To Kill Or Be Killed (17 page)

As he walked
them to a waiting car the Inspector chattered quickly.

“We’ve got the
place surrounded, marksmen on every vantage point and personnel
covering every exit.”

“I take it you
haven’t cleared staff or guests from the hotel?”

“No we didn’t
want to alert your man and we were waiting for you.”

“Good. When we
get there you can clear staff from danger points and into a safe
area of the hotel. Have someone outside the window and I’ll go
in.”

“Are you sure
about this?” The head of armed police, a solid and heavy set man
with a day’s stubble and marble hard eyes, exclaimed loudly and
looked from face to face.

“Yes I want to
go in first and these two will back me up. I don’t want a repeat of
Perth. I want this man alive.”

“If you say so
Mr Deany.” The chief inspector said, but he gave a meaningful
sideways glance to the head of the armed police units.

The unmarked
police Vectra swirled its way through the airplane parking and taxi
areas and passed for a moment along near the runway, where the
thunder of a taxiing passenger jet drowned the out conversation in
the car. They passed through a gateway into the car park, from
Ringway Road and within five minutes the team found themselves
walking to the Hotel along Parade Road, the chief inspector
readying his staff by radio.

The chief
Inspector and the head of armed police stopped at the edge of the
car park near an unmarked van being used as a control centre. Tony
led Shadz and Jaz up to the reception of the hotel.

“Tony are you
serious?”

“Listen Jaz we
have to do this ourselves. Beaumont and David allowed the armed
police in first and look what happened. No we’ll handle this.
Alright Shadz?”

“Sure if you
say so but this is a bit of a first and it’s been a while since the
training.”

“You’ll be
okay. We’ll do a run through in reception. I’ll lead the way.”

“Tony I don’t
want to be rude, but is this some kind of macho crusade?” Jaz asked
somewhat sarcastically.

As they entered
the hotel and the door closed behind them they saw reception staff
being replaced by armed police and being shepherded to the kitchen
areas of the hotel.

“Look Jaz I was
New York police. I know how to deal with this. You’ll be more
effective DIC agents if you use your brilliant minds, some guts and
the rights the badge gives you to see this job to its ultimate end.
I want him alive and I don’t want to go back to Jack having stood
back and let armed police fill him full of holes. Okay.”

Jaz nodded.

“Let’s find a
door and empty room to have a quick run through then let’s get on
with it.” Tony said with finality.

Using the empty
manager’s office Tony showed Jaz and Shadz how to stand either side
of the door and with the door open he pushed it, as if kicking,
open and stepped into the room; Jaz and Shadz followed his
instruction to follow in to left and right.

“Okay. Now if
you have to shoot, Shadz you aim low, Jaz you hold back at the
right and kneel down, that means you can take a second to pick and
aim at his gun arm or hand okay.”

“My god you had
better be right Tony.”

Tony smiled and
patted her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

They made their
way down the narrow dimly lit corridor with, at each end, armed
police waited.

“You’re to put
these on. No Questions.” An armed officer handed them some bullet
proof vests.

Tony nodded and
took the Kevlar vest. Having taken a moment to adjust and fit the
bullet proof vests the three DIC officers took up positions at the
hotel room door. Tony paused and kicked the door in.

The crash of
the door and Tony’s shouted ‘Armed Security show yourself’ woke
several guests on the corridor, especially the drunk next door.

Shadz was in
the room in a second his Sig before his face pointing where he
looked. Jaz knelt on one knee to Tony’s right her Sig steady at the
end of her pointing arm, the muzzle like an accusing finger.

The empty room,
unmade bed and lack of articles around the room didn’t put them at
ease. All three pistols pointed at the bathroom door. Slow steps to
the door, all three fingers now edgy on the triggers, ignoring the
voices in the corridor the three inhaled, Jaz pushed the door open
from the hinge side and Shadz put his weapon hand around the jamb
as Tony stepped into the door way. Finally the empty bathroom put
them at their ease.

“That was
great!” Shadz finally breathed. “Man what a rush!”

