If Fear Wins

by Tony J. Forder

  They all watched as the entry team applied pressure to the leverage equipment. Seconds later the barn doors flew off the structure itself, unable to resist the force being applied. Having been waiting outside the barn, the two strike units piled inside. The sound of their shouted warnings drifted across the flat terrain. Bliss tensed, fearing the sound of gunfire would soon echo across the open land between the lane and the barn. But there was nothing.

  Moments later a lone figure strode out of the barn and waved in the direction of the camera. ‘Guv, you better come,’ the voice crackled on the comms.

  The driver of the lorry knelt on the hardcore floor, hands cuffed behind his back. He was chuckling to himself as Pursey, Jez and Bliss entered the barn. The lorry was the only vehicle inside. The driver the only person being guarded. The only other people in the entire barn were attached to the task force.

  Pursey strode across to the kneeling man, whose chubby features were pale and moist. ‘What the fuck is going on here?’ Pursey demanded to know, bent forward at the waist so that his face and that of the lorry driver were barely inches apart.

  The driver stopped chuckling long enough to say, ‘No idea what you mean. I’m just parking up for the night. Other than that, I want my brief.’

  Judging by his accent he was a Mancunian. A long way from home. Bliss looked on as the Essex DI continued to stare at the man, eyes squeezed but unblinking. Pursey’s hands were by his side, but the right was twitching.

  ‘You can call a solicitor once I have you banged up,’ he said. ‘You’re mine for twenty-four hours, and a lot can happen in a day to a piece of shit like you. It’s surprising how often people hurt themselves in a holding cell. You look clumsy, the sort of bloke who probably gets hurt a lot. Unless you want to tell me what went on here tonight.’

  The man smiled and shook his doughy head. ‘I don’t know what you’re banging on about. I parked my lorry for the night. That’s all. Why, what were you expecting to happen?’

  Pursey tensed. Bliss sensed what was coming even if the driver did not. Pursey’s head was massive, and there was a lot of meat over the bone of his forehead. When it struck the driver on the bridge of the nose there was a popping sound, followed by a howl of pain from the overweight man kneeling on the floor. When the DI stood up straight, Bliss saw the blood spread all over the driver’s face and pouring from both nostrils.

  ‘Get him out of here!’ Pursey cried, kicking out at the crushed rock and gravel floor as he turned back towards Bliss and Hanna Jez.

  ‘Your op got made,’ Bliss said. He shrugged. ‘It happens.’

  Pursey shook his head. ‘Well it fucking well shouldn’t have.’

  Just then his mobile chirped. He read an incoming text, and Bliss watched as his face become rigid and further inflamed. ‘Fuck!’ he snapped. ‘My man on the inside just told me Bird got a text earlier, just as the lorry was about to leave. My bloke was sent to do something, clocked the lorry leaving as he came back and just assumed it was still fully loaded as expected. Evidently, the text turned out to be some bastard informing Bird about the raid. They must’ve dumped the cargo and instructed everyone inside the barn to leave before we even got here.’

  ‘That’s rank bad luck all round,’ Bliss said.

  ‘Nah. Got piss all to do with luck. I fucked up by not having a team here earlier. If I had, they would have seen the onward vans making a run for it.’

  ‘True, but where would that have got you? You couldn’t have stopped them because they’d done nothing wrong at that point. They were all empty. The raid would still have been a bust.’

  ‘Yeah, I suppose.’ Pursey puffed out his cheeks. ‘Even so, I want to know who informed on us.’

  ‘There were a lot of people involved,’ Jez said, standing with both hands on her hips, her face stern and a little shocked.

  ‘Yeah, and one of them is a fucking rat. I get hold of them I’ll…’ Pursey stopped, his glance having fallen upon Bliss. He jabbed a finger. ‘You. You’re the newcomer who suddenly turns up on scene, and the next minute our op goes tits up. I saw you use your phone earlier, too.’

  Bliss felt heat spread throughout his chest. His mouth became instantly dry. He had sent a couple of texts, one to Chandler and the other to Emily. Not that it mattered. He wasn’t about to let the accusation slide.

