Remember Remember (39 page)

June 16
th
, SBCT Headquarters, London.

Commander Bagshaw and Major Rock waited silently while a pretty young lady served coffee from a cafetiere and offered chocolate digestives to the two gentlemen. To the young lady it was just another ordinary meeting on an ordinary day and she closed the door as she left.

Rock sipped his coffee but declined the offer of a Chocolate digestive. He replaced his cup in his saucer, smiled at the Commander and said, “will anyone else be joining us sir?”

“No Major, there will be just the two of us today, so please begin.”

“How long do I have sir?”

The commander looked up at the clock on the wall and replied, “About thirty minutes, I have another appointment at eleven; so tell me about York and Yoxford.”

He cleared his throat, opened his briefcase for his notes and began his debrief as the commander listened in silence and made a few brief notes. In fifteen minutes Rock had completed his debrief and sat back in his chair waiting for a response. Bagshaw poured more coffee for both men, passed a cup to the Major and looking intently into the Major’s face responded, “You do firmly believe that Johnson met with others at York races?”

“Most certainly sir, he knew we were tailing him, he knows the racecourse very well and I’m sure he knew how best to ensure he wasn’t followed.”

“What do you think would have been the purpose of the meeting.”

“I really do not know sir.”

The Commander grunted and nodded his head, “Have you any idea who he might have met?”

“My colleagues have a list of the members of the race course and of those who own boxes at York. We also have a list of those people who booked seats and parties in the various restaurants. The boxes at York are generally owned by very prominent people, among them some high ranking Arab gentlemen, but that does not mean to say they were there on the day, met with Johnson, or indeed are in league with him. We are looking at CCTV footage of people entering and leaving the races and especially the entrance to the boxes, but to no avail as yet. Therefore I’m sorry to say that the racecourse line of enquiry may go cold sir.”

“And what about Yoxford, what are your thoughts about the situation there?”

“There is now no doubt those three people died from inhaling weapons grade anthrax and that they were innocent of all involvement with the stuff before they actually inhaled it. Therefore the two things I think we need to establish are where it came from and how it got to Yoxford and those gardens.”

“You say gardens.”

“Yes sir, there were small traces of Anthrax in adjoining gardens which makes me believe it floated down from above or was blown on the wind.”

“But why Yoxford?”

Rock chuckled and shook his head, “I have no idea sir, it makes no sense, which makes me believe it was either a test or a mistake.”

“Go on.”

“Well, they either wanted to test its potency in a small way, so released it say out of a car window in a small village to wait and see what happened, or the stuff was released unintentionally.”

Bagshaw sipped more coffee and shifted position in his chair, “We may never get to know how it got to Yoxford but what about your other question; where it came from.”

“That may be an easier question to answer, because as you know there are only a few countries in the world where this stuff can be made.”

“Or so we think,” interrupted Bagshaw.

“Yes sir,” confirmed Rock and continued, “I have arranged for a sample of the Yoxford anthrax to be matched with all other samples we currently have access to at the Porton Down Germ Warfare establishment; including a sample taken from the containers in Turkey. My bet is that the Yoxford and Turkish samples will match.”

“Maybe,” interrupted Bagshaw “and what if they do?”

“Then we will know for sure that some of the Anthrax manufactured in Iraq has found its way through Turkey to England and the one name that keeps cropping up in all this is Alan Johnson.”

Bagshaw smiled and pursed his lips, “I’m sorry to say that you still have no concrete evidence to link Johnson to Iraq or the Anthrax.”

“No I have not sir, which is why I would like your permission to interrogate Johnson one more time at the Marham complex.”

Bagshaw looked startled, “Marham! We have discussed this before and agreed it was not appropriate; whatever do you think you will gain from taking him there now?”

“The truth sir, once and for all we will know if Johnson is linked with the anthrax and the murder of the man in Olu Deniz.”

“So you intend to torture an innocent man to get some form of confession out of him. You know that after a few days there, people will say anything to be released?”

The Major’s voice rose and his body stiffened. He looked directly into the commander’s eyes and said, “Sir, this is a national emergency, we are now investigating the deaths of three people on British soil who died from inhaling weapons grade anthrax. If there’s more of it about in the UK and we estimate enough was taken from those containers to kill half of Europe, then we need to know where it is and what they intend to do with it. As far as I’m concerned one man’s pain at Marham is a small price to pay.”

“As long as it’s someone else’s pain.”

The Major glared at his boss and growled, “I get the feeling you’re trying to protect Johnson sir.”

“Of course I’m not trying to protect Johnson. I’m trying to protect the right of freedom of innocent men, especially against torture, which is outlawed in nearly every civilised country in the world.”

He rose to his feet and paced behind his desk then asserted, “You will not take Johnson to Marham until you have more evidence to link him with either the Anthrax and deaths of those three people or a terrorist plot against the UK,” Bagshaw paused and looked directly at the Major, “do I make myself clear.”

“Yes sir, you make yourself clear.”

Bagshaw sighed and his body relaxed, “When will you get confirmation from Porton Down?”

The Major now rose, paced the room and explained, “They say they’ll need at least three weeks to match the stuff sir; god knows why it takes so long but we have no choice but to wait, which is another reason why I wanted to interrogate Johnson.”

“That option is closed at the moment.” barked Bagshaw who now sat behind his desk, smiled up at the Major and said softly, “Take a seat;” he waited for him to sit down then continued, “we’ve got time on our side and an awful lot of resource to help us solve the Yoxford and Johnson problem; so we both need to be patient and wait for the outcome from Porton Down.”

