A Touch of Frost

by R D Wingfield

  Damn, thought Frost. He’s never here for my rare moments of triumph and never absent when I foul things up.

  When he got back to the office, Detective Sergeant Hanlon was chatting up Webster. Hanlon, beaming from ear to ear was bursting with news.

  Sod your news, thought Frost, you listen to mine. “We’ve caught the rapist, Arthur. The flower of Denton womanhood can safely walk knicker less in Denton Woods tonight, as long as you stay at home.”

  Hanlon giggled. “Well done, Jack.”

  Frost slumped into his chair. On his desk was a subscription list for the widow of PC Shelby. He saw Mullett was down for fifty pounds so, out of spite, he put himself down for sixty, which he could ill afford, and tossed it into the out-tray. He looked up to see Hanlon grinning down.

  “Why are you still hanging about, Arthur? Do you fancy me or something?”

  Hanlon pulled up a chair. He had a lot to tell. Charlie Bravo had sped off to the pawnbroker’s shop in time to arrest the man who was trying to sell Glickman a further quantity of stolen sovereigns.

  “Marvellous!” exclaimed Frost. The earlier message from Control had completely slipped his mind. “I’m solving so many cases these days, I can’t keep track of them all.” .

  “You haven’t solved this one,” retorted Hanlon. “I have. They’ve coughed the lot and I’ve charged them.” He handed Frost the carbon copies of two statements.

  “Why are there two statements?”

  “Because there are two prisoners,” explained Hanlon. “They’re brothers.”

  Responding to Glickman’s phone call, Charlie Bravo had roared round to the pawnbroker’s and apprehended Terry Fowler, twenty-four. Fowler had thirty-three Queen Victoria sovereigns in his possession. He was brought back to the station and searched. Six packets of a substance believed to be heroin were found in his jacket. The drug squad was informed, and a team went to Fowler’s digs, where they arrested his brother, Kevin, twenty-five. The room was systematically searched. Taped to the back of the wardrobe was a plastic bag packed tight with white powder, which tests confirmed to be heroin of the type being pushed around Denton for the past couple of weeks. The drug squad was overjoyed. They had found the two new pushers.

  “The Drug boys will take all the credit for this, Arthur,” said Frost, skimming through the statements, ‘just as you’re trying to take all the credit from me.”

  The brothers, Trevor and Kevin Fowler, came from Poplar, east London, but were now of no fixed address and were continually moving around the country. Two weeks ago they arrived in Denton, taking a room in a bed and breakfast boarding house near the railway station. The metropolitan police knew them and had tele printed details of their past form, which included petty theft, robbery with violence, and possession of drugs.

  “If they’ve only been in Denton a couple of weeks,” observed Frost, ‘then we can’t push all those petty housebreakings on them.” This was a big disappointment. He had been hoping to clear up his backlog of unsolved burglaries in one fell swoop.

  “They only admit to the sovereigns, Jack, not to anything else,” said Hanlon. He showed Frost the recovered coins. Thirty-three of them.

  Tipping them on to his desk, Frost counted them. He only made it thirty-two. Webster counted them for him and made it thirty-three, which, added to the five already sold to Glickman, made a grand total of thirty-eight. Mrs. Carey had reported seventy-nine stolen, so where were the other forty-one? “Turn out your pockets, Arthur,” he said.

  Hanlon grinned. “The drug squad tore their place apart, Jack. There were no more sovereigns. Both the brothers say that’s all there was. Mrs. Carey must have been mistaken.”

  v The inspector shook his head. “She never makes mistakes about money.” He scooped up the coins and returned them to the bag. “Still, I’ve got more important things to worry about. Now take all this junk off my desk, Arthur, and get the paperwork tied up. This is your case now.”

  “You’re letting him have it?” asked Webster when Hanlon had left. “He only came in on it at the death.”

  “I’ve got more than I can cope with, son,” said Frost. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Something was worrying him. “Those two blokes were only in Denton a couple of weeks. Ma Carey lives in a shitty little house down a back street. How come they picked on that house to rob? How, did they find out she had all that money?”

  “They could have overheard someone talking about her,” suggested Webster.

