Dangerous Lady (57 page)

‘And you! ‘Bye, Marge.’

Maura put the phone down and leant against the wall, laughing. Poor old Marge!

‘What are you laughing about?’

Maura went to William and kissed him.

‘I’ll tell you all about it later. I’ve started the dinner, we’re eating early today. I thought we could go out this afternoon for a walk or something. I have to leave at four to meet Roy and the others.’

William looked down into Maura’s bright blue eyes.

‘Tell you what. Scrub the walk, we’ll go back to bed. How’s, that?’

Maura kissed his mouth hard.

‘I was kinda hoping you’d say that!’ Terry and Marsh were in the Special Operations room at Scotland Yard, going over the final details with a handpicked bunch of men. Marsh had recruited them from the SPG. All had licences to use firearms.

‘So we swoop at precisely seven-forty-five. That gives them fifteen minutes to negotiate with Isaacs. We’ve put a man with him so he doesn’t lose his nerve. He’ll introduce him to Maura Ryan as his partner. You all understand what you are to do?’

All the men nodded.

‘Good.’

Terry stood up and faced them.

‘The main aim is to bring the Ryans in. All of them. This is going to be one of the biggest busts this country has ever seen. Nothing is to go wrong. You only fire if it is absolutely necessary and then you aim only to wound if possible.’

The men nodded and looked at one another. Unknown to Terry they had all been told to open fire immediately they entered the barn. Not one person was to be allowed to leave that place alive, Lenny Isaacs included. No one knew why this young DI was being kept in the dark. They were just following orders.

4.00

Sarah was sitting with Benjamin watching a Doris Day film on TV. She was trying to knit and finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate. She had left message after message for that young man Petherick and he had not been in touch. She was worried that one of the people who worked for Maura had found out what she had done. If Maura knew she would kill her, she knew that. For all her talk of never being frightened of anything that came out of her own body, she was increasingly nervous. Today for some reason she had had a terrible feeling of foreboding, It had been weighing down on her like a lump of concrete in her breast since she had got out of bed this morning. She put her knitting down and rubbed her eyes.

‘How about a nice cuppa, Sari”

Benjamin spoke without taking his eyes off the television. Sarah stood up, glad of something to do. She made her way out to her kitchen and put the kettle on. She had been going to visit the boys’ graves today, Mainly Anthony’s, Benny’s and Geoffrey’s, she only ever paid Mickey’s a flying visit. But for some reason she did not want to leave the house.

As she set about making the tea, a deep coldness came

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over her and she had to sit down at the kitchen table. She had only felt like this twice in her life before and that was when Benny had died and Geoffrey had gone missing. She had had a feeling similar to this the day the police had reported to her Geoffrey’s body had been found. She closed her eyes to blot out the picture of him in the mortuary. He had been shot in the back of the head and the bullet had come out just under his jawline. He had had a surprised expression on his face. Now she had that feeling again. She was convinced that something was going to happen today. Something bad.

When she finally took the tray of tea in to Benjamin he was asleep. She turned the sound down on the TV and sat and drank her own tea. Waiting for a knock on the door or the phone to ring. .-.”

4.30 -‘

Maura was driving to Le Buxom to meet the boys. She had not felt so happy for a long time. William had tried to Jersuade her to let Roy deal with the business today and ‘he had been very tempted to stay in bed with him. After all these years she was finally having a relationship with a man, and loving every second of it. She only wished she iad let herself go before now. She found herself smiling at Complete strangers at traffic lights and laughed to herself. f this was love she was enjoying every moment of it. She decided that she would pass more of the business over to Roy. He was doing so well now. She wished he could get rid of Janine but knew that concern for. Benny kept him with her.

She could understand that. If she had become a mother he knew she would have done anything for the good of ier children. She wished again she had kept her baby. It would have been grown up now with a life of its own.

She pushed the thought from her mind. She was happy today and nothing was going to interfere with that! She turned her thoughts to Marge, determined that nothing was going to spoil her happiness. All she wanted to do was get the meet over and get back to William.

