Cut to the Chase

by Ray Scott

  ‘That’s all for now, if they want you I’ve no doubt they’ll send for you. If they do, then someone from the High Commission will let me know,’ Singleton said as they clambered back into his vehicle.

  He drove Wallace back to the High Commission and left him at the gate. He walked back in and into the main entrance. He felt exhausted, maybe the effect of telling a pack of lies.

  Kelsey arrived next morning when Wallace was just finishing breakfast in the canteen.

  ‘Time to go to Kensington,’ he announced. ‘There are people to see. Ready?’

  Wallace finished his coffee, was taken below to the garage and entered the rear of a motor car. It was driven out through the gates and after a quick tour of the city, when it went around some traffic islands a couple of times to check they weren’t being followed, and struck off westwards.

  They entered the driveway of a house and the car was driven around the side. Wallace was admitted into the rear door of the house.

  ‘You’ll have to stay here for a few days,’ said Kelsey. ‘But you won’t be alone. This is Chris Anthony,’ he indicated a man with close cropped hair, who appeared to Wallace to be a military type. He was wearing a gun in a shoulder holster and looked as if he knew how to use it. ‘He’ll stay with you but you should be safe here.’

  Kelsey nodded briefly to Anthony then he left. The car backed out and drove off.

  Kelsey arrived next morning when Wallace was tackling his breakfast in the kitchen.

  ‘Someone else to see you, and me,’ he said. ‘You’ll have to go through the story again but this time give the true facts, if you can remember them after the grilling and rehearsals you had yesterday. Finish your coffee, he’s waiting for you in the living room.’

  Wallace swigged down his coffee and entered the living room of the house and a man sitting in one of the chairs rose to greet him.

  ‘This is Sir William Wainwright,’ said Kelsey, as he walked around the table and sat down. Wainwright extended his hand and Wallace shook it, wondering what he was in for this time. ‘Bill is one of our opposite numbers, he represents M.I.5. He knows all about Kalim and of course our friend Murray Craddock.’

  Wainwright eyed Wallace keenly as he shook hands and they sat down. His age was difficult to place, probably late 40s or early 50s. He had some heavy lines on his face, which indicated that he had lived life at a fast pace. His hairline had receded, his hair was greying, and he had a close cropped hair cut. His eyes were alert, and Wallace had the feeling he didn’t miss much.

  ‘You’ve had a chequered career in the last few weeks, Mr Wallace,’ he remarked as they all sat down.

  ‘It certainly hasn’t been boring,’ Wallace responded.

  ‘Inventive too,’ Wainwright went on. ‘I’m not saying that the police necessarily believed what you told them yesterday, but I don’t and I have to know what really happened. I can understand, Alan…’ he turned to Kelsey: ‘…why you were anxious for any connection to Australia to be suppressed while Canberra is conducting delicate negotiations with regard to oil exploration rights in the Arafura and Timor Seas and the Torres Straits, but we also have a fundamentalist problem here and we now know this is a factor in your escapade.’

  Wallace looked at Kelsey and he nodded.

  ‘Go ahead, tell Bill everything,’ Kelsey said. ‘I’d start at Jakarta if I were you, give the full picture. Bill knows Bramble and he also knows Dave McKay very well. He is aware that McKay is involved, so go ahead.’

  Wallace went over the story again; he was adept at it by now, having recently been through it for the benefit of McKay, Fred Hackett and latterly Kelsey. Wainwright didn’t interrupt, he set a small tape recorder going and he also had a small pad in front of him on which he made the occasional note. Wallace hesitated at one point, he wasn’t sure whether to name Fred Hackett, not that he had done anything wrong, if anything he would have done ASIS or M.I.5 a service by enabling McKay and Wallace to escape together with the precious computer drives, but he feared bringing him to the notice of intelligence services generally. In the end he just referred to him as Fred, and said that he had not particularly noticed the company’s name on the side of his barge.

  Wallace finished the story and Wainwright grunted as he scanned over his pad at what he had written.

  ‘What gives with Murray Craddock?’ Wallace asked.

  ‘What gives?’ Wainwright raised one eyebrow. ‘I assume you’re asking for information. I guess you have some right to know after what you’ve been through.’

