by Jack Steele
As I read these comments I thought how much easier my job and that of the SIU would be if this were in fact true. What I needed to do was to reassure the public that despite decreasing numbers of police on the streets, crime levels were staying the same as previous years. CCTV was not going to be spying on everyone but they would be monitoring hot spots of criminal activity.
‘Come on Carl. Let’s get this interview over and done with.’
Chapter 61
The radio interview had gone smoothly and the fact that it wasn’t a live broadcast had helped to settle my nerves. The main 5-live studio was now in MediaCityUK in Salford but we were using a studio based in Broadcasting House in central London.
I was asked by Shell to provide details about both fugitives and what had made them become such monsters. The simple answer was to say they both had an abusive upbringing, but I knew many people who had equally suffered systematic abuse as a child yet they still remained normal and didn’t go around chopping up bodies.
I stressed once again the importance of the public to keep their distance if spotting one of them. The immediate reaction should be to call the police or the SIU. In an unprecedented act the threat level has been raised to the highest level. Normally associated with terror attacks, like the bombing of St Paul’s Cathedral a few weeks ago, this is an unusual step from the government but it does show how seriously they are taking this threat.
We then discussed the rioting at the three high security hospitals. Although I did steer clear of names and the situation at present.
It was made to feel like an informal discussion and that was down to the relaxed interviewing technique by my host. Shell had even dressed in casual clothing to produce a relaxed atmosphere. I was more used to seeing her address a camera with a white blouse and black trousers but today was sweatshirt and jeans.
The interview took around ten minutes and I was informed that after editing it could be a few minutes long. She thanked me again and as I was leaving wished me luck on finding my colleagues.
Carl was waiting outside in reception and was chatting to another person who I later found out was the next interviewee. Apparently he was a union representative for the nurses in Broadmoor and the many prisons up and down the country.
As we walked out of Broadcasting House and got into Carl’s car I set a reminder in my phone’s schedule to listen around 7pm tonight. He started the engine and input the postcode into his satellite navigation for the private nursing home where Mary Pepper was staying.
As we travelled the short distance across London from Marylebone to Streatham I looked it up and saw that they coped with all kinds of mental health issues there. They had won many awards including Residential Care Provider of the Year.
We had an appointment with the home manager at 11am and pulled into the car park with minutes to spare.
‘I had thought of putting mum in somewhere like this for respite care. Two problems though.’
‘What were they Carl?’
‘The price tag was just out of reach but the main reason was she would have killed me if I suggested it!’
We pressed the intercom and were shown into a reception room to wait for Nina, the manager. On the wall were framed accolades and testimonials with glossy pamphlets placed on a small round table in the corner.
Carl picked one of them up and started flicking through the pages until a rather large woman with rainbow framed glasses entered the room. It was Nina and she greeted us then sat down to enquire what exactly was going on with Mary. I explained the situation and reassured her that we would provide her with security until we had Geb Blood back in Broadmoor. At least once order was restored there.
‘Mary is no trouble at all but unfortunately she does need our attention 24 hours a day. She has been known to call out in the middle of the night. Your visit is timely because yesterday something upset her on the television.’
She went on to say that most of the residents were seated in the television area and watching a quiz programme just before the news. Once the headlines began it distressed Mary and she kept repeating the number six.
Carl and I shook our heads and couldn’t offer a specific explanation to her but that could be a line of enquiry when we met her. We were asked to keep the visit brief and to try not to cause her any stress.
‘Mary can be somewhat bewildered and usually just lives in her own world but the two nurses and carers that look after her have said she seemed to be a lot happier now than when she first arrived here.’
We were escorted by Nina through the maze of corridors before we ended up at Mary’s room. A young police officer was seated outside her door and appeared awestruck by Carl’s large physique. We introduced ourselves to him and told him he was doing a great job.
There was a key on a peg above the door but Nina asked us to wait while she went in to check Mary’s modesty and condition.
After a brief chat with the young officer we were allowed inside to find Mary was seated in a high-backed chair at the end of her bed. The small television was on but Mary’s gaze was transfixed by people passing by her window.
I introduced the two of us but her gaze never left the window. She was elsewhere rather than here in this room with two detectives. She looked frail and when I asked her age Nina replied,
‘Eighty-five years young.’
The room was light and airy with flowers painted on the walls. The bed had rails to stop her from falling out and there was also a mat on the floor to alert staff if somehow she had fallen over. There was a separate room which I presumed to be the bathroom.
Suddenly Mary took in a deep breath and her demeanour changed to someone who was very scared. She lifted her thin arm and pointed at the television behind me. I turned around to see the face of Geb Blood and the location of the brickworks on the news. It was enough to send her into a meltdown and it triggered her to repeat over and over the number six.
