by Derek Fee
CHAPTER 47
The sandwich and tea helped to quell the disturbance in Case's stomach but did nothing to dispel the feelings of anxiety which dominated him. He had left the residue of his snack on the kitchen table and had moved back to his room upstairs. For some reason he felt the need to be close to his shooters. As soon as he entered the front bedroom, he moved to the window overlooking the street and drew back the curtain. Nothing. What was it about this town that a street could be empty of people for almost one whole day. Then the penny dropped. That was the problem. This was a working class area of Belfast. No matter how bad the weather there were always kids on the street or old biddies going next door for a fag and a chat. But not to-day. Since early morning, there hadn't been a single person on the street. He tried to open the catch on the window. It wouldn't budge. The two pieces of metal were cemented by a large russet blob of rust. He pushed hard on the catch and the assembly came away in his hand, the catch separating completely from the two parts of the wooden window frame. The bottom half of the window initially resisted his efforts to push it up but it finally eased and he managed to open it wide enough to get his head outside. He put his head slowly through the gap left by the raised bottom panel. A gush of cold rain rapped against his face and caused his vision to blur. He tossed his head and looked quickly up and down the street. Nothing. He was pulling his head back into the room when a movement at an intersection twenty yards down the street caught his eye. He immediately recognised the muzzle of a rifle protruding from the wall. He quickly withdrew his head and turned to the bed where the steel suitcase remained open where he had left it. He picked out the Uzi and a handful of magazines. He slipped a magazine into the machine gun and made his way to the back bedroom. Betty Maguire's bleached white body lay on the ground where he had left it. She looked like a marble cast of his former landlady. A dark red patch covered the thin eiderdown and snaked into a pool of powdery dried blood which lay beside the body. He wondered who the hell was lurking outside? It had to be the police. But how the hell had they managed to get a line on him. He walked to the back window, pulled aside the curtain slowly and looked out across the back gardens of the houses on Fortingale Street. Each garden was directly connected to that of the house immediately backing on to it. Low wooden fences or hedges separated the small gardens from each other. If he had to make a run for it, this was the route he was going to have to take. He made his way to the front of the house cradling the Uzi in his arms.
A wicked rain laden wind whipped into Wilson's face as he turned the corner into Fortingale Street. He pushed closer to the wall as he walked slowly towards the Maguire house. Everything was in place. Sharpshooters had been stationed on the roofs of two houses at the end of the street and the back of the house was being covered from the windows of the houses directly behind it. Mr Gardiner was going nowhere. Wilson felt somewhat better about the operation knowing that there was someone in there. He'd been seen poking his head out through one of the upstairs windows. Maybe they should have taken their opportunity for a shot at him, but he wanted this one alive. He inched his way along the street glancing occasionally into the front room of the deserted houses. Stopping twenty yards from the house he took shelter in the recess of a doorway. His stomach gurgled as though he hadn’t eaten in a day and he felt sweat running freely down his face and the back of his neck. This could very well be the big one. He could remember vividly the day the bomb had gone off beside him. He had hit the deck but not quite quickly enough. When he woke up in hospital he found that his only serious injury had been in his thigh. Half of his muscles had been removed and he would no longer run like a young gazelle around the rugby field. The news had shattered both him and his career. But he had learned to live with it. Now he was in the firing line again and if he was right about the man in the house then it could all end here for him. He looked down at the loud-hailer and noticed that the right hand was shaking. Steady on now, he thought to himself. It's nearly full time and we're just about to win the game. This wasn't the time to panic. With a little bit of luck everybody involved would still be breathing at tea-time. All that was needed was for him to talk the bastard out.
Case heard the steps approaching along the street. All his faculties were concentrated on his problem. They hadn't trained him to think in the Regiment. They'd trained him for action. He had made a quick assessment of the situation and had concluded that his chances of escape were slim. If the police had already surrounded the house, the odds were that they'd already put snipers in strategic positions. Things didn't look too healthy. The word in the Regiment had it that sieges usually ended badly unless there was a hostage handy. He started laughing. What a bloody idiot. He shouldn't have offed old Betty until he had no more use for her. But he didn't know this morning that by afternoon the house was going to be surrounded. He'd have to suss out what they wanted and try to negotiate the best possible deal for himself. They'd do him for Mrs. M's murder and the Browning would link him in to the other four killings. There was the Semtex to tie him in to the copper's death but that was only circumstantial evidence. At most, he'd be up for five murders. If he kept his mouth shut, then the boys in London just might pull his chestnuts out of the fire. Fat fucking chance. They'd run a mile from him. Chances were that they'd have him murdered before he'd get a chance to send them down the river. You're on your own in this one, Joe me old mate, he thought.
"Mr Gardiner, are you inside?" The tinny sound of the loud-hailer penetrated the front bedroom. "My name is Detective Chief Inspector Wilson of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. I have a warrant for your arrest in connection with the murders of James Patterson, Stanley Peacock, Leslie Bingham and Detective Sergeant George Whitehouse. We've got the building completely surrounded. We don't want anyone to get hurt anymore than you do so why don't you come out with your hands raised."
