Cut to the Chase (46 page)

‘Which they didn't, until a few days ago,' commented Wainwright.

‘So it looks as if Bramble's original Craddock plan caused complications, due to Kalim having a long term plan, the killing of Ravindran, and our participation in that Jakarta business was a Godsend, it gave him a scapegoat,' said Kelsey. ‘He found out details about you, Harry, contacted your wife, or some of his minions did, and ascertained all of your likely contacts in England.'

‘Then they inserted bugs into telephones of likely places where you'd go or contact which enabled them to trace you to Murray Craddock,' added Wainwright. ‘And anywhere else you were going.'

‘And my wife gave them all the information they needed?'

‘Yes, she did,' Kelsey nodded. ‘They appealed to her greed and avarice.'

‘Of which she has plenty!' Wallace said angrily. ‘That bloody bitch nearly had me killed.'

Wainwright cleared his throat.

‘Now we have a chance of catching the bastards,' he said. ‘I was acquainted with Ravindran, a damned nice fellow, and nothing will give me greater pleasure than to lock them up and lose the key. Who actually killed Ananda, any idea?'

‘You're right about him, he struck me that way as well, he was a really nice fellow,' Wallace said. ‘But I don't know for sure who actually did fire the shot. I remember hearing it, and it was either Kalim or this man Juan who did that. I don't know whether or not he was still alive when they brought him in.'

‘He was, the post mortem proved that,' Wainwright said dryly. ‘But he was in a bad way and may not have survived anyway. But they obviously had some knowledge of post mortems and what can be discovered if dead bodies are moved, it looks as though they kept him alive until they shot him.'

‘They certainly planned it well,' commented Kelsey.

‘Well we'll have to think up a plan for attracting the moths to the light, I understand the bug has been left undisturbed at Ben Wakefield's house,' Wainwright said.

‘It has, if he makes calls from home he has to use his mobile telephone,' said Kelsey.

‘Hmmm!' Wainwright rubbed his jaw. ‘So there's our bait, if they are still listening, and we'll have to assume that they are. They will be concerned about those computer drives so we need a leak to the press to the effect that Harry is still at large and probably desperate, with the police still hunting him for murder.'

‘Do we have to do that?' groaned Wallace thinking of Liz.

‘We'll have to keep the Australian aspect low key,' said Kelsey, ignoring Wallace's demeanour. ‘Otherwise we'll have our Foreign Minister raising hell, there are some delicate negotiations still going on about oil drilling rights.'

Wainwright nodded in agreement.

‘I agree with that, we'll just describe him as a British insurance educator or presenter, no problem with that. I understand you were born here, weren't you Mr Wallace, and you still possess a British passport,' he turned to Kelsey. ‘How does that sound, Alan?'

Kelsey nodded, but Wallace was still uneasy.

‘What do you want me to do?' he asked.

‘We want you to go to the canal boat again, I'm afraid you'll have to be the cheese in the mousetrap,' said Wainwright. ‘Have no fear, you'll have people all round you, armed to the teeth,' he turned to Kelsey. ‘I've just had a thought, Alan, where is that canal boat? Is it still in the canal system where it was left or have the police locked onto it?'

‘It's where Harry left it,' said Kelsey. ‘McKay called in a few hours ago and said it was still there.'

‘Then we board it and move it, get it to a quiet spot somewhere. Then we get Harry to phone Ben Wakefield and say where he, and the boat, are moored. He can also mention the computer flash drives for good measure. I'll make up a script for Harry and Wakefield. If they pick up the message I assume they'll waste no time in heading for where Harry is. They will want the computer stuff and to eliminate him once and for all.'

Wallace blenched at that and began to feel as if he was a bargaining counter. Further, the idea of being bait in a trap didn't go down well either. He didn't like the sound of that at all.

‘We'd best give the newspapers their press release first so that Kalim and Co can get the message,' said Kelsey. ‘We'll want them to assume the police are still looking for him as well, which will also give the message that nobody else knows about those drives.'

