“The weak spot is going to be your ex-wife and parents. Knowing the O’Connors, they’ll try to get at you any way they can. How about people at work? Anyone you’re close to?”
“Not in a romantic sense if that’s what you’re getting at. But I have a number of people who have worked for me for many years and are very loyal.”
Phil’s voice sounded serious. “As you’ve already seen, Kevin is prepared to do whatever it takes to eliminate any witnesses. If he thinks you are a witness to the murder of the security guard, then he’ll come after you with everything he’s got. This is not a man to be underestimated. The police have been trying to get something on him for years. The only time he’s been to prison was a few years ago when he was prosecuted for shoddy building work and taking people’s money under false pretences.
He went on. “You could become a witness and testify in court, but he’s a slippery customer, and there’s no guarantee of a conviction. There have been rumours for years that he’s got someone on the inside at the police station. If that’s true, he could find out where you’re being held before the trial; then you can imagine what he’ll do. I’m not trying to influence you in any way, but you need to think about your next move very carefully. The O’Connor family is ruthless. To be honest with you, I’m not sure what the answer is at the moment. All I know is these people will stop at nothing to find you and kill you. Even if you do decide to involve the police, I’m not sure you’ll be safe. I have to warn you that as long as you stay in Trentbridge, your life is in danger. When we were chatting earlier, you mentioned a cruise due to depart next week.”
“Yes. I booked it a few months ago, before my daughter Julie was killed. It’s a World War One Centenary Cruise to visit France and Belgium. My grandfather was in the war at the Battle of Mons and was one of the first soldiers to receive the 1914 star and due to an act of extreme bravery; he was later awarded the Victoria Cross. So I planned to go and pay my respects both to my grandfather who managed to make it through the war, and to the brave lads who didn’t come back.”
“Is your passport at home?”
“No. Because I make a business trip to Europe every few weeks, I leave it in my safe at work.”
“I suggest you go on the cruise. It will give time for things to settle down and O’Connor is unlikely to find out where you are. It should give us time to think of something. And I would advise you not to go home for any reason. They will probably have your home address by now. They could be waiting for you. You’ll need clothes and stuff for your cruise, but I suggest you buy them just before you get on the ship. In the meantime what are your plans?”
“I’ll stay here for a day or two and think about my options. In the meantime can I hire you exclusively for the next ten days and then we can re-assess the situation?”
“Of course. I think it’s best if you talk to your ex-wife and parents, and explain the situation. I’ll have a word with someone I know at the station ‘on the quiet’ and see if they can arrange for patrol cars to make a regular sweep of their addresses just in case the O’Connor’s try to do something.
“There’s one other thing I would recommend you do, so you can work out who you can trust. Buy two new Pay As You Go mobile phones. Mark one with an ‘F’ and the other with a ‘P’. Tell the police you have a new number and give them the one with the ‘P’. Give the other number to family and people you really trust. That way you will know if anyone is feeding information to O’Connor.
Three days later when Phil Jones checked with Gerry Payne at the Milton Motel, he was told Roger had paid his bill and left two hours earlier, thanking Gerry for his help but not saying where he intended to go.
Phil was glad that Roger had taken his advice and not told anyone where he was going. He knew Gerry could be trusted, but it meant Roger was following his instructions to the letter.
Roger had phoned Wendy Northgate at his company Trentbridge Engineering. His instruction had been crystal clear. Although the factory had normal security in place, she was to contact Atkins Alarm Systems and have state of the art surveillance cameras and security alarms installed all around the factory with optic fibre feed to their control room. And also speak with Herald Security and have them supply four of their best security people twenty-four hours of the day. No expense was to be spared. Also get the boys in the workshop to install security access barriers to stop any ram raids.
Once Roger was happy his instructions had been understood and would be carried out, he decided he would take the cruise. It was due to leave from Southampton. Before he’d left the Milton Motel, he had arranged for one of his staff members to drop off a company Mercedes in the car park. Wendy had given the staff member a sealed envelope with Roger’s passport inside. If Phil Jones was right then Kevin’s contact at Trentbridge police might have a way of tracing Roger’s Range Rover if he used it on the road. This way he could be fairly certain no one would know his whereabouts.
Seven nights cruising around and seeing the sights of France and Belgium would give him time to think. Something he was extremely good at. His sharp mind and clear vision, especially under pressure