"Gardiner. Bollocks," Case said quietly as he moved to the half open window. The fat copper who'd stopped him after he'd done Bingham. I should have taken the two bastards out, he thought. Making sure not to expose any part of his body for a possible shot, he looked down into the street. He couldn't see the copper with the loud-hailer. The bastard was sheltering in a doorway just down the road. He pressed himself against the wall of the bedroom. If the place really was surrounded, there was very little chance of getting out.
"In a pig's arse I will," Case screamed through the open window mimicking the Belfast accent perfectly. "I've got the owner of the house tied up as a hostage. Get me a car and I'll let her go when I'm away."
Wilson was taken aback by the accent. McColgan had distinctly said that Gardiner had spoken with a Cockney accent. "Bring the woman out and let her talk to us through the window," Wilson pulled the walkie-talkie from his pocket. "Harry."
"Yes, boss," Graham's voice crackled over the radio.
"He says that he’s got a hostage. Are you sure about the heat sensor?”
“Absolutely sure, boss.”
“You better get the tear gas ready."
Case rushed into the back room and picked up Betty Maguire's body. He hauled her to her feet and carried the chalk white form into the front bedroom. "Come on, Betty you've one more little job to do for your Joey," he said tugging her into the front room. It was a long shot but it just might come off. He looked at Maguire's body. Nobody in their right mind was going to buy this.
"You out there," he shouted through the window, "I'm going to put her head out. Don't shoot." Case manoeuvred the body to the open window and dangled the head over the pavement. He tried to make the head turn and look down the street but failed. Then he abruptly pulled the body inside again.
Wilson watched the woman's head appear through the window. Her hands seemed to be held against her back and the head and neck were oddly stiff. The head quickly disappeared inside again.
"I didn't hear her speak," Wilson said into the loud-hailer. He felt that he could add Mrs. Maguire to the list of victims.
"She's too scared to speak,"
Case shouted letting the stiff slide onto the floor at his feet.
"The Maguire woman is dead, Harry," Wilson said quietly into the walkie-talkie.
He switched off the walkie-talkie and raised the loud hailer to his mouth. "I don't believe you've got anything to bargain with there. We’ve done a heat scan of the house and it shows only one heat source. Face facts, it's over. We've got the house surrounded and it's only a matter of time before you give yourself up. The sooner you do it the better it is for everybody. In ten minutes, we're going to start lobbing the tear gas." He set the loud-hailer on the ground and removed the pistol from his pocket.
"You do and you'll have a fuckin' war on your hands," Case could have kicked himself. Of course they would have done a heat scan of the house. "I've enough firepower in here to take plenty with me." He launched a kick at Betty Maguire's corpse. "You were no good, dead or alive," he said angry at himself for killing her before her usefulness had run out. He might live to regret that action. He had to think. He sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly forcing himself to relax. There was only one possibility. He began dumping the few piece of furniture in the room onto the bed. Taking the suitcase from the bed, he moved to the door and carefully lit the edge of the bedspread with a lighter. The cloth caught fire immediately and within seconds the mattress was ablaze, smoke billowed from the darkened cloth and flames licked at the furniture piled on top of the bed.
Wilson saw the smoke pouring from the front window and knew immediately what had happened. He pulled the radio from his pocket. "Harry."
"Here, boss."
Wilson’s breath came in short bursts. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins. "He's set the bloody house on fire. Give the order to toss the tear gas in. Concentrate on the ground floor windows. There's to be no shooting unless absolutely necessary and then only on my command." Wilson heard Harry Graham relay his orders. "He's going to try to make a break for it in the confusion. And for God's sake tell somebody to get the fire brigade."
Smoke and flames were beginning to pour out of the front window of the room where the fire had been started. The window pane shattered and sprayed tiny shards of glass across the road.
"Shit," Wilson said watching the flames. This was one mad bastard whoever he was. He was either going to die in a hail of bullets or he was going to fry.
Two police men wearing riot gear and bullet proof vests rushed past Wilson and fired tear gas canisters into the upper and lower stories of the house. The canisters left the muzzle of the launchers with a dull thudding sound and landed amid the inferno Case had created in Fortingale Street.
As soon as he heard the canisters landing, Wilson covered the twenty yards to the door of the blazing house.
Smoke was already drifting through the downstairs rooms as Case made his way along the hall towards the kitchen and the rear of the house. He heard the smashing of the glass and the thudding of the tear gas canisters as they hit the floor of the front room. It was only a matter of time before some fools in balaclavas would storm the house. He cradled the suitcase in his arm. Then there'd be shit to pay. He had only a few minutes to get out. The smoke from the fire was combining with the white plume of tear gas to form an acrid eye and throat stinging mixture. He stood behind the door between the kitchen and the back garden and prepared to go out.
Wilson put his full weight against the front door and it splintered in pieces. A stinging mixture of gases rushed through the opening into the street. He dashed into the hall-way and threw himself on the ground in a firing position.. The hallway was empty but thick fumes swirled about the banister leading to the upstairs floor. Smoke poured down from the upper story and Wilson reckoned that there was no way their man was still up there. That left three possible rooms on the ground floor. He held his handkerchief to his mouth as he made his way towards the rear of the house.
