Century of Jihad

by John Mannion

  ‘I’ll be off now, Ed. Get your team to join you here. Do some door-to-door. Interview the concierge. You know the routine.’ The DI turned and left.

  Ed nodded in acknowledgement, fished out his mobile, and dialed his office at the Yard. As he waited for the reply, he thought to himself, ‘Yes, Russ, I know the bloody routine alright.’

  CHAPTER 42

  Thirty minutes later Ed’s team had assembled. Ed briefed them on the background to the investigation. Theo commented,

  ‘The kinky bastard certainly was living the dream.’

  Lisa responded, ‘Show some respect, Theo.’

  Theo replied, ‘I was only saying.’

  Ed intervened. ‘OK. Let’s just deal with the job in hand. Keep an open mind.’

  Theo couldn’t help himself. ‘You mean like Fayez?’

  Lisa gave Theo a sharp look. Ed spoke before she could say anything:

  ‘OK, that’s enough. Lisa and Stuart, I want you two to start door-to-door enquiries. Start on this floor. See if any of the other residents saw or heard anything suspicious. You know what I mean. Was anyone observed hanging around?’ Ed smiled mischievously, then continued, ‘Theo, you’re with me. We’re going to speak to the concierge. See if anything unusual has taken place in the last forty-eight hours or so.’

  Lisa and Stuart knocked on a number of doors before they encountered the bottle blonde a few doors down from Fayez’s apartment. Bottle blonde answered the door in an expensive and skimpy negligee. She had an aloof manner about her, which Stuart and Lisa both detected as soon as she came to the door. Lisa showed the woman her police badge. Stuart stood gawking at the view before him. He reckoned the woman to be in her early thirties. The blonde smiled at the two officers. Particularly at Stuart.

  ‘Come in, why don’t you?’ The woman gestured to them to follow as she turned to go back into the apartment. The two young detectives followed, Lisa giving Stuart a knowing look as they accompanied the woman deeper into the large, open plan room.

  ‘Would you like a drink?’ the woman asked.

  Lisa answered, ‘No, thank you.’

  The woman responded, ‘I suppose. Not while you’re on duty, eh?’ The woman giggled. She continued, ‘I think I’ll have one if you don’t mind.’

  She turned, opened a well-stocked drinks cabinet and proceeded to pour herself a large whisky.

  Lisa broke the silence,

  ‘I regret to inform you that one of your fellow residents has been found dead and we are making enquiries in to the circumstances of his death. Have you seen or heard anything unusual or anything that may have caused you concern in the last few days?’

  ‘Nothing that the police would be interested in, I can assure you, Officer.’ The woman giggled, then continued. ‘I thought he died while involved in some sexual experimentation, if you know what I mean.’ The woman laughed out loud.

  Lisa thought to herself, ‘I don’t think that is your first drink today, dear!’

  The woman then appeared to pull herself together and, addressing Stuart, she revealed,

  ‘Last night at about ten o’clock, I was just coming back from a night out. Alone!’ She looked straight at Stuart and giggled demurely. She continued, ‘I went into my apartment, but before I closed the door I sensed that somebody else had entered the corridor. I sneaked a discreet peek and saw two men going down the corridor towards the lifts.’

  Stuart asked, ‘Can you describe these men? Did you see where they came from?’

  The bottle blonde thought for a moment before responding,

  ‘I haven’t a clue where they appeared from. As they had their backs to me, all I can tell you is they looked like they were tall. I’d say both were over six feet. I couldn’t say what age they were. But they were probably no older than in their forties. They didn’t appear to have any grey hair. They both wore dark coats, dark trousers and dark caps. I don’t know about the shoes. Oh! And they were both quite well built, I would say. Is that any help, Officer?’ She smiled at Stuart as she asked the question.

  Stuart responded, ‘Yes, it could be very useful. Thank you.’

  Stuart looked at Lisa and then announced,

  ‘That will be all for now. If you think of anything else, you can contact me on this number.’ Stuart offered the woman his business card.

  The woman took the card and spoke directly to Stuart,

  ‘I will certainly let you know if I can think of anything else. My husband’s away for a few weeks abroad on business and, as a woman alone, I feel a bit unnerved by all this. If you need to ask any more questions, don’t be afraid to call, Officer. I will make myself available to you at any time.’

  Lisa and Stuart walked in silence down the hallway, stopping at the lifts. As they waited, both officers glanced back down the hallway towards the blonde’s apartment. The woman was still standing at her door and responded with an enthusiastic wave and a smile.

  On the way down in the lift, Lisa looked at Stuart and, mimicking the blonde, said, ‘I will make myself available to you at any time.’

  Stuart blushed a little and responded. ‘I can’t help it if I have that effect on a damsel in need.’

