Three Steps to Hell (24 page)

Maria tried desperately to release herself from the car, she was shaken and disorientated but otherwise unscathed. Her attempts to escape were in vain as she realised that she was surrounded by three armed Police Officers and could not locate her own weapon inside the vehicle. Resistance was pointless and her arrest was swift and very forceful at gunpoint. She was handcuffed, searched and transported to Brampton Police Station where she was documented, subjected to a full body search by a Woman Police Officer and forcefully placed in a holding cell, which she didn’t think fit for a pig let alone a human. The indignity of it all, she thought to herself. Being caught and treated like some common whore or shoplifter, my father would be ashamed of me.

For Maria the future looked bleak, it was to be a long and tedious day ahead to say the least.

Tom had been quite lucky. Prior to the arrival of the ambulance a paramedic had been winched down into the cove by the coastguard helicopter which had been on a training exercise a little way down the coast. They had been monitoring the police radio channel and offered their assistance. The paramedic had been working hard to stabilise him until the ambulance crew arrived and were able to move him from the cave. Moving him by stretcher up the path to the ambulance had not been an easy task.

Tom was exceptionally weak and had lost a considerable amount of blood. An emergency operation was carried out on him immediately upon his arrival at Brampton Hospital. It was to be a difficult, lengthy and complex operation. Due to the damage to his knee a decision had been made to re-construct it using a new knee joint. He would be in hospital for sometime so his condition could be closely monitored following the operation.

Superintendent Davies attended Colmar Grounds to take overall command at the scene. Sadly he lacked confidence in DI Lowe’s investigative experience. He was of the opinion that Lowe would be at a total loss with such a large and complex cross border inquiry. He left him to take control within Brampton Police Station. There he could be more useful by utilising his administrative and command and control skills to set up and run an Incident Room. It had been a difficult night for all concerned but it was to be a very long day ahead too. There was an enormous task ahead for a very small number of Officers and Superintendent Davies would greatly miss Tom’s vast operational experience during this investigation. Evans’ body had been removed from the scene following photographs and limited forensic examination. Progress was difficult as the tide was coming in fast and it was becoming more and more dangerous for Officers to remain in the lower cave. After high tide any forensic evidence would be completely lost forever.

Paul Dorsey was also in custody and was in complete panic in the cells a few yards from Rashid who still refused any form of co-operation with Detectives. Dorsey was only too keen to co-operate, in fact anything to get out of the cells.

Carlos had somehow cleverly managed to escape and disappear into thin air. He had removed any identifiable personal belongings that he had temporarily kept at the cottage and gone without a trace. No one was even looking for him, because none of the Officers knew of his involvement or even of his existence. Somehow he had managed to leave via the back entrance to the cottages completely unseen. His 4x4 had made easy work of a couple of fields and he had emerged out onto the main road well out of sight and well away from the commotion further down the road near the East Point junction. Like Maria he always had well thought out contingency plans for such events. Unfortunately Maria’s had gone slightly wrong but she wasn’t a quitter. It wasn’t in her nature to be negative. However, at the moment things didn’t look particularly rosy.

Superintendent Davies managed to obtain a few more Officers from the Alpington Incident Room to assist temporarily. He knew this would be a very convoluted, lengthy and time-consuming investigation. House searches, examination of business papers, bank accounts, computer information, names from mobile phones, landline telephone records, tracking down of employees and co-conspirators and many arrests. He assumed that the most difficult part of the investigation would be trying to trace how and where the vast sums of money had been laundered and felt sure that Maria Peterson would have been very careful and very clever with this particular task. He also recognised the fact that it was unlikely that either Maria or Rashid would be willing to talk to police at all. He was hopeful that Tom would soon be in recovery and able to shed some light upon what had occurred that night inside the lower cave.

