by David Lowe
A court security officer entered the room and handed Andy a folded piece of paper, ‘I was asked to hand you this message,’ he said.
‘Thanks’ Andy said taking the paper off him. As the security officer left the room, he unfolded it and read to his amazement Pickup’s mother had paid the surety. He looked up at Pickup and said, ‘It looks like your mother’s either won the lottery or had a big win at the bingo at the weekend. She’s paid the ten thousand pound surety.’
‘She’s done what? How the fuck did she get that amount?’ Pickup said.
‘I didn’t even know she was in court,’ Andy said, realising he should have had another member of his team in court to watch for his mother and follow her when she left the building.
‘Neither did I,’ Pickup said, astounded his mother could raise this amount of money for his surety.
‘I’m guessing here, but I’d say Murphy may have given your mother the money. If so, that tells me he’s desperate to speak to you about what’s happened since you got arrested. Are you still willing to work for us?’
‘Too right. If it means a new life in Canada, I’ll do whatever you want.’
* * *
‘Seeing how you’re so sure that’s the location they’re going to use,’ George said to David as he and Steve reported back their findings to him at Cheshire’s ISB offices, ‘I suggest we stake it out first thing tomorrow morning. I don’t want either of you getting distracted by anything else that happens on this investigation. This is directly from the commander, for the rest of the day you two will concentrate on finding Maguire and Mahoney.’ George handed the two officers photocopies of pictures of Maguire and Mahoney. ‘That means going back to the city centre showing these photographs of the two men and I want you showing them to the shoppers as well staff working in the city.’
‘But boss . . .’ Steve said interrupting not wanting to walk round the city again.
‘No buts! For once you two will do as you’re told. Don’t worry about anything else that’s going on in this investigation. Andy Curtis and his team are concentrating on Pickup and Murphy. At the moment they’re waiting to see if he has a meet with Murphy. Another Merseyside team is working on locating O’Byrne, while some of our lot in Manchester are assisting Tim Johnson on the O’Leary killing. North Wales Special Branch is still working on McCullagh. Anne Pritchard, one of Cheshire’s Special Branch DI’s, along with officers from Cheshire’s Branch office is heading the murder investigations into the two Cheshire bobbies, Mary Clancy and the poor security guard who was killed this morning. Ray Baskin’s team came over this morning to assist on security for tomorrow’s visit. In addition to which, a few SO15 and other forces’ Branch officers are arriving later this afternoon to assist with the security measures. If you come across Maguire and Mahoney let me know straight away and I’ll arrange for a firearms unit to conduct a search. I don’t want you two taking any action against them unless you really have to. We would like them to come in alive.’
* * *
The bright sunlight forced Pickup to squint as he walked out of Liverpool’s Magistrates court complex. Taking his mobile phone out he noticed he only had one bar out of the three showing for the battery power left. He hoped Murphy would contact him before it went dead. Slowly, he walked onto Dale Street. Making his way towards the riverfront at the Pier Head, he kept thinking of the three key points Andy Curtis made to him. Wait until Murphy contacts you, do not contact him. When you’re talking, try and give locations of where you are. Don’t rush Murphy into talking about an issue, let the conversation flow naturally, otherwise he’ll get suspicious.
As Pickup strolled towards the river front, five of Andy’s team were following him on foot while Andy and four of his team remained parked up in a side road off Dale Street in unmarked Special Branch cars. Hoping Murphy would make contact soon, he knew this was the tricky part of the surveillance. It was hard to conduct vehicle surveillance in a city centre on someone on foot, but he had to be prepared for Pickup being contacted and taken to a vehicle. Having walked down the length of Dale Street to the Town Hall, Pickup walked into Water Street towards the riverfront passing the impressive architecture of the city’s business premises. Having just gone midday, the area was bustling with smartly dressed office workers going out for lunch or to do some shopping. Glancing over to the majestic India Buildings, the height of which blocked out the bright sunlight as it cast a long shadow across Water Street, Pickup looked at the people walking out the main door. For a moment he envied their humdrum life, wishing he had not got involved with Murphy and the IRA. He had and he knew there was no point moaning about it.
