Plan B

Chapter Fifty

An emergency meeting for all those with Bruno’s watches was held in Brookie’s room during prep that evening.  Bruno joined them via skype and promised to pass on anything of importance to Freddie and Conrad.

“I got the names of all three of them,” Arthur said.  “They could well be fake names, but if you could look into them, it would be great.”

“Sure,” answered Bruno, his voice crackling slightly due to bad connection.  “Who are they?”

“Arnold Baker,” said Arthur, ticking them off on his fingers, “Tobias Harding, and the one who freaked Frankie out big time was called Ethan Todd.”

Bruno looked down from the camera, presumably at his computer screen.  “The second name rings a bell, but I’ll have look up the other two.  What did they look like?”

“Ethan Todd was probably about my height,” Arthur replied.  “He seems to have a permanent squint and a crooked nose.”

“Frankie told me he’s the one that always turns up in her nightmares,” Brookie added.

“So he’s the creeper the police never managed to lay a hand on, right?”

“Yes,” said Brookie.

Bruno’s eyes flickered away again, and Isaac took the silence as an opportunity to whisper something to Piers.

“Baker was kind of fat,” Arthur continued.  “He’s got a lazy eye and his left cheek looks like it has a chunk missing.  Brown hair, bushy eyebrows.  One of his canines is missing.  Oh, and he’s married.  I saw a gold wedding ring on his finger.”

“And Harding?”

“Built like an ex-rugby player.  Smokes like a chimney, though – his voice sounds like gravel.”

“What else does he look like?”

“He was wearing a hat and largely kept his face covered.  I couldn’t make out any distinguishing features.”

“D*mn,” said Bruno, eyes zipping over his screen.  “Okay, Conrad’s just come through with something – he thinks Harding might be one of the guys who was jailed and then escaped.  He’s pretty sure that Baker’s using his wife’s maiden name to provide him with a little cover, but he needs more time to get anything on Todd.”

“Didn’t two of them get sent to prison, though?” Piers interjected.  “I’m sure that’s what Frankie told me.”

“Todd might be the other one,” agreed Bruno, “except… okay, Conrad says that Todd isn’t the third unless he’s had extensive plastic surgery.  He can’t find any information on him, but he has a description of the other man who escaped from prison and he and Todd look nothing alike.”

“So there are at least four of them involved in this?” Isaac asked.

“At least,” Bruno confirmed.  “Freddie seemed pretty sure that they had strong ties to the police, or that they had access to police data.  Conrad’s been trying to get evidence for that, but it’s giving him a tough time.  We think at least one of them is a competent computer hacker, because Conrad’s basically been locked in a cyber-battle for the past week and he says it’s usually much easier for him to break into police records, but this guy keeps blocking him.”

Arthur jolted in alarm.  “But doesn’t that mean an insider in the police?”

Bruno nodded, looking far from happy.  “It’s likely.  It would explain a lot.”

“But that suggests some kind of organisation, not a small group of people,” Brookie pointed out.

Bruno sighed and rubbed the side of his nose.  “That’s exactly what we’re afraid of.”