Remember Remember

by Alan Wade

  Farouk opened the car and they both entered and locked their seatbelts.

  “Do you think what he said will help in any way Major?”

  “It might, now at least I have a date of departure, so if our Englishman, let’s suppose he is English for now, left Turkey on the 3rd of August I may be able to track him down by the flights from Dalaman on that day; and if he were English then he may have returned on an English flight. It’s certainly worth following up. Can you help me from the Dalaman end; at least if we start there we have only one airport to consider. Then I can cross reference who left on that date with who arrived in the UK.”

  “Are you interested in UK flights only?”

  “I think so for now.”

  “Good, because a broader search would have to cover flights all over Europe and the Middle East.” he responded.

  “We may have to broaden the search later but for now the UK flights will do,” replied Rock then continued, “thanks for all your help, now do you mind if we go back to the Karbel Hotel and walk around a little just to see what’s about?”

  “I’ll drive you there now, but we will have our hands full around there because it’s the tourist part of Olu Deniz, full of bars and restaurants. We have already interviewed most of the owners, who can remember very little. However there is one lady, English, whose husband owns the Secret Garden restaurant. She says she can remember an Englishman meeting other ‘business men’ in her bar.”

  “Let’s go and see her then. Good work, thanks.”

  They entered the Secret Garden and were met by a petite blond woman who was dressed in a plain white top and tailored trousers. She looked smart and tasteful.

  “Hello gentlemen, can I interest you in a cocktail?”

  “It’s a little early for me for cocktails but I will have a beer,” responded Steve.

  “Nice place you have here Miss er…..”

  “Mrs, Mrs Takrit. I am married to my Turkish husband but come from the UK.”

  “Are you enjoying it out here?”

  “Very much so, perhaps we get a little too much heat and some Turkish gentlemen can be over zealous in the way they help ladies out here, but overall it’s really good.”

  “Business good too eh?” he enquired

  “OK yes.”

  Farouk interrupted their discussion as the Major took a sip of his Elfe beer. “As you know Mrs Takrit we are interested in the death of a man found in a car in the water, close to the White Dolphin and you mentioned when we last met that a group of men used to meet here for drinks around the 27th to 30th July.”

  “Yes, I don’t think it is very important but on one or two occasions a group of men met here who seemed not to be tourists.”

  “Go on please Mrs Takrit,” nodded the Major.

  “Well, for a start they were from different worlds, one was English who seemed to be here as a tourist but who always came alone and then met others; some who looked to be Turkish and one who was an Arab. He, the Englishman always ordered the drinks and seemed to be in charge of the group.”

  “How can you be sure he was English?”

  “I’m from Cheshire, I met my husband in Manchester before we came out here. I recognised the man’s accent, it was certainly Northern and just through idle chit chat I know that he knew Manchester and Cheshire. He was definitely British and I think a Northerner.”

  “Can you describe him?”

  “He was white obviously,” she stopped talking looking puzzled then continued, “I don’t know why I said that, but yes, he was white, average height, not fat, looked quite fit actually, but not one of the muscled men. Fair hair, quite a bronzed face, not from being here, he looked the outdoor type, average dress, nothing special but nothing tacky.”

  “Clean shaven or beard?”

  “I can’t remember, do you know I can’t remember.”

  “Glasses, did he wear glasses?”

  “I don’t know, you see nearly everybody wears glasses here and you don’t know if they’re just sunglasses or the real thing.”

  “Any tattoos, bracelets, watches?”

  “Nothing I can remember, he seemed just ordinary really, not someone who would stand out in a crowd. Mr Average really, but quite good looking.”

  “How old do you think he was?” asked the Major.

  “Again, it’s difficult to say, he was neither young, nor old. Maybe in his late thirties or early forties,” she said.

  “How did they pay for their drinks, can you remember?”

  “Not really, so I suppose it will have been cash. I can usually remember most credit card transactions because we do very few for drinks only.”

  “Thank you very much,” replied Rock, “most interesting,” he said then continued, “what about the others?”

  “Nothing really, none of them ever spoke directly to me, they seemed to arrive, see the Englishman, go to sit with him, talk and then leave; nothing out of the ordinary really but still a strange group of people to be meeting here in Olu Deniz.”

  “Can you remember any dates when they were here?”

  “Sorry, I can’t, Inspector Farouk has already asked me that question and it’s impossible to remember exact dates, but I do know it was around the dates you mentioned. Sorry I can’t be more exact.”

  Rock finished his beer and rose to leave saying, “Thank you so much for all your help, you don’t need to be sorry about the dates. I think what you have just remembered may be very helpful to us. Thank you.”

  As they walked toward the entrance Rock turned to Farouk and said, “That was good work, she has described him very much like Albert Holler did; perhaps we can begin to build a picture of our Englishman.”

  They left the Secret Garden and walked the streets of Olu Deniz but no further informative interviews were made. Rock arrived back at the Hotel Karbel reasonably satisfied with his visit to Olu Deniz. “Perhaps the flight enquiries from Dalaman to England may reveal something,” he thought.

