Roger decided he would give it a few minutes and then walk back over the bridge and risk walking along the path on the other side and past the back of Kevin’s house and see if he could take a look, although he could see the fence was probably about two metres high and had what even from that distance looked like wire spikes on top.
Once he got to the metal fence, it became clear there was no way to get a look inside. The green fence was high and on the other side, apart from a gap where the gate was located, there were high and dense trees lined all along. Kevin definitely didn’t want anyone seeing inside.
Roger walked back to his van to sit and wait to see if any vehicles came out. By 2 p.m., nothing had happened. He made the decision to collect the vehicle trackers from the collection point. eBay offered a service whereby he could arrange for the items he purchased online the previous afternoon to be available for collection from the local branch of Argos after 2 p.m., Roger needed to take them back to the house, charge the batteries, read the instructions and set them up and test them. So he wouldn’t be able to use them until the following day at the earliest.
An hour later, Roger had the batteries of the three devices on charge and was registering the details onto the website so he could use his phone to track any vehicles he attached them to. The batteries would last for about two weeks before the devices needed to be charged again. He hoped that was enough time.
Chapter Nineteen
MODERN-DAY SLAVES
The next morning just after seven, Roger was back on Fen Road wondering what that day would bring. He didn’t have to wait long. Just ten minutes after he’d arrived, the Transit van drove out. Roger followed the vehicle to a local builder’s merchant where Kevin and Tyson got out and walked into the main building where Roger assumed they would pick up supplies.
He parked three bays down from the Transit and walked towards the building. Just as he got to Kevin’s van, he pretended to drop his keys under the Transit and bent down, trying to make it look like he was to retrieve them. He took a transmitter out of his pocket and attached the magnet side of the device underneath the van in a place that couldn’t be seen. He picked up his keys and walked on to the building. He took a quick look around and saw Kevin and Tyson over the other side picking up supplies. He walked slowly back to his van and drove out and parked up in a nearby side street and checked the transmitter was working. His phone showed a street-by-street map of the area and the position of the tracker.
It wasn’t long before he saw the Transit on the move. Now he could follow it at a safe distance and not be seen. He followed them to a large house in Kimberley Road in Cherrywood just in time to see them unloading the ladder from the roof of the van. If the previous home visits were typical, it looked like they would be there for about two hours. Roger would just have to sit it out, but he had everything he needed, a flask of hot coffee, sandwiches he’d made before leaving the house, and a folded blanket to place across his lap for the times he might need to use his plastic bottle for a wee.
While he waited, he used the time to order other things he decided he needed. When he had walked down the path by the river behind Kevin’s house, he noticed a man fishing under a large umbrella on the far side of the river just down from the back of Kevin’s house. It could be a good place to sit and observe. He would need the fishing gear and a pair of top-quality binoculars. The ones Roger had gone for after his research were a pair of Steiner x50 Military Binoculars with anti-reflective shielding to ensure they wouldn’t give off a glint of light or a momentary reflection that could give away the fact he was watching. Under the darkness of the large fisherman’s umbrella, it would simply look like a man waiting for something to take the bait.
In the meantime, he would continue to watch the O’Connor family and learn everything he could about their illegal operations.
Now the tracking device was in place Roger could sit at home with his computer and track every move Kevin’s Transit made. He wanted to take a closer look at the house. The fishing gear wouldn’t be available for him to collect until later in the day, so he had some spare time. He got in his van and drove to his usual spot on Fen Road so he could take a walk along the riverbank and get an idea of the best vantage point. However, just as he was about to get out of his vehicle, he noticed a Transit van coming out of Kevin’s drive. But this wasn’t the same vehicle that he’d attached the tracker to. This vehicle had the wording ‘TC Driveways’ on the side.
Roger quickly jumped back in his van and followed the Transit. He had to try to keep up, and this driver was driving far quicker than the previous van.
After nearly four miles, the Transit pulled up at a big house on Parkers Piece, a small square of detached houses in an exclusive part of Cherrywood. Out of the driver’s door stepped Tyson O’Connor. No wonder the driving had been different. Out of the passenger door stepped two very scruffy-looking workmen, the same ones Roger had seen unloading the boxes from the
