Yes we are.” Both men produced their ID’s gambling on the fact that the woman would not look past that. Hopefully she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference and think that they really were police officers.

“Can you tell us which flat Finnin lives in?” Asked John,

“I told you, it’s flat 7 upstairs.” Replied the woman, confirming that she was indeed the lady they had a conversation with outside,

“Right well, we’ll be on our way then. Thank you for your help.” Said Jack, he clearly wanted to waste no more time here; he wanted to continue the investigation.

They both moved past the girl toward the staircase. It creaked slightly with each step as they climbed further and further. Once climbed the first flight, they passed a large hallway window through which, the communal garden at the rear could be seen. It wasn’t very well kept, a sign that is wasn’t really used that often,

“Doesn’t look very tidy, I’m going to check it out after we have seen Finnin.” Declared John.

Onwards they went, up the second flight of stairs and into a secondary corridor. The decor exactly the same as the ground floor. The floor thudded as they made their way down looking for the correct flat. Approaching a dark brown door it appeared to be the one they were looking for, the white number “7” on the door confirming it,

“Here we are, let’s see if our friend is home.” Said Jack as he knocked politely on the carved wooden structure. Waiting patiently outside, Jack knocked again, this time a little more loudly,

“Sounds like nobody is home” John commented.

Indeed there was no response, not even sounds of life from inside. Jack decided to make an executive decision,

“John, try to break in.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, go on.”

Jack stepped back, looking around to make sure nobody was in the vicinity. The other doors to neighbouring abodes all seemed tightly shut. Now was the time to go for it. John pulling out of his wallet a credit card decided this was the best tool at hand for the job. The old tricks are the best as he slid it between the lock and the frame, jiggling the handle as he did so. Taking all but a few seconds, the latch loosened as the card did the job and the door opened ajar. John stepped back as Jack moved forward to push the door open further still,

“Hello? Mr Finnin? David.” Was the cautious call out, no response.

“Hello?” Jack said once more, but still no response. Deciding to open the door fully to reveal the fullest extent of the apartment, the room was cluttered to say the least. Books on a bookcase not tidily arranged, the bed in one corner obviously been slept in but not made very well. As the entered, John closed the door behind them to conceal from prying eyes their investigations. Clothes strewn all over the floor, the place did not seem very well kept yet is did not seem deliberate. Strangely the whole place seemed like a mess but there was a curious randomness about it, almost as if the place had been ransacked. This fuelled the curiosity of the two men as they strode around the room.

Everything seeming very suspicious, so out of place, yet there was nothing to indicate any unusual activity. Hudson covered one area, West another, the side of the room closest to the bay window. The light from outside saturating everything in natural illumination made it easier to spot any clues, but the clues that were to reveal themselves did not need light to indicate the presence. Jack wandering close to the window itself, looking across a table that was covered in various objects and half read letters decided to take a closer look. Intending to pick up some of the envelopes piled up on one side he stepped forward giving the floorboard underneath his left foot to creak and give way slightly. It was only slight but enough to arouse Jack’s suspicions,

“John, come here.” He said. John immediately came across the room find Jack rocking back and forth on his left foot. Looking down even John could see the floor was uneven here, was it a structural flaw? Or was it concealing something else,

“What do you think?” Asked Jack pressing down on the loose floorboards,

“It’s hollow.”

“Shall we take a look?” Jack continued “Go and get a knife from the kitchen. We’ll soon see what’s underneath here.”

John proceeded to find a knife. Returning a few moments later with a medium size blade,

“Here.” He said while handing him the implement.

Both kneeling down, they peeled back the carpet to reveal the wood. The bare floor showed a slight gap between the level of the floor and the wall,

“That’s not right.” Commented John.

West placed the knife into the gap between the floor and the wall. The thin blade adequately suitable for the job, he proceeded to gently prise the gap, not wanting to stress and snap the blade he worked carefully. Even so they looked on as it wasn’t the floor that was coming loose, but part of the wall,

“There’s a panel here.” Remarked Jack, John wanted to give a suitable reply but before he could speak a cracking sound signalled a breakthrough,

“Got it.” He said. The panel they had just removed revealed the existence of a secret compartment behind the wall. Inside the gap lay a small strongbox,

“Another hidden safe, must run in the family.” Mused John.

They removed the silvery-white box from its hiding place and positioned it on the table at the side. It looked like an expensive bit of kit given the lock on the lid, a numbered dial protecting the contents from the outside world.

“From the look of this, no expense had been spared. Must be something important inside.” West remarked,

“How are you going to crack the combination?” Replied John,