Old Crackers

by Peter Bates

  “I don’t suppose anyone’s heard anything further about that drugs heist at the M61 motorway services?” he asked, moving quickly away from the previous subject.

  “No, mate. Harrison’s probably not found out anything either. He’s probably got a very good idea who it was, but he won’t be certain, and he won’t be a very happy man.”

  Terry nodded his head in absolute agreement. It was still moving up and down at the same moment that his mobile phone suddenly rang out sharply. Pulling it quickly from his pocket, he gazed at the screen with a puzzled expression, and then finally clicked it on.

  “Yes, this is Terry,” he responded to the caller after several moments, and then listened in silence for thirty seconds or so, his phone still pressed tightly to his ear.

  “OK, Emma,” he finally went on. “Thanks for calling, love. When did you say it was? This evening,” he echoed the response. “OK love, thanks a million for the call, really appreciate it.”

  Terry switched off and placed the phone on the small wooden table alongside the drinking glasses.

  “That was Emma, the bar girl from the Parrot and Palm Tree. She tells me that the five young men from the ‘Big Smoke’ have just come back in to the pub and trashed the place. She says that they were talking for more than ten minutes to the landlord who was himself serving at the bar. She knows that they were demanding free drinks — maybe more — but the landlord refused and told them to leave. After that they just went ballistic, wrecked a whole number of tables and chairs, and then quickly left the premises before the police arrived.”

  “What about the camera?” asked Reg. “I’m sure I saw one in there, high up on one of the walls.”

  “Apparently there was just one,” agreed Terry, “which they smashed with an airgun pellet on entry.”

  “Bastards.” yelled Frank.

  “The good news, lads, is that the pub camera hasn’t picked ’em up, but we have, because of the young girl. We know exactly who they are.”

  “Should we go to Norman Pendleton with that?” asked Reg.

  “We could, but without the camera on the spot, prosecution could be difficult. I doubt very much if they’ve left any forensics and let’s face it, the coppers are so busy on serious crime that this is just another job that they wouldn’t really want to look at. Nobody’s been hurt, so they wouldn’t be too interested. Neither would I want them to put young Emma in the witness stand either. She’d be frightened to death, and no doubt intimidated by those scumbags.”

  “OK, what do you fellas think we should do then?” queried Frank.

  “Well, we know who they are now, exactly what they look like, and we have at least got their Christian names and two car number plates too. I could maybe ask Norman Pemberton for a ‘plate check’, which would then throw up their full names. By the looks of them, they will certainly be in the system somewhere, and they’ll probably have some history.”

  “The only trouble is, Terry, that he would certainly wonder why you would want to know them, and he’d very probably ask you to give him the reason why.”

  “True, Reg, but he also knows that we are very much on his side, and that we know how the rules work. Don’t forget also that we can do some things that he and his force can’t do, or get away with either, and he would be quite safe giving us info like that.”

  “Do you lads think that those boys will go back to the Parrot and Palm Tree?” asked Roy.

  “Unlikely,” commented Frank. “They must know that the repairs will now include a very big dose of security fittings, and remember too that their faces will be clocked by the staff at the very same moment that they walk in. One thing’s for certain, though, they’ll be trying it on again very soon somewhere else. By the looks of it, it’s what they do for a living.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Mel Harrison lit his third cigarette in less than half an hour. Recently he’d cut back but was now smoking as much as he had ever done, and he’d also returned to the habit of smoking at home, whatever his wife thought about it. If she knew what was good for her, she’d be very wise not to comment. He certainly had more than enough on his plate right now without having a stupid nagging wife to contend with. Despite his current agitation, he grinned at the thought. It was probably the right time to swap her for a new woman anyway — she’d really outlasted her stay and was becoming more of an irritation to him as each day passed by.

  He slowly poured himself another shot of Scottish malt whisky from the lead crystal decanter, and blew out a long stream of cigarette smoke across the centre of the room. He needed to calm down. His wife might be an irritation, but that problem was microscopic compared to the ones that Jed Thomas had brought to his life. One way or another, Thomas was an abscess that simply had to be removed, and yet removed without doing any damage to either himself or his own gang. There was no way that he or any of his boys would do time for it and whatever he chose to do, he would have to plan it very carefully. There were plenty of ways to obliterate Thomas and his gang, but not many that could be done without being directly linked to the crime by the police. He was well aware that he and his own gang would automatically become the prime suspects if Thomas and his crew were wiped out. Bob, Alan, Gary and Kenny were all good lads, but not always the brightest coins in the bag, and he knew that in the end it would be purely down to him to come up with a plan that could really work perfectly.

  Slowly, he pondered over the many ways that Thomas and his men could be disposed of. There were a large number of options available, both with the actual killings and with the subsequent disposal of the bodies. Virtually all of them, though, would leave some sort of evidence or clues behind, and with the police technology running at an all-time high, he would have to come up with something virtually foolproof, which was almost next to impossible. Even so, there would be a way — it was just up to him to work it out.