Case exited from the rear of the house like a magician appearing suddenly on a stage in a puff of smoke. Before the snipers at the rear of the house could focus on the fleeing figure he had disappeared into the foliage between the two gardens. So far so good, he thought as he sat hunkered against the hedge. He pulled the Browning automatic out of the suitcase and stuck it in his waistband before stuffing three magazines into his pocket. It was time to get rid of the suitcase so he pushed it into the hedge. His shoes were already sinking into the soft ground beneath his feet and rain pelted into his face washing away the effects of the smoke and gas. This was shit or bust. He knew that what he was doing was crazy. But it was a hell of a way to go. It was like the last scene of `Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. Except that he didn't fancy the thought of dying in a blaze of glory. He pressed closer to the hedge and made his way slowly towards the rear of the small garden.
The smoke and the gas seared Wilson's eyes and tore at his throat. He heard the back door crash open and passed through the hallway and into the small kitchen. Smoke and gas was pouring out the back door and into the welcoming fresh air. A crash of timber collapsing came from upstairs as he moved slowly towards the open door. He hadn't heard any shooting so Gardiner must have made it out into the garden. There was no way the bastard could escape. Or was there? He lay flat on the ground and crawled the last few yards to the open doorway. He sucked at the fresh air which was entering the room at ground level. Smoke and gas billowed in the air above his head. His eyes ached from the effects of the gas and tears streamed down his cheeks. He blinked and tried to focus on the garden in from of him. The garden was small maybe fifteen feet wide by twenty feet long. The hedge separating the adjoining houses was wild and overgrown. He pulled the walkie-talkie from his pocket.
“Our boy is in the back garden,” he coughed. “I’m coming out the back door. For Christ’s sake nobody fire until I say so. He slipped the walkie-talkie back into his pocket and crawled carefully past the open doorway until his head was completely outside. He welcomed the rain beating on his scorched eyes. A movement in the hedge fifteen feet ahead of him caught his eye. He blinked and tried to focus on the spot where he had seen the movement. The hedge moved again.
All Case's concentration was aimed at reaching the end of the garden without mishap. It was a slim chance but at least there was one.
Wilson slipped noiselessly into the garden. His eyes still stung but he had enough vision to pick out the shadowy figure pressed against the hedge near the bottom of the garden. The man was turned away from him. He raised his gun to the ready position.
"Freeze," Wilson shouted.
Case heard the shout and remained dead still where he was. One shout, one copper, he thought to himself. He could take him out but that would give away his position. Then the snipers would do their job. He decided to wait for his chance. The longer you stayed alive the better the chance of escape.
Wilson steadied his gun hand and concentrated so hard on the figure at the bottom of the garden that he felt his eyes were standing out inches in front of his face. Away from the swirling smoke his vision had cleared sufficiently to recognise the man whose likeness he had pinned on his wall earlier in the day. "Stay exactly where you are. I don't want to shoot but if you don't toss your weapons aside I'm going to put one in you that won't kill you but it'll hurt like hell." He held his gun steadily before him.
Case remained crouched in the hedge. He recognised the voice. It was the copper who had spoken to him on the loud-hailer. There was something about the soft lilting Paddy accent that told him he shouldn't doubt that the copper was prepared to carry out his threat. It was decision time.
Wilson watched as Case tossed the Uzi onto the grass in the middle of the garden. "Now the pistol," he said sure that Gardiner would be carrying more than one gun.
Case laughed deep in his throat. This copper was good. He reached into his waistband and pulled out the Browning. The grip felt good in his hand. This was his last chance. Whatever way he looked at it the odds were against him in a gun battle. It was time to let it go. He tossed the gun on the ground beside the Uzi.
Case stood up and turned to face Wilson.
"Move away from the weapons," Wilson edged down one side of the garden and indicated to Case to move away from the Uzi and the Browning and back towards the house. Smoke continued to billow from the open back door and Wilson could hear the sound of a siren in the distance. He pulled the radio out of his pocket. "Harry, we're in the back garden. I've got him." Wilson slipped the radio back into his pocket and looked at his prisoner. He could hear the sound of a helicopter approaching. Probably one of the Army's reconnaissance choppers attracted by the plumes of smoke rising from the house. He looked up as a Westland Scout with Army markings skimmed over the roof-tops and hovered over his head. A man dressed in a black boiler suit and wearing a black balaclava sat in the rear seat of the helicopter cradling a rifle in his arms. As Wilson watched, the man lifted the rifle deliberately and pointed at the garden.
"No." the scream seemed to come from somewhere else but Wilson recognised it as his own voice. It was so harsh that it hurt his throat.
Two shots rang out almost instantaneously. Wilson whirled and saw his prisoner collapse onto the ground, half of his head blown away.
"Bastards," Wilson screamed and turned back to the helicopter. The pilot was already putting the machine into a turn and accelerating away from the scene. He emptied his pistol after the fleeing machine but knew that it was only a pointless gesture. He walked to the fallen body of the killer. The contents of the man's skull lay splattered across the wet grass. "I wanted him alive, you filthy bastards," Wilson screamed in frustration.