Influence (17 page)

AWOL

Chapter Twenty One

Drayson put his pass up to the Serious and Organised Crime Units office door in the City's North Police Station, and walked through after his card was accepted. This used to be his office, his unit and as a result he was always warmly welcomed by the SOCU staff. During his tenure as the head of the department he had always looked after the staff and with his high detection and conviction rate of some of the City's most notorious criminals, a lot of the officers of the unit were slightly in awe and saw him as a bit of a thief taker. However the new boss of the unit wasn't so keen on him and saw Drayson as someone not to be fully trusted.

As he walked into the main office his arrival was greeted by the unit's Surveillance teams and detectives, who asked him to take a seat to have a catch up. They exchanged pleasantries for about fifteen minutes until Drayson asked why they were all sat in the office and not out there on 'the big job'. One of the Surveillance constables enquired how he knew about the operation, and even though he didn't, he responded that he had his sources and asked what it had been like to work for the egotistical DI Anaura. The officers shook their heads before one of them answered that he had been a nice guy. No sooner than she had said it, one of the male officers piped up and told Drayson that he thought Anaura was an arsehole who didn't know the first thing about running a big operation. Drayson beamed a huge grin at him and whispered that he agreed but not to tell anyone that.

“He's thrown us off the Op sir, can you believe that?” PC James Farrell said before telling Drayson that now no one would be watching the Gang which in his mind was the worst tactical decision he had ever known a governor to make.

“Well guys, you said it yourself, he's not a SOCU supervisor so he's going to make poor tactical decisions! Anyway if we didn't manage to get them, why would the All Black succeed?” Drayson quipped referring to Anaura's 'foreign' heritage in a tongue and cheek manner.

Chalmers and King walked in and were greeted by Drayson asking them how they felt about being kicked off the job by Anaura. Chalmers glanced at King before facing Drayson and asking him how he knew about it. Drayson replied that he had his sources which made King survey the faces of his team and then shoot them annoyed looks for discussing it with him.

“Yes sir, however we've got another job on now. I suppose Anaura had his reasons and anyway we shouldn't really be discussing it with anyone who wasn't involved in the operation” Chalmers said.

Although a lot of the officers were in awe of Drayson, King and Chalmers were not, and despite being frustrated by Anaura's decision they were not going to start discussing it with him. If there was one thing Chalmers was known for, it was that he wasn't scared of speaking his mind to command. Drayson hid the resentment he was feeling towards the two men and nodded in acknowledgement with a smile, and then declaring how he had taught them well. King didn't say anything but Chalmers responded by telling Drayson that they had to get their team briefed up and would see him around. Drayson shot him a cold stare before smiling and standing up. He said his good byes and left the office. King and Chalmers may have stopped him learning the finer details of the operation, however he discovered a few things, Anaura was bungling the operation to a level of incompetence and SOCU Surveillance were no longer following his associates. It was perfect without anyone watching the Gang, Foster would be able to slip under the radar to get the job done. Even better was the fact that Anaura was screwing the job up just enough that when Fosters murders were discovered, he would be able to muscle his way into taking over the operation.

As he walked out of the office his pay as you go phone began to ring.

“Robbie. We've got a little problem! Nick has gone AWOL and we can't find him, it's been three days now. Do you know where he could be? His wife's been on the phone giving me grief and threatening to call your lot, which is a bloody bad idea. I think he's gone on a bender with one of those little queers, however it's been three days! Can you help?” Bradford asked.

“Yeah no worries, I'll have a look for him myself, I've got a few ideas!” Drayson answered with fake concern.

“Fabulous. Oh one last thing, are we still good for our family's arrival in late September? Do you think your friends will be coming or have they found something better to do?” Bradford enquired using a simple coded message to establish whether the Gang's next large drug shipment was safe to proceed.

“I'm afraid my friends can't make it! I hope your family bring me a few gifts for all the trouble I went to though!?” Drayson said.

“Yeah, they'll see you right, don't worry about that. Let us know how you get on finding Nick the prick!” Bradford replied before hanging up the phone without so much as a bye.

