Chapter 2: I Knocked Him Out

Reg turned away and got into his car. As he drove away, he could see in his mirror, Brian on his phone.

Reg returned to the station, made himself a coffee and switched the monitor on. He could see Russell’s red spot exactly where he had left it. He watched it unmoving for half an hour. Then it moved off. He watched its route as it drove to Halton and came to a stop by ‘Antiques and Other Bits.’ Five minutes later it moved off. Once he was certain it was headed for the station car park, he switched off the monitor. Then he had a coffee whilst he waited for further instructions.

Brian meanwhile had rung Inspector Alfie Connor. He knew Terry Dalton was already tied up. Half an hour later Alfie arrived in the second hire van. He waved to Brian as he passed, going further up the road to turn around. As he did, Brian opened the door to Russell. ‘I know my rights,’ he started mouthing off, ‘You can’t keep me here like this, my brief will have... ‘ he went silent as Brian stuck the needle in his arm.

Alfie pulled in so his side door was by the driver’s door of Russell’s car. Between them they pulled him over into the van. Then they strapped him down to the identical board as in the other van. Alfie moved off right away and headed for the garages. He had been instructed to park up once he got near and await instructions.

Brian watched him out of sight, then he took Russell’s keys plus the briefcase of drugs and drove up to Halton to post them in the wall of Antiques and Other Bits. Then he returned to the station. As he pulled into the station car park, Aiden, Glenda and Peter arrived. Sending Glenda and Peter inside, Brian asked Aiden to wait with his car.

Brian nipped into the station and saw Keith the desk Sergeant. ‘Can you put together a search team to search a drug distribution shop an hour from now,’ he asked. ‘Sure.’ he replied, ‘I’ll be glad to.’ Brian gave him the name and address of the shop. Telling him to go one hour from now, he showed him a picture of the box in the wall. ‘Check for drugs in that too,’ he said.

Aiden then ran him back to where he had left his car. As Aiden returned to the station, Brian went and parked near Antiques and Other Bits to watch events. In the half hour he waited, he saw a number of men going in who he thought looked like dealers. Then he saw a police van parking up further down the road.

Two uniformed officers got out plus four in plain clothes. They walked quickly up the road, the first two in plain clothes went up the back entry, the next two in plain clothes slowed down and strolled into the shop as if customers, then ten seconds later the two uniformed constables ran in.

Nothing happened for ten minutes or so, then one man came out, returned to the police van and drove it up by the shop. Three men were led out in handcuffs and put in the van with the two uniformed officers. The van then drove away. The other three remained in the shop to nab any dealers that came in before closing time.

Happy with his eventful day, Brian returned to the station. He updated everyone on the shop and said, ‘We’ll have a late start tomorrow, ten am. Then we’ll sort out John Ryding plus raid Graham Russell’s and Martin Lewis’s houses. Very well done all of you.’

He told Peter to hang back. ‘I want you to do something for me please,’ Brian told him. ‘You’ve worked with me for a long time, so you know how I like to do things. I want you to change over with Alan in the other group.’

‘DI Bellis hasn’t done much work with the drugs squad, so he’ll be glad of your input. All you need to do is to advise them how I’d usually do something if the situation arises. You can leave them to make the final decision,’ Brian added, knowing how Peter felt about making decisions.

‘Ok,’ Peter said, ‘When do you want me to go.’ ‘If you can go over now,’ Brian said, ‘I’ll ring and tell them you’re coming. You can take Alans room, and he can take yours. He’ll start over to us right away.’ As they got up Brian said, ‘Thanks Peter, I appreciate it.’

WEDNESDAY – LEWIS

Coming out of school on Monday, Lewis got a text from George Price. He sat down halfway home to read it.

‘Hi Lewis,

Thanks for your text, it explains a lot.’

‘I am of a big build and physically strong, but back then although I had the same physique, I was a wimp regarding standing up to people. A small group of us got together when I was fifteen and knocked around a bit.’

‘Albert appeared one day and took charge. We were all too weak to object. One day he walked home with me and asked, or rather told me to come to his as he needed a lift with something. I trotted along doing as I was told.’

‘We went into his garage, and he told me to sit in an old armchair for a moment. I did and as I looked around, I noticed two ropes hanging from the ceiling. I had already noticed tucked into the sides of the armchair what looked like a belt. I was slow back then and was puzzling what their purpose might be.’

‘The next minute Albert reached over from the back of my chair and grabbed my wrists. ‘Sit still.’ he ordered. ‘He could be very violent, so we never usually argued. But something made me sense danger. I’d never trusted him, so I pulled my arms back with all the strength I could muster.’

‘At the same time, I threw myself to the side. I must have put some effort into it, because the whole chair tipped over and Albert and I ended up on the floor in a heap.’ ‘You bastard,’ he screamed as we both leapt to our feet. ‘You’ll pay for that, I’ll kill you.’ He let fly at me with his fist.’

‘What he didn’t know was that I belonged to a boxing club. I trained quite regularly. They told me I’d be useless in a boxing match because I was too soft and never liked to hurt anyone. But even so they taught me everything. Also, although I’m big, I’m quite light on my feet.’

‘Hearing him screaming at me and seeing his fist heading my way, I danced aside, pushed his arm to one side so his fist missed me, and I knocked him out. I don’t know who was more amazed, I’d never really hit anyone with any force before then.’

‘Albert was now lying unconscious on the floor. Part of my boxing training had been on the dangers of leaving an unconscious opponent on his back, so I rolled him over on his side and stood waiting for him to come round. Whilst I waited, his dad walked in and stopped dead with his mouth open.’

‘What happened?’ he asked. ‘He tried to tie me up,’ I told him, ‘So I knocked him out.’ He looked frightened and turned and walked out. I half expected the police to arrive next and arrest me for assault. But eventually Albert came round and no one else had arrived.’

‘He lay there looking up at me and I realised he looked frightened. I couldn’t believe that anyone could be frightened of me. ‘Don’t hit me again,’ he whimpered, ‘I didn’t mean any harm, I was just playing a joke on you.’

‘Whilst I’d waited for him to come round, I’d had a look behind the chair. There seemed to be two ropes behind it secured to the floor at one end and what looked like two wrist sized loops on the end nearest the chair. I had no idea what he had planned to do. But it was clear that he had been intending to tie me up and had gone to a lot of trouble to do it. That didn’t seem like any joke to me.’

‘Well, I didn’t appreciate it,’ I told him, ‘If you ever lay hands on me again, I’ll show you what I can really do when I’m angry.’ I was quaking in my shoes as I said it, but it seemed to work. I never saw him again and that was that.’

‘When I first knocked him out, I had a few moments of fear that I’d killed him. I was so relieved when I felt a pulse. I’m now happily married and had forgotten all about it until I got your text.’

‘I hope the lad he attacked is ok and this has helped you,

George.’

Lewis replied telling him that because of his prompt action he had probably escaped being killed. ‘The lad recently attacked is fine,’ Lewis told him. ‘What he did was immediately accepted as self-defence. Thank you for replying, I hope you have a long and happy life.’ He added a thumbs up and sent it.