  He reached for a white paper pad, placed it on the table in front of him, and pulled a biro from his pocket. He would make a list of dos and don’ts — could dos and could not dos. Eventually, he was certain that he could put together a plan, however long it took him. There were a number of key factors that he would write down first, and then he’d simply add to them as he went along. It wasn’t the way that he usually did things, but this was definitely one time that he would need to be extra careful.

  “I’d best make a start,” he said to himself as he began to make notes in a long line down the first page. They wouldn’t be listed by way of importance; they’d just be written down as they popped into his head. Once he had a list, he could then choose the best option or options. He might even discuss them with other guys, but that was unlikely. They weren’t exactly the cleverest blokes on the block.

  No forensics.

  No chance of survival for any member of the gang.

  Just, take out Thomas. (Would the gang then fold?)

  Fire? (Effectively destroys evidence, and kills.)

  Poison? (Appear accidental?)

  No witnesses.

  Away from cameras, and buildings if possible.

  A manufactured accident?

  Location

  A sound alibi for him and the others.

  Harrison dropped the biro onto the paper, and slowly read through the list again from the beginning. It was only the first part of a much bigger plan, but whatever the plan would be, it had to be thorough and one that would work without any flaw. He might want Thomas and his crew dead, but that would really achieve nothing if he and his lads then spent the rest of their lives doing time for it. Ideas were beginning to gradually form in his mind now as he stared at the paper, but he wouldn’t finally choose one until he had spent much more time on the detail, and then ultimately run it past the lads for their agreement. Mel lit another cigarette, deeply inhaled, and sat back in the chair, his eyes slowly drifting around the ceiling as he blew out a big cloud of smoke, his mind running through all the many and various options that were both available, and possible.

&nbs
p; *

  “Hi Norman. How are you doing?”

  “I’m good, Terry, thanks. And you?”

  “Doing fine, mate. I thought I’d just give you a quick call about the trashing of the Parrot and Palm Tree.”

  “That was nasty, Terry. Really nasty!”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “You guys seem to know everything.”

  “Well, Norman, sometimes it’s a bit easier these days to find things out. We go around unnoticed, and we don’t look like a threat to anyone. The best thing, though, is that we’re no longer tied to all the stupid rules that exist today, and just seem to make your job much harder.”

  “I’ll go along with that, mate. This job really does get harder and harder. All the rules seem to be in favour of the criminals.”

  “The guys that did it, Norman, were that group of young lads that moved here from the Big Smoke.”

  “I’d a feeling that it might be, Terry, from the descriptions that we got, but everyone that we spoke to refused to get further involved with the enquiry. It’s not surprising really. We had no camera evidence either, the camera was destroyed when they entered the premises.”

  “Yes, I know that too.”

  “Hell’s bells, Roy. Is there anything that you lads don’t know?”

  Roy laughed. “You’d be surprised, Norman, how much easier it is to get ‘info’ when you’re not in a uniform, and not asking people to sign sworn statements.”

  “So, you’re sure it was them.”

  “One hundred percent. The one thing that I can’t give you is any solid evidence, and I couldn’t risk putting my informer in dock with that bunch of animals to face afterwards. They are worth watching, though, Norman, because they’ll do it again more than likely. They were after freebies, and maybe protection money. One thing I can do, although you may already have it, is to give you the vehicle types and number plates that they use. It might be useful to the lads on the street.”

  “That’s great, Terry. Fire away. I’m not sure whether we have them already, but they could have changed vehicles since we were last updated. It’s certainly better to be sure.”

  “OK, mate, here they are.”

  Terry read out the details, and then asked, “Are you any closer with anything on the Harrison and Thomas gangs?”

  “I’m afraid not, Terry. We’re watching them whenever we can, but as you know we are extremely light on the ground these days. We could certainly do without both of the outfits on the streets, and one way or another; we’re determined to get them out of Blackpool and locked away for a very long time.”

  “I hope that you do, pal. Everybody will be much better off when that happens.”

  “We will, mate. Believe me, we will. And when you see your pals next, let them know that I appreciate your help very much.”

  “Cheers, Norman.”

  “Bye for now, Terry.”

  CHAPTER 24

  “C.I. Pendleton was pleased with the info that I gave him, and he said to thank you lads.”

  “I’m sure that he would be pleased,” nodded Reg, before taking a tasty sip of his cappuccino coffee. “Every little bit of it helps when you’re in his position.”

  “I wish we could do more,” added Frank, nudging his garden chair a little closer to the others.

  “Maybe we can,” offered Reg.

  “How?” asked Roy, his face looking faintly doubtful as he looked into Reg’s smiling face.

  “This new lot in town won’t receive any ‘welcome to Blackpool’ parties from either Harrison or Thomas.”

  “That’s true,” agreed Frank, “but it could even be months or years before they come across each other.”

  Reg grinned. “Maybe not, but it could be a lot quicker if we did a little bit of meddling.”

  Frank looked puzzled; his eyes now locked on those of Reg. “How could we do that?”

