The Fourth Cart

by Stephen R P Bailey

  Chapter Forty

  Brigadier Armstrong frowned as McAlister’s back door opened letting light flood in to the garden. He cursed loudly on realizing what the man was probably going to do, ‘Damn, he’s going along with it!’

  ‘He’s doing a runner, sir?’

  ‘I believe he is, Ian. Bloody idiot! Haven’t you traced that call yet?’

  ‘Any second now, sir. Here we go. Yep, it was made from a public phone box down near the park.’

  ‘And exactly where is our friend Nick Price?’

  ‘He gave Phil and Jamie the slip earlier this afternoon.’

  ‘Brilliant,’ Brigadier Armstrong muttered. ‘Voice match?’

  ‘Could be Nick Price, not too sure. It’s got some vague similarities, but it’s being distorted, possibly electronically.’

  ‘What about anyone else we know?’

  ‘No, no matches found.’

  ‘A fine evening for cock-ups, if I may say so, gentlemen. I think we may have a situation developing. Who says leave it, who wants to get involved?’

  The two surveillance officers in the room along with Brigadier Armstrong shrugged their shoulders in indifference.

  Brigadier Armstrong was unimpressed by the response of his men. ‘I’m glad that’s not me out there. All right, stick to your headphones and binoculars you wimps, I think it’s time for me to take a walk around the block.’