‘We never hurt anyone. We only needed to scare the shit out of them. They were trained to sell holidays, not to protect the family silver, so we always got what we were after. What we nicked were worthless pieces of paper unless we could turn them into hard cash. As I’ve been living here and know a bloke who can deal with traveller’s cheques, we decided to do a job in Brighton. It all went well and we got away with a few grand’s worth. It was my job to convert them into cash quickly.
‘So, I took the cheques and gave them to my contact. He said he could deal with them. Well, after a few days the lads started to ask questions. “Where’s the money?” “When are you going to pay us?” “How well do you know this bloke?”
‘I kept chasing him but it seems your lot were putting some pressure on his bloke up the chain so he couldn’t shift them on. Well, we were all getting nervy and the others were getting suspicious. They started to accuse me of nicking all the money for myself. There was no way I was going to tell them who my contact was, so they thought I’d made it all up.
‘They started to get nasty, threatening all sorts of things. I mean for Christ’s sake, we have known each other for years. We’ve never let each other down but they were turning the heat up on me. I got scared so I stopped taking their calls, moved out of my flat and tried to lie low until I could get the cash. I was getting desperate and was begging my mate to get the money but he was in as much of a corner as me. I knew the others were trying to find me. I had to keep out of the way, but at the same time be around to make sure I was there to get the money when the cheques were fenced.’
This was all very interesting for Andy; it filled in some gaps, and was certainly going to be instrumental in dismantling this hitherto elusive gang. It did not, however, give many leads to help protect Angus and Jenny.
Andy’s silence prompted Sherry to continue.
‘So, eventually they tracked me down to the flat in Rose Hill. I’ve told you what they did to me there but it was basically torture. You know the score, tell them what they want and I would walk away. If I wouldn’t, or in my case couldn’t, I would never walk again. Thing was I had no way of conjuring up the money or knowing when they would get it, so they did what they did and here I am.’
Andy kept quiet.
‘They are going to kill me unless I get the money. They were watching while I was scraped into the ambulance. They followed it to the hospital. You can’t protect me unless I get the money to them and you ain’t going to let me do that now. They said they’ve got guns and they are going to come here.’
‘How have they told you all this?’
‘They phoned me really early, before you got here today. Your guards just stepped out. I said it was my missus and they didn’t question that.’
‘For God’s sake,’ muttered Andy. ‘OK, now tell me who they are, where they are, what they have said, what they are going to do. Every last detail, and now. I’ll be the judge of what is and isn’t relevant.’
Finally, like an opening lock gate, Angus gushed the details that Andy needed to piece the jigsaw together: the key to stopping a slaughter.
‘Right, I’m just going outside to make a couple of calls.’ He and the PC guard swapped places.
Time was against them. All the police knew was who they were looking for and in which town. Like the hunt for Bryce Laurent in Want You Dead, this was a life or death hunt for a needle in a haystack.
Nobody could be certain what the targets’ movements would be, which of their threats were scare tactics and which were real. What was certain, however, was that if they attacked the hospital Andy and the unarmed uniformed guard would be woefully inadequate protection. Some serious firepower was called for.
Intelligence was now coming in thick and fast; the gang intended to take Angus out at the hospital. The impact of that would be devastating. It would inevitably result in a shoot-out or siege which, with hundreds of sick patients as potential hostages or secondary targets, had the potential of being catastrophic.
A ring of steel was thrown around the hospital and its numerous entrances. Armed officers were drafted in, forming concentric circles of protection around the stronghold containing Sherry.
One of the core values of the emergency services is courage — the willingness to put oneself in harm’s way to protect others, whoever they are. Whether it is the firemen running towards the Twin Towers on 9/11 passing thousands sprinting away or Grace risking his life to save Pewe on the cliff top at Beachy Head, both depicted in Dead Man’s Footsteps, extraordinary gallantry is a role requirement for officers. Andy knew he and others would need to draw on every ounce of theirs.
Meanwhile, surveillance officers were combing Hastings, thirty-five miles east of Brighton. Intelligence suggested that the gang were holed up in that area but were planning to make their way towards the city imminently. The pressure was on to get to them before they reached their quarry. And the odds were very much stacked against the police. They had no registration number, just a rough description of the gang and of the car they would use to travel on their brutal errand.
By an astonishing piece of skill, a sharp-eyed undercover detective spotted a car similar to the one being hunted, with out-of-town number plates, parked in a row of vehicles on a dimly lit backstreet in Hastings.
Recognizing the twitch of his ‘copper’s nose’, he shouted for his colleague to stop the car; they watched and waited. A swift Police National Computer check on the car’s registration plate confirmed their suspicions. Moments later he glimpsed three burly men furtively making their way towards it, jumping in and driving off.
They started to follow and it wasn’t long before the car headed west towards Brighton.
This was it.
Providing the suspects did not get near the hospital, or Jenny’s secret hideaway, the advantage had now switched to the police. The order to arrest would be finely timed to ensure the safety of all but at the point where enough evidence had been gathered to see the gang locked up and the key thrown away.
Thankfully, the journey from Hastings to Brighton can be slow and tortuous. Normally this is acutely irritating, but with a high-impact firearms operation to plan, the more time available the better.
Andy, still in the ward, felt his pulse racing as, together with the armed officers who had joined him, he planned the contingencies should the bandits evade the pursuing cops.
Would they get warning of an imminent attack? Where would they take cover? What about Sherry? How would they protect a man encased in plaster? Please God, don’t let them get through.
The knowledge that there were several lines of defence that would have to be breached before their sanctuary was invaded did little to assuage their anxiety.
‘I hope you lot know what you are doing,’ Sherry remarked.
‘You’re bloody lucky,’ replied PC Mick Richards, one of the firearms cops. ‘If anything happens to me, just make sure Andy grabs my gun. I trained him at Gatwick and I tell you, he can shoot as straight as me.’
Despite his intentions, this quip did nothing to lighten the mood.
On the street, a plan was being hastily pulled together. These three men who had shown their propensity to inflict the most appalling violence were not going to come quietly. It required military tactics and an overwhelming show of force to make them realize there was no chance of escape and to shock them into submission.
You could have cut the atmosphere with a scalpel in the hospital room as the armed cops heard that the team had crossed the Brighton border. Their radios squawking into their earpieces, the firearms officers were privy to exactly what was happening and where. Andy could rely only on their body language and a few snatched code words that his previous firearms training had allowed him to grasp.