She was humming a little tune as she pulled into Dean Street. ,”

4.45

Lenny Isaacs had dosed himself up with brandy. The policeman assigned to keep him from bolting was Detective Sergeant Paul Johnson. He had been given his orders two hours ago. Once the shooting started he was to push his gun into Isaacs’ side and blast him. There was something definitely fishy about all this but as his old dad used to say: ‘Ours is not to reason why.’ If it got him a promotion he didn’t give a toss. The likes of Lenny Isaacs were scum anyway. He’d be doing a public service.

Lenny sat in the barn. It was freezing and he shoved his hands into the pocket of his sheepskin. He was praying for the first time in thirty years. DS Johnson sat opposite staring at him. Lenny wished to Christ the copper wasn’t such a big bastard. He would have tried to make an escape. The trouble was he had never been the hero type More the ‘I’ll scratch your back’ class of villain. He hadn’t slept all night and had been jittery all day. Maura Ryan, whether she was nicked or not, would make sure he disappeared. Oh, God in heaven, help him, for fuck’s sake

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1

Chapter Thirty-four

4.50 ‘ ‘

Fenn Farm was derelict. It had not been worked for years. Maura had bought it for a song at an auction a few years previously and was going to sell it eventually, subject to planning permission for a housing estate. Green belt land was not classed as sacrosanct any more. If you had the money and the contacts you could build just about anywhere you wanted to. Arable land that was worth only a few hundred pounds an acre could become, overnight, prime building land worth millions. This was the Thatcher era, when anything that was commercially viable and cost the government nothing was encouraged wholeheartedly. Even building estates on old power stations was acceptable, provided you filled the land in with plenty of concrete first. Then the people who bought the houses were given lists of trees they could plant, trees with very shallow roots that would not disturb the sludge and radioactive waste lying beneath the houses. It was a developer’s dream, and Maura Ryan had had the foresight to cash in when land was still at nominal prices. The days when the working-class men dreamt of winning fifty thousand pounds on the pools were long over. You could not buy a flat for that amount now, let alone live for the rest of your life on it. England

was the epitome of the consumer society.

Today Terry Petherick was watching from the sidelines as the farm was being set up ready for the arrival of the Ryans. Everywhere he looked there were men with high! velocity rifles, all taking up position in and around the barn. The light was fast fading, and Terry was reminded of an old World War Two movie, seeing the men dressed black spiriting around with faces covered in camouflage make up and guns glinting in the half-light. He fingered his own gun and prayed that he would not have to use it. Especially not on Maura Ryan.

He was sitting on an oil drum watching the activit around him when a man standing near him answered a call on his walkie talkie. Terry had not been issued with one and until this moment had not thought it strange. When he heard what was being said on the man’s radio, became crystal clear to him just why he had been overlooked in that department.

The voice crackled over the radio and into Terry’s brain. ‘Remember, not one Ryan is to leave the farm alive. You cut them down as they arrive.’

‘Understood. Over and out.’

The man began to walk towards the barn door, and Terry realised through his reeling thoughts that the had not noticed him. In the twilight and with the camouflage make up he was indistinguishable. He sat for a while on the oil drum, letting what he had heard sink in.

Maura and her brothers were going to die. They were being led here, to this farm, like lambs to the slaughter.) And it was his fault. He had taken the files to his superiors! and then had listened to their excuses as to why none of the judges and policemen on the Ryans’ payroll would brought to justice. Now it was revealed to him wit shocking clarity why the Ryans had to die. While they hek

knowledge that could rock the country, they were dead men. And women. He must not forget Maura, the mastermind behind it all. It was she who was the biggest target: Maura who was the fly in an otherwise perfect ointment. He could have kicked himself. Here he was, with his ideals about justice - good and bad, law and order - and there was no such thing. Not in this country, or indeed the world.

He looked at his watch. The luminous dial showed that it was just five o’clock. Looking around him surreptitiously, he began to move slowly towards one of the last remaining cars outside the farm. He was praying that the keys were still in it.

