The Body in the River (41 page)

‘
The one thing in our favour is that we know he only visits the Romford brothel late at night. So we only need to have everyone on stand-by between eight pm and two am each night. I don
’
t anticipate we will have to wait for too long before Silver makes a move, as the word is that
“
he likes his meat fresh
”
. A terrible way of putting it, but this is the beast we
’
re dealing with.

‘
Of course it
’
s possible that when he does go out he has a different destination, so we will have to follow him to find out where he goes. But discreetly; we must not let him know he
’
s being followed. Alright. We will have two teams of watchers for the next few nights. Then, if nothing happens, we will have to think again. Any questions so far?
’

Liz Foreman said,
‘
Yes, sir, how many following teams do we have?
’

‘
Four; we
’
re keeping the reinforcements until this is over. Derek Short will give you the details of what everyone
’
s role is when I
’
ve finished.
’

There were no more questions and Brookes continued,
‘
Now, the location of the brothel.
’
He turned to the map on the whiteboard and pointed to a red cross.
‘
It
’
s here in Hornchurch Road, Romford.
’
Turning back to face the team he said,
‘
This is a residential street with big four and six bedroom houses. The brothel has four upstairs bedrooms. Equally importantly, it has its own driveway and parking for four or five cars. We
’
ll keep an eye on the place too.

‘
I want you all to familiarise yourselves with this map and the house-plan that I
’
ll come to in a minute. In late evening traffic it
’
s a good forty-five minute drive from Shoreditch to Romford, so once we see Silver going east, we
’
ll alert the raid team to set off. With sirens and blue lights we should get through the traffic in half that time. But careful with the sirens; none within hearing distance of the target house.

‘
It
’
s vital that we all arrive quietly and are ready to raid the place soon after Silver
’
s arrival. We don
’
t want to let these girls suffer more than is absolutely unavoidable. Now this is a team effort and all of us will be on stand-by for the next four nights.
’
He let that sink in.

Then he continued,
‘
The assembly point will be this turning here.
’
He pointed to a blue cross in Bright Crescent, a side turning a hundred metres from the target house.
‘
I
’
ll hand over to Inspector Barnes in a minute who will talk about the actual raid, but first I must emphasise the importance of the timing. We have to get the evidence we need or the whole exercise is a waste of time, so listen very carefully to what your personal role is and make sure you
’
re ready for it. We have no time for a dry run, so we have to get it right the first time. Any questions before I hand over to Inspector Barnes?
’

There were none, which was a tribute to the thoroughness of Brookes
’
briefing. Barnes spent the next twenty minutes giving his part of the briefing and answering the questions raised.

*

‘
I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.
’

Ulysses S. Grant

It all began to happen that night, almost before Brookes and his team were fully prepared. At a little after 11pm, Silver
’
s chauffeur, Ben Clarke, was seen to leave the club and go to a lock-up garage, one of a row in a side street, a few hundred yards down the road. Collecting the Rolls Royce, he carefully padlocked the garage behind him and drove to the alleyway at the rear of The Venus Club.

The two DC
’
s doing the observation of the rear entrance, Paul Phillips and Sarah Dunn, watched as the chauffeur got out of the car and knocked on the back door of the building. They were in a first floor room of an empty building backing on to the alleyway; a quick word with the letting agent trying to rent the premises had gotten them access. A street lamp at the end of the alley gave enough light for them to see what happened at the club
’
s rear entrance.

Someone who the detectives couldn
’
t see opened the door and a few words were exchanged. The door closed and Clarke lit a cigarette and stood leaning against the wall, smoking. In the next few minutes, he looked at his watch twice before finishing his cigarette and crushing it under his heel. During that time, he glanced up and down the alley, clearly looking for any observers, but in a desultory fashion, as if he did not expect to see anyone. The alley was empty apart from some rubbish bins.

Not once did Clarke think to look at the windows of the row of houses. Even had he done so, he could not have seen the two detectives, as the light from the street lamp reflected off the glass, making it impossible to see into the darkened room. Phillips reported the activity on his radio.

Some minutes later, the door to the club opened and Silver emerged. Clarke moved forward to open the rear door of the car, then moved quickly to the driver
’
s door and got in. A moment later, the car pulled smoothly away.

Fortunately, the delay in Silver
’
s departure enabled Brookes
’
team of mobile observation crews to take up their positions, ready for the tail.

The Rolls turned left into Shoreditch High Street and left again into Hackney Road, heading east. Traffic was fairly light, and it made good time through the streets of the East End, delayed only by the traffic lights at the larger junctions. In the meantime, in their temporary base at Ilford Police Station, John Barnes and his SO 19 team got their gear together, mounted up, and set off for the much shorter journey to the assembly point at Bright Crescent.

Silver
’
s chauffeur made no attempt to lose anyone tailing them. On learning this, Brookes wondered whether this was over-confidence on the criminal
’
s part or that his journey was an innocent one. After considering the possibilities, Brookes decided it wasn
’
t a problem as long as Silver did not spot any of his followers. If it proved to be a false alarm, the exercise would do as a dry run.

