by Tony Jenkins
There was a furnace in the workshop. The two bodies were cut into small sections and then wrapped in the blood-soaked plastic sheet with their clothing, before being sprinkled with creosote. After midnight, when the industrial area was mainly deserted, the bodies would be incinerated. The creosote had been added to help minimise the distinctive stench of burning flesh. Kirill wanted no evidence of the killings to remain in his new haven. His men were all wearing blue boiler suits and heavy working boots, so that any watchers would see only engineers getting on with their work. The patch pockets were useful for them to carry their guns and knives without looking suspicious.
The information from Darrel would help them to plan their attack on the Young Guns and discourage any of the other gangs from interfering with the new criminal leaders in the city. Their first move would be to visit the banker who looked after the Young Guns funds.
Chapter 15
Intrusion
Demeter had been convinced that there would be a running battle between the mineworkers and the Roma. Fortunately, with Jack’s help, the Roma threat to the Hun-Al mine had been removed. Anxious to begin restoring relations with the Roma, he drove to the village with two of the armed security men to meet some of those who had already returned. Five of the previously abandoned homes now had families living in them. He reassured those he met that the railway line to the mine would not now be built through the middle of their community and they were relieved to hear that their homes were safe.
Jack had anticipated that a watch would be kept on company actions and news about the change in route of the railway line would be noticed and acted upon. Demeter hoped that everything would soon be restored to normal and asked the Roma who returned to tell Boldo that he would like to meet him and arrange work at the mine for those who wanted it.
At the refinery both towers had been replaced and work on the linking chutes and conveyor belts would soon be finished, so that the refining process could be restarted. The mine was already in full production and without further disruptions, the rail link between the mine and the refinery should begin moving raw ore within three weeks. The route lay over relatively flat land, apart from one small stream in a narrow depression, where a separate team of men were already building a short steel and concrete crossing. With everything apparently operating to plan and peace restored in the area, Demeter looked forward to meeting his fiancée Theresa in Budapest over the coming weekend.
Jack Randil as Chairman of the Liverpool Trades Council had returned from Hungary in good time to prepare for his meeting in Frankfurt with their German opposite numbers. Regular meetings were held to improve cross trading between the two cities and Jack was able to use his fluency in German to translate for those members unable to speak the other’s language. After the Trades Council meeting was finished, Jack met up with current and prospective customers to negotiate deliveries of aluminium ingots from the Hungarian Hun-Al operation. When he returned from Germany, he heard about the delivery of the shoebox with the dismembered parts of two of the Young Guns gang.
He was at the Leisure Centre after his squash game with Peter Kershaw and as usual was joined in their after-game drink in the bar by his brother in law, Greg Ridd. The policeman described the delivery and contents of the box and admitted that he and his police colleagues were shocked. They had seen many forms of crime in the city, but the sheer barbarism of the act reached new levels. The three men agreed that although they had passed on a warning about the foreign criminal threat, the two members of the Young Guns could not have expected, or protected themselves from their well-planned abduction and subsequent murder.
Jack was quick to sum up the likely outcome.
“We can now expect a war in the city with casualties on both sides. If the Young Guns can stop the spread of the Russians, things will not be too different, since they have never bothered us. If the Russians win, then we can expect our security men to be the next targets. Many have already been in combat, but they have families and I would not expect them to risk their lives to protect buildings and customer equipment.”
Peter agreed and told them that the Russians had obviously wanted to shock and frighten people in Liverpool by having details of the shoebox contents featured in the Liverpool Echo. Instead, the newspaper simply stated that it had received a delivery of personal items, identified as belonging to the missing men and that the police were now looking for those responsible for the murders.
“I agree Jack that it would be better for us all if the Young Guns can stop them, but they are all criminals and the police must be impartial and simply apply the law.”
As the three men drank their beer and discussed the impending battle, two men stood outside the front door of a detached house in a quiet avenue in Aigburth on the south side of the city. When a woman answered their knock and opened the door, they forced her back inside and pushed past her into the entrance hall of the house. A portly, middle-aged man wearing slippers shuffled into the hall to see who was visiting him in the evening and was struck in the face and knocked down. One man dragged the woman into the lounge, while the other grabbed the fallen householder by the collar of his cardigan and lifted him off his feet, before carrying him into the room and dumping him in a chair.
An eighteen-year-old girl was curled up on the sofa with head phones plugged in as she listened to music from her Walkman music player. Seeing her father stretched out in a chair next to her she tried to scream, but a large hand covered her mouth and nose and a knife blade was held in front of her face. Working quickly and efficiently, the two men bound and gagged all three and then waited for Gary Dempsey to regain consciousness. When Gary opened his eyes, he saw his wife and daughter with two men beside them holding large knives. His eyes registered shock and fear as he guessed that these must be the men involved in the murder of his two friends.
