Remember Remember (17 page)

“It may be a wild goose chase sir, the man may have flown to any destination out of Dalaman in which case we probably don’t have a chance of tracing him.”

“I know, and that’s what HQ may think and if so we’ll have to call it off. But the guy’s a white Englishman with a northern accent and my bet is he’s one of those 400, so let’s hope they give me the time.”

“When is your next meeting with HQ Major?”

“Two day’s time, it would be nice to call it off if I could, even nicer if they had to postpone it.”

September 8
th
, 10.00, St James, London.

“Good Morning Major, how are you?” Commander Bagshaw beckoned the Major to a seat. The Major sat down and acknowledged the others in the room.

“Please begin your briefing Major, we have 60 minutes in total.”

Forty minutes later the Major was under intense pressure from the group to reconsider the whole approach to Olu Deniz and to reorganise his group to the task of broader intelligence gathering from the whole of Turkey.

“I still believe the Olu Deniz issue is worthy of further effort and that is why I would like to restate my need for more time to be spent on this incident.”

He stopped for a moment to sip from a glass of water then continued without interruption, “We have a murdered man with no identification found in a car which we now know was pushed over a cliff into the sea, he was in Turkey with two or three others, all of whom were using false passports. I believe they knew he had been killed but did not report it. They tried to book him out of a hotel and retrieve his passport. An Englishman met with three or four other men on at least four occasions. Not one of them, other than the dead man, ever made any electronic or telephonic communication. Yet my interviews with people who served them in restaurants make me believe they were all business men, not holiday makers. They always sat in quiet corners and never spoke when approached. The Englishman seemed to be in charge. The murdered man was the only one who made any phone calls. I have four hundred names one of which I believe is our Englishman, perhaps a murderer and also a terrorist.” He paused to see if there was any reaction to the word terrorist but saw none so continued, “I have asked local police forces to interview these men and as of today I will be receiving answers. Therefore I request that I may continue these investigations at least until our next meeting in 60 days and of course if I gain important information before this it will be forwarded. Finally, I still have 70% of my staff covering the Turkish area and I feel confident we are in control of ground monitoring across the whole region.”

“Then perhaps you have too many staff Major, if you are able to put all this resource into Olu Deniz and also cover Turkey,” responded one of the others.

Rock smiled and replied, “I’ll never have enough staff sir to cover every eventuality but I will follow, with your permission, the intelligence that gives me the best opportunity to defeat terrorism. Do I have your agreement to continue until our next meeting?” He looked across the room at each member of the committee and observing their body language knew before the decision was iterated, he had won another 60 days.

“OK Major, you get the resources but at our next meeting you must have something concrete to enable us to continue this line of enquiry.”

“Thank you sir, may I finally ask you if your enquiries regarding banking transactions have given us any further information than we already know?”

“No, we know monies have been transferred to banks in the Olu Deniz area but it was all clean from reputable banks and for business purposes. It all still seems above board.”

The meeting closed at 11.00, Major Rock had 60 more days to find the Englishman.

September 9
th
,10.00, Bramhall Cheshire.

A police car stopped outside Alan’s house and two uniformed officers walked to the front door. After 4 rings of the bell and knocks it was evident the house was empty so they pushed a card through the door requesting that Alan call the police station urgently.

September 9
th
,11.00, Brown Cow, Stockport.

Alan opened the gates in the passage of the Brown Cow to gain access to the rear of the pub, knowing the back door to the kitchen would be open even though the pub did not officially open until 12 noon. He was greeted by jovial shouts of, “What the hell do you want we’re not open yet,” which he ignored and found his way to the snug.

Jacky was busily polishing glasses and table mats for the 12 noon opening but saw him, smiled and enquired, “Hello love, it’s a little early for you isn’t it.”

“Now you mention it I will have a pint,” he responded.

She picked up a glass grabbed the bitter pump handle and expertly creamed a pint into the glass, “Bloody silly of me to think you could come in here and not drink,” she grumbled as she placed the pint in front of him, “and here I was thinking you’d come to see me.”

He took a sip of the beer, wiped his mouth, replaced the glass on the bar and whispered, “Actually I have come to see you, I’ve just returned home and found a note from the police saying I need to contact them urgently.”

“Well what’s that got to do with me?”

“I don’t know love, I wondered if they’d spoken to you at all.”

“Why would they want to do that? I don’t understand. You’ve done nothing wrong have you, so why the guilty conscience?”

“I haven’t done a thing, I just don’t like the police buzzing about, that’s all,” he grumbled.

“Then go and see them or call them from here.”

“I’ll go now and come back for lunch; save me some lamb chops,” he replied.

He finished his pint and left the bar to walk the couple of hundred yards to the police station. He rang the bell on the enquiry desk and after showing the note left by the police was ushered into an interview room. Ten minutes later Sergeant Lawrence sat opposite him and read out the list of questions requested from Major Rock’s questionnaire and received the following information.

He had indeed stayed in Olu Deniz at the Sun City resort, he had visited the White Dolphin he thought, but not the Secret Garden. He had been on a 14 day package holiday with a girl friend. He had seen nothing suspicious. He probably had some travel documents or advice notes at home and had booked the holiday in London when working down there. He returned on the 3
rd
of August and would be happy to ask his girlfriend Jacky to answer questions. He would ask her to call the station today.

“Did they want to see her?” he enquired.

Lawrence like all policemen was busy and didn’t need too many more interviews with regard to a subject he knew little about.