  September 3rd, Milton Keynes, England.

  The various emails sent by Major Rock when in Olu Deniz and the ones arriving from Inspector Farouk’s enquiries at Dalaman airport had resulted in a list of all flights taking off from Dalaman on the 3rd of August. There had been just four regular flights, two to London one to Manchester and one to Glasgow. However, there were also 21 charter flights landing in many regional airports around the UK, meaning that over 5000 names required to be investigated. From these Rock’s team could eliminate women and children, however this still left over 1500 men.

  “We need to build a database of all these men to include date of birth, religion, length of time in Turkey; which needs to be over 5 days. Whether they were travelling solo or accompanied, their colour, ethnicity and any other available information,” declared Rock to his colleague Ken Smith.

  “That is an enormous task sir, how long do we have?” replied Ken.

  “At least until my next meeting with HQ in London, because I would like to go to that meeting with some meaningful information if possible. Can you start with passport and National Insurance numbers? They may help. How many people can you put on it Ken?”

  “Perhaps ten, we will split up the alphabet. You’ll need to use your weight to get co-operation from the Department of Employment and Customs. However this whole task presupposes the man was using his real name on the flight.”

  “I know it’s a long shot and a great deal of work, but it’s all we have to go on at the moment.”

  “Do we have any ID?”

  “Not a lot, he seemed like Mr Average, average height, age and dress, but we can certainly eliminate men under 25 and over 60 for a start, and he was white; a northerner we think, so that may help. His height was also average so we can eliminate men over 6’ 3” and under 5’ 3”.” He paused then asked, “how much time will you need Ken?”

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sp; “I think each person could input 200 names and other data per day, then if we can write a search programme we can begin to search on a 24 hour basis, but I’d still need 3 days to complete the task.”

  “Could you put 20 people on it and save time?”

  “Not really, it’s not the number of people so much as their ability to accurately and speedily input the data. If they get that wrong you may lose your man. No, I do need the 3 days Major.”

  “Then let’s get on with it and let me know as soon as you can, anything that may help.”

  “Starting tomorrow you can have a print out each hour on the hour.”

  “Thanks Ken and good luck.”

  On the 4th of September, just 24 hours later Rock began to receive the first preliminary reports and a visit from Ken.

  “Sir, we have a problem. Some fucking Joe Jobsworth in the D of E is restricting our access, he says we don’t have the correct clearance and we’ll have to wait until his boss comes back from leave in ten days.”

  “Rubbish, I can’t wait that long. Who the hell is he? I need his name and job title.”

  “I can give you that now sir, it’s Duncan Graham, head of Data Protection D of E.”

  “I’ll get onto it.”

  “Thank you sir.”

  He picked up his phone, dialled, waited and then said, “I have a problem sir, I need clearance for my team to gain data held by the D of E and a Mr Duncan Graham , Head of Data Protection in that department is denying my staff access. Can you get ministerial approval?”

  “Is this about the Turkish link and the body at Olu Deniz?”

  “Yes sir, and it is critical.”

  “OK. I will need 2 hours, but you will have access today. Goodbye Major.”

  Department of Employment, North East England.

  To: Duncan Graham,

  It is imperative you allow access to all data required from Major Rock’s group, identification code AAA7762. Take immediate action.

  Duncan read it a second time.

  “Jesus, it’s from the Minister himself. This Jobsworth Rock knows how to pull the right strings. May as well open the doors to anyone; so much for the data protection act,” he muttered to himself

  Within 2 hours Ken had access to all relevant government data bases and by the end of the second day he had delivered 15 reports to Major Rock listing the remaining names from the computer sorting process. On the 6th of September all 1500 names had been sorted with all those over 60 and under 25, all ethnicities other than white UK and all men over 6’ 3’ and under 5’ 0’ eliminated. However, this still left over 400 names.

  “This is not as easy as I first thought it might be,” Rock said as he scanned the names looking for something that may help. There are still too many to interview and we don’t have the man power for individual surveillance.”

  “Is there any further sort that we can apply to the remaining 400 to further reduce it?”

  “I wish I knew, I wish I knew of one. From what they described we have a white man, middle aged, average height, looked fit, spoke with a northern accent, no tattoos or jewellery, no beard or moustache and we don’t know if he wore glasses. This is difficult, very difficult. I think our next move is to sort them into constabulary areas and ask each constabulary to at least carry out a preliminary interview, just to find out if anything at all may help. I’ll build a questionnaire today; just a few questions may help us. Can you then email it out to the forces and request they return their answers by 8th September latest.”

  He confirmed agreement with a nod of his head.

  Rock set about an introduction and questionnaire to help the police at each interview. It read please begin your interviews as follows:-

  “Good morning/afternoon, I hope you can help me. We are interviewing all men who flew from Dalaman airport, Turkey, to the UK around the first week in August. We need to find a man who may be able to help us regarding an incident which happened in Olu Deniz, where the man may have witnessed a serious assault in a bar. Thanks for your co-operation.