  “I suppose so,” said Frost, but he still looked doubtful.

  “You’re not suggesting they’ve confessed to a crime they haven’t committed, are you?” asked Webster.

  “Of course not, son.”

  Webster fed a sheet of paper into the typewriter. “Do you want me to do the report on the rape arrest?” He knew that if he didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done.

  “Yes please.” He gathered up the subscription list for Mrs. Shelby and took it out to Johnny Johnson in the lobby, where he received the sergeant’s congratulations on nabbing the “Hooded Terror’.

  “You’ll be in all the papers tomorrow, Jack.”

  “Unless something bigger breaks,” said Frost, ‘like Allen finding Shelby’s murderer.”

  “Shouldn’t be long now,” said Johnson. “Stan Eustace can’t hide much longer.” The phone rang. He answered it. “And who is it speaking, please?” He offered the phone to Frost. “Lady for you, Jack. Won’t give her name.”

  Even before he took the phone he knew it was Sadie Eustace, but he hoped against hope he was wrong.

  “Jack?” she whispered.

  He picked up the complete phone and moved as far away from Johnson as the cord would allow. “I can’t talk to you, Sadie,” he hissed into the mouthpiece. “I got in too much trouble last time.”

  “You’ve got to help, Jack. Stan’s been in touch .. .”

  He cut her short before she gave anything away. “Sadie, whatever you tell me, I am going to report it.”

  “He’s frightened, Jack. The police have framed him for this killing and he’s terrified at what they might do when they catch him. He’ll give himself up to you if you meet him just you, no-one else.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s .. .” She broke off as a series of soft clicks cut into the conversation. “What was that?”

  “No idea,” lied Frost, realizing that Allen had her line tapped.

  But she knew what it was. “The bastards! They’ve bugged the phone!”

  The line went dead.

  He replaced the receiver and returned the phone to its original position. “Sadie Eustace,” he told Johnson. No point in keeping it a secret now. He thought for a second, then made his way to the murder incident room.

  The room was empty except for Detective Sergeant Ingram crouched over a large Revox reel-to-reel tape recorder, looking tired and drawn as he listened through earphones to the replay of the conversation between Sadie and Jack Frost. Seeing Frost, he pulled the earphones off and rubbed his ears. Quickly, he scribbled a note on a pad and dropped it into an in-tray marked “Mr. Allen -Immediate’. “Pity she twigged,” he said. “She was going to tell us where Eustace was hiding.”

  “A great pity,” agreed Frost, looking around the room. Empty desks, silent phones, and the wall map marked with red pins indicating the numerous Stan Eustace sightings. “Where is everybody?”

  “Tea break. They should be back in a minute.” He shook his head at Frost’s offer of a cigarette. “We could do with a lead,” he went on, knuckling tired eyes. “He seems to have gone to ground.”

  “Mr. Allen’s only looking for Stan, then?” asked Frost. “He isn’t keeping his options open?”

  “Why should we look for anyone else?” asked Ingram in a puzzled voice.

  Frost didn’t answer. He shuffled over to the other side of the room to look at the various notices fastened to the cork bulletin board: duty rosters; search areas; phone numbers of off-duty men, a list headed Police Marksmen wi
th names and phone numbers. Frost saw that Ingram’s name was on this list. “Why police marksmen?” he inquired.

  “Eustace is armed,” replied Ingram wearily. He wished the inspector would go. He was tired. He didn’t feel like talking or answering questions. He just wanted to go somewhere quiet. For the past three nights he had hardly had any sleep.

  “I don’t want him killed,” said Frost.

  Ingram nodded. “I’ll let Mr. Allen know.” A green light flashed and the spools of the Revox began to revolve. Another call coming through on Sadie’s phone. Ingram turned up the volume control. The ringing tone. A click as the receiver was lifted.

  Sadie’s voice. “Demon 2234.”

  A man’s voice, tired, despondent. “Sadie. It’s Stan. Did you talk to him?”

  Sadie’s voice, shouting. “Hang up, Stan. They’ve tapped the line.”

  Click. The dial tone. Silence. The tape recorder switched itself off.

