The Diamond Chain

Home > Other > The Diamond Chain > Page 22
The Diamond Chain Page 22

by Patrick Slaney


  I returned to the port area of La Rochelle for my lunch, before heading for the airport and my flight home.

  Chapter 38

  That evening, after our evening meal, I decided to ask my wife to go with me to the local pub for a drink. I wanted to broach the subject of her and the kids going to stay with her mother in Maidstone at around the time that the diamonds were due to arrive in London.

  Seated with our drinks overlooking the Thames I brought the subject up.

  ‘My current investigation is close to being wrapped up, and I want to discuss one aspect with you as you possibly could be affected.’

  ‘How could I possibly be affected? I have not been involved.’

  It probably won’t affect you or the kids, but I want to be on the safe side.’

  ‘Have you any reason to believe that we might be in danger?’ She now had a worried frown on her face.

  ‘Well a few months ago Willem got a threatening note telling him that if he didn’t back off and stop involving himself in trying to find the diamond smugglers that his wife and children would be targeted. You can imagine what that did to him.’

  ‘But that’s in Holland Vince. How could it possibly affect us in London?’ she said, clearly not fully believing what I was saying.

  ‘I am unable to tell you all the details of my investigation; I think that it is better if you don’t know. The diamonds that I have been tracking are expected to arrive in the UK in about two weeks. I will be trying to grab hold of them and to expose the people involved in the smuggling racket. There are also drugs involved, so the stakes have increased significantly. Tie into all of this a number of murders that Inspector Baird thinks are connected, and you can see that it could get decidedly nasty.’

  She leant towards me looking extremely concerned.

  I continued, ‘I am obviously worried that they might target my family, and I don’t want to have that fear at the back of my mind while I am trying to resolve the whole thing out. I don’t want to put you or the kids in any danger.’

  ‘So what do you want me to do?’ She was now genuinely worried.

  ‘Do you think that it would be possible, to take Michael and Victoria to stay with your parents in Maidstone for two weeks or until the dust has settled? Michael and Victoria will be on holiday from school so they won’t miss any of their schooling?’

  ‘When do you want us to go?’ I was relieved to see that she had silently agreed to my plan.

  ‘The diamonds are expected to arrive in La Rochelle in ten to twelve days’ time, and they will take a day or so to get to London. If you travelled by Sunday week that should be fine. Nothing is likely to happen here until after the goods arrive in France.’

  ‘I have already told the shop that I probably would take some holidays when the kids are off school, so it shouldn’t be a problem to organize some time off work.’ She paused to think..... ‘Yes, that should be OK. I will make the arrangements with my mother so you can work on the basis that we won’t be here. Where are you going to stay over that period?’

  ‘I will use small hotels and will probably keep moving around so as they can’t pin me down to any one address. I will draw up a list of places to stay and then select one at random on any day. If I don’t know where I am going to be staying myself, then nobody else will be able to find out.’

  ‘Sounds crazy, but I suppose you are better off being careful.’

  ‘I may be overdramatising the threat to our safety, but I am up against people who will stop at nothing, to protect their illegal activities.’

  ‘Now that we have that out of the way let’s get back to the kids as you have made me nervous,’ Daphne said getting up to go.

  I also got up, and, putting my arm around her and giving her a kiss said, ‘Thanks for agreeing to that love. I was really worried how you would take it.’

  As soon as we got home we checked that the kids were OK before getting them off to bed.

  The following morning I telephoned Inspector Baird to let him know that I was back. The main purpose of my call was to see if he might be able to arrange a gun licence for me. I needed to be legally armed when I went back to La Rochelle. I also needed to tell him that I had decided not to use his ‘plain clothes’ man until I got back to the UK.

  ‘Inspector Baird,’ he replied when he answered the phone. He sounded in better form than the other day.

  ‘Hi Inspector, its Vince Hamilton here. Have you a moment to talk?’

  ‘Yes far ahead Vince.’

  ‘Firstly, I don’t think that I will need your man when I go to La Rochelle. We have worked out that two people can cover all eventualities.’

  ‘That sounds good Vince, but do you still require support when you get back to London?’

  ‘Yes, definitely, especially in tracking them after they get across the channel.’

  ‘OK let me know when you think that they will land in the UK. Is there anything else?’

  ‘I am going to need a gun, Inspector. Are you able to organize a licence for me? Borrowing a gun is not a suitable option and I will need to be armed.’

  ‘Yes, I can push that through for you. It will take a few days, but I should have it for you by next Tuesday, will that do?’

  ‘That’s fantastic, and it will give me a few days to source a gun before I have to go to La Rochelle.’

  ‘You can go ahead and organize a gun out and then give me the serial number and the make. If you do that, I will have the licence ready for you when you come in on Tuesday.’

  ‘That sounds easy. I have one other thing that I wanted to talk over with you, do you have time now?’ I wanted to bring up the name of Ronald St John Pendleton to see if the Inspector knew anything about him.

  ‘I can give you another five minutes Vince. Fire ahead.’

