Chapter 6

“Sorry,” said Tom. “In the UK, private use of a taser is prohibited, as it is classed as a deadly weapon. The police are the only people who can legally possess and use such a weapon. Even there, only specially trained officers get to use a taser, and all use is closely monitored and reported. The Americans on the other hand, as usual, allow citizens to arm themselves with practically everything!”

Sergeant Phillips visited the Squadron Leader again.

“Sir, I have spoken with the Robertson family, and they are considering your latest offer, but say that they want the offer in writing, so that they are clear about what you want from them. I must admit, sir, that I am also unclear about what exactly you intend, so putting it in writing may clarify the situation.”

Aitchison blinked at this statement, and though for a moment, before responding.

“Sergeant, while I appreciate the time and trouble you have put yourself to, I do not want to see you more deeply involved than you are already. It would not be good for our local police to be too involved in what might be seen as litigation. If I have something to put in writing, I shall have it hand delivered by one of my family, and thus you will not have to concern yourself about it any more.

I shall inform the Chief Constable that you have been helpful but have not overstepped the bounds of your responsibility.”

“Thank you, sir. I shall return to my normal duties then. Farewell, sir.”

A day later, a letter was pushed through the Robertson letterbox while they were at university, so they got it on their return home. Reg read it out to all.

“Dear Mr Robertson,

My intention was solely to make sure you were not out of pocket in any way as a result of anything my grandson may have been involved in, relating to yourselves. I am advised that home insurance fails to cover the upset and distress that can arise through boisterous teenage activities. I hoped that I could ameliorate your situation, and hope that in return you would do your best to ameliorate our family’s situation in turn. Do let me know if we can agree on this matter.”

Freda was impressed. “Reg, do you mind if I run this past my Dad’s eyes? I suspect there is nothing in it that is actionable, as nothing is actually admitted in any way other than suggestion.”

Reg was amenable to the idea.

“I cannot see what harm that would do, my darling. It certainly does not tell me anything we don’t already know; and I can’t see anything being admitted. Your dad may see it differently, so please ask his opinion, Freda. I hope he will do it pro bono!”

“Of course he will, dear husband. You are his son-in-law, after all.”

She snapped a pic of the letter and email it to her father with a covering comment: “Is this anything we can use, or is it too innocuous?”

She told Reg. “We’ll not get a response till tomorrow, I suspect. Daddy will want to think long and hard about it.”

She was right. It was late afternoon next day before her father phoned her in person.

“Hello, Freda. You and your husband have a snake there. That letter has been written by a lawyer working for the man. It has nothing actionable, and nothing that could be directly utilised in a court case.”

“So no use to us in our dealings with the man?”

“I wouldn’t say that. On its own it doesn’t say anything, but if the boy was in court, it could be seen as evidence of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Have you been offered a bribe, as you see it?”

“Most certainly, Daddy. He wants us to not allow the case against his grandson to go ahead. The idea as we see it is that if we offer no help to the police, the cops will not proceed with the case.”

“What evidence do the police have; do you know?”

Freda said, “We think the police have a blood sample from our broken window that they can link to the grandson, but we don’t know for certain. Frances’ laptop computer was traced to the boy’s home, so that is additional evidence. I would think that his fingerprints will be on it.”

“Who is your contact in the police, Freda?”

“A Sergeant Terence Phillips, Dad. He was acting as a go-between between Squadron Leader Aitchison and us, but I felt he was on our side. The Squadron Leader is on the police committee, which gives him leverage on the police sergeant. The Sergeant didn’t seem to like that.”

“Ah.” Mr Dangerfield gave a satisfied sigh. “You have a number for him?”

Freda got the number and passed it to her father, who instructed her, “Leave it with me now, Freda. Have your husband and the other ladies do nothing for the moment, until I get back to you. This could be interesting. Bye. Love you.”

Love you. Bye, Dad.”

As instructed, the assumed their normal pattern and went off to their classes. Those who had assessments due concentrated on that task, having been given good advice from Reg. Reg just enjoyed his learning again, and picked up a few pointers from his lecturers.

They were unaware that the Dean had been phoned by a high-powered lawyer named Dangerfield, asking about the Robertsons, and advising that there was some possibility of the Robertsons being targeted by bullies or others of that persuasion. “Dean, as their legal representative, I am advising you of this fact, so that you can make sure that they are not attacked and injured. Should they be, I will be seeking damages from the University authorities, via the High Court. You understand that, don’t you?”

