‘Check on who’s calling who and any texts since Oates escaped then get back to me.’
Whilst he was on the phone to the station Anna had spoken with Mike on the radio to report that Barbara had gone into the other neighbour’s and the occupier seemed fine and calm when he opened the door to her.
Langton had become so impatient he could no longer sit still and was pacing up and down the pavement. After about twenty minutes Barbara returned and got in the car, so Langton calmed down enough to join her and Mike.
‘It was Bradford. He said it wasn’t a convenient time and he’d never voted for anyone, especially not some rich bastard’s son! And then as much as I tried he shut the door. I had no chance of even seeing past him. I could hear a TV on – a football match or something.’
‘Do you think he suspected anything?’
‘No, I asked if there was anyone else resident who voted; he said his mother but she was a Labour supporter.’
‘How did he seem to you?’
‘His eyes were red-rimmed as if he’s not been sleeping. He also smelt very heavily of BO, and had terrible halitosis. Didn’t seem to want me to see inside, never opened the door fully.’
‘What about the neighbours?’
‘Okay, no reply one side and on the other a Mr and Mrs Pearson: I told them I was a police officer but they haven’t seen or heard anything unusual. They know Timmy’s mother quite well but don’t have much to do with him. There’s a community hall on the estate used for bingo evenings and residents’ meetings – they discuss any local problems. There was a meeting last night and Mrs Douglas usually does the tea and biscuits for everyone but she didn’t turn up.’
‘Residents’ meetings?’
‘Yeah, there’s a lot of council properties, but also lots of flats being done up for sale: their beef is who is going to be paying for what as there’s grass that needs cutting and garden maintenance and so on.’
‘Did they knock to see why Mrs Douglas didn’t go?’
‘No, the neighbour saw Timmy coming back from the newsagent’s this morning, he said his mum was under the weather and in bed.’
‘Good work, Barbara.’
‘Thank you, sir, and you might want this,’ she said, handing him a Yale key. ‘Mrs Pearson said Bradford’s other neighbours are away and she goes in to water the balcony plants for them. I thought the key might come in handy.’
Langton smiled and praised her quick thinking, before contacting Anna to tell her that he wanted her to discreetly change places with Barbara in the observation van as Timmy now knew what the DC looked like.
Langton turned to Mike in the back seat.
‘Give me ten minutes. I just need to stretch my legs and make some calls.’
A few minutes later and Anna was back in the car with Mike. She could see he was mad about something.
‘Where’s Langton?’
‘I don’t know what the fuck he’s playing at. Do you?’ Mike snapped.
Anna took a deep breath. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘You two seem to like having cosy discussions without me.’
Anna sighed; sometimes Mike really exasperated her.
‘Mike, don’t you get it? He’s protecting you, all of us, because don’t you realize that the Deputy Commissioner wants a head to roll?’
Mike shook his head. ‘In other words he’s protecting himself.’
‘No, you idiot, he’s protecting you. If Oates is in that flat he wants you to get the kudos of a tight clean arrest.’
‘Yeah, sure he does.’
Anna gave up, closing her eyes.
‘He gave the okay to take the handcuffs off Oates, you know full well that I was hesitant about it.’
‘Mike, you headed up the operation, and-’
Langton opened the passenger door and got inside.
‘Bradford’s made a call from the landline. NatWest Bank, New Malden, mother has an account there. She made an earlier arrangement for him to withdraw ten thousand in cash from her savings account. Bank said as he’s her son all he needs is the signed cheque, a letter of authority and proof of identity. They have arranged that he can collect the money at four-thirty this afternoon. Now we go to work…’
‘Arranged it over the phone? Surely that can’t be right,’ Mike said, surprised.
‘Well I’ve got two officers going to see the bank manager to make sure it happens,’ Langton informed them.
‘Timmy told me his mother is always up and about early, and she seemed to me perfectly capable of going to the bank herself. From my conversation with her I doubt that she’d give him that much money. Something’s not right,’ Anna said.
‘Oates is in there, it’s the ten grand,’ Langton said, his voice devoid of emotion as he turned and looked at Anna.
Langton drove off, and parked on Kingston Hill by the old gates that had once led into the estate in the days when it had been a big house surrounded by parkland. He got out and looked around. He could see for miles, but the spot was very exposed, not quite what he needed. Then he remembered just the place. Collecting Anna and Mike, they set off for the Kingston Lodge Hotel, which was less than half a mile away from the Kingsnympton estate. It would make an ideal base for their operation. En route he told them that it had parking at the rear and a conference room that could be used for briefing the SO19 officers and other units they would need.
On arrival the three of them went and spoke to the manager. Langton was right; it was the ideal place, and they could come and go using the rear entrance without causing too much disturbance. The manager was more than happy to help and took them to the conference room and also arranged for coffee and sandwiches to be brought in. He seemed to be enjoying himself and said that whatever they needed just to let him know.
Anna and Mike watched and listened as Langton got on his mobile and phoned the Commander to let her know that DCI Lewis would be setting up and running the Gold Command base at the hotel. She obviously gave the go-ahead as he next phoned Central Command at Scotland Yard to request firearms and tactical support group officers in unmarked vehicles. He also asked for the technical support unit to bring their silent drilling and listening equipment. Lastly he phoned the Hostage Negotiation Unit and briefed them on the strong possibility that Oates was in the Bradford flat. He had covered every single base with all the correct procedures in an amazingly short period of time, and his ability to take control of a situation and think on his feet was quite breathtaking. When he had finished on the phone he put his hand out to Mike.
‘Are we in this together?’
‘Yeah, we’re singing off the same hymn sheet.’ Mike shook hands with Langton, and Anna was grateful their feud was over.
Whilst awaiting the arrival of all the teams at the hotel, Langton briefed Mike and Anna on what he felt would be the best course of action. Mr and Mrs Pearson, the neigh-bours, had been asked to leave their premises and come to the hotel. Within the hour everyone was assembled in the conference room. Radio contact had been maintained with Barbara, who was still in the observation van at the Kingsnympton estate. She confirmed that no one had left or entered the premises. The technical support boffins made use of the conference room projector to show everyone aerial shots of the estate on a large screen, along with pictures of Oates taken since his arrest. The firearms supervisor used a large map on the wall to mark the best vantage points for his officers, should they need to storm the flat or deal with a hostage situation. Travis was able to give them all a layout of the Bradford flat from her visit.
Langton stepped forward and introduced himself, then reminded them of what a dangerous and violent man Henry Oates was. He gave a brief account of the day’s events so far and informed them that armed officers were already in place to make a street arrest should Oates leave the premises. This would be the best and safest scenario, however he felt Oates was unlikely to come out until Bradford had collected the money from the bank. Vehicle and foot surveillance on Bradford was the main priority at present as there was always the possibility, as slim as it was, that Oates could be holed up somewhere else and Bradford was planning to take the money to him. Langton then introduced Mike as the DCI leading the investigation.