  He sat back and pressed the tips of his fingers together.

  ‘In his younger days he was a well thought of Public servant, who later became an employee of the Defence Ministry in Canberra. For years the Australian Government was plagued by leakage of confidential information and they had no idea where the leak was,’ said Wainwright.

  ‘I still don’t see where I came in,’ Wallace said.

  ‘Well, both Britain and Australia were alarmed at this leakage, with our close links to Canberra much of our data was going out of the back door as well. We had a stroke of luck when a Russian defector who had been previously involved with their Australian or British Commonwealth desk in Moscow defected and amongst information he brought with him were pointers to the leakage in Canberra.’

  ‘Why wasn’t he arrested there?’

  ‘Because somebody tipped him off,’ Kelsey took up the story. ‘He departed from his desk one Friday afternoon and disappeared, we never saw him again. We checked all the air line departures and never tracked him. He was obviously well prepared and travelled under a false passport.’

  ‘How did you find him?’

  ‘We had information from a source that he was in England, a point that hadn’t been considered, we all assumed he had managed to get to Mother Russia,’ said Kelsey. ‘This source gave us enough information for it to be narrowed down to about three or four possibilities. We eliminated two of them, yours was the third and, as it happened, you found him.’

  ‘It was known from information received that he was in the Midlands, that much we did know, and working in a Left wing book shop operated privately by a high up in the Communist Party,’ said Wainwright and he gave a cynical smile. ‘Bit of a contradiction in terms when you think of it, a Party member being involved in small business!’

  ‘But why was I involved with him?’ Wallace asked and at this juncture Kelsey broke in.

  ‘We had lost touch with him and had no idea where he was. When we obtained this lead, we wanted to ascertain whether this individual was in fact Murray Craddock Our first step was to obtain pictures of him, that was where you came in. Someone he wouldn’t recognise, he knew McKay and he knew me from his days in the Australian Defence Ministry.’

  ‘So I was handy,’ Wallace said bitterly.

  ‘Guess you were,’ said Kelsey.

  ‘Why didn’t the British agencies do it?’

  ‘It wasn’t high on our list of priorities,’ said Wainwright brusquely. ‘But we would have got around to it.’

  ‘In the fullness of time,’ Kelsey said somewhat pointedly. ‘This would probably have meant bloody never! We had to know soon and it was Bramble’s idea for us to ask you to do it. Craddock wouldn’t know you and it was a stroke of luck for us that you were coming here on business.’

  ‘That figures,’ Wallace snorted. ‘Any damned thing Bramble thinks about with regard to me is bloody bad news!’

  ‘Now it’s possible that Craddock is turning to other means for causing trouble, fundamentalism,’ Kelsey said, he grimaced and looked surprised. ‘Not his scene I’d have thought.’

  ‘It isn’t. I don’t think he is,’ Wallace replied.

  ‘But you said that Craddock led Kalim to you when you were at his house?’

  ‘Yes he did, but I’m not so sure he knew what he’d done, various comments were made at the time by the bookshop owner, Briscoe, and Craddock himself that make me wonder.’

  ‘Like what?’

>   ‘She said that these people had been in touch with him and told him that he would be contacted by a visiting Comrade, someone who was hiding from the police but wanted to make contact. She assumed that was who I was, and obviously Craddock did too. When I let it drop that I had tended to be a swinging voter and wasn’t affiliated to any political party it seemed to cause surprise, and when I told Craddock that I wasn’t a member of any political party he was quite startled. Then I heard him talking to Kalim and Juan when they first arrived and were outside the porch, he was asking them if they were sure about me being a visiting comrade, was I who they’d said I was.’

  ‘How did they know you were going to be at Stourbridge and calling on Craddock?’ asked Wainwright.

  ‘The tapped telephone,’ Kelsey cut in. ‘When Harry phoned from Ben Wakefield’s he mentioned to David McKay that he was going on to make contact with Craddock at the bookshop in Stourbridge. When we debriefed McKay he told me that he made some comments about Craddock, referring to his political leanings, and the Briscoe shop where Craddock was working was obviously Left wing. All Kalim had to do was post somebody outside or near the shop and wait.’

