The Criminal Escapades of Geoffrey Larkin (21 page)

Several hours later, after the superintendent's secretary had managed to squeeze Sergeant Robinson into his tight schedule, the beaming sergeant left the senior officer's office.

He made a quick phone call to Constable Wilson instructing him to arrange all the team that were in or near the station to be present for a short briefing in one hour's time.

The hub of conversations in the conference room stopped as Robinson entered. He walked over and placed a thick folder on the centre desk. He turned and faced about three quarters of the team that the constable had managed to contact and who could make the meeting.

‘The first thing is that we are still in charge of this case.' Robinson's few words caused a sudden stir in the room.

The cases which were as serious as this one were usually taken over by their senior colleagues in the city. This was certainly a feather in the cap for Robinson and also for the local station.

The sergeant held up his hand for quiet before he continued. ‘This is, as you all know, an opportunity for us to prove what we are capable of, so no slacking, get all your facts correct, follow up even the slightest of leads. Let's show what this station but more importantly, what you can achieve.'

There was a spontaneous round of applause from the officers as the sergeant finished. They all realised that he must have put forward a very strong and persuasive argument for a team of detectives at the local station to be allowed to continue with such a serious case with all its international connections.

‘Oh, and before you go,' shouted the sergeant above the excited conversation. ‘For the sake of the press, I have been promoted to acting inspector but until the position is made permanent, if that ever happens, I would appreciate it if you would still continue to address me as sergeant.'

The last sentence from Sergeant Robinson brought a fresh round of applause from the room. All the officers there knew the sergeant and felt that his promotion, even though it was not yet permanent, was long overdue.

*

It was on that same morning, just as he was leaving to meet the rest of his gang, that Dave Higgins received an envelope in the post. It contained a large number of £20 notes. ‘Those guys weren't joking when they told our Wilf they would give us a bonus,' he said to himself as he counted the money, ‘they've even paid it up front
.
' Stuffing the money into his inside coat pocket he went off to meet his cousin, thinking as he went. Between them they needed to round up as many mates as possible to start searching for that bastard, Geoff Larkin and co. There was going to be a lot of money in this for him if he played his cards right. It was Larkin's fault that Sidney Locket had ended up in the hospital. He was going to enjoy dropping Larkin and his cronies in the shit and even that nutcase Sooty would not stand a snowball in hell's chance against this mob of heavies.

*

Geoff was finding it difficult to keep the Bolton brothers entertained; they had quickly reverted into the gloomy mood they had been in prior to the photographs being taken at the post office. Sooty wasn't a problem; to him it was just one long holiday.

The owner of the small hotel where they were staying had been quizzing Sooty the previous day about the construction site on which they were working. It was obvious he was becoming suspicious as the other contractors staying at the hotel were always away for seven in the morning and did not return until seven at night.

In contrast, Geoff and his mates didn't even arrive for their breakfast until after nine o'clock, not leaving the hotel until after eleven and then they were then back again early in the afternoon. Usually loaded down with presents and parcels, they were getting bored; the novelty of going to the cinema every day was beginning to wear off.

Geoff, in desperation to keep them entertained, had taken them for an early tea after an afternoon in an amusement arcade.

They had just left the pizza parlour, after visiting the all day cinema, the film they had watched was a restored and re-released old black and white comedy called ‘The Lavender Hill Mob' which Sooty had enjoyed tremendesly.

‘Can we call ourselves. The Stepping Hill Mob' he quiried taking the name from one of the main streets in Stockport.

‘Yes if you like Sooty' said Geoff in reply, smiling to himself.

It was a miserable afternoon. It had been drizzling all day, that fine rain that clings to your clothes, eventually leaving you soaked. The weather was not helping the despondent feeling in the group

He had stopped in the protection of a nearby bus shelter to fasten a loose shoelace. The rest of the group had carried on walking, chatting glumly to one another; they were now about twenty yards in front of him. Just as Geoff was about to leave the shelter he noticed a familiar figure across the road, it was one of Dave Higgins's gang. He seemed particularly interested in the group of three lads in front of him. Geoff's heart missed a beat. Sooty and the Bolton brothers were definitely being followed! His first reaction was to catch up with the lads and run for it but he quelled the panic that he could feel rising in his stomach.

He had to play this right in order to buy them a little time. He could feel the surge of adrenalin as his brain kicked into top gear. If Higgins's crowd knew where they were staying it would be bad news indeed. A thought flashed through his brain, s
hould he keep the cash? There was enough to keep him on his own in luxury for years. He could do a runner, leaving the rest of them to carry the can. He would leave the plates and the list of account numbers because that's all they were after. If they were lucky, the lads would just get roughed up a little and probably, they would not bother
to carry on looking for him. But, Harry Sutton would not be roughed up, he would fight back, he wouldn't know when to give in. He would, more than likely, end up like Sidney Locket in the hospital, or worse.'

