The Criminal Escapades of Geoffrey Larkin (19 page)

‘Well, as long as you are getting better. I'll be in touch as soon as I fix up another interview,' said Ian Lovett as he backed off towards the open door, still holding his handkerchief to his face.

‘Oh, Mr. Lovett,' said Geoff, ‘I had a friend in school, Dave Higgins, and he's still in the area so, for old times' sake, I'd like to look him up when I get the chance.' Mr. Lovett took his hand off the door handle.

‘Yes, he lives in the block of flats at the other end of the town. I have his address here. I've got to see him tomorrow so I'll remember you to him.' He then scribbled an address on a scrap of paper and passed it over to Geoff.

‘Thanks, Mr. Lovett but I would appreciate if you didn't as I'd like him to be surprised when he hears from me.'

The probation officer nodded as he left the room.

Geoff watched him make his way down the stairs, closing the door to the bed-sit at the same time as Ian Lovett pulled the front door to the property behind him on his way back out into the street. Geoff sat on the bed, deep in thought. He would not be able to cope with all this pressure and the uncertainty every time someone rang their buzzer or when they were approached by a stranger in the street. They would definitely have to move and very soon. If he could not persuade the rest of the gang to go he would have to look after number one. Much as he knew he wouldn't like leaving them, he would have to go it alone, leaving the other three to their eventual unpleasant fate at the hands of the forgers.

*

That same day at the police station, little progress was being made on the murder enquiry. Sidney Locket was still under police guard and still on the danger list at the hospital. No more forged notes had turned up in the town. Sergeant Robinson had sent two detectives to all the businesses in the area that had security cameras that still had films of the day the briefcase theft had taken place. They had instructions to obtain all these recordings. The team would check to see if anything of any relevance was available for around the time of the unreported theft.

The detectives he had sent to the hotel had also drawn a blank. Mr. X had been collected at the station by a local taxi and brought to the hotel. They had traced and interviewed the taxi driver who said that Mr. X had paid with a £20 note but the driver had given it to a customer later in the day in his change from a £50 note. So, if that twenty was a forgery, it was still floating about somewhere in the system.

One of the cleaning maids remembered watching from a bedroom window as Mr. X walked down the lane to the main road and was collected in a black car. She didn't know the make or model of the vehicle and it was much too far away to see the number plate. She was only looking through the window for a few moments but she did think that it was a little odd that the car did not come to the hotel entrance to collect him, especially as it was raining quite heavily at the time. Unfortunately, she never gave it another thought until she was interviewed.

It was much later the same day that Constable Wilson, who was assigned to checking the films from the speed cameras, rang Sergeant Robinson and asked him if he was free to view a section of film that was quite interesting. What the film showed was a motorcyclist who had been recorded exceeding the speed limit at the time of the theft. Caught on the camera was a pedestrian crossing the road behind the cyclist.

‘As you can see sergeant,' said Constable Wilson, unable to hide the excitement in his voice, ‘from the position of the pedestrian in relation to the position of the motorcyclist at that time, he would have had to walk either in front or behind the taxi that was dropping off Mr. X in front of the railway station.'

‘You're right there, Wilson, that's spot on! Well done! This is a pretty good breakthrough even though I say it myself. Mind you these are lousy pictures though. Can we get any clearer details of the pedestrian?'

‘They're with the lab now. They'll be in touch as soon as they've something to show us,' Wilson responded

‘You go and chase them up Willie; this is important and pretty vital information.' Constable Wilson went off to follow the sergeant's instructions, feeling quite pleased with himself. To be called by his first name by the sergeant was praise indeed.

*

The police station did not have the facilities to modify the film themselves so it had to be sent to a specialist firm and that involved obtaining an order and request form which, in turn, needed signing by a superintendent or a higher-ranking senior officer. This all took time and a lot of explaining, especially, if the senior officer was not involved in that particular case.

It was late afternoon before Constable Wilson had obtained all the necessary paperwork forcing him to make his way to the industrial estate at the far side of town just as the rush hour was beginning. When he eventually arrived at the photography and printing firm, they informed him that it would be the following morning, at the earliest, before they could analyse and possibly improve the film. This information did not go down very well with the sergeant when Constable Wilson reported back to him at the station that evening.

Sergeant Robinson was coming under severe pressure from the superintendent, who in turn was under pressure from the chief constable, to get some results on this high-profile murder.

*

It was a very sombre group that met that night at Geoff and Sooty's bed-sit. It was John Bolton who eventually broke the long silence.

‘I've been a bag of nerves at the garage all day. Every time a strange car pulled up outside I hid in the back of the garage breakdown truck.'

Derek Bolton was also suffering the same. ‘Every time someone entered the shop I went into the work area at the rear of the premises, especially after I'd used the shop's computer to track down the list of numbers and the names written in German that had turned out to be bank accounts.'

Geoff said he had experienced the same feeling when Ian Lovett had called that afternoon.

Sooty said that he felt fine and couldn't understand what their problem was.

‘I think, if you want my opinion, we have got to leave,' stated Geoff. ‘I think we have got to go tonight. If we stay here any longer we risk being either caught by the coppers or by the gang of fraudsters.'

‘How do you mean leave here tonight, Geoff?' a surprised Sooty responded. ‘What about our jobs and the digs?' he continued, quite bemused.

‘Never mind the jobs, what about all our lives?' quipped Derek Bolton.

‘Where will we go?' echoed his brother.

‘We'll go to the city,' said Geoff. ‘We've got enough money to see us through for the next few months. The problem is we can't give the cards, the money, the plates or the bank numbers back because we don't know who to give them back too! We'll just have to lie low in Manchester and hope that, in time, it all blows over.'

