‘I shall set off as usual, and I imagine they will take me. I hope it will be before I meet Sandra, as there’s no need for her to be involved in this.’ Allport lifted his eyes from the table to meet Dan’s. ‘It’s better this way. Do you both want a drink? I need a whisky.’ Allport walked to the cupboard and took out a decanter and three glasses. ‘I’ll just top up the water. Won’t be a moment.’ He picked up a glass jug and walked calmly from the office.
Sally leapt to her feet. ‘I’ll follow him,’ she said.
‘No need, Sal, he’ll come back. He’s given up, hasn’t he? All the fight’s gone; he’s made up his mind he wants to die, and you can’t blame him, can you?’
She subsided into her chair. ‘But we can’t just let him do it, can we?’
‘No, course not, but maybe we can save him if we play this right.’
They accepted a whisky from Allport. His hand was steady, his eyes clear. ‘I think in many ways I’ve been ready for this moment for the last twenty years. I’ve certainly known revenge was coming. There was no way Moore would give up. I knew that, sitting safely here in my barracks.’ He shook his head sadly, and drank back the whisky.
‘Irish whiskey,’ said Sally, sipping appreciatively, ‘nice.’
Dan watered his well. He didn’t like spirits, and especially not when he had to drive and think straight. ‘Colonel, I have a proposition for you, if you would hear it?’
Allport looked up from the bottom of his glass. ‘I doubt you’ll change my mind.’
Dan could see Allport was weighing up the possibility that this might not have to end in his death, but he wasn’t convinced he’d bite. His life must have been hell for so many years, that death would be a relief.
Sally placed her glass carefully on the desk. ‘Sir, if you had the chance to end this for good, to put Moore away where he belongs, would you at least let us try?’
There was silence, then a slight nod, and that was all that Dan needed. ‘Promise me you will not leave the base tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Give us time to set up proper surveillance and think of ways to protect you. We want to do this right. Can we see the video in which you identified Tana and Moore?’
Allport made a call. ‘It will be a few minutes, they’re making a copy.’
Dan tore a sheet of paper from his notebook. ‘Would you write down Sandra’s name and full address for me?’
Allport did so, then poured himself another whiskey. ‘I’m not planning on going anywhere on Friday, as it happens. We have a training day on equal opportunities of all things. I shall sit tight and await your visit.’
They finished their drinks in silence.
Dan pocketed the CD as soon as it arrived and stood. ‘Thank you, sir, for trusting us. I hope we won’t get you into trouble with the spooks.’
Allport shook Dan’s hand. ‘I shall be writing my resignation letter this evening, Hellier. I really think I’ve had enough of the military life. Perhaps it’s time I found a life of my own, if I can.’ He gave a small, tired smile.
Outside, Sally stopped Dan with a hand on his arm. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ she said.
He looked at her. ‘Obviously not. My mind is a veritable blank. What you got?’
‘Boss, you’re letting me down. Tana has got to be Maria Shepherd, the burnt daughter. I’m sure of it.’
‘Hmm … You may be right. It makes sense, doesn’t it? But why didn’t Allport say that? Does he even realise?’
‘Would you want to acknowledge that your own daughter wanted you dead? I doubt he’s ready to admit that to himself yet, and I’m certainly not going to point it out to him. Poor sod.’
39
It seemed that 9.30pm had come all too quickly at the end of that long day. Dan waited until his tired team had assembled round the table. He felt wired in contrast to them. That could have something to do with the sheer quantity of coffee he’d put away in the last fourteen hours, he conceded, slugging down another scalding mouthful.
‘We have a chance to sort this,’ he said, without any preamble. ‘So let’s hear it. Do we know where Kegan works?’
Foster cleared his throat. ‘We know where he used to work, sir,’ he said. ‘Core Fitness gym in the city. He stopped turning up two weeks ago – no calls answered.’ He flourished a slip of paper. ‘This is his last known address, it’s a flat in Exmouth.’
‘Photo ID?’
Foster shook his head. ‘Nothing so advanced. But Kegan is his real name, although he’s actually Harold Kegan McAndrew, of Merrell Street, Exmouth.’ He wrote the new intel on the whiteboard.