She grew more and more agitated and Nina pulled on the emergency cord to alert a nurse or someone who could help her.
Just before they arrived Mary grabbed my wrist and yelled the number once again before putting her hand to her mouth and suffering from what looked like a heart attack.
My legs had turned to jelly due to the whole episode and I would never forget the look on her face. In her mind she must have been taken back to the room where she had been chained and waiting for Geb Blood’s knife.
The manager asked me to turn off the television and for us to step outside while she tried to calm Mary down. We did so without hesitation and as we reached the door two staff nurses rushed past us to assist Nina. The young officer outside must have wondered what on earth was going on and we reassured him that she had seen something on the television that reminded her of an ordeal she suffered at the hands of Geb Blood.
‘That gives me the creeps,’ he replied, ‘they say he can take on any form like a shapeshifter.’
I had to bring him back down to earth by explaining he wasn’t an extra-terrestrial being but someone who can disguise himself very well.
‘I know all the staff here so he won’t get past me!’ He puffed out his chest in an attempt to make himself larger than he was. We thanked him for his service and promised to show him around the SIU when this was all over.
It was then my phone vibrated and seeing the name of the caller was quite a surprise.
Chapter 62
‘I wanted to apologise Joe for my unreasonable behaviour in the briefing room yesterday. You know that I have been thinking of retirement for some time now but due to recent events I personally feel that it is time to go.’
Commander Stern sounded like he was struggling with the condition of his wife in hospital. Sheila had earlier been affected by talk of her so I realised that things were extremely serious.
‘Having seen how sick my wife is and the price we have both paid for my profession, I have come to the conclusion that this case will be my last. I had intended to give you more insight into
being a commander but in the last case you certainly lived up to the mark and I know you will do the same with future investigations.’
It really was a turning point in my career and for a while now I had realised the importance of taking over his legacy but that nagging doubt resurfaced about whether I was mentally prepared.
‘I’m pleased that you have put your faith in me sir but I am not happy to see you go.’
‘I have made this Strategic Investigation Unit a personal crusade and I am confident that by handing the reins to you that the organisation is in good hands. I’ve talked with the Commissioner and the Prime Minister and we all agree that you are a natural to fill the role of Commander of the SIU. When this case is over and we have the fugitives back where they belong and our colleagues alongside us, then we will carry out the formal duties.’
I was feeling a mix of emotions and it didn’t feel right to think about my future when so many of my friends were in terrible danger. There was a pause in our conversation as he was interrupted by one of the hospital staff.
‘It’s my wife. She has suffered another setback. I have to go back to be with her. You go on with your search while I return to her bedside.’
I gave my apologies and we ended our conversation. As he walked away I felt sorry for him. In some ways our lives were now similar hoping our loved ones make a full recovery. It brought back the fear of taking on a role where I could lose everything. Then I reminded myself of the fact that I was still walking a tightrope as to whether my girlfriend and colleagues could be saved from their nightmare scenarios.
Chapter 63
All the way back to mine we thought about Mary Pepper and the significance of the number six when she saw the brickworks. I had asked Scott to check the location of houses or premises with the number six or even the number six bus if it had a route passing the old brickworks. Yet all along Carl insisted that it came back down to the amount of victims present in the room.
‘There were four bodies discovered by the forensics and two survivors. That makes six.’
It was highly plausible and worrying at the same time but if Angie had been abducted by Geb and he still had the clinical nurse manager Nigel Stamford that added up to two. Then there were our three colleagues making five. It only needed one more victim and what then?
We pulled up outside my apartment when I realised the engine was still running.
‘Are you going somewhere?’
‘I’ve just got to pick up some stuff from my flat and then I will return.’
To say that I was annoyed with my colleague was an understatement. We could have easily diverted to his before coming here and now he wanted to drive away on his own.
‘Why do you think you are safe from those two when they already have three of our colleagues?’
Carl put his hands up in surrender and apologised but he believed he was strong enough to take them both down.
‘I won’t be long. An hour tops. I promise.’
‘Why don’t I come with you?’
‘No I will be ok.’
I wondered if there was anything else he wasn’t telling me but he wouldn’t take no for an answer and he didn’t want me to be with him.
‘Keep your earpiece in.’ I demanded.
‘It is in already.’
Reluctantly, I got out and searched in my wallet for the key card as he drove away. The metal door opened just as I pulled out the plastic security pass and Norman welcomed me inside. I was livid with Carl more due to concern for his safety than anything else but when I saw Norman up close I sensed straight away that he wasn’t his normal bouncy self.
‘Thank you Norman. How are you doing?’
He looked at me with a sad face and for the first time in ages he appeared to be holding back the tears. There was no way I was going to ignore him even though I had a hundred and one things going through my mind; The investigation, my missing colleagues, Carl’s reckless attitude on being alone out there when his name was on the list.