“Sir, the terrorist threat is at its highest level and I think time is something we are running out of.”

“That threat level is not with regard to Johnson or Yoxford,” he said raising his voice slightly; “good grief you’ve been watching Johnson for nearly two years now and still have nothing on him,” he sighed, looked again into the Major’s face and said, “Let’s wait for the results from Porton Down, but still have a watchful eye on Johnson.”

After a moments silence Bagshaw looked at his watch then asserted; “Now I do have another meeting to go to Major; therefore I must close our briefing. Please make a diary date with my secretary for our next meeting and keep me informed of Porton Down and Johnson.”

The two shook hands then parted and it was a slightly confused Rock who found himself walking toward the tube station.

July 2
nd
, The Brown Cow, Stockport.

Alan Johnson ordered three more pints of beer for the group. Dave and John thanked Jacky as she placed the frothing pints gently onto the beer towel, took his money, disappeared round the corner and reappeared a little later with his change.

She smiled at him, took hold of his hand and placed his change in it; “There you are my darling,” she teased, “but don’t you be having too many more pints, you’re supposed to be taking me out tonight remember?”

“Of course I remember darling,” he replied, “how could I forget?”

“Well you’ve already had three pints and you know what you’re like after a session.”

“Falls asleep on the job does he,” laughed John.

She turned on him, “That’s none of your business is it, you’re always looking for the sex angle.”

John turned his head up to heaven and opened his hands pleading, “Sex angle, I never mentioned sex, it’s you who’s got it on your mind love.”

“Yeah,” interrupted Dave, “making poor old Alan do all those strange things to satisfy your lust.”

“What strange things,” she shouted, then looked at Alan and continued, “What the hell have you been telling them?”

He smiled and shook his head, “They’re taking the Michael love, just ignore them.”

She grabbed her bar towel and made an effort to clean up the bar. Alan looked at his two friends again shaking his head and said, “One of these days you two old sods are going to go too far taking the piss and she’ll get you barred.”

“Get us barred, we’re the best customers this pub has, if we go so do the profits,” quipped John.

“Alright, she won’t bar you,” Alan said pointing a finger at Dave, “but remember who pulls the pints here, you never know what she might drop into your glass do you?”

By this time Jacky’s cleaning operation had brought her back to them.

“Hello again boys, had any more dirty thoughts while I’ve been gone?”

Dave looked at her sheepishly and pleaded, “Sorry love, please don’t put strange things in our beer will you.”

She looked him straight in the eyes and hissed, “Now, there’s a thought isn’t there, perhaps a little something to keep you regular.”

“Good grief,” gasped John, “this stuff does that already.”

“So say you’re sorry then boys.”

All three chorused as one, “We’re very sorry Jacky.”

“Thank you boys,” she turned to walk around the bar and caught sight of Sergeant Lawrence entering the pub from the rear car park. She already had a pint of beer waiting for him as he approached the bar and said, “Your usual, Sergeant.”

“Thanks love,” he replied as he took hold of the pint and swallowed a good third of its contents, wiped his mouth and continued, “I needed that; best pull me another one before you go.” He pulled a wad of notes from his shirt pocket and offered her a ten pound note.

Alan had also seen Lawrence arrive and was now walking round the bar to meet him.

“Afternoon Sergeant.”

“Afternoon Alan, what can I do for you?”

“I’ve come to report to you Sergeant that Jacky and I are going away on holiday soon and I thought I’d tell you all about it and save you and the tax payer a lot of time and money in the process.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” queried Lawrence.

“Oh bugger off Sergeant, you and your team have been tailing me for months, I can’t even go racing without bumping into a copper.”

The Sergeant’s face became serious, “Then you’d better tell me where you’re going Mr Johnson, hadn’t you?”

“We’re going on a Costa Cruise, sailing out of Savona on July the 25
th
and touring the Mediterranean.”

The Sergeant smiled at him and responded, “Sounds very nice, will you be meeting anybody else on your journey?”

Alan pursed his lips and furrowed his brow then said, “Don’t think so Sergeant, it’s just me and the beautiful Jacky.”

“Well I hope you both have a lovely time, see you when you get back.”

“Thanks Sergeant,” he smiled and walked past to the outside gents.

Lawrence looked back toward the bar, caught Jacky’s gaze and said, “This holiday you’re going on, it’s a bit short notice isn’t it love?”

She shook her head, “No not really, we decided to go in June after the York races. He won quite a lot of money there and so decided to splash out.”

“I see, well I hope you enjoy yourself love, but keep safe won’t you.”

July 8
th
, SBCT Headquarters, London.

Again there were just two present at the meeting, Commander Bagshaw and Major Rock. They now had the results of the anthrax tests from Porton Down which had confirmed the anthrax found in Yoxford was the same as that found in the containers in Olu Deniz.

Rock had also debriefed the Commander with regard to Alan Johnson’s proposed holiday and both men were now discussing the possible strategies ahead.

“We could always detain him under the anti-terrorism laws; sir.”

“And do you think that will make him inform us of what he may or may not be doing?”

“No sir,” the Major paused but, “Marham is still an option.”

“If you take Johnson to Marham you will get information through torture, but will that information be of any use?” growled Bagshaw.

“It will tell us once and for all if he is linked to Olu Deniz and the Anthrax.”

“It may, but it may not get you any further than finding the murderer of a man in Olu Deniz. I think our more important consideration is the one regarding Anthrax and why Johnson is going abroad again?”

“My initial thoughts are to meet others who are involved.”