Lizzie interrupted. ‘We went for a looksee, sir, but nobody was in. Also, Tana’s flat, completely empty. Landlady had no idea where she was.’
‘Well, no surprise that Tana has skipped. I presume they’ll be back at Kegan’s place at some point tonight to sleep, so we’ll keep it under surveillance. Currently, I think Kegan and Tana are with an Irish man called Brendan Moore, who was active in the IRA for some years.’ Dan took another slurp of coffee. ‘He was on the perimeter of Lympstone barracks today, with Tana.
‘We need to change her description, by the way,’ he said to Bill Larcombe.
‘Sam, stick this in the machine,’ he said, and threw him the CD from Allport’s perimeter watch. ‘Tana is now blonde, with much smarter clothes. Kegan is bald with a bushy beard; we can assume he has shaved the beard off, or made some adjustments to his appearance.
‘The guy with the overcoat and hat is Moore; well done for spotting him, Sam. He’s the brains behind all this. His family was killed by an undercover team from the UK, in, guess what? A fire. And guess who was in that team? No prizes, our two victims and Allport.
‘Allport told us about his daughter. Making the connection, I want you to find out everything you can about a girl called Maria Shepherd. Her name may have been changed. She was adopted after believing both her parents and brother were killed in a house fire. Turns out Allport saved Maria, and himself, but was then sent away undercover to save both their lives; she was told her whole family had died in a fire and was adopted.’
Sally coughed. ‘What the boss hasn’t said, is that Allport is definitely the next victim, and ta dah! His Maria could well be our suspect, Tana.’
Dan jumped in before the team got carried away. ‘We need to find out about her adoption before the connection is properly made, but, if she is Maria Shepherd, and Allport, Ongar and Hamworthy killed Moore’s wife and children in a fire, she is being used by Moore and she may have no idea what is actually going on.’
‘Wow,’ said Lizzie. ‘That shines a different light on Tana’s motives, doesn’t it?’
‘And possibly on the outcome, if we can take her alive,’ said Dan.
‘This must have been eating Moore up for years. That poor girl didn’t have a chance for a normal childhood,’ added Sally. ‘Wow, think about the planning he must have done. It’s a life’s work.’
‘A life wasted, you mean. What a mess this truly is,’ said Dan. ‘Anyway, that’s enough for tonight. There’s nothing we can do now, we’re tired and need a break. Go home, sleep, and be back here at eight tomorrow; I have a little plan that might just save Allport, and capture the others. But I need time to think about it. See you in the morning. Good work out there today.’
He almost rang DCS Oliver, but figured she wouldn’t be impressed if he did that at 10pm. He needn’t have worried; she came in through the door as the others were leaving, and he had to brief her there and then.
A quick chat with the duty DI got him overnight surveillance on Kegan McAndrew’s flat, and a pool car to follow him in the morning if he left it.
* * *
It was almost 11pm when Dan got home, and he barely managed to remove his clothes before he crept in beside Claire and fell off the exhaustion cliff.
He was so deeply asleep that Claire had to shove him to wake him up to answer the phone that was vibrating on the bedside table. ‘What?’ he mumbled, unable to o
pen his eyes properly. It must be the middle of the night. Who was it? Unknown number. He propped himself up on one arm and pressed the button.
‘Hello? Is that Daniel Hellier?’
Dan sat up straight, a flash of adrenaline jolting him into wakefulness. ‘Mr Tregowen, are you all right? Has something happened at the flats?’
‘Well, it’s your sister, I can’t seem to rouse her and her fire alarm is ringing. I only noticed it when I got up to go to the toilet just now. I’m concerned that she hasn’t answered the door …’
Dan’s heart hammered. What the …? ‘It’s okay, I’m going to put the phone down now, Mr Tregowen, and ring the fire brigade.’
‘Oh, no need. I have already done that. They are on their way. There’s not much smoke that I can see from here.’
Dan attempted to wrestle with his shirt whilst holding the phone to his ear. ‘Thank you. Thanks very much, Mr Tregowen. Please, would you wake the other neighbours and get them outside where it’s safe?’ He rang off.