“Just ask her to telephone in before five pm today and I can ask her the questions over the telephone, then I’ll make a decision whether I need to see her or not. Thank you for your time Mr Johnson.”

He left the police station, his inner nervousness hidden; his first instinct was to return to the Brown Cow and brief Jacky but he needed time and space to think and decided a walk to the bank might help. He walked down Hillgate, passing the Brown Cow and continued past mainly tatty looking shops, until he reached the main banking area of Stockport. “They had made a connection,” he mused, “between Olu Deniz and me. That fucking idiot with the phone calls, if only he’d not made them. They’ve obviously found the body and I’ve made a few errors myself, because stripping him of all identity was probably seen by the police as illogical if it were only an accident. But there were thousands of people there in Olu Deniz and the dead man couldn’t be linked to me and with a little luck to anyone else. Also, the body would have been in the water for some time before being discovered so time of death would be difficult to ascertain.” He continued walking and with his thoughts, “they probably would know how he was killed though because there would be bruising. Why the hell didn’t the car explode, it must have somersaulted three or four times. Still, we are where we are,” he mused. “The questions were very general therefore they probably did not know time or day of death. Could they trace the car, obviously, but back to another dead end. What about my meetings with the others at the White Dolphin and the Secret Garden? What would I do in their shoes? I’d visit Olu Deniz, get co-operation with the local police and ask questions. Two of their questions to me had been specific about the White Dolphin and the Secret Garden. Why? They must have interviewed the staff there. They would have asked for descriptions of people who were there.”

He walked on still thinking the situation through, “I will have been videoed entering the police station and in the interview room. That picture could now be finding its way back to Turkey. Could they match me? Maybe or maybe not,” he argued with himself. “Most CCTV footage was still vague and not good as evidence, but were the police serious, maybe, maybe not,” he continued, “how many people will have been in Olu Deniz around that time? Thousands I’ll bet, but I’ve asked myself that question before, so move on,” he told himself.

“But are they serious? They have requested that Jacky call them, but only call them. I haven’t been followed at all since my return. No one has entered my house. My phone has not been tapped. No covert listening has taken place. My identity in York has not been compromised and finally, what have I actually done wrong in Turkey. Apart from the death, where all evidence must now be circumstantial? I have done nothing wrong,” he concluded. “Even if they find out about the meetings no one can be traced. I only have to be adamant that the person wasn’t me, and stick to my story. If Jacky now stands by our agreement to say we were together nearly all the time I’ll be OK. She may even tell them we went to the White Dolphin and the Secret Garden, therefore if identification is matched it may be understood to be because we both had visited those places at about the same time.”

He continued querying himself, “Am I thinking logically or illogically,” and knew he didn’t know therefore decided to take to the next step which was to go back to the Brown Cow, talk to Jacky, ask her to call the police and see the outcome of that telephone call.

Thirty minutes later he re-entered the Brown Cow breathing slightly more heavily due to the steep walk back which gave Hillgate its name. He acknowledged other regulars with a nod and was pleased to see the corner of the bar called the snug was empty. Jacky pulled him a pint and asked about the police interview. Her response was frighteningly close to the truth.

“You knew before you went, they would be asking about our holiday, what the hell were you up to out there?”

“Nothing love, nothing but business.”

“This’ll cost you,” she smiled, “maybe another trip, a really expensive one.”

“I have nothing to hide, from you or the police, but I thought you didn’t want everyone to know about your little Turkish affair.”

Blushing she replied, “Alright, let’s talk about it later when it’s not so crowded.”

“Yes, I agree although I did say you’d call the police today before five pm.”

“Well whatever you did, it can’t be that serious if all I have to do is call.”

Minutes later she had agreed to phone the police and in a quiet moment she made the telephone call.

“Yes she had gone to Olu Deniz with Alan for a holiday on July the 21
st
and had returned on August the 3
rd
. They had a great time and had visited many bars and cafes including she thought both the ones mentioned. She could remember the White Dolphin because of the fabulous views. She had not seen anything suspicious or any fights. She had a damn good time and enjoyed the holiday. However she wanted to know what all these questions were about and that her answers would be confidential, because she knew many police came into the Brown Cow, and she didn’t want them to know about her private life.”

She put the phone down and smiled. Sergeant Lawrence did the same and completed his report. In essence, it stated that Alan Johnson had been on holiday with a girlfriend in Olu Deniz. They were a normal couple. They had both been interviewed. They had visited the White Dolphin and many more restaurants and bars, doing normal things a normal couple do. The report concluded, please find photograph attached.

September 10
th
, Milton Keynes, England.

Ken and Major Rock had spent four hours sifting through the police reports already received.

They were quite quickly able to sort through the identikit questionnaire and eliminate men who did not fit the description, especially those who were over weight, showed tattoos, wore copious amounts of jewellery and did not speak with a northern accent.

By mid September 390 reports had been received and 210 men had been eliminated from further enquiries, however this still left a total of 90 men to follow up. By mid October the list had been further reduced to 60.

October 30
th

Ken walked into Rocks office smiling and holding a print out;

“We may have a small breakthrough, do you remember Mrs Jean Takrit who you interviewed at the Secret Garden restaurant?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well she was interviewed again by Inspector Farouk and she remembers one detail about the Englishman which may be interesting. You remember we did not know if he wore glasses, well she is now certain he did because when he went into her bar he was wearing what she thought were sunglasses. However when he sat in the shade, he unclipped his sunglasses from the glasses on his face and placed them on the table. She remembers this because so very few people wear clip on sunglasses and when she served drinks at their table he moved them out of her way.”