Chapter 36 Flash Back
Roland was in a terrible state, he had just lost his wife Marianne, and the baby she was carrying. It would have been their first child when she was a victim of a hit and run driver, who was never caught.
It was just fate that he decided to go to the new store that had just opened its doors to the public. His heart missed a beat as he saw Joanna pushing a trolley full of all sorts of things and he decided to follow at a discreet distance, but in the same aisle. A man followed close behind, but kept looking back at Roland. Roland carried on, looking at items he didn’t want to buy. He just wanted to have a word with her to see if she remembered him. He stopped suddenly as the man approached him.
‘Are you following us?’
‘No!’ lied Roland, ‘Just doing my weekly shopping!’
‘You haven’t bought much, here let me help you!’
And with that the man scooped a whole armful of tins into Roland’s basket, some had missed the basket altogether and rolled around the store floor. There was such a noise that everybody stopped and looked.
The man strode quickly to catch up with Joanna and then he was running and purposely pushed Joanna in the back and she went into a pile of tins. On seeing this Roland ran towards the man and accidently tripped on nothing and pushed the man into another pile of tins.
Roland felt the power that surged through his body. He had succeeded in being at the right end of things. The man had a gun, Roland was sure, because of the tell-tale straps that criss-crossed his shirt with the bulky holster and the black shiny gun. His action saved her life and he rushed to her side and placed his Jacket under her head and seeing the bruising beginning to materialize as half a dozen tins had rained down on her forehead. Roland was kneeling down and he turned on his heels and faced the man, and was able to slip his hand under his jacket and lift out the gun and place it in his own pocket. He would get rid of it as soon as possible. Ambulance men arrived with a stretcher and placed Joanna on it and he removed his jacket. A very large tin was rolling around on a shelf where the man lay. He was beginning to wake from his accidental connection with the tins, but he was too late to avoid what happened next as the large tin came down and hit the man on the nose. It really was gratifying seeing his blood spurt high in the air. Two store people came running over to him and placed some lint over his nose. His response to this kindness was to brush the people aside and he staggered to his feet as Joanna and the stretcher bearers were going through the main door. He didn’t care anymore, he was going to kill Joanna and the ambulance men if they got in the way. He went charging down the store holding his nose. He was just a few feet away from them and he went to draw his gun from the holster. It was not there. He slithered to a halt. There was a surprised look on his face as Roland patted his jacket pocket just to make sure he still had the gun – it was there.
After the incident at the store, Roland’s troubles really began to happen in very large doses. His flat was ransacked and damaged, his time on the flag pole, his car blown to smithereens. The boat and car ride. He had been tied up, placed in a freezer and would have frozen to death had he not been able to escape. He was shot at and all seemed to be because he was kissed by the person he had been allowed to take to a dinner and dance. He had been mistaken for someone else. He thought he was safe when two policemen from Scotland Yard came to his assistance, but they turned out to be in the pay of someone who wanted him dead, but he hadn’t found out who it was.
There appeared to be so many players involved in this mystery, some so remote it was impossible to tie them in as to what was what. What was the connection between the Mafia and a high up member of the Government? He was not to know until he met Martin Church, the man who worked under Grahame Goodall, the one in charge of M.I.5. and Martin didn’t know all the answers. He was as much in the dark as he was.
Chapter 37 Martin Church
Martin was beginning to understand or he hoped he was, as how surprised Goodall was to see him in the office and he mentioned the news about Chan, which was a terrible mistake on Goodall’s part as there was no identity mentioned on the radio or television. The news would be broadcast at the lunch time National News. But Martin couldn’t be sure what news he was referring to as the headlines that morning in his paper had been varied and he hadn’t much notice as he recalled that none were absolutely mind boggling. It could have been the house that mysteriously blew up or someone phoning in saying they thought someone was firing a gun.
Martin knew all that, he was there with Chan and Richard and members of the elite force of snipers were firing their guns at all of them. Pity one of the snipers forgot to put his silencer equipment on his rifle. The house having blown up would mean any chance of bullet holes being found in what was left would be hard to spot.
After what Chan had told him about the brutal attack on him and the blackmail by Goodall, Martin was wondering who had vetted Goodall for the job in MI5. Goodall’s association with the Russian Embassy was always looked upon as getting information for the British Government, and although there were snippets of news, nothing really important came from that quarter. If the truth be known, it was the contents of many “Top Secret” files which were being passed over to the Russians. He told Martin that he always had a good recipe for a dessert for them because they were always inviting him to their dinners. Martin now knew what the recipes were.
Martin became suspicious about Goodall’s car and made a visit to the garage. They hadn’t started on the car yet and one of the mechanics had told him that he thought the red paint described by Goodall’s brush with a bollard turned out to be blood and there seemed to be a minute piece of material that looked as if it had come from a dress. The mechanic said someone could have been leaning against the car and somehow caught their dress on it, although he didn’t know how. Somehow Martin didn’t believe what the mechanic said about someone leaning against the car, because the way Goodall drove, it might have been a person he hit. He took the samples they had and placed them in a plastic bag to send them to the Forensic Department next morning.
The reason why they had not started on his car is because of the mechanics finding this evidence which needed to be addressed, but Martin told them to carry on with the job and not to mention anything at all. He would do the investigating.
This piece of news about Goodall’s car might be of interest to Roland James because he had confided in Martin about his wife’s unfortunate death by a hit and run driver and Goodall with all his connections might have been the driver who had asked for a favour on the grounds that the woman had been another foreign agent that had to be eliminated. It had been far fetched even when Goodall handed the file to Martin to read. Martin had no idea of the connection at the time and seeing how Goodall drove his car, it was certain that he had been the callous hit and run driver.
The jigsaw pieces seemed to be coming together to make the bigger picture against Graham Goodall, but to prove it was going to be difficult. Accusing the department head of MI5 of all the events that had happened in the past month was going to take some precision planning, unless of course Goodall made the first big mistake himself. “Pigs might fly!” thought Martin. He was unlikely to make such a mistake when his life depended on him being calm.
Perhaps he would be able to cause a problem when they had their “Cobalt Exercise” next week.