  Behind them the door opened and closed. They turned to see Detective Inspector Allen. “We’ve found Stan Eustace’s old car,” he told Ingram. “It was abandoned under the railway arches, so he’s obviously nicked something else. Advise all units.”

  As Ingram was phoning through to Control, Allen gave Frost an unfriendly nod, then moved to his Immediate Action in-tray. “Phone call 16.37. Sadie Eustace to Inspector Frost. Tape Index 033.” He grinned mockingly at Frost. “What was that about, Inspector? Were you and Sadie arranging another clandestine assignation?”

  “I wish you wouldn’t use such long words,” said Frost. “You know what an ignorant sod I am.”

  Friday night shift

  Ken Jordan gently coasted Charlie Alpha down the side street, past the public toilets and into the empty parking space alongside four other parked cars. Seven o’clock in the evening and time for an unofficial coffee break. He leaned back in the driving seat and stretched his arms as his observer, Ron Simms, unscrewed the top of a thermos flask and the smell of strong, hot coffee filled the area car.

  Taking their plastic cups with them, they climbed out of Charlie Alpha to stretch their legs. The night was chilly and there was a fresh wind blowing. “Isn’t that where they found that tramp’s body?” asked Simms, nodding his head toward the red-bricked building with its creaking enamelled sign.

  “Yes,” muttered Jordan, but he wasn’t looking in that direction. His eyes, ever alert, had detected a movement inside one of the parked cars, a grey Honda. It was as if someone had quickly ducked down because he didn’t want to be seen. Jordan drained his coffee, took a torch from the door pocket, and strolled across for a closer look. The beam of his torch flared on the wind-screen. A face jerked up. The engine coughed, then roared, and the Honda leaped forward, forcing Jordan to jump to one side. He spun around, catching sight of the driver’s face as the car sped past.

  “After him!” he yelled to Simms, clambering inside Charlie Alpha.

  “What’s all the panic?” asked Simms as the police car, its siren wailing, bulleted after the Honda in hot pursuit.

  “It’s Stanley Eustace!” shouted Jordan. “Radio Control and tell them we need all the assistance they’ve got.”

  The red dots of the Honda’s rear lights were increasing in size. They were gaining on him. Closer and closer. Soon they would be able to pass him, to swing in front and force him to stop.

  The road took a sharp curve. The rear lights of the Honda suddenly disappeared. Around the bend at full speed, tyres screaming in agony.

  No sign of the Honda. The road shot straight ahead. You could see for miles, but the Honda had vanished.

  Simms twisted his head to look through the rear window. “Back there!” he yelled. Far behind them, getting smaller and smaller as they roared on, was the Honda. It crouched on the grass verge, lights off, driver’s door open. Jordan slammed on the brakes and the Sierra shuddered to a stop.

  “Three units on their way to assist you, Charlie Alpha,” radioed Control. “You are reminded that the suspect is armed and dangerous.”

  “What shall we do?” asked Simms, warily eyeing the grey car, which appeared to be abandoned.

  “We don’t just sit here like bloody Charlies,” snapped Jordan, reversing back to the other car. They got out and cautiously approached. There was a rustling in the grass to one side of them, and before they could turn, a shotgun barrel was rammed into Jordan’s face.

  “Don’t force me to do anything stupid,” said Stan Eustace, the gun shaking in his hand, his trigger finger twitching. He looked tired, frightened, and desperately dangerous. “Facedown on the grass.”

  They flung themselves, facedown, on to the wet grass.

  “Move and I’ll blast your heads off,” croaked Eustace.

  They stared at wet grass. A rustling sound. Simms jerked up his head. A shot blasted out. He banged his face down, hugging the ground as tightly as he could.

  The slam of a car door. A car driving off at speed. Silence. Simms carefully lifted his head to see Charlie Alpha disappearing into the distance. They leaped up and raced to the Honda, then stopped dead. The front tyre was flat and peppered with shotgun pellets.

  “Shit!” said Jordan.

  Faintly at first, from a long way off, came the sirens of approaching police cars. Jordan moved out to the centre of the road to flag them down.

