Double Jeopardy, page 23
‘I’ll play it by ear, see what happens. They won’t do anything to me in their own house if they can help it. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.’
Tanner’s gut feeling began to get a lot worse.
His thoughts returned to the present, loitering in the Tillings’ garden in the freezing cold with five police officers, waiting for something to happen. Hoping that something would happen so that the preparations would not be wasted, but dreading it as well. They were not sure what reaction would be provoked when Julie tried to goad the Tillings into betraying themselves – assuming, of course, that there was something to betray. They had the back garden covered and there was a vanload of officers parked a little way down the street outside ready for a possible frontal exit. Other cars were in place to block the street if they tried to take Julie away in a car. Each group of police had torches, battering rams and pistols that fired tear gas and smoke bombs. If Julie seemed to be in danger inside the house, they’d all go in together like the US Cavalry. Hopefully, Tanner thought, not like General Custer. The police were very aware, of course, that if they weren’t careful they could end up with a hostage situation.
As a plan, Tanner thought, it had more holes than St Andrews, but it was all they had. And Julie was one of the most resourceful and determined people that he knew. He kept repeating that to himself. It wasn’t a great deal of comfort.
After Julie had gone into the house, the ache in Tanner’s leg had got worse. The leg had protested about clambering around in the boat and standing around in the cold was not improving matters. He tried a few on the spot exercises to keep it mobile. He had found he was able to get around without the walking stick and had left it behind in case he couldn’t resist the temptation to brain one of the Tillings with it.
After what seemed an eternity, they saw movement on the blind over the kitchen window. A short while later, the door opened and a wedge of yellow light spilled out on to the patio. They watched Laura, Julie and Archie come out. Tanner felt his heart leap with relief at the visual confirmation that Julie was unharmed. As Laura closed and locked the back door and led the way down on to the lawn towards them, Tanner could almost feel Mariner tense himself beside him.
They could hear Tilling taunting Julie as they came across the grass, his voice mocking and confident. They heard her respond briefly and then give the agreed code words at the same moment as she stamped down hard on Tilling’s foot to distract him.
As the police moved in, Tanner could see from the look on Julie’s face that she wanted to stamp even harder on some other part of Tilling’s anatomy, but she restrained herself and let Mariner organize the arrests.
By the time Archie Tilling had recovered enough to realize what was going on, his gun had been scooped up and placed in an evidence bag. With a bit of luck, Tanner thought, Tilling only owned the one weapon and if they could locate the bodies of the hired killers, it would add an extra element to the case against him.
Tanner moved round behind Julie and cut her wrists free. Then he turned her round, put his arms round her and hugged her tightly. Her response suggested that, despite her undercover experience, she hadn’t been nearly as calm inside as she had appeared to be.
The Tillings were handcuffed and cautioned. Neither had spoken a word. They had gone from complete control and domination of the situation to total defeat in a couple of seconds and were both staring at Julie in a state of starched-faced shock. Julie didn’t bother to say anything to them. She simply pulled the bottom of her blouse out of her skirt and lifted it up to a point just below her breasts. It wasn’t intended as an erotic gesture; it simply revealed the microphone and wires taped to her body. Mariner and Tanner both had ear-pieces and had been listening to every word spoken in the house and the van in the road outside had been recording it all for posterity and the courts. Julie turned her head to look at Mariner.
‘Did you get it all?’ she asked.
He nodded.
‘Every word.’
Julie relaxed and smiled.
‘At least I seem to have done something right.’
‘More than just something.’ There was considerable satisfaction in Mariner’s voice.
The Tillings had switched to staring at Tanner.
‘Reports of my injuries have been greatly exaggerated,’ he told them. He glanced at Julie. ‘Although I will require a great deal of TLC. I have been in agony loitering about in the undergrowth with my bad leg.’
Julie grinned, her eyes completely free from pain of guilt for the first time since Tanner had known her. She tucked her blouse back in.
‘Don’t worry. As a special treat, I’ll let you remove the bug.’
SIXTEEN
HARRY MILTON WAS in his study feeling edgy and irritable. The three carefully selected guests with whom they had been playing poker for most of the evening had gone soon after 10.30. Jack Pace had just left the room having announced that he was going to check that the house was secure before going to bed. Milton had grunted, envying his employee the fact that he had Jane Weston to share his bed. Jane might not be the most beautiful woman in the world, or have the sharpest intellect, but she curved in all the right places and walked with a wiggle that could make you cross-eyed. He decided that he needed a woman. He would have to visit his clubs and do something about that as soon as possible.
Milton scowled to himself. Part of the trouble was that he couldn’t even go upstairs and spend a soothing hour with his paintings and other art treasures. As soon as he heard that Beverly Wallace had spoken to Alec Tanner and Julie Cooper, he had moved his illegal possessions to a safer location as a precaution against a possible police search of his property. The items were not that far away, but he had kept them crated in case a second move was required.
The telephone cut across his gloomy thoughts and he barked out a sharp acknowledgement as he answered it. The voice at the other end spoke in subdued but urgent tones. The call did not take long, but when it was finished, Milton’s mood was several degrees fouler than it had been before.