“Bloody men!”
Jaz laughed and shook her head.

They made their
way into the corridor.

“Empty.” Tony
said.

“We’re sweeping
the rooms and corridors one at a time, one guest at a time. We’ve
got the manager’s list. You think he might be in another room.”

“No.” He’s
gone.” Tony shook his head. “We’re too late. Keep checking the
rooms though.”

“Mr Deany this
man’s got an interesting story.” Tony turned to see a young man in
his late twenties, hastily dressed, ruffled morning hair and red
eyes.

“Someone stole
my stuff in the night, wallet, car keys and phone.”

“What make of
car?”

“Citroen C4,
pale metallic blue.”

“Check the car
park.” Jaz spoke to the nearest officer. He radioed the request.
They all heard the reply.

“No car like
that in the car park is he sure he parked it here?”

They all looked
to the man.

“Yeah of course
I left here and we went into the city and got bladdered, used the
bus there and back.”

“That’s your
answer then.”

Jaz, Shadz and
Tony walked down to reception. The Chief Inspector was waiting with
the manager.

“He went in the
night then?”

“Yes.” Tony
answered, slowly calming from his adrenalin high.

“He’ll have
watched the news late and seen the Perth footage and the news item
on Wally’s murder. That’s when he’ll have decided to get out.” Jaz
spoke excitedly, still pumped up by the danger.

“I’ll put out
an alert for the Citroen C4.” The chief inspector said calmly.

“How far south
could he be in say eight hours?” Jaz asked.

“A long way.”
The inspector replied ruefully.

“Let’s set up
and see what local DIC have on the CCTV for roads out of here and
service stations in the last eight hours. Can we have your office?”
Shadz turned to the manager.

“Yes of course.
Follow me. Can I get you some coffee?”

“Please and
thank you.”

As they made
their way to the office the head of armed police called out to them
“All rooms are clear, he’s not here.”

The chief
Inspector wound up the operation and cleared away his staff within
fifteen minutes. He popped his head into the manager’s office.

“We’re all done
here is there anything else I can do?” There was a note of angry
tension in his voice. They’d be alerted and called out early and
all for nothing. He wasn’t a happy man.

“Yes come in.
Have a coffee.” Jaz looked up from her laptop and gave the police
man her warmest smile. “You must be exhausted.”

“Thank
you.”

He sat and Jaz
poured him a coffee.

“Sugar?”

“Two
please.”

“We’re checking
all CCTV. It looks like he headed up the M62 around midnight any
ideas where he could have gone?”

“Well assuming
he wanted somewhere isolated the Daisy Nook Country Park would have
been the best spot.”

“Good thinking.
I’ll just get a map up, can you show me?” Jaz smiled sweetly
again.

Shadz caught
the tone of her voice and looked up. Jaz leaned into the Chief
Inspector. Shadz suppressed his smile and looked down at his
laptop. She was a sly one. She knew how to play men that was for
sure. With the thought that if she’d found men attractive she’d be
lethal he began scouring into city routes CCTV from eight am
onwards realising that Cobb had to be back on his way into the
city. Luckily for him local DIC were already on the case and with a
shout of triumph Shadz declared the car was on a street near the
city centre. They grabbed their equipment and ran for the car park.
The chief inspector called a quick armed response team to meet them
on Gun Street.

Just before the
DIC team had arrived at the hotel Cobb had turned off the A62 onto
Great Ancoats Street and having parked half way up Gun Street he
threw the car key away. He then made his way onto Pickford Street
and walked through the car park. He was approaching his target
building, the wig suppliers, Wigs Up North, from the back. It was
eight thirty-five and he had to hope that the workers didn’t arrive
until gone nine. As it was he was wrong. The manager and deputy
were at the front of the store as Cobb arrived at the back. In a
way Cobb was lucky for that as the alarm system would have tripped
when he picked the back door lock and entered the storage rooms,
but for the fact that it had been switched off at the front two
minutes before his consummate lock picking skills gave him
access.