Maria had twice, during the following day, been placed in an interview room for formal interview but she had refused on both occasions to co-operate or answer any questions without first having legal advice and having her Solicitor present. She had been allowed to contact the law firm in London that she had used for many years and who, at one time, had been on her father’s payroll. The same firm that had looked after her, Carlos and his mother so well when they fled Valencia to a new life in England. They had promised to have one of their top associates there to see her and advise her either late afternoon or evening. For reasons only understood by Maria, that message had given her great hope.

Maria sat in her cell wondering how she could possibly tolerate prison life. This was her first experience of being in a cell. She hated it. She had just been given some food and it was completely disgusting. I wouldn’t feed this to a dog, she thought to herself. She used her meditation skills to close her mind to her current predicament and in an effort to become deeply relaxed, lift her spirits and focus her thoughts positively.

She was almost drifting off to sleep when the sound of the outer gates to the ladies cell complex caught her attention and returned her to the here and now. An innately ugly, overweight and scruffy young WPC looked into her cell then unlocked and opened the door and spoke.

“Your solicitor is here Mrs Peterson.”

“About time but don’t send him in here, I will not speak to him in a filthy smelly cell.”

“I wasn’t going to, come with me, you can speak privately in one of our interview rooms.”

“Where’s the Custody Sergeant, who are you?”

“He’s on his meal break, I’m WPC Adams. We’re a bit short staffed tonight probably because of everything that’s going on to do with you.”

“I’m pleased I’m so important. Didn’t your mother teach you how to put some make up on and do your hair young lady?”

She noticed WPC Adams blush.

“There’s no need to be rude madam,” she replied.

Maria followed WPC Adams to another room and she was placed in interview room number 2.

“Wait here Mrs Peterson, I will go and get your Solicitor from reception.”

WPC Adams locked the interview room door, walked to the outer cell block security gates, unlocked them and then locked them behind her. She walked to the front office and public reception area where she could see a very handsome well dressed man waiting. What a gorgeous man she thought to herself, wearing an immaculate pin striped suit and carrying a classy looking leather briefcase and a black raincoat over his arm.

“Mr Lacey?” she enquired.

“Yes, that’s right, I’m here to see Mrs Peterson, I’m her Solicitor.”

“You can come through and see your client now, I have put her in one of the interview rooms ready.”

She led him back through the security gates, locked them behind her and led him to interview room 2. She unlocked the door and he entered the room. He looked at Maria sitting at the table.

“Mrs Peterson?”

“Yes.”

“I’m James Lacey.”

“I’ll leave you two together,” interrupted WPC Adams.

“Thank you Miss, don’t you want me to sign the custody record?”

“No, there’s only me here. I’m standing in for the Custody Sergeant while he has his meal break. You can sort that out with him as soon as he returns. I’ll leave the interview room unlocked, I’ll be over there in the office if you need me or if she starts causing problems,” she closed the door behind her.

“Am I glad to see you,” Maria exclaimed, she smiled.

“I bet you are, do you like the suit?”

“Very smart, you clean up quite well Carlos, you got a plan?”

“Of course I have, this will be as easy as shelling peas. You didn’t think I would leave you here did you?”

“No. Probably will be easy, did you see the glint in that WPC’s eyes when she was looking at you? Mind you, you do look pretty damn fetching in that suit Carlos,” Maria smiled affectionately.

“Right, to business, so what’s the plan?” she enquired anxiously.

Carlos smiled and put his briefcase on the table in the centre of the room. He opened it, lifted the papers and offered Maria the pistol, ammunition and silencer that lay beneath next to a roll of duct tape.

“Nice touch and where’s yours?”

Carlos tapped the outside of his suit jacket under his arm.

“Great,” things are looking up Maria thought to herself.

Carlos removed a couple of things from his briefcase and put them in his pockets.

“We need to strike now while the Custody Sergeant is at his meal. The front reception is manned just by some timid looking civilian clerk. I was expecting this to be difficult, it’s going to be a doddle Maria. I’ll go and order us a coffee I think.”

