Three Steps to Hell (23 page)

The vibrate mode on Maria’s mobile activated. She went to her pocket and took out her phone. She looked towards Carlos and Rashid.

“The sensor on the path has triggered towards the top cave.”

“Get out of here now Rashid, you’re on your own, you know the path and the grounds, so go now, this instant. If you make it past whoever is up there contact PL immediately. He will look after you and will know what to do. If you get caught and talk you’re a dead man.”

“What about you two?”

“Oh we’re always well prepared, we’ll be fine, we’ve had contingency plans for years.”

“But I’m the only one without a weapon.”

“Be clever then, now fuck off before I shoot you myself.”

Tom was now totally unaware of what was being said, he could barely stand the pain, his knee was bleeding profusely and due to being tied up he was unable to stop the bleeding in any way other than fully straightening his two legs which were bound at the ankles. This slightly closed the wound but didn’t do much to help. The subsequent pain was so severe whilst trying to do this that he once again lost consciousness.

“So what do we do Maria?”

“This is my mess Carlos, I am going to confront them. I’ll have to use my incredible looks and feminine charm to get out of this.” She smiled to herself.

“How the hell are you going to do that?”

“Never you mind but while I’m doing so get into the shadows and be gone. If I manage to talk my way out of it and get away, I’ll be in touch. Use PL as a contact. If not, I will need some serious help from an exceptionally good solicitor at the police station, I think you can organise that can’t you?”

“No problem,” Carlos raised his ski mask and kissed Maria on both cheeks.

“Good luck.”

“And you, don’t worry about me, go on, now, this instant!”

Carlos disappeared out of the cave into the shadows of the night.

Both Carlos and Rashid knew the path, rocks and grounds better than anyone and used that knowledge to make their way individually back up the cliffs, keeping to the shadows and rocks to stay away from the main part of the path.

Sweetface had brought with him four other Officers, DS Taylor, DC Jones and two Uniformed Officers. Tom’s screams when shot in the knee had done them a favour. They were at the top cave and spread out to take up positions along the path. Sweetface had moved down the path a little further away from the others. He was suddenly aware of a woman running towards him screaming for help. He shone his torch in her direction and realised it was Maria Peterson. As she approached him she recognised him.

“Constable Sweeting, Constable Sweeting, please help. Tom is down there he has been shot, he’s in a bad way and there’s another person down there dead. I don’t know what’s happened, please please help.” She grabbed hold of Sweetface’s arm. “Come on, come on, you have to do something.”

“Calm down Mrs Peterson, what the hell are you doing down here?”

“My alarms were triggered which woke me up, I came outside and heard shots. I came down to the bottom cave, Tom’s in there, he’s been shot and another man is dead. I saw a man in a ski mask running off into the darkness. Come on, please help.” All the time she was pulling Sweetface down the steps trying to confuse him and succeeding.

“Hold on,” he ordered sternly.

By this time the other four were behind him.

Suddenly in the shadows all of them heard the sound of falling rocks like heavy boulders being dislodged on the cliff adjacent to the path. Three of them pointed flashlights in the general direction and picked out the shape of a person in dark clothing wearing some form of ski mask.

Maria immediately recognised the figure as Rashid by the outline, build and clothing.

“That’s him, that’s him, the one who shot poor Tom, get him, get him.”

DC Jones and one of the Uniformed Officers clambered across the rocks towards him. Rashid desperately tried to regain his footing but unfortunately was unable to do so. Try as hard as he could he couldn’t get away. He was arrested by the two Officers without a struggle. He refused to talk and was quickly searched for weapons.

“No gun Sarge!,” DC Jones shouted to DS Taylor.

“He’s probably thrown it in the sea,” shouted Maria and again started pulling at Sweetface’s arm.

DS Taylor instructed DC Jones and one of the Uniformed Officers to take Rashid up to the house and to wait there. DS Taylor, Sweetface and the other Officer followed Maria down to the cave.

She showed them the entrance to the cave and pointed to where Tom lay unconscious and Evans lay dead.

“Christ almighty!” Sweetface exclaimed.

“Give me a hand to get them free.”