Cobb had no way
of knowing where to look for the kind of wig he was seeking. He
walked the large back room storage staring at piles of boxes, on
the side of each one, clearly visible in black marker, was a stock
number. He was about to start looking box by box when he heard the
voices in the corridor outside. Looking to the door he saw a
clipboard with listings hanging on a hook. These weren’t the made
to measure specialist work that the firm made its real money
from.

Cobb froze and
stepped to one side of the door. He eased his silenced pistol from
inside his jacket. He heard a kettle boiling in the next room and
some muffled words. One set of footsteps passed the door. Some
moments after the sound of the kettle another set of footsteps
passed. Cobb looked at his watch. It was a quarter to nine.

He waited by
the door, still, expectant and listening. There were no sounds. He
pulled the manifest from the wall and looked at the listings. There
were order numbers on the left and descriptions to the right. He
scanned the list and caught sight of the word he was looking for,
‘blonde’. The product number fixed in his head, he scanned the
boxes. It was quickly found, though there were two unwanted boxes
on top. He quietly lifted the light boxes and placed them in front
of the door by way of a warning hazard. He slipped out a lock knife
and opened the box. Inside there were a number of blonde wigs. Cobb
pulled out Wally’s pass and looked each one over. In the end, not
able to try them on he chose four with curls and packed them into
his rucksack.

Just as quietly
as he had removed them he put the two boxes back and made his way
to the back door. He flipped the Yale catch and left as he had
come, unseen.

Down stairs in
the shop the manager and his deputy had no idea how close to death
they had been. Sipping coffee they waited for their day’s
custom.

The DIC team
were on Gun Street by ten past nine, the Vectra and the armed
response car were backed up by a police car at each end of the
street. Tony and Jaz got out with the Inspector. They approached
the car and looked around, trying the doors.

Back in the
Vectra Shadz sat with his cell phone linked to his laptop waiting
on messages and tapped into the city CCTV.

Still one step
ahead and more by luck than planning Cobb had pulled the black coat
on at the back of the wig shop building, pulled up the hood and
wound the scarf around his face ‘hoody’ style. He was heading into
the city centre and there was CCTV there, lots of it. On his way
in, close to High Street, two police cars flew past him, blue
lights flashing, no sirens, heading, he knew, for Gun Street.

He quickened
his pace and made it to the Arndale Centre around ten past nine and
rapidly found the Vision Express. Outside he checked Wally’s Pass
again to get a picture of the glasses. Before he went in he took
off the hood, undid the coat and loosened the scarf. CCTV camera
ten metres away caught his image and as he walked into the shop DIC
alerts in the city flagged up on Shadz’s laptop.

Cobb knew he
didn’t have long, but played it cool nonetheless. He walked around
the shop looking at the racks of glasses frames, each with clear
plastic lenses firmly fixed in. He was asked if he needed help and
politely explained he was browsing. A rack containing the frames
that looked most like those in Wally’s pass was his third stop in
the store. He selected the frames, then four others and tried each
different frame twice putting them, not back on the rack, but on
the shelf in front of him. In the shuffle of hand to eyes, down to
shelf and hand to eyes he palmed the wanted frames into his
sleeve.

Casually he
glanced at his watch and made the look of a man who is late.
Leaving the unwanted frames on the shelf in a pile he left the
store. It was ten minutes before the tutting assistant went to
replace the frames on the rack and noticed the stolen item, by that
time Cobb was away.

The Vectra came
skidding at high speed into the Arndale Centre pick up point and
the three DIC team members jumped out slamming doors. Armed
response vehicles pulled up and plain clothes and uniformed armed
police scurried to every exit and entrance.

Each door team
was given a picture of Cobb and were told he was wearing a black
coat.

Tony, Jaz and
Shadz sprinted the short distance to the Vision Express and once
outside the door only Jaz went in whilst the other two scoured the
crowds.

A very short
distance away Cobb was in River Island, buying clothes in as
similar a style to Wally as he could remember, duffle coat
included, and he added a shoulder bag to replace his recognisable
rucksack.

The girl with
dark hair took his card and smiled.