Chapter 5: Justice For Robert

SPECIAL GROUP

When trainee detective constable Reg returned to his ordinary duties, Brian greeted him with, ‘Well done all round. Your first job now you’re back, which should fit in with your liaison duties, is to think up the best way to collect Booth. I thought you might like to tackle that yourself.’

‘Incidentally, when you’re getting any help, there is no one in the Supers group who is not on your own list.’ ‘Understood.’ Reg said as he turned to leave. ‘Oh, by the way,’ Brian said, ‘I had a message from the one we call the terminator.’

‘He confirmed that he did what I asked. When he was preparing Russell for a lethal injection of heroin, he told him that the last words he would hear was this message from his arresting officer. ‘This is for Robert.’ Then as he pressed the plunger, he said it once more. ‘This is for Robert.’

‘Thank you,’ Reg said, ‘I appreciate that very much.’ At the door he asked, ‘Is it ok if I tell the team about my engagement?’ ‘Of course,’ Brian said. Back in the office Reg was pleased to see everyone was there.

‘Can I have your attention for a moment,’ he called out. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked attentively. ‘I just want to tell you all,’ he said, ‘That I’m engaged to be married.’ Everyone but Peter looked amazed. Aiden came over and shook his hand, ‘You don’t hang about do you,’ he said, ‘Congratulations. Who’s the lucky lady?’

‘It’s someone most of you know,’ Reg said, ‘Natalie Clancy.’ There was a stunned silence then everyone cheered and clapped. Aiden shook his hand again, ‘That’s lovely news,’ he said, ‘I wish you both every happiness.’

All the others came round to wish them well. Peter came over and gave him a hug. ‘You’ll make John and Angela a wonderful dad.’ He told him.

‘Thank you, everyone,’ Reg said. ‘We’re getting married at the Town Hall with our reception on the Manor Hotel’s floating restaurant on the Canal.’

‘We’re limited to fifty guests in both venues, so I’m afraid there won’t be as many invites as we would like.’ ‘As long as you two are there, we will all be with you in spirit.’ Glenda called out. Returning to work, Reg sat at the computer and pulled up all the information on Booth.

He lived in a terraced house in Ainley Close. This was in Brookvale, Halton, quite close to Perfect Transports yard. He had bought the house cash four years previously. The electoral register showed that he lived there with his wife.

The police computer showed he was twenty-six and had two convictions for dealing in drugs. One was six years ago and the first one eight years ago aged eighteen. Further checks revealed he had two children at primary school.

When the raid on the yard took place, he had been caught packing a couple of briefcases with heroin, presumably ready for Russell’s next collections. So clearly, he knew exactly what was going on. That, coupled with Martin Lewis’s assertion that he had instigated the Perfect Transports involvement, had been enough for the Supers group to vote, ‘Terminate.’

Since being arrested, he had signed on as unemployed. Records showed he was due to sign on the following day at ten am. Reg went over early and parked further down his road. At half nine Booth came out and got into his red Volvo estate.

Reg followed carefully into the centre of Runcorn. He pulled into Aldi’s car park then walked out away from the store in the direction Reg knew was the dole office. He waited a couple of minutes after Booth had disappeared from sight, then pulled into the parking space on the nearside of Booth’s car.

He sat still for a few moments, then got out of his car and opened his boot. Returning towards the driver’s door he pretended to trip. Once down, he fitted the trace underneath Booth’s car, then got up and limped around the car, just in case anyone was observing him. He closed the boot, got back in his car, and drove away.

He parked up a mile away on the route Booth would take back home, then sat and watched his monitor. Half an hour later the red dot started moving. Instead of heading for home, it headed for the motorway. Reg followed until Booth passed the Knutsford services on the M6 heading south.

Pulling into the services Reg rang Brian and updated him. They discussed what was best to do. ‘You don’t think he would be daft enough to go over to Italy and make contact with the suppliers. do you?’ Reg asked. ‘You don’t need brains to be a drug dealer,’ Brian said. ‘Anything is possible.’

‘Ok, come back to the station. We’ll put him in the ANPR and track him that way. He thinks he’s going to get off lightly with the charge he’s facing so he’s not likely to be fleeing the country.’ As Reg headed back to the station, Brian asked Peter to put Booth’s number in the ANPR.

Then he rang Lew Doyle to ask him to let his Italian contact know so that they wouldn’t stop him if he turned up at the transport yard. Peter then contacted the channel tunnel to see if he had made a booking. He would have tried the ferry companies next, but the channel tunnel confirmed Booth had a booking for an outward trip at seven pm that evening and a return trip in four days’ time.

Happy that they hadn’t lost him, they got on with other matters. Two days later Lew Doyle rang Brian. His Italian contact had rung him to say Booth had arrived at the transport yard in Arezzo and stayed there for two hours. Then he had left. As instructed, they hadn’t followed him.

He had been picked up on their motorway cameras heading in the right direction for the channel tunnel. Customs at the tunnel had been alerted not to stop him, but to notify Brian when he returned. That call came in on the second morning after he had left Arezzo.

Unless he stopped over or diverted, he should reach Knutsford services by four in the afternoon at the earliest. Reg and Aiden were despatched to wait at Knutsford with a monitor. As they waited, they chatted about Regs forthcoming wedding and other general things.

It was Aiden who brought up the subject of the Supers group. ‘I hear there could be a vote for a new member next time we meet,’ he said. ‘I assume that is you?’ When Reg said, ‘Yes,’ Aiden told him, ‘Well you’ve got my vote.’

‘Thanks,’ Reg told him, ‘How did you get involved.’ ‘I was invited to a dinner which turned out to be all the people who the Super had invited because he was sure of their views. I don’t think any of us had any idea of what was going to be suggested before we went.’

‘I don’t know what made him decide I was ok, but all of us had a decade or more service. We had all arrested people who should have been put down or at least locked up for life. Put in some risk and a lot of work to nab them, then hours of work collecting concrete evidence. After which, some glib barrister got them off. Or a daft judge gave them a sentence that would put them back on the streets in no time.’

‘Once it was clear that there was a good safety measure to avoid us dealing with the wrong person, we were all in favour. The Super made good choices for not one person backed out then or since.’ ‘I don’t know how that bit works,’ Reg told him. ‘I better leave that to the Super or Brian to explain in detail,’ Aiden said.

‘But take Booth for instance. None of us have the power to decide that alone. Once someone thought he was bad enough to be disposed of, he had to submit details to the twelve members selected at random as a jury. Unless their vote is unanimous, no action is taken.’

‘That was one of my worries early on,’ Reg said. ‘But nothing I discovered led me to believe that that had ever happened. As a victim I interviewed who’d had a phone call after his attacker disappeared said, ‘Until they make a mistake, let them get on with it.’

‘I know accidents can always happen,’ Aiden said, ‘But I really can’t see how we could make a mistake.’ It was just past seven o’clock when the monitor buzzed. A red dot had appeared past Sandbach, the next services south of Knutsford.

They watched it go past and head north. Moving out onto the motorway, they followed it a couple of miles behind. Booth then turned onto the M56 heading towards North Wales. Going along the M56, they expected him to turn off on the Runcorn junction, but he turned off at the one before for Daresbury.