'True, Brian, but we'll give it a try. You and Ian can start with Oldman, then McCall, I'll save Patterson till last, let him sweat a bit. And try to find out who came to the door while the girls were in the flat, the guy who smelled nice. Also, I'd like some of these pictures printed to take into the interviews with us, let me know when you're ready.' Brian nodded, and headed off. Ann allowed herself a little smile. She had a feeling she would sleep better tonight than she had of late.
Chapter 8
Allan was busy charging the last few drill holes ready for the day's blast. Having completed the drilling, Jim Steel was lending a hand, shovelling gravel down each hole after the explosives were in place.
'Did you hear about the excitement round our way yesterday?' Jim was asking.
'No, what happened?' Allan carried on deftly preparing charges as they spoke.
'Police were all over the place. They're supposed to have arrested Benny Patterson and some of his mates. Everybody is saying it's to do with the lass that died of the overdose. Apparently Patterson had a car near his house stashed full of drugs. That's one of their tricks, you know, they get an old car, don't register it, then keep the drugs in it instead of in their house. That way, if the police find anything, they just shrug and say it's nothing to do with them, it's not their car.'
'Does that mean Patterson will get away with it?'
'Naah, not this time, the stupid bugger had the keys in his kitchen, and the police used them to find the right car, plus they reckon it's probably covered in his fingerprints. After all the publicity about that video he was in, admitting he was involved in the death of that lass, there's no way the police are going to let him walk away from this one, that's for sure.'
'Do you think that video did some good then?'
'I'm sure of it. Shamed the police into trying that bit harder I reckon, instead of just letting it fade away.'
'Yeah, well, you could be right, we'll never know for sure.'
With the last hole charged, Allan made a check with the meter before attaching the length of twin-core wire that would allow him to fire the blast from a safe distance. After reeling out around fifty metres, he checked with the meter again, ensuring everything was fine. He wouldn't attach the battery pack that he used to fire the blast until the last minute.
There would be a delay now while the road contractor cleared the public road adjacent to the blast, in case a passing vehicle were to be hit by a “flyer” from the blast. The technique they had been using was a rolling road block, rather than stopping the traffic completely, avoiding the hazards and delays that a total stoppage tended to entail.
Two site vehicles would approach the blast area from a couple of miles to the west, another two from the east, and then, co-ordinated by radio, the pairs of vehicles would position themselves two abreast to block the traffic behind, gradually slowing to a crawl. By stopping the traffic from entering the zone between the converging roadblocks while allowing traffic to exit, a clear break was created, allowing the shot to be fired safely. Following the blast, all being well and no debris on the road, the signal would be given for the blocking vehicles to speed up and normal traffic flow would resume, often with many of the drivers unaware anything out of the usual had occurred.
As soon as Allan received the signal to proceed, he connected the battery pack, then waited while Jim gave the sequence of horn blasts to indicate a shot was imminent. A final look around to confirm the road was clear, and that no pedestrians had wandered into range, and he pressed the button. There was a series of sharp cracks blurring together, the flash snaking from hole to hole, then the deep boom as the solid rock lifted and shattered. Allan quickly moved forward, checking every charge had gone off, then, satisfied there were no misfires, he indicated to Jim to give the long horn blast to signal the all-clear.
He noted that nothing had landed on the road, and gave himself a mental pat on the back. Within a couple of minutes he saw the traffic moving again, so no mishaps with the traffic management side of the job. All in all, a very good day's work.
Allan and Jim weren't quite finished yet, they had to return their equipment, particularly any unused explosives, to the magazine for safe storage. Unfortunately, as the job progressed this was taking longer and longer due to the fact that the magazine was in the opposite direction to their home, meaning that after dropping of their gear, they then had to turn about, and head back the way they had just come.
'Are you coming down the Cross Keys for a pint, Friday night?' asked Jim, as they eventually headed for home.
'Probably will, Julie and I have nothing planned.'
'You ought to be taking that wife of yours out a bit more often, give her a treat, otherwise she might be off with someone else.'
'Do you have a notion yourself, is that what your saying?'
'I wouldn't say no if she was available, she's not bad looking for her age.'
'Well she's not available, so you just behave yourself. Not that she would look twice at a young whipper-snapper like you anyway.'
'That's what you're hoping, but you can never be sure!'
'I can be sure of what would happen to you if you tried it on, that's good enough for me.'
'Oooh, you're so scary, I think I might poop my pants..... ouch!'
Allan punched him on the shoulder.
'Okay, okay, big man, I'm only kidding you!'
Allan knew Jim was only winding him up, but he started to think to himself that he could have a point, maybe he should be making more of an effort.
The keep fit regime at the gym was paying dividends for Julie. He had noticed she was a little trimmer, a bit fitter looking, he had found himself admiring her body as she stepped from the shower, or undressed for bed. A petite, attractive brunette, there had always been plenty of other guys interested, but he never seriously believed she would be tempted, though he could well be deluding himself. Jim was right, how could he be sure?
He decided to make more of an effort, arrange a nice treat some weekend. But not this weekend, that would be too obvious to Jim, who, convinced he had Allan worried, would rib him mercilessly. No, next weekend, he decided, he would take her somewhere nice.
D.I. Morrison's team were gathered in the main office,
'Ian, where do we stand with the car?'
'Bought for cash five months ago, boss,' replied Ian, 'Never registered, taxed or insured by the new owner, so although we believe it was Patterson's, we may struggle to prove it. However, his fingerprints are all over the driver's side of the car, his prints are on the car keys and items in the car, including the packaging used for illegal drugs. And of course the fact that the keys were in his kitchen should make it easy to confirm that he is the main user of the vehicle.'
'And the drugs themselves?'
'Approximately one kilogram of cannabis, one hundred and fifty grams of cocaine, approximately eighty grams of heroin, a handful of ecstasy tablets, and..... one hundred millilitres of liquid ecstasy, a.k.a, Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, implicated in the death of Linda Hope.'
'Okay, things look promising there. How about the interviews with McCall and Oldman?'
'Surprisingly it was McCall who cracked first. However, once we had his statement, and told Oldman that he was up to the neck in it along with Patterson, he changed his tune and was desperate to shift all the blame onto Patterson. They both state that it was Patterson who picked up the girls, he was the one with access to the flat, he supplied the drugs, he dumped Linda in the bathroom when she was sick, and he drove the others to another party without seeking any medical