  ‘You go fuck yourself, Pursey,’ he said. ‘But before you do, take that back.’

  Jez stepped sideways to get in between the two men. Either could have swatted her aside like an insect, but her presence cooled Bliss’s outrage and seemed to also have the desired effect on the Essex detective.

  ‘Graham, that was uncalled for,’ she said to Pursey. ‘If you knew what this man had been through you would not accuse him of such a thing.’

  ‘You think I don’t know about him? DI Bliss, the man who brought down half the force in Peterborough. Yeah, I checked him out, but it means fuck all in the scheme of things. That was a lifetime ago.’ Pursey set his stance a little wider, as if preparing for Bliss to physically attack him.

  ‘Like I told you, Pursey,’ Bliss said. ‘You can go fuck yourself. And as throwing baseless accusations around seems to be the order of the day, what about you? I wasn’t the only one with a mobile in my hand earlier as I recall.’

  Again the jabbed finger, Pursey’s eyes wide and round like saucers. ‘I’ve spent eighteen months waiting for a chance to take down Bird. You think I’m going to blow that? You think I’m hunting him down while also taking his wedge?’

  ‘It wouldn’t be the first time.’

  ‘Yeah, well it would for me. I can be sure about that, I just can’t be sure about anyone else. That includes you, like it or not. And how about your girlfriend here, what was she doing at the time?’

  ‘Come off it, Graham,’ Jez said, taking a step back, one hand to her chest. ‘How long have we been working together?’

  Pursey threw his hands in the air. ‘What does that matter? Bird pays well and some cops just can’t resist. I see you flashing around in a new motor or flying off to the Bahamas after we’re done here and I’m gonna have questions for you, Hanna.’

  ‘Lay off it, Pursey,’ Bliss said. He squared himself, expecting an onslaught at any moment. The DI was a beast, but Bliss wasn’t about to back down. He pulled out his mobile and turned to Jez. ‘Here, give him this to look through. Give him yours as well. Then we can get the fuck out of here and move on.’

  Jez slipped Bliss’s Samsung across to Pursey. ‘I’m not giving up mine,’ she said, hugging herself and pulling the bright pink jacket tighter. ‘You either trust me or you don’t. But I’m not letting you search through my phone.’

  ‘Jez, if it calms him down and gets us back on track, give it up,’ Bliss said. He removed all tension from his voice.

  Her head turned as if on a spring suddenly uncoiled. ‘I said no!’

  Now the two men stopped glaring at each other and instead turned their close attention to the NCA officer. Bliss frowned, scarcely able to believe what he had seen in that moment. That had not been anger in his friend’s eyes and voice. It had been fear. And guilt.

  ‘Jez?’ he said softly, moving closer, putting a hand on her upper arm. At his touch, she curled up rather like the creature she adored so much. ‘Oh, Jez, what have you done?’

  30

  ‘Tell me about it, Hedgehog,’ Bliss said. ‘Tell me everything.’

  They were back at the Way Station, sitting in the command vehicle. Just the two of them. Pursey, incandescent with rage, had stormed off back to the police station to update his superiors and file a report. Bliss figured he and Jez had less than an hour before the Complaints and Misconduct investigation began. After that, the Independent Police Complaints Commission would become involved, and Jez would be swept up into the machine. Bliss understood Pursey’s anger towards the NCA officer, but knew there had to be more to the story than a simple payoff.

  Jez, looking more slight and weary than he had ever seen her, fir
st hung her head and sobbed into her knuckles. Her hair hung in loose strands as her shoulders heaved. Bliss gave her time to get it out of her system. Then she looked back up at him, tears cascading down both cheeks.

  ‘Bird’s men threatened my brother, his wife and their two children. I was told their home would be torched one night while my family were asleep if I didn’t co-operate. I tried to fight it, Jimmy, I really did. I would have taken any punishment they were willing to hand out if the threats had kept only to me. But I was warned that if I told anyone they would hurt those children in a hundred different ways right in front of their parents before killing them all.’

  Bliss put his head back and heaved a long sigh. It was as bad as he had feared. The C&M team would not give a damn. They would insist that her duty as a serving officer was to report the intimidation, not yield to it. So much easier to say than do when such threats were made. Especially when you knew Bird and his men would have no qualms about carrying them out.