  Jack Frost ambled into the station about eight o’clock, hoping he might catch Mullett. The news of the arrest of the Denton rapist should have put the Divisional Commander in a sufficiently good mood to allow the inspector more men to help with the Ben Cornish investigation. No-one seemed able to whip up much enthusiasm over the death of a junkie dropout who was living on borrowed time anyway.

  “He’s been in and gone out again,” Johnny Johnson told him. “He’s with Mr. Allen at the house.”

  “What house?” asked Frost. “The house at Pooh Corner? The house that Jack built? The house of Ul repute?”

  “I thought you knew,” said the sergeant, delighted he had someone to break the news to. “It’s Stanley Eustace. They’ve got him cornered in a house on Farley Street. Allen’s in his element police marksmen, the press, television cameras. Stanley’s broken into this house and is holding a family at gunpoint. It’s a hostage situation.”

  Detective Inspector Allen was leaving nothing to chance. He opened up a detailed street map of the area and went over the various points one more time with Detective Sergeant Ingram. “Are all the adjoining houses empty? Has everyone been evacuated?”

  “Most of them,” said Ingram.

  “Most of them? I told you to shift all of them, Sergeant.”

  “The family in number 25 refuse to leave, sir.”

  Allen’s voice rose.” Refuse? Who said they had a choice? Get them out. I don’t care how, but get them out.”

  Ingram delegated this task to a uniformed constable, then looked up as a police car, flanked by two police motorbikes, screeched up with the rifles and handguns from County HQ armoury.

  “Right, Sergeant. Issue the guns,” ordered Allen. “And make sure our marksmen are positioned exactly where I indicated. And emphasize that they are not, repeat not, to fire a single round unless they have my explicit authorisation. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Inspector,” said Ingram. He handed out the Smith and Wesson specials to the five police marksmen, keeping a Ruger .222 rifle for himself. Ammunition was carefully counted out, allocated, and signed for. He made sure they all knew their locations, repeated Allen’s instructions, then sent them out to take up position.

  Ingram’s own position was in the top room of a house across the street. From this vantage point his telescopic sight could shrink the distance across the road and the garden and let him look directly into the top back room of number 57, where Eustace was holding his hostages.

  Allen had arranged for the street lamps to be turned off and for batteries of spot lamps to be directed to the back of the hostage house. If Eustace looked out he would only be able to see the blinding glare an
d the darkness beyond. He checked with his radio that the marksmen were all in position and again reminded them they were only to fire on his express command.

  He turned his head impatiently as a black van edged its way along the cleared side street. The uniformed man whose job it was to turn back traffic had waved the van on. Didn’t the fool have the sense to check with him first? The van pulled in to the kerb and an officious looking swine strode out. “Who’s in charge here?”

  “I am,” snapped Allen. “Who are you?”

  “Detective Inspector Emms, Communications. What’s the situation?”

  “The situation,” said Allen, ‘is that we have a police killer armed with a shotgun holding a woman and two children hostage in the top back room of that house over there. He’s threatening to kill them all if we don’t meet his demands -a Concorde to take him to Rio or some such rubbish.”

  “Have you made contact with him?”

  “Only through the loud hailer. He won’t let us get near.”

  “You’ve got to make voice contact,” said Emms. “You’ve got to establish rapport.”

  “You’re not teaching a bunch of bloody rookies,” snarled Allen. “I know what we ought to do. At the moment we can’t do it.”

  Emms looked up to trace the direction of the overhead phone lines. “There’s a phone in the house. I can wire you into it. If he picks up the receiver, he’ll be directly through to you.”

  “The phone is downstairs. Our man is upstairs. I can’t see him trotting down just to see who’s ringing him, but wire it in anyway.”

  “Right,” said Emms, pleased to have the chance to show off his expertise. He disappeared into the back of his van.

  Allen’s walkie-talkie paged him. “Reporter from the Denton Echo would like to talk to you, Inspector.” Allen’s first thought was to tell the man to go to hell, but, on reflection, it wouldn’t do him any harm to get his name in the papers. “Send him over,” he said.

  The communications expert emerged from the van. In his hand he held a telephone on a long length of cable which trailed behind him. “It’s ringing,” he announced proudly, offering the handset to Allen.