The woman walked towards a door at the far end of the room. Blazoned across it was a gold plaque with an old style gentleman - top hat and tails and a walking cane - stood next to a lady dressed in period clothing, holding a chintzy sun umbrella over her shoulder. Underneath it read, 'Powder rooms'.
Casually glancing around, she opened the door and stepped in.
Inside were three doors lining the narrow hall: two on the left showing male and female, and one on the right indicating staff only. She glanced back to see if anyone was following, waited for the hall door to close, then went through the door on the right.
The stairs she was looking for were located at the back of a long walk-through cupboard full of cleaning materials. She headed up, not running, just walking briskly, realising falling over at this point would bring staff running to see what the noise was about. At the top, she continued along a short hall to another door, she counted to three and opened it, walking through the main lobby and straight over to the lift.
She already knew what suites the four were in, as there were only five on the floor, her and her partner having the fifth. She stood outside the first door, the master key in her hand. She’d played her part in the theft of the key by flirting with the receptionist earlier, a young lad, while her partner sneaked round the back.
Going into each suite one by one, she placed a miniature bug, no bigger than a five pence piece, in each room, hiding them in all the places she’d been directed to: under tables, inside lamps, even in the loo. She finished off by putting one in the phone handset.
The first three suites all went smoothly, taking just forty-five seconds in each room, but Lucy’s suite would be the challenge.
She knew Lucy was having a bath, from overhearing the conversation down in the bar. She stood outside Lucy’s suite and put the swipe key in the lock, she took one more look up and down the hall, put her ear to the door, on hearing nothing, held her breath and very slowly turned the handle.
She opened it just enough to be able to see in. She could hear Lucy still in the bathroom, so she entered the room and pulled the door behind her, not closing it. She looked towards the bathroom door and saw it wasn’t closed fully, she thought about closing it slowly, to give her more chance of moving around easily, but thought against the idea, so she took a deep, slow, quiet breath and set about planting her equipment.
As she was moving over to put the last one in the phone, Lucy called out, “Who’s there? Harry, is that you?”
The woman’s heart started to pound, she looked around the room and then at the front door. Straining to hear if Lucy was getting out of the bath. She quickly planted the last bug and left.
“Harry?” Lucy called again.
When the woman got to the end of the hall, she pressed the lift button and waited. She willed the lift to go faster as she watched the indicator above the door slowly count its way up past the floors. Glancing back at Lucy’s suite, she thought about going to her own, when suddenly the bell pinged and the lift doors opened. She hurried in, pushed the button for the lobby, and stood watching for Lucy’s door to open.
Standing up against the wall, behind the button panel, she stared down the hall, using the reflection in the lift’s mirror. As the doors started to close, she spotted Lucy’s head come out of her room and glance up and down. Lucy scanned the opposite way, to begin with, so by the time she looked at the lift, the doors had closed. She noticed the counter start to go down, and shrugged, thinking, “no one there, the lift’s probably just stopping at every floor.”
As the woman felt the lift move she let out a long sigh, she hadn’t realised, but she’d been holding her breath since she pressed the button to go down. Lucy took a final look along the corridor and then went to get dressed, ready to meet the boys down in the bar.
The lift doors opened and the woman walked out, she casually crossed the foyer back towards the door she’d entered by. As she went through, she heard someone behind her call, “Ma’am, you can’t go that way!” It was one of the security guards, and by the sounds of his footsteps, he was rushing across the lobby to intercept her.
She walked quickly along the hall, taking the stairs at a jump.
Standing at the end of the cleaner’s cupboard, she straightened herself up, as she heard the guard coming along the hall towards the stairs. She walked back to the bar, across to where her partner was sitting.
The door she’d just come through opened, and the guard who’d been trying to catch her came out with a bump, making everyone turn. He apologised, looked around and shrugged, then turned and went back the way he’d come.
As he walked off, he thought about going to the control room and checking the CCTV recordings, but he was due off shift in eight minutes and he didn’t get paid enough to bother.
She smiled at her partner, then looking at her watch, she thought, “just short of ten minutes, not bad!” She picked up her drink and leant back, taking a sip of her soda water just as her phone rang. She opened her bag to retrieve it, moving her MI6 badge out of the way. “Hi, mum. Is everything alright?” She listened for a few seconds, then said, “Everything you asked for is there, right down to the phone!” After a little bit of small talk, she sent her love and hung up.
The white Mercedes Sprinter van had arrived earlier and was now parked two streets away, on Hanover Square, in-line-of-sight of the hotel.
The lady in the SUV nodded, “Everything’s in place.”
“No news from your partner?” one of the men asked.
“He rang on the way here. He’s taking the week off as he doesn’t feel too good. And he's not my partner!” the woman scowled.
The man shrugged and looked back at his computer screen and settled in for the night ahead. She went and got some rest in a reasonably priced B&B nearby before she had to be back on duty at eight the next morning.
20
Lucy joined the others in the bar. She ordered a glass of pink Champagne and sat next to Harry, nicking some of his nuts.