  Lisa gave Stuart one of her looks, then said, ‘I would say she is more than in need. I’d say she is desperate.’

  Stuart wasn’t sure how to take Lisa’s comment, so said nothing.

  During the course of the next few hours Lisa and Stuart knocked on many doors in the apartment block. Nobody else had seen or heard anything untoward that they could think of. Many of the residents were not at home. These individuals would have to be followed up later.

  Ed and Theo, meanwhile, were interviewing the concierge; a rotund man in his middle years. Ed opened the interview,

  ‘Mr Nardoni, as you know, one of the residents was found dead in his apartment this morning. We are investigating this man’s death. At the moment we cannot say if anyone else was involved. We will need to take a look at any CCTV footage you may have, so that we can investigate anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. Has anything of this nature come to your attention in the last few days?’

  The concierge answered straight away:

  ‘Well, I have been giving this a lot of thought since things kicked off this morning. At about eight o’clock yesterday evening there was a lot of noise at the front of the building, just outside of the apartments. I saw on the CCTV a couple of young lads larking about, so I went out to have a word with them. I was expecting a bit of verbal abuse, you know? Being told to mind my own business, or words to that effect, but they were alright. We chatted for a minute or two and they left.’

  Ed continued, ‘Did anyone you didn’t recognise, or who wasn’t expected, enter the premises?’

  The man thought for a moment. ‘Nothing out of the ordinary. People are always coming and going in a place this size. All sorts. You know – maintenance people, deliveries, visitors and so on. All in an average day. I ask who they are and then they go about their business. There’s rarely an issue that can’t be resolved.’

  Theo asked, ‘Can I have a list of the names of people visiting in the last few days?’

  ‘Of course, Officer,’ the man replied.

  Ed asked, ‘Can you describe the young lads you spoke to outside?’

  The man looked reflective, then spoke. ‘They were just two young lads. Jeans and denim jackets. A bit rough-looking, I suppose, but reasonable enough I thought, when I spoke to them. One had a tattoo of a spider’s web on his neck. They were in their teens, I would say. About five eight to five ten, not much taller. Both were slightly built.’

  Ed requested, ‘I’d like to have a look at the footage taken on the lobby camera around the time of the incident with the two lads, if I may.’

  The concierge took the two detectives into his office and selected the relevant recording for them to view.

  As the footage reached the time the concierge left the building to remonstrate with the two youths outside, two men in dark clo
thing, wearing dark cloth caps, were seen to enter the premises and head straight for the lifts.

  Ed spoke first. ‘Just as I expected. These two characters sneaked in while you weren’t looking, under cover of the incident outside which, no doubt, they had orchestrated. Their faces are partially concealed by their peaked caps; positive identification will be difficult.’

  A flustered concierge responded, ‘I saw those two leave the building. I can’t remember what time it was. I’m in the shit now. Once management find out about, this I’m history. I’m gone.’

  Ed responded, ‘Calm down, Mr Nardoni. You’ve been a great help to us. We’ll let the relevant people know. We’ll take all the footage recorded over the past forty-eight hours. We need to check if anything else of significance is recorded.’

  The concierge handed over all the footage taken in the relevant timeframe to the detectives. Ed thanked the worried man. Ed and Theo headed back to the Yard – Ed to brief the powers that be, Theo to go through the CCTV footage.

  Theo went over the footage they had collected over the next few hours. He noted that the men left the apartment block just after 10pm. The concierge gave the men a cursory glance as they passed his desk. People leaving the premises were obviously of little interest to him. Theo observed nothing else of significance on the footage.

  The next morning Theo set about identifying the two young men. This presented little difficulty. Both youths were well known to the police, they had both been involved in a string of petty offences over a period of several years, mostly anti-social behaviour, drink and drugs-related. Local police were tasked with bringing the youths in for questioning.

  Ed spent the morning attending Fayez’s post mortem. No suspicious marks or abrasions were found on his body. Blood and tissue samples were taken for toxicology tests.

  The two youths were found dead at midday, in a derelict building. Both had succumbed to the pure heroin they had introduced into their veins.

  On hearing the news of their demise, Ed commented to Theo,

  ‘Well, that’s one dead end. Let’s see if we can find anything to identify those two heavies seen at the apartment block.’

  CCTV footage showed the two unidentified suspects leave the scene in an old blue Fiat, reported stolen on the night of Fayez’s death.

  The Fiat was found that afternoon in a field in Essex. It had been torched.

  The investigation identified only a handful of visitors to Fayez’s apartment, all of whom were interviewed and removed from the suspect list.