One of the intruders was obviously the leader and did all the talking, but Gary was surprised that both were dressed in blue overalls and looked like plumbers, or manual workers.
“You are Dempsey and you are the bank man for your friends, these Young Guns, yes?”
Gary shook his head and the man motioned to his colleague, who quickly tore and cut away all the young girl’s clothes and then tied her to a chair. She sat with her knees pressed tightly together, head down so that her long auburn hair hung over her face as tears streamed from her eyes in shame. She had well-formed breasts and after fondling them, the man lightly traced the point of his knife under each so that it just broke the skin and left a red outline. The leader spoke again.
“Your daughter is pretty girl and you not want her to be cut up by my friend with his knife. Afterwards, I do the same to your woman. Better that you help us and then we go and leave you and your family with your eyes and lips and ears, yes.”
Gary was horrified as he watched the big man standing alongside his naked daughter Rosanne, with his knife blade resting on her bare breast. He had to save her and nodded his head vigorously to show he would help them. His gag was removed and he told them where he kept the bank details. The leader Gregor already knew a great deal about how the money was collected and brought to Gary, so that he could maintain five separate accounts with local banks to cover expenses. The bulk of the takings from the various activities were forwarded to an offshore account through a number of illegal and untraceable operations.
Once he had given the account numbers and passwords, the details were telephoned through to Kirill at Sefton Park. After switching off his phone, the smiling man in blue overalls asked Gary when the next cash delivery would be made by one of the gang leaders. He nodded his head when he learned that a delivery was expected during the evening, since this matched the details already given by Darrel. Gary was gagged again and all three family members were tied to chairs. The house telephone rang and thinking it might be a message about the expected cash delivery, Gregor removed the gag from Gary and warned him what would happen if he betrayed them. He then cradled the phone between
them so that when he answered, they could both listen.
“Hi Mac, is Danny there?”
Gregor shook his head and indicated that Gary should answer the caller. Gary spoke carefully into the phone with the Russian holding a knife near his throat.
“No, there are no Danny’s here, sorry wrong number.”
Gregor nodded his head in satisfaction and replaced the gag in Gary’s mouth. The intruders made themselves tea in the kitchen as they waited for their next victim to arrive. When the glare of a car’s headlights lit the hall, the Russians positioned themselves just inside the front door and Gregor gripped his knife in his right hand. When the doorbell rang, he wrenched open the door with his left hand and thrust the knife forward to stab the visitor, but the man was standing over to the side and the knife only grazed his left arm.
Standing in the full beam of the car headlights, Gregor was a perfect target and Don Taylor, aiming through the open car window shot him twice in the chest and Gregor toppled backwards before collapsing on the floor. His companion rushed into the doorway with his automatic pistol raised, but was immediately struck by two bullets from a Young Gun standing guard outside. The bodies of both Russians lay alongside each other on the floor and were left in their own blood as the wounded man had his knife wound bound. The noise of the gunfire alarmed neighbours and was reported three times to the police, who sent armed men to investigate.
At Sefton Park, Kirill had yet to learn of the death of two of his men and was busy trying to send details of the Young Guns offshore bank account to his superiors. After the dismembered body parts of their colleagues had been sent to the newspaper, the Young Guns leader Don Taylor had expected that torture would probably be used to obtain details of their operations. Changes were quickly made and extra security was added in vulnerable areas. The phone call was a security check and if all was safe, the answer should have been that Danny was there. Gary had told them there was more than one intruder by saying there were no Dannys. Don Taylor decided to lead his men and show that he knew how to deal with foreign interlopers. After the vicious killing of their friends, they showed no mercy.
Gary Dempsey knew that help would soon arrive and when giving Gregor details of the offshore account number, he deliberately transposed a five and an eight number to prevent the money being stolen.
Kirill had unwisely underestimated his opponents and his men had paid the price. With four of his team already arrested and a total of three killed, his superiors would not be pleased. Gregor had been one of his English speakers and his second in command and would be difficult to replace, even if he was able to persuade his leaders to send reinforcements. When he discovered how his men had been ambushed, he would know that his future career and life were both under threat.
Don Taylor quickly briefed Gary Dempsey and his wife on the story they would give the police, before he and his men left the scene. Gary then called the police to report the attack on his family and killings on his doorstep by an unknown assassin. The armed police arrived first and called in the crime scene team. Inspector Peter Kershaw walked around the staff working in the doorway and checking the two bodies. After hearing that both men had been shot twice in the chest, he spoke to Gary in his lounge. The daughter had now dressed and sat in a chair and sobbed as her father described what had happened. Peter went over the statement to be sure he had full details.
“So you were all tied up and gagged and you knew these men were somewhere in your house, but were unable to see them. Then you heard the sound of guns fired and your wife was able to loosen your hands so that you could use the phone to call 999.”
