The Becket Approval by Falconer Duncan (best big ereader .TXT) 📗

to the floor. As she struggled, the thugs stepped in and closed the door. One of them produced a roll of masking tape and wound it around her head several times to cover her mouth. Another secured her hands and feet with plasticuffs and within seconds she was trussed up like a calf ready for branding. The third extended the blade of a builders knife. Bethan’s eyes widened and she tried to scream. He knelt down over her, cut into the carpet along the length of her body and continued to score a large rectangle. They pulled up the corners and rolled her in the carpet like a hand-made cigarette, picked her up and carried her out of the house.

The back doors of a van were opened and the carpet roll was unceremoniously thrown in. The thugs climbed in and it drove away. Jedson stood in the doorway waving at the van. He looked up and down to see there was no-one about, not that he particularly cared, closed the door and walked off.

 

 

Chapter 23

Gunnymede parked the bike in a residential street and switched off the engine. Narrow terraced houses lined both sides of the street. A couple of kids were kicking a ball about. An old man cycled past with a basket of groceries hanging off his handlebars. The light was fading. It would be dark in less than an hour.

Gunnymede walked a short distance along the pavement to a house and studied the front door. A most familiar door. In his mind’s eye, he saw it open and a beautiful girl with a broad smile stand in the doorway, anxious to hug him.

Poor Megan.

He rang the doorbell. A light came on in the hallway and a figure could be seen through the thick smoked glass panels marching along it from the back of the house. The door opened and Jack Henderson stood there. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’

‘We need to talk, Jack.’

‘This isn’t a good time.’ Jack was distracted. ‘Can you come back tomorrow?’

‘It’s important.’

‘Surely it can wait a day.’

‘It can’t.’

‘It will have to. Sorry Devon. I’m really busy.’ Jack started to close the door.

‘It’s about the Becket Approval,’ Gunnymede said.

Jack froze. A moment later he opened the door. ‘Where did you hear those words?’

‘The first time was from Megan.’

‘Megan?’

‘You didn’t think you could keep secrets from her living in the same house, did you?’

Jack had to concede that point.

‘She told me because she was worried for you. She thought it would lead to serious trouble for you.’

‘I see ... can we meet up later? I’ll be free in a couple of hours.’

‘Jack. The secret’s out.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I came here to warn you.’

A couple walked past the house making Jack suddenly conscious of how public their conversation was. ‘Come in.’

Jack closed the door but remained beside it.

‘The police know,’ Gunnymede said.

‘How?’

‘The organisation has been busy lately ... It was only a matter of time.’

‘What do they know?’

‘Enough to take a lot of cases off the unsolved shelf and start taking a closer look at them.’

Jack was vexed. ‘How do you know this?’

‘I’ve been working with Scotland Yard.’

Jack shook his head. ‘I don’t believe they have anything we need to worry about.’

‘A dozen Albanian border guards ... Mustafa Lamardi in Macedonia. A couple of lawyers in London last week ... The police are talking about them.’

The cases clearly meant something to Jack. He sighed deeply as he looked down the hallway towards the other end, his mind churning. He finally came to a decision. ‘You’d better come with me.’

Jack led the way down the hallway to the back of the house and into a large kitchen. Half a dozen men were gathered, all waiting silently for Jack to return. They were surprised to see Gunnymede, as much as he was to see them. Peters the farmer, Charlie, Boris the Bull, three other hard looking men and a woman Gunnymede didn’t recognise.

‘What’s ’e doin’ ’ere?’ Boris asked angrily.

‘Easy, Boris,’ Jack said.

‘This is a surprise, Gunny,’ Charlie said.

‘He’s a police officer,’ Peters said.

‘He’s MI6,’ Charlie explained.

‘He came round my farm with a female copper,’ Peters chimed.

‘Calm down, everyone,’ Jack said. ‘He’s got something to say I think we all need to hear.’

‘I don’t care what ’e’s got to say,’ Boris said, his tone aggressive.

‘Shut it!’ Jack interrupted in a raised voice, glaring at Boris. ‘He came here with something important to say and it will be said. Go on, Devon.’

They all looked at Gunnymede with suspicion.

‘I’ve been working with the police as a consultant,’ Gunnymede said. ‘Peters was one case. The two lawyers killed in London. Another was in Albania. A dozen border guards killed by a sniper.’ Gunnymede didn’t miss that one of the men he didn’t know reacted ever so slightly to the comment. ‘Mustafa Lamardi was killed in Macedonia, by the same sniper.’ The same man blinked again in a way that Gunnymede couldn’t ignore. ‘You a sniper?’ he asked the man.

Charlie looked between the man and Gunnymede. ‘Sidney was “M” Squadron’s best,’ he said. ‘But so what?’

‘M’ Squadron was SBS. ‘Nice shooting,’ Gunnymede said.

Sidney looked away sheepishly.

‘The police are working on the premise they were the work of a single organisation,’ Gunnymede continued. ‘A group of revengers made up of special forces and military intelligence.’

‘What’s that got to do with us?’ Peters said.

‘Yeah, why you tellin’ us?’ Boris asked.

‘No reason. I just thought I’d drive all the way down here and mention it,’ Gunnymede said.

‘Okay. So just because you think you know where to come, it doesn’t mean the police do,’ Charlie said. ‘Or does it?’

‘I don’t believe they do right now,’ Gunnymede said.