An uncontrollable shiver passed through his body as these thoughts flashed through his mind. He kept his distance behind the young man across the road just to be sure he really was stalking his mates then, increasing is pace, he caught up with them just two streets away from their hotel.

‘Don't look now but one of Higgins's gang has been following us for the last ten minutes so just keep walking.'

The group had settled down into a routine and they were, reluctantly, very slowly accepting the situation. Although they grumbled to Geoff they really quite liked the lifestyle of having their meals prepared for them and no work to interfere with the spending of the ample amounts of money they had available. Even John Bolton had begun to get over his nervousness, calling them ‘the idle rich', then laughing aloud at his own corny joke.

The few words spoken by Geoff stunned the group and left them in a state of panic.

‘I'll go and sort him out?' said Sooty, starting to turn.

‘No! That won't do any good at this stage,' said Geoff grabbing the big lad's shoulder, stopping him from turning, making it look just like a friendly hug.

Changing direction at the next corner the four continued walking at the same leisurely pace, taking their follower further away from their lodgings with every step they took.

Geoff, in the meantime, was racking his brain of what to do.

‘What are we going to do Geoff?' said Derek Bolton with a hint of panic in his voice. ‘He'll know we must be stopping somewhere close to here; it's been raining all day and we are all reasonably dry.'

Geoff had already fathomed that out so the younger Bolton's comments only irritated him, distracting his thoughts.

‘He probably won't think of that but the guys who are employing him definitely will!' he replied.

‘He's still there,' muttered John Bolton as he looked behind and gave a wolf whistle at two girls who passed them going in the other direction.

‘Okay,' said Geoff. ‘There's a hotel down here on the right. We'll make it look good so Sooty and me will go in first. You two drop back about twenty yards then slowly follow us. We need to leave by a rear entrance so we'll play it by ear. ‘Any port in a storm,' he muttered to himself as they both went up the steps to the hotel's swinging double doors.

The hotel they entered was a lot more upmarket than the one where they were staying. It had a large, carpeted reception area with a highly polished desk at the far end surrounded by dark timber panelling.

Standing behind the desk was a middle-aged, balding man in a striped waistcoat speaking on the phone. He hardly gave Geoff and Sooty a second look as they entered.
Mmm,
thought Geoff,
it's amazing what a decent set of clothes does
. It certainly helped avert any suspicions. They went through the motions of looking at a stand near the entrance with brochures of forthcoming events and sites of historic interest stacked in neat rows on the wooden shelving. The man at the reception was still on the phone as the two Bolton brothers strolled into the lobby.

Geoff, walking with a purpose followed by the other three, opened a door marked

‘Dining Room'. There was a young girl in a maid's uniform setting the tables for dinner. He walked briskly passed her with a curt, ‘Good afternoon.'

He was half way across the room with the other three hard on his heels before she replied with a, ‘Bonjour Monsieur,' returning to lay her tables.

That's a stroke of luck, a foreign worker, no embarrassing questions,
he thought as he opened the door at the end of the dining room.

This led him into what was the hotel kitchen where there was a young lad cutting vegetables at one of the work surfaces. He looked up as they entered. The other older man at his side had his back to them, carrying on whatever he was doing.

Geoff smiled at the lad who just looked back with a vacant expression on his face as all four young men walked quickly passed him and through the kitchen, to the end, then out through an open doorway and into an enclosed yard with a row of dustbins on one side of the wall emitting an awful smell of rotting food.

A solid wooden gate which, fortunately, was not locked, led into an alley at the rear of the hotel, its entrance leading to a side road that ran parallel with the main road.

‘Stay here for a few minutes while I check out the front of the hotel,' whispered Geoff as the group bunched in the open gateway. He made his way down the litter-strewn passage that came out about two buildings further down the road than the front entrance of the hotel they had entered several minutes earlier.

Peering slowly around the corner, he observed, standing opposite the hotel on the far side of the road, the member of Dave Higgins's gang who went under the nickname of ‘Yozzer'. Geoff remembered him from the reform school days and he'd seen him on several occasions in the company of Dave Higgins and Wilf Norton.

Yozzer was standing, partly hidden from anyone looking from the hotel, by a parked high-sided van. From the angle that Geoff was looking from he had a full and clear view of Yozzer, also the entrance to the hotel. He was just replacing in his pocket what looked like a mobile phone. Geoff had seen enough; it was not just a chance encounter as he had first hoped.