“Yes, that’s what happened, inspector.”
“Is this what you remembered happened, Mrs Dempsey.”
The woman nodded her head, but was still in shock and unable to speak. Peter realised that he would have to concentrate his interrogation on the man, who seemed eager to cooperate, but Peter suspected that he was unlikely to be told the whole truth.
“After you were all tied up, how long was it before you heard the shooting?”
“I couldn’t see my watch, or the clock, but it must have been at least half an hour.”
“Why do you think you were attacked and tied up?”
“I am a respectable accountant in the city and I can only assume that it was a case of mistaken identity, which is probably why they didn’t harm us, apart from hitting me when they broke in.”
“Have you checked to see if anything has been taken?”
“I have only had time to have a quick walk through the rooms, but our valuables are locked in the safe and it has not been tampered with.”
Peter knew that Gary was lying and was connected with the Young Guns, but the men had been shot from outside the house and he couldn’t see Gary as having the courage, or the skill to put two bullets into the chest of each of them. It had to be part of the battle between the two gangs, but this time the Young Guns had come out on top. Both dead men were wearing working overalls and he wondered if the disguise was intended to help them to gain entry to the house. The men were probably Russians and so far, the struggle for control of Liverpool had cost the lives of five men. He wondered how many more would die before it was settled.
Two guns had been found and neither had been fired, which suggested an assassination rather than confrontation. The guns were Makarov automatics firing 9 mm bullets, which were probably Russian made. The men also carried military style knives with six-inch blades, which Peter recognised through his own Marine Commando background as Kizlyar, frequently used by Russian special forces.
The Russians must have wanted something from the Dempsey home, either cash, or information. Once the two bodies had been removed for the post mortem, he would check what they were carrying to see if there was any clue to their presence at the house. Once again there would be nothing to identify them.
Chapter 16
Investigation
Lieutenant Bumbesco drove to the isolated farm with two constables, still trying to clear the nagging doubt in his mind that he had missed something on his previous visit. The farmer Butaco opened his door and was surprised to receive yet another visit from the police. He invited his visitors in for coffee and Bumbesco began asking his questions.
“This bearded man who overpowered you arrived early when you had just eaten your breakfast. Roughly how long was it before he released you?”
“I was tied up in my own cellar for almost the whole day, since it was the middle of the afternoon when I heard him drive away. I came up to the kitchen and looked through my window to make sure he had gone.”
“You heard a car drive away, but did you also hear a car arrive earlier in the day?”
“Yes. The engine was very noisy and I heard it come after I had been in the cellar for three, or four hours and my back was giving me hell from lying on the floor down there.”
Bumbesco nodded his head and thought that the farmer’s attacker certainly had plenty of time for whatever he wanted to do. His guess was right and there had to be a reason why this particular farm had been chosen. So what had the bearded man been doing that took him four hours. It had to be something in preparation for Dinescu’s arrival.
“Your visitor must have been doing something in all that time. Did you see anything different when you looked around the house and your land?”
“No, nothing really, except that he must have wanted some exercise, because he dug that area behind my barn. I thought I might as well use it to plant some old potatoes. He also went off with an old door that I used to stack boxes.”
If the stranger had been digging, it was probably to hide something, or he suddenly thought, to bury something. When he coupled his last thought with the missing door, he began to realise the likely horror of what had been done.
“Do you have any long steel rods we could use?”
“Yes, I have some which I use to hang bird scarers near my crops.”
He asked his two policemen to begin prodding th
e newly dug area with the long rods, starting from the side near the hard top soil, which had not been dug over. Each policeman would cover a band roughly a metre wide. He reasoned that the man would not want to carry a heavy object too far over the soft soil and began nearest the farmhouse. Halfway down the first band, the steel rod hit a solid object, which seemed to be a metre wide. The soil was cleared away and an old door was exposed. When this was lifted, the policemen were horrified to look down on the contorted dead body of the missing soldier.
There were no signs of injury from their cursory examination and Bumbesco was sure that the murderer had once again made his victim suffer, by burying him alive. He tried to prevent his mind from imagining the desperation and agonies that the soldier had suffered and made a vow that he would do everything possible to catch the monster responsible. He telephoned through to his office to arrange for staff to come and examine the area and take the body away for the post mortem.
A full report was sent to Police HQ at Bucharest and copied to the army barracks where Dinescu had been stationed. At the end of his report on the murder of Dinescu, an appraisal had been added by Bumbesco. He outlined his suspicions that the deaths of Commissar Dalca and Dinescu were linked. He suggested that the destruction of Budestin, the Roma village where a soldier was stabbed and a young boy and old woman shot was the motive. He was convinced that the murders were in revenge for the shooting of the boy and old woman. It also seemed likely that another soldier, the man, Gunari, sent to investigate the earlier crucifixion of a Hungarian, had also been killed at Budestin.