Saving Tara Goodwin (Mystery Book 1)

by Richard Harrington

  Target date, 17 September 2001.

  Target area. Thornley Manor.

  Possible need to discuss, if so, meet 16 September.

  Usual place, the dress shop by the park, Queen Square, Bath, 3’ish.

  Will confirm by phone if paramount.

  Best wishes,

  A.

  Lucinda showered away the memories of Arthur, and dressing in a full length bathrobe, collected the camcorder from under the bed and took it down to the lounge.

  Placing the cassette by the television, she went down the hall to the kitchen and found Martha, but she was staring out of the window, her eyes puffy and red from crying.

  ‘Martha. What on earth is wrong with you?’

  She tried to smile, ‘I’m alright, ma’am, it’s just the onions.’

  ‘Oh, is that all. Well a glass of wine should make you feel better, you look hideous.’

  Pouring two large glasses of red wine, she handed one to Martha, ‘Here.’

  ‘Thank you, ma’am, you’re very kind.’

  Looking around, Lucinda stood quite still as she listened to the sombre old house.

  ‘Where’s Chrissy?’

  Martha shrank back, ‘I think she must have popped out, ma’am.’

  ‘Popped out?’

  ‘Yes ma’am, Arthur said her car’s gone.’

  Lucinda stared at her from wild eyes, ‘Gone?’

  Even holding her glass tightly, Martha couldn’t stop her shoulders from trembling.

  ‘Yes ma’am.’

  ‘But I wanted to show her my new movie …’

  ‘Sorry ma’am.’

  ‘Oh, you’re sorry, are you? Well that’s no fucking use, now is it, you useless old fart.’

  ‘No ma’am.’

  ‘So why didn’t you stop her?’

  ‘I didn’t know she’d gone, ma’am, I thought she was upstairs with you.’

  ‘Don’t you dare blame me, you disgusting piece of horse shit.’

  Raising her glass, Lucinda was about to hurl it at her when her eyes brightened.

  ‘Presents. Presents, Martha. She’s gone to buy me presents.’

  Martha felt dizzy. Holy Mary, Mother of God, grant me this day.

  Frank stood in the shower, and as the icy watery needles cooled him, knew Angela was waiting for a de-briefing and he wasn’t looking forward to it.

  Three innocent people were involved with this days, ugly work, and somehow he had to find a way of protecting them.

  First Julian, who’d provided the password, then Tara who’d now been inserted into an escape route, and finally Evelyn, who’s only future now lay in the hands of Cardinal, and all he could do was try to keep Angela happy and hope it all worked out.

  Wrapping a towel around him, he stepped out onto the landing and wondered what kind of mood she would be in now, but as he padded along to the guestroom he heard her calling to him from her bedroom, ‘Oh darling. I’m in here …’

  He called back, ‘I’m not dressed.’

  She laughed, ‘Good. Neither am I.’

  With a sigh he walked back up along the hall, pushed open the bedroom door and saw the bedside tables were laden with chilled wine and bottles of cold beer, the bed covered with trays of food, and sat in the middle of it all was Angela.

  She licked mayonnaise from her fingertips, ‘Hungry?’

  He nodded, and as he walked to the bed, she cleared a space for him.

  ‘I thought it might be nice if we talked in comfort. And so, went the day well?’

  He chose his words, ‘It was okay, but quite busy.’

  ‘Yes, I did get that impression. So go on then, tell me all about it.’

  ‘Well I’m not quite sure where to start.’

  Reaching over, she kissed him full on the lips, ‘Why not try the beginning?’

  ‘Okay, but it wasn't the best start I’ve had to a day, finding poor old Dudley swinging by his neck at the end of a curtain rope.’

  She took a prawn from the dish, ‘And you’re quite sure Anderton was responsible?’

  ‘Absolutely. He and Hillsdown arranged it between them, and I reckon whoever messed with the file, also found a way to pressure Dudley into blocking the Sanderson file, and then had him killed to protect it.’

  ‘Well the Sanderson file must be the key, and whoever recruited her must have needed her information, and like Dudley, silenced her, but what I don’t understand is the point of reading that Pale 1 file, no-one could possibly remember all that.’