What he did not tell the rest of the team was that he had made a phone call that afternoon talking to his old associate Jock the Fence, to see whether it was possible and how much it would cost for him to obtain four forged passports. But one thing at a time, his survival instinct was screaming for him to get as far away from this area as quickly as possible.

‘I liked my job at the garage, it was great until this last scam went belly-up,' voiced John gloomily.

‘The same here,' answered Derek. ‘My boss has just offered me a rise as well.'

Even though they fought against it, they knew that it was inevitable; if they wanted to survive they could leave it no longer, so the group unenthusiastically decided to depart the area. On Geoff's insistence they were reluctantly persuaded and agreed with much grumbling to leave that very same night.

The Bolton brothers would go back to their digs, pack a couple of holdalls and leave an envelope with a couple of weeks rent with a note explaining that they had left quickly because of a family bereavement but they would be back shortly. Geoff would do the same for the digs he and Sooty shared.

In two hours' time they agreed they would all meet at the town railway station.

When the Bolton brothers had left, Geoff searched around and found several large plain envelopes. In the first, addressed to Mrs. Oaks in the flat below, he placed the money for two weeks rent, using clean money taken from the cash points, along with a short note explaining their sudden departure. He would slip it under her door when Sooty and he left the premises that night.

Next he collected all the forged £20 notes, counted them and placed them in three piles. He thought at the last count that he had enough for three equal amounts, but there was so much money he must have been mistaken. He placed the first pile in one of the envelopes and addressed it to Mr. Daniel Goodier, Managing Director, The Show House, Goodier Estates. The second envelope he addressed to Mr. David Higgins at the address that Ian Lovett, the probation officer, had given him that morning. The third he addressed to the principal, Mr. Tattersall, at the school. These envelopes he would place in the post box at the railway station. With all these men he reckoned he had a score to settle.

He had no doubt whatsoever that they would spend the money no questions asked. That would, he hoped, throw both the police and the gang of murderers off the scent for a while. While he was writing the addresses, he gave Sooty the envelope addressed to the landlord. ‘Go down and slip it under the door of Mrs. Oaks' flat Sooty, then to wait in the corridor; I'll be down in a few minutes.' Sooty threw his haversack over his shoulder then went, as quietly as he could, down the stairs.

He slipped the envelope under the gap at the bottom of Mrs. Oaks' apartment door then he took a £20 note from his top pocket and slipped that under the door as well. He felt quite independent and proud of his actions as he stood in the dark hallway waiting for Geoff. All those £20 notes lying about on the kitchen table, no one would notice if one was missing. Anyway, he quite liked the old lady and he hoped this would go some way to compensate her for having to clean the mud from his work boots off the stairs.

It was dark when the lads met at the pre-arranged time at the bus stop. Geoff had felt it safer to catch the bus rather than risk being caught on the railway station security cameras. He also used one of the credit cards at a cash point. Seeing that the card was still operating and had not been stopped, he used several of the other cards at the same cash point then several more at two points near the bus stop.

*

It was a disappointed Constable Wilson who reported back to Sergeant Robinson that morning, at the incident room in the police station, passing on a message from the printing works.

‘The speed camera had caught the speeding cyclist highlighting his number plate which was what it was designed to do. It also picked out a pedestrian in the background but, unfortunately, the details of the pedestrian were rather blurred. The technicians at the photography printing works informed me that the equipment they had available was not advanced or designed to highlight his features more than they already had done.'

‘We're not making a lot of progress constable,' voiced a thoughtful Sergeant Robinson, chewing the end of his pencil.

‘The printing company suggested we could try sending the film to the FBI in the States. They said their equipment is far superior to anything that is available in the UK.'

‘Okay, you do that, Wilson,' said the sergeant as he picked up the phone that had started to ring. ‘Oh, and when you've done that, come down to the interview room. They've just told me they have picked up the last one of those four that were near the station. It's the mate of Higgins, it's his cousin, Wilf Norton,' shouted Robinson as Constable Wilson went through the office door.

It was an hour later in the interview room that the associate of Dave Higgins, who had previously refused to say anything at all, was being interrogated. His silence continued until he had been shown photographs of his friend in the hospital and Sergeant Robinson had read out the doctor's report on the injuries that the town's hard case had sustained. Subtly hinting that the same gang, not having obtained the information they wanted from Sidney Locket, would by now have their feelers out and at this very moment would be looking for him.

‘We've got a name for that figure crossing the road, Wilson,' said the sergeant gleefully, ‘he was recognised by this character in the interview room. He knew him from when they were together at the young offenders' institution. His name is Larkin, Geoffrey Larkin. The name rings a bell with me but I just can't place where from. You check the remand centre and get one of the other officers to contact the probation services. In the meantime, I'll call a meeting for half an hour's time then we'll get a team together to pay Mr. Larkin and any of his associates a visit.'

It was half an hour later, Sergeant Paul Robinson was briefing the rest of the team involved in the case who had gathered in the operations room at short notice. ‘Okay lads! We have more information that is for your ears only and not for gossiping with anybody not associated with this case. We've got, at the moment, the name of a person who was at the scene of several serious scams operated in the area over the last couple of years. He has a record as a juvenile for petty theft. I am not saying he is involved but he's a prime suspect in these outstanding scams. So, we need to bring him in for questioning on these cases.

‘We have an address for him but what has come to light and is very interesting is that he shares a flat and they were working together when the attempt to move the safe from the electricity board compound took place. There are also two more people that are known to associate with Larkin. These are two brothers, John and Derek Bolton. These also share a room at the hostel so we will be asking them to join us as well. Okay, we are splitting up into two teams. You've got your addresses of where these four live and work so let's get out there. See if when we come back here we have four characters who can throw some more light on their criminal activities.'