“Where are you going?” she asked “what happened to the other man?”
“He had a bit of a nasty turn I’m afraid” said Colin “I’m going to have to rush him off to get him seen to.”
“Okay” the young girl said “I hope he’s alright; he was so keen to help. I was feeling faint and so cold. I must have gone for a minute or two” then nodding at the cup she was cradling in both hands she smiled up at him “thanks for this.”
Colin gave her shoulder a squeeze; he didn’t tell her what a lucky escape she’d had. He fished a pair of gloves out of his pocket and put them on. He closed the rear door and climbed into the driver’s seat of the Range Rover; he found the keys in Sir Godfrey’s jacket. The old man started to writhe around trying to get free; Colin thumped him hard in the stomach and told him to stop wasting his time.
Once they were under way he started to re-evaluate his plans. He was doing things off the cuff today and that wasn’t the norm. The map had shown the disused tin mine was on the route that the walkers could be taking so hiding up there for a while was out of the question. Colin drove back towards the top of Tor Royal Lane. There were about two hour’s daylight left. Sir Godfrey was a frequent visitor to Princeton and the Range Rover wouldn’t attract much attention parked outside his own house, but it was too risky to take him back there just yet.
The surveillance team hadn’t found much evidence of Sir Godfrey forming many social contacts in the area; clearly the Lord Lieutenant and possibly a few other notables were acquaintances that a creep like Penrose would butter up to, but Colin doubted if the ordinary man in the street would bat an eyelid if the Range Rover was parked up in the countryside, somewhere off the beaten track. There were a couple of unnamed roads and tracks within a five minute drive towards Two Bridges, so Colin headed off to find a suitable hiding place until it got dark. It would give him a chance to put the finishing touches to his new plan for Sir Godfrey.
CHAPTER 17
The rain was still falling. The dark clouds that heralded the night seemed to almost touch the roof of the farm buildings he could just make out in the distance. Colin sat huddled up in the driver’s seat, while Sir Godfrey Penrose huffed and puffed next to him. It was time to move!
Colin took the minor road back through the sparsely built up area surrounding Princeton and edged the Range Rover into its parking place outside the cottage. He killed the lights as he approached, in order to keep his arrival a secret from anyone poking a nose through a window in a nearby property just prior to drawing the curtains and battening down the hatches for a long autumn evening.
He looked at the key ring in the ignition; there were half a dozen other keys on the chain. He was in luck. He got out, flicked through the options, picked one and opened the front door. He quickly went back to the passenger door and stared hard at Sir Godfrey; a pair of beady frightened eyes stared back.
“We’re going inside now Penrose; don’t cause me any grief.”
Colin grabbed the holdall from the back of the vehicle and then released the old man from the headrest. He bundled him in through the front door of the cottage. With a quick glance around to check the coast was clear, he closed the door behind them.
“Right; let’s get you sorted” he said. The old man was in some discomfort due to the length of time and the awkward manner in which he had been handcuffed; some parts were numb; others had the life coming back to them. Some parts need emptying. All in all he wasn’t a happy bunny! Colin wasn’t in the mood to sympathise.
He dragged the old man upstairs into a bedroom and shoved him onto the bed. The handcuffs were retrieved from his coat pocket and Sir Godfrey found himself firmly secured once more.
“I’ve got to make this place look as if it’s shut up tight for the night” said Colin “so you’ll have to lie there while I’m working.
Sir Godfrey mumbled something; but the duct tape made it unintelligible. Colin wasn’t listening anyway, he was drawing curtains, switching on a light or two and wondering what was on the TV. He channel hopped for a couple of minutes but nothing took his fancy; he spotted a CD player and a collection of albums, mostly classical. He found a copy of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ among them and put it on. It wasn’t Iron Maiden or Judas Priest, but it would have to do.
Colin wandered around the cottage, peering into drawers and cupboards. There was no particular reason for this search; he was just being nosy. He didn’t expect to discover anything to further incriminate Sir Godfrey down here in Devon. The surveillance boys hadn’t found anything on any of his phones or computers to suggest he was into pornography via a digital medium. He was a ‘hands-on’ kind of guy, pure and simple. But not so pure obviously!
When he was fed up with mooching around the cottage he opened the holdall he had left in the hallway when they had entered the cottage. There was a camera, several lengths of rope, a vial of something or other and a cloth; a packet of condoms and some wet wipes. Colin stopped rummaging. He had seen enough. Sir Godfrey had been going to take his time with this victim; it was probably chloroform or something similar in the vial that he had planned to knock Jessica out with; long enough to get her to a remote spot and do what he liked with her, and then take pictures of the poor girl too!
Colin went back to the bedroom and looked in on Sir Godfrey. He had wet himself; Colin shook his head and tutted.
“Oh dear” he said “I suppose I’d better get on with it. No sense keeping you waiting any longer. You have been abusing young people since your early days in the Territorial Army; fortunately for young Jessica today, I managed to stop you adding another victim to the list. How many others there were between the TA and today, perhaps we’ll never know. You might find it amusing to learn that your secret was uncovered by accident. When you worked with Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans you failed to defend the moral obligation this country owes its service personnel when they finish active duty. Veterans were left to struggle, mentally and financially on your watch, while you were sitting pretty.
My superiors felt that you needed to be brought to account; in order to have the best evidence available they started digging. As soon as the truth was discovered and statements taken from the men and women you molested, it was agreed that your account could not be settled; it had to be closed.”
As Colin was speaking, Sir Godfrey’s eyes grew wider and wider as he realised just how much this man knew about him. Who were his superiors? What statements was he on about? Account closed? All these thoughts crowded into his head and as he finally grasped the seriousness of his situation he crawled away from Colin until he was hugging the headboard; trying in vain to get away from the devil that was standing at the foot of his bed.
“We’re going to take a little trip” said Colin.
He left Sir Godfrey and went down to the lounge. He emptied his rucksack onto the carpet and started to replace the items one by one; he checked that those things he needed to have quickly to hand were stashed at the top. He resumed his search of the cottage to see if there was anything he could use that could be identified as belonging to Penrose. When the police inevitably found him, the fewer unexplained items the better.
In the spare bedroom he found what he was looking for. Sir Godfrey didn’t get any overnight guests it would appear; the bed was unmade and piled up with clutter. The floor space was littered with unopened cardboard boxes that looked like they hadn’t been touched since the old man had moved in. Colin collected a tent, a groundsheet, a lamp, propane cooking stove, matches, paper plates and plastic cutlery. Returning downstairs to the kitchen he found some cans, a tin opener, and a mug. He put some coffee granules into a ziplock bag and ripped a trash bag off a roll he found in a cupboard.