  Frank opened a bottle, ‘He doesn’t have to, he’s got a copy of it now.’

  Staring, Angela slowly turned to stone, ‘He’s what?’

  Letting the shock settle on her, he spooned mayonnaise onto a dish of prawns and began describing the simplicity of the operation, and while he unfolded the story, Angela visualised Anderton sitting in the cradle and photographing the file pages, one by one, as Sheverill held them up to the window.

  ‘Dear god. I wouldn’t have thought it possible. We’ve got the best security money can buy at this Station, and they still managed to do it.’

  ‘Yeah, but Robin Sheverill was a damned good soldier, and it’s a pity he’s dead as he’s the only one who could unravel this can of worms.’

  As Angela listened, she wished she’d never agreed to the dispensation for Lucinda.

  ‘Oh well, it’s done now. So what is this damned password?’

  ‘Not so fast, there’s a few things we need to clear up before we get to that.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘Well to start with, dealing with the deaths of those two scum.’

  ‘Yes, but although they obviously had to leave the game, why did you do it yourself when you could have left it to me?’

  When Frank stayed silent, she saw his eyes and remembered reading his adolescent file.

  Orphanage. Carers. Child abuse. Assault. Violence.

  Thinking back, she remembered Sir Freddie Bromsgrove had been discovered as being a member of the Kindergarten Club, but there’d been no reason to check for Anderton and Hillsdown, so was the Kindergarten Club the link to their deaths?

  ‘Frank. Did you discover something about Anderton and Hillsdown’s private lives?’

  He looked down, ‘It was Monty, he found out that Sheverill, Anderton and Hillsdown were all members of some private club.’

  ‘I see, and was that the reason you decided to use piratical methods against them?’

  ‘Yeah. Well it seemed like a good idea.’

  Angela let out a deep sigh.

  There was always an imponderable element to any operation, and now she’d found this.

  So she would have to thoroughly check the Kindergarten Register, and although it didn’t matter a damn about those scum, Anderton and Hillsdown, there were other members of that disgusting club who were of great importance to the Matrix Forty, and if Frank was likely to kill them on sight, she would have to be very careful with his duty allocations.

  ‘Alright. So if I sanction your piratical methods with regard to those two creatures, can we please proceed, because I really do need that damned password.’

  ‘Fair Enough.’

  He watched for her reaction.

  ‘It’s, GYM SLIP, Dudley said so in a letter. I’ve shredded it now of course, but he wanted to say he was sorry for letting you down, and he wouldn’t have done it if Glenndenning hadn’t forced him.’

  Angela sat up with a start, her eyes shining brightly, ‘Glenndenning?’

  ‘That’s right, and guess what, both Hillsdown and Anderton remembered that Sheverill had always referred to the organiser, as Mister G.’

  Angela’s jaw dropped, ‘You wicked man. Why didn’t you tell me this before?’

  He looked down to her silky stockings, ‘I thought I’d keep you in suspenders.’

  Christiana sat quietly in the pub and read the message again, the final proof laying there before her. Meet 16 September, Bath, 3’ish.

  She could see the two women in
her mind’s eye as they stood across the road arguing outside the little dress shop.

  So Lucinda was definitely the codenamed DC and A was obviously the grey woman, a Cardinal woman, but there was still no mention of Area 57, and that was a great pity.

  Packing her things away, she stood up, but stopped and slowly sank back down again, and flipping back through the papers, came to the last long message, and it was a puzzle.

  So where or what was Thornley Manor?

  She’d never heard of it, but that’s where Lucinda was going to kill someone tomorrow, someone by the name of Tara Goodwin.

  It was unusual for Cardinal to issue Direct Action against someone, so that person must have offended them big time, and now she couldn’t help wondering what Tara Goodwin could possibly have done to deserve dying.

  Later, as she drove through a village, she saw a corner shop, and as she would be out of Sheverill’s Farm in the morning, decided to just do it.

  Pulling over, she bought presents for Lucinda along with stamps and a pack of envelopes, and writing Valkerie inside one of them, addressed it, stuck on a first class stamp and dropped it into the mailbox.

