The lead armed response officer, Inspector Jeff Freestone, was glad of the instruction, cognisant of the paperwork afterwards if a gun had been fired.
Larry and Wendy stood outside some distance away. A small crowd of onlookers was forming. The uniforms were trying to move them along, although they were having difficulty. One person was videoing the proceedings. Larry knew that it would be on social media before the television. In the world of instant communication, not only would the news-seeking public be aware of what was happening in Bayswater, but so too would the villains, the Mister Big who the team at Challis Street wanted to bring in. Not that he was guilty of carrying out any murders personally, too smart for that Isaac had reasoned, but the man would have known what was going on, had no doubt given the order for the killing of two men, three if Pinto was ever found, and others, although they were unknown.
Len Donaldson was aware of the events in Bayswater and soon on the phone to Isaac. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
Isaac, satisfied with the way things were proceeding and confident that one murderer would be behind bars that night and charged with murder, was ebullient. ‘O’Shaughnessy,’ he replied.
‘Hughenden?’ Donaldson asked.
‘We’ve nothing on him.’
‘Is he in the house?’
‘He’s there. We know that O’Shaughnessy picked him up not far from his shop.’
‘Have you been staking out his shop?’
‘Only today.’
‘We’ve had people watching him for weeks and nothing. You’ve been lucky.’
‘Not luck, just good policing,’ Isaac said smugly.
‘That’s as may be, but this time I want to be present when you interview Hughenden. I could make it official.’
Isaac could understand the man’s sentiments. There he was, a senior man in the Serious and Organised Crime Command, and the Challis Street Homicide team, Isaac’s team, were stealing his thunder. ‘I’d be pleased to have you there,’ Isaac replied.
O’Shaughnessy would talk when threatened with a life sentence in prison, and he would point the finger at Hughenden, Isaac was sure of that, but the jewellery shop owner was going to be harder to crack, and Len Donaldson had more knowledge of how the drug syndicate operated.
‘I’ll be in your office within thirty minutes,’ Donaldson said.
One minute after Isaac had terminated his call with Donaldson, his phone rang. ‘We’ve got Hughenden,’ Larry said.
‘And O’Shaughnessy?’
‘Stalemate.’
‘Bring Hughenden down to Challis Street. We can start with him. This time he’s going to talk. And remind those attempting to arrest O’Shaughnessy that we want him alive and unharmed.’
Larry moved over to the house and spoke to one of the team members who passed the message on.
Freestone, still holding his position just outside the room where a desperate and increasingly irritated man cowered, received the instruction given by Larry. He acknowledged with a nod of his head.
‘Our instructions are not to harm you,’ Freestone shouted to O’Shaughnessy.
‘You’ll need to.’
A desperate man considered his position. If he surrendered, he would die in prison. The cancer that racked his body would see him succumb in three or four years. If he fought it out in the house, one of the policemen would shoot him. He could see no solution to his dilemma. He regretted coming to the house as he kneeled behind the sofa, keeping a clear view to his front and rear. He was surrounded, and he knew it. He realised that with the education he had received in prison and his intelligence, he could have come out of there and found a decent job and a decent woman, but what had happened: the inevitable. A friend of a friend offering to help him get on his feet with just one little job, no risk and the money’s good, and he was back into crime.
He knew he would not surrender, the odds were not in his favour. There was no way that he was innocent, and the police had a watertight case. He was sure that Alex would eventually break.
Inspector Freestone relinquished his position to another policeman and walked out through the front door of the house.
‘What’s the situation?’ Larry asked him.
‘He’s determined.’
‘What’s the plan?’
‘Give him a few hours, just wait until he’s got an empty belly. He’ll not remain alert for much longer, and come nightfall, he’ll start falling asleep. We’ve got him eyeballed from the front and rear of the house.’
‘Before midnight,’ Larry said. ‘It’s important.’
‘I hope so,’ Freestone replied. ‘I don’t fancy waiting around for that long.’ He looked around and saw the crowd watching their every move. He retreated back inside.
Resuming his position, Freestone spoke calmly to O’Shaughnessy. ‘Devlin, our instructions are to wait for you to surrender.’
‘I’ll not surrender.’
‘That’s fine, we’ve got time. We’ve got plenty of hot food, even cigarettes and beer. We’ll make ourselves comfortable, not that you will. Once our people are tired, we’ll bring in a fresh team. We’re taking bets on how long you’ll last.’
‘Forever.’
‘I’ve got my money on four hours.’
‘And the others?’
‘One of them reckons you’re good for two, another officer reckons six, but there’s no way. If you make six, it’ll be a new record.’
With one of the team keeping a watch on O’Shaughnessy from the front of the house, Freestone sipped coffee, the smell pervading the air where the desperate man crouched. O’Shaughnessy knew his stomach was rumbling and he was desperate for a visit to the bathroom.
He wet himself, although he did not associate it with the jocularity that he and Steve Walters had felt when Pinto had done the same thing at the warehouse.
Meanwhile, Alex Hughenden was down at Challis Street Police Station. Isaac knew he could not keep him there for long,