Taking a sip, she said, “I’ve only had Champagne once before. When I was eighteen years old, we’d gone into Peterborough, to celebrate the New Year. Bobby and a bunch of our friends had met up in the city centre, it ended badly.” She put her hand on Bobs. “Bob got into an argument with a local lad in one of the clubs over a girl. He started pushing Bobby around. I got knocked and pushed about in the scuffle and this set Bobby off. He laid into him, put this lad down in five seconds flat, but this just gave the lad's mates the excuse to start as well. As you can see, Bobby isn’t small and the self-defence classes he’d been taking since he was seven years old helped.” She looked at him and smiled. “Well, the six lads who came to help their mate, soon found out the hard way! Of course, the police were called, they arrested all of them, including Bobby, but he was let out the next morning, with a caution.”
“It was then that I joined the army,” Bob chipped in.
Lucy took another sip of her Champagne. “Did you come up to the room earlier, Harry? I thought I heard someone and was kind of hoping it was you!” she said, coyly.
“We’ve been here waiting for you,” Harry explained.
Bob looked at Lucy, then back at Harry and shook his head again. He looked at Dave, and said, “I think we’re being watched!”
With this, the four of them went quiet and finished their drinks.
"Lucy,” Bob asked. “Did you talk to anyone apart from your friend Mary?”
“No!”
“Okay, sorry.”
The couple behind them thought they’d blown their cover, so decided to call it a night. They paid their bill and went up to their suite. Not looking back, they held hands, giggling as they left. As soon as they got to their suite, they called the van and reported what had just been said.
Harry winked at Dave as the young couple got up, he leant forward and whispered, “I’m glad I’m not in the suite next to them tonight.”
“Jesus Christ, Harry! You and your 'manly charisma' ne
ed to get a hobby,” Dave said.
The three of them started laughing, Lucy sat there, staring, missing the joke. Bob suddenly went quiet, turned and glanced over at the couple as they left the bar. He turned back to the others, waited a few moments to make sure they’d gone before saying anything.
He sat forward and put his hands to his chin, as if he was praying, and said, “Those two were on the train from Peterborough, and if I’m not mistaken, they were behind us at the taxi rank at Kings Cross.”
“I remember them on the train, but not at the rank,” Harry said.
Lucy nodded, agreeing.
“I don’t remember them at all!” Dave frowned.
After talking, they decided it was just coincidence and dropped it, but they all agreed to be more aware of who was around them and to keep an eye out for the couple again to see if they popped up anymore.
21
The next day, after several phone calls, they decided to go sightseeing as the meeting had been put back a day. The two men in the van had been listening to everything the team said. The couple from the hotel were taken off the team but told to stay in the hotel for another day or two, so as not to arouse suspicion, and fresh tails were put in place.
That night, as Bob was walking back to his suite he met the couple from the bar.
“Hi!” the lady said, smiling.
“Hi,” Bob nodded, returning the smile.
The three of them stopped in the hallway.
“So! Where are you two heading? Newlyweds can’t stay in London,” Bob joked. “Spain, Italy, the Canaries?”
The couple stuck to their script, they’d been in the business too long to slip up like this. She nuzzled into her partner’s chest, and said, “We’re checking out tomorrow, heading to Dorset for a few days, then we’re off to the south of France for two weeks before heading back to Peterborough.”
“Peterborough! I know it well,” Bob explained. “What part do you live in?” He thought he’d test them to see if he could catch them out, but she scuppered his plans by saying, “We’ve only been there for six months, we moved for our jobs, but we live in Walton.”
“Ahhhh, yes!” Bob smiled. “It’s nice round there. That’s not far from Central Park.”
The couple had done their homework on Peterborough and knew they were being tested. “Well it’s a bit of a walk,” she said, “but on a nice day it’s good to go there.”
The man nodded in agreement.
“Well the holiday sounds great, and congratulations. Have a great time.”
Once Bob was sure they’d gone he went to Lucy’s suite. He called the others in and explained what had just happened.
“I’ve been thinking about those two,” Lucy explained, “especially the woman. Something doesn’t feel right about her and he’s not… touchy enough, seeing they just got married.”
“You don’t think she went up to the suites yesterday?” Harry asked. “You know when Lucy thought she heard something.”
They looked at each other, and then looked around the room as if they were expecting to see something that wasn’t there a minute ago.
“For God’s sake, Harry! You’re making me bloody paranoid,” Dave quipped.
Bob leant in, and as if he was a big magnet, the others did the same. “Harry’s right,” he whispered, “we need to be more vigilant. I haven’t felt sure about a few things since we left Ramadi.”
“Really, like what?” Harry said, surprised.
“Well, there’s the fact we got released so easily from our contracts. Then there are the diamonds, why didn’t the packages get checked at customs? There’s the white van in the lay-by near the house, the burglar alarms, the two honeymooners and the thing that’s really knocking around in my head, Steve’s body!"
They all sat in silence.
That night, Dave went around his whole suite looking for bugs. He didn’t find anything, not that he knew what to look for, but it made him feel better. It didn’t help him sleep though, he just lay there, thinking someone was watching him the whole time!
The four of them were down for breakfast at nine am, tucking into bacon and eggs, when Lucy said, “I heard some sad news on the radio this morning.”