  The questions to then ask are:-

  Could you tell me;

  Where did you stay in Turkey?

  Did you go to the resort of Olu Deniz, (if they stayed elsewhere)?

  Did you ever visit a restaurant called the White Dolphin?

  Did you ever visit a restaurant called the Secret Garden?

  How long were you in Turkey?

  What was your reason for visiting Turkey?

  Who else did you travel with who may help?

  Did you see anything suspicious around the end of July beginning of August in Olu Deniz?

  Do you have any remaining travel documents that I may see?

  Who did you book your travel with?

  May I ask your partner the same questions?

  What date did you return to the UK?

  His questionnaire then continued;

  N.B. If they say they did not visit Olu Deniz and their travel documents support this, then obviously many of the above questions become irrelevant. After closing the interview, please be prepared to complete the enclosed identikit questionnaire to see if it fits in general with the description below.

  Description:-

  We are looking for a white male of average height, over 5 feet and under 6’ 3” and of average weight. He looks quite fit, has no facial hair (we believe), and has a short hair cut, of course he could have since shaved his head and grown a moustache or beard. He has no obvious tattoos or jewellery and speaks with a northern accent. He may or may not wear glasses. He was often seen in Olu Deniz. Finally, if the person fits the general description ask politely if you may take a digital photograph, full body if possible. Obviously they have the right to decline but that should be recorded. The questionnaire ended with a polite “Thank you for your time.”

  Rock walked from his office to find Ken at his desk, “Here is a draft questionnaire for the police, please send it out as soon as possible and mark it urgent, top priority. I need answers within 48 hours if possible. I would like to go to my next meeting at HQ with at least an idea of who my man is.”

  “Surely they’ll give you more time if you ask for it sir.”

  “Some may, some may not, those not in favour of my using so much valuable resource and manpower on this one project, may think it’s a bloody wild goose chase and press for me to call it off.”

  “It may be a wild goose chase sir, the man may have flown to any destination out of Dalaman in which case we probably don’t have a chance of tracing him.”

  “I know, and that’s what HQ may think and if so we’ll have to call it off. But the guy’s a white Englishman with a northern accent and my bet is he’s one of those 400, so let’s hope they give me the time.”

  “When is your next meeting with HQ Major?”

  “Two day’s time, it would be nice to call it off if I could, even nicer if they had to postpone it.”

  September 8th, 10.00, St James, London.

  “Good Morning Major, how are you?” Commander Bagshaw beckoned the Major to a seat. The Major sat down and acknowledged the others in the room.

  “Please begin your briefing Major, we have 60 minutes in total.”

  Forty minutes later the Major was under intense pressure from the group to reconsider the whole approach to Olu Deniz and to reorganise his group to the task of broader intelligence gathering from the whole of Turkey.

  “I still believe the Olu Deniz issue is worthy of further effort and that is why I would like to restate my need for more time to be spent on this incident.”

  He stopped for a moment to sip from a glass of water then continued without interruption, “We have a murdered man with no identification found in a car which we now know was pushed over a cliff into the sea, he was in Turkey with two or three others, all of whom were using false passpor
ts. I believe they knew he had been killed but did not report it. They tried to book him out of a hotel and retrieve his passport. An Englishman met with three or four other men on at least four occasions. Not one of them, other than the dead man, ever made any electronic or telephonic communication. Yet my interviews with people who served them in restaurants make me believe they were all business men, not holiday makers. They always sat in quiet corners and never spoke when approached. The Englishman seemed to be in charge. The murdered man was the only one who made any phone calls. I have four hundred names one of which I believe is our Englishman, perhaps a murderer and also a terrorist.” He paused to see if there was any reaction to the word terrorist but saw none so continued, “I have asked local police forces to interview these men and as of today I will be receiving answers. Therefore I request that I may continue these investigations at least until our next meeting in 60 days and of course if I gain important information before this it will be forwarded. Finally, I still have 70% of my staff covering the Turkish area and I feel confident we are in control of ground monitoring across the whole region.”

  “Then perhaps you have too many staff Major, if you are able to put all this resource into Olu Deniz and also cover Turkey,” responded one of the others.

  Rock smiled and replied, “I’ll never have enough staff sir to cover every eventuality but I will follow, with your permission, the intelligence that gives me the best opportunity to defeat terrorism. Do I have your agreement to continue until our next meeting?” He looked across the room at each member of the committee and observing their body language knew before the decision was iterated, he had won another 60 days.

  “OK Major, you get the resources but at our next meeting you must have something concrete to enable us to continue this line of enquiry.”

  “Thank you sir, may I finally ask you if your enquiries regarding banking transactions have given us any further information than we already know?”

  “No, we know monies have been transferred to banks in the Olu Deniz area but it was all clean from reputable banks and for business purposes. It all still seems above board.”

  The meeting closed at 11.00, Major Rock had 60 more days to find the Englishman.