  ‘Okay,’ Bliss said, thinking rapidly. ‘You need to start throwing up protective walls around you, Hanna. Contact the federation and line up a representative. Start trawling for a decent solicitor. Write out a prepared statement attesting to everything you just told me, then when they come for you say nothing without your brief being present. You understand?’

  Jez nodded, still shedding tears, sniffing and weeping and moaning to herself.

  ‘Hedgehog!’ Bliss yelled this time, holding both her hands in his. When this time her eyes focussed on him he repeated his advice. ‘Make your calls and write your statement now. Prepare yourself, then we’ll talk again.’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Jimmy,’ Jez wailed and shook her head repeatedly. ‘I’m so ashamed of myself.’

  ‘Listen to me. What you did, you did under enormous pressure. None of us knows how we would have reacted in the same circumstances. DI Pursey is livid, but when the dust settles he’ll understand why you informed. He may never forgive you, and I doubt he will ever forget what you did, but he will understand and accept that you were put in a position from which you felt there was no escape.’

  ‘I don’t care what he thinks. I will never forgive myself.’

  ‘That’s a real possibility, yes. In time you’ll find a way to live with it. But I have to ask you something, Hedgehog. Something really important that will occur to Pursey soon enough. Better that you answer me than him. Did you ever tell Bird’s men about the DI’s man on the inside?’

  Jez appeared horrified at the suggestion. ‘No. No, never. But they did ask if there was someone. They did know something, I’m sure of it. Just not who, and I told them, swore to them that I didn’t know if there was someone, and even if there was I did not know who it was… because I didn’t. Graham never told me.’

  Bliss nodded. He believed his friend and felt relieved. The raid had been blown, but no one had been hurt. However, he also felt he needed to warn Pursey that Bird and his gang of brutal thugs were aware someone inside the organisation was talking to the police.

  ‘Do what you have to do,’ he told Jez. ‘I’m going to have a chat with Pursey.’

  Bliss climbed down out of the command vehicle. Only a few cars and vans remained, with a small number of men and woman floating around the hangar-like warehouse. There were a lot of angry officers milling around earlier, and it took all of Bliss’s persuasive reasoning to convince Pursey not to tell them everything which, at that point, only the three of them were aware of. Feelings were so high that Bliss feared a mob-mentality taking hold if an entire JTF team knew they had a traitor in their midst.

  He dialled the DI’s number, and Pursey picked up on the fourth ring.

  Bliss asked if he felt any calmer, and got a harsh and bitter snort by way of a response. ‘Listen, I have some news for you,’ Bliss said. ‘And before you blow a gasket or pop an artery, let me finish before you explode. Bird believes you have a man inside his crew. I’ll explain why Hanna did what she did in a second, but you have to know that she told them she knew nothing about an insider, and even if she did she could never name them as she was never given that information. Is that correct?’

  ‘Yes. Fuck!’ There was a slight pause as Pursey gathered his thoughts. ‘They know I have someone on their side of the fence? Fuck, I’ll have to pull him. So what did your girlfriend have to say then, Bliss?’

  ‘Don’t call her that. It disrespects her and me, and makes you sound unprofessional. I’m not one of your suspects banged up in a cell. I won’t be intimidated by you. We understand each another?’

  Pursey exhaled deeply. ‘Fine. I apologise. And for thinking it might have been you earlier.’

  ‘Okay. So, Hanna told me Bird’s crew had threatened her. Actually, not her, as she would probably have submitted to that rather than inform. They threatened that unless she worked with them they would murder her brother and his entire family. But only after taking some time to torture the children. She took the threat seriously enough not to bring it to the attention of her superiors.’

  ‘Stupid bitch!’

  ‘Hey, calm down, will you.’ Bliss understood the man’s anger, but it was time for him to reel it back in. He ran a hand across his scalp, which felt itchy and cold out there in the warehouse with its doors gaping wide and a chill night breeze blowing through it. ‘I know this hurt you, Pursey, and I know you feel betrayed, but Hanna didn’t think she had a choice in the matter. I’m not saying she’s right, only that I’m not sure she’s entirely wrong, either. What does concern me is that they even knew about her and also knew how to reach her. That isn’t right. I can’t figure out how that came to happen. So let me ask you something without you going off on one. Your insider… is there any chance he could be playing both sides? Or playing you, for that matter?’