Remembering to do as he was told by Andy, he resisted the urge to keep looking around as it would bring attention to himself if he was being watched by Murphy or one of his associates. The tension of waiting to be contacted was getting to him. Due to the heavy traffic noise making it likely he would not hear his phone ring, he wrapped his hand around it so he could feel its vibration should Murphy call. With the foot surveillance team continually updated Andy Curtis on Pickup’s progress, the further Pickup was away from Andy’s location it was coming to the point where he had to contemplate moving the mobile units closer to Pickup should Murphy have him picked up by car. It was a delicate situation getting the balance right between watching Pickup and making sure it was not obvious he was being followed.
As Pickup was approaching where Water Street joined the Strand section of the dock road a Ford Focus driven by Diarmid Connell pulled up sharply in front of Pickup. Having the window down, he looked at Pickup and shouted, ‘Michael! Get in! Declan Murphy sent me.’
Not knowing the driver, the Northern Irish accent confirmed to Pickup he was one of Murphy’s men. For a brief moment he hesitated. Unable to take his eyes off Connell, it crossed Pickup’s mind the reason why Murphy was keen to get him out on bail was because the Irishman guessed he was now a Special Branch informant.
‘Michael,’ Connell shouted, ‘for fuck’s sake, get in.’
The thought of living in Canada for what he was about to do and that DS Curtis would not put him in danger reassured him. Pickup nodded to the driver, ran round the front of the car and got into the front passenger seat.
* * *
‘Target getting into a sliver Ford Focus, registration number Yankee Five Zero One Delta Lima Victor. Water Street just past the India Buildings,’ a foot surveillance officer radioed through to his colleagues.
Andy Curtis nodded to the officer in the driver’s seat of the unmarked ISB car he was sat in. As the officer turned on the car’s ignition, Andy relayed over the radio to the other officers, ‘Mobile units to location to follow target. Foot officers be ready to be picked up.’
* * *
As soon as Pickup closed the front passenger door, the Ford Focus set off at high speed. Nothing was said between the two men. The traffic lights at the end of Water Street began changing to red. Making no attempt to stop, Connell’s response was to accelerate. Passing the traffic light signals, he slowed slightly changing down to second gear and Connell drove through the red traffic lights. Due to the central reservation, he had to turn left, but Connell did a U-turn at the first intersection he came across, forcing oncoming cars to screech to a halt. Accelerating hard, he turned right onto the Strand. Grabbing onto his seat, Pickup screamed out, ‘Are you fucking mad?’
‘You’re being followed,’ Connell said, ‘we needed to shake them off. I’m taking you to Mister Murphy. He’s going to take you on a little trip.’
Sounding ominous, Pickup nervously asked, ‘Where’s he taking me?’
‘Don’t worry,’ Connell said running another red light as he turned into Leeds Street away from the city centre, ‘he’s taking you somewhere safe out of the country.’
* * *
‘We’ve lost him,’ one of the officers on foot surveillance shouted
over to Andy as the other mobile units joined him at the bottom of Water Street, ‘the bastard went through these lights on red and then turned right and drove off at high speed down the Strand towards Bootle.
‘OK,’ Andy said reaching for the radio transmitter, ‘control can you pick up the tracker we’ve got on Pickup. We’ve lost visual. They were taking no chances that Pickup was being followed. I’m sure we weren’t blown out. Check CCTV to see if we can find the Ford Focus.’
* * *
Connell drove along Leeds Street and after turning left into Vauxhall Road, he pulled up sharply behind a white Ford Transit van. As the Ford Focus came to a stop, the back doors of the Transit van opened. ‘Get into the van,’ Connell said forcefully to Pickup while looking in the car’s rear-view mirror to see if anyone was following them. Without saying a word, Pickup got out of the Ford Focus and ran into the back of the Transit van towards Declan Murphy, who was waiting for him. As Pickup jumped into the back of the van, Murphy slammed the doors shut. Hearing the back doors close, the driver of the van drove off towards Kirkdale. Pickup looked nervously at Murphy, who said, ‘Michael, I’m glad you got out. It was a shame the beak wouldn’t let Danny have bail as well.’