The Dean gulped and replied, “Sir, I cannot guarantee anything, but the university will do its best to have them protected. We can do no more. I hope you understand my position.”

“Do your best, Dean. At a minimum, I expect your campus police to be close to them throughout the day, should anything untoward happen.”

“I can assure you of that measure, sir,” the Dean promised.

“Thank you. Farewell.”

The rest of the day proved uneventful, and the five proceeded towards home again. Prudence expected to be right behind the others in the car, but lost them at a roundabout. She scanned the traffic ahead as best she could, and caught a glimpse of the right car model, and seemingly full, so decided that was the one she wanted.

She moved her scooter around, passing other cars whenever traffic stopped for a pedestrian crossing or a roundabout, and shortly managed to maneuvre herself behind the car; but then she cursed. It was the right model, but not the right registration number.

She gave up, and decided to simply get home, even if she was not immediately behind the others of the family.

As she approached the next roundabout, the car in front got a shock. A big black Range Rover pulled across from the next lane and slammed into the side of the car in front of her, with a screeching of metal against metal. The Range Rover pushed the smaller vehicle to the side of the road and over the low kerb on to the grass verge, where the driver managed to get it to slew to a stop. The airbag had explosively inflated in the driver’s face. He now slumped over his steering wheel airbag, stunned by the shock.

The Range Rover made no attempt to stop. It had suffered little damage. Its driver revved up again, switched lanes, accelerated and quickly left the scene. Prudence, shocked by what had happened in front of her, drew into the side of the road. She stepped off and bounced her scooter’s front wheel over the kerb and on to the grass. This made it easy to bring the back wheel over as well, out of the way of the traffic, then she checked that the driver had not been injured by the air bag inflating. Glad to find he was just stunned, and that the passengers were not severely affected, she used her phone to call the emergency services. She waited while the frightened occupants of the car recovered from the impact and one after another climbed out of the nearside doors, the offside doors being jammed by the broadside swipe. While they were all shaken up and still in shock, no-one seemed to have more than a bruise or two in the way of injuries.

Prudence stepped off her scooter, where she had been sitting patiently, and told them that she had called the emergency services, who would be there shortly. She waited for nearly ten minutes before a police car arrived, leading an ambulance. She reported to the policeman who she was, and what she had seen, and that she was the one who had called in. He wanted to know whether she had noted the number of the Range Rover. She replied, “Damn, no. In the excitement, I never thought to look! Sorry about that, officer. All that registered with me that it was a black Range Rover, and it was gone so quickly. That was why I thought it was deliberate: the way he scarpered. No-one even stepped out of the vehicle.”

The policeman thanked the tall thin girl once he had all the details she could give. She then explained she was late getting home for her evening meal. “If you need anything more, you have my name, address and phone number, okay?”

“I have, thank you, Mrs Robertson.”

She was allowed to go, and set off again for home.

Arriving at the house, she found Reg on duty outside the door, watching anxiously for her arrival. He saw that she was shaking when she got off her scooter, and he was immediately concerned.

“Prudence, what happened? Where did you get to? We were worried.”

He ushered her inside before she could reply, and the others clustered round to hug her and help her get over the delayed shock. She explained what had happened, and why she had stopped to report the ‘accident’, if that was what it was.

“As I told the police, it looked like a deliberate ramming of their car. I have no idea why, and I don’t know who they were. Just another bunch of students, I think.”

The girls were more concerned for her well-being, but Reg was silent, thinking hard. At last he spoke.

“Prudence, I don’t think it was an accident that you were there.”

She flashed him an annoyed glance. “But it was, Reg. I was only there because I had lost sight of Frances’ car at the previous roundabout, so it was sheer luck that I was behind that particular car.”

“That was what I was getting to, my love. It may have been YOUR presence on the scooter that resulted in that car being sideswiped.”

“That sounds daft, Reg. Are you sure you are thinking straight?”

“Actually, yes. You said it was the same make and model as Frances’ car, which is why you thought it was her car, from a distance. If as I suspect, the target for the attack was US, then your presence on the scooter, almost always behind us, was being used as a flag to point out which car was the target in a busy road. Frances’ car is a fairly common make, so the attackers needed a guide as to which car was their target. If they were told, ‘Your target is the one that the scooter is following’, then that would be the reason for forcing that car off the road. You said it was full of students, and the same model as Frances has, thus would look just like our car, wouldn’t it?”