He checked Evans for a pulse but there was nothing, which was no surprise given the bullet hole in the centre of his forehead. Sweetface tried to awaken Tom with the PC’s help, whilst DS Taylor kept a close eye on Maria.

“What the hell happened here Mrs Peterson?”

“Never mind that, help Tom, aren’t you going to help your colleague, stop him bleeding,” Maria shouted and feigned panic in an effort to keep them from suspecting her in any way. All the time desperately hoping and praying that they would not be able to rouse Tom so he couldn’t tell them that it was her who had shot him and also killed Wayne Evans. A perilous situation for her, she wanted to get out of there now. Her pistol was well hidden within her clothing but she had to wait for the right opportunity to get a chance of using it and getting away.

“We need an ambulance, paramedic or something,” screamed Maria, putting on a wonderful act.

“Mrs Peterson calm down that’s what I’m trying to do,” shouted DS Taylor, the sound of the crashing waves and the rising tide making communication between each of them more and more difficult.

“Dave, can you get a mobile or radio signal, I’m getting nothing.”

“No nothing Sarge.”

“Don’t be so stupid,” Maria shouted at them, “We are in a cave of course there’s no signal, come, I’ll take you to the house you can use the phone there for whatever you want and your other colleagues can use the house. You might get a signal on the path.” She had a plan in mind, grabbed DS Taylor by the arm and pulled him towards the entrance to the cave.

“Are you two okay here with Tom, Dave?”

“Yeah fine Sarge, you go and get help but watch her, she’s a devious woman well involved I expect. We’ll do what we can for him to stop the bleeding.”

Maria glared at Sweetface but chose not to respond, her mind being totally occupied on her plan for a swift, successful and permanent departure from Colmar Grounds. She knew that this evening would be the catalyst to an immediate arrest, a massive investigation, a search of the house, offices and all buildings, further arrests and a murder enquiry. She hadn’t even managed yet to move everything incriminating. Thus, a major haul of cocaine worth millions, large amounts of cash, weapons and many other tools of her trade would be discovered promising her a long and uncomfortable prison sentence and she feared bail would be highly unlikely pending any trial. Another problem would be the discovery of a few items that she had told police had left the house with her husband Colin on the morning of his disappearance including his briefcase, wallet, diary etc. and the obvious additional murder enquiry that would follow on from that. No, she had to get out of there tonight before being searched or arrested. She couldn’t believe her luck that she hadn’t yet been searched. Of course she was fully aware she had one big advantage at this very moment, a loaded and silenced pistol. Having grown up in a country where the police are armed 24/7, she had always found it quite laughable that British Police were not armed on the whole and had to call in specialist Firearms Officers when firearms incidents arose. Luckily she knew in a place like East Point that locating armed Officers would take a bit of time, especially when coupled with the communications difficulties that faced them because of its isolated position.

Luckily Martin’s brain was working well that night. He had heard bits and pieces of what was going on and had received an update from DC Jones regarding one person being arrested who was refusing to say anything and had no weapon. Martin had also been made aware that Tom had been shot and another person lay dead. In the absence of any instructions from Tom he had made a personal decision to call for firearms back up, (an armed response vehicle). Also a traffic car to block the junction of the main A693 Coast Road with the East Point Road in case there was any vehicular movement from the scene. He had arranged for a Senior Officer to be called out which would probably be DI Lowe if they could get hold of him, a tracker dog and Scenes of Crime as it would be a murder scene. However, the most urgent and most important had been his call for paramedics or an ambulance for Tom which was on its way.

It wasn’t long before Martin was informed that the traffic car and a firearms team, (ARV), were also on their way and he updated DC Jones by mobile as radio reception was still poor even at the house.

Just as DC Jones had received this information and was putting his mobile back in his pocket he saw DS Taylor and Maria Peterson approaching the house. He shouted the information across to his Sergeant that he’d just received from Martin. The firearms’ team concerned Maria and she knew she had to act quickly.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry she shouted to DC Jones I forgot the front door was locked, I always keep it locked especially as I was really spooked by the trip alarms being triggered. I’ll open up and you can go indoors and use whatever facilities you want.”