  Driving away, she knew she’d started an unstoppable chain of events and Tomlinson would probably go crazy, but when he finally calmed down he would almost certainly go along with her and get Dmitri out of the UK.

  But the real problem, was she didn’t know how much influence Felicity still had with her old department, or how vindictive that bitch would be from now on.

  Angela awoke early to the morning sun, and stretching out lazily in the deep bed, reached across but her hand fell on crumpled sheets, and with a sigh, stared up to the ceiling.

  She listened to the slumbering cottage, but when no sound could be heard, she slipped out of bed, and looking through the leaded-light window, saw him.

  Frank sipped the dark coffee as he sat quietly by the stream, and hearing the kitchen door open, looked up through the tangle of the wild garden and saw Angela step out into the sunshine, and with a wave, walked down to him.

  ‘I might have guessed you’d be here, but why did you get up, we could have made love, unless you didn’t want to.’

  He came out of his thoughts, ‘Oh, it isn’t that. I just needed to think.’

  She gazed at him quizzically, ‘Why? Is something bothering you?’

  He frowned, ‘Well to be honest, I think I’m getting stuck with this investigation.’

  ‘Really? I don’t see why, you’ve done wonders so far, and we must be getting close.’

  ‘To the man, yes, but the file copy could be anywhere by now, and our masters won’t be pleased with that.’

  She looked away, ‘That’s true. And now the file has been copied, it’s quite possible they’ll want the entire peripheral area completely sanitised.’

  He stared sharply to her, ‘That’s a bit hard.’

  She looked down into the stream, ‘But it has to be that way, surely you understand that?’

  ‘Well actually, I don’t. All I see is innocent people getting hurt.’

  ‘Yes, and for some it’s unfortunate, but in this particular case, it can’t be helped.’

  ‘And why not?’

  ‘It’s a Pale 1 file, remember, and it doesn’t get any worse than that.’

  ‘If you say so.’

  Angela pursed her lips, ‘Yes. I’m afraid I do.’

  3 0

  Ted was awake long before the alarm went off, and as he thought of Frank’s update of the game, realised that what he knew of looking after a young lady could be written on a postage stamp, and on top of that she was in bad trouble and had to be kept safe.

  No pressure then.

  Having washed and dressed he went through to the guestroom, made up the bed and dusted off the furniture, then opening the window, let the fresh air blow through.

  He smiled. That’s just what Maggie would have done.

  In the garden he picked some late flowers, and arranging them in Maggie’s favourite vase, took them up to the guestroom and stood quietly for a moment.

  It hadn’t seen a guest in many a long year, let alone a young woman he’d never met.

  Fixing a tray of toast and coffee, he carried it down to the old bench by the pond, and as he ate he thought back through the years, but couldn’t remember Frank ever mentioning a young woman called Tara, so maybe she’d got mixed up in the game and he wanted to help her, it was possible, he’d broken the rules before.

  So considering Frank wasn’t the kind of man for dramatics, it meant that asking for an exit route through the safe house, implied that this young lady could be going to Mrs P at Moon Shadow, and nobody ever ran to Mrs P unless there was no other way out.

  Looking at his watch he saw the time was creeping round to seven o’clock and there was a lot to do before he met Sammy in the old rail yard.

  It was going to be quite a day, and this might be his last time for fun on the wild side.

  Back in the cottage, he slid open the wood panelling beside the chimney breast, and lifting out the heavy oil-skinned package, stripped and cleaned Bertha, and taking the garage keys, set off up the lane, and as he strode along past the rows of peaceful cottages he couldn’t help wondering what this coming day would bring.

  As the official car carried Frank away, Angela had GYM SLIP fixed in her mind, but that would have to wait its turn. Picking up the red phone, she called her office in Oxford, but was surprised when Samantha answered.

  ‘Hello? Bursary admin, records office, can I help you.’

  Angela smiled, ‘Hello Sam, this is Angela, and you’re rather formal today.’

  ‘Oh, it’s you, ma’am. Sorry, I’m not used to being in the office.’