He turned to Claire, white-faced in the light from his phone. ‘It’s Alison. She’s set fire to the flat.’
Claire threw off the duvet and began pulling on clothes in the dark.
‘What are you doing?’ he barked.
‘I’m coming with you. Anything could have happened.’ She switched on the overhead light and they both screwed up their eyes against it. ‘Just get a move on.’
Dan didn’t argue as he clambered into the rest of his clothes. Anything could have happened? No. Alison happened, that’s what this was all about. The sinking dread of being such a fool, yet again, of what this might mean, of all the times he’d wished her dead, of what his parents would think – they all weighed on him, and he drove like a demented man.
Drizzle fell onto the small crowd of people from Dan’s block. He could see no sign of smoke, no flames. Had they put it out already? He could hardly look at his neighbours’ concerned faces as he found the fire officer in charge and showed his warrant card. ‘Can I go up?’
The officer nodded at him then waved at the neighbours. ‘You can go back to your beds now, folks,’ he said, ‘all clear. Nothing major.’
Claire clutched Dan’s hand as they all followed the officer up the stairs. The front door of the flat had been broken open. Dan stood outside and waited until he was able to thank old Tregowen for ringing him, and offered apologies to all three neighbours. He was embarrassed that they were sympathetic about his ‘poorly’ sister.
Alison sat, head bowed on the sofa. He scanned the flat. Living room fine. Someone was in the kitchen, he could hear the kettle boiling. Had to be the bedroom then. He let go of Claire’s hand and let her sit next to his sister. He wasn’t ready to acknowledge her yet. He could see that she was drunk and only just becoming aware of her surroundings.
A paramedic came in from the kitchen holding a mug, and knelt in front of Alison. ‘She’s just got a bit of smoke inhalation, shouldn’t need A and E. I’m just trying to sober her up a bit before we go. Here you go, sweetheart,’ she said. ‘Now, Alison, are you on any medication, love?’
They were all being so nice to her. She didn’t deserve nice. She deserved the life she’d had, and the prison she was due, and the misery she had brought on herself.
The left side of his bed was a black, wet mess, the rug was burnt and the duvet crisped. A fire officer prevented him from going further. ‘We need to look for the cause of the fire first,’ she said.
‘I can tell you,’ he said dully. ‘She would have been smoking in bed, fell asleep blind drunk, and set fire to the bed.’ He looked down at the woman’s face. ‘It’s not the first time.’ And he was taken straight back to when he was ten and Alison had done exactly the same thing at their old house in Exwick. Only that time, the whole bedroom had gone up. The house only survived because the dog had started howling outside his door and woken them all up.
He knew he was tired when he felt tears squeezing themselves out of the corners of his eyes. He turned away abruptly from the fire officer. How many times could she do this before they all called it a day? Before they let her kill herself like she wanted, and just did a bit of mourning and got over it? Didn’t they mourn every single time she did something like this?
Dan turned back to the mess. He would have to throw out the mattress and bedding, and the rug, and redecorate. There would be serious trouble with his landlord, but the damage was superficial, he could tell. The smell might take a while to go, and he’d have to pay for a new front door lock. But he could handle all that. It was the rest he couldn’t handle. He went back into the sitting room and stood in front of the sofa. ‘Come on,’ he said to Claire, ‘let’s go home.’
‘We can’t just leave her here like this,’ protested Claire, rubbing Alison’s arm.
‘Why not? She got herself into this mess. She can sleep on the sofa. And then she can get out.’
From the sofa, Alison looked up at him, pleading. ‘It was just a few drinks. I just couldn’t handle it. Not used to it,’ she mumbled. ‘I’m sorry Dan. I’ll pay you back. It was an accident.’ She gripped Claire’s hand tighter, and that made Dan angrier than ever.
‘Accident? Look what you did. Again. Out of your brains on God knows what. And who were you with, getting drunk and setting fire to my flat, eh? How could you break my trust like that? Again?’
Dan pulled Claire up by the arm. ‘Come on, she can sleep it off. Don’t get caught in her web, Claire. She’s bloody poison.’