“What’s that, Luce?” Bob said, looking up at her.
“I was listening to the Hunstanton local news on the radio as I was getting showered. The police found a man this morning washed up on the beach. They’re asking for any witnesses, or if anybody might know who he was.”
“Did they say what he looked like?” asked Bob.
“Only that he was in his forties, a hundred and sixty centimetres tall, wearing a red cardigan.”
“Doesn’t sound like anyone I know,” Bob said.
“There’s a radio in the shower?” Dave gasped.
“It was probably someone out on a stag night. Got drunk, got lost and fell into the sea," Harry added.
“It’s still sad though,” Bob said, stroking Lucy’s arm.
22
After breakfast, they headed off in a black cab to see the potential buyer. The address was in Fulham, on Atlanta Street. On the way to the house, Lucy kept looking out the back of the cab to see if they were being followed.
“Relax Lucy," Bob said. "You’re making us all paranoid."
“I can’t stop thinking about those two back at the hotel, what if they’re following us?” she said.
"If they are, and we see them today, we’ll go and visit them later, okay?” Harry said, looking at Bob and Dave.
Lucy smiled at Harry and sat back in her seat, but kept turning her head to look out the back.
After a while, driving through London, Bob leant forward and spoke to the cabbie through the hole in the safety glass. “Driver, can you stop two streets away from the address we’ve given you please?”
“Sure thing, guv!”
“What’s the plan, Bob?” Dave asked.
“We’ll get out early and split up. Dave and I will go straight to the house, Harry and Lucy walk around the block and meet us at the front door. That way, if there’s anything that doesn’t look right, we can get away easier.”
Thirty minutes later, the driver pulled over. “Here you go, folks. Your street is just up ahead," he said, pointing.
“Cheers!” Bob paid the driver and they got out. He’d dropped them off at the corner of a cemetery.
As they walked off, Bob pointed out, “It looks like the house we want backs onto this cemetery, that’d take too long for you two to walk around, so we’ll walk as two pairs towards the street we want. Harry and Lucy, you walk behind, as if you’re a separate couple from us. We’ll walk into the street, you walk past and take the next street up and come in from the opposite direction, okay?”
The road they turned into looked tidy and picturesque. Tall mature oak trees lined the kerbs, and most of the houses had bulging flower boxes or hanging baskets adorning the properties. The only downside was the smell, it was as if a sewer had ruptured.
“Jesus!” Dave choked, wiping his eyes. “I can just about taste that!”
Parking on the street looked as if it would be a problem for the residents - with all the cars parked bumper to bumper.
"Getting out must be a 'push the car in front out the way' exercise," Bob joked.
“That’s what bumpers are for though, isn’t it?” Dave smiled.
The houses were turn of the century, Victorian houses - two to a terrace, each block having a small path up the side leading to the gardens behind. They were all mainly two floors, with what looked like loft conversions built into nearly all the houses along the street. Most of them, the ones they could see, had cellars.
“Probably all converted to downstairs flats,” Dave said.
“Looks nice though,” Bob commented.
Some looked well-tended, but others looked like rat holes with rubbish strewn over the floor, blocking the entrances to the flats below.
Mr Hopkins, the contact Mary had given Lucy, lived in one of the n
icer ones. The path, leading up from the road had a black and white chequered tile pattern laid into it, a bit like a space invader from an eighties arcade machine. The front door that overlooked the entrance was oversized, very green and set back inside a very white tiled porch area. You could tell he looked after his place, the paint was fresh and clean and there were freshly cut flowers on the window sills.
Bob and Dave waited a few moments for Harry and Lucy to join them while looking up and down the street to see if anyone was paying too much attention to them. Two minutes later, they came sauntering along, holding hands.
Harry said, “All clear, Bob.”
“Thanks, Harry," he said, looking at their hands. Bob shrugged, “I might as well get used to that,” nodding at the two of them.
“Okay. Lucy, go and ring the bell.” Bob said.
She stepped forward into the porch area and carried out her instructions. “All done, sir,” she saluted.
“Very funny!” he said, sarcastically.
A few moments passed before a small red light came on and drew their attention to a little camera tucked away in the top right-hand corner of the porch. A voice answered, “Hello?”
“Hi, Mr Hopkins,” Lucy answered. “We’re here to speak to you about something we want to sell.”
“I don’t know what you’re on about, please go away.”
“Mary gave me your name and address. It’s to look at some jewellery we have.”
The voice came back, “Mary, Mary who?”
The four of them looked at each other. Bob asked Lucy, “Are you sure we have the right place?”
“Yes! Mary wrote it down for me. Here look.”
Bob took the paper with the address and held it up to the camera. There was a pause, then the door buzzed and clicked open. “Come in please, and make sure you close the door behind you!”
The entranceway was big enough for the four of them to stand in and close the door. It was brightly lit and had a row of photos along one wall of a group of men standing together, some in uniform from what looked like world war two, and a few of a man holding a big fish on a boat.
Dave pointed at them and said, quizzically, “Mr Hopkins?”
Scavenger Hunt Page 7