Rashid had had his ski mask removed and was glaring at Maria. She totally avoided his stare and convincingly treated him as if he were a complete stranger.

They all walked into the hall and she showed them into Colin’s office.

“Have you found out who this man is yet?” Maria enquired insistently.

“No Mrs Peterson, he won’t say a word. Are you sure this is the man who shot Sgt Lancaster?”

“Of course I am, I will give a full statement, don’t worry about that, what a bastard, what’s he doing here and who’s the other man who’s been killed? What the hell has been going on on my property?”

“Mrs Peterson calm down, I need to search you,” Sgt Taylor demanded.

“Of course,” she replied with one of her beautiful smiles. Aren’t men easy she thought to herself? Smile sweetly at them and look seductive and you can get away with murder, literally, I hope. Maria pretended to start to take her coat off but in a very rapid and calculated movement drew her pistol from within her clothing and levelled it directly at DS Taylor’s head. No one spoke.

“You fucking fools, now get over in the corner of the office and keep your hands in sight, I doubt that any of you are armed anyway but keep your hands where I can see them.”

She held the gun levelled still at DS Taylor. She took a few paces back towards the door and as she passed Colin’s desk she took a key from the top drawer. She walked backwards out of the office door.

“I’m going to lock this and as you will probably notice there are security bars on the outside of the window to this room, my husband was paranoid about security for his business matters and papers bless him.”

“This is stupid Mrs Peterson, how far do you think you will get?”

“Oh a long long way away, you won’t find me Sergeant. Perhaps Tom will come looking for me one day if he recovers, that would be fun,” Maria smirked.

Rashid spoke up, “Maria what about me, aren’t you taking me with you?”

“Fuck you Rashid, this is entirely your fault, rot in hell and remember your assured reward if you talk. Decide to give evidence against me and you know the outcome. About time I moved on anyway.”

Before any of the Officers could make a comment she smiled at them and shouted sarcastically, “Bye all,” blew them a kiss, slammed the office door and locked it behind her. She grabbed the Range Rover keys from the hall table, her handbag, phone and purse from the sideboard in the lounge and ran out of the front door. She got into the car and went up the drive with her foot flat on the accelerator, the pistol now on the seat beside her.

The wheels of the car struggled to get grip on the deep loose gravel, throwing stones out in every direction. Once onto the tarmac drive she got some traction and accelerated hard towards the main road smiling to herself, confident in her escape. She loved to be a winner. Her father had taught her that only fools or dead men are losers. She had made a rather stupid oversight tonight though. In her panic to get away she had forgotten to take their mobiles and radios.

It was not long before they managed to break open the office door, Martin had been quickly updated and now had confirmation that both the traffic car and armed response vehicle were approaching the A693 East Point Road junction. He was in full radio contact with them from his observation point. He had seen Maria leaving Colmar Grounds at speed in the Range Rover. Martin’s instructions to the approaching police vehicles were clear and concise and they lay in wait for her at the end of the road. They had the whole junction covered by parking both vehicles bonnet to bonnet across the roadway. Two of the armed Officers had found themselves vantage points where they could take an accurate shot if required to do so.

Maria approached the junction at speed, saw the two police vehicles in her path and could see Officers standing outside the vehicles. One was waving a red torch light indicating for her to stop. She slowed a little to give them a false sense of security. As she neared the vehicles she once again accelerated hard. The impact of the Range Rover caused considerable damage to both police vehicles and pushed both sufficiently apart for her to get through. She noticed two armed Officers shouting at her and levelling weapons at her. She accelerated down the coast road away from Brampton and heard two shots. She was aware that her rear tyre must have burst as it was becoming more and more difficult to control the vehicle. One of the police vehicles was obviously still driveable as it was now pursuing her down the road at speed. Having momentarily forgotten the flat rear tyre, she negotiated a very tight right hand bend far too fast, lost control, hit the kerb, veered back across the road and collided with the side of a Post Office delivery van coming in the opposite direction. She once again lost control, mounted the nearside grass verge and the vehicle came to stop on its side embedded into the hedgerow.