Dead at First Sight

101 Friday 12 October

The radio in Kevin Hall’s phone crackled briefly. ‘Charlie Romeo Six Four Zero?’

‘Charlie Romeo Six Four Zero,’ he answered. It was Oscar-1.

‘Charlie Romeo Six Four Zero, I have information on the car that the truck from Sussex Tyre and Breakdown Services was called to attend. It is an Avis rental vehicle, a Kia, index Mike Victor, One Nine, Bravo November Zulu, rented to a Samuel Jackson on October 9th. There is a marker on this car. Samuel Jackson is believed to be one of the aliases of a wanted suspect, Jules de Copeland, who also goes under the name of Tunde Oganjimi. He is believed to be armed and extremely dangerous.’

As Oscar-1 spoke, Hall and Wilde watched the truck make a left turn, east, away from Brighton. Hall noted there was just one man in the cab, but was it the same man who had been there when it arrived?

‘Sir,’ Hall said, ‘it’s possible Copeland could be riding, hidden, in this truck — that he might have hijacked it? Permission to leave station and interrogate the breakdown vehicle? We’ve just been relieved by another team to continue the surveillance.’

‘Charlie Romeo Six Four Zero, leave station and follow discreetly at a safe distance but do not attempt to stop it. I’ll get an Armed Response Vehicle to you — there is one ten minutes away. Repeat, do not attempt to stop it. Understood?’

‘Do not attempt to stop,’ Hall repeated. ‘Yes yes.’

‘Go for it,’ came the reply. ‘But maintain a safe distance.’

Hall started the car, drove out of the parking area and stopped at the main road. The morning rush hour had started and a line of cars went past. Obeying the instruction to be discreet, he pulled out into a gap, heading east, without switching on the blue lights, and accelerated hard. He rapidly overtook several vehicles that were sticking to the 50 mph limit. Within moments, through the misty rain, he could just make out faint red tail lights and the silhouette of the truck directly ahead in the distance.

Hall quickly narrowed the gap to the vehicle along the clifftop dual carriageway, passing the renowned girl’s school Roedean and then the home for blind veterans. He slowed as they went downhill towards the village of Rottingdean, where the breakdown truck had stopped at traffic lights. Hall braked to a halt and both he and Velvet Wilde looked hard at the vehicle. There was no sign of anyone through the rear window of the cab except for the driver. He told Velvet Wilde to radio Oscar-1.

‘Charlie Romeo Six Four Zero, sir,’ she said to Mark Evans. ‘We are behind the breakdown truck, continuing east.’

‘The ARV is heading west towards you from Newhaven. ETA two minutes. Maintain your position. They will do the stop.’

‘Yes yes.’

As they drove down into a sweeping dip and up the other side, they saw strobing blue lights approaching from the opposite direction at speed. Seconds later a dark, unmarked Audi, with lights still flashing, made a sharp U-turn in front of them and accelerated towards the truck, gaining on it rapidly.

It tucked in behind the vehicle, flashing its headlights and whup-whupping the siren. The truck immediately braked and pulled into the roadside.

Hall pulled up a short distance behind them. He and Wilde watched two uniformed officers in body armour climb out of the Audi, crouching low, each holding an automatic rifle. They advanced slowly and purposefully.

The two detectives got out, staying back as instructed.

One armed officer checked out the rear of the truck with his torch, while the other walked up to the cab, keeping his gun low but visible.

Hall and Wilde moved to within earshot.

The driver lowered his window. ‘Good morning, officer,’ the driver said. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Can you tell me where you’ve just been?’

‘Delivering and fitting a new tyre to an Avis rental vehicle at Marina Heights — a Kia. We work under contract for them.’

‘What was the problem with the tyre?’ the Armed Response Unit officer asked.

‘A flat — unrepairable. Been slashed. Might have been a pothole — or vandals.’

‘Who was it rented to?’

The driver looked at his call sheet, attached to a clipboard on his dash. ‘The customer’s name was Samuel Jackson.’

‘Can you describe him?’

‘He was a tall black guy. Not as good-looking as the actor!’ Then he added, as an afterthought, ‘And he smelled nice.’

‘Do you remember what colour his shoes were?’

‘Oh, yes — they were red.’

‘Did you speak to him?’

‘A little — he seemed agitated but very polite. He tried to give me a fifty-pound tip, but I told him we’re not allowed to accept tips.’

Deciding it was safe now to step forward, Kevin Hall held up his warrant card and asked the driver, ‘Do you have his flat number?’

The driver shook his head. ‘Just the address of the building and his mobile phone.’

‘Can you give me the number?’ Hall wrote it down on his pad.

‘Is there a problem, officers?’ the driver asked, looking bewildered and overwhelmed.

After a brief discussion with the Armed Response officers, Hall said to him, ‘No, thanks for your help. You are free to go on your way.’

Hurrying back to his car, Hall phoned the Incident Room and gave the phone number to Arnie Crown, who answered, telling him to check it out urgently.