He was definitely here in the area on the lookout for them! Geoff quickly made his way back to the others. He had already made up his own mind about what he intended to do, regardless of what objections they might raise.

*

It was a very quiet and very nervous foursome that hurriedly made their way through the back streets to their hotel, freezing every time a car passed them by, fearful unless it pulled up at the side of them.

They inspected the entrance of their hotel from a distance, looking for anything that may have looked out of the ordinary. Geoff, along with Sooty, volunteered to enter their hotel first, with the nervous Bolton brothers to follow if there were no problems.

It took several more minutes of observation before Geoff could build up the courage to venture down the street, with Sooty close on his heels, and quickly enter the dimly lit entrance lobby. Once in their room, and joined by the Bolton brothers, Geoff spelled out their position as he placed a suitcase on his bed then proceeded to fill it with a selection of clothes from the set of drawers and wardrobe in his room.

‘They're onto us! It won't take them long to find out we're not in that other hotel then they'll start checking around in this area. We need to do a bunk and the faster the better. We've been lucky so far but that luck's been stretched to the limit.'

‘But where ever we go, Geoff, they're going to hunt us down,' said a nervous John Bolton very close to tears and trying hard, but being unsuccessful in trying to hide the quivering that sounded in his voice.

‘That's why I made arrangements for the passports. I'm going abroad and it's up to you lads if you want to tag along or you can go your own ways, in fact, it might be better and healthier if we split up now anyway. We've paid up here till the end of the week so there won't be any come back from the proprietor for doing a runner.'

Sooty had already started to pack his case before Geoff had finished speaking. It was obvious who he had decided to stay with.

The two Bolton brothers looked at one another. ‘Can't we just go to a big city like London, we could lose ourselves there rather than going abroad.' Derek, his voice quaking slightly, put this half-heartedly, as an alternative to Geoff's solution of leaving the country.

‘These guys have contacts everywhere; we'd be wandering around London like ducks out of water, with our accents we would be picked up in no time,' replied Geoff.

‘Abroad it has to be, there we can mingle with all the other holiday-makers and tourists. That will buy us more time than staying here.' Their objection overruled and not coming forward with any strong alternative, the brothers just shrugged their shoulders.

‘OK! Give us a couple of minutes,' said Derek as they both hurried off to go to their own rooms.

‘Two minutes only,' came a shout, which followed them down the corridor.

Five minutes later, the four young men left, leaving by the rear fire escape to avoid using the main entrance of the hotel. It was now quite dark, overcast and still raining as they kept nervously to the shadows.

There were not many people about in what was turning out to be a very miserable, wet and, for the four young men, a very frightening end to their day.

*

Bob Hughes, who went under the nick name of ‘Yozzer', had been brought in by his mate, Wilf Norton, along with several others who he still had contact with from the approved school. All of them knew Geoff Larkin and his three mates by sight; they were being paid £60 a day just to wander around different sections of the city on the lookout for any one or all of these four. There was also a bonus of £250 for anyone who spotted them.

Yozzer had been on the point of calling it a day. He'd been wandering around for six hours in the rain, he was soaked to the skin, his shoes were letting in water and he was hungry and fed up. Suddenly, thirty yards in front of him he had spotted a familiar figure.

Harry Sutton! He couldn't help but recognise him because of his size, he stood out like a sore thumb, as he got closer he identified instantly his two companions as the Bolton brothers. He'd excitedly phoned his mate, Wilf Norton, on the new mobile he'd been given, forgetting his wet clothes in his excitement. He had never had the opportunity of earning so much easy money in one day.

‘Hi, Wilf, I've just spotted that big sod, Harry Sutton, with the two Bolton brothers. All three of them are walking no more than thirty yards in front of me.'

His instructions from Wilf Norton were quite specific. He was to see where they went, not to get too close and definitely not to be seen. Some more people would be with him shortly.

He'd phoned Wilf Norton again, passing on the name of the hotel along with the road in which it was situated, excitingly informing him of the fact that Geoff Larkin had also joined them. All four had entered the building but in two pairs.

Wilf Norton, in turn, said he would pass the message on to their employers and that he should discreetly keep watch on the hotel until someone arrived.

It was twenty minutes later when a large, black saloon pulled up behind the white van where he was standing. Leaning out of the window, Wilf Norton beckoned Yozzer over to the open rear door window.

‘Are you sure it was them?' he queried in a very authoritative tone.

‘Definitely!' replied Yozzer convincingly. ‘I'd recognise that big bastard Sooty anywhere.' Yozzer had been on the receiving end of a punch from the big lad in the past and would not forget him in a hurry.