He glared at the paramedic who was kneeling on the floor clutching the mug. ‘And, before you have a go at me, check out her medical record. And her police record.
‘I would ask you to close the door on your way out, but I guess you can’t, can you?’
He stormed off down the stairs, leaving Claire to offer an apology to the paramedic, who was only doing her job.
40
‘I haven’t got time,’ he said.
‘You have. Eat it or I’m going to be really angry. You’ve barely had four hours sleep, you look awful, and now you tell me you’ll be working late again. Eat.’
Defeated, and not wanting the row, Dan sat at the little table in the kitchen and ate scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast, and tried not to check his phone. Claire sat opposite him. She looked tired too, but, as she had pointed out, her day would end at 3.30pm as it was Friday, and his wouldn’t.
‘Good,’ she said, watching him shovel down the food. ‘I’m not turning into your mother, Dan, but you need to eat properly if you’re going to do a decent day’s work; and lay off the coffee today, eh? You were thrashing and fidgeting all bloody night.’
‘Sorry. It wasn’t the coffee, it was thinking about Alison that kept me awake.’
‘I’m not surprised, love. It was awful, wasn’t it? Well, we’ll talk about that later, when we have more time. Meantime, I’ve rung your mum and I’m going over there after school so we can come up with a plan. We’ll go to the flat and arrange for the mattress to be collected, and take the rest of the ruined stuff to the recycling centre. Meet me at your mum’s straight after work. Okay? And don’t be late.’
‘It’s Friday night. We go out on Friday night, just the two of us. I like Friday nights.’
‘I think you need to sort a few things out first, Dan. Come on, it’ll be better to do this straight away, not sit on it. Oh, and if you give me your credit card, I can buy you a new duvet, and a cover, and a mattress …’
He pursed his lips. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Claire with his cash, more that he didn’t trust her style. ‘No way. It’s bad enough I have to see my waste of space sister, there’s no way I’m agreeing to flowery sheets in my man cave. I’ll need a new rug and stuff as well. We’ll go shopping together. Alison’s got a lot to answer for.’ He sat back and chewed moodily on a crust of toast.
Claire sipped hot tea. ‘You do know she could end up back inside, don’t you, if you take this any further? We have to make sure this is just a hiccup and not a return to prev
ious modes of behaviour.’
Dan finished his tea, kissed her on the cheek and forced a smile. ‘Okay, madam psychiatrist,’ he said. ‘Most women would be glad to see the back of my sister, she’s such bad news.’
‘But she’s still your sister. I’d have done anything to have a sister, and I’m not abandoning her, whatever you think. And that’s that,’ she said, with a determined lift of her shoulders as she loaded the dishwasher.
Dan finished getting dressed. It was already after 7am. He wouldn’t have time for a walk before work, so he decided to head straight to his office and at least get a little thinking time in before the gang arrived.
* * *
The duty DI from the night before was waiting for him in his office. ‘Morning, Dan, no sign of anybody returning to the Exmouth flat overnight, sorry. Looks like the suspects know we’re onto them.’
‘Damn, I suppose that was too much to hope for. Thanks, anyway.’ Dan dropped his bag onto the desk. Things weren’t getting off to a good start.
‘Right, well, I’ll hand over to the day DI and get her to speak to you if you want to continue surveillance.’ He turned to leave then turned back. ‘Err … the fire at your flat? Paperwork is done for that, too.’ He placed a sheet on Dan’s desk. ‘Go get ’em.’ He waved as he left the office.
Right, thought Dan, we might not have got them at the flat, but they will have to go to the barracks at Lympstone on Saturday in order to follow Allport. Or, if they could communicate with Allport some other way, his team would have to follow Allport the following night and intercept them whenever possible. Dangerous. So, he needed a team, outside the barracks, to follow Allport on Saturday evening. Dan assumed that Allport would follow a regular path to his girlfriend’s house in Topsham. He seemed like a man of habit, so all they had to do was stake out the best route, find the location of the fire, stop Tana burning her own father to death for a crime he didn’t commit, and save his completely innocent girlfriend. Easy.
Death on the Coast Page 21