‘They’re in the car park, John, I gotta try and get outta here,’ he said quickly and waited. ‘John, John, can you hear me? Get out now!’ But still there was no reply.
In the flat Bradfield swore when he heard the transmission over the CB loudspeaker and realized that Clifford had somehow discovered that the police were watching. He was worried all hell would break loose now that he had lost the element of surprise.
Bradfield radioed the officers in the car park. ‘Target on rooftop making escape, cut him off and arrest now. Be warned he is extremely dangerous and violent!’
‘We’ve got to move in now, Spence. Are you ready to go?’
‘I just spoke with Stanley at the shoe shop and I don’t think the suspects in the bank heard Clifford,’ Gibbs said.
‘How could they not hear them when we all did here?’
‘Stanley said the Greek and Danny loaded some bags in the van a couple of minutes ago and went back inside. If they’d heard Clifford they’d all be well on their toes by now,’ Gibbs replied.
Frank raised his hand and waved it to attract Bradfield’s attention.
‘Not now, Frank, I’m trying to think.’
For once Frank wasn’t prepared to shy away from speaking up. ‘I believe Spence is right.’
‘How would you bloody well know?’
‘Well, I don’t know for certain, but it can only be one of two things.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Bradfield asked in an angry tone.
‘The batteries on the walkie-talkie have gone flat, or they’ve taken it into the vault where it won’t work.’
‘Of course it will, we just heard Clifford on it.’
‘His works and sends transmissions. Problem is they won’t hear it in the vault because the signal can’t penetrate the steel surrounds.’
Bradfield’s anger abated in an instant and he smiled realizing that in all their euphoria it had never crossed the suspects’ minds that a walkie-talkie would be useless inside the vault. He was now almost certain that John, Silas and Danny were still totally unaware of what was happening outside the bank.
Clifford ran down the ramps of three floors and finally found a parked car that he could hide behind in the hope the officers would run straight up to the top floor. His heart was pounding as he lay flat on his belly in the small gap between the front bumper of the car and the wall, so he could see the feet of anyone passing or looking around. He thought about the others and assumed they had heard him and were now frantically trying to get away with the stolen goods and money. Hearing the sound of someone running up the ramp Clifford held his breath as best he could. From under the car he saw feet and heard a voice.
‘We’re nearly at the top, guv. No one’s passed us so he’s still up there and his only way to escape is to jump.’
Clifford waited until he could no longer hear the officer’s footsteps. He got up and took off his jacket. Holding it up against the driver’s-side window he used his elbow to dampen the sound as he smashed it open. Once inside he felt under the ignition barrel and ripped out the cables. Hotwiring a car was second nature to him.
As Bradfield crossed the road with his team he walked with a determined and confident stride. He radioed the officers sent to arrest Clifford and asked if they’d got him. One of them said they’d reached the top floor but Bentley wasn’t there and must have somehow got away.
DC Stanley was listening and responded to the conversation.
‘Impossible, I’ve got an officer still monitoring the ramp exit and stairwell. They saw your two go up but no one, I repeat no one, has left the car park.’
Bradfield’s adrenalin was pumping as he radioed the officers in the car park. ‘He’s hiding somewhere, so find him. I’m going into the bank with my team now... All arrest units take up positions now. GO, GO, GO!’
He watched impatiently as a nervous Dunbar fumbled through various keys to open the front doors of the bank. He lit a cigarette to keep himself calm and told Dunbar to get a grip of himself.
Once inside the bank Dunbar deactivated the windows, doors and entry-alarm system and they all headed to the vault room at the back of the premises. Before they could get through to the vault there was a set of iron-grilled doors and Dunbar deactivated the alarm before opening them.
Bradfield, Gibbs, Kath and two detectives stood at the vault door. Dunbar was shaking like a leaf as he whispered to Bradfield.
‘It’s on a time lock so the usual multi-digit code will be useless. I’ll have to use the “duress” code, which will set off a secret alarm signal to Scotland Yard alerting them to a forced-entry condition.’
‘That’s not a problem, just fucking OPEN IT,’ he whispered harshly.
Dunbar began to press in the code but he was shaking and worried about pressing the wrong buttons more than once, which would lock the whole system down, and then no one would be able to get into the vault until it was reset by an expert. Bradfield pushed him aside.
‘Give me the numbers,’ he said impatiently. Dunbar told him the digits and Bradfield entered them into the electronic key pad. Two seconds later they could hear the sound of clicks and whirs as the bolts began to slowly retract.
Inside the vault John was still using the cutting torch on the safe and had one locking bolt to burn through before he could open it. Silas popped his head up and grabbed two more bulging pillowcases on the vault floor next to the hole.
‘We loaded van, John. This is last lot so we need to radio your dad and get de fuck out of here.’
‘Where’s Danny?’
‘In tunnel behind me, getting annoyed waiting,’ Silas said, and handed Danny the pillowcases which he stuffed into a sports bag.
‘I’ve nearly cut through so stay there and help me carry out what’s in the safe and then I’ll call me dad.’
Silas handed Danny another full pillowcase. As John leant over and turned the pressure up on the oxyacetylene tank he noticed the vault door start to open. He knew in an instant what was happening and looking at Silas shouted, ‘Someone’s opening the fucking door! Get out now!’
Dunbar and Gibbs gripped the vault wheel tightly and started to walk backwards, heaving and pulling open the heavy door. Bradfield turned and looked at Kath who was shaking from the adrenalin rush brought on by what they were about to do. He put his hand on her shoulder to reassure her. ‘Best feeling in the world being a detective and nicking a villain on the plot.’
Looking into the vault Bradfield and Kath saw John Bentley. The next few seconds seemed to occur in slow motion as Bentley’s eyes widened in panic and the torch flame gave off an eerie blue light that illuminated his stricken face.
The explosion that followed was like a massive bomb going off. Terrifying screams could be heard as fractured bits of metal and steel became lethal projectiles. The vast fireball had only two ways to go, out of the vault, into the bank and down the tunnel, engulfing and burning everything in its path. The giant fireball travelled across the bank like a massive wave, and as it blew out the front windows the explosion lit up the night sky. Bits of glass and metal debris glistened in the flames as they rained down onto the street.
The officer listening in the basement of the shoe shop felt the building tremble as if there were an earthquake. As he ran to escape bits of the basement ceiling began to crumble and collapse around him.
The officers on the outside arrest teams and in the ops ran instinctively to the front of the bank, fearing for the safety of DCI Bradfield and the officers who were with him.
Clifford had just pulled out from the car park in the stolen car. As he drove past the bank the explosion and flying debris terrified him. He swerved across the road, mounted the pavement and narrowly missed a lamp-post. Some of the glass from the bank windows flew in through the smashed window of the car and caused minor cuts to the right side of his face. As he drove off at speed he didn’t have a clue what had happened, and hoped and prayed that John had escaped. Even if he’d been arrested he knew his son wasn’t a grass. Clifford reached into his jacket pocket and removed the walkie-talkie, thinking briefly about using it to try and make contact with his son. However, now suspecting the police had been listening in, he threw it out of the window and watched in the mirror as it broke into pieces on the street.