  ‘No, you’re not. So why are you there, we’re not short staffed I hope.’

  ‘No, not at all. I just dropped in for a chat, and to thank the girls for their presents.’

  ‘Oh yes, of course, it’s your anniversary, and did you have a nice time, romantic?’

  There was a short silence, ‘I guess it was okay, except Tim had lots of calls to make, but thanks for the flowers, they’re lovely.’

  ‘You’re welcome, but actually, I’m glad I’ve caught you, and this is quite a coincidence, because you are the reason for my call.’

  ‘I am?’

  ‘Yes indeed, and as you may know, I’m monitoring an operation from the cottage, and to be honest it’s turning out to be far more complicated than I realised and I’m going to need some help, someone I can trust, and although there might be a strong diplomatic content, it would also mean quite considerable promotion. So would you be interested?’

  Sam hesitated, but only for a moment, ‘Yes ma’am, I am. I’m very interested indeed.’

  ‘Excellent. So collect your diplomatic bag and come straight over to the cottage, and if you pass me over to Louise I’ll have you officially transferred to my private staff.’

  ‘Thank you, ma’am. And is there anything else?’

  ‘I don’t think so, except I might need you for diplomatic tonight.’

  ‘Okay. So will the diplomatic be male or female?’

  ‘I’m not sure, it’s open ended at the moment, so it might be best to allow for both.’

  Samantha thought back to the saucy gossip she’d heard from the other diplomatic ladies, and if the stories were true, this might be her turn to sleep with the boss.

  ‘Yes ma’am. I do understand.’

  Evelyn had found the tavern to be welcoming and comfortable, and such a huge relief to be away from Thornley and the troubles, but now, in the cold light of this new morning her thoughts became crowded again with the recent events, and if Lewis was true to his word, and she really was to be Head of Thornley, her life would change forever and her duty from now on would be to Cardinal.

  Sat in the dining room over breakfast, she thought Tara was distant and unsure.

  ‘Tara. Do you remember what you have to do?’

  Looking up from the
plate, her eyes seemed vacant, her thoughts woolly.

  ‘I think so, I’m to wait here and be collected at lunchtime by a man called Ted Willis.’

  ‘That’s right, and don’t forget, you’re not to leave the tavern under any circumstances.’

  A tinge of nervousness came to Tara’s voice, ‘I know, but it’s scary.’

  ‘Oh, I wouldn’t worry, you’ll be quite safe.’

  ‘Will I? But what’s going to happen to me?’

  ‘I don’t know, but Mr Lewis seems quite sure about everything.’

  Later, when Evelyn checked out at reception, Tara felt as if she were being cast adrift and left alone in the world with only strangers as her unknown future.

  Driving away, Evelyn looked back and saw a tiny diminutive figure standing quietly in the massive stone porch, her eyes misty, her soft pink lips pressed tightly together.

  When Monty awoke in the early hours, he thought the clinic to be a depressing place, so having washed and dressed he called for the official car.

  Having arrived unexpectedly at the lodge, the night sergeant had not been pleased when Monty made himself at home in the gatehouse.

  There was only an hour to go before he handed over to Sergeant Jenkins, and instead of a quiet wind down to the shift, he had this dangerous old man in his office watching his every move.

  ‘Sergeant, if it’s no trouble, I’d like to see yesterday’s register.’

  Sergeant Lawrence looked up from his paperwork, ‘The register, sir?’

  ‘Yes please, all the movements through the main gate.’

  Standing up, the sergeant took the clipboard from a hook and handed it over.

  ‘This covers everything up to midnight.’

  Running his finger down the list, Monty carefully checked every log and entry.

  ‘Sergeant, it says here that there were three fatal accidents yesterday.’

  ‘Yes sir, that’s correct. Mr Dudley, Mr Anderton and CI Hillsdown.’

  He frowned at the name of Dudley, ‘I see, and who arranged their collection?’

  ‘It was your colleague, sir, Mr Lewis.’

  Monty inwardly groaned.

  This was just what he’d been afraid of, the penalty for letting Lewis come into close contact with perverts, but why Mr Dudley, he was totally innocent of that kind of thing.