  “To be honest, Frank, I’m not really sure. At the moment it’s just an idea, that’s all. I’m just thinking that if we could find a way to introduce those young men to Harrison or Thomas, and manage to tell the two existing gang leaders that the newcomers could be a threat to their patch, they could maybe do us, the police and the residents a very big favour.”

  “Funnily enough,” added Terry with a big smile, “that idea has been in my mind for several days. That was why I mentioned the possibility of obtaining their mobile phone numbers the other morning.”

  “I’m catching on,” murmured Roy. “I think you’re saying that if we play our cards right from a safe distance and seemingly unconnected to any of us, we could maybe get those new lads booted out of town for good.”

  “Spot on!” grinned Reg. “It sounds like a decent plan. The only thing is, lads, is that we don’t actually have the mobile phone numbers to hand that we need, and we’re not likely to get them.”

  “There must be another way,” pondered Terry, scratching the back of his head as he spoke.

  “I don’t know,” added Roy, “but I’ll bet that we would have come up with something all those years ago, long before mobile phones were even invented. We just need to find a way to get the message to at least one of the two gangs.”

  “OK,” added Frank, “but what message do you want to send?”

  “This just a suggestion,” started Terry. “What we do, is to somehow inform Harrison, Thomas, or both of them that there is a new rival gang from down the big smoke now operating on their territory, and that they have already trashed the Parrot and Palm Tree. Then we leave the rest to them, and they’ll probably do us all a really big favour.”

  “It could be a bit severe,” commented Frank.

  “Maybe,” agreed Terry, “but I’m dead certain that you’d rather they were severe with each other than with the rest of the local population. It would solve at least one of the problems.”

  “It’s probably feasible,” agreed Roy. “It’s just a matter of how we go about it. We can’t leave false messages on their phones because at the moment we don’t have their numbers. Even if we did have, it could be very risky — sometimes the numbers can be traced back to the caller. We certainly wouldn’t want that to happen.”

  “What about this idea then?” suggested Frank. “What about putting the message on plain A4 paper, typed up at home with one of our own computers? Nothing written in pen, no handwriting checks by anyone later. Just simple black and white print on an otherwise blank piece of paper.”

  “Where would we deliver it to?” asked Terry, suddenly looking interested and leaning further forward in his chair.

  “Well, Terry, we don’t have any of the gangs’ addresses, so posting them directly to either one of them is certainly out of the question.”

  “We’ll find a way,” said Roy, “it’s just that we need to think about it a little more. We’ll come up with something.”

  “I think that there’s another problem, too,” joined in Frank again.

  “What’s that?”

  “Well, neither Harrison nor Thomas will know where the lads are currently living, and neither do we for that matter.”

  “Neither will they currently know even who they are or what they look like,” agreed Reg.

  “That’s the easy bit,” smiled Roy. “We’ve got good photos of the young gang, and we can print two sets of them off and include them with each message. As far as where they exactly live, is concerned, I don’t think that will be a problem or even matter. Because of where they all tend to go, it’s simply just a question of time before the Harrison or Thomas gangs find themselves in the same pub as the young men. Both gangs will also most certainly have look-outs that they can call on as well. Don’t forget too, that those younger lads are extremely loud and noisy, and they’ll stand out like a sore thumb wherever they go. They may even return to the Parrot and Palm Tree, although that’s extremely unlikely after trashing it. One way or another, the Harrison and Thomas crews will definitely find them, and I suspect that with their contacts they will do that very quickly.”<
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  “Talking about where Harrison and Thomas go regularly has reminded me of an idea that I had, lads,” stated Frank. “Why don’t we drop two separate envelopes with the message and photos off in one of their usual meeting pubs, with one of the bar staff that already knows both Harrison and Thomas? We simply tell the staff member to give only one envelope out, just to whichever of the two gang leaders comes in first. If we put Harrison’s name on one envelope, and Thomas’ name on the other, the staff member can just tell them that the envelope came in through the pub’s letterbox with the rest of the mail. After he’s done that, he can simply return to us the unused envelope the next time that we go in. We would have to do that quite regularly until we know that one of them has been handed out.”

  Reg laughed. “If you took the envelopes in, you’d have to go with one of your dastardly disguises on, Frank, or get someone else outside of our group to do it. We couldn’t risk any of us being identified by a landlord, any punters, or especially a camera.”

  “OK,” smiled Roy. “The plan seems good, but does it make a difference which gang we’re really going for?”

  “As I said,” responded Frank. “I don’t really think it does make much difference at all, Roy. The result as you know could go either way, but both the local gangs are well capable of messing up and kicking out the new bad boys. If it didn’t work after a week or so, we could leave the same two envelopes for them in a different pub. We will leave one for each of them at the same time, but whatever you do make sure that the bar staff member you choose only hands one of them out, and keeps the other one for us to collect later. We definitely want back the one that they don’t give out. Once they find out who they are, I don’t think that either of the two gangs would hang around for very long without doing something about the new boys in town. I’d say that the Cock and Hen is as good a place as any to try it out for a week or two.”

  “What about the script?” asked Terry. “We haven’t fixed on that yet.”