‘His brief didn’t put up as much of a fight as mine,’ Pickup said looking round the van from the wooden bench-seat he was sat on. There was a wooden partition between him and the driver and no windows. Being unable to see out, he knew it was going to be difficult to relay to the listening Special Branch officers where he was. To give the listening officers some idea what Murphy was planning to do, Pickup asked him where they were going.
‘I’m taking you away from this mess we’re in,’ Murphy said, ‘but first you need to change your appearance. I’ve got a change of clothes for you. We can’t take any chances, as Special Branch will have followed you as soon as you got out.’
‘It’s alright Declan,’ Pickup said knowing if he took his shirt off Murphy would see he was wired.
‘Don’t take me for a fool Michael,’ Murphy said. Grabbing the back of Pickup’s head, he dragged him off the bench seat onto the floor of the van, ‘and don’t tell me your brief put up a good fight to get you out. I’m not fucking stupid. You’ve done a fucking deal with the peelers.’ Ripping Pickup’s shirt off his back, Murphy saw the tiny microphones attached to his body. As he pulled them off, Pickup eyes wide open with fear looked up at Murphy, who spat out, ‘So you’re a fucking tout for the Branch. What did they promise you that I couldn’t?’
* * *
Listening to the events, Andy Curtis got back onto the radio, ‘Control, give us a fix on Pickup, Murphy’s found the wire.’
‘It’s difficult,’ the radio operator replied, ‘the signal’s breaking up.’
* * *
Pickup sensed the van slowing down. ‘I told them fuck all. For fuck’s sake Declan, you’ve got to believe me, I told them fuck all.’
Stopping by the Leeds-Liverpool canal the van driver banged twice on the partition. ‘Get the car started while I finish off here,’ Murphy shouted to the driver. Showing no emotion, Murphy pulled a pistol out from the back of his trousers. Pointing it at Pickup’s head, he said, ‘You were a good lad, but in my organisation we demand total fucking loyalty.’ Before Pickup could say anything, Murphy shot him twice in the head. With Pickup lying motionless, Murphy replaced the pistol into the back of his trousers, took off his blood splattered shirt, wiped Pickup’s blood off his face, jumped out of the back of the van and ran into the front passenger seat of a BMW that had its engine running. Grabbing the clean shirt off the seat, he quickly put it on as he said to the driver, ‘Let’s fuck off to Holyhead. I’ll give you the address when we get there.’
* * *
As Debbie entered their hotel bedroom, David got off the bed and walked up to her. ‘I’ve put the food order in with room service. It’ll be ready in about fifteen minutes.’
Debbie kissed him, kicked off her shoes not caring where they landed, walked over to the bed. Flopping down on top of it she said, ‘Good, I’m starved. So there was no sign of Maguire and Mahoney then?’
‘No,’ David said lying on the bed next to her, ‘Steve and I walked all over the city centre and no one said they’d seen them.’
‘Well, if our instincts are right, we’ll spot them when you and Steve watch the solicitors’ office tomorrow.’ Sitting up, she said, ‘I could murder a drink. Everyone’s been arriving in Chester in the last couple of hours as we get ready for tomorrow’s visit. I’ve never seen so many national security officers in one place before. The incidents of the past week has meant we’ve got MI5 officers from all over the north and the south-east region, as well as extra Special Branch and SO15 officers drafted in to help out. The last few hours have been manic, especially here at the hotel.’
David got off the bed and walking over to the mini-bar said, ‘Red wine?’
‘If there’s one left,’ Debbie said taking out her hair clip. Shaking her head, she let her hair fall down onto her shoulders.
Opening the mini-bar, David said, ‘They topped it up this morning.’ Taking out the small bottle of red wine and a can of beer for himself he put them on the top of the dressing table. ‘We can’t take any chances, we need as many officers here as possible. Murphy’s using contacts we don’t know of yet. Someone helped him get away from Frodsham and we know he was using a couple of other men when he killed Pickup. For all we know, Murphy and O’Byrne as well as those we don’t know of yet will be getting involved in what they originally planned to do now the six that were staying at Shiel Road are in custody. What happened to Andy Curtis’ team after they found Pickup’s body?’