Drayson put the phone into his pocket and carried on walking down the stairs towards the exit where his car was parked. The nerves he'd had three days ago about Foster getting the job done had been settled somewhat. To cover all bases though he decided that checking the serials for anything that might relate to Sykes was probably prudent. He sat down in the driver's seat of his command Focus and reflected on the developing situation, finding it hard to believe that he might actually be able pull it all off. Once the gang had been eliminated there would be no more worries about being outed and he could look forward to his promotion and ever approaching fruitful retirement. Then something Drayson hadn't considered during his planning abruptly entered his brain. He had been so desperate to plan and get everything moving as fast as possible that he had forgotten to work out how to deal with Foster after he was finished. Pissed off with himself for being lax, Drayson whacked the inside of the driver’s door as he tried to quickly think of ideas, but nothing came to mind. Sure, Foster would be seen as a nutter if he claimed on arrest that he was on an undercover operation. However, be that as it may, it was still something that would cast suspicion, or perhaps worse for him.

Drayson drove out of the station's main green gates and began heading towards Headquarters. This was a problem, a big problem, and one without an obvious solution. Drayson explored a couple of different options in his head, one being that he would kill Foster himself, but discounted the idea when he considered that it could still potentially come back to him. As he joined the dual carriageway he shouted out “SHIT” to himself. As with every plan, there would always be a flaw somewhere, something unseen or forgotten. The conundrum of Foster was going to have to be solved, but for now he just hoped that Foster would finish the job as quickly as possible. 

On arrival at his office within the main Headquarters building, Drayson jumped onto his computer terminal and sifted through the reported incidents that had come in over the past few days. After two pages there had not been any mention of anything happening at Devils Valley, until half way down that day's list, the words 'Devils Valley and dark blue BMW' were seen in the headline. He breathed in sharply as his eyes locked on the headline and then took a moment to prepare himself for what may have been Foster screwing up before clicking on the log to read through it. His jacked heart rate began to slow as he learnt that the landlord of the public house had called in to say that the vehicle had been suspiciously left there for three days, but he had been told by a call handler that it hadn't been reported stolen and if it was taxed and insured then there was nothing they could do about it unless anything was reported.

Drayson grinned, with Syke's wife being warned off reporting him missing and with the Gang requesting that he search for him, it was safe to say that before anyone discovered what had happened, it would be too late. He flicked the pendulum balls on his desk and watched as they collided with one another before swinging to and fro in unison. If he found a solution for Foster he could still come out of this smelling of roses!

An Eventful Evening

Chapter Twenty Two

Anaura and Usher had been sat up on Fox Way, Portsden District in their black unmarked Ford Mondeo for six hours looking out for any known subjects entering Warrior Close to attend Kennedy's house on the corner of the road, and bar the odd unavoidable toilet break, they had not left the spot they were in. It was seriously boring but absolutely necessary work.

“It's times like this that remind me why I didn't join Surveillance!” Anaura remarked.

“It's not all bad boss, it can be quite a good laugh at times, a bit like a game of cat and mouse!” Usher replied, having done her six month attachment to the unit not that long before.

Anaura looked at his Storm watch and saw that it was six thirty pm. Richards and Valera would be arriving imminently to relieve them which filled him with delight in the knowledge that he would soon be able to grab something better to eat than just crisps and chocolate bars. Over the past week the officers of Op Spear had been working overtime, sometimes pulling twenty hour shifts in one sitting. It had got to the point where Anaura had asked his staff to bring sleeping bags to the office to make sure they were available twenty four hours a day. Not long after he had been sleeping on the hard office floor he began to wonder whether dropping the Surveillance teams had been a good idea after all. However he couldn't go back on his decision, not unless he wanted to appear indecisive, or worse............incompetent.

With the hours rolling on by, Anaura started to question whether Kennedy had look outs around the area as he had barely left the house for two days and apart from his girlfriend coming and going, it had been dead quiet. A week or so after Nash had put Kennedy in the frame, Anaura had considered placing an Observation Post near to his home but had changed his mind at the last minute due to problems he was having with surveillance and gathering enough additional evidence and intelligence to convict Kennedy should they get a chance to arrest him.

Op Spear was rapidly approaching its fifth week, which in the grand history of police investigations was hardly a long time but Anaura and his team wanted things to move quicker. Boredom and moaning was a coppers trait and although they were all experienced enough to know that Rome wasn't built in a day, it wouldn't stop them praying for something juicy to happen.

Just as his stomach acid was threatening to burn a hole through his stomach lining, Richards and Valera turned up in a brand new unmarked BMW M1 sport.

“Bloody hell, where did you get the Beemer from Ian?” Anaura asked with surprise as the detectives had only been given Mondeos and Focus's to use as a result of their driving permits not allowing them to drive high powered cars for response purposes.

“A friend on traffic leant it to me. Anyway it would look a bit suspicious if there are two Fords with two passengers parked near the address all day and night!” Richards postulated.

“Good point. However, I know the real reason; you've wanted to drive that thing for months Ian!” Anaura remarked with a smile.