Ahead of those travelling east, in the driveway of a house opposite the brothel in Hornchurch Road, Stumpy Gerrard sat, impatiently waiting the rest of team
’
s arrival. The brothel had been busy with men arriving and leaving in a steady stream since early evening. None had stayed more than forty minutes. From his vantage point, he could see the front windows of the brothel. All the lights on the ground floor were on, and all but one of the rooms on the floor above were lit. He had no way of knowing the significance of this but reported it all to DI Short as instructed.

In the car beside him, Liz Foreman said,
‘
Sit still, Stumpy, you
’
re like a bear with a sore arse.
’

He smiled at her choice of words.
‘
Not like you to be so crude, Liz; what
’
s got into you?
’

She laughed.
‘
I
’
m as anxious as you are for Silver to arrive, but at least I can sit still. Anyway, it won
’
t be long now, they
’
re past Dagenham.
’
They had been listening to running commentary from the followers on the police radio; Dagenham was no more than two miles from their location.

The two watchers did indeed not have long to wait. Ten minutes later, Silver
’
s Rolls Royce pulled into the driveway opposite. Silver got out and, despite his age, skipped up the stairs to the house and rang the doorbell; clearly he was anxious to get on with that which he
’
d come here for. The door was answered a few seconds later, and Silver passed through the doorway into the hall. The watchers opposite saw a woman in her fifties with a smile on her face close the door behind him.

Foreman had the transmitter in her hand. Pressing the button she said,
‘
All units, the target has arrived. Repeat, the target is in the house. His chauffeur has stayed in the car in the driveway.
’
She turned to Gerrard.
‘
And now we wait for him to get his pants down. God, I hope he doesn
’
t hurt this girl in the meantime.
’

‘
Hold up,
’
said Gerrard,
’
the light
’
s gone on in that upstairs room. I wonder if that
’
s where they
’
re keeping the girl he
’
s come to see?
’

Foreman shook her head.
‘
Who can tell? But I
’
ll report it just in case, Stumpy.
’

Ten minutes later, a line of heavily armed, uniformed police made their way quietly along the street opposite, ducking below the low garden walls. Reaching the driveway, two crept up to the driver
’
s door of Silver
’
s Rolls Royce. At a signal, one swept open the door whilst the other fired his taser at the chauffeur. Clarke was rendered helpless before he thought to yell. The two men hauled his limp form out of the car whilst the remainder moved forward into the driveway.

Two others split off and went to a side door leading to the rear garden of the house. The remainder of the team mounted the steps to the front door. One knelt down and inserted a picklock into the keyhole of the simple Yale-type lock. Watching, Liz Foreman held her breath as he fiddled with the tool; if they were discovered at this point and the alarm was raised inside, that might spell disaster. Suddenly, the officer stopped working on the lock and raised the thumb of his right hand, holding the door closed with his left.

Inspector Barnes, directly behind him, raised three fingers then deliberately lowered one at a time. As the third one was lowered the door was pushed open and police officers moved silently in. Most made for the stairs, just two stood in the hallway watching the doors to the ground floor rooms, ready to stop someone giving the alarm if they appeared. But no-one did. Not a word had been spoken and the surprise was complete.

PS George Hadley happened to be the one who led the way to the upstairs room which had been in darkness until ten minutes ago. Checking that his back-up and camera-carrying detective were ready, he gave a signal and kicked open the door just as other officers were doing the same to the other bedrooms.

But it was Hadley that had hit the jackpot. The gross, nude figure of Silver lay face down on the bed; beneath him was the figure of a very young girl. Both their faces turned toward them in surprise at the sounds of the door crashing open and hitting the wall. Everything was recorded on the video camera carried by Middlemiss.

A thought went quickly through his mind:
Caught in flagrante delicto as the frogs put it. Let
’
s see you get out of that, you pig.

In Silver
’
s case, the surprise quickly changed to anger, and the girl
’
s, once she realised her suffering was over, slowly into relief. Despite his nakedness, Silver leapt to his feet and charged towards the officers in the doorway. Stepping to one side, Hadley swung his riot stick and caught Silver on the side of his knee with a loud crack. Silver fell heavily to the floor and lay screaming in pain and rage. All this was recorded on film as Middlemiss had continued snapping away with the camera.

When he
’
d finally stopped writhing in pain, Silver was handcuffed and bundled down the stairs, out of the house, and into a waiting police van. On the way, a woman
’
s overcoat found on the coat-rack beside the front door of the house was draped around his shoulders, more so as not to offend the modesty of any onlookers than to keep him warm. Two other men were similarly arrested, although neither put up a fight, and they were allowed to dress before being carted off.

All three would be charged with rape, as each of the girls was just fourteen years old, making them too young to consent. In fact, it transpired that all three girls were from Serbia and had been purchased from their parents by white slave traders and sold on to Silver for a large profit. Trading in slaves would be one of the many charges later laid against Silver.