He slipped behind the wheel of the Sierra Estate and felt a surge of thankfulness that was almost sexual. The keys were in the ignition. He swallowed deeply, feeling the momentary hesitation that always precedes an act of wrong doing. Only what he was doing was not wrong. He had sworn an oath to uphold the law in this country, and as Far as he was concerned that was just what he was doing. Stopping the wanton murder of a whole family. No matter what they had done, nothing warranted what was to happen at this farm tonight. He had two hours before the Ryans were supposed to arrive and he would try to stop them if it was the last thing he did.

He started the car up and drove cautiously away from the farm house and the barn. He drove as if he was supposed to be driving the car away, neither too fast-nor too slow. He remembered that on their way to the farm today he had seen a phone box in the lane about a hundred yards from the farm’s exit. He drove there, his breath barely entering his lungs in his state of nervous tension. If somebody tried to stop him, he would use his

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gun. Whatever happened, Maura Ryan was not going to -, die, not in a barn on a cold February evening, mown down like a dog.

‘Right then. Is everyone happy with what they are to do?’

Roy, Leslie, Garry and Lee nodded at Maura.

‘Good. We’ll have a quick coffee and then make tracks. It’ll take over an hour to get there.’

‘I still think we’re being watched.’ Garry’s voice was low.

Maura sighed.

‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, Gal. If we were being watched, one of our plants would have let us know before now. You’re so paranoid lately.’

‘I’m telling you now, that bloke I saw in the blue Granny was definitely waiting for us.’

‘Give it a rest, Garry. You’re like an old woman sometimes.’

Garry looked at Roy. ‘Well, when we’re all fucking nicked, don’t say I never warned you.’

Lee laughed, then said in a girlish voice, ‘All right then, Garry. I promise you with all my heart.’

Garry looked at him, frowning.

‘I’m glad you think it’s funny. I hope you find it as amusing when you’re sitting in Parkhurst or Durham doing a twelve stretch.’

Leslie pulled on his cigarette.

‘Only twelve years? I’d have thought we warranted at least a thirty.’ He looked at Lee. ‘Remind me to nail someone’s leg to a table. We can’t have the Krays outdoing us at the last moment.’

Everyone laughed but Garry would not be silenced.

‘Yeah. And the Krays are still inside, remember that. Ifll

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feet if you -‘ he pointed at Leslie viciously - ‘get put on the “Island”, you might get banged in a cell with one of them. Reggie, that is.’

Lee grinned.

‘Not you though, Garry, you’ll be put in Broadmoor with Ronnie. That’s where all the nutters go.’

‘Oh, shut up, for Christ’s sake. No one’s going anywhere.’ Maura was getting annoyed.

Garry flicked his hair from his eyes. ‘Well, there’s one thing I can guarantee. You won’t be in Cookham Wood with the other long-timers like Hindley. You’ll be top security, girl. We’ll all be A grade. Like terrorists.’

Before Maura could retort, Lee spoke. His voice was soft as silk. ‘Have you been reading that book again? How to Win Friends and Influence People?

Everyone laughed.

‘Oh, piss off, the lot of you! The last book you’s read was Fluff and Nip.’

Then the phone rang and Maura picked it up, chuckling as she did so. Terry went into the phone box and dialled directory enquiries. He asked them for the number of Le Buxom. When they gave it to him, he dialled the operator for a reverse charge call. He did not have a single coin on him. He stood in the cold with bated breath as the operator tried to connect him. Le Buxom was the only place he could think of where someone would know the whereabouts of Maura Ryan. He was literally praying as he heard the distant clicking and whirring of the telephone exchange. Maura picked up the phone. ‘Hello?’ Her voice was calm and happy. ‘I have a reverse charge call from a call box in Essex Will you accept the charges?’

The operator’s clipped tones were bored and efficient.

Who on earth could be ringing her from a call box?” Maura racked her brains.

‘Of course.’

‘You’re through, caller.’

‘Hello, can I speak to Maura Ryan?’

She felt her heart stop in her chest. She would know” that voice anywhere. All around her the boys were good naturedly ragging Garry as they drank their coffee. In Maura’s head there was only one sound: Terry Petherick’s voice.