‘He’s been assigned to stay on tracing Murphy, but he’s cut up about what happened to Pickup,’ Debbie said as David was pouring the red wine into a glass.
‘He would be. It’s the feeling of helplessness and frustration at not being able to do anything to stop it that gets to you. Here you go love,’ David said passing Debbie her glass of wine, as he sat on the bed next to her.
‘Thanks,’ she said taking the drink off him. Drinking nearly half the glass in one go, she said, ‘That’s better.’ Debbie put the glass on her bedside table and stretching her arms out, yawning at the same time said, ‘you’re right about Murphy and his associates. Obviously there are players out there we don’t know about.’
‘What’s the latest on Murphy, surely something must have come out of that enquiry with his wife?’
‘We’ve got all the ports being watched. To be honest, we’ve no idea where he’s going. Questioning his wife drew a blank. As there was nothing we could charge her with, Merseyside had to release her, but we’ve got a tail on her to see if she meets up with him.’
‘What was her explanation for the clothes in the suitcase?’ David asked taking a sip of his beer.
‘She said she was giving them to Sheila Coleman for her to sell on e-Bay. There were no passports, no tickets and no money found at the house. In fact, nothing was found we could hold her on to tie her into Murphy’s activities.’
‘Let’s hope following her comes up trumps and she’ll meet up with Murphy. Anything else I should know about?’
‘Another sweep’s being done on the hotel this evening and the route the Prince is taking. If you get Maguire and Mahoney tomorrow, we’ll have most of those we know about out of the way and the visit should go off without a hitch.’
‘If I do we’re still going to have to keep on our toes.’
The wine made Debbie feel more relaxed causing her to yawn again. ‘Never mind Murphy, it was hard enough briefing the teams as they arrived this afternoon. What was tiring was the fact it wasn’t one large briefing. I had to brief each team as they arrived. Most were fine, but there was the odd smart arse asking awkward questions.’
‘There’s always one,’ David said picking up his cigarettes
off the bedside table. After re-lighting the cigarette he was smoking when Debbie arrived in the room, he placed his lighter back onto the bedside table and asked, ‘What did they want to know?’
‘It was mainly the DI’s from the various Branch offices that were asking the questions, such as why hadn’t MI5 done this or done that,’ Light heartedly, Debbie started prodded David in the ribs and then began tickling him, ‘just like a certain DS from GMP used to do when he first met me!’
Laughing, he grabbed her hand to stop her tickling him. ‘I’ll stop asking you questions seeing how you’ve had enough of them.’
Picking up her glass to take another sip of her drink, Debbie said, ‘I nearly forgot to tell you, Jenny and your new friend arrived half an hour ago.’
‘My new friend?’
‘Stuart Stroud. As soon as he saw me, he asked how you were. You’ve definitely made a good impression with him. He was glowing about your actions in Ireland and he wouldn’t mind meeting up later for a drink in the bar here at the hotel.’
‘I’ll pass that on,’ David said stubbing out his cigarette in a saucer he was using for an ashtray.
Debbie picked up a pillow and hit him with it. ‘You’re such a miserable sod at times,’ she said as David raised his hands to cover his face as each blow landed on him, ‘after we’ve eaten, we’ll freshen up and have a few drinks in the bar with Jenny and Stuart. Then we can come back to the room, and have a few hours to ourselves.’
* * *
Maguire looked at the time on his mobile phone that was vibrating on silent, indicating there was an incoming call. Seeing it was a quarter to eight in the evening, he did not recognise the number of the caller on the small screen. Tentatively, he answered it. ‘Hello.’
‘Is that Patrick McCullagh?’ asked a male with a strong Welsh accent.
Having been mentally running through what he had to do the following day for the past couple of hours, for a brief moment Maguire was baffled why he was receiving a call for a Patrick McCullagh. Remembering Michael McCullagh instructed him if he received a call asking for Patrick McCullagh, it meant he was to receive a coded message he said, ‘Yes it is. Who’s that?’