  ‘I have come across the name Ronald St John Pendleton in relation to Edward Crawford and his company. I wondered if he has crossed your radar in any way over the last few years.’

  ‘Why do you ask Vince?’

  ‘Well he just happens to be the Chairman of Charlton Diamond Traders, which I found strange as he made his money in the Casino and betting industry. He is also the owner of the betting group whom John Power worked for and who Harold owes all the money to.’

  ‘That’s interesting. I obviously knew that he was Managing Director of The Star Casino Group, but I didn’t know that there was a link between Pendleton and Crawford. I wonder how that came about.’ The Inspector sounded genuinely interested in the connection.

  ‘Has Mr Pendleton got a record Inspector?’

  ‘Let’s put it this way Vince, we have never been able to pin anything on him, but we have felt that he was behind certain events, shall we say.’

  ‘Do you think that it is worth my while investigating the link further?’

  ‘Yes, see what you can come up with, but be exceedingly careful as he is not a particularly pleasant man and he has a number of people working for him that do have a record, and mostly for GBH.’

  ‘What’s GBH?’ I stupidly asked the Inspector.

  ‘What happened to you at the marina in Cape Town Vince is GBH.’

  ‘I get the picture,’ I said as I felt the back of my head which still carried the evidence of the blow that I had received.

  ‘I had better go Vince unless you have something else to ask me. I’ll see you around 2:00 p.m on Tuesday.’

  ‘Sorry Inspector there is one other thing you might be able to help me with. Would you have the home addresses for Edward Crawford and Ronald Pendleton?’

  ‘I am confident that we have them here somewhere. One of my staff will dig them out for you, and, they will leave the information with the desk sergeant later today.’

  ‘Thanks Inspector that would be a terrific help. You have been most helpful.�


  I terminated the call and made myself a cup of coffee, drinking it while I considered what he had just told me.

  Ronald Pendleton obviously had hired hands who were capable of putting fear into people, especially if they owed him money. The fact that he ran casinos and betting shops meant that a lot of people were going to end up owing him money. Harold Fortiscue was in debt to Mr Pendleton and John Power had worked for one of his companies. There was an exceptionally strong link emerging.

  If I considered all the people that I had found involved in the diamond chain to date, there were none that I would classify as the ‘Brains’ of the operation. Perhaps I had stumbled by chance on the person that I was looking for. Harold Fortiscue, Edward Crawford and Caas Teifel were all certainly deeply involved, but I wasn’t convinced that any of them was in charge of the whole operation. This was especially true now that I knew drugs were involved. I clearly needed to find out more about Ronald Pendleton.

  I would need ‘wheels’ if I was going to visit the addresses on the list that I was getting from the Inspector. I rang the local Avis office and arranged for them to deliver a rental car to my house.

  With a bit of time to waste I phoned Willem to bring him up to date.

  ‘Good morning Vince. How are things with you today?’

  ‘Very good Willem thanks. I think that I am making progress.’

  I told him about the conversation that I had just had with Inspector Baird, and also told him that I was getting a gun licence, so as I would have a gun with me when I returned to La Rochelle.

  ‘I have already decided that I will drive to La Rochelle in the Merc when I go to meet you there next week Vince. I will bring my own gun with me.’

  ‘I am planning on taking the train, to avoid the problem of bringing my gun on a plane. The airlines are not too keen on guns travelling with you,’ I explained. ‘I will take the Eurostar to Paris and then catch the TGV to La Rochelle.’

  ‘Have you decided when you are going to travel?’

  ‘I thought that it would be easier to arrange a date when we know exactly when the Belle Diamant will arrive. There is no point in hanging around La Rochelle for longer than necessary.’

  ‘Provided they have the transponder switched on I will be able to pick up the yacht’s position on Sunday or Monday. We can fix a date then. Is that OK Vince?’

  ‘Don’t bother making a specific trip into the office on Sunday, Willem. We can do nothing on Sunday anyway. Monday morning will be perfect.’

  ‘What are you planning to do for the rest of the week Vince?’

  ‘I have organized a car for tomorrow, and I am going to have a look at a few places that they might use when they land the diamonds and drugs in the UK. I am hoping to get the addresses from Inspector Baird this afternoon.’

  ‘Well good luck with your investigation and for goodness sake keep your eyes open for trouble.’

  ‘I will Willem and I will talk to you again on Monday.’

  That afternoon I surprised the kids when I arrived to pick them up from school in the car. Their look of astonishment when I stopped beside the car and clicked the remote had to be seen to be believed.

  ‘Where did you get the car Dad?’ Victoria asked, looking admiringly at it.

  ‘I didn’t buy it, so this is a once off,’ I replied.

  ‘Can I sit in the front Dad?’ Michael asked.

  ‘Aw Dad, I want to sit in the front,’ Victoria whined.

  ‘You can both get in the back if you are going to argue about it,’ I instructed, seeing the situation that I had created.

  I drove them home, parked the car and then took the tube to go and collect the addresses from Hampstead Police station.