‘We hope so,' said Wainwright. ‘It seems as good a plan as any. Are there any questions?'

‘Yes,' Wallace said. ‘I've just remembered something. When the boat was first approached by those men at Broad Street basin they appeared to be Ravindran's men, or sympathisers. They said something about waiting for me so they could avenge Ravindran.'

‘Did they by God?' Wainwright bit his lip. ‘Well I know who they would have been. It looks as if Kalim sent word to them somehow about where you were so they'd do his dirty work for him. Then if Harry disappeared or turned up dead Kalim would be in the clear and Ravindran's group would be blamed for it.'

His casual dismissal of his possible fate gave Wallace palpitations, almost as if he was an item of livestock. Before he had time to mutter an indignant comment Wainwright continued.

‘Clearly Ravindran's supporters have a Kalim mole in their midst. I'll have to have a look at that, leave that aspect with me.'

The next few days passed uneventfully. Wallace stayed in the safe house and played cards with Chris Anthony, read the newspapers and did the crosswords. Kelsey kept him informed as to what was happening, apparently another operative had been despatched to meet up with McKay and they were bringing the canal boat southwards. They appeared to have settled on a venue on the Grand Union canal that was in a remote spot near the Shrewley tunnel, just south of Kingswood Junction, which wasn't far from Knowle.

Wallace hoped he wouldn't have to go through the tunnel again, but remembered that this had been a short one of about 450 yards. They deemed that it would be logical for Wallace, if he was still avoiding Kalim and the police, to moor the craft overnight at a remote spot to avoid too much contact with anyone else.

Items appeared in the newspapers to the effect that Wallace was still on the run: that the police were searching for him and that there had been no sightings but it was suspected he was somewhere south of Birmingham. There were hints that his guilt was a foregone conclusion, without being said in as many words, which he assumed was to pass the message to Kalim that Wallace was highly unlikely to give himself up to the police. Wallace noticed there were no references to his nationality, though it was mentioned he was born in Surrey.

There was a phone call from Wainwright a few days later. He arrived later at the house accompanied by another man named Colin Rolands, who looked to be in his early thirties. Wainwright produced a script which Wallace was to use when telephoning Ben Wakefield.

‘Stick to this, we've been working on it. It should arouse Kalim's interest, assuming he's still listening. My own belief is that he has to, his position could be very precarious if you pass on your information to anyone else, and from this, and the recent press snippets, he won't know whether you have or not. He may guess of course, but all we can do is our best…OK?'

‘OK,' Wallace replied. ‘But how will Ben know what to say?'

‘Leave that to us, Colin will call on him, and they'll go through his script before you contact him.'

Wallace turned to Kelsey.

‘Do you think this will work?'

‘If it doesn't, then you'll be looking over your shoulder for a long time,' he said, and Wallace broke out into a cold sweat.

‘Hallo Ben!'

‘Hallo, who's this . . is that you Harry?'

‘Yes, listen. I've got to see you.'

‘Jesus Christ! You could land me in a heap of trouble, if you haven't already. You're a wanted man; this could destroy me and my business.'

‘If you' ll just listen, I can explain.'

‘Explain! It might have helped if you' d explained last time. Bloody hell! Give yourself up, Harry, wherever you are, and get it over with.'

‘I can't do that, I've got something that could prove my innocence, but I need a computer to look at it'

‘A computer! Look here, Harry, I don't want to get involved with this again'

‘I'm not asking you to, all I want is to have access to a computer. This will put me in the clear.'

‘How the hell did you get into this mess?'

‘If you'll see me Ben, I can tell you everything. I will give myself up but I must decipher these flash drives first.'

‘Flash drives?'

‘I've got some computer memory sticks that could clear me, I didn't murder that man in London, Ben. I swear it.'