Jack Pace was halfway up the broad staircase when his boss came out of the study and called out his name.
‘What is it, boss?’
‘I’ve just had a call from Den Fletcher.’
Pace’s forehead creased. Detective Sergeant Fletcher was one of their best moles in the Havenchester City Police. A call from him after eleven o’clock at night, coupled with the look in Milton’s face, did not suggest good news.
‘They’ve arrested Archie and Laura Tilling.’ Milton spat the information out.
Pace swore.
‘They must have made a balls-up of killing Cooper.’
‘Yes.’ Milton looked disgusted at such incompetence. ‘Fletcher wasn’t involved in the arrest and he doesn’t have any details, but he says Mariner was looking particularly pleased with himself, so I expect the bitch is still alive.’
‘Do you think Tilling will talk?’
Milton snorted.
‘Of course he’ll bloody talk. He’ll do as much as he can to save his own skin. He’ll be squawking like a parrot with verbal diarrhoea. The only question is how long it will take him to give the cops enough information on us for them to act.’
Milton clamped down on his anger as he worked out the best next move.
‘Mariner will have to get them booked in and questioned and he’ll need to get a warrant to raid us here. They’re partial to dawn raids, so we should have until early morning.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Go and tell Horace to come down. There’s stuff he needs to sort out before we can leave. Then get Jane to pack you a couple of cases and switch off the lights as if you’re going to bed. The cops may not be moving in for a while, but if I know Mariner, he’s got a watch on the front gates in case we try to leave, so we don’t want to do anything to alarm them. We’ll all meet in the kitchen at twelve-thirty.’
‘We’ll be leaving the same way as the paintings then?’
Milton nodded tersely, his brain already running over the things he needed to do.
‘When you’ve spoken to Jane, ring Reggie at the other house and tell him to expect us.’
As Pace turned and ran up the stairs, Milton went back into his study, his face stiff with rage. He knew who to blame for all this. He might have to go on the run, but if he got a chance he’d deal with Tanner and Cooper first.
‘They got away?’ Superintendent Mornington was a plain-spoken Yorkshireman who didn’t bother to hide either his astonishment or his displeasure. ‘There was no one in the house at all?’
Mariner was not happy. Although he was sitting in the chair facing his chief’s desk, he felt more as though he was standing to miserable attention in front of an old-style headmaster who was bending a cane in his hands. Not that he could blame Mornington – he felt like giving himself a thorough dressing-down as well.
‘Just the cook, sir. She claimed to know nothing about Milton’s business activities. That may or may not be true, but I doubt if she knows much that could help us or she wouldn’t have been left behind.’
‘How on earth did it happen? I thought you had the place under surveillance?’
‘We did, sir. We were watching the front entrance. As far as we knew, there was no rear access. Milton would have needed a helicopter to get out any other way.’
‘I take it your surveillance team didn’t notice a helicopter landing?’ Mornington raised his bushy eyebrows, showing a slightly surprising turn of sarcastic humour.
‘No, sir.’ Mariner’s face was as wooden as a forest. ‘He didn’t need one. It turns out that there was a rear access that we didn’t know anything about.’ He paused. ‘Nor, to be fair, did the council’s planners.’
Mornington sighed.
‘What exactly happened?’
‘We got a warrant for Milton’s arrest and to search his house based on Tilling’s statement and an armed team raided the property at five-thirty this morning. When we broke in, there was no one there but the cook. She claims to have gone to bed at ten-thirty last night with everyone in the house as usual and knew nothing more until she was woken up by us. We made a thorough search of the house to make sure there were no hidden rooms or anything, but we found nothing. We located the room where the stolen pictures were supposed to be kept but that was bare too.’
Mariner took a disgusted breath.
‘My first thought was that the surveillance team must have missed something, but they swore there hadn’t been as much as a stray cat through the gates all night. I organized a thorough search of the grounds. There was evidence of fresh footprints which suggested some activity in the garden last night. We checked right round the perimeter and eventually found it.’
‘Found what?’ Mornington snapped. ‘Don’t keep me in suspense, Ancient; this isn’t a bloody mystery story.’
Mariner nodded. At least he’d called him ‘Ancient’ rather than ‘Chief Inspector’.
‘Sorry, sir. There was a brick-built storage shed at the rear of the garden. It seemed to contain just the usual garden junk, but we spotted that it backed on to a similar shed in the back garden of the house beyond. In fact, they shared a common wall. A section of shelving at the back of the shed swung open and there was a door behind it that led to a similar section of shelving on the other side. They must have gone through there and into the other house, which is in a road two streets away from the one Milton’s property is in.’
‘I assume there was also no one in when you entered this second house.’
‘No, sir. There was sign of recent occupancy, though. We checked with the neighbours. A couple on one side heard activity sometime after one o’clock this morning. They sleep at the front and were woken by engines starting up and headlights across their window. The husband looked out and saw a small van and a car leaving the house. He went back to bed. He didn’t notice the make or colour of either vehicle except that the car was dark and the van was light.’