  ‘No.’ Firm, unhesitating. ‘No way, Bliss. He’s rock solid.’

  ‘Fair enough. He’s your man and you know him best. You say he’s clean, then he’s clean. But somehow Bird or someone on his team knew about Hanna and were able to get close enough to her to make the threat. You might want to think about that, Pursey. Maybe even ask your man if he knows how that might have happened.’

  ‘That I can and will do.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Look, Bliss, I haven’t got much time for Hanna Jez right now, but nobody should be getting that close to any of us. I’ll make a point of finding out how.’

  Back inside the command centre, Jez was done with both her calls and the written statement. Bliss was starting to feel emotionally drained, and the physical impact was beginning to take its toll. The pressure of the investigation, Emily’s predicament, and now another friend suffering and tormented. It was all too much.

  ‘Jez,’ Bliss said, taking hold of her hands. ‘Are you aware of exactly how Bird’s men managed to find you and threaten you? To not only know you were NCA but that you were part of the task force and also all about your family?’

  Her tears having subsided, leaving red and blotchy puffiness in their wake, Jez shook her head. ‘I never even thought about that. Not really. I suppose I subconsciously assumed that villains like Bird have police in their pockets. Even someone inside the agency for all I know.’

  ‘Yeah. It’s a lot of information to obtain. If you think of anything, let me know.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Okay. I’ve asked Pursey to have a word with his insider. See if he knows how they acquired that information. Between you and me, I wonder if this inside man is playing Pursey, or maybe even getting paid by both sides. That’s a dangerous game if so.’

  Bliss’s phone rang. He dug it out of his jacket pocket. ‘I can’t get hold of my man,’ Pursey said down the line. ‘I’m guessing he’s still with the crew and can’t take a call right now, but I sent one of our prearranged texts asking for a meet.’

  ‘Any chance that I could come along?’

  ‘I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, Bliss. Besides, doesn’t your gir… I mean, doesn’t Hanna need you?�
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  ‘She’ll be fine. She’s written a statement and called for representation. They can help her more than I can. But I would like to ask your man a few questions about Jez. You don’t need to tell me his name, and I’m happy to ask him whilst he’s standing behind a closed door if necessary.’

  Pursey agreed. Reluctantly, Bliss thought, but the agreement was the most important thing. He said his goodbyes to Jez and wished her good luck with what was to follow, reminded her to say nothing without her representative or solicitor being present. Told her he’d be back with information. Then he drove the short distance to Grays police station, where Pursey was already standing outside on the pavement waiting for him.

  Bliss drove towards the river. Past the immense Hyundai lot where vehicles fresh off the conveyor were parked up, and just beyond the World’s End pub, lay the Tilbury Fort, an English heritage site. From the uneven gravel pub car park there were grey and water-stained concrete steps leading up onto the battlements. Pursey had started out directing Bliss to the meeting point, but he was familiar with the location.

  ‘You’re a Londoner, Bliss,’ the bluff DI said. ‘You ever visited this place?’

  Bliss had, but not for decades. There were a lot of the capital’s quintessential sights he had not seen since he was a child. A single day out with his father had taken in the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Somewhere at home he had a collection of small black-and-white photographs commemorating the day; the proud father and the adoring son getting to know their home town. Bliss reckoned the more you lived somewhere the less fascinating it became. Even a huge city like London.

  ‘It’s been demobilised for almost seventy years now,’ Pursey went on. ‘Wasn’t used much in World War Two, but was strategic in the first. Artillery once upon a time, of course.’

  ‘I take it you couldn’t be more local,’ Bliss said.

  ‘You could say that. Son of a docker, who was the son of a docker. Born and raised less than half a mile from here. Right where all those Japanese motors are lined up waiting to be moved on around the country, that’s where our old house was. Solid old homes knocking out solid families. You can imagine the draw this place was to us kids.’