  True to his word, the piece of paper with the addresses was with the duty sergeant at the front desk. I told him to thank the Inspector and took the tube home.

  Tomorrow I would go and take a look around the areas, plus, I would also go and look at the warehouse of Charlton Traders, in Charlton, East London.

  Chapter 39

  The following morning, much to the kids’ disgust, I walked with them to school. I honestly didn’t fancy sitting in the rush hour traffic when it was probably quicker to walk the short distance. They obviously had a different opinion.

  I replaced the South African maps with the UK maps in the sat nav to prepare it for use in London.

  The addresses that the Inspector had given me were as follows:

  Edward Crawford, 50 Hartland Way, Croyden, South London

  Ronald Pendleton, 6 Wargrave Road, Henley-on-Thames

  I also planned to visit the Charlton Traders warehouse at 16 Gallions Way, Charlton.

  Deciding to go to the Croyden address first, I punched the address into the sat nav and set off around 10:0 a.m when the traffic had eased off a bit.

  Edward Crawford’s house turned out to be a typical London suburban home. It looked as if it had been built around the 1930’s and was quite a spacious property with about five bedrooms. It had the appearance of having been redecorated recently and even having an extension added to the original building.

  There was no garden wall between the front of the house and the road leaving it extremely exposed. The house backed onto a wood, and there also didn’t appear to be a fence between the back garden and the wood.

  My first thought was that there was no way that they would use this house to store high value items. It was far too open with easy access from the front and rear. I safely could write this one off.

  I then punched the Henley-on-Thames address into the Tom Tom.

  The houses in Henley-on-Thames had an air of prosperity about them. They had sizeable plots and were enclosed by walls and fences. Wargrave Road was on the north bank of the Thames, and all the houses had gardens that backed onto the river. Number 6, which was the one that I was after, had a high fence around it with a security system that Moira Fortuin would have been proud of. If you wanted to hide something then this was certainly somewhere that could be used, and it also had its own substantial jetty.

  A thought hit me as I watched quite a large boat motoring up the river behind the house: How easy it would be to transfer the diamonds and drugs by boat from Rotterdam to this house by way of the Thames. Using a boat they could avoid all ports of entry and it would be exceedingly difficult to track their arrival.

  The task of tracking the diamonds, after they arrived in La Rochelle, had suddenly grown in its complexity.

  I moved towards the banks of the Thames, to check if it was possible to gain entry to the property from the river side, but found that the fences stopped in the river, blocking any access. There was an island directly opposite the house which was large enough to have buildings. It would be possible to observe Mr Pendleton’s house from there; however, I would need a boat to get onto the island. Perhaps this was where Inspector Baird could help out.

  Henley-on-Thames had a number of pleasant pubs, so I parked the car and indulged myself in some lunch. While I ate, I jotted down the details of what I had seen in my notebook.

  After lunch, I went to East London to take a look at the Charlton Traders warehouse.

  This also ticked a lot of boxes. The warehouse had easy access and was set on a small industrial estate with little visible activity. The building itself was just a typical warehouse, with a small office in the front and a loading bay at the back. Nothing special, but then they didn’t need anything too spacious for the small amount they needed to store.

  The van I had seen at the offices the other day, with ‘CHARLTON TRADERS’ on the side, was parked behind the building. That size of van would be perfect for transporting the items involved.

  There would be no problem in keeping a watch on this building if I had to. I could park unobtrusively close by and observe what was going on.


  Having now looked at the three addresses I would put the property in Henley-on-Thames at the top of my list. I also liked the idea that they could use the Thames to transfer the illicit goods as it was their preferred mode of transportation between South Africa and Europe.

  I phoned Willem on my mobile.

  ‘Hi Vince; I didn’t expect to hear from you today.’

  ‘I have a question for you Willem based on what I have seen today. Do you think that Caas Teifel would have access to a fast boat, sturdy enough to go from Rotterdam to London and up the Thames?’

  ‘Listen Vince, there are hundreds of boats in this area that could cross the North Sea and get to the Thames. All they would need is a moderately calm day.’

  ‘How long would it take them Willem?’

  ‘Not more than 12 hours and probably less than that. Why do you ask?’

  ‘Well Ronald Pendleton’s house is at Henley-on-Thames, and it has good access to the river. He has his own landing stage at the rear of the house. They are using a boat from Cape Town to Europe, so, isn’t it likely that they would use the same means to get to London? What do you think?’

  ‘Does this Mr Pendleton own a boat that might be large enough Vince?’

  ‘That’s a darned good question Willem. I hadn’t thought about them travelling to pick them up from this end, but it’s a distinct possibility.’

  ‘I’ll ask a few discreet questions around my friends here; some of them know Caas and they may be able to help. I’ll report back to you on Monday. Sounds as if you may have turned something up today; well done.’

  ‘I’ll speak to you Monday.’

  It made a lot of sense if Ronald Pendleton did own a large boat, able to undertake the run to Rotterdam. I would take the family for an outing in Henley-on-Thames over the weekend to check it out.

 

‹ Prev