  At 6pm Ed received a phone call from the pathologist who had conducted the post mortem on Fayez’s body. The pathologist gave Ed the results of the toxicology tests:

  ‘The toxicology report on Fayez indicates traces of Temazepam residue in the left posterior margin of the liver. This substance would have led to the deceased experiencing muscle weakness, reduced alertness and reduced motor co-ordination. I can’t say with any degree of certainty if the substance was ingested by the deceased voluntarily or not. I can confirm that there were no needle marks or indications of a struggle on the deceased’s body.’

  Ed responded, ‘Thank you, Doctor.’ He slowly, gently, put the phone down. He sat silently for a moment, thinking; staring, but not seeing. So Fayez had ingested Temazepam. What did this mean in terms of the direction of the investigation? He reasoned that at the very least this information left open the possibility that someone else was involved. Ed was certain it was the two men seen entering the building while the concierge was talking to the two youths outside. The same two men seen by the female witness in the corridor leading to Fayez’s apartment. Fayez must have invited them in. There was no sign of forced entry, but this would not have necessarily been evident if professionals were involved. There was no evidence of a struggle in the apartment, but this could have been cleared up. There was no sign of injuries being sustained by Fayez in a fight for survival immediately prior to his death, apart from those incurred as a result of his hanging. However the Tamazepam would have left Fayez weak, affected his state of mind, made him more compliant. Fayaz could have ingested the Tamazepam voluntarily or it could have been put into a drink without his knowledge. The two men could have been involved in some deviant sexual practice with Fayaz that had gone wrong. But why the covert entry if sex play was all they had in mind? No other crimes had been reported by the residents of the building which could be linked to the presence of these two men, whose stolen car had later been found, burned out, in a field in Essex. Ed concluded that on the balance of probability, Fayez had been murdered. But where had his two suspects disappeared to?

  Three days after Fayez’s untimely end, the bodies of two tall, well-built men in their forties were found shot dead in a parked car on the outskirts of Glasgow. Traces of cocaine were found in the vehicle the men had hired that morning in Glasgow city centre. The men had told the car hire company that they were expatriate oil workers returning to the UK on a short break from their place of work in Bahrain. The local police failed to identify the two men. The police investigation in Scotland indicated they were possibly the victims of a drug-related gang war. The inquest into the men’s death would conclude that they had been unlawfully killed by a person or persons unknown. Ed was not made aware of the demise of these two individuals. There was nothing to tie them to any police investigation at the time.

  Three months after the discovery of Fayez’s body, Ed was summoned to DAC Braithwaite’s office. When he entered the DAC’s office, he found DI Ward was already there. The DAC spoke directly to Ed.

  ‘Ed, I know you’ll find this hard to swallow. The investigation into Fayez’s death is going nowhere. The Coroner has left an open verdict. The Commissioner has directed that we wind up our active investigation at this time. You and your team have enough on your plate to be getting on with. We can resume enquiries if anything new turns up. We would appear to have been unfortunate, in that all avenues have thus far led to a dead end. No pun intended there, by the way. Suicide is a possibility, or it may have been an unfortunate accident which may, or may not, have involved your two suspects. Do you have anything further to contribute, Ed?’

  Ed responded, ‘Something stinks here. Dead ends. Odd comings and goings at around the time of the death.’

  Ed knew that behind the scenes strings were being pulled, but he knew from many years’ experience that there was no point in arguing the case.

  The DAC could only say, ‘I know how frustrating it can be sometimes. I know you are a very busy man. I won’t detain you any longer.’

  Ed got up and left the room. His team was about to get what would possibly be their first taste of an establishment cover-up.

  Inside the offices of the private security company, located on a windswept business park in Croydon, the two men were having a quiet drink as they wound up their business for the day. The men had known each other for a number of years. Their close business dealings could, from time to time, prove mutually beneficial.

  The short, smartly dressed visitor spoke, ‘Well, it would appear that you have tied up all the loose ends in this unfortunate business. I don’t think we will be hearing any more regarding this matter. The hounds have been called off.’

  Ed listened to the news report with interest. The newsreader was reporting on Fayez’s death.

  ‘The Coroner’s inquest left an open verdict into Fayaz Davi’s death. However, unofficial sources say that the MI5 officer, found dead in his Canary Wharf apartment, was involved in sex play that went wrong. Literature found at the scene indicates that the officer was involved in, what our sources tell us was, extreme sexual behaviour.’

  Ed stared blankly at the screen for a moment, then muttered to himself,

  ‘That is one way of keeping our house in order.’

  ‘I am a very firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.’

  Abraham Lincoln

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p; All rights reserved

  Copyright © John Mannion, 2011

  John Mannion is hereby identified as author of this work in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  ISBN: 978-1-908447-31-9 in epub format

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