‘No chance of a registration number then.’ Mornington’s eyebrows did another round of exercises.
Mariner assumed that was a rhetorical question and carried on.
‘The neighbours know very little about the occupants of the house, which was last sold about three years ago. We checked the land registry and the supposed owner is no one we know. Either Milton used an alias, or he got a stooge to stand in for him. We’re checking into that now.’
‘Milton’s a careful man if he’s had this prepared for some years,’ Mornington commented.
‘Yes, sir.’ Mariner’s mouth twisted. ‘I suspect the rest of his escape plan has been equally carefully prepared.’
The superintendent grunted.
‘Who else is with him, do you think?’
‘Jack Pace and Horace Soames without a doubt and probably Jane Weston – she’s Pace’s girlfriend. They all live in Milton’s house. One of the neighbours did spot someone around the second house yesterday and gave us a description that sounds like Reggie Gray, so he could be part of the mix as well.’
‘If they had a van, they were presumably moving quite a bit of stuff with them?’
‘It was probably carrying the stolen paintings and other artefacts that Milton kept in his secret room. There may be some other stuff as well, although I’d think he’d want to travel reasonably light. He may be intending to stash some stuff somewhere and come back for it later.’
‘Can’t we get a line on him through his business activities?’
‘That may take some time. Milton seems to have done quite a bit of shredding before he left. There were two computers. Both had been smashed, presumably in an attempt to destroy the hard drives, but our boffins are pretty good at reconstructing that sort of thing – they’re having a go at that now. There were probably some laptops as well but they could have taken those with them.’
‘And you’ve no idea where they might have gone?’
‘No, sir. We’re checking all Milton’s holdings and his company properties as well as anything else in the name that was used to buy the bolt-hole, but no joy so far.’
Mornington’s expression suggested that he thought joy was likely to be in short supply for a while.
‘There’s little doubt he’ll be trying to leave the country,’ Mariner went on, ‘so we’ve alerted ports and airports, but there are ways and means of getting round that, of course.’
‘Hmm.’ The superintendent looked up sharply. ‘What about DS Cooper and your friend Tanner? Milton could well be blaming them for all this. He might have another go at them before he leaves. You’d better warn them that he’s in the wind and probably pretty volatile.’
‘I’ve tried, sir.’ Mariner’s voice suddenly sounded very tired. ‘There’s no reply from either flat, they haven’t arrived at the agency and their mobiles are switched off.’
The two men stared at each other for a moment. It was left to Mornington to articulate both their thoughts.
‘Bugger.’
A few hours before Mariner’s uncomfortable interview, Harry Milton had awoken from a brief sleep in the back of his car. He had a headache and a pain in his back. He got out and stretched, yawning. Pace was already up and leaning against the side of the van.
‘Morning, Harry.’
‘How long would it take you to reach the flats where Julie Cooper lives?’ Milton asked, rubbing at the small of his back.
Pace frowned thoughtfully.
‘At this time in the morning? Not much more than an hour. It’ll take longer later when the traffic builds up, of course.’
Milton consulted his watch. It wasn’t yet six o’clock.
‘I won’t be able to start making the arrangements for us to leave until after nine and we won’t actually get away until midday.’ He looked across at the other man with an expression as warm as penguin’s flipper. ‘Do you fancy another crack at Cooper and Tanner?’
Pace’s face split in a wolfish grin.
‘It would be a pleasure.’
‘You and Reggie can drive my car to Cooper’s flat. If Cooper and Tanner appear before ten, pick them up. Take the anaesthetic dart gun and try to get the drop on them and bring them back here alive. If you don’t see them by ten o’clock, give it up. You should easily get back here by twelve. I’ll ring you on your mobile if there’s a change of plan.’
‘What happens if we can’t get Tanner and Copper to come quietly?’
‘Kill them there and then if you have to.’ Milton’s mouth stretched humourlessly. ‘I’d rather see them die myself though – if you bring them here alive we can make it last.’ He looked at Pace with flat-faced consideration. ‘I’m sure you’ll manage. After all, you’ve already worked out a way to get into the apartment block’s car-park.’
Pace nodded.
‘Yes, I just didn’t get a chance to use it.’
‘Now’s your opportunity.’
It had been, Alec Tanner reflected, grossly negligent to let themselves be captured and their chances of learning from their mistake seemed to be disappearing rapidly. The relief of solving the murder had made them relax their guard dangerously. With the Tillings in custody and Milton set to join them, there hadn’t seemed to be any need for caution. They hadn’t just taken their eyes off the ball, they had stopped playing the game completely.
They had been walking towards Julie’s car in the underground car-park beneath her apartment block when he had felt a blow on his upper leg followed by a sharp sting. Looking down, he had seen a hypodermic dart jutting from his thigh. Even as he pulled the dart clear and started to move sideways, seeking the cover of the nearest car as he searched the surrounding area for the attacker, he heard Julie exclaim and clutch at her leg. Well before reaching cover, he had stumbled to his knees on the concrete floor, his vision failing as his strength washed away. He had a brief vision of Reggie Gray’s grinning face before he slumped to the ground unconscious.
