Andy thanked him and headed out into Freeman Street, where the hall was located. It was quiet that evening. The Grimsby fishing fleet was still out in the Arctic waters. Before he could head away he heard his name called and the two RAF men came out. One said he was Flying Officer James Braidley and the other Sergeant Eddy Rawson. They were both on the Squadron. Braidley offered Andy a lift back to base. Andy accepted and the three of them walked down the street to where Braidley’s car was parked. Both men had heard about Andy’s exploits on the trip up from Luton and expressed their admiration. Andy thanked them but said that it was clear that he still had a lot to learn. On the way back to base, the three discussed the pros and cons of the different disciplines. Before parting at the base, Andy was invited to join the two men in the gym for their practice sessions. He got back to his bunk room feeling very satisfied with the evening.
Thursday morning (13th) found Commander Rice driving down to RAF Nocton Hall accompanied by the police sergeant that had gone out to Parfleet St Peter. He had been informed that Corporal Rogerson had recovered enough to be interviewed. At the main gate he showed his credentials and was directed to the hospital reception desk. Ten minutes later they were being taken down to the room where Corporal Rogerson was located. He had been prepared for their visit and was propped up in the bed with a nurse in attendance. Commander Rice explained that he should provide a statement to the police sergeant and then he would want a private conversation with him that was of a military matter. The sergeant went through the formalities of asking Jamie his full name and address and contact details. He told the sergeant that he was on leave and had taken a working holiday. Jamie explained how he was wandering around and was attacked. “Can you describe your attacker?” asked the sergeant.
“Not very well,” replied Jamie, “as I only got a glimpse of him. As far as I could tell he was the deck hand from Mr Walmar’s fishing boat. I think his name was Enderby. He came into The Hound and Pheasant a couple of times and I saw him working on the Penny Jane, Mr Walmar’s boat.” Jamie then described how he had fended off the blow.
“Why do you think he attacked you,” asked the police sergeant.
“I don’t know, Sergeant,” replied Jamie. “Maybe he didn’t like me going out with Yvonne, the lady at the co-operative shop.” The sergeant asked questions about time and Jamie’s movements and then thanked him for his assistance.
He then turned to Rice and said, “Thank you, Commander, I’ll take a walk down to the reception area and wait for you there.”
“Thank you, Sergeant, I won’t be long,” replied Rice. After the police sergeant had left the room, he turned to Jamie and said, “I’m aware of the real reason that you were working at The Hound and Pheasant. Now tell me the real version of events.” Jamie explained his suspicions and how he had been in the shed but couldn’t get into the accommodation area. As he was putting the key back in its hiding place he became aware of movement and used the pot to ward off the blow. Jamie explained that he had not found anything to incriminate either Walmar or Enderby. “Thank you, Corporal,” Commander Rice said. “In case you haven’t heard, Enderby took Mr Walmar’s fishing boat out to sea and it was struck and sunk by a freighter. We didn’t find a body so he may have gone down with the fishing boat. We can’t be sure of that, of course.”
“I understand, sir,” replied the corporal.
“Well, you had better get some rest. You won’t be on active duty for a while,” the commander replied. He nodded to Jamie and got up from the chair and left the room. Jamie sank back on the pillows. He felt tired from the interview. The nurse re-arranged pillows and bedclothes. Jamie thanked her and drifted off to sleep.
Arriving back in Louth, Rice paid his respects to the police inspector and thanked him and his staff for their co-operation. He then drove out of Louth and made a radiotelephone call to the office from his car and advised them he was returning to London. Then, speaking to Hamilton, he briefed him on the result of the visit and said that he would see him that afternoon when he returned. After the call, Hamilton contacted Denby and brought him up to date. Denby then said, “If Enderby is who we think he is and he’s still alive, then they will want to get him out. We need to watch for any USSR vessels coming into one of our ports and then keep them under observation. I suspect that the opportunity may come next week.”
“I get your meaning, sir,” said Hamilton. “We’ll keep watch.” He hung up and went back to the work on his desk, wondering what would happen next.
***
Major Garasov was studying a notification from Moscow. It advised that information had been received that the trials of the Red Hawk SAM system would start on 20th October. He looked at his desk calendar. “Today is the 13th October,” he thought, “so it would be in a week’s time.” The notification also informed him that a monitoring vessel would be in place the day before. He knew that this sort of information was top secret and most of the members of the RAF unit would not yet know the date. It meant that Moscow had a highly placed source of information. Major Garasov would have liked to have someone on the ground to report on movements on the RAF