  ‘How many people have they got in this organisation?’ Wallace asked. ‘If they can post people all over England on the off chance…’

  ‘Not quite all over England, as you put it,’ said Wainwright. ‘But this is a feature which is causing considerable alarm in the UK at present. Unlimited immigration from the 1960s onwards, with precious little controls, has brought about a vast Muslim population in this country. Unfortunately some of them, a very small minority but with the numbers now living here that could mean several thousands, are very fundamentalist in their approach. They are appealing to the young, extremist messages are being propagated in some mosques. If Kalim wanted to post listeners or watchers, he’d find many fanatical young men who could be persuaded to carry out surveillance tasks.’

  ‘And Kalim would have already known Craddock’s background from what Harry and McKay said over the telephone,’ added Kelsey. ‘All he had to do was give Craddock what he expected to hear, a message from above and a visit from upper echelons.’

  ‘But are there Communist agitators around these days?’ Wallace asked.

  ‘Some die hards never give up, Adele Briscoe for one and Craddock naturally turned to her, perhaps the Party machine put him onto her,’ grunted Wainwright and he turned to Kelsey. ‘So after the telephone call to David McKay they knew where Harry was going to appear, they contacted Craddock and gave him this cock and bull story. But it’s still not clear to me why you sent Harry on this Craddock jaunt. We had plenty of blokes who could have done it.’

  ‘For us it was priority,’ Kelsey said. ‘We are still experiencing leaks from our Defence agencies in Canberra. We believe that either Craddock is still operating his spy ring from arms length, or else it has been taken over by someone else.’

  ‘Could Craddock operate it from 12,000 miles away?’ Wallace was startled.

  ‘With aids like radio communications and the internet, yes he could.’ Kelsey replied. ‘We needed to isolate Craddock urgently.’

  ‘And you decided to use me?’

  ‘Yes, when we had this lead it was Bramble’s idea. He had this small job lined up for Harry to undertake when he came to England, but things got complicated,’ said Kelsey. ‘Then when matters blew up we decided to press on with it to get Harry out of London. We thought it would blow over – how wrong could we be – but we considered the police wouldn’t search the canal system.’

  ‘Which they didn’t, until a few days ago,’ commented Wainwright.

  ‘So it looks as if Bramble’s original Craddock plan caused complications, due to Kalim having a long term plan, the killing of Ravindran, and our participation in that Jakarta business was a Godsend, it gave him a scapegoat,’ said Kelsey. ‘He found out details about you, Harry, contacted your wife, or some of his minions did, and ascertained all of your likely contacts in England.’

  ‘Then they inserted bugs into telephones of likely places where you’d go or contact which enabled them to trace you to Murray Craddock,’ added Wainwright. ‘And anywhere else you were going.’

  ‘And my wife gave them all the information they needed?’

  ‘Yes, she did,’ Kelsey nodded. ‘They appealed to her greed and avarice.’

  ‘Of which she has plenty!’ Wallace said angrily. ‘That bloody bitch nearly had me killed.’

  Wainwright cleared his throat.

  ‘Now we have a chance of catching the bastards,’ he said. ‘I was acquainted with Ravindran, a damned nice fellow, and nothing will give me greater pleasure than to lock them up and lose the key. Who actually killed Ananda, any idea?’

  ‘You’re right about him, he struck me that way as well, he was a really nice fellow,’ Wallace said. ‘But I don’t know for sure who actually did fire the shot. I remember hearing it, and it was either Kalim or this man Juan who did that. I don’t know whether or not he was still alive when they brought him in.’

  ‘He was, the post mortem proved that,’ Wainwright said dryly. ‘But he was in a bad way and may not have survived anyway. But they obviously had some knowledge of post mortems and what can be discovered if dead bodies are moved, it looks as though they kept him alive until they shot him.’

  ‘They certainly planned it well,’ commented Kelsey.

  ‘Well we’ll have to think up a plan for attracting the moths to the light, I understand the bug has been left undisturbed at Ben Wakefield’s house,’ Wainwright said.

  ‘It has, if he makes calls from home he has to use his mobile telephone,’ said Kelsey.