‘He was with the Bolton brothers and that creep, Larkin.'

‘Are you sure it was them?' repeated Norton.

‘Yes! Bloody definitely,' replied Yozzer, rather put out that his identification skills were being questioned and the off-handed attitude towards him by Wilf Norton.

A quiet voice from the front passenger seat interrupted their conversation. ‘Okay, you two stay here and remember, whatever happens, you've seen or heard nothing, nothing at all. Clear?' Yozzer nodded as Wilf Norton left the rear seat of the car and joined him on the pavement.

When he stood back, Yozzer noticed that while he had been talking to the occupants of the first vehicle another large, black saloon had drawn up behind the first. Three large men from the first car were already walking across to the hotel, entering through the massive doors.

Three men left the second car. They stopped and conferred outside the front of the hotel for a few moments before going to a passage lower down the road while the remaining one stayed outside the entrance of the hotel.

Wilf Norton and his mate, Bob Hughes, couldn't help but feel excited. It was like being involved in a gangster movie and the only time they had seen men as big as these were bouncers outside the city nightclubs.

Within five minutes all the men had returned to the cars where the passenger of the first vehicle beckoned Wilf Norton over to the open window.

‘There were four young men and they all left by the rear entrance a few minutes ago so they can't be far away. Jump in this car and you,' he said pointing at Yozzer, ‘can go in the second car. We'll drive around this area and see if we can pick them up. In the meantime get in touch with the rest of your mates. Get them here fast, and start searching this area pronto!'

In the process of driving around the immediate locality, the driver stopped at any hotels they came upon while one of the heavies took turns to enter.

They're checking to see if they are booked in at these places,
thought Wilf Norton to himself as he frantically contacted the rest of his mates to carry out the instructions given by the car passenger.

He had been out searching most of the day in the rain also and was soaked, he was about to call it a day when he had received the call from Yozzer. He decided against raising any objection to contact his friends and the order to continue the search.

*

Geoff's mind was in overdrive. It was not safe wandering the streets in this area. A block away was a taxi rank and that was the answer but, first, they would split into pairs again.

‘You two get a taxi to the railway station,' he said to the Bolton brothers, ‘then go to the side street alongside the station. It's quite dark there so wait a few minutes to check that you haven't been followed then get another taxi to the airport hotel and book in there for two nights. We'll give you fifteen minutes then we'll do the same. When we get there we'll get in touch on our mobiles. Okay?' One of the first things the lads had bought with their newfound cash were new mobile phones.

Geoff could not see the Bolton brothers' faces in the dark but, as he watched them walk away, fading into the shadows, he could sense that they were both two very frightened young men.

Fifteen long minutes later, he and Sooty also made their way to the taxi rank.

The rain had changed from a light drizzle to a heavier downpour. There were only two taxis at the rank and one drove off with a fare as they turned the corner.

‘You take my bag, Sooty, and take this taxi. Go to the station and wait for me in the side street while I attend to a bit of business. I'll be with you as soon as I can.'

‘Okay, Geoff,' replied the big lad. One thing about Sooty, he thought as he watched him walk slowly towards the single taxi, was that he did as you asked without any awkward questions.

Geoff positioned himself in a shop doorway, sheltering from the heaviest of the rain, the shop was closed and in darkness.

From his vantage point in the shadows he could see the taxi rank along with the surrounding area. He saw Sooty enter the taxi and drive off.

There were very few people about on such a lousy night and those who were only seemed interested in getting home as quickly as possible. Another taxi pulled up at the rank as he had a quick look around. Nothing seemed suspicious so he started to leave the shelter of the shop doorway but suddenly he stepped back into the darkness.

Was he being over cautious or did there seem something vaguely familiar about the passenger who disembarked from the taxi? He watched as the man conversed with the driver, possibly paying his fare, then started to walk in his direction.
Shit!
he thought.

The figure had a slight limp that gave him a rolling action and Geoff recognised him immediately as one of Higgins's cronies. He'd been left with the limp after breaking his leg falling through a corrugated sheeted warehouse roof as a teenager.

Geoff pressed himself into the darkest corner of the shop doorway as the figure approached. Fortunately, before he got level, the man's mobile phone rang so he was deep in conversation as he passed the shop entrance.

‘Yes! I've just arrived. I'll start looking straight away. Okay, Wilf.'

Geoff heard enough of the conversation to be able to fill in any gaps. Wilf Norton was bringing in his associates to search the area; they'd got out just in time.

As soon as the man with the limp turned the corner, Geoff walked quickly towards the taxi, increasing his pace to overtake another person who was also going for the cab but who had stopped to lower and shake his umbrella clear of surplus water.