It was two days later early in the morning. Wallace was sitting in a police interview room at a point near the Shrewley Tunnel, in a small police station at a place called Hockley Heath. He had the script in front of him and Ben presumably was sitting in front of his in company with Colin Rolands. For company Wallace had McKay, Kelsey and Wainwright. The plan was that Ben would wax angrily at first, and then slowly come around and agree to come over to the canal boat to pick Wallace up, the apparent object being to go back to his house and insert the drives into his home computer. They talked as per the script for about another three minutes or so and Ben became less angry.

Ben had to be the one at the other end, if they had been bugging his phone for some months now they would be sure to recognise his voice, and probably Wallace's as well. Wallace had heard from Liz that Ben had been doing some amateur theatricals in recent years. It was probably difficult to avoid becoming involved in play groups when living in Stratford, the home of the Bard. Certainly it stood him in good stead now, his performance was masterly.

Eventually they reached the nub of the conversation.

‘How the hell do I know you're telling me the truth?'

‘You don't, until I can boot up these memory sticks. I have to see them first. I want to know what they are before I commit myself to the police.'

Ben apparently hummed and hahhed, slowly came round and grudgingly agreed to come to where Wallace was and pick him up. Wallace gave him a detailed description of where he was, or more correctly, where the canal boat was. Ben deliberately took his time noting down the directions, presumably at Rolands' prompting, to allow Kalim, if he was listening, to do the same.

‘All right! I'm trusting you Harry. Don't let me down.'

‘I won't, what's your car registration, so I know it's you.'

This had been McKay's idea, and a good one. Ben gave the registration details, which weren't his but a car that was one of M.I.5's stable, which was already parked in the vicinity out of sight. It had tinted windows and was said to be bullet proof, Wallace hoped they were right.

‘All right, I' ll see you about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, can't be before that, I have calls I've got to make. Is that all right?'

They agreed time and place, which was at a point where a road passed close to the canal, and then broke the connection.

Kelsey nodded approvingly.

‘Well done, both of you. I'll pass on my congratulations to Mr Wakefield when I see him,' he said. ‘I don't know about Kalim, but it certainly convinced me.'

Wainwright rose to his feet.

‘Well, let's get up there,' he said. ‘We'll have a last look around and check that everything is ready. The sooner you're on that boat the better. Chances are they'll go for it immediately, Wakefield's arrival time, or alleged arrival time, may not be relevant to them, they'll just want you and the computer gear.'

Wallace wasn't so sure of that, but followed him out of the room.

T
hey were at the boat within about 15 minutes. Wallace walked gingerly up to it and boarded it, feeling his shoulder blades prickling as though he expected a bullet any minute. Though the time of arrival of Kalim and his men was unpredictable, assuming they came at all, it would take longer than 15 minutes for them to hit the road, wherever they were, after listening in to that telephone call.

‘You'll stay below,' said Wainwright. ‘Make the occasional turn on deck, the main object is to be seen. I'm saying they won't shoot because they'll want the discs first. Two of our operatives, Mark Enderby and Jim Galvin will stay on the boat with you and will be out of sight, they are both armed. You're not alone.'

Wallace nodded. He still wasn't altogether happy about the whole thing, though on reflection his life had probably been in worse danger over the last fortnight. Both Galvin and Enderby looked like ex-commandos, regulation hair cuts, both well muscled and walking like cats. They both packed shoulder holsters with artillery, which did go some way to alleviating his fears. Neither of them said much, to Wallace they looked as if they were merely waiting for the fight to start.

They parked themselves in the small cabin, there wasn't too much room with three of them below, but they seemed to be used to roughing it. It was agreed that Wallace should expose himself on the deck at irregular intervals; this was McKay's phraseology which caused considerable amusement amongst the assembled gathering at the time and did relieve some of the tension. The government car would then make its appearance on some of the roads nearby at the proposed time and suggested meeting place between Wallace and Ben Wakefield. Its registration number should be already known to Kalim and his men so it should be expected. What would not be expected was that it was carrying a driver and three other men armed to the teeth, the guardian from the safe house, Chris Anthony, being one of them.