  ‘Hmmm!’ Wainwright rubbed his jaw. ‘So there’s our bait, if they are still listening, and we’ll have to assume that they are. They will be concerned about those computer drives so we need a leak to the press to the effect that Harry is still at large and probably desperate, with the police still hunting him for murder.’

  ‘Do we have to do that?’ groaned Wallace thinking of Liz.

  ‘We’ll have to keep the Australian aspect low key,’ said Kelsey, ignoring Wallace’s demeanour. ‘Otherwise we’ll have our Foreign Minister raising hell, there are some delicate negotiations still going on about oil drilling rights.’

  Wainwright nodded in agreement.

  ‘I agree with that, we’ll just describe him as a British insurance educator or presenter, no problem with that. I understand you were born here, weren’t you Mr Wallace, and you still possess a British passport,’ he turned to Kelsey. ‘How does that sound, Alan?’

  Kelsey nodded, but Wallace was still uneasy.

  ‘What do you want me to do?’ he asked.

  ‘We want you to go to the canal boat again, I’m afraid you’ll have to be the cheese in the mousetrap,’ said Wainwright. ‘Have no fear, you’ll have people all round you, armed to the teeth,’ he turned to Kelsey. ‘I’ve just had a thought, Alan, where is that canal boat? Is it still in the canal system where it was left or have the police locked onto it?’

  ‘It’s where Harry left it,’ said Kelsey. ‘McKay called in a few hours ago and said it was still there.’

  ‘Then we board it and move it, get it to a quiet spot somewhere. Then we get Harry to phone Ben Wakefield and say where he, and the boat, are moored. He can also mention the computer flash drives for good measure. I’ll make up a script for Harry and Wakefield. If they pick up the message I assume they’ll waste no time in heading for where Harry is. They will want the computer stuff and to eliminate him once and for all.’

  Wallace blenched at that and began to feel as if he was a bargaining counter. Further, the idea of being bait in a trap didn’t go down well either. He didn’t like the sound of that at all.

  ‘We’d best give the newspapers their press release first so that Kalim and Co can get the message,’ said Kelsey. ‘We’ll want them to assume the police are still looking for him as well, which will also give the message that nobody else knows about th
ose drives.’

  ‘We hope so,’ said Wainwright. ‘It seems as good a plan as any. Are there any questions?’

  ‘Yes,’ Wallace said. ‘I’ve just remembered something. When the boat was first approached by those men at Broad Street basin they appeared to be Ravindran’s men, or sympathisers. They said something about waiting for me so they could avenge Ravindran.’

  ‘Did they by God?’ Wainwright bit his lip. ‘Well I know who they would have been. It looks as if Kalim sent word to them somehow about where you were so they’d do his dirty work for him. Then if Harry disappeared or turned up dead Kalim would be in the clear and Ravindran’s group would be blamed for it.’

  His casual dismissal of his possible fate gave Wallace palpitations, almost as if he was an item of livestock. Before he had time to mutter an indignant comment Wainwright continued.

  ‘Clearly Ravindran’s supporters have a Kalim mole in their midst. I’ll have to have a look at that, leave that aspect with me.’

  The next few days passed uneventfully. Wallace stayed in the safe house and played cards with Chris Anthony, read the newspapers and did the crosswords. Kelsey kept him informed as to what was happening, apparently another operative had been despatched to meet up with McKay and they were bringing the canal boat southwards. They appeared to have settled on a venue on the Grand Union canal that was in a remote spot near the Shrewley tunnel, just south of Kingswood Junction, which wasn’t far from Knowle.

  Wallace hoped he wouldn’t have to go through the tunnel again, but remembered that this had been a short one of about 450 yards. They deemed that it would be logical for Wallace, if he was still avoiding Kalim and the police, to moor the craft overnight at a remote spot to avoid too much contact with anyone else.

  Items appeared in the newspapers to the effect that Wallace was still on the run: that the police were searching for him and that there had been no sightings but it was suspected he was somewhere south of Birmingham. There were hints that his guilt was a foregone conclusion, without being said in as many words, which he assumed was to pass the message to Kalim that Wallace was highly unlikely to give himself up to the police. Wallace noticed there were no references to his nationality, though it was mentioned he was born in Surrey.