“Thank you, sir” said Colin “it was hard work but I’ve never been fitter and I feel more like thirty three than forty three! So why are there misgivings about me among the others?”
“That was my fault I’m afraid, old chap; I remember there being a few items of unfinished business on your summer tour. I proposed we let you loose for your first operation on a target you had researched in detail previously. A quick job to get you back in the swing of things was all I suggested. Athena wasn’t in favour though; she thought I was indulging you undeservedly. The lads were of the same opinion as I was; get you out in the field and back doing what you do best.”
“What’s the final decision?”
“You have a green light Phoenix! You must start refreshing your background on DCI Richard Armitage (SOCA London) as soon as this meeting is over. You have been issued with a laptop already which is in your quarters no doubt? I’ve arranged for our IT people to pass you their files on Armitage. The police have all the material you gathered previously; we lost that edge when they found your Land Rover in the car park across the road from the Pavilion, but that can’t be helped.
There haven’t been any signs of the police focussing on your non-appearance in the river; it’s too soon to assume it’s a closed book, but on balance we believe you can proceed in the field, with caution. Remember Phoenix, it is imperative you complete your task without leaving any clues for the authorities as to your identity.”
“Nor my links with Olympus” said Colin “yes Erebus, I‘ve had that drilled into me quite enough over the past twelve weeks. I understand.”
Erebus took his mobile phone from his suit jacket pocket and rang for their refreshments. Five minutes later they were enjoying a deliciously hot cup of coffee while they chatted over the basic details of the Armitage case. Colin recounted everything he had learned during his planning for the ‘hit’ while on tour with Maiden’s Hair; Erebus listened carefully; he was impressed with the level of detail that Phoenix had gone into, plus how much of it he still remembered despite the three months gap since he had access to his own files on the matter. If Athena was here, listening to this conversation perhaps some of her misgivings would be allayed; unless she had reservations about some other aspect of Phoenix’s nature. He would have to keep an eye on these two; the old man wasn’t blind to the sparks that flew whenever these two came into contact with one another. He was old; but not that old!
Richard Armitage had served with Sussex police for sixteen years and was based at their headquarters in Lewes; in April ’07 he had joined the Serious Organised Crime Agency in London. He had been involved with teams targeting the drugs gangs operating across London and the south-east; a pretty thankless task, but one which the public expected to be carried out diligently and by officers who acted with honesty and integrity; men and women who never compromised or abused their position.
During his time in London, Armitage was promoted to DCI and on the face of it he was a model policeman. In 2010 however, the forty five year old officer was accused of shaking down drug dealers for cash and guns, planting narcotics on them and then arresting them; he was further accused of falsifying police reports. The charges against him included conspiracy, official misconduct and theft.
Four witnesses appeared in court to testify that Armitage ‘robbed people, planted drugs and violated his oath of office’. His defence barrister argued his client’s arrests had been legitimate; and that his career had been devoted to getting drugs and guns off the streets. One of his accusers had been a former colleague who had been dismissed from the force in ’08 for corruption and received a custodial sentence; the others were career criminals who had been brought to the court from prisons across the country.
It was their ‘human nature’ to lie he said. He told the jury they should reject the evidence they had given. The defence barrister told the court that Armitage’s former colleague had only agreed to testify against DCI Armitage in exchange for a reduction in his sentence. The jury listened to the men lined up to accuse the DCI; they heard those witnesses being discredited and the unblemished record of Richard Armitage over two decades and found him not guilty.
DCI Armitage had declined an offer to return to duty with SOCA, and had taken up a post in his old stamping ground on the south coast. He was now a Superintendent working in Corporate Development.
Erebus looked up when he realised Colin had reached the end of his account.
“What opinion did you form of his case Phoenix?” he asked.
“He was as guilty as hell” replied Colin.
“I agree; if you take advantage of the most up to date data we have for him you will discover he has very large sums of money salted away in bank accounts his superiors have no idea about. He appears to be seeing out the next few years in a cushy ‘non-job’ until he takes his pension at fifty, then I expect he’ll retire to Spain or Portugal and play lots of golf; that appears to be his main pre-occupation, from what our surveillance has thrown up.”
“I’ll take a look at the new data and start planning when and how to deal with Mr. Armitage; no time like the present! Thanks for the coffee Erebus; and the green light!”
“The ‘how’ is up to you Phoenix; the ‘when’ is within a week preferably” said Erebus as Colin stood up and prepared to leave the orangery.
Colin grinned. “The clock is ticking; tick tock.”
With a spring in his step Colin strode across the lawn towards the stable block. Once inside his quarters he checked out his laptop; sure enough he had some additional files in his inbox forwarded by Giles; one of the IT guys who had tutored him in the dark arts of computers.
Colin couldn’t help recalling those first tentative keystrokes back at Shaw Park Mines and how long it had taken him to figure out how to send an email. It seemed a long time ago now; he had become a lot more proficient in Africa, he had time on his hands for one thing and a thirst for knowledge. Knowledge was paramount; the more he could discover about the people he was tracking, the easier the task of taking them out would become.
Colin spent the rest of the day studying the files. He had various CCTV photos of DCI Richard Armitage in London and Lewes; he was confident he would recognise him when the time came. Colin reviewed a lot of information that he had gleaned himself about the policeman’s early career and his fall from grace on the mean streets of London.
It was gratifying to see that Olympus personnel were only finding the same incriminating evidence that he had already detailed during his own meticulous planning stage earlier this year. He hadn’t missed anything; except the handful of items they had included over the past three months when he was running, shooting and going under the knife!
Analysing the bank accounts that Giles and his friends had traced showed that Richard Armitage had around half a million stashed away; his two bedroom, end of terrace house on Chapel Hill in Lewes, was worth a little under four hundred thousand. It was as close to the golf course as he could get without having a caravan behind the nineteenth hole. “What is the fascination?” thought Colin.
Colin knew Armitage had been married until ’09, but his wife had disappeared with a personal trainer half her age while Richard was feathering his nest in London. If she’d known how much he was adding to his pension pot, who knows, maybe she would have stuck around. “Women are fickle souls” he said out loud, but nobody was listening.
The family home, a detached four bedroom property on the outskirts of Lewes had been sold off and Mrs. Armitage had snaffled her share of the proceeds and moved to Margate, where her new beau Carlos wanted to open a fitness studio. The kids had moved out long since and were scattered around the South East of England. As with most of their generation, they didn’t really ‘get’ the family thing and rarely visited their father or mother. Colin could understand not going to see Mum; nobody would want to go to Margate unless they had to.