Condemned, R.C. Bridgestock [most romantic novels TXT] 📗

‘Do they go out often?’ asked Annie.

‘Not often, but when they do, they’re often away for a few days at a time. In fact you’ve just missed them.’

Annie looked confused.

‘The motorbike you heard, that was them. I waved to them on my way back here. To be fair they’ve been no trouble to us.’ Sean’s lips turned upwards in a faint smile. ‘I do know Gran has a distinct dislike of them because, according to her, they won the money that they paid for their pitch off Grandfather – on the same night they arrived. Once a gambler always a gambler, eh?’

Sean led the detectives to the house. With Bruno at Ricky-Lee’s feet in the kitchen, and none the worse for his bad experience, the officers spoke to Sean, and then Maureen, his mother, who agreed that they would co-operate fully with the Police. The owners swore that they would not say anything to anyone, and contact the officers when the Dixons returned.

‘In the meantime, can you show us the location of the motorhome?’ asked Ricky-Lee.

And once they had securely recorded the registered details of the Dixons’ vehicles, the detectives followed Sean around the park.

On the way, Annie pointed to several caravans that she thought would have a good view of the motorhome, in which they could set up surveillance equipment. ‘Any of them empty?’ she asked.

‘One five seven is the gardener’s. He uses it when he’s working on site, but he’s on holiday for the next couple of weeks.’

‘Could we use it?’

‘Yes, of course, but could I ask a favour? If you intend to arrest them, is there any chance you could do it off the site? I hate to ask, but it would hardly be good for business, would it?’

‘We’ll ask the boss,’ said Annie.

‘My mother and I would be much obliged.’

Annie took a calling card from her coat pocket. ‘If I give you my personal contact details, will you call me when they get back?’

Sean nodded his head eagerly. ‘Of course I will. It would be my absolute pleasure.’

Annie smiled broadly. ‘Thank you. Someone from surveillance will be in touch.’

‘If I give you my personal contact details, will you call me…’ Ricky-Lee mocked Annie on their return journey.

Annie looked coy. ‘He was rather cute though, wasn’t he?’

Ricky-Lee’s voice sounded deeper than usual. ‘I’m not sure we can trust him,’ he said.

‘Bit late now.’ She paused. ‘We told him everything.’

‘You mean you told him everything.’

‘He said you’d briefed him! What was I to think?’

‘I told him we wanted to rent a caravan!’

‘There was no point in staying over if it wasn’t necessary,’ she said. ‘Anyway, I think he’s sound.’

‘Famous last words,’ Ricky-Lee scoffed.

Annie looked in her rearview mirror, put the car into second gear, and put her foot down, to give her enough power to pass the lorry. Her face was set. ‘I like him. He seemed genuinely nice,’ she said, a few moments later, after settling back in the inside lane.

The Beetle was holding its own on the M62, and for that she was grateful. Ricky-Lee was used to comfort, and her car, like the owner, she was reminded, was never quite up to his standards. Well, tough! For most of the two-hour journey Ricky-Lee had slept. ‘Do you think they’re still at it?’ he said, when he woke with a jerk.

Annie fleetingly turned to him. ‘Robbery?’ she asked.

He nodded his head, took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen.

‘In my experience, leopards never really change their spots, so I guess so,’ she replied.

Ricky-Lee flinched.

Annie looked pensive, and appeared unaware of his reaction. ‘Now we have the vehicles’ registration numbers we can enter them into the number-plate recognition system, and if we’re lucky, we might get sightings of the vehicles’ movements. We’ll need to flag up the users of the motorhome as having access to weapons as a warning.’

Ricky-Lee yawned. ‘There might be historical number-plate recognition data recorded that could also be useful to us.’

Charley ushered Annie and Ricky-Lee into her office, and closed the door behind them when they returned, surprised, as she hadn’t expected them to travel to the coast and back in a day.

‘That’s very interesting,’ she said, when the detectives updated her. ‘The cold-case team have no reference to their living in a mobile home. I can quite understand Mr Dean not wanting them to be arrested on site if we can avoid it. Nor do we want a lot of people hanging about on the site for surveillance.’

‘Sean… Mr Dean promised to contact me when the Dixons return to the site,’ Annie said.

Charley cocked an eyebrow at Annie. ‘Sean, is it?’ Colour rose in Annie’s cheeks. ‘I take it we can trust him to do the right thing?’

‘He seemed like a genuine guy.’

Ricky-Lee sighed. He got to his feet. ‘I’ll go put the kettle on, shall I?’

Charley nodded. ‘I’ll liaise with a firearms tactical advisor for advice. He won’t like it when I tell him there could be a motorcycle involved.’

‘Sean said that we could use the gardener’s caravan for surveillance if required. I told him that if we needed to they would be in touch,’ said Annie.

Charley clapped her hands together. ‘Well done, you two. Now, all I need from you is your written report, and then we can get that information on the system.’

Ricky-Lee looked at his watch. ‘Tonight? It’s late.’

Charley nodded. ‘Unless you have something else more pressing? It is important everyone knows the vehicles which armed robbers are using, it may just save someone’s life.’

Chapter 32

Firearms Tactical Advisor, Acting Chief Inspector Tim Watson was not convinced that they could pull off a raid on the Dixon’s mobile home, purely because of the close proximity of the other residents.

‘There is no doubt I’d rather contain them at Primrose Pastures, but the safety of the public has to be our priority. If the Dixons open fire, we could have a major problem on our hands.’

‘Then we are looking at