We walked over to seating by his reception desk. The grey cushions against the steel tubular frame providing comfort for waiting visitors. This time we sat down and he told me what was troubling him.
‘I’ve been a fighter all my life Joe. This time though I think my age has caught up with me and I cannot change that.’
I listened as he revealed something more serious than the swashbuckling heroics of his past life in the secret service. This was so much more of a personal matter.
‘I’ve been told that this week is to be my last here and I have to step down and make way for Derek who is younger and fitter. Apparently I have had one too many days off lately with my health and so I am being discharged from the service.’
Norman’s news and the way he was being treated hit me right in the solar plexus. My thoughts on the corporate fat cats and their treatment of staff were known to Carl and I would rant on about the subject in no uncertain terms. Why on earth do they make redundancies and lay-offs on the lead up to Christmas? Talk about pulling the rug from underneath someone’s feet. Thank you for your unwavering service where you have never missed a day off sick, always punctual and reliable, oh here is your P45. Now it was happening to my dear good friend Norman.
‘I had noticed over these past few weeks that I had been seeing less and less of you lately. Sometimes I put it down to our shifts being out of kilter so we were in effect ships that passed in the night. I am sorry Norman I didn’t know that you have been fighting a serious illness’
Norman smiled at my kind words.
‘I have been struggling for some time with energy Joe and the doctor had put it down to a lack of iron. So I was put on a vitamin and energy drinks regime.’
He pulled a face to show how much he hated it. I tried to help by suggesting that improvements had been made where some kinds tasted not too bad. It wasn’t helping so I tried another tack.
‘Here’s my card with my number on it. We will arrange to meet up every month to stay in touch and so I can hear more of your magnificent stories.’
In that moment his face and demeanour was a transformation. His piercing blue eyes lit up as though I had inserted new batteries into his pacemaker. Gold fillings revealed themselves as his smile returned.
‘I know I can trust you Joe. I have told everyone here that I feel safer knowing you are in this building.’ He gave me a knowing wink and pulled out a gold pen and leather bound notebook in which he wrote down his contact details. ‘There are still a few out there who would like to settle old scores so I don’t do social media or anything where I could be traced to my home address.’
I wondered whether Norman could be me in thirty years’ time and looked upon him as a kindred spirit.
‘Maybe one day I too will be a concierge here telling my stories to a willing listener.’
‘Those kind-hearted people are hard to find Joe. Always dashing around and not pausing for breath. I knew you were in the thick of it but still managed to devote a few precious minutes to make an old timer like me very happy. I will never forget that.’
Many times I have heard people bemoaning the passing of their elderly relations only to lose their precious stories of life and adventures with them. Their stories always captivated at the time of telling but in the mists of time the tales would be all forgotten.
‘A lifetime of knowledge is there to be handed down but no one stops to listen until they reach the same stage in life and realise what they have missed when it’s too late.’
Norman was cutting a melancholy tone but I reminded him that we can carry on and I would record his tales for posterity and future generations should Gemma and I ever have children together. That was almost unthinkable at this present time but it had been something we had discussed prior to her abduction.
Norman then placed a friendly hand on my mine as he offered me his support for my current investigation.
‘I have been following your movements on the news and I can tell that this particular cas
e is a tough one Joe. How do you cope with the pressure with so many looking for a swift conviction?’
Norman was similar to Jasper in that his previous role was undercover. He could move around undetected by the media who were constantly hungry for information to satisfy their readers.
‘You learn to live with it. I could be out there twenty four seven but as you know sleep is vital to keep a mind active and perform as best you can. Many would question a coffee stop, a hospital visit or even a chat with a good friend. I see it as a way of recharging batteries and keeping a sense of proportion. There are many missed calls on my phone at any given time and I will get back to whoever it is when the time is right. Basically it all comes down to time management.’
Norman nodded and his eyes tracked to the front door as another resident entered the building. He mentioned them by name and wished them a pleasant evening. It begged a question.
‘Do you know everyone who lives here Norman?’
‘Yes pretty much. We have a file, a roster in case of an emergency evacuation so I do have the details of everyone who lives here. Obviously it is kept in the safe so there is no chance of a breach of security.’
That was the prod I needed to ask him about the owners of this block.
‘Do the owners of this block have access to the safe?’
‘They can on request. Why do you ask?’
The elevator doors opened and someone I recognised stepped out with her arm around a distinguished looking gentleman. They were dressed for a night on the town, she wore a red dress under a fake fur jacket and he had a pin striped suit.
I waved as they went past and she smiled and waved back.
‘You would have made a great couple Joe.’ Norman whispered as we watched them leave.
‘That could have been a disaster.’ I replied.
I was feeling tired and had to get some sleep but before I called it a night I had to get Norman back on track about the owners of the block.