‘Maybe it’s not a real baby,’ said Malik. ‘Maybe it’s a recording.’
Shepherd laughed. ‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘But no, it’s not her.’
A council employee in blue overalls and a fluorescent jacket was emptying a litter bin. He was bobbing his head in time to whatever music he was listening to through large black headphones atop a woollen hat.
‘That guy,’ said Chaudhry, nodding at the man.
‘Because?’
‘Because when we walked by that bin it wasn’t even half full.’
Shepherd grinned. ‘Well spotted.’
‘Am I right?’
‘Spot on,’ said Shepherd. ‘We’ll often use people in uniforms because they tend to pass unnoticed; generally you’ll see the uniform and not notice the face. The downside of uniforms is that if they’re not in the right setting they show out. So he looks right in the park, or the street, but you’d notice him straight away in a shop or a bar.’ He took out his BlackBerry and tapped out a number. A few seconds later, the man who was emptying the litter bin straightened up and answered his phone. ‘All right, Tim, on to phase two.’
‘Phase two?’ asked Malik.
Shepherd ended the call and put his phone away. The man in the fluorescent jacket pulled the rubbish-filled black bag out of the bin, fastened it and then walked away towards the town hall.
‘Tim’s going to walk behind the town hall. We’re going to carry on with another exercise and I want you to tell me when you see him reappear.’
‘Check we can multitask, is that it?’ asked Chaudhry.
‘Sort of,’ said Shepherd. He stood up. ‘Let’s just take a walk,’ he said. ‘But keep your eye on the town hall. As we walk around I want you to watch out for someone taking your photograph. There are plenty of buildings overlooking the park so you can easily be snapped with a telephoto lens.’
They did a slow circuit of the park, with Chaudhry and Malik keeping a close eye on the town hall while also checking out the buildings around them. They walked slowly and Shepherd chatted to them both as they walked, explaining in detail how the surveillance team had followed them from their flat to the hotel in Reading.
When they got back to the bench a middle-aged man in a raincoat and trilby hat had taken their place. He was reading an iPad and chewing on a baguette.
‘So first things first,’ said Shepherd. ‘Did you see Tim come back from behind the town hall?’
Chaudhry shook his head. ‘Definitely not,’ he said.
‘Yeah,’ agreed Malik. ‘I saw him go behind the building but he never came back.’
Shepherd grinned. ‘Well done, Tim,’ he said to the man on the bench. ‘They missed you completely and I only just made you.’
The man with the iPad stood up and pushed back his trilby. Chaudhry and Malik groaned as they realised it was the man who had been emptying the litter bin.
‘He changed his clothes,’ said Malik.
‘Exactly,’ said Shepherd.
Tim nodded and walked away as Shepherd, Chaudhry and Malik went to sit on the bench.
‘Here’s the thing,’ said Shepherd. ‘Professional followers will always carry with them things that can change their profile. Hats. Jackets. Bags. Plus props. If you see a guy carrying a copy of the Financial Times you’re more likely to notice the paper than the man’s face. So if he drops the paper and carries a cup of coffee you won’t remember him. If he goes into a shop wearing a baseball hat and comes out wearing a scarf there’s a good chance you won’t recognise him. It can help you lose a tail too. A reversible jacket can change your colour scheme completely, or take off your pullover and tie it round your waist, roll up your sleeves, develop a limp, put your arm in a sling. Glasses on, glasses off. Tim there was wearing a fluorescent jacket and carrying a black bag the first time you saw him. That’s what you were looking for, so when he walked by you in a raincoat and carrying an iPad you didn’t notice him.’
‘So what’s the trick, what are you supposed to remember?’ asked Malik.
‘Try to get a good look at faces. If you can’t see their faces look for body shape. And despite what I said about developing a limp, most people tend to move the same way. Look at the way people walk, how they move their shoulders, the angle of their neck. And shoes. A watcher might have time to change his jacket but shoes are usually too much trouble.’
Shepherd’s BlackBerry buzzed and he took it out of his pocket. He looked at the screen and grinned. ‘Here’s the first of the photographs,’ he said. He showed them the screen. There was a picture of Chaudhry and Malik, close up.
‘You’re shitting me,’ said Chaudhry. ‘Who took that?’
‘One of the watchers. She walked right by us.’
‘Why didn’t we see her?’ asked Malik.
‘Because you were looking at the buildings,’ said Shepherd. ‘You were concentrating on the distance so you didn’t see what was right under your noses.’
Shepherd’s BlackBerry buzzed again as it received a second photograph. This one was of Chaudhry, side on. He showed it to Chaudhry, who shook his head in amazement.
‘That was taken just feet away. From a phone, right?’ Chaudhry said.
‘No, that was taken by Jake, who had a camera in his hat. He can take a picture of anything he’s looking at, and the shutter button is in his pocket. Even close up you’d never see the lens; it’s not much bigger than a pin.’
The phone buzzed once again. The third photograph was of the three of them, taken from some distance away. Shepherd showed it to Chaudhry and Malik. ‘This camera was in a briefcase.’
‘Okay, I get it,’ said Chaudhry. ‘Your guys are pros and we’re the amateurs. But you didn’t have to bring us all the way to Reading to tell us that.’
Shepherd put the BlackBerry away. ‘You’re absolutely right, Raj. So now we’ll move on to the next stage.’
‘Sit down and try it out for size,’ said Shepherd. He had taken Chaudhry and Malik to the John Lewis department store, close to Reading station. They were in the sprawling furniture department on the fourth floor.
‘Are you serious?’ asked Malik.
‘We’re here to look at furniture, right? So sit.’
Chaudhry and Malik dropped down on to the long leather sofa, a dark-brown Chesterfield. Shepherd sat in a matching armchair.
‘The key to spotting a tail is to take them to an environment where they show out,’ said Shepherd. ‘Department stores are perfect. Look around, what do you see?’
The two men casually looked around. ‘Housewives,’ said Chaudhry. ‘And couples.’
‘Exactly. And not just housewives. Well-to-do housewives. Generally middle-aged and middle class. You don’t see many young single men here. Or people in jogging clothes. Or businessmen with briefcases. Or anyone in a uniform. And if they were here they’d be the proverbial sore thumb. Choosing furniture takes time, so you can spend ten minutes or more here and no one will think anything about it.’
He stood up. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Menswear next.’ He took them downstairs to the menswear department and through to the suits section. ‘Browse,’ he said. ‘And let me know what you see. Or don’t see.’
There were half a dozen men looking through the racks of men’s clothes.
‘No women,’ said Malik. ‘I get it.’
‘Yes, you rarely see women buying men’s clothes,’ said Shepherd. ‘So a watcher who blends in in the furniture department won’t fit in as well here.’
‘Could be a middle-aged guy,’ said Chaudhry. ‘He’d fit in in both places.’
‘So you’d then go to the lingerie department and do a walk-through there. Or the toy department. Or cosmetics. That’s why department stores work so well. They have everything under one roof. And, because there are multiple entrances and exits, they have to stick with you. High street shops don’t work so well. They can just wait outside.’
‘So what are you saying? That we have to go shopping every day to see if we’re being followed?’ asked Malik.