Chapter 3: Reg Needs Watching Closely

As they stood up to leave, Christopher put his arms around Lewis and gave him a kiss. ‘Thank you,’ he said, ‘It’ll be such a relief when it’s all over.’ They went out and Christopher dropped Lewis off at home before heading for home himself.

SATURDAY – SPECIAL GROUP

Saturday morning Reg was off duty and having a lie in. About half past eight his phone rang. Annoyed at being disturbed, he answered quite sharply, ‘Reg King.’ A muffled voice at the other end asked him if he was the young constable that had come to the prison recently to enquire about the day that West and Tarrs were released.

Wide awake and interested now Reg told him, ‘Yes I am.’ and asked who was calling. ‘I can’t tell you that,’ the caller told him, ‘And I’m ringing from a payphone so it’s no use trying to trace the call.’ ‘Ok,’ Reg told him, ‘What do you want to tell me?’

‘A couple of weeks ago,’ the voice said, ‘The Governor got a DVD sent through the post. He decided to show it to everyone in the prison, staff and cons alike. It ran for thirty minutes and showed West and Tarrs being killed.’ ‘How?’ Reg asked. ‘They were strapped to a concrete floor,’ the voice told him. ‘A big tank was lowered onto them and then filled with water until it crushed them to death. A card was shown at the end saying violence and killing would no longer be tolerated.’

‘What happened to the video?’ Reg asked. ‘The day after the showing,’ the voice said, ‘The Governor put a notice on the staff room board to say he had been sent the DVD anonymously and knew nothing more about it. It had come with a note asking that he should destroy it after watching it, which he had done.’

‘How did everyone take it?’ Reg asked. ‘After seeing it, no one questioned that they had seen an execution,’ he said. ‘It was shown in two sittings, I’ve never seen our residents so quiet as when they filed out.’

‘Is there anything else you can tell me?’ Reg asked. ‘No that’s everything.’ ‘Thanks for telling me.’ Reg said. ‘If you do hear anything else. Please give me a ring.’ Then the line went dead.

Reg jumped out of bed and got his growing folder. He wrote up everything the voice had just told him, then read through it. He was tempted to arrange to go and have a word with the Governor, but something at the back of his mind cautioned him that that would be getting a bit too official. He decided to file the information and wait.

Reg knew that West and Tarrs had killed a young PC not much older than himself. He couldn’t help feeling that they deserved what they had got.

‘I need cheering up,’ he thought to himself, so he rang Celia. Delighted to find that she was off too, they arranged to go out that evening. ‘You’re welcome to stay over.’ Celia told him, ‘But you should know that by now.’ ‘I’d love to he told her, tell you what we’ll go out for Sunday lunch as well.’

As soon as he had hung up, he rang the Monarch Hotel on the banks of the local canal. After booking a Sunday lunch on their canal boat he went off to do his weekly shopping.

Driving to Celia’s later, it was a lovely day, so they headed out to the coast and had something from the chippy on the front.

Just offshore was a lighthouse. According to Google it was first lit in eighteen thirty but was no longer in use. For many years it was possible to hire it for the night. You went out before the tide came in, spent the night cut off by the tide, then returned once the tide went out.

From there they returned to Celia’s, opened a bottle of wine and sat chatting over a glass. Celia still hadn’t heard anything about sitting her exam and was clearly peeved about it. Reg tactfully changed the subject to future holidays.

Going to bed early, they made love then soon fell asleep happy but exhausted. The following morning, they woke and lay in each other’s arms for a while. Then unable to resist another session, they had to rush to get ready for their Sunday lunch.’

Arriving at the Monarch Hotel, they went into the reception area where they had a drink and selected their meal. Up until this point Celia assumed they were dining in the hotel. Then they were shown through the restaurant to board the floating restaurant boat moored outside. Once everyone was seated, the starters were served then the boat cast off.

Holding fifty diners, there was a row of tables down each side. The boat cruised at the maximum canal speed of four miles per hour in one direction. Reaching some staircase locks which took the canal down quite a distance, it reversed to the hotel. Mooring briefly whilst the starter dishes were cleared and the main course was served, they set sail again in the opposite direction out into the countryside beyond.

Not long after everyone had finished their main course, they sailed into a lock which lifted the boat up ten feet to the next level. At this point everyone disembarked and had a stroll around to stretch their legs, take photos or have a look at how the lock worked.

After re boarding, the boat went down in the lock, returning to the lower level, then as it headed back towards the hotel, desert was served, followed by coffees. Eventually arriving back at the Monarch Hotel, they disembarked. Celia said it had been a memorable occasion and an unusual way to dine. ‘I can tell everyone I’ve been on a cruise now,’ she said laughing.

Reg drove her back to her flat then returned home via a quick visit to his parents. It had been an excellent weekend all round.

The next week at work was dull, mainly looking up names locating addresses and generally searching the police data base plus the internet for information. It was something Reg excelled at but when he was doing it, he tended to lose himself into what he was doing. Sometimes if anyone spoke to him, they had to poke him to get his attention. Other times he would suddenly hear a part of a conversation and join in.

On the Wednesday, he was working away when someone sitting near to him started talking to his neighbour and mentioned West and Tarr’s. A discussion followed about the young bobby they had killed. ‘They should have got the death sentence,’ one of them said. Reg, his mind buried in what he was doing suddenly said, ‘Well they’re dead now at least.’

Suddenly aware that a total silence had fallen on the room, he looked up to find everyone looking at him. He looked around, then said, ‘What?’ DS Aiden Walters looked at him curiously. He knew how deeply engrossed Reg could become when he was researching.

‘Do you remember what you just said?’ he asked. ‘No,’ Reg said, ‘What.’ ‘Alan was talking about the two that killed Constable Clancy five years ago. He said they should have got the death sentence, then you just looked up and said, ‘Well they’re dead now at least.’

Reg went cold inside. Struggling to keep his voice calm he said, ‘I must have heard that somewhere, weren’t they killed by a vigilante group?’ ‘Has anyone else heard anything about that?’ Aiden called out. Everyone shook their heads or called out, ‘No sarge.’

‘I’ve no idea where I heard it,’ Reg said, ‘But I don’t remember saying it so perhaps I imagined it.’ ‘Ok back to work everyone,’ Aiden said. ‘Then quietly to Reg, if you remember anything else, let me know.’ ‘Ok,’ Reg replied and returned to his searches. This time he stayed alert and in between his searches, kept an eye on the room. Everyone seemed to have returned to normal, but he noticed a couple of times that Aiden was glancing over at him.

A few hours later Brian came in and went straight to his office. Ten minutes later Aiden got up and went out to the toilet. Keeping an eye on the door, Reg saw him return, glance over at him to see if he was looking then went into Brian’s office without knocking. An unheard of happening.

It was half an hour before Aiden reappeared, slipping out of Brian’s office he left the door pulled to so as not to draw attention by closing it. Returning to his seat, he picked up the papers he had been working on, but Reg spotted him looking over at him frequently.

Ten minutes later Brian came out of his office, glanced over in Reg’s direction, and left.

Brian was concerned when Aiden told him what Reg had said. As far as he knew the only people who knew about the executions were the special group, the wife of Constable Clancy, plus Governor Davies and his prisoners, if he had actually shown the DVD. He didn’t think there had been time for the information to work its way into the public domain which meant Reg was getting information or had a link somewhere in the chain that he shouldn’t have.