Maria knew exactly what his intentions were. Carlos opened the door and walked over towards the Custody Sergeant’s office. He smiled sweetly at WPC Adams.

“What’s the problem Sir?”

“My client would like some coffee princess and I’ve got to say I wouldn’t mind having a cup myself, I had a terrible journey down from London.”

Carlos walked into the office and stood right next to her.

“I’m quite happy to pay,” he said and put his hand inside his suit jacket as if to go for a wallet. He had noticed the keys on the desk.

“There’s no need Sir,” she replied.

“Oh but I insist!” Carlos replied, as he drew his gun from his shoulder holster and pressed it directly against her temple. He smiled threateningly. WPC Adams made a brave lunge towards the cell block panic button but was unable to get to it before Carlos had struck her across the head with the pistol butt. She fell to the floor. Seconds later, with Maria’s help, they had placed her back in the chair and used her own handcuffs to secure her hands behind her back through the back of the chair. Maria had bound her legs to the chair and gagged her mouth with duct tape.

Carlos had been careful to observe which keys the WPC had used to let him in through the outer gates. He picked up the keys from the desk.

“Come on this will be easy. We walk out of here slowly and calmly. We don’t draw any attention to ourselves and if there is a problem we shoot our way out. Piece of cake,” he announced reassuringly.

And it was that easy. They unlocked the security gates and then locked them behind them. They walked together out of the police station via a back door that Carlos had noticed as he walked in from the reception area with the WPC. It led out into the back yard. There was no security on the back door, a code button pad to get in but nothing to get out. They casually walked back round towards the front of the police station to the public parking area and got into the rear of a waiting car.

Due to the serious shortage of staff caused by events at Colmar Grounds they didn’t see another Police Officer. It was a good twenty minutes before the Custody Sergeant returned to his office to find WPC Adams bound and gagged and one of Brampton‘s highest profile prisoners missing. By the time the alarm was eventually raised Carlos and Maria were miles away in an untraceable, powerful and elegant executive Mercedes heading for a small private airport.

During the journey Carlos outlined the plans that he and some associates had made to facilitate Maria’s escape. In his briefcase were all the false identity papers and passports that they would need for the journey. They had already made one brief stop in an isolated lay-by where the driver had changed the number plates on the vehicle in case it had been recorded on the CCTV cameras covering the public entrance to the police station. He felt this was unlikely as he had gone to great lengths to park and manoeuvre out of sight of the cameras, but the plate change was a good precaution nonetheless.

Sure enough, back at Brampton Police Station complete panic had set in. DI Lowe was on duty and was desperately going through the recent CCTV footage to establish how they had left the police station and in an effort to identify a getaway vehicle. Unfortunately his mind was far too pre-occupied with what the Superintendent was going to say and how foolish they were all going to look for losing such an important prisoner so easily. His decision making was slow. Eventually they were of the opinion that they had identified a possible vehicle. They had, it was the Mercedes but the positions of the camera shots were such that the number plate was not adequately distinguishable. This discovery was as good as useless. He had details of the car type circulated by radio to all surrounding forces, ports and airports but it was too late and never going to be of much use.

It wasn’t long before the Mercedes was approaching the small private airport where Philip Lucas kept his private jet. Although owned by him, the luxurious eight seater Citation jet was registered to a spurious South American mining company, one of a few used exclusively by Lucas and Maria to facilitate large scale money laundering.

The security guard at the airport was secretly on a financial retainer to Mr Lucas in return for turning a blind eye to various comings and goings and being very economical with any written records relating to his visits or those of his associates. He had a good rapport with Lucas’s driver and minders who he knew would cause him some serious injuries if he dared to pry or didn’t do what was expected of him. He liked the extra money and wasn’t particularly interested in their business anyway. Earlier today his palm had been crossed with a little extra cash to ensure that should there be any police arrival, the Officers were stalled and misdirected away from the jet until it was well and truly airborne. So easy had been their escape that it looked extremely unlikely that such a problem would arise.