“Oh, my God. You are right. The students were in a car the same as Frances’. They would have looked just like you lot!”

Reg had an opinion. “Prudence, I think you should stop being right behind Frances from now on. You know your way home now, so there is no sense in broadcasting that you are together with us. Put several cars between you and us on the road, if you can. That may prevent any targeting based on you.”

“God, yes, Reg. I wouldn’t want you guys to come to any harm. You mean too much to me now, all of you!”

“Thanks, Prudence. We feel the same way about you, girl,” said Freda. “We are a single family, and we wouldn’t want any of us to come to harm. You should keep a close eye on yourself and the other traffic, in case they go for you as well. I am wondering whether you should get a car of your own, Prudence.”

Prudence gasped as she saw the implications.

Frances was a bit more prosaic. “I want to know who put them up to it. Was it the Squadron Leader, do you think, Reg?”

Reg waved his palms in a signal of mental doubt. “I couldn’t say for certain, Frances. Perhaps it was someone else who doesn’t like us. On the other hand, it couldn’t be someone hoping to gain anything directly from the crash; they didn’t stay around to do or say anything, so it implies they were sent to do this, or did it for their own reasons.”

Next day was the first examination day, so they all buckled down to the task, encouraged by Reg’s advice. He had assured himself that Prudence was over the shock of the ‘accident’.

At their division headquarters, the police were also of the opinion that the crash was deliberate. They had instituted a search of the DVLA database for all black Range Rovers with registered keepers resident within 150 miles of the incident.

Unfortunately, this produced 1,257 cars fitting this description and general location, as it was a heavily populated urban area with a lot of up-market homes. The police investigators were well aware that the vehicle used for the offence might have a registered owner at the other end of the country, or that the vehicle may have been stolen, so they asked for a report on the number of Range Rovers reported as stolen recently, regardless of colour, and of these, which had been located in a damaged condition. The lack of colour differentiation was because the car may have been repainted after the event to make it less identifiable. The damage was likely to be still visible, as that takes more time to fix, particularly if you want to do it on the quiet.

The result was twelve, plus another 27 almost new ones, which had disappeared entirely. These missing ones were suspected of either having been shipped abroad or been broken up for parts. Three had a connection to the university.

It gave an indecisive result to the local police. They could pin down a number of suspect vehicles, but with no registration number known, none were definitively the correct one. This was not usable and provable evidence in a court case, so the police decided the matter had to be dropped.

The insurance company phoned Frances to say that they would pay Frances’ father compensation for all the damage to the LeBrun building, as soon as they finalised their estimates. They were awaiting their assessor’s report to know the exact amount due.

Frances was informed by the police that her laptop computer was part of the evidence against the boy Eric, and he would be summoned to attend a Youth Court, where his case would be heard by a district judge. If convicted, he might receive a community sentence, or a detention and training order if the crime was deemed serious.

The police called Frances on the phone, advising her that mitigating circumstances, such as a difficult home life or mental disturbance, could lead to a community sentence. The police suspected that the family lawyer would plead this position. An aggravating circumstance, such as invasion of a house while the owners are in bed, would lead to the latter sentence. As no-one was at home at the time of the break-in, this was less likely to lead to the detention option. If there was any aspect which the Robertsons viewed as an aggravating circumstance, they should report that through their lawyer.

Frances thanked the police for the call, and said she would discuss it with her lawyer.

She did. She got Freda to phone her father, then say that she wanted her fellow wife Frances to speak with him. Mr Dangerfield came on the line, and Freda handed over the phone. Frances said, “Sir, I am Frances Robertson, and we all live in a house owned by my father. It is that house that was broken in to by Squadron Leader Aitchison’s teenage grandson. The police have just phoned me to say that he will be taken before a youth court and if convicted he will get either a community sentence or a detention and training order.”

Mr Dangerfield said, “Yes, that is accurate. You are expecting their lawyer to go for mitigating circumstances?”

“Exactly. Can we argue for aggravation, perhaps due to the vandalism in our hallway – all the spray painting on the walls. It was quite upsetting for all of us, and it was ages before the insurance assessor came and we got authorisation to redecorate. Then there was all the rummaging through our clothes in the bedrooms!”

Mr Dangerfield was sympathetic but not optimistic. “While I can agree with you over the effects on your family members, the courts tend to be lenient with first offenders, and as I understand it, this was a first offence by the lad, as far as was known at least. In addition, a degree of vandalism is so normal in such cases that it is not going to be seen as an aggravating circumstance.”