when Steven eventually found a secluded place to leave the car. He hid it behind a clump of fir trees about thirty metres back from the road.
There hadn’t been much traffic on the road up to the turn-off but he had passed a couple of large four-wheel drive vehicles travelling in the other direction. They had caught his attention because they weren’t the usual workaday Land Rovers used by farmers. They were Toyota Land Cruisers, fairly new and heavy on polished chrome — the type of vehicle used by the well-heeled to pull themselves out of the suburbs in the morning, or more relevantly, by film and TV crews to move their equipment around. It made him fear that Merton had already been spooked into a move.
Steven checked his location on the GPS and punched in the co-ordinates for The Abbey. He didn’t actually need such sophisticated help at the moment because weather conditions were good but he wanted the machine to remember the route he was taking so that he could retrace it should a mist come down later or if he had to return in darkness.
The terrain wasn’t flat — more a wild, undulating plain with low hillocks and rocky gullies and ditches to negotiate. Steven found it hard going but enjoyed the challenge to his fitness. It had been a while since he had been put to the test. With a mile still to go to the abbey, he finally took a break and a drink of water while he got his breath back.
There was a hillock to his left which he reckoned was about a hundred feet high so he decided to climb it and see if he could see The Abbey. He’d also be able to see the lie of the land ahead and plan his final approach. He crawled up the last ten yards to the crest of the hill on his belly so that he wouldn’t suddenly appear on the skyline. It seemed unlikely that anyone at the abbey would be keeping a lookout but old habits died hard and being over- cautious was always better than taking anything for granted.
Steven found that he had a view of the abbey. Using the Zeiss glasses he could see that the tower and main building of the abbey were now ruins but that various out-buildings to the right of the main structure had been restored using similar stone and were obviously in use. He determined that he should make his approach from the left where the ground was hillier and would offer him more cover than the right, which was almost flat for four hundred metres.
Twenty minutes later Steven was in position. He was about a hundred metres from the ruins of the abbey, lying in a small gully between gorse bushes where he had a clear view of the East side of the buildings that were in use. He had a good view of the single-track approach road so that he was in an ideal position to monitor comings and goings should there be any. There were lights on inside one of the buildings so he kept his glasses trained on the windows.
The room he was looking at appeared to be an office but the two male figures he could see inside seemed to be moving around rather a lot. After a few minutes it became obvious that they were packing things into boxes on the floor as if preparing to move out. Steven was excited at this prospect and what he thought might be the reason behind it although, once again, he had to concede that he might already be too late.
The two men disappeared from sight and after a few minutes Steven heard car doors being slammed and an engine starting up. He didn’t see the vehicle until it had come round from behind the building and emerged through an arch to join the track across the moors. It was a white, unlettered, Ford van. At this point the driver, a young man in his twenties paused to wave to someone at the window. Steven’s view was obscured by the van until it moved off and then he was able to get a good look at who was standing there. He focused the glasses and had no doubt at all that he was looking at John Merton.
‘ Well, well, well,’ muttered Steven as he reached into his rucksack to bring out his mobile phone. ‘Got you!’
He was about to hit the send button on his phone for the Yorkshire police number he’d been given when he noticed with dismay that there was no signal. Hoping that this was because he was down in a gully, he moved back a few metres and crawled up to higher ground. There was still no signal at all.
Steven cursed but had to admit that this was probably not that surprising. The phone companies didn’t spend money erecting masts in the middle of nowhere where there were no customers to use them: he was probably two or three miles from picking up a signal. As he stuffed the phone back in his bag he remembered suggesting once to Sci-Med that they equip their people with satellite phones, which would not be dependent on ground antennae, but budget considerations had won the day. He now had to decide whether to retreat and call in the police or make an arrest himself.
There was no reason to believe that Merton was armed but on the other hand, he could not be sure that he wasn’t. He could not even be sure that Merton was the only person in the building, although there had been no sign of anyone else in the last hour. It seemed increasingly likely that the two Land Cruisers that he’d seen earlier had in fact come from The Abbey and had been staff moving out with their gear.
Steven decided against heroics. He owed it to Jenny not to take any unnecessary risks. He would return to his car along the narrow single-track road that he had been reluctant to drive along. This would be quicker than the cross-country route and would also afford him a view of any vehicle using the road. He felt confident that the sound of an approaching engine would alert him in time so he could move off the road and hide until it had passed while getting its number to pass on to the police.
Steven was preparing to move off when he heard a door bang and he dropped down again to train the glasses on The Abbey. Merton was outside and he was moving backwards while he reeled off cable from a drum he was carrying between both hands. He stopped every so often to make some sort of connection on the ground before moving off again. Steven was in no doubt that he was wiring up a series of explosive or incendiary charges before leaving. Why he was doing this could only mean one thing. There was something to hide inside.
TWENTY TWO
Steven knew now that he would have to try and stop Merton. He abandoned his plan to head back to the car and looked for the best way to tackle him. While there was a chance that he was armed it was important that he keep the element of surprise on his side. He couldn’t hope to cover the clear ground between him and the ruins while Merton was still in view so he would wait until he had moved out of sight. Steven watched him pause to make made two further connections before moving behind the office building he had originally emerged from.
Steven sprinted across the open ground in a crouching run, his heart in his mouth until he found cover in the shadow of the old stone tower where he knelt for a moment to consider his next move. He heard a door bang again and reckoned that Merton must have gone back inside. He peeked out to make sure the coast was clear before making another dash, which, this time, took him up to the end wall of the office building. He saw with relief that there were no windows in the gable end so he was safe again for the time being. There was a dark blue Range Rover sitting there and it was full of black equipment boxes. Steven took a moment to write down the registration number before moving slowly up to the end of the gable. He planned to crawl on his belly along the base of the back wall to reach the door where he would burst in and tackle Merton.
Lying flat on the ground, he used his elbows to push himself just clear of the gable end wall so that he could look along the back wall. All he saw however, was a pair of shoes. They were pointing towards him and about a metre from his face. Steven looked up and saw John Merton, standing there, pointing a gun down at him. Merton used the barrel of the gun to gesture up at the ruins of the tower. Steven looked up and saw the CCTV camera pointing down at him. He cursed himself for having overlooked the possibility.
‘ Who the fuck are you?’ said Merton.
‘ I’m Steven Dunbar. I’m here to arrest you for offences connected with the false imprisonment of David Little,’ said Steven.
‘ The fuck you are,’ said Merton calmly. ‘Well, always nice to put a face to the voice. So you’re the guy who got Ronnie Lee shitting his pants, the bozo who’s been causing us all the trouble.
‘ Put down the gun,’ said Steven.
‘ I’m hardly likely to do that now, am I?’ said Merton. ‘Let’s be adult about this. Get up, turn around and place your hands on the wall.’
Steven did as he was told while Merton searched him for weapons.
‘ Be sensible, Merton. The police are already on their way.’