Richards pulled an ear to ear smile and revved the powerful engine which drew a 'quieten down' gesture from Anaura despite him finding his boy racer actions amusing. Usher leant across and signalled that she was starving so Anaura wrapped up the banter and told Richards to return to the base at three am if nothing was going on. Richards winked in response.

Anaura switched the engine of the Mondeo on and gave it a little rev in defiance to Richards’ powerful appropriated toy. As the two men laughed a white Subaru Impreza drove past, pulled into the close and across Kennedy's driveway. The detectives eyes fixed on the two occupants of the vehicle and the front door of Kennedy's house. Richards asked Valera to run a check on the vehicles number plate. Within a minute or so, she came back with an answer, the vehicle was registered to a one Jamie Poultan, a little worm who the Vice unit had busted for possession and supplying of Cannabis after he had been caught in the company of one of their bigger targets. Richards said that something had to be going down, and Anaura nodded slowly in agreement.

“There he is!” Anaura said with excitement, referring to Kennedy who had just left his house and was walking towards the Subaru.

The passenger in the vehicle lowered the window and began having a conversation with Kennedy with the nearby detectives wishing they could hear what the conversation was about. Whatever the three men were discussing it was taking a long time. Anaura told Richards through their open windows to wait until he gave the nod to move in, knowing full well that this may be their only opportunity to get Kennedy and whoever was in the car. If they moved in without seeing an exchange of goods, they would blow it.

As the detective's hearts began to pound in their chests with adrenaline, Kennedy returned to the house and came back outside with something hidden under a jacket. He then discreetly passed a package to the passenger of the car. Richards glanced at Anaura who gestured to him to wait a little bit longer. A couple of seconds later the passenger handed a package back to Kennedy. Richards raised his eyebrows at Anaura who was still weighing up whether it was worth charging in there without knowing what was in the packages or if the subjects were armed with weapons.

“Bollocks to this! Ok Ian, let’s do it!” Anaura shouted out.

Richards put the accelerator down and the BMW shot down the small hill that led into Warrior close followed by the slower Mondeo that Anaura was driving. The two cars came screeching behind the Subaru with the Mondeo crashing into the back of it before the detectives all leapt out of their vehicles and ran towards the three men.

The driver of the Subaru put the vehicle into first gear and pulled off at speed at the very same time that his passenger was attempting to get out, dragging him along as he was unable to let go of the door quick enough. The car stopped and the passenger clambered to his feet, dropping the package that Kennedy had handed him, on the ground, before running at full pelt towards the end of the close pursued by Usher. At almost the very same time Valera and Richards were leaping on Kennedy attempting to bring him down with a mixture of brute force and incapacitating Captor spray that Valera was trying to spray in his face. In the milliseconds that it took for him to see the ensuing chaos breaking out in the close, the driver was spinning his car around to drive out of the close. In the distance Usher had failed to catch the unknown passenger who had rapidly scaled a wall into the field behind the Close that led towards an old Neolithic burial ground. Anaura knew Usher would rush to assist with Kennedy so there was only one more person they had a chance to apprehend, the driver of the car.

Anaura tried to pull the Mondeo across the road to block it, but it wouldn't move. He smacked the steering wheel in frustration and saw what looked like steam bellowing out of the bonnet. He had killed the car when he drove into the back of the suspects' car. As the Subaru turned and began to head out of the close he caught a glimpse of the driver, it was Poultan. Anaura jumped out of the Mondeo and attempted to block the rapidly accelerating car himself, however he wasn't fast enough and the driver mounted the curb to get past the police vehicles. Just as he was about to swear out in anger, he saw that Richards' BMW was still running just to the side of the Mondeo, he looked up and saw the Subaru nearing the end of the Close. He swiftly jumped into the BMW and shot a quick glance into the rear view mirror to establish which way Poultan would be heading; he turned left. Anaura slammed the semi-automatic gearbox in reverse and put his foot down on the accelerator, the instantaneous beast-like power of the BMW caught him by surprise, but there was no way he was going to lose Poultan, so he gripped the steering wheel harder in an attempt to control the sports car as he reversed it at speed. When he reached the end of the Close, he spun the car on its axis so that it aggressively flicked around to face the right way within a matter of feet, something that Ushers brother, Matthew, from the close protection unit, had taught him. Anaura felt his body lean to the side with the centrifugal force of the spin. Within a split second, he pushed the electronic gear shift to first and wheel spun out of the close. Although the adrenaline was pumping even harder and he had developed tunnel vision in catching Poultan, he still managed to reflect how the amazing piece of driving was an 'up yours' to the Driver trainer unit who had slated him. As he neared the end of the close at fifty mph, he gave a quick check to his right which was clear, so he proceeded to fly out onto the road with the BMW over-steering to the right. Anaura cursed as he was unable to locate the blues and twos switches that would help his cause. All of a sudden his finger slipped on a button located on the steering wheel, instantly putting the car into response mode with its lights and sirens. The abrupt and unexpected wailing made him jump out of his seat. As the car bounced over the bumpy road surface, he could see up ahead that Poultan's car turning right onto the A293 that headed towards the Old Shoreton Road.

For a second, his lost his concentration on driving when Richards urgently requested a police van on the double and an ambulance for injured officers. The request sent shivers down his spine as he wasn't there to help, but there was no turning back now, and he knew that help would be there imminently.

Anaura flew out onto the mini roundabout and swung right to chase Poultan who wasn't that far ahead due to being held up by cars on either side of the road. Anaura floored the accelerator out of the roundabout in second gear, forgetting that the BMW was still under cornering forces and that the powerful engine would send an incredible amount of torque through the rear wheels. The car snapped and slid sideways with him only just managing to correct it, but not without a few extra snaking slides up the road as he continued to forget to be gentle with the accelerator on the fast car.

Up ahead and in sheer desperation, Poutlan overtook a slow moving Mini Cooper in front of him and straight into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The fright of the move meant that he momentarily lost his concentration and forgot to brake as he approached the roundabout which led to a large supermarket or off towards the City centre. He went cascading straight over the top of it. He obviously had no intention for popping into the store for his weekly shop! Behind, Anaura had made up ground owing to his blue lights and sirens and Poultan's inadvertent detour over the top of the roundabout. Poultan may have braked as hard as he could when he saw the roundabout, but it didn't prevent him from damaging the suspension and wheels and sending sparks flying out from underneath the Subaru. As Anaura began to catch up, his eyes quickly flitted around the dash board of the car. “Where's the bloody radio handset!” said to himself, knowing full well that he should have been running a commentary of Poultan's driving and requesting specialist Traffic unit support to help stop the vehicle.

Anaura negotiated the same roundabout at speed after the oncoming cars had pulled over to give him a clear route. This time he was gentler with the throttle and was able to control the car with ease.

“I need one of these!” Anaura shouted out as the speed of the sporty BMW filled him with excitement.

Less than two hundred meters ahead Poultan took the centre lane of the Old Shoreton Road traffic junction. As luck would have it, the lights were green, allowing him to continue without obstruction. Anaura increased the pressure on the accelerator until the BMW's engine was roaring with delight as its three hundred horses of power were allowed to gallop without restraint.

EeeeeeRRRRRRR, Poultan's tyres screeched as they lost traction due to the damaged suspension and the now misaligned wheels. The out of control Subaru slid sideways and straight into the curb at the side of the busy double lane arterial road.

CRASH. The high performance car smashed into the curb, ripping the front and rear near side wheels off.

Anaura crossed the junction and swiftly pulled up alongside the Subaru as Poultan was trying to escape. He jumped out and ran over the top of the bonnet, denting it under his weight, leapt off and rugby tackled Poultan to the ground before yanking him to his feet and throwing him up against the side of his car. Still desperate to escape he tried to push Anaura away and punched him in the chest, prompting the much stronger Anaura to grab hold of his hoody, lift him clean off the floor and then slam him onto the bonnet of the Subaru. As Poultan crashed down onto the front of his car, Anaura swiftly turned him over onto his front and forcefully handcuffed him before arresting him for dangerous driving, suspicion of being in possession of drugs with intent to supply, and assaulting a police officer.

“You absolute dickhead Jamie! Did you honestly think that you would get away? The bloody car's registered to you; you absolute prat!” Anaura shouted at him.

“Supplying drugs? Search the fucking car, there ain't nothing in there!” Poultan protested with frustration.

“Shut up!” Anaura yelled back at him.

A few members of the public stopped their cars in the centre of the road to prevent anyone crashing into the two men. Anaura quickly identified himself as a police officer to prevent anyone else from involving themselves. Everyone stood back, until a middle aged man approached and asked if he could help.

“Ha, ha, yeah you can. You wouldn't happen to have a phone on you? Can you call 999 and tell them DI Anaura has one in custody on the junction of  the Old Shoreton Road and needs urgent assistance?” he asked with a sense of embarrassment as